Apple pie with pecan crust

I was asked to make an apple pie for Thanksgiving and decided to try out something that I have been thinking about for a while, creating a crust using ground nuts in place of some of the flour. Pecans seemed to be the nut that most complimented apples so I used ground pecans.

First I roasted 200 gms of pecans until they were just becoming fragarent.

Then I ground these in my small food processor until finely ground, but stopped before they started to turn to pecan butter. I kept out a few for decoration.

Cabbage and apple salad

This weekend is thanksgiving in Canada, and there are many family recipes and traditions that surround this celebration.  For one of my best friends it would not be a turkey dinner with out this salad that her mother used to make, so I asked her to write it up to share.

Gillian has asked me to be a guest blogger to feature this family favourite so here goes.

We all have some tradition that we bring to our festive meals.  My signature dish known to all who shares my turkey dinner has been this salad, which has been passed down by mother, and I believe my grandmother.  The crisp texture and fresh taste an excellent complement to the comfort flavours and soft textures of a turkey dinner.  The other bonus is that this salad is equally good for at least the next day or two.

The salad is generous portion that is perfect for the extra meals the next day.  While proportions can vary I suggest the following ingredients.

• 
  
• 1 medium green cabbage, chopped 
• 2 apples, firm varieties i.e.: granny smith, Spartan or 1 of each
• 2 stocks celery, diced
• 4 green onions, chopped
• ¼ cup Italian parsley, chopped, with some sprigs for garnish
• Optional:  ¼ cup toasted almonds and/or ¼ cup dried cranberries

Dressing

• 1 lemon
• Mayonnaise, ½ cup
•         ½ tsp. Dijon mustard
• 1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar
• Salt, 1 tsp.
• ½ tsp. curry power
• 1 tsp. sugar

Chocolate pecan pie

Every year at American Thanksgiving a good friend, who happens to be American, hosts a Thanksgiving feast for our neighbourhood friends.  This started many years ago when our children were all small, and many were picky eaters. They are all now grown with the youngest graduating from high school this year, and so the volume of food has ramped up. Including all "kids" parents and even a couple of grandparents there were 32 for dinner and two 20lb turkeys!  

We are a group very bound by traditions, and every year we each bring the same dishes, my allotted dish is pie.  This year someone else was bringing pumpkin pie, which is an essential part of the Thanksgiving feast and so I was going to bring Pecan pie, another pie that completes some peoples vision of Thanksgiving dinner. Last year I made a  Straight forward Pecan Pie so to shake it up a little this year I made a chocolate pecan pie.

I found this recipe on Joyofbaking.com and I hardly changed it at all. The pastry that I made is my version of shortcrust pastry I made the pastry and lined a pie plate with it and let it rest while I made the filling.

Pecan Filling:

1 1/2 cups pecans toasted and chopped

2 ounces  unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped

3 large eggs

1 1/2 cup  granulated white sugar

1 cup  light corn syrup

2 tablespoons  butter, melted

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or 1 tablespoon rum or bourbon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup  whole pecan halves toasted

Roasted potatoes and Brussels sprouts

Roasting vegetables that are usually steamed or boiled seems to be every where these days and for good reason.  Asparagus, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts all seem to improve with a little caramelising.  Brussels sprouts are actually in my opinion the king of the green vegetable kingdom, and I would eat them much more often if it was up to me.  I am afraid the rest of my family does not necessarily agree, they are willing to put up with them with a Sunday roast but that is about it.

But with my husband and father in Chicago for a few days I find my self on my own for dinners, so I can cook what ever I want.  This will often be eggplant or liver but it is the season of the Brussels sprout and I had one last potato from my garden to eat so I decided to roast them together.

This could hardly be called a recipe really just a suggestion.  Toss Brussels sprouts and chopped potato together with a little olive oil and some salt . I used about 2/3 sprouts to 1/3 potato.

The potatoes need to be cut quite small so that the sprouts do not get over cooked before the potatoes are ready.

Thanksgiving - Pecan pie

Thursday was American thanksgiving, and though I was born and brought up in England and live in Canada, I don't see that as any reason not to celebrate it.  Luckily I have several American friends, one of whom invites us every year to a wonderful turkey feast.  Everyone brings something, and as it is a traditional holiday and we are traditional people we always bring the same things.  My mission is to bring pies.  Usually I make Pumpkin pie.  (for some of us it is not thanksgiving with out pumpkin pie) and at least one other for non pumpkin pie eaters.

This year I am making pecan pie, and apple blueberry pie.  It was going to be apple pie, but I had less apples than I thought and there were some blueberries in the freezer. The pastry for the apple blueberry pie was the same as for the apple pie I made earlier in the fall, I just mixed some frozen blueberries with the apples and tossed in about 2 tablespoons of brown sugar and 1 tablespoon of cornstarch to thicken some of the juices.  Any way it turned out well and Dov a good friend declared it the best blueberry apple pie he had ever had (I suspect it was the only blueberry apple pie he had ever had but thank you any way) He said he usually found blueberry pie to sweet and sickly and the apples helped cut the sweetness.

Blueberry apple pie

For the pecan pie I used a traditional french pastry Pate Sucre (sugar pastry) this is rich with butter and cuts almost like a shortbread cookie and I think it goes well with Pecan pie.

Sgroppino - The perfect ending to a heavy meal

Two years ago I was lucky enough to spend a week in Venice with my Father and one of his friends who was writing a book about architecture in Venice.  He spent a lot of time there doing research and was getting quite fluent in Italian. Every night we went to a different restaurant that he had eaten at many times and was known by the owners.  We had some good meals, but generally I was not as impressed with the food in Venice as I was with food from further south.

At the end of the first meal he did not order dessert off the menu but ordered Sgroppino, so I followed suite. What arrived was a wonderful light icy drink. I had this every night after that, as I really do not have much a sweet tooth and often don't even bother with dessert.

We had this after my first turkey dinner this last weekend, it was refreshing break before heading into pie.

A perfect side dish for turkey - A trio of root vegetables

We all have something that without it it is not really Christmas or thanksgiving dinner. For me it is brusselsprouts, for my friend Nancy it is apple and cabbage salad, for my late father in law it was turnip!

His five children and wife did not necessarily agree, as they did not like turnips, so his devoted only daughter found this recipe that includes turnip but hides the strong flavour that often puts people off. I now always make this dish for a turkey dinner as do my friends in fact it has almost userped the position of the brusselsprout, (but not quite), so thank you Mary Anne.

What makes this especially good for a turkey dinner is you do all the work ahead and then throw in to the oven to heat up when the turkey is out, resting and being carved.