Thanksgiving is a very special time of year that brings many of us some our favorite things: family, friends, football, and of course, the Thanksgiving feast. Whether your Thanksgiving feast is a traditional roasted turkey and dressing fare or a more down home pit-smoked turkey breast, what makes this holiday a stand-out is the menu. We visited with local chefs to get their take on the Thanksgiving meal, Thanksgiving memories and their “must-haves” for turkey day.
The First Course
Chef Robert “Bobby” Turner
Chef Robert “Bobby” Turner
BR Vino/Brazos River Provisions
1919 Avenue G (Vogelsang Building), Rosenberg
Training/Experience: Kendall Culinary School.
Culinary Influences: Julia Child and Alton Brown.
Describe Your Culinary Style: French fusion with a dash of crazy.
AB: What is the one food item you have to have for Thanksgiving?
Chef Bobby Turner: Cornbread stuffing. I love this traditional southern dish.
AB: What’s your favorite leftover dish from Thanksgiving?
BT: A turkey and cranberry sauce sandwich on a Hawaiian bread roll.
AB: Fresh or canned cranberry?
BT: Fresh! Use the tart flavor to your advantage. You can always add something sweet to balance it out.
Chef Bobby’s Thanksgiving Recipes
Chef Bobby’s Thanksgiving Recipes
Corn
Corn Pepper Salsa Dip
Grab a jar of Brazos River Provisions’
Corn Salsa and Relish, and try this great recipe!
1 8-oz. block of cream cheese
1/2 jar Corn Salsa and Relish, drained
1/3 cup chopped green onions
Mix ½ of a jar of Corn Salsa and Relish, drained, with 8 oz. softened cream cheese and 1/3 cup chopped green onions. Refrigerate for a couple of hours. Garnish with a little extra chopped green onions and serve with crackers. Makes a great dip! For extra flavor, fold in lump crabmeat, chopped boiled/grilled shrimp or crawfish tails.
Potato
Sweet Potato Soup
2 lbs. sweet potatoes
1 cup boiling water
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup chicken stock
1 tblsp. granulated garlic
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. allspice
1 tsp. ground clove
1 tsp. chopped parsley
8-10 cinnamon sticks pumpkin bowls*
Peel and dice sweet potatoes; boil in a stockpot until very tender. Measure 1 cup boiling water and sweet potatoes and puree in a blender. Transfer the puree to the stockpot. Add chicken stock, garlic, nutmeg, allspice, clove and heavy cream. Cook on low-medium heat, stirring regularly. Garnish with parsley and cinnamon sticks.
*Pumpkin Bowl:
Slice off the top of a pumpkin. Remove the seeds. Bake pumpkin at 350 degrees for 7-8 minutes. It will make your home smell wonderful! Use individual pumpkins or a large one for the soup pot.
Don’t forget the spirits! Chef Bobby recommends these two wines to compliment your Thanksgiving meal.
Red: 2009 Dornfelder – Liebrich Rheinhessen Qualitätswein, German Cost: $19.99
White: 2011 Borealis White Blend Willamette Valley, Oregon Cost: $20.99
Available at BR Vino
The Feast Ole Railroad Café Style
Chef Daniel Ornelas
Chef Daniel Ornelas
Ole Railroad Café
819 2nd Street, Rosenberg
Training/Experience: Le Cord En Blue Texas Culinary Academy. Served with fine restaurants including the Marriott Renaissance, Pecan Grove Country Club, The Hollows Resort, The Houstonian, Buckner Residential and MD Anderson.
Culinary Influences: My passion for food and love for the culinary arts was cultivated through working with my mother in the kitchen as a child.
Describe Your Culinary Style: Classic American comfort food with a French influence.
AB: What does Thanksgiving mean to you?
Chef Daniel Ornelas: To me, Thanksgiving means family. It is a time when family gathers together to enjoy a good meal, a few football games, lots of laughs and the pleasure of each other’s company. Plain and simple, it’s time to get back to the basics and enjoy the true meaning of being a family.
AB: What is your fondest memory of Thanksgiving?
DO: My mom is always my fondest memory of Thanksgiving. I think about her stuffing and how much I couldn’t wait to get over to her house and eat it. I can remember her serving our entire family and that includes over 11 aunts and uncles and countless cousins from her tiny kitchen. She welcomed everyone into her house over the years: family, co-workers and even a few strangers. I’ve never known anyone else who had the same heart as she did.
AB: What is the one food item you have to have for Thanksgiving?
DO: I’ve never been a fan of turkey. It’s good, but I love a smoked ham. Several weeks before Thanksgiving, I start planning and even dreaming about it. It is an art to me.
AB: What’s your favorite leftover dish from Thanksgiving?
DO: It’s got to be Mom’s stuffing mixed with cranberry sauce. Her stuffing is simple but made with lots of love. It is a cornbread stuffing mixed with onions, celery, boiled eggs, bell pepper, chicken bouillon, poultry seasoning and chicken gizzards. I must admit, I make a pretty good imitation of her recipe, but somehow, it still doesn’t taste the same as when she made it.
AB: Fresh or canned cranberry?
DO: Does this sound bad? I like the canned cranberry. It’s a consistency thing, and it is always a bit sweeter than the fresh sauce.
AB: When did you cook your first Thanksgiving meal, and what was on the menu?
DO: I was 16 years-old when my mother finally allowed me to help her cook the meal. I don’t recall the specifics of the meal, but I do know that this cemented my love of cooking. There was something about being in the kitchen with my mom and watching a football game. Thanksgiving was and has always been my favorite holiday. On Thanksgiving, you can make almost anything and experiment with different flavors, and somehow, it all fits into the meal. Nothing feels out of place.
