Side dishes to make you forget your family drama

Dear Readers, it is my great pleasure to introduce to you Salty Sour Spicy Sweet's first guest-blogger, my brother-in-law and spiritual food twin, Craig Zissel. Craig's dedication to food is rivaled only by his dedication to drinking and seersucker. He is devoted also to sparkling wines - which he'll sell to you just slightly over retail - and, as you'll see, bacon. These, and many other fine qualities, qualified him to be the Godfather of my child who he showers with affection and gifts. I know, I know, you wish he was your brother in law, but too bad...he's mine!! Herewith, his glorious Thanksgiving secrets. Enjoy him as I do.

From Craig:

I have to admit that I am extremely honored to be the first ever "Guest Blogger". As a self proclaimed fat kid (ok, others have called me a fat kid also) I must admit that I sometimes spend unreasonable amounts of time thinking about food. One of my favorite things about me is that I often plan my next meal while finishing the current one.

Of all my favorite food based events, Thanksgiving is at the top of my list. It is one of the few days of year when others share my desire to spend the whole day cooking, drinking and watching TV. When Kristin and Beth approached me about guest blogging in November, I couldn't wait to share my two favorite side dish recipes which I developed last year when I cooked my first ever Thanksgiving feast. One thing that goes unsaid with these recipes and many others related to Thanksgiving is that homeade turkey stock is a must. I know it is gross pulling that bag of turkey vittles out of your preferably fresh turkey from Graul's and boiling them up with onions, celery, salt, pepper and water in a stock pot for 2-3hours, but the savory goodness that results is well worth the trouble. This can be done the night before. Save the onions and Celery as they come in handy for your stuffing the next day, just make sure to refrigerate. So though using canned broth won't alter the flavor of these dishes too much, I will be severely dissapointed and will secretly judge you if you don't make your own.



Brussel Sprouts with Figs and Pancetta

Ingredients:
2 containers of fresh brussel sprouts

1 package of dried figs

8 oz of thin sliced pancetta (mmmm italian bacon)

1 cup of fresh turkey stock.

Olive Oil

salt & pepper to taste


Instructions:
Trim the brussel sprouts and parboil them for approximately 10-15 minutes in salted water until slightly tender. You don't need to cook them all the way through as they will continue cooking in the next steps.

While you are trimming and boiling the brussel sprouts, soak your figs in warm water for about 10 minutes until soft and partial re-hydrated. Reserve 1/2 cup of fig juice.

Slice Brussel Sprouts in half and coarsley chop figs and set aside.

Dice the pancetta and saute over medium high heat with some olive oil until pancetta begins to crisp. Add turkey broth and de-glaze pan, then add brussel sprouts, figs and salt & Pepper. and fig juice.

Cook over medium high heat until broth is reduced to about 1/3rd and thickens to a syrupy consistency. Season with additional salt & pepepr to taste.





Fig, Apple and Walnut Stuffing
This is enough to stuff an 18-24 pound Turkey

Ingredients:
2-1 lb bags of cornbread stuffing ( I use Pepperidge Farm, but any brand should suffice)

2 onions*--I chop up the onions I used to make the turkey broth

4 celery stalks*-- I chop up the celery used to make the turkey broth

2 large apples peeled and chopped into one inch pieces

1 cup of chopped walnuts

1 package of dried figs--soaked in warm water for 10-15 minutes and coarsely chopped

5 Cups of Turkey Broth (used homemade slackers...I and your inlaws are judging)

2 Sticks of butter


Instructions:
Bring Turkey Stock and Butter to a boil, add stuffing, apples, figs, walnuts, celery and onion. Mix thoroughly and allow to sit for a minute. Now you have two options, you can stuff your turkey and allow its flavors to enhance your stuffing, or you can put stuffing in a glass baking dish and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.


I prefer both. I stuff the turkey and the leftover I bake in a corning ware dish while I am letting my turkey rest before slicing.

Dangerous Information

I know myself well enough to know that there are certain things that I am better off not knowing. For instance, I should not know where to buy the very best doughnuts, how much money I spent on vodka in my twenties or my actual, accurate weight. None of these factoids can do anything except make me unhappy. See, knowledge is power and maybe I'm just not the sort of person who should have too much of it.

Sometimes, though, no matter how hard you try to stay ignorant, some knowledge seeps in by accident and that's where the real trouble starts. Case in point: I have always been reluctant to fry foods. I presume that it is not only fattening and messy and will make my tiny house smell like KFC, but also that it might be a slippery slope sort of thing. I might be one successful chicken fry away from frying everything from my morning cereal to snickers bars. Why? Because frying things, just like adding bacon to them, generally makes them taste wonderful. I don't need more ways to make things taste good, thanks anyway. (For verification, please see weight reference in paragraph 1, line 2.)

