Still deciding on your Thanksgiving meal?
The cast and director of the critically acclaimed film, “Lady Bird,” set in Sacramento, have some options for you.
On Tuesday, the company behind the film, A24, released a list of Thanksgiving recipes suggested by Sacramento native Greta Gerwig and the cast, including star Saoirse Ronan.
Here are some of their recommendations:
Greta Gerwig: Mr. Gerwig’s Stuffing
“My Dad makes this stuffing every single year and it is literally my favorite food on earth,” Greta Gerwig says. “I would sneak bites of it all day before the dinner and pray that we had enough leftovers that I could eat it throughout the week.” Here is the recipe, adapted from Julia Child:
Ingredients:
5 cups cornbread, crumbled
1 pound sausage meat
2 cups chopped onions
½ cup celery ribs, chopped
2 cups breadcrumbs, unseasoned, lightly pressed down
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3 tablespoons dried sage (more if you like)
4 ounces melted butter
Salt
Pepper
Preparation:
Prepare cornbread according to mix directions. Break up sausage meat. Sauté in a pan or several minutes until gray. Scrape into a large mixing bowl, leaving fat in pan. In pan, sauté onions for 5-6 minutes. Add celery, sauté for 2 minutes. Add sautéed vegetables to the sausage, along with the cornbread and bread crumbs. Combine sage and eggs and pour into mixture. Fold in the melted butter. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Place mixture in baking pan, cover with foil and bake at 350ºF for 20-30 minutes, maybe even less. Do no overbake otherwise the stuffing will dry out.
Saoirse Ronan’s Soda Bread with Raisins
Ingredients:
Non-stick vegetable oil spray
2 cups all purpose flour
5 tablespoons sugar, divided
1½ teaspoons salt
⅓ teaspoon baking soda
3 tablespoons butter, chilled, cut into cubes
1 cup buttermilk
⅔ cup raisins
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 375ºF. Spray 8-inch diameter cake pan with nonstick spray. Whisk flour, 4 tablespoons sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in large bowl to blend. Add butter. Using fingertips, rub in until coarse meal forms. Make well in center of flour mixture. Add butter-milk. Gradually stir dry ingredients into milk to blend. Mix in raisins. Using floured hands, shape dough into ball. Transfer to prepared pan and flatten slightly (dough will not come to edges of pan). Sprinkle dough with remaining 1 tablespoon sugar.
Bake bread until brown and tester inserted into center coms out clean, about 40 minutes. Cool bread in pan 10 minutes. Transfer to rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Laurie Metcalf’s Brussels Sprouts & Chestnuts in Brown Butter Sauce
Ingredients:
2 pounds brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
½ cup very thinly sliced shallots
3 tablespoons flour
2½ cups hot chicken stock
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup roasted, peeled chestnuts, halved if large
Salt
Preparation:
Bring 4 cups salted water to boil, add brussels sprouts and cook 10 minutes. Drain and refresh under cold water. Drain again.
Meanwhile, melt butter in a 3-quart saucepan. Add shallots and cook over medium heat, stirring, until light brown. Pour contents of pan through a fine strainer into a dish, pressing to remove as much butter as possible from shallots. Place shallots on paper towel to drain. Return butter to saucepan.
If serving immediately, preheat oven to 400ºF. Place saucepan over medium heat and cook until butter has a nutty aroma and is turning brown. Whisk in flour and cook until mixture is light brown. Whisk in stock and cook until sauce has thickened. Add lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste, and nutmeg. Add chestnuts and brussels sprouts, folding ingredients together. Transfer to an 8-cup baking dish. Scatter shallots on top.
Bake for about 15 minutes.
Timothée Chalamet’s Spatchcocked Turkey with Anise & Orange
Ingredients:
5 teaspoons aniseed
½ cup kosher salt
¼ cup finely grated orange zest, plus 4 wide strips orange zest
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon coarsely chopped fresh rosemary, sprig reserved
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, sprigs reserved
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1 12-14lb. turkey
(neck, giblets, and backbone removed and reserved)
2 medium onions, quartered
4 large carrots, peeled, halved
4 celery talks
3 heads garlic, halved
½ cup olive oil
Preparation:
Toast aniseed in a dry small skillet over medium heat, tossing occasionally, until fragrance (about 3 minutes). Let cool; finely grind in a spice mill or a mortar and pestle. (Alternatively, chop with a knife.)
Finely chop salt, grated zest, sugar, chopped rosemary, thyme leaves, pepper, and 4 teaspoons aniseed in a food processor. Place turkey, skin side down, on a cutting board. Use a knife to score down long oblong bone in the center of breast. Turn skin side up and press down on breastbone to flatten. You should hear a crack and feel the bones give way. Rub all over with salt mixture; place turkey, skin side up, on a wire rack set inside a rimmed baking sheet and chill, uncovered, 6-18 hours.
Preheat oven to 450ºF. Arrange onions, carrots, celery, garlic, thyme and rosemary sprigs in a roasting pan. Rinse turkey, pat dry and place, skin side up, on top of vegetables; let sit at room temperature 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat oil, orange zest strips and remaining aniseed in a small saucepan until oil is sizzling, about 2 minutes; let cool slightly.
Brush turkey with oil, add ½ cup of water to pan and roast turkey for 30 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350ºF and continue to roast, brushing with oil every 20 minutes, until skin is deep golden brown and crisp. When an insta-read thermometer inserted into thickest part of thigh registers at 165ºF, bake about 1 hour longer. Transfer to a platter; tent with foil and let rest at least 30 minutes before carving.
See a full list of the cast’s recipes here.
“Lady Bird” has received rave reviews, including 100 percent from Rotten Tomatoes. It’s also topping box office charts and breaking records.
The film tells the coming-of-age story of Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson as she navigates her senior year at a Catholic high school, and a loving-but-complicated relationship with her mother who is working double shifts to support the family after Christine’s father loses his job. Parts of the film are autobiographical.
“Her luminous coming-of-age story could have been set anywhere,” says The Bee’s Marcos Breton. “But part of the film’s power is derived from the specificity with which it portrays her hometown. In fact, Sacramento is one of the critical characters in ‘Lady Bird.’ ”
This story was originally published November 17, 2017 11:29 AM.