Hi, friends!
As we come up on one year of the Mabel Gray Travel Guide, we wanted to thank you for your support, engagement and readership! It has been a pleasure re-living and compiling these trips and tricks.
In lieu of destination-specific recipes for November and December, we wanted to share some classic Mabel Gray holiday recipes. We know everyone is cooking at home much more between Thanksgiving and Christmas and we wanted to give you some recipes to work with as you entertain friends and family. Cheers & Happy Holidays!
Chef James: “I grew up with potluck holidays in a family that didn’t have a great understanding of the culture of dining. My restaurant experience, hospitality studies and travels inspired me over the years to sort of takeover (hijack) the holiday meals. I didn’t want to shock my family initially so I pretty much just freshened up some of the dishes they were already accustomed to. Nowadays, I’ve gone more rogue and will straight up make chicken tikka masala for Christmas. I’m out of f***s. But you all may have some family members you are trying to please, or maybe just want to freshen up the classics. Either way, let’s have a fun time and I encourage you to use these recipes as a base and adjust them as you see fit.”
Coconut Milk Green Goddess Dressing
This recipe is gluten free, vegan and delicious. Feel free to use crème fraiche and/or buttermilk, mayo and anchovies in order to make this more traditional. But this version is a crowd pleaser and offends no one. Except Grandma. But, that’s because you have tattoos.
You will need:
2 12 oz. cans full-fat unsweetened coconut milk
2 Tablespoons fresh chives cut razor thin
2 Tablespoons fresh chopped parsley
2 Tablespoons thin cut scallions
1 Tablespoon fresh tarragon, chopped
2 lemons juiced and zested
3 cloves garlic, microplaned
Salt, pepper, Tabasco
Assembly
In a large bowl, whisk the coconut milk, herbs, scallion and garlic until combined. Whisk in the lemon zest and juice. Season to taste with salt, pepper and Tabasco.
In the restaurant, we use this dressing on our beloved hydro bibb lettuce salad. We love the hydroponically-grown bibb lettuce that comes in a clam shell at the grocery store. It’s delicate and velvet-y but can stand up to a bath of seasoned coconut milk. Carefully remove the bottom stem and layer the leaves in a dramatic pile, alternating layers with spoonfuls of dressing. Top with more chopped herbs, shaved vegetables (carrot, radish, cucumber, cherry tomato all work well) and some sort of crunchy bits. We use a dukkah seed blend at the restaurant but everything bagel seasoning, toasted nuts or breadcrumbs are all great options. We skip cheese and dust the whole thing with nutritional yeast to keep it vegan. The perfect balance for an otherwise-indulgent meal.
Potato Gratin (& how to turn them into cheesy potatoes)
You will need:
2 qts heavy cream (we like Guernsey dairy)
8 cloves garlic, minced or microplaned into the cream
1 Tablespoon minced fresh thyme
Salt & cracked pepper to taste
2 – 4 lbs Potatoes of some delicious variety (Russets, Idahos…)
2 onions, julienned and added either raw or caramelized. If caramelized, add to the bottom of the pan. If raw, add to the cream.
Assembly & Baking
For this recipe, you’re seasoning a warm cream sauce to your liking. The options are endless! Some optional aromatics for the cream: grated horseradish, mustard powder, Tabasco, or shaved fennel.
I like to add pecorino to the top of my potato gratin in the last few minutes of baking, but many different cheeses can be added. Gruyere, smoked cheddar, gouda, taleggio, blue cheese, etc. Keep in mind the salt content of different cheeses and the meltability. Potato chips, pretzels, bread crumbs and cheez-its also make great toppings.
Clean potatoes well. Season and warm the cream on the stove until it is delicious. Shave the potatoes (a mandolin makes this easy) into the cream until you feel that you have enough. I like to have my potatoes a touch loose in the cream but full to the cream level in the pot. Gently distribute in a buttered casserole pan, hotel pan or crock. Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown and tender. Top with finishing item of your choice bake for another 3 minutes. You’re ready to serve!
Homemade Green Bean Casserole
2 lbs of fresh, raw green beans quickly blanched in heavily salted water
12 oz maitakes or other high quality mushroom
1 onion, small diced
4 cloves raw garlic, microplaned or minced
1 stick butter
¼ cup all purpose flour
1 cup sherry wine
3 cups chicken stock
1 cup heavy cream
1 Tablespoon fresh chopped thyme
2 cups garlic breadcrumb (see additional recipe)
Seasoning options: dried mushroom, soy sauce, kosher salt, black pepper, Tabasco.
