Monday, November 19, 2012

A delicious cheat sheet


Thanksgiving isn't celebrated by the Dutch--though don't get me wrong, they love their meat and potatoes, it's just the whole pilgrim thing isn't their style--so it's difficult to find the typical Thanksgiving ingredients. Turkey, for instance, can be a tough one. You have to find a butcher that specializes in wild game and pre-order. Also, we definitely can't easily find cranberry sauce, stuffing, gravy in a package, yams (sweet potatoes are everywhere), canned pumpkin, or 9" pre-made pie crust. So, really, everything has to be made from scratch.


I sense a fun project coming.

In any case, in preparation for our small, traditional Thursday-evening celebration Elliot and I pre-ordered our turkey from the 'wild game' butcher at the Albert Cuyp markt. I got a recipe from a friend for pie crust (that includes vodka as the secret ingredient!). And I scoped and scoured my favorite recipe websites here and here and here and here for ideas--for recipes that use ingredients I can easily get my hands on.

Here's what I settled on:


We might be enjoying a Blood Orange Sparkler during cooking and a Tawny Port with our pecan pie.

...excited to go to the market tomorrow! Stay tuned for more pics!

6 comments:

  1. Wish I had a plane ticket in hand - I'd be over for some turkey - a la Dutch style.

    BTW, great photo!!! Professional quality.

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  2. I was just thinking... if you don't manage to get the ingredients (though there is an american supermarket in Amserdam (Leidsestraat), and in Den Haag (Wassenar and Scheveningen) you could adapt the recipe a bit by using lingonberry sauce and gravy sauce from the IKEA?
    Now I sound like a commercial, maybe I should have said hi first. I just found your blog yesterday (and added you to my list). I am also an expat living in The Netherlands and writing about it (and about life in general, not just the expat life). You are welcome in my little piece of the internet.
    I hope you have a great week and Thanksgiving.

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    Replies
    1. Ikea gravy is probably delicious! I didnt know about the American stores here...do they have good stuff? I'll check it out! xx

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    2. Oh they have pretty much everything (box cake, peanut butter, jam.... also british products like lemon curd.... I would dare say tinned pumkin... and so forth). Cereal like lucky charms, baking stuff....

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  3. The vodka is right out of Christopher Kimball's playbook. Vodka adds liquid to the flour without creating the same amount of gluten that water would, and keeps the dough flaky and tender. Or so goes the story. My favorite pie dough recipe is as simple as 3,2,1: 3 parts flour, 2 parts butter, 1 part water, all by weight, spun in a food processor just until the butter forms pea-sized crumbs. Starting with 300 grams of flour seems to make the perfect amount of dough for a standard 9-inch pie.

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