This year I wanted to change things up a little when it came to the traditional Thanksgiving feast. I was becoming bored with the long-established menu that is served every year like clockwork. I wanted to try something new. I sought a menu that was out of the ordinary and had the potential to become a future family tradition on Thanksgiving.
I poured through many recipes online and put together a menu that was different, but not too much a departure from tradition. The menu has a Mediterranean twist. It brings flavors of Greece, Italy and Southern France into the American Thanksgiving institution. Flavors of fennel, garlic, feta, citrus, and roasted peppers are intermixed with each course. Together, each course provides satisfying temptation to the palette.
The Menu
- Marinated Olives with Tangerine and Rosemary
As a hors d’oeuvre, the meal starts with Marinated Olives with Tangerine and Rosemary. If you enjoy olives, this is a great dish. Fennel and coriander tangerines and rosemary provide a sweet and fragrant flavor to the olives.
This dish is easy to make and flavor grows the longer you marinate the olives. This recipe came from the November 2006 issue of Bon Appetit. It serves ten. The cost per serving is $0.70. Total cost is $7.01. Prep time is about twenty-five minutes plus two days of marinating in the refrigerator.
- Radicchio Salad with Oranges and Olives
Continuing with the Mediterranean theme, the Radicchio Salad with Oranges and Olives is light and refreshing and prepares your palette for the next course. The mixture of chicory family greens provides a pleasant variation on traditional salad. The orange and sherry dressing is light and does not overpower the greens.
I pulled this recipe from the January 2008 issue of Bon Appetit. It serves eight. The cost per serving is $0.92. Total cost is $7.32. Prep time is fifteen minutes.
I paired this and the previous course with a 2008 Bonacquisti Colorado Riesling.
- Roast Turkey with Sausage Fennel Stuffing and Madeira Gravy
For the main course, served is a Roast Turkey with Sausage Fennel Stuffing with Madeira Gravy. This is an amazing recipe. The turkey is juicy and tender. The sausage fennel stuffing is sweet with flavors of anise. Top it with the Madeira gravy and you have a winning combination.
The Madeira gravy is the show-stopper. Madeira is a fortified white wine from the Portuguese island of Madeira. It is amazing in gravy and a wonderful aperitif as well. Make sure you have some bread to sop up the extra gravy. It’s so good you do not want it going to waste.
The secrets of making a juicy and tender turkey is to roast it in an oven bag and rubbing one stick of softened butter all over the turkey before roasting. The bag keeps the pan juices around the turkey. There is no need to baste the turkey. The juices steam around the bird keeping it moist. Roasting in an oven bag also cuts the cook time by at least one-hour.
The prep time for the turkey, stuffing and gravy is one hour. The turkey was fourteen pounds. The cook time is just under three hours. This recipe came from the November 1995 issue of Gourmet magazine. The recipe serves eight. The cost per serving is $3.95. Total cost is $31.62.
I paired this course with 2007 Clos du Val Carneros Pinot Noir. The soft tannins and the moderate acidity of the Pinot Noir are a nice complement the turkey and stuffing.
- Roasted Fingerlings with Red and Yellow Pipérade
As a starch and vegetable side to the turkey, the Roasted Fingerlings with Red and Yellow Pipérade provide a spiced up alternative to traditional mashed potatoes or yams. Fingerlings are small potatoes shaped like a finger. They come in many different varieties. In this recipe the red and yellow pipérade refer to roasted red and yellow bell peppers. The dish is topped with fragrant herbs adding to the sweet buttery flavor of the roasted peppers and potatoes.
Other than the chopping of a lot of herbs, potatoes and peppers, I found this recipe easy to make. Prep time is thirty minutes. The cook time is one-hour five minutes. I found this recipe in the November 2007 issue of Bon Appetit. The recipe serves ten. The cost per serving is $1.44. Total cost is $14.38.
Overall the each of these dishes was moderately easy to make. It is helpful to have a double oven when making this menu. It is hard to roast the turkey and the potatoes at the same time. Total cost of the entire menu is $60.40. The menu serves eight to ten people. Cost per serving ranges from $6.04 to $7.55.
As a departure from the traditional Thanksgiving menu, this Mediterranean twist fit the bill. The menu is different enough to spice up Thanksgiving. However, it is close enough to the customary menu that traditionalists will be appeased.
Happy Thanksgiving!
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