Sun-dried tomato cornbread

This was the second new recipe I tried this year for Thanksgiving, since with only two of us this time I wasn't about to make four dozen butterhorn rolls, tasty though they be.

 Corn bread with sun-dried tomatoes

Adapted from Bon Appetit, Dec. 1995

Ingredients

1 ½ cups yellow cornmeal

¾ cup flour

¼ cup sugar

½ tablespoon dried sage

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

¾ teaspoon salt

¾ teaspoon baking powder

3/8 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons buttermilk

½ cup chopped drained oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes

2 tablespoons oil from sun-dried tomatoes

¼ cup butter (half a stick), melted and cooled

2 large eggs

Method

Combine cornmeal, flour, sugar, sage, pepper, salt, baking powder and baking soda in a large bowl. Combine buttermilk, sun-dried tomatoes, tomato oil, butter and eggs. Whisk to combine. Stir wet ingredients into dry. Butter a deep-dish pie plate. Pour batter into dish. Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven about 30 minutes or until top is slightly brown and a cake tester comes out clean. Cool slightly and cut into wedges. (The recipe suggests 6; I opted for 10 wedges and thought they were plenty big enough considering it was one side among many.)

Rating: Fine. A step above regular cornbread, and a very fast fix. Reheats fine wrapped in aluminum foil for about 5 minutes at 350. A great side for chili.

Green beans with shallots, hazelnuts and rosemary

I was looking for a new green bean dish to try out for Thanksgiving. While I’ve got a decent version of the green bean casserole staple (Alton Brown’s version), I was more in the mood for something with a cleaner taste rather than yet another sauce in the mix. This works.

Sauteed green beans with shallots, rosemary and hazelnuts

Adapted from Bon Appetit, 1995. I’d do the usual thing and make that a link, but I’m having trouble tracking down that exact recipe on the epicurious site.

Ingredients

1 pound green beans

2 tablespoons butter

1/3 cup chopped shallots

1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary

¼ cup hazelnuts, chopped

Method

Cook green beans until tender crisp, either in boiling salted water or steaming in the bag. Cool quickly, either by rinsing in cold water and draining or tossing the steam-in bag into the freezer briefly. (At this point you can store the beans for up to a day in the refrigerator.)

Toast hazelnuts in a saute pan. Remove from pan and set aside. Add butter to pan. When melted, add shallots and rosemary and saute until shallots are softened. Add green beans and cook about 5 minutes until heated through. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Toss with hazelnuts and serve. My take is that it serves 4 to 5.

Rating: Nice enough way to cook green beans. Hard to go wrong with those ingredients. Very fast fix with minimal last-minute attention, so it’s a handy quick side dish to an extravaganza like Thanksgiving tends to be.

Cranberry shallot relish with crystallized ginger

Ah, the usual suspects. That’s what traditional meals like Thanksgiving are based on, and what makes them so comforting. That said, since this year I have the luxury of just cooking for the two of us – an impromptu happenstance that popped up this week – I’m planning to take advantage of it by trying a few new recipes amid some old standbys. The recipe below is one of those standbys, and since it’s a fairly fast fix aside from the chopping, I got it out of the way early.

Cranberry shallot relish

Adapted from Bon Appetit, Dec. 1995, a gold mine of an issue that I’ve hauled out time and again over the years.

Ingredients

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1¾ cup chopped shallots

1½ cups sweet Marsala or Port (or I’ve used Madeira when out of those options)

¾ cup sugar

2 12-ounce packages fresh cranberries

1 teaspoon curry powder

½ teaspoon dry mustard

1 cup chopped crystallized ginger (if you don’t buy pre-chopped, you’ll find a kitchen shears works better for chopping than a knife). It takes more than one of those spice jar size containers.

Method

In large Dutch oven, heat oil over medium low heat. Saute shallots until softened. Raise heat to just above medium. Add Marsala and sugar and stir until sugar dissolves. (Since there are shallots floating around in there it can be harder to tell when the liquid becomes clear, the usual sign the sugar is dissolved. So just listen for it to stop making that coarse scraping sound as you stir.)

Add cranberries, curry powder and mustard. Bring to a boil and boil gently until berries pop, stirring occasionally, about 7 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in ginger. Let cool. Don’t worry if it still looks a little runny when you turn off the heat; it sets up as it cools. Season to taste with salt if desired.

Makes about 5 cups, or enough to serve as a side along with a lot of other sides for about as many people as you can stand to let in your house. Especially if some of those people won’t touch it because it’s not formed in a can shape with ridges.

Make ahead: Can be made well ahead. The recipe claims three days, but I’ve found the leftovers are great for at least a week. Conversely, so long as you make it several hours ahead, you can make it the same day you’re serving it and the flavors will still have had time to meld.

