Thanksgiving - Part 1 - So It Begins!

We're T minus 5 days to Tday. I've tried to pick a menu this year that allows me to gradually make things over the next few days. Today's item: Cheddar-Cayenne Coins (or Crackers for, you know, normal people).

Got this recipe from Fine Cooking's 2009 holiday magazine. Seemed like a good appetizer to put out with veggies and dip. This came together very easily, and since you can make the dough up to a month in advance, and actually bake the crackers a week in advance, it allows for a leisurely build up.

Ingredients:
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
3 oz sharp cheddar
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces and chilled
1 large egg yolk
2 tbs water
Kosher salt for sprinkling

Directions:
Combine the flour, cheese, salt, and cayenne in a food processor and pulse to combine. Add the butter, and pulse until coarse crumbs form. Combine the egg yolk and water in a separate bowl, then pour over the mixture. Pulse until the dough begins to form small moist crumbs.

Pile the dough on an unfloured work surface and push and smear it with the heels of your hands. Fold each side over onto the middle, rotate 45 degrees, and smear again. Shape into a 14 inch log (about 1 1/4 inch diameter), wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, up to 2 days, or freeze for up to 1 month.

Pre-heat the oven to 375, and line 2 baking sheets with parchment. Cut the log into 1/4 inch slices. Arrange them 1/2 inch apart on the baking sheet (these crackers really don't expand). Bake until golden around the edges, about 15 to 20 minutes. Sprinkle with salt immediately after removing from the oven. Let the crackers cool. Serve immediately, or wrap in plastic and store in an airtight container (or freeze them if you need them to last a few days).

Really easy to do. Total amount of time was, maybe, 30 minutes of activity. And they taste delicious!

Get ready Thanksgiving, here I come!

Tomato Provencal

Maybe this isn't exactly the right name, and I certainly don't have all the little tillday fancy French letters, but I made a stuffed tomato a la Chef Mosher at Robert Mondavi.

I was working without a recipe, and trying to recreate the side he served with a little bernaise. I did not make the bernaise. I'm just not there yet!

These were really simple. I again used my grandparents' home grown tomatoes. One per person. I had to gently squeeze out the seeds and juices, which was a little difficult because some of their tomatoes were just too ripe. An over ripe tomato in this recipe is not the greatest, because the outer skin of the tomato will ripe, no matter how delicate you are in squeezing. A slightly younger tomato will spring back.

So, in order to squeeze out the tomato, you should cut off the top. Make sure you cut deep enough to get the stem off, and any of the whitish portion underneath the stem. Just hold the tomato over the sink (or a bowl if you want to use the juice for something else later), and gently squeeze. Rotate. Squeeze. Rotate. Do this a couple of times, until you've gotten most of the seeds out. You should have three to five little chambers for stuffing.

Now, to make the stuffing. I minced five cloves of garlic. But I like garlic, so probably two would have been fine. I minced two large shallots. I used my food processor to make fresh fluffy bread crumbs out of a single piece of bread. Just drop it in, hit pulse a handful of times, and you've got bread crumbs! I combined my garlic and shallots with the crumbs, then tossed in some chopped fresh thyme and basil. I think there are any number of fresh herbs that would work really well with this dish. Added some salt and pepper to the mix, and that was that. I would also recommend putting just a little salt and pepper down into the tomato itself.

Chef Jeff tossed in a little olive oil before stuffing the tomatoes, to make the mix more cohesive. Probably a tablespoon or two of olive oil is sufficient. It shouldn't be soup. I took the stuffing, and pushed it down into the little chambers of the tomato, then made sure to cover the top completely with a heaping mound of stuffing. It should end up looking a bit like a small stuffed pepper. Add a little salt and pepper to the top, and the tomatoes are ready for baking!

Put the tomatoes in a baking dish, and put them in an oven that has been preheated to 350 degrees. I baked them for 30 minutes, but you should bake them until the breadcrumbs on the top are golden brown in color. Take them out, let them rest for a few minutes to cool. Then plate and serve!

I'll admit, the bernaise would have been a nice touch. But, hey, I'm just learning!