Thanksgiving is all about friends and family. It’s also about prodigious amounts of food (and drink), which invariably leads to…leftovers (and hangovers). Turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, veggies, and potatoes. Does this fill you with a sense of dread, wondering to yourself, “Whatever shall I do with this bounty?” Worry not. Hashcapades has you covered with the ultimate Turkey Hash featuring dishes from Bon Appétit’s Thanksgiving issue – huzzah!
Before we hash this out, I have to warn readers that this Thanksgiving hashcapade involved adult beverages. Exhibit A below shows Brandie and I sipping Apple Crisps! We had hooked up for the epic National Corned Beef Hash Day Hashcapade. And now, to prepare for our next culinary collaboration, we enlisted Mary and Cory Rarick, who happily plied us with amazing cocktails!
And now to the real start of these festivities…the planning. Mary and I were plotting World Hash Domination, as we often do, and we conceived of a festive pre-Thanksgiving hashcapade. We would use the Novemeber 2012 Bon Appetit magazine as the source for dishes. I would harness the awesome power of my sous vide machine to make tender, juicy turkey breast. Mary and Cory would create a cocktail list and make some BA dishes, and Brandie would whip up a BA dish and host (graciously) our mad adventure!
If you’ve never experienced sous vide cooking, I highly recommend it. The concept is basically low temperature cooking of vacuum sealed food in a water bath. In this case, I bought boneless turkey breast, which I brined overnight in a simple salt and sugar brine, Next, I placed it in a pouch with rendered duck fat for extra flavor and used my Sous Vide Supreme vacuum sealer. Voíla!
After 2 and a half hours in the sous vide machine at 140°F/60°C, the turkey breast was ready for prime time, but first, we were hungry for snacks!
I sliced the sous vide turkey and gave the first bite to Brandie’s hubby, Hiro, who raved about the tender, juicy and flavorful results. We were ready to get our hashcapade on and we have pictures to prove it!
Below, we have the key ingredients of this hashcapade. Starting clockwise from upper left – Mini Herbed Pommes Anna, sous vide turkey breast, Brussels Sprouts with Shallots & Salt Pork, Chanterelle mushrooms. Further below is another shot with the Mashed Root Vegetables with Bacon Vinaigrette also playing a key role.
With all the dishes complete, it was time to assemble the Turkey Hash a la Bon Appétit. I mixed 2 tablespoons of crème frâiche with 3 tablespoons of Brandie’s awesome Cranberry Sauce and used that as the base for the plate. Next, I placed a food ring over the sauce and layered in the potatoes, followed by sauteed Chanterelles, slices of turkey, Brussels and finally the root veggies. We made only one serving, which the five of us dispatched in a flurry of flashing forks and “OMGs” – yusss!
For a less fanciful hash, I simply mixed roughly equal parts (1 cup each) of all of the above in a medium-sized bowl, folding in 3-4 tablespoons of crème frâiche, more Cranberry Sauce, and 2 teaspoons of fresh chopped sage. What a flavor bomb! The crew unanimously liked this treatment better, which bodes well for you, the reader, because it’s soooooo easy!
What better way to end a wildly successful and mad-capped adventure? Um, the drool-inducing Cashew-Coconut Tart with Chocolate Crust from Bon Appétit that Mary and Cory made. Combined with Brandie’s pour-over coffee au lait, we were sated and delirious from so much laughter and, well, booze!
A huge thanks to Brandie, Hiro, Mary and Cory for a fabulous hashcapade filled with hilarious antics fueled by epic food and drink – Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Hashcapades,
Clark
So.Much.FUN! We must do it again! Now I’ve gotta go make all that again… just so I can have that hash again!
OMG, that was fabulous! I have so many cool ideas for Clark & Brandie for either podcast or video – huzzah!