White bean chicken chili with kale

White Bean and Chicken Chili

Adapted from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe on the Food Network

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 tablespoons ground cumin

1 tablespoon fennel seeds

1 tablespoon dried oregano

2 teaspoons chili powder

¼ teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes

2 pounds ground chicken (or turkey, pork or Italian sausage)

3 tablespoons flour

2 cans (15-ounce) cannellini beans

2 large handfuls chopped kale

1½ cups thawed frozen corn

4 cups broth

Method

In large saucepan or Dutch oven, heat oil over medium low heat. Add onions. Season with salt and pepper (pace yourself; we’ll add more salt later) and brown until soft. Add garlic, cumin, fennel, oregano, chili and red pepper. Cook for 1 minute to sweat the spices.

Push onion to sides of pan. Increase heat to medium. Add ground meat. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until no longer pink.

Stir in flour. Cook a minute or two until no longer floury. Stir in broth, beans, corn and kale. Season with salt. Bring mixture to a simmer. Cover and cook for 1 hour. Season to taste with salt and pepper as needed.

Rating: Nice; even better a second day after the flavors had time to meld. Initially I had given the slight edge to this similar recipe, but the second-day rating is they're both just fine ways to use up a wretched excess of kale.

Roasted carrot soup with cumin and ginger

Roasted and clean carrot soup

Adapted from goop.com. Oh, all you Gwyneth haters can just be quiet and go eat bland food if it bothers you. Any source of a good recipe is fine by me. I was looking for a carrot soup recipe that involved roasted carrots and decided to adapt this one, adding the cumin flavor that I like in a couple of carrot salad recipes.

Ingredients

6 large peeled carrots, divided

6 cups broth

½ teaspoon ground cumin

½ teaspoon ground ginger

1 small onion, chopped

2 large garlic cloves, minced

Method

Cut 3 carrots into coins about ½-inch thick. Place in roasting pan or baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss to coat. Bake at 375 for about 25-30 minutes, tossing at least once during that time to make sure they cook evenly. Remove from oven when soft and slightly browned. Toss with cumin.

Meanwhile, put the stock on to simmer in a large saucepan with the ground ginger. While broth comes up to heat, cut remaining carrots into fourths lengthwise and then crosswise into ¼-inch pieces, adding to pan as you go since the carrots will take the longest to cook. Chop up onion and add to pan, then garlic. Cook about 20 to 25 minutes until carrots are tender crisp.

Combine roasted carrots in blender or food processor with broth-carrot mixture. Blend until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Note: If you’re like me and tend to reach for your stick blender for this task, no dice. Or rather, dice is all you’ll get. It takes the blender or food processor to get this soup smooth.

Rating: Tasty, and not too time-consuming. It’s not my uber favorite carrot soup recipe that I'll get around to yet this year, but it’s worth repeating.

Chicken wild rice salad with apples and tarragon

The latest food uproar in Minnesota is of course the New York Times’ bizarre offering of a truly odd grape salad as somehow a representative Thanksgiving dish for the state. Further proof we’re in flyover land. (And the Des Moines Register asserts that the equally odd choice of a Thanksgiving cookie for Iowa is actually a recipe from Illinois.) A Times editor involved in the project has since weighed in saying it was simply not well labeled what it purports to be. Whatever. (Although the recipe from Oregon might be worth trying.)

All sour grapes aside, it naturally made most Minnesotans think of the obvious choice: wild rice salad. This recipe is among my favorite wild rice dishes. I’ve been making it since it first came out in the magazine, and as the title suggests, it’s a great choice for this coming week when you might be looking for a different way to use up some turkey. Otherwise, I make it with the chicken leftover from making broth, or you could use a roti chicken.

Wild rice and chicken or turkey salad with tarragon

Adapted from Bon Appetit, March 1992

Ingredients

1¾ cup chicken broth

½ cup wild rice

2 cups chopped cooked chicken

2 green onions, thinly sliced

1 celery stalk, diced

½ large red apple, cored and chopped

4 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons tarragon vinegar

2 teaspoons tarragon mustard (or Dijon)

3 sprigs fresh tarragon, chopped, or 1 teaspoon dried

Method

Combine broth and wild rice in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook covered for about 50 minutes, or until rice is tender. Chill.

Combine chilled rice, chicken, green onion, celery and apple. Combine oil, vinegar, mustard and tarragon. Toss dressing over salad. Taste and add salt if needed. Cover and chill for at least an hour to allow flavors to meld.

Note: Those decadent microwavable pouches of wild rice make this a much faster fix. You'll most likely need to add salt if you use this method.