Chef Mark LoRