Thanksgiving
2220 recipes found
Momofuku’s Bo Ssam
This is a recipe to win the dinner party sweepstakes, and at very low stakes: slow-roasted pork shoulder served with lettuce, rice and a raft of condiments. The chef David Chang serves the dish, known by its Korean name, bo ssam, at his Momofuku restaurant in the East Village and elsewhere. He shared the recipe with The Times in 2012. Mr. Chang is known as a kitchen innovator, but his bo ssam is a remarkably straightforward way to achieve high-level excellence with little more than ingredients and time. Simply cure the pork overnight beneath a shower of salt and some sugar, then roast it in a low oven until it collapses. Apply some brown sugar and a little more salt, then roast the skin a while longer until it takes on the quality of glistening bark. Meanwhile, make condiments – hot sauces and kimchi, rice, some oysters if you wish. Then tear meat off the bone and wrap it in lettuce, and keep at that until everything’s gone.
Twice-Cooked Pork Tenderloin
Here's a surprising and flavorful way to prepare tenderloin, one of the leanest and most economical cuts of pork. Brown the whole tenderloin. Let it rest for a few minutes, so the meat firms up a bit. Then slice the tenderloin into medallions, about an inch thick. Brown the slices on both sides and top with a quick French-style sauce made of heavy cream and Dijon mustard, lemon juice or Calvados.
Mulled Cider With Cardamom, Black Pepper and Ginger
Traditional mulled cider is cozy and fragrant, but sometimes tastes a little too much like potpourri. In this version, toasted cardamom, allspice berries and black peppercorns provide sophisticated spiciness, while fresh ginger and citrus add fresh zing. It’s a subtle but noticeable makeover, resulting in cider that’s tangy and aromatic with a savory edge. If you want to spike it, don’t pour the whiskey into the pot with the cider; the alcohol will burn off over the course of an hour or so. Instead, let guests add whiskey to their own mugs. If you've got a slow-cooker, this recipe is for you.
Roasted Grape and Butternut Squash Bruschetta
Rob Beasley, the chef at the Chaumette Vineyard and Winery in Ste. Genevieve, Mo., created these bruschetta to show off the flavors of fall. He uses the coeur de clos cheese made a short drive away at Baetje Farms. It’s a Camembert-style cheese from goat and sheep milk. It works well in this recipe, but a fresh chévre is perfect, too.
Smoked Turkey
There are countless advantages to smoke-roasting (also known barbecuing) your turkey, as in this recipe from the barbecue expert Steven Raichlen. Smoking produces a bird of incomparable succulence, especially when combined with another traditional American barbecue technique, brining. There is the rich, evocative flavor of wood smoke, and the burnished mahogany sheen it gives the bird. Then there's the simplicity of the method: once you put the bird in the smoker or on the grill, you pretty much leave it there until it is done, while the kitchen and oven are freed up for side dishes and desserts. Last but certainly not least, you get an excuse to spend a fall afternoon outdoors, maybe with beer in hand.
Apple Slaw
This dish of chopped radishes, cabbage and apples makes a fresh, simple and crunchy salad for your table.
Cookies-and-Cream Pavlova
The story goes that Pavlova, a dessert which both Australia and New Zealand lay claim to, is named after the prima ballerina Anna Pavlova, who performed in both countries in the 1920s. Ms. Pavlova’s tutu, billowing round with layers of lace, is the inspiration for the creamy meringue dessert. This simple version combines a crackled, speckled meringue disk — crisp on the outside, chewy on the inside — and a swoopy crown of salted whipped cream. Fans of the marshmallows in Lucky Charms cereal will delight in this four-ingredient Pavlova, whose flavor is reminiscent of those hearts, stars and horseshoes. Here, the “cookies” in cookies-and-cream are, as ever, Oreos, which lend that dreamy teeter-totter of milky white and bittersweet black.
White Chocolate-Spice Cupcakes
Candace Nelson, founder of the Beverly Hills cupcake bakery Sprinkles, says Thanksgiving is one of the busiest holidays at the bakery. She says holiday eaters are usually excited to try new desserts but they still want to stick with the “Thanksgiving flavor profile.” “Spice cupcakes are certainly within the scope of traditional Thanksgiving flavors,” she says. “With the twist of the white chocolate cream cheese frosting, these have a decadent richness and tang that make for a perfect finish to everyone’s favorite meal.”
Bibingka (Coconut Rice Cakes With Banana Leaves)
Bibingka is a cake made of rice flour, so it’s naturally gluten-free, chewy but tender throughout, with a soufflé-like fluffiness. It’s traditionally cooked in a clay pot over and under hot coals, a difficult setup to replicate; instead, I pour the batter into a cast-iron pan lined with banana leaves, which char as the cake bakes, infusing it with their scent. (You can cut the ribs off the leaves to make them more malleable.) Nearly halfway through baking, the cake is topped with salted duck egg, an ingredient available at Asian specialty groceries. If you can’t find it, the cake will be more forthrightly sweet, lacking that sly note of brine. As a final touch, if you have a kitchen torch available, char the edges of the banana leaves, so a little smokiness suffuses the delicate cake.
