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Hello!
Many of you are coming up on Thanksgiving soon, and I did promise you recipes and content in line with that. So here we are! If you, like me, aren’t in a Thanksgiving part of the world, file away today’s info for Christmas, where it’ll be just as relevant.
I put out a call for your biggest Thanksgiving issues, questions and recipe requests, and a couple of topics had multiple requests. One was for a smaller turkey roast, which will serve 2, 4 or 6 people instead of a huge crowd, and the other was for stuffing. I’ve rolled those things together, literally and figuratively, to give you a single-breast turkey roast with cranberry pecan stuffing. I love it and I hope you will too.
Season flip this issue is very Spring-like for those in the Southern hemisphere, and very Thanksgiving-side-with-a-twist for the Northern climes.
I’ll be back in a couple of weeks with a part 2 for Thanksgiving content. See you then!
Emily x
New to Cook: Rolled Turkey Breast with Cranberry Pecan Stuffing
This small-scale turkey breast roast with cranberry pecan stuffing is perfect for small groups, and a delicious alternative to a whole roasted turkey for the holidays.
The recipe is a riff on the turkey breast roll recipe from my Combi Steam Christmas cookbook.
Where the book recipe was for a larger roast with an apricot-based stuffing; this one is written specifically for a smaller, single turkey breast that’s perfect for a 2, 4 or 6-person gathering at Thanksgiving or Christmas. It’s still an impressive and elegant centerpiece dish, but it won’t leave you with turkey leftovers for weeks after the event!
The Season Flip
Vegetables are the star of Season Flip today!
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Southern Hemisphere
We are in peak asparagus season where I am, and it’ll be similar for many Southern hemisphere dwellers. My lovely friend Claire has a super easy asparagus puff pastry recipe on her website, which I’ve made in my steam oven several times with great success. I make her recipe exactly as written, except I use a combi steam setting at 50% (medium) humidity. The cooking time remains similar to a conventional oven, perhaps a minute or two less. The asparagus is so wonderful with that added steam, though – tender and bright green, with little charred tips and leaves.
Northern Hemisphere
I made this dish as a wintery side to a casserole a few months back, and have had it earmarked ever since to share just before Thanksgiving! It’s super easy to make and I love the complexity and tang that the sour cream and balsamic bring to the potatoes. I combi steam roasted my sweet potatoes for the dish – just throw them, whole, into a preheated oven (combi steam, 350°F/180°C, 30% (low) humidity), and roast until you can easily pierce the centers with a small knife. Then proceed with the recipe as written. I did halve the brown sugar in my version; it was plenty for me but judge it by your own tastes. You can always mix in a little extra if it’s not sweet enough for you.
A Thing I'm Loving
If you LOVE stuffing, you should watch this video by NYT Cooking columnist Eric Kim, where he breaks down 20 different stuffing recipes and gives feedback on all of them. I find Kim endearing and his cooking excellent, and I got lots of ideas about different swaps and subs for ingredients from this video. I also found a few new stuffing recipes I plan to try out (although the oyster stuffing won’t be one of them!).
Ask Me Anything (AMA)
Here’s your opportunity to ask me anything you like related to combi steam cooking!
I really encourage you to submit questions, and will do my best to answer as many as possible. Though I may not be able to get to every single question, I will carefully curate ones which are relevant and represent a variety of topics. We all learn from each other, and I often learn new things based on questions from all of you!
If you have an AMA question, please email it to emily@steamandbake.com. Make sure you include the phrase INSIDERS AMA in the subject line so I can collate and read all your submissions.
From Carolyn
Q: I’d like a recipe for baba ganoush; how would you do the eggplant?
A: I love combi steamed eggplant, and you technically could steam-roast a whole eggplant, then peel and use it in baba ganoush. BUT, I also think the best thing about baba ganoush is the smokiness that comes with chargrilling the eggplant!
If you wanted to do a half-and-half thing that gets smoky results but is less hands-on work, you could char the outside of the eggplant using a flame (I have a gas burner on my outdoor barbecue that does a great job of this). Then, instead of continuing to turn the eggplant over the flame to cook it until it’s collapsing, you could put it into the steam oven to finish off. I’d go for combi steam, 320°F/160°C, 30% (low) humidity, and cook until it’s completely soft.
As for a recipe, I don’t have one written up but I’ve used Kenji’s excellent version from Serious Eats many times at home (note his using of a salad spinner to get the excess moisture out of the flesh before making the dip, it’s genius!).
