If you like the crisp edges of lasagne, the soaked croutons, the whipped cream that gets icy around the chocolate scoop - you’re in the right place.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Today I hope to quietly contribute three condiments to your already perfect Thanksgiving. As an adopted American, I love the individuality of each family’s approach, and my hope for the below is that these simple sauces make the main meal (and all of the bites that follow on) more delicious—whatever your menu and however you break bread.
Roasted cranberry relish is close enough to classic that it can stand in for the regular kind, but blistering the sugared berries in the oven treats you to some grown-up caramel-orange complexity that you can’t get on the stovetop. Tarragon green sauce is 100% not part of the Thanksgiving canon, but it should be. It’s an add-on to your menu, not a substitute. The herb is magic with turkey and this sauce’s zing sets everything off. A spoonful sitting next to a spoonful of cranberry sauce is a joyful sight, and swirled through hot gravy or Mayonnaise on Friday, it earns its keep. Homemade Mayonnaise (with a little cheating) is for your inner circle in the golden days that follow.
Roasted cranberry relish
Makes 1 pint
This relish is textured and tart, but familiar enough that no one will riot if it replaces your usual cranberry sauce. Roasting does wonders for the cranberries: they become soft and chewy and their flavors deepen with caramelization.
Make sure to deglaze the pan with the orange juice while it’s hot, and scrape all the flavor that’s developed on the pan into your sauce as you would with gravy.
12 oz cranberries (1 bag)
½ cup light brown sugar
½ cup orange juice (juice of 1 large Navel)
Heat the oven to 450F. Spread the cranberries on a sheet pan and sprinkle over the sugar. Roast in the oven for around 20 minutes, or until the cranberries have popped and blistered, and the sugar has melted. Remove the pan from the oven and immediately deglaze with the orange juice. Using a spatula, scrape the cranberries and all the sticky cranberry caramel into a bowl. Stir and squash the cranberries a little. Loosen it with a tablespoon or two of warm water when you’re ready to serve.
This will keep in the fridge for up to a week.
Tarragon green sauce
Makes ¾ pint
Every bird is better with tarragon. It’s expensive to buy the amount I call for, so feel at liberty to bulk with parsley (even more than I do here) or arugula or dill, as long as the tarragon comes through.
5 anchovy filets
1 tbsp capers
¼ garlic clove
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 cups tarragon leaves, picked
1 cup parsley leaves, picked
½ cup olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper
Chop the anchovies and capers to a fine paste and place them in a small bowl. Grate in the garlic and add the mustard and vinegar. Stir. Chop the tarragon and parsley as finely as you can and then continue to chop until you’ve refined what “finely” means to you. Add the herbs and olive oil to the bowl. Stir, taste, and add salt to taste (I used 1⁄4 teaspoon but this will depend on how salty your capers and anchovies are), as well as a grind of pepper.
If the herbs are chopped finely enough and sufficiently covered in oil, the sauce will stay vibrant for up to three days.
Mayonnaise
Makes 1 pint
A great Thanksgiving has two parts: the first with corduroy, grace, candlelight, and hot gravy; the second, with pajamas, bread, and homemade mayonnaise. Before you think it’s preposterous for me to ask you to add this sauce to your prep list, let me reassure you that it’ll add connection and not stress: A spoonful of conventional mayo added to the egg yolk at the beginning makes it unbreakable (while still tasting entirely homemade) and rediscovering the pintful on Friday morning will create a huddle of dippers in the fridge. Consider stirring through either some cranberry relish or tarragon sauce to spread what is left over many sandwiches.
1 egg yolk
1 tsp mayo
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp white wine vinegar
¾ tsp kosher salt
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 cups canola oil (not grapeseed—despite what they say, grapeseed is not neutral-tasting!)
Steady a small bowl by placing a damp dish cloth underneath it. Place the egg yolk, mayo, mustard, vinegar, salt and lemon juice in the bowl and whisk to combine. Then, gradually whisk in the canola oil. Finish by stirring in a tablespoon of cold water to make it silky. Taste and adjust salt and acid to your taste.
This will keep in the fridge for up to three days.
Love reading all of these Best Bits so much!!!
Clare, I made the tarragon sauce as you suggested to have as a delicious extra to gravy with the turkey. OMG it was a hit with everyone, and not just with the turkey! Thank you, xo