Ever since I first tried it, bread pudding has become one of my favorite homey desserts. Growing up I never knew it even existed. In my household, old bread was made into breadcrumbs not dessert (blame it on eastern European frugality). If you like French toast then there's no reason you wouldn't like bread pudding—they have similar preparations but with different cooking methods. I actually love it more than French toast, which is hard to say for someone who, as a kid, demanded his mom make French toast for breakfast every Saturday morning.
There's something special about the soft, moist cubes of bread in this dessert that makes me go weak in the knees. When I traveled through England during college, I couldn't help noticing bread and butter pudding (or spotted dick as they commonly call it) on almost every restaurant menu—and I always ordered it without restraint. It always came drenched in custard, which is the traditional way to serve it.
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving
The Wagon Train
Francois Truffaut has been famously quoted about the process of making a movie being similar to a wagon train crossing the country. You start out the journey with high hopes and the spirit of adventure and halfway through, you just want to get there alive.
That’s pretty much what my journey with cooking has been like. I seduced my husband with duck breast and wild rice pancakes with apricot sauce. That was nothin’. I really loved to cook. People were always surprised by that and I was always surprised they were surprised. What? Women in comedy can’t cook? Every Hungarian Jewish woman has to be a good cook. It’s biological destiny.
In Season - Roast Turkey
Roast Turkey
After more than 20 years of writing Thanksgiving turkey recipes, I thought I had seen it all. And then came the "Judy Bird."
Inspired by the chicken-cooking technique of my friend Judy Rodgers, chef and owner at San Francisco's Zuni Cafe, it couldn't be simpler: You just salt the turkey a few days in advance, give it a brisk massage every so often to redistribute the salt, and then roast it.
The results are phenomenal. Without the fuss and mess of wet-brining, you still get the deep, well-seasoned flavor. And while wet-brining can sometimes lead to a slightly spongy texture, with dry-brining, the bird stays firm and meaty.
It has become a holiday staple for many of our readers, so we're reprising it again this year.
Pardon My Bird
It’s been our Thanksgiving tradition for twenty years. The men do the cooking. The women get the day off.
I am not a cook. I am a chopstick in a world of forks. I look at my hands and see ten thumbs. And most of the other guys have culinary skills no better than mine. In fact, one guy thought the TV on the kitchen counter was a microwave and tried to put his dish in it.
Yet, somehow, each year, the meal turns out spectacular.
The tradition began in 1987 when breakups and other untimely events left four of us with no choice but to make Thanksgiving dinner ourselves.
The result could only be described as a miracle. When the Red Sea parts, you don’t ask how. You just keep walking. And when we got to the other side, we decided to tempt fate and do it again.
When friends heard about our plans for a sequel, they had a knee-jerk reaction usually reserved for lemmings. They wanted in. That’s when the original four chefs, “the founding fathers”, as we’re now known, came up with a set of rules.
Stuff It!
In my book, Stuffing has held its place in my penalty box along with
green bell peppers; cilantro, cumin and lime flavored Life Savers. For
me, it’s the Buzz Kill of Thanksgiving.
I have never met a Stuffing I’ve liked, but not for obvious reasons. I
find the premise of a food item that’s made from torn up bread to be,
somehow, cheating, not to mention being a food group that’s utterly
unappetizing to me. Justin Wilson, The Cajun Cook from a while back
once made something that even he copped to being the height of poverty
cuisine; faux potato salad! It was made with old torn up bread.
Nothing wrong with poverty cuisine by the way. Southern fried and most
Jewish food is exactly that. But substituting potatoes with bread is
just sad.
Wikipedia outlines the history of stuffing dating back to Roman times
where you could get anything from a chicken to a dormouse stuffed with
vegetables, herbs, spices, nuts, spelt (which is described as ‘old
cereal’ by Wikipedia) and a variety of organ meat still considered
palatable today.
Nothing wrong with that, I say. But, as it had evolved and morphed, it
has picked up and been dominated by bread. Gross. Especially when you
consider the quality of bread in our country.
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