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By Root 916 0

Mayonnaise, increasing the amount of gelatin to 4 teaspoons. In Step 3, increase the mayonnaise to 2/3 cup and substitute 3 tablespoons each dill pickle relish and sweet pickle relish for the sandwich spread. Also add 1 tablespoon each Dijon mustard, well-drained small capers, and freshly snipped dill. Finally, use 3 cups finely diced fully cooked ham instead of the 2½ cups chicken and omit the almonds. Finish Step 3, folding in the hard-cooked eggs, celery, and frozen peas, then proceed as the recipe directs. Good with grilled yellow squash and bell peppers.

TRUSTEES’ HOUSE TURKEY HASH ON INDIAN GRIDDLE CAKES

MAKES 6 SERVINGS

Here’s my adaptation of a delicious hash that I’ve enjoyed at Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill. With thirty-four painstakingly restored buildings, this come-to-life nineteenth-century Shaker community in the Kentucky Bluegrass is to my mind one of America’s most interesting museum villages. Certainly it’s one of the few where you can spend the night. Or sit down to a groaning board of old Shaker recipes. Many of those served in the Trustees’ Office Dining Room appear in two paperback cookbooks by Elizabeth C. Kremer, who for years managed the dining room. I have both books: We Make You Kindly Welcome (1970) and Welcome Back to Pleasant Hill: More Recipes from the Trustees’ House (1977). A chicken version of this hash appears in the first. But because we’re all confronted with turkey leftovers at least once a year, I think that a turkey hash makes sense.

Turkey Hash

3 tablespoons butter

1 medium yellow onion, moderately coarsely chopped

1 small celery rib, trimmed and finely diced

4 tablespoons all-purpose flour

¾ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon black pepper

1/8 teaspoon ground hot red pepper (cayenne)

1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

2 cups turkey or chicken broth

3½ cups diced cooked turkey

Griddle Cakes

1 cup unsifted stone-ground cornmeal (white or yellow)

½ cup sifted all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons raw or granulated sugar

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

1 cup buttermilk

1 large egg, lightly beaten

2 tablespoons vegetable oil, melted butter, or lard

3 to 5 tablespoons milk

1. For the hash: Melt the butter in a large, heavy skillet over moderate heat and when it froths, add the onion and celery, and stir-fry for 5 to 6 minutes or until limp and golden.

2. Blend in the flour, salt, two peppers, and nutmeg, then add the turkey broth gradually, stirring all the while. Continue cooking and stirring for 3 to 5 minutes or until the mixture thickens.

3. Mix in the turkey, turn the heat to its lowest point, partially cover the skillet, and allow the hash to mellow while you prepare the griddle cakes.

4. For the griddle cakes: Combine the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and pepper in a large bowl and make a well in the center. Whisk the buttermilk, egg, and oil together in a spouted 1-or 2-quart measure, then pour into the well in the dry ingredients and whisk briskly to form a smooth batter. Add the milk, tablespoon by tablespoon, until the batter is the consistency of a thin white sauce.

5. Lightly oil a griddle or large, heavy skillet and set it over moderate heat for 1½ to 2 minutes until the oil almost—but not quite—smokes.

6. Using a ¼-cup measure, drop the batter onto the griddle, spacing the cakes about 2 inches apart. Reduce the heat to moderately low and as soon as bubbles appear on the surface of the griddle cakes, turn and brown the flip sides for 1 to 2 minutes. As the griddle cakes brown, transfer to heated dinner plates, allowing 3 to 4 per person.

7. Ladle the turkey hash over the griddle cakes and serve.

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THE FIRST THANKSGIVING

If you think the first Thanksgiving took place in Massachusetts in 1620, think again.

That distinction belongs to Berkeley Plantation on the James River. Here, on December 4, 1619, Captain John Woodlief, a former Jamestown colonist, came ashore with thirty-seven new English settlers to develop the Berkeley Hundred, an 8,000-acre