Pumpkin Cheesecake In Nut Crust
Some cheesecakes are the culinary equivalent of a punch in the gut: too sweet, too heavy, too filling. This one, first published in The Times in 1984, is delightfully different. It's lightly-sweet, slightly tangy and gently laced with spiced pumpkin flavor. The texture is surprisingly airy. Serve slices with a dollop of whipped cream or créme fraîche. Don't skip the part of the recipe that calls for allowing it to cool in the oven overnight; it promises a crack-free, glossy top.
Milk and Honey Cake
The flavor of this ultrabuttery layer cake, adapted from Odette Williams’s “Simple Cake” (Ten Speed Press, 2019), can be as mild or pronounced as you like, depending on the variety of honey you use. Clover honey will give you something gentle and mellow, while more assertive buckwheat or chestnut honey have more depth. You can serve the cake plain, with dollops of the whipped cream on the side, for a casual gathering, or frost and fill it, adding berries or other fruit, for a more celebratory affair. It makes an excellent birthday cake.
Mulling-Spice Cake With Cream-Cheese Frosting
The spices in this cake from “Live Life Deliciously” by Tara Bench (Shadow Mountain, 2020) are, indeed, those you’d use if you were mulling cider or wine. They’re the flavors of fall and winter, and especially of the holidays; that their aromas linger in the kitchen is a bonus. They’re warm and hearty enough to hold their own when blended with the cake’s apple cider and molasses (use an unsulfured brand, such as Grandma’s). The batter is very thin, but it bakes up sturdy, easy to cut and ready to be generously filled and covered with cream cheese frosting. The cake is lovely on its own, but it welcomes extras. Ms. Bench decorates hers with almond and candy Christmas trees, but a little crystallized ginger or chocolate is nice too.
Gluten-Free Hazelnut Cheesecake With Salted Caramel Glaze
Vegetables à la Grecque
I wrote that I found these perfect — the ur-preserves — and then tasted them again. And I can only affirm it as a truth. They are richer than plain vinegar pickles, which lets them be their own hors d'oeuvre, in a small chilled bowl, with olives perhaps alongside. They are deeper tasting and more eloquent than crudité. They are piquant enough to awaken the appetite without sating it. I love them, and they are very simple to make.
Horseradish Matzo Ball Soup
Gratin of Celery Roots And Chestnuts
Sweet and Sour Yams
Clementine Cake
This dessert, loosely based on a Sephardic orange cake, uses whole clementines, peels and all, for a flavor rich in citrus. The cooking time may seem long, but much of it doesn’t require much attention from the baker. And the first step, reducing the fruit, may be done ahead of time.
Crepes-Style Manicotti
For many Italian-American families, in New Jersey and elsewhere, the Thanksgiving smorgasbord doesn’t feel quite right without a little touch of red sauce. So you say: “Manicotti? That doesn’t really go with turkey and stuffing and cranberries.” What, you want to argue about it? Besides, Thanksgiving also represents an American expression of abbondanza, the Italian concept of too-muchness that makes a meal feel epic. Here, courtesy of Reservoir Tavern, which has been serving customers in the Boonton area since 1936, comes a recipe for baked manicotti that uses crepes in place of pasta. Nicola Bevacqua, a member of the family that owns the place, said that his own family digs into this melted-cheese masterwork each holiday, as do the New Jersey locals who drop by to pick it up. The crepes, he assured us, “are light and airy and will leave you plenty of room for the turkey.”
Pocket Dressing
In a lot of states, people don’t just eat food on Thanksgiving; they hunt for it. Lora Smith, a writer and farmer with roots in Kentucky, sends along a recipe handed down from her great-grandmother, for her family’s “pocket” dressing: a baked patty of dressing that slides easily into the pockets and knapsacks of rabbit and quail hunters. The Smiths also have the patties at the table, where they are passed around on a platter. Texture is key. The outside must be browned and crisp. Inside, softness comes from cornbread and biscuits, and chewiness from foraged mushrooms. A family member (traditionally, the oldest matriarch) leaves a thumbprint indentation on each patty before baking, so that a little gravy can settle and soak in. The hunt continued through Thanksgiving weekend. “They’d again take the leftover dressing wrapped in wax paper with them, and sometimes turkey sandwiches or turkey with fresh biscuits pulled out of the oven that morning,” Ms. Smith said. “My father always carried a small backpack where he kept extra leftovers and cold bottles of Coke. His other job was to carry the rabbits and quail they shot in the backpack.” When the weather was especially chilly, the patties solved another problem. According to Ms. Smith, “they also served as nice hand warmers.”
Ginger-Apple Upside-Down Cake
Lasagna With Turkey and Fresh Tomato Sauce
Basil Sauce
Miso Squash Soup
Soup is an easy first course for a seasonal gathering, especially when it can be prepared — even frozen — in advance. This one calls for Kabocha squash, a variety that’s not too sweet, and is dense and rich, though delicata, honeynut, the ubiquitous butternut or an everyday orange pumpkin all work well. Seasoned primarily with miso, this calls for only a pinch of cinnamon to hint at the inevitable pumpkin spice. And instead of presenting this vegan soup as a plated first course in china or pottery bowls or even in hollowed-out mini-pumpkins, you might consider spooning it into small cups or glasses for guests to sip as an hors d’oeuvre before dinner.