Food & Drinks

Thanksgiving menu

Although I am anything but a Murican, I might still find it the most fun holiday of the year. A case of inheritance from Mr. X, when I spent these dreary winter months in the US of A and filled the shopping cart with food for an orphanage. Thanksgiving, which is celebrated every year on the fourth Thursday in November, the day when all stores close and families come together en masse to fill their bellies with pumpkin, turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberry, and sweet potato treats. Two things must not be missing on this day: A. fatpants (the grow-with-you pants) and B. a huge turkey.

Were you planning to put a beast on the table this year but have no idea what and especially how to do it? Turn on the oven, cancel your appointments for tomorrow afternoon, and drag the turkey over the threshold. With this Thanksgiving menu, you will score points with family or friends tomorrow.

Happy Turkey Day!

Gobble, gobble…

Grilled carrots with fennel and feta

  • 1 fennel
  • 1 bunch of baby carrots
  • bunch of spring onions
  • 5 tbsp olive oil
  • salt and pepper
  • 3 tbsp lemon juice
  • a handful of coriander
  • pack of feta
  1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
  2. Finely chop the fennel and wash the carrots.
  3. Cut off the greens from the carrots, but keep the tops on.
  4. Place the fennel together with the carrots in a large baking dish.
  5. Slice the spring onion lengthwise and add it to the vegetables.
  6. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
  7. Bake the vegetables for 20 minutes until al dente and then let them cool down almost completely.
  8. Put the vegetables in a large bowl and drizzle with lemon juice and top with coriander.
  9. Serve the vegetables on a large platter, crumble the feta over it, and sprinkle the pistachios.

Healthy sweet potato casserole

  • 3 large sweet potatoes
  • 2 tbsp maple syrup
  • 1 tbsp melted butter
  • salt and pepper
  • handful of pecans
  1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
  2. Grate the sweet potatoes and place them in a large bowl.
  3. Add the maple syrup, melted butter, salt, and three-quarters of the pecans to the potatoes.
  4. Mix everything well and line a large baking dish with parchment paper.
  5. Spread the sweet potato over the baking dish and top with the remaining nuts.
  6. Bake the sweet potato for an hour until done.

The best turkey in the world

  • 1 whole turkey, cleaned
  • 125 grams of unsalted butter
  • 2 apples, cored and halved
  • 4 crushed cloves of garlic with skin
  • half a bottle of prosecco or cava
  • salt and pepper
  1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
  2. Rinse the turkey and pat it dry. Loosen the skin from the breast, distribute the butter and garlic under the skin, and add salt and pepper.
  3. Place the turkey in a roasting bag and pour the prosecco over the inside and outside of the turkey. Tie the bag closed and place the turkey in a roasting pan.
  4. Bake the turkey for 3.5 hours in the preheated oven.
  5. Remove the turkey from the oven when it is done and let it rest for twenty minutes before carving.

Pumpkin pie truffles

  • 20 digestive biscuits
  • 70 grams cream cheese
  • 200 grams pumpkin puree (boil pumpkin pieces and blend them)
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp ginger powder
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp cardamom
  • 1 bar of white chocolate
  1. Crush the biscuits in the blender and set them aside in a bowl.
  2. Put the cream cheese, puree, and spices in the blender and mix everything together.
  3. Add the cookie crumbs to the cream cheese.
  4. Place the mixture in a bowl in the refrigerator to firm up.
  5. Roll balls the size of a golf ball and place them in the freezer for at least two hours.
  6. Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie.
  7. Remove the truffles from the freezer and dip them in the melted chocolate.