A recipe from The Bitten Word
Happy Thanksgiving Week! Have a cocktail!
This is our final Thanksgiving preview recipe. We've told you the biggest Thanksgiving trends, cataloged all the recipes from this year's food magazines, and walked you through the 20 or so recipes we tried out ourselves.
Now it's time for a drink.
| |
|
A recipe from The Bitten Word
Egg Custard Pie was a staple at my family gatherings growing up. Regardless of the occasion, be it Thanksgiving or lunch after church, in a time of celebration or sorrow, Egg Custard Pie was present. And it was always made by my grandfather, Tot.
Tot is an unusual name. And it's even more unusual when you learn that it's his full first name -- It's not short for anything, and he has no middle name. Even more odd, Tot is a twin. The name my great-grandparents chose for my great-uncle? Dot.
All you need to make Tot's Egg Custard Pie are eggs, sugar, nutmeg, cornstarch and whole milk. Tot's notes for the recipe say to use "sweet milk," by which he means non-buttermilk. And he never bothers with a homemade pie crust -- he's perfectly content with a store-bought shell.
The pie itself is a cinch to make. Whisk the filling together, pour them into a pie shell, and bake until the pie is set. Serve the pie at room temperature after it's had time to cool. The pie, sweet and scented with nutmeg, is light in texture, rather like a cross between a cream pie and a flan. The texture of a Egg Custard Pie might not be for everyone, but we love it.
Decades later, Tot is still making this pie. We hope to be making it for just as long.
-- Clay
Continue reading "Thanksgiving 2012: Tot's Egg Custard Pie" »
| |
|
A recipe from The Bitten Word
When we were asked by the Washington Post to come up with a few recipes for their Thanksgiving coverage, we thought of a few cranberry sauce alternatives that we wanted to try. So we hit the kitchen, developing three recipes for turkey-complementary sauces. They each turned out rather well, but our favorite was this Tart Apple Chutney.
Any time of the year, we love a thin slice of a Granny Smith apple on a turkey sandwich. That was the inspiration for this chutney, which is made with Granny Smiths and golden raisins and flavored with cider vinegar and fig preserves for a nice tart/sweet contrast. To give it a bit of texture, we added toasted walnuts.
We loved this as a complement to turkey. The tartness of the apple and vinegar went perfectly with a nicely roasted bird. If you want an alternative to cranberry sauce that will stand out at the Thanksgiving table, this will do the trick.
| |
|
A Recipe From The Bitten Word
So, we knew a few weeks in advance that the Washington Post was coming for Fakesgiving. That was good news, because it gave us plenty of time to plan our big meal. It also gave us a chance to try out some of our own original creations to accompany the profile.
First on our list was Brussels sprouts. Sometimes, it seems as if the mission statement for this blog should read: "Convincing You to Love Brussels Sprouts Since 2008."
We were eager to try frying Brussels, so we broke out the Dutch oven and heated up some peanut oil.
Continue reading "Thanksgiving 2012: Fried Brussels Sprouts With Paprika-Spiked Dipping Sauce " »
| |
|
A recipe from The Bitten Word
Cheap, healthy and fast. It's the trifecta of home cooking.
Don't get us wrong: We sometimes love devoting hours to a slow-cooked dish. And we're fine with splurging on special ingredients. (And lord knows we like our share of unhealthy foods!)
But for a get-us-through-the-week mid-week dinner, we're always striving for the same triple-header: cheap, healthy and fast.
Here's a meal we've been making a lot lately that is a total winner on all three counts.
| |
|
A Bitten Word Recipe
We just returned from four days in Tennessee, visiting Zach's family. We had a great time! We rented kayaks and spent a lazy day on a (very mild) river. We toured the George Dickel whisky distillery in Zach's hometown and had a lot of great down-time just catching up with family.
And because we were with Zach's mom, who is an excellent cook, we did a fair amount of cooking and eating at home. She'd picked up a bunch of okra at the vegetable stand where she buys her produce, so we decided to make one of her favorite preparations of the vegetable: Smashed Okra.
| |
|
A Bitten Word Recipe
Sunday was Clay's birthday, and when we went to the Farmers Market that morning, there was a special treat: Fresh sweet corn made its first appearance of the year. Because really, who doesn't want corn for their birthday?
We were excited to see the corn, not only because we love to eat it, but also because we'd been waiting to share this recipe with you. Months ago, we developed this recipe for Chilled Sweet Corn Soup for Spenser Magazine, an online food publication that had reached out to us. In the most recent issue, they ran a Q&A with us that was accompanied by this recipe.
We're also very excited to share with you what's coming up in Spenser, which is a feature story we wrote about a rather adventurous weekend we had a little more than a month ago. That's all we'll say for now, but we'll leave you with this corn soup.
We rarely tire of just eating corn straight off the cob, but when we do, we make a simple corn soup just like this one that not only helps beat the summer heat, but also showcases the flavor of the corn itself.
Summer corn is a fleeting pleasure -- enjoy it while you can!
| |
|
A Bitten Word Recipe
A friend of ours just moved to D.C. for a temporary post, so we invited him over for a home-cooked meal to welcome him to Our Nation's Capital.
We kept things super super simple -- steak on the grill, sauteed fresh green beans and a quick quinoa salad similar to the one we made a couple weeks ago.
We wanted to end dinner with a little something sweet -- but still on the healthy side. So we took a cue from our Cupboard Cleanout and decided to make something out of ingredients we already had on hand.
What we came up with were these Cherry "Sundaes" with Greek Yogurt, Pistachios and Cardamom Cream.
Continue reading "Cherry "Sundaes" with Greek Yogurt, Pistachios and Cardamom Cream" »
| |
|
A Bitten Word Recipe
Here's a breakfast item we've been making for ourselves a lot this spring. Inspired by a delicious appetizer we ordered last year at Cork Wine Bar here in D.C., we decided that avocado on toast sounded pretty yummy for breakfast, too.
To find our perfect avocado toast, we played around with different variations of this dish. Cork actually drizzles theirs with avocado oil, which is delicious if you happen to have some (but pricey and probably not worth buying if you don't). We even tried a drizzling hot bacon grease over these, but it was just too much (yeah, we said it).
Continue reading "Avocado Toast with Chile Flakes and Crushed Pistachios" »
| |
|
A Bitten Word Adaptation
About a year ago, we had an incredible dinner at Momofuku Ko in New York City, an amazing restaurant from the chef David Chang. The food is awesome: A fixed-price tasting menu that changes every night. Our 12-course dinner had everything from Gruyere Soup with Bone Marrow and Brioche Toast, to Mackerel and Yuzu in Orange Oil, to Slow-Roasted Duck with Mustard Greens and Honey-Braised Turnips Rolled in Pumpernickel Crumbs.
Along with all the outrageously delicious and unique food, one of the most memorable things about the dinner was the drink pairing. Restaurants that do a tasting menu almost always offer a wine pairing to go along with the food -- a procession of glasses of wine specially selected to complement each dish.
But at Momofuku Ko, the drink pairing is much more free-wheeling. It includes wine, beer, sake and cocktails! Their thinking is that wine isn't necessarily always the best possible pairing.
We loved the idea! And we especially loved this Gingersnap Cocktail.
| |
|