Garlic Breadcrumb:
4 cups cubed old bread
8 cloves garlic microplaned or minced and tossed on bread
¼ cup olive oil
Salt & Pepper to taste
1 Tablespoon onion powder
For the breadcrumbs: Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and toss, squeezing the breadcrumbs with your hands to help the oil absorb. Spread on a baking sheet and toast in oven at 350 degrees until golden brown and crunchy. Let cool. Chop until breadcrumb texture or pulse in food processor. These can be used on your bibb lettuce salad, topping your potato gratin or as your topping for (below) green bean casserole! For our green bean casserole (pictured above), we fry our own shallots to get the French’s fried onion effect.
For the casserole
Sweat the onions and garlic in the butter with the fresh thyme. Add the mushrooms and cook until softened. Add the flour to thicken and then add the sherry wine to deglaze the pan. Add your stock and heavy cream and stir constantly until it climbs to a gentle simmer. Lower heat, stir frequently and start seasoning. I like adding dried mushroom powder with the flour and adding a splash of soy to develop umami. The typical Campbell’s Mushroom soup move adds a ton of salt and umami. This is your best chance of duplicating the expected richness. Once you have your mushroom gravy dialed in, you are most of the way there.
Layer the green beans in a roasting pan or casserole dish. Spoon the gravy over and distribute well. Top with the breadcrumbs and bake until thoroughly hot and bubbly. Serve with a smile and the preparedness to hear scrutiny from your basic ass cousins.
Cornbread & Chorizo Stuffing
For the cornbread, you will need:
3/4 cup melted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 ½ c buttermilk, Guernsey’s is the best
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 ½ c cornmeal, we use Ferris Mill Organic MI Cornmeal
1 ½ c bread flour
3/4 tsp salt
Directions
Grease a 9x13 pan and pre-heat oven to 375°F.
Place all dry ingredients in a stand mixer, fitted with paddle attachment.
Whisk all wet ingredients together, except melted butter. Then add all wet ingredients to butter. Make a well in the center of the dry mixture and pour wet ingredients in. Mix together on 1st speed until just combined. Make sure to scrap the sides with a spatula so everything is mixed. Pour cornbread mixture into baking pan. Place in oven, bake for 15 min and rotate. Bake for another 15-20 minutes until done. To test if the cornbread is done insert at tooth pick in the center of the cornbread. If it comes out clean, the cornbread is finished. If there is wet batter that sticks to toothpick, bake a little longer until the toothpick comes out clean.
At the restaurant we serve this cornbread by toasting it in more butter, and serving it with honey butter and pickles. A salty cured sliced ham takes it to the next level. This is holiday food in it’s own right, but you can also turn this cornbread into a stuffing (as seen below).
For the stuffing
You will need:
3 onions, diced small
1 head of celery, cleaned and diced same size as onions
2 sticks of unsalted butter
1 lb high quality (or low quality, I don’t know what you’re about) bulk, ground chorizo sausage
4 eggs
1 batch of the above recipe for cornbread, cut into cubes
1-2 cups chicken stock
Sauté the onions, celery and chorizo in butter until chorizo is cooked and onions are translucent. Place this in a bowl or pan and place in refrigerator or freezer until cooled. Once your mixture is cool, you can add your eggs and chicken stock and cornbread. Mix everything with your hands, but don’t be too rough, you want to keep the cornbread chunky. Once all ingredients are evenly distributed, transfer mixture into a roasting pan or casserole dish. Bake at 350°F until golden brown and hot through. Yummo.
Disclaimer: if you want to be lazy and use Jiffy mix I won’t judge you. I’ve done it. I will add fresh shaved corn kernels and jalapeno when I use Jiffy though. It’s my Sandra Lee half-assed effort move.
The World’s Best Tapenade (and what the hell to do with it!)
4 cups mixed, pitted olives. The nicer the olive, the nicer the tapenade.
1 cup capers, drained
½ cup anchovy
2 Tablespoon Dijon
1 shallot, minced
2 Tablespoon preserved lemon (optional! 1 lemon zested and juiced can be substituted. We use the fresh preserved lemon out of the Le Pigeon cookbook. Feel free to buy this awesome cookbook, buy high-quality jarred preserved lemon, or just use fresh lemon.)
10 cloves raw garlic
¼ cup pickled peppers (peperoncini are delicious here)
Variables:
Nice olive oil
Red wine vinegar
Tabasco
Worcestershire
Fresh Parsley
Chop all ingredients in a food processor, starting with the anchovy, caper and garlic. Add remaining ingredients once garlic is chopped thoroughly and pulse into slightly textured puree. Season with the variables to your discretion.
Once you have your magical tapenade the opportunities are endless.
Buy cute little wheels of goat cheese, top with tapenade and bake quickly and serve with toast points. Make baguette sandwiches with shaved prosciutto, mozzarella, arugula and tapenade and put out as pre or post dinner snacks. Toss spaghetti noodles in butter, tapenade and Parmigiana-Reggiano and fresh lemon. Sometimes I’ll even cook clams in white wine until they pop open and make the pasta I just mentioned with the clams. Bangin’!