We were thrilled to finish second in the judges voting! Thanks to the committee who put this together, to everyone who donated a prize, to the voters, and to
TulsaJeff
for hosting the forum.
I won't start a separate thread describing my entry, since I'm missing a number of key photos of the preparation. Here is a different perspective on the final plate:
We had pre-gamed a thanksgiving meal before the holiday, for some friends who wouldn't be with us for the turkey and trimmings on Thanksgiving. I smoked a cherry-glazed rib roast using the recipe from Jeff's "Smoking Meat-The Essential Guide to Real Barbecue" cookbook. We had some left over, so for my entry I cubed a bit of it and served on toothpicks with a topping of very hot horseradish sauce.
I also made sausage-stuffed mushrooms following the recipe Jeff had emailed out as part of a smoked appetizer collection. The few that were left over also became part of the plate.
I had also smoked a pan of olives, coated with garlic and spices.
Forty-five minutes was plenty to give the smokiness I wanted. They were great as a standalone appetizer, but I had the idea to use some of the green olives (wiped clean of excess oil, garlic, and spices) in a martini as part of my entry. They imparted a wonderful, subtle smokiness to the drink.
I sliced some of our leftover baked sweet potatoes, but wasn't happy with the appearance, so I used a small drinking glass to cut medallions out of the center of each slice, topping all with a scoop of the brown sugar compound butter we had served with them on Thanksgiving.
The cranberry sauce beneath the croquettes was homemade, but what I really feel makes my version stand out is a healthy amount of both fresh grated ginger and orange zest. They really make the flavors pop.
The Day After Thanksgiving Croquettes were my wife's brilliant idea...I'd have never thought of it, and they were so, so very good. We diced some of our leftover turkey and formed meatballs by mixing in leftover stuffing. We settled on 'our' stuffing recipe years ago...it starts with the bread, spices, and sauted celery and onion one would expect. It also contains pecans, dried cranberries, dried apricots, and fried andouille sausage. The 'other' ingredients make up the bulk of the stuffing...by weight, only about 1/3 of it is bread. The turkey/stuffing balls were then coated in beaten egg, rolled in panko breadcrumbs-repeating twice, to build up a thicker coating. Then they were pan fried in about an inch of oil, rolling them around constantly for maybe 8 minutes until the outside was crisp.
Thanks for looking.
TulsaJeff
for hosting the forum.I won't start a separate thread describing my entry, since I'm missing a number of key photos of the preparation. Here is a different perspective on the final plate:
We had pre-gamed a thanksgiving meal before the holiday, for some friends who wouldn't be with us for the turkey and trimmings on Thanksgiving. I smoked a cherry-glazed rib roast using the recipe from Jeff's "Smoking Meat-The Essential Guide to Real Barbecue" cookbook. We had some left over, so for my entry I cubed a bit of it and served on toothpicks with a topping of very hot horseradish sauce.
I also made sausage-stuffed mushrooms following the recipe Jeff had emailed out as part of a smoked appetizer collection. The few that were left over also became part of the plate.
I had also smoked a pan of olives, coated with garlic and spices.
Forty-five minutes was plenty to give the smokiness I wanted. They were great as a standalone appetizer, but I had the idea to use some of the green olives (wiped clean of excess oil, garlic, and spices) in a martini as part of my entry. They imparted a wonderful, subtle smokiness to the drink.
I sliced some of our leftover baked sweet potatoes, but wasn't happy with the appearance, so I used a small drinking glass to cut medallions out of the center of each slice, topping all with a scoop of the brown sugar compound butter we had served with them on Thanksgiving.
The cranberry sauce beneath the croquettes was homemade, but what I really feel makes my version stand out is a healthy amount of both fresh grated ginger and orange zest. They really make the flavors pop.
The Day After Thanksgiving Croquettes were my wife's brilliant idea...I'd have never thought of it, and they were so, so very good. We diced some of our leftover turkey and formed meatballs by mixing in leftover stuffing. We settled on 'our' stuffing recipe years ago...it starts with the bread, spices, and sauted celery and onion one would expect. It also contains pecans, dried cranberries, dried apricots, and fried andouille sausage. The 'other' ingredients make up the bulk of the stuffing...by weight, only about 1/3 of it is bread. The turkey/stuffing balls were then coated in beaten egg, rolled in panko breadcrumbs-repeating twice, to build up a thicker coating. Then they were pan fried in about an inch of oil, rolling them around constantly for maybe 8 minutes until the outside was crisp.
Thanks for looking.
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