Can you believe that in four years of blogging, I’ve never posted a Thanksgiving turkey recipe?
Well, it’s true. But over the past four holiday seasons, I’ve posted a lot of other delicious Thanksgiving recipes, so I thought that I’d highlight a few of them for you (you’re welcome). This way they’ll be fresh on your mind when you’re grocery shopping next week!
There are very few simple dishes that look more beautiful than whole artichokes.
For my next dinner party, these will absolutely be the appetizers. Artichokes are incredibly healthy (unless you go crazy with aioli for dipping) and they’re absolutely stunning while requiring almost no work. You can throw these in to roast when the first guest arrives, and by the time you’re done with cocktails, they’re ready for the table.
During our move, four plates of our wedding china got broken, and I realized I was even sadder because I’d never even used them. Chad and I have been married for two years already, and I haven’t even taken them out? Insanity. So I’ve decided to make an effort to use them more, even just for day-to-day type things. It’s kind of nice to work special-occasion pieces into ordinary days — and how beautiful do they make every dish look?
Roasted Artichokes
To prep the artichokes, first cut off the stem and peel off a layer of the lowest, outer leaves. Then take scissors and cut of the tips of all of the remaining leaves, and then slice the artichoke about 3/4″ from the tip, all the way through.
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F. Rub the outer layers of the artichoke with lemon juice. Place each artichoke on a square of tinfoil and drizzle with lemon juice, olive oil, sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Wrap the foil around the artichokes and bake for about 45-60 minutes.
To eat, peel off each of the leaves and eat the fleshy part at their base. Serve with melted butter or aioli (my recipe is here!), and dip each leaf into the aioli if desired. When all the leaves are gone, scrape out and discard the inedible fuzzy part and eat the remaining artichoke heart.
One of the things that I feel like must be amazing about being a chef is all the ways that you can make people see foods in new ways.
There were times when — after this, this and this — I thought I could never put up another asparagus on Sugarlaws. What’s left?
But the fact is that there’s a whole other side of asparagus, that all my roasted recipes haven’t even touched. And that’s just leaving the asparagus alone — raw, shaved so thin that it’s as delicate as any veggie you could find.
I used baby asparagus for this recipe — they’re thinner and more difficult to peel into ribbons, but the younger and more tender the better for a dish like this. If you can’t find baby asparagus, use the thinnest, most tender stalks you can get your hands on.
And then enjoy! You’re already halfway done making this dish — it’s that easy.
Raw Asparagus Salad
INGREDIENTS:
15 stalks raw baby asparagus
1 tbsp canola oil
1 tsp lemon juice
5 drops lemon bitters
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
Fleur de sel
Fresh ground pepper
DIRECTIONS
Using a vegetable peeler or mandolin, shave the asparagus into thin ribbons. Toss together with canola oil, lemon juice, lemon bitters, parmesan cheese, salt and fresh pepper, and serve.
