The key to any good meal is starting with great ingredients. Often, I am asked by guests for whom I cook, why does your food taste so good?
Because it is all grown with love is my usual reply, but it is also, because I understand what it means for sauces, soups, and dressings to have a dedicated base on which to build more nuanced flavor and texture.
There is an inherent comfort that comes from knowing the name of the farm and even the farmer as you pick out each ingredient for your holiday meal. The foundations of many dishes that will be prepared in the coming weeks consist of standardized vegetable ratios determined by centuries of precision culinary practices.
Inevitably every year somebody asks is it 2-1-1or 2-2-1 when scrubbing down the carrots and celery before adding to the cutting board where the onions have had their skins removed and are also awaiting chopping. This is mirepoix. For the record, the correct ratio is two parts onion to one part, each celery and carrot.
While the French may be the purists, every culture has its own take on this bedrock of cooking. Given the ingredients’ availability this time of year, sometimes celeriac is used instead of celery and leeks as the allium of choice. Carrots are pretty much the standard across the board, unless you are of Ukrainian or Russian heritage, and then the carrots get swapped out for beets. Sometimes garlic is added and at other times fresh tomatoes or a tomato paste which is more akin to Spanish, Portuguese, and Mediterranean flair.
And if you own any zydeco music or have a cousin named Scooter, chances are your version of this amalgamation is known as the Cajun/Creole Holy Trinity where the carrots get switched for green peppers.
But the French had to go and take it a step further in rich earthy flavors with duxelles. This thick paste of well-seasoned onions and mushrooms is perfect for dressing, although I prefer the traditional mirepoix for stuffing. Yes, there is a difference. Stuffing goes inside the bird, and dressing gets cooked in a casserole dish. I will die on this hill.
All of these concoctions can be made in advance, tucked away safely in the refrigerator or stored in requisite portions in the freezer. Either way, when Thanksgiving week rolls around and you begin the final approach to turkey touchdown, a solid foundation will be there for you to add whatever culture, or lore goes into your dinner. Oysters, sausage, nuts, and dried fruits— whatever that little extra special something it is that you add to your holiday meal that makes it unique, you can bet that you will find it at the farmers market in the coming weeks.
With three weeks left to go and five different markets, along with a bonus special Thanksgiving market at our Pike and Rose location on Tuesday, November 24th, that gives you 16 opportunities to gather all the necessary ingredients for your Thanksgiving meal. And for those last-minute items, there will still be a midweek market in Bethesda on Wednesday, the day prior to Thanksgiving.