Mmmm... Thanksgiving

Occasion: Turkey Day! Except with no turkey...
Edibles: maple-roasted brussels sprouts; roasted carrots with butter and cilantro; beurre noisette mashed potatoes; spiced ham with cranberry applesauce; chocolate fruitcake

An orgy of recipes below.

Maple-Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Trim and clean brussels sprouts; halve any large ones. Toss with a 50/50 mixture of olive oil and maple syrup, like you'd dress a salad. Sprinkle in a little salt and pepper. Spread out on a baking sheet and bake at 375° for 20-30 minutes, depending on the size of the brussels sprouts. Garnish with toasted, sliced almonds.

Roasted Carrots

(This was a last-minute addition to the menu, after my mom got worried that we wouldn't have enough food.)

Peel, then slice carrots on the diagonal into ½-inch slices. Toss with some olive oil, salt and pepper. Spread out on a baking sheet and bake at 375° for 20-30 minutes. I finished them with a little butter and chopped cilantro for interest.

[Note: If you've roasted one vegetable, you've roasted 'em all. The above method works for everything from peppers to potatoes to butternut squash to asparagus. Just remember that the bigger the pieces and the harder the vegetable, the longer they have to cook.]

Beurre Noisette Mashed Potatoes

Peel, cut up and boil some Russet potatoes - however many you think you will need for your guests. When cooked, drain and mash by hand* with beurre noisette (see next paragraph) in whatever quantity you like. (I like the equivalent of one tablespoon of butter per potato. At the upper limit, Joël Robuchon's famous pommes purée uses an insane one stick of butter for every pound of potatoes.) Thin with hot milk or hot stock until you get the texture you like. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg (freshly grated is best).

Beurre noisette (a.k.a. brown-butter) is made by melting butter at medium-low heat. Continue to heat on med-low, stirring frequently, until the milk solids have separated and browned. The result should be a toasty amber color and taste nutty, hence the name en français. You can choose to use the speckled brown bits or not. They're flavorful, but will mar the unblemished creamy whiteness of the potatoes.

[*Note: If you have a food mill or potato ricer, you can use that. You cannot, however, make mashed potatoes in a food processor or blender - you will be making glue instead.]

Spiced Ham
(based on Nigella's recipe)

a 6lb boneless mild-cured gammon
1 bottle of red wine (something decent)
1 cup cranberry juice
water
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 large onion, halved
2 star anise
1 tbsp coriander seed
1 tbsp fennel seed
1 tbsp whole peppercorns

For the glaze:
whole cloves
some sort of preserve (Nigella calls for red currant jelly, heated and doctored with smoked paprika, cinnamon and red wine vinegar; I used cranberry apple butter from Trader Joe's, straight out of the jar)

Place the ham in the smallest pot that it will fit in (to minimize the amount of water you'll need to cover it). Glug in the wine and juice, and put in all the aromatics. Add enough water to (mostly) submerge the ham. Bring to a simmer and cook, partially covered, for 2 to 2½ hours. Remove the ham to cool and discard the cooking liquid. Preheat the oven to 440° F. [Note: even if they will all fit in your oven at the same time, the temperature is too hot to roast vegetables.]

Once ham has cooled slightly, trim off the rind and most (but not all!) of the fat. Score the remaining fat in a medium-sized diamond pattern. Stud a clove in at every intersection. Cover the ham with the glaze you've chosen and bake for about 15 minutes to burnish. Unlike turkey and most other roasts, ham does not need to rest before you carve it.

[Thanks go out to Kathy, Bess, Yining and Liliana for sharing their spices!]

Cranberry Applesauce

5 apples, peeled and cubed (I like Granny Smiths)
½ cup fresh cranberries
½ cup cranberry juice
sugar and honey to taste

Heat the fruits and juice over medium heat. Stir occasionally. You're done cooking when the apples fall apart into a smooth, lump-free sauce. (You can help it along with a potato masher.) For sweetening, I start with about ¼ cup of sugar and then adjust while it's cooking. How much you end up using will depend on how sweet you like your applesauce, but remember that cranberries are VERY tart.

I added the cranberries for the holiday, but it turns the sauce an alarming Hubba Bubba shade of pink. Compositionally speaking, it's also too close to the color of the ham. I'll probably just do plain applesauce (with a little lemon juice and zest) for the next ham.