AB: What’s your secret to preparing the perfect turkey?
DO: Preparing a ham instead and letting the turkey live! Ha, just kidding! What I recommend for cooking a turkey is first roasting, and then, braising it with a vegetable medley of onion, carrots,
celery and sliced oranges.
Chef Daniel’s Thanksgiving Recipes
Momma’s Cornbread Stuffing
Momma’s Cornbread Stuffing
1 yellow onion (small diced)
1 bulk celery stalks (small diced)
1 bell pepper (small diced)
4 hardboiled eggs
1 tblsp. sage
½ lb. chopped chicken gizzards (small diced)
½ lb. cornbread mix
1 ½ gallon chicken base
1 stick butter
Homemade Cranberry and Orange Marmalade Sauce
Homemade Cranberry and Orange Marmalade Sauce
2 cups dried cranberries
1 orange zest
1 cup of orange juice
1 tblsp. vinegar
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
Place all ingredients in a sauce pot. Cook until mixture is reduced or becomes thick and pasty.
Pumpkin Crème Brûlée
7 egg yolks
¾ cup sugar
4 cups heavy cream
2 tblsp. cinnamon
Preheat oven to 320 degrees. In a medium saucepan, combine cream and half the sugar (1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons), and then, add cinnamon and nutmeg. Heat over medium just until mixture starts to bubble around the edge of the pan, 7 to 8 minutes (do not let it boil – simmer).
Whisk egg yolks in a large mixing bowl with remaining sugar; add pumpkin. Slowly incorporate the warm milk into the large mixing bowl while whisking. Be careful not to incorporate milk too fast, or it will cook the eggs.
Place mixture in small ramekins or bowls. Put in a water bath and let cook for about 20 minutes or until mixture is firm. Let cool for 1 hour. Add a tablespoon of sugar on top of each crème brûlée. Use a torch to crystalize sugar and serve. Serves 8 – 10.
The Feast – Swinging Door Style
Chef Steven Onstad
Chef Steven Onstad
Swinging Door
3818 FM 359, Richmond
Training/Experience: Self-taught; 40 years in the restaurant business.
Culinary Influences: My mother, Louisiana cooking classes and the Food Network.
Describe Your Culinary Style: Texas casual with a little of everything else mixed in.
AB: What is the one food item you have to have for Thanksgiving?
Chef Bobby Turner: Cornbread stuffing. I love this traditional southern dish.
AB: What’s your favorite leftover dish from Thanksgiving?
BT: A turkey and cranberry sauce sandwich on a Hawaiian bread roll.
AB: Fresh or canned cranberry?
BT: Fresh! Use the tart flavor to your advantage. You can always add something sweet to balance it out.
Apple Crumble Topping:
Apple
2/3 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup rolled oats
3 tblsp. granulated sugar
½ cup butter (1 stick)
Filling:
4 large apples such as Granny Smith
2 tblsp. firmly packed sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Grease a 2-quart baking dish. For topping, place the flour, rolled oats, granulated sugar and butter in a large bowl; mix well. For filling, peel, core and slice apples. Layer the apple slices in the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle the brown sugar and cinnamon over the apple slices. Sprinkle the topping mixture over the top. Bake until the apples have softened and the crumble is lightly golden, 20-25 minutes. Serve warm.
Chef Steven’s Thanksgiving Menu
Pecan Smoked Turkey
Order from The Swinging Door
November 1st – 22nd
Spinach and Arugula Salad with Candied Pecans, Dried Cranberries and Apple Cider Vinaigrette
Fresh washed spinach (70%)
Fresh washed arugula (30%)
1 cup dried cranberries or craisins
½ cup candied pecans, chopped
Mix well before dressing salad lightly. Grocery stores have a spinach and arugula blend already mixed.
Brown Rice Salad
with Asparagus and
Goat Cheese
Brown Rice Salad with Asparagus and Goat Cheese
Cook 1 ½ cups brown rice in 3 quarts boiling water for 22 + minutes. Drain and spread on a cookie sheet to cool. Drizzle with vinegar or lemon juice.
Next, take one pound trimmed, fresh asparagus and cook in oiled skillet medium-high heat for 3 to 4 minutes. Turn, season with salt and pepper and cook 5 minutes or until browned on one side. Remove from heat and cool.
Mix 2 ½ tblsp. olive oil, 2 tblsp. lemon juice, the zest from one lemon and 2 to 3 finely chopped green onions.
Move cooled rice to a large bowl. Add asparagus, cut into 1-inch pieces, 1 cup crumbled goat cheese and dressing. Toss and let rest for 10 minutes. Dress with chopped parsley and slivered almonds or pine nuts.
Sweet Potato Gratin with Horseradish
Sweet Potato
Gratin with Horseradish
4 ½ lbs. sweet potatoes
3 cups heavy cream
6 oz. horseradish root, peeled and grated, or 3 tblsp. horseradish in jar=
1 ½ tsp. nutmeg
Salt and pepper
2 cups dried breadcrumbs
2 oz. softened butter
Bake sweet potatoes at 400 degrees for 45 minutes. Cut them in half, scoop out potatoes and set aside. Heat cream over medium heat and simmer for approximately 10 minutes, until reduced by half. Remove cream from heat and stir in horseradish, nutmeg, salt and pepper (to taste). Combine horseradish cream and sweet potatoes. Spread mixture into a baking dish, cover with breadcrumbs and dot with softened butter. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until golden brown (165 degrees internal temperature).
Photos by Nesossi Studios