Candied mashed sweet potatoes

As often, I am very late with my posts and it is now high time to finish this Thanksgiving series. This being said, nothing prevents you from preparing these recipes outside the festive season, and it was actually early February when I sampled this lip-smacking side dish for the first time. Tom and I were staying at our friends' Dianne and John in Edmonton, Canada, where the Winter is very long and cold, and Dianne cooked a wonderful dinner for us and the family, featuring, among several other sides, this sweet potato casserole. I found this being the ultimate gourmand side dish, and couldn't possibly not ask Dianne for the recipe.

The dish was so popular among our guests at Thanksgiving (especially those who eat no or little meat), I am now pleased to further share Dianne's recipe on my blog. I have to admit, I did cut quite significantly on the butter and the sugar, as the recipe calls for, um, generous amounts let's say :-) However this is up to each one and also depends on what else you are serving together with this dish. So here's the original recipe, all the way from Alberta!

Ingredients for the sweet potato mixture

3 cups cooked and mashed sweet potato

1/4 cup milk

1/3 cup melted butter (~75g)

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 tsp salt

Ingredients for the topping

1 cup chopped pecans

1 cup soft brown sugar

3 tbsp flour

1/3 cup melted butter (~75g)

1 cup coconut (optional)

Mix the ingredients for the sweet potato mixture together and spoon into an oiled ovenproof dish.

Combine the ingredients for the topping and sprinkle over the sweet potato mixture.

Bake at 375°F, or 190°C, for 25 minutes or until brown on top. This can be made ahead of time and put back in oven prior to dinner.

Pecan pie

In the continuation of my Thanksgiving/Christmas series, here's a fairly easy recipe for a rich and very nutty pecan pie. For my first attempt baking this American classic, I referred to the recipe featured in the gorgeous book "Cake Days" by the Hummingbird Bakery, and left aside the chocolate chips as I wanted my pie as traditional as possible for our Thanksgiving party. It was so popular among our friends, I decided to prepare it again for my family this Christmas in Strasbourg, in place of the usual "bûche de Noël". This is when I had to bring a couple of variations (detailed below) as products such as golden syrup and soft sugar can be tricky to find in France.

Ingredients for the pastry

110g butter, softened

225g flour

80g caster sugar

1 large egg

Ingredients for the filling

100g butter

225g soft brown sugar (or regular brown sugar if soft sugar cannot be found)

110g golden syrup (or agave syrup, in which case sugar can be reduced to 150g as agave syrup's sweetening power is greater than golden syrup's)

3 large eggs

260g pecans, roughly chopped, plus 16 halves

Place the butter and flour in a bowl and rub together using your fingertips until crumb-like in consistency. Stir in the sugar, followed by the egg.

When a dough starts to form, take it out of the bowl and knead gently on a floured work surface to bring it together. Wrap the pastry in cling film and place in the fridge to rest for 20-30 minutes.

In the meantime, grease and flour a tart tin. Once the pastry has rested, roll it out on a lightly floured worktop so that it is about 5mm thick. Line the tart tin with the pastry and using a sharp knife, cut away any excess pastry so that it is level with the edge of the tin. Prick the base of the pastry a few times with the point of the knife and put the tin in the fridge to rest for another 20-30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 150°C. Once the pastry case has rested, line it with baking parchment, fill with baking beans and place in the oven to bake 'blind' for 10 minutes (dry lentils or split peas work fine too). Carefully remove the beans along with the parchment, and bake the tart case for another 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool while you make the filling.

In a saucepan over low heat, melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup together. Once melted, set aside to cool. Whisk together the eggs in a bowl, just to break them up, then pour the melted ingredients into the eggs, stirring continuously until everything is combined.

Scatter the chopped pecans over the base of the tart case and pour the liquid filling on top, then decorate with the pecan halves. The liquid filling should naturally settle between the chopped pecans. If not (in case the pecans are too thinly chopped or a thicker syrup such as  agave is used), carefully mix the pecans and the liquid filling together using your fingers or a spoon.

Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 140°C and bake for another 20 minutes. Let cool and serve thin slices (the pie is very rich!) with a dollop of cream.

Roast turkey stuffed with clementines and rosemary

Okay both Thanksgiving and Christmas are over, but turkey can be eaten anytime after all - and I feel this precious recipe should be written down and shared before it gets lost. A big thanks to our friend Hendrik (once a cook at Berlin's famous Adlon Hotel!) for preparing this incredibly moist and tasty turkey for our Thanksgiving feast last month. The recipe may be inspired from Jamie's Christmas turkey, Jamie himself can't possibly have achieved a better result!

Ingredients for the marinade

1 cup of salt

2 cups of cranberry juice

1 ground nutmeg

Peel and juice of 1 orange

1 teaspoon of ground pepper

4 tablespoons of olive oil

The day before, place the turkey in a plastic bag. Fill in the marinade, squeeze the air out of the bag and store in a cool place overnight.

Ingredients for the stuffing

Some clementines, cut into halves 

Rosemary

Sage

Preheat the oven at 180°C.

Wash the turkey to remove the rest of the marinade and dry it well.

Massage the turkey with olive oil, and season with salt (possibly mixed with paprika powder) and pepper.

Place in the oven and roast for 30-35 minutes per kg of turkey (ours was 8.8 kg and was in for a little more than 4.5 hours).

Regularly collect the out coming liquids with a spoon and pour back over the turkey.

For the last half hour, chop some rosemary and sage, mix it with some olive oil and brush the turkey with this preparation.

Insert a meat thermometer in the biggest part of the breast. When the thermometer indicates 72°C, remove the turkey from the oven. Cover with foil and let rest for at least 30 minutes.

Cut out the breasts and put the legs back into the oven for another 10 minutes per kg of turkey (whole).

Happy Sängsgiwinn!

A big thank you to our friends who came over last week to celebrate Thanksgiving with us, and made our potluck a particularly successful one. Unfortunately our American/Canadian friends could not make it - but our party of German, French, British, Dutch and Italian took up the challenge quite superbly!

I will be sharing recipes soon - here are a few photos in the meantime. A special thanks as well to our dear friends from north America who sent over their favorite recipes.

Roast turkey stuffed with clementines and rosemary - Recipe here

Candied mashed sweet potatoes

Cornbread muffins

Pumpkin pie

Pecan pie

Sushi frenzy in Vancouver

My brother had warned me - "you will love Vancouver's all-you-can-eat sushi deals". He was right. Well I did not exactly go for the all-you-can-eat specials, as I can only eat so much and I know this kind of deal never really works for me. So I would just order a la carte, but I did manage to eat raw fish every single day of our stay in Vancouver. Even our Valentine's day dinner ended up as a delivery sushi meal eaten watching TV in our hotel room. Way more romantic than any fancy restaurant, isn't it?