But, the other day while making some appetizers for a party, I sort of stumbled into a little puddle of oil. I've been playing around with a really good combination of flavors and was looking for an appropriate bread vehicle to make said combo into a tasty, hand-held morsel. I chose wonton wrappers and was all set to bake them up, but no where in any of the recipes listed by the helpful wonton wrapper manufacturer did it say anything about baking a wonton wrapper. The wrappers, it seems, want to be fried. Afraid to fail the delicious treats before me, I got out a nice wide, deep saucepan, my candy thermometer and some canola oil. I heated the oil to a toasty 350 degrees and floated 6 little wontons in it. They snapped and sizzled happily, I turned them once, waited another minute and transferred them to a baking sheet lined with paper towels. They. Were. Perfect.

There was no messy splattering, no exploding wontons, no terrifying fires or disfiguring burns. There were only perfect, golden, triangular snacks. Victorious, I resisted the urge to pillage the cabinets in search of other things to fry.

But now the frying seems so easy, so accessible. I have twice caught myself eyeing my peanut oil and seemingly-innocent things like bananas and wedges of cheese. I have yet to fry again, but it is indeed an oily, slippery slope, my friends. Stay tuned. In the meantime, enjoy the tasty little treats below which celebrate both my new-found frying confidence AND our ongoing October-long salute to the almighty apple. Enjoy.

Sausage, Apple & Fennel Wontons with Applesauce Reduction

Ingredients:

1 pound hot Italian pork sausage

1 large apple, peeled, cored and diced to 1/4" pieces

1/3 cup fennel, diced

1 cup chicken stock

4 - 6 ounces chunky applesauce

about 50 Wonton Wrappers (the average package of wrappers seems to hold about 40 of 'em. Sorry.)

1 egg plus 1 T. water, beaten in a small bowl and set aside to chill

1 cup Applesauce Reduction (see below)

Instructions:

Heat a large skillet or frying pan over medium-high heat. Remove sausage from casings and brown thoroughly, crumbling as you go. You will want the sausage crumbled finely. The smaller the crumbles, the better. Remove sausage from pan when fully cooked and allow to drain on a paper towel-lined plate. Drain the majority of the fat from the frying pan, but don't worry about wiping it clean.

Keeping the pan hot, add the chicken stock to deglaze the pan. Scrape any remaining sausage bits loose and allow stock to simmer until reduced by half. Add the applesauce, diced apple and fennel and allow to simmer, reducing further until a thickened consistency is acheived with little liquid left in the pan. Return the sausage crumbles to the pan and mix to coat. Remove mixture from heat and transfer to a bowl to cool completely.

On a clean work surface, take one wonton wrapper at a time and place a heaping teaspoon of sausage mixture in the center of the wrapper. Dip your finger in the beaten egg and run it around all sides of the wrapper. Immediately fold wrapper in half diagonally to form a triangle and pinch edges firmly together all the way around. Set aside. Repeat with remaining wrappers. Put on a good CD and the time will fly.

Heat about 1/2" of canola or peanut oil in a wide skillet or saucepan with deep sides. Fix a candy thermometer to the side so that the tip sits in the oil and heat it up to about 350 degrees. KEEP AN EYE ON THE OIL TEMP throughout frying process and adjust your burner accordingly. Consistent temperature is key. Fry wontons a few at a time without crowding the pan. My 10" skilet accommodated about 6 at a time. Fry for about 2 to 3 minutes on each side until golden. Carefully remove wontons from oil and allow them to rest on a paper-towel lined baking sheet.

Serve with Applesauce Reduction for dipping...recipe follows.

NOTES: These held very well overnight when placed on a a parchment lined cookie sheet and covered snugly with foil and left at room temperature. Reheat uncovered in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes just before serving. They got beautifully crispy all over again.

They will also do just beautifully frozen right before the frying stage. Seal un-fried wontons tightly in an airtight, freezer-appropriate container and defrost thoroughly at room temperature before proceeding with the frying process.

Applesauce Reduction

Ingredients:

1 cup chunky applesauce

16 ozs. (2 cups) chicken stock

1 1/2 tsp. dried sage

1/2 tsp. red pepper flake (optional)

salt & pepper to taste

Instructions: Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and simmer over medium-high heat util reduced to about 1 cup (8 ounces) in volume. Allow to cool slightly and serve as a dipping sauce for wontons. FYI, in a pinch for quick, impressive dinner, this is a lovely sauce for roasted pork or poultry.