A Family Thanksgiving

It is already a week after Canadian Thanksgiving, but I thought I should still share the holiday meal with you.

A major holiday + a family gathering = a heightened expectation of culinary effort. Let's face it -- the traditional Thanksgiving dishes that people make have nothing to do with taste. If we loved it so much, we'd be making it and eating it all the time. I don't know anyone who makes cranberry sauce on a regular weeknight "just because". (Though I might do it now just because I mentioned it.)

This year was different: for the first time since I moved to Toronto, my parents came to visit me for Thanksgiving weekend. However, I did not have the benefit of being in the kitchen all day to prepare. We had a packed itinerary scheduled for the day and I would have a mere hour or two to make something reasonable.

I racked my brain for several weeks over this conundrum. It was clear that the menu would hinge on the choice of the main protein. Roast turkey was obviously out of the question. Turkey breast was briefly considered until I admitted to myself that I'm not in love with turkey meat anyway. Beef, chicken and pork seemed too pedestrian. Quail and duck came to mind but neither are easy to find around here (and they're definitely not cheap).

Lamb is not your everyday meat but it's readily available at the local supermarket. It has symbolic significance in numerous cultural and religious contexts as literal show of thanksgiving for the sacrifices that make it possible for us to celebrate life. I was inclined to go with the lamb, but it was a risky choice given that I couldn't recall a single instance in which my family ate it at home. Lamb is completely absent from Japanese cuisine. Detractors complain that it is too gamey, and depending on the dish, I agree with that assessment.

Nevertheless, the final choice was to pan-sear then roast two racks of lamb with lemon gremolata rubbed on them. Gremolata is an Italian condiment, much like pesto, which consists of lemon peel (fresh or preserved), garlic and any choice of herb (I used flat-leaf parsley) pureed with olive oil.

While I grappled with the choice of meat, I also struggled to come up with the sides and dessert. Mashed potatoes take a lot of time and are better made fresh. I did not have time to make pumpkin pie either and this too would suffer in taste if made ahead of time.

I finally decided that if I was going to be unconventional in my choice of meat, then I would deconstruct the rest of the menu as well.

For the starch, I decided to make a "patate pizza" from Marie Claire's "Easy" cookbook. It consists of puff pastry, thin slices of potato, olive oil, chopped rosemary and freshly ground salt and pepper. The Marie Claire version calls for pizza dough, but puff pastry seemed easier to me. If you're wondering how I made puff pastry in a time crunch... I didn't. There is no shame in using frozen puff pastry (Tenderflake is an excellent product) to cut down on cooking time.

For the vegetables, I simply sliced some eggplant and zucchini and placed them in the same roasting pan as the lamb, but under the rack to absorb the flavors from the meat.

I was really hung up on a pumpkin theme for dessert but conceded that I could not get it done in time. There was a Blueberry and White Chocolate Mousse recipe in Donna Hay's "The Instant Cook" that always caught my eye and it looked light enough to offset the heaviness of the meal. I was able to make it quickly the night before and allowed it to set overnight in a champagne flute. It calls for heavy cream to be whisked in with melted white chocolate and gelatin. Yes, it's a dietitian's nightmare but once in a while, you have to let yourself indulge in something as sinful as this. It looks innocent enough with its fluffy white texture.