From butternut squash to a new twist on cranberry sauce, Dedham chefs say many Thanksgiving side dishes made at their restaurants can be easily cooked up at home.
Many employees at Dedham restaurants say they prefer more traditional dishes - with a dash of flair.
Bob Wheaton, a chef at Olde Irish Alehouse on Bridge Street has perfected his butternut squash recipe over 30 years.
“It’s like ice cream the way I make it,” he said.
To prepare the squash, Wheaton boils two pounds of peeled squash until it is “nice and tender.” He then drains it and whips it up like mashed potatoes.
He mixes in a pinch of salt and pepper, a quarter stick of butter, and a quarter cup of maple syrup.
Over on Colburn Street Tassy Alessio, owner of Lynne and Vicki’s Variety says she adds spices and marshmallows to her candied sweet potatoes. For this dish, she combines boiled potatoes with a melted sauce of margarine, cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar and marshmallows.
Once mixed, she mashes some of the potatoes, and breaks up others. Then she bakes the mixture, adds marshmallows to the top and bakes it a little longer.
Lindsay VanHouten, a manager at Dedham’s Bugaboo Creek on Providence Highway, says she cooks “scalloped corn” on Thanksgiving. For this dish she mixes a can of regular corn, a can of creamed corn, and breadcrumbs and then bakes it.
“It kind of thickens up in the oven,” she said.
The corporate chef for Washington Street’s Halfway Café, Steve Allegro, recommends Thanksgiving dishes of roasted Brussels sprouts with bacon, and mashed parsnips.
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The Brussels sprouts are tossed with a half-cup of olive oil and three tablespoons of salt and pepper. Once the vegetable has been cooked in the oven for 25 minutes, Allegro suggests mixing in cooked pieces of bacon.
For the parsnips, mashed boiled parsnips are mixed with warm milk, sugar, Parmesan cheese and salt and pepper.
Jay Walker, a chef at Isabella on High Street, says cooking for Thanksgiving is a sentimental affair.
“My great-grandmother came from Italy,” he said. “We had family dinner every Sunday for 40-plus people. We always made it (dinner) together, always.”
His favorite Thanksgiving side dish, green bean casserole, was a staple dish at family dinners. This recipe includes blanched green beans, a mushroom sauce, butter, nutmeg, garlic, salt, pepper, flour, cream and chicken stock, and baked onions in breadcrumbs.
All the ingredients are then mixed and baked in the oven.
Joanna Hinoporos, a manager at Fisherman’s Restaurant on East Street, likes Thanksgiving side dishes that are pretty untraditional.
For example, she makes little fried eggplants with Tzatziki sauce (includes yogurt and cucumbers), grape leaves containing meat, tomatoes, onion and parsley and fried cheese wrapped in filo dough.
“You don’t want the same thing all the time,” she said. “It’s boring.”
Back over on Bride Street, Bob Demarais, a manager at Brickhouse Café, says he serves cranberries with Scotch instead of the traditional cranberries with water recipe. It gives the dish a better taste, he said.
He mixes 12 ounces of fresh cranberries, a cup of Scotch whiskey, a cup of sugar, and zest from half a lemon, half an orange and half a lime, and boils the mixture until the cranberries start popping.
He stirs the concoction until the cranberries stop popping, and then lets it cool and thicken.
“And you can do variations of this,” he said. “You can add chopped onion, relish and different kinds of whiskey,” he said.
Demarais also likes to make chestnut sage stuffing for Thanksgiving. He heats up chestnuts in the oven until their shells start cracking. Then he chops up the chestnuts, and roasts them in the oven for a few more minutes.
Next he mixes the chestnut pieces with sausage, cubes of hearty grain bread, butter, chopped sage, sherry wine, and onions and celery that have been sautéed in butter.
He doesn’t have set amounts for the different ingredients.
“You can do anything you like,” he said.
For families who prefer not to cook on Thanksgiving, both the Dedham’ Bugaboo Creek and Fisherman’s Restaurant will be serving holiday meals Thursday, Nov. 26.
