Thanksgiving day massacre

I am about to shoot someone, something, somehow. Woke up this morning, lo and behold, no gas. So, that means no hot water, and no cooking. AAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGG!!!!!!!!

Anyhow, I am trying to be a calm person and am praying that they don´t decide to switch it off tomorrow as well, since I am celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow. Anyhow, went to the market to pick up the Turkeys, two beautiful 12 lb birds from my lovely turkey lady, Maria Jose, whose picture you can see above. Then, went to my vegetable guy, to get the rest of my veggies, and the cranberries. 11 freakin euros. They knocked off a euro for me cause they know me, but 11 freakin euros????

Ok, deep breaths.

So, pumpkin pie. I love pumpkin pie. But the last few years that I have made pumpkin pie, it inexplicably gets left behind.....only a few people having fearlessly tried it. See in Spain, pumpkin is something you eat as a vegetable side, the maximum being in soups. So, last year I tried a recipe from Martha Stewart, The triple chocolate pumpkin pie, and alas, it was a complete hit! I told everyone that it was a chocolate pie, then after it was all gone, explained that it also had pumpkin in it. So, this year I am doing it again, since I will have different guests, and the recipe follows:

Triple Chocolate Pumpkin Pie

Serves 12

Graham Cracker Crust

2 cups finely ground graham cracker crumbs (about 16 crackers, and for those of us who live outside of the U.S., I find that digestive cookies work fabulously)

3 oz. (6 tbsp) unsalted butter, melted

1 tbsp granulated sugar

2 tbsps packed light brown sugar

1/2 tsp coarse salt

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

3 oz. bittersweet chocolate (61 % cacao) finely chopped

Filling

6 oz. semisweet chocolate (55% cacao) chopped

2 oz. (4 tbsp) unsalted butter, cut into small peices

1 can (15 oz.) solid pack pumpkin * (I prefer to use fresh pumpkins, I find that two small ones roasted in the oven at 375 (190C) for 45 min. give it a sweeter and nicer taste)

1 can (12 oz.) evaporated milk

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

3 large eggs

1 tbsp cornstarch

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 tsp coarse salt

3/4 tsp ground cinnamon

3/4 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

Ground cloves

1 oz. milk chocolate, melted

1. Make the crust: Preheat oven to 350ºF (175º C). Combine graham cracker crumbs, butter, sugars, salt, and cinnamon in a bowl. Firmly press mixture into bottom and up sides of a deep, 9 1/2 inche pie dish. Bake until firm, 8-10 minutes.

2. Remove from oven, and sprinkle bittersweet chocolate over bottom of crust. Return to oven to melt chocolate, about 1 minute. Spread chocolate in a thin layer on bottom and up sides. (You can do this with the back of a spoon) Let cool on a wire rack. Reduce oven temp to 325 deg. (150 C)

3. Make the filling: In a large heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, melt semisweet chocolate and butter, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat.

4. Mix pumpkin, milk, brown sugar, eggs, cornstarch, vanilla, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and a pinch of cloves in a medium bowl. Whisk 1/3 of the pumpkin mix into chocolate mixture. Whisk in remaining pumpkin mixture until completely incorporated.

5. Transfer pie dish to a rimme baking sheet and pour pumpkin mixture into crust. Bake until center is set but still a bit wobbly, 55-60 minutes. Let cool in pie dish set on a wire rack. Refrigerate until well chilled, at least 8 hours (preferabley overnight). Before serving, drizzle melted milk chocolate on top. Serve immediately.

Try it next year, I swear it is truly sublime!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

C

Day 1

Ok, so today had pretty much a full tuesday to fill. Had all these thoughts about being a sporty person. I wanted to go to the gym, swim 5k, run for 20 minutes. Anyone who knows me, would realize that I would get diverted. Diverted by what? Thoughts about food.



Basically, let me introduce myself, so you can get to know me too. I am a mother, first and foremost, lover of life, food, wine and all things to do with eating, tasting, creating and thinking about all things culinary. My background is Colombian, Italian, Eqyptian, Syrian. I grew up in Miami, Nassau, Bahamas and Lugano, Switzerland. That makes for an amazing combination of tastes!

Soooo, enough about me, let´s talk about food. This week is one of the most important for me, being Thanksgiving. I basically start to prepare well in the beginning of the month. Deciding the menu, planning the guest list, searching for the ingredients, and the most important part is going to "Aviram Maria Jose" in the Mercat de Sant Josep, a.k.a The Boqueria. (Oh yeah, I forgot to mention I live in Barcelona now.) I have always loved thanksgiving, and probably even more now, because the majority of the people who come to my house for dinner, have only seen these types of celebrations on television and the movies. They're always talking about "Oooh, those turkeys, they're so big". Well, that is not something that I can accomplish here. See, europe, generally has small ovens (unless you're a millionaire). One year I had about 20 guests for my dinner. So I got a 21 lb. turkey. That is about a 10kg turkey, and my turkey lady gave me this look like I was absolutely nuts for wanting a turkey that large, and she also had a ridiculous time trying to find it. Anyhow, she found one, I proudly brought it home, stuffed it, covered it with butter and sage, and then tried to place it in the roaster. It didn't fit. So, my only option was to place it on the roasting pan that comes with the oven, haven taken all the other pans and racks out, on the bottom layer. Ok, so far so good, it kind of fit.....after I had placed tin foil over the top so as not to get the oven coil marks on the turkey.....

All was going well, until my friend who was helping me out while I took a shower, starting screaming like an Irish banshee! I rushed out of the shower, only to witness my oven in flames. Yes...the oven was completely on fire!!!! We tried pulling it out, only for the flames to start licking up towards the ceiling......minutes of madness when we grabbed some kitchen towels, wet them completely and started throwing them into the oven, to no avail. Finally, I rushed out into the hallway, towel and all, grabbed the fire extinguisher.....and well, I guess you can imagine what the turkey looked like.

Since that episode, I have always done two, or three turkeysdepending on the guest list. Turkey is great cold, warm, hot. Whatever. So on to this year. This year I have a list of epicurious guests. So, the menu had to be quite spectacular. And they also are highly doubtful that anything good can come from American cuisine. This is the part I love most. When I get to say......Told ya so.

So, my menu is as follows, some things borrowed from Martha Stewart (Spice Brine +butter + pumpkin pie) and some from the Williams Sonoma website, tweaked to my preference.

Menu :

Two Spice Brined Turkeys with Spice butter gravy
Challah and pancetta stuffing
Roast garlic mashed potatoes with cream cheese
Sweet potato roulade with spiced pecans
Black trumpet and porcini mushroom green beans with parmesan and crispy onions
Braised chestnuts and jerusalem artichokes with marsala cream sauce
Balsamic glazed pearl onions
Cream biscuits
Triple chocolate pumpkin pie
Cranberry upside down cake with sweet ginger whipped cream

So....this is my task for the next few days. Come back tomorrow and we'll take about the pies, and their crusts. And how much I am going to pay for cranberries in this country.
And pray that my oven doesn´t catch fire this year.
Check ya later!
C