A Thanksgiving Feast

This is probably one of the less traditional Thanksgiving meals out there, but I'm not a terribly traditional person, so I feel pretty okay about that. We feasted on roast pheasants and roast quails, roasted chestnuts, french beans with toasted slivered almonds, gratin dauphinois, salade au lardons, a cheese course, and a pumpkin pie. Although it's not the traditional meal,  these food items for me are representative of the season.

The pheasants we purchased were wild pheasants from Borough Market. They were shot and they still had the little pellets in the carcass. So one of the exciting features of dinner was who found a bullet first! I marinated them in a sauce of crushed garlic, olive oil, and chopped fresh sage (with salt and white pepper). The quails were marinated in a sauce of dried chiles, lemon juice, and soy sauce. It was very Asian-inspired.

Roasted chestnuts for me are a classic winter food and fondly remind me of my time living in France when I was little. To prepare them, cut an X in them and roast them in an oven at 200C/400F for about 30 minutes, until the skins open. Mine were a little overcooked, but still tasty (a reminder that perfection is difficult and not always desirable)! The french beans we boiled for about 15-20 minutes, tossed them in a little butter, and topped them with toasted slivered almonds and seasoned them in salt and pepper. You can toast the almonds on the stove in a frying pan. The gratin dauphinois was a real masterpiece, full of double cream! To be honest I just winged it (pesky recipes), but here's the official recipe (from my favorite French cookbook) which is a vast improvement over my spontaneous creation. It serves 6.

Ingredients:

-1 kg (2lb 4 oz) potatoes

-2 garlic cloves, crushed

-1/2 cup (65 g) grated Gruyere cheese

-pinch of nutmeg

-315 ml (1 1/4 cups) double (thick/heavy) cream

-125 ml (1/2 cup milk)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 170C (325F). Thinly slice the potatoes with a mandolin or food processor or sharp knife (if you dare!). Butter a 23 by 16 cm (9 by 6.5 inch) ovenproof dish and layer the potatoes, sprinkling the garlic, cheese, nutmeg, and seasoning between the layers. Make sure to leave some cheese for the very top! Last, pour the cream and milk over the top and sprinkle with cheese.

Bake for 50-60 minutes, until the potatoes are cooked and the liquid absorbed. Leave to rest for 10 minutes before serving.

The salad was made with a red lettuce, little rectangular blocks of cooked bacon, and two soft-boiled eggs. The dressing was an oil and balsamic vinegar one, although now that I think about it, some mustard would have been really tasty mixed into the dressing. The cheeses were purchased that day at the market, selected to complement each other and the rest of the meal.

The pumpkin pie is a mish mash of a couple of recipes. The almond crust was made by mixing two cups of ground almonds with 3 tablespoons of softened butter and patting it into a pie pan. The filling recipe comes from this blog, but modified to leave out the hazelnut butter layer on the bottom (I thought it would be too much with the almond crust). I'm also guilty of not freshly grinding the spices for this pie filling. Like I said, sometimes perfection is unattainable (although getting a coffee grinder is on my list of kitchen items to buy)! We served the pie a la English, by pouring fresh cream on top (instead of whipped cream) and added some leftover toasted almonds for decor.

You'll notice my meal plan is full of improvisation and imperfections in the cooking process. I think the lesson I've absorbed from this experience is that I always spend too much time stressing about concocting these big holiday meals. Relax, this is supposed to be a celebration! The whole point is to sit at a table with special people and eat tasty food. Nobody expects perfection!