Ideas for an Asian-Inspired Thanksgiving

[sixelagogo]

Looking for turkey and all the sides on an Asian bent and I'm in need of some non-traditional fixings for the traditional holiday...anyone out there have recipes/ideas...

[chocabot]

my mom used to stuff our turkey with chinese sticky rice, shitake mushrooms and chinese sausage ( lopcheung) or bbq pork (char sui)...

you could rub your turkey with 5-spice powder and soy and glaze it with plum sauce or an orange-soy type glaze.

as for veg you could do a stirfry or miso eggplant (nasu dengaku)

a nice starter could be a japanese savoury steamed egg custard (chawan mushi)

dessert could be some kind of sweet pumpkin/cheese fried wonton with caramel or a springroll with banana and chocolate rolled in sesame seeds?

[piccola]

Wow - I want this menu, minus the turkey and sausage. I'd do the rice with chestnuts and mushrooms; the broiled eggplant with miso; sautéed greens with garlic; and the egg custard, either plain or with squash.

For dessert, I say avocado cheesecake. Or red bean paste ice cream with sesame wafers.

[digkv]

Oh my gosh, my aunt stuffs her turkey with sticky rice too. It's so delicious and while stuffing may not be safe or whatever, I've never gotten sick. I highly recommend stuffing it with sticky rice. You can also fry sweet potatoes tempura style; in Vietnam we have this dish that's sweet potatoes that are sliced up and bound with shrimp and deep fried. It's served with nuoc cham and is one of my favorite dishes. Also, just a side note, my parents always made congee out of the leftover turkey bones.

[Indy 67]

The current issue of GOURMET magazine features an Asian-inspired menu.

[jules127]

I made this baby bok choy last night and I think it would be great with some of the other suggestions posted here.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/foo...

[JungMann]

Well being Asian in America, I'm pretty familiar with the fobby Thanksgivings of years past. We still have our own interpretations of certain Thanksgiving foods, though others take a little more creativity:

Turkey
Red-curry roast turkey with apples

Sides
Green beans and eggplants (in red curry-miso sauce)
Sweet potato tempura with ponzu
Fresh spring rolls
Rice stuffing with Chinese sausage, chicken, and egg

Dessert
Pumpkin-coconut pudding
Maple custard
Purple yam cake

[paulj]

I just cooked some rice with Chinese sausage, duck gizzards, mushrooms in a clay pot (the cheap wire cage type), topped with a egg per person.

I got to thinking that the clay pot would be an interesting serving dish for a Thanksgiving side. While this rice is a possibility, I wonder if a more traditional side would work well in such a pot. A very gingery sweet potato dish might work.

paulj

[atraxia]

i have made turkey with a tandoori rub before. it turned out fabulous and everyone ate it up - we had no leftovers!
for desert - my mom ususally makes one indian dish - homemade gulab jamans or kher (rice pudding).
and mix up the sides a bit. throw in a few indian style sides. maybe this mashed roasted eggplant dish w/ indian spices. or maybe another veggie dish instead of plain old green beans and mashed potatoes.
we also do grilled corn w/ indian spices.
and make samosas as appetizers. or chat masala.

[sixelagogo]

These are all great ideas!!!! please keep them coming.....I'm feeding about 35, so uber fixings are a premium.

[empfam]

this is probably very old school, but my old boss used to make cranberry chutney back in the 90s. it was pretty good.

my mom made the sticky rice with chinese sausage stuffing & mushrooms for our thanksgivings when we were kids. it is AMAZING!

[chowser]

I wonder how sticky rice w/ chinese stuffing became so ubiquitous among Asians in the US (or so it sounds) for turkey. My mom did the same thing and I don't think she got it from a cookbook or magazine, just came up with it.

[chocabot]

i think it's as common as turkey congee the next day

[chowser]

Yeah, fusion Thanksgiving is a good way to go.:-)

[JungMann]

I think people thought "Hmm, Americans eat bread like we eat rice so why not stuff with rice?" And in the past, Asian grocers were pretty rare so if you were stuck with a big name store, you stocked up in their "chinese" section.

[chowser]

This is a great shitake mushroom gravy:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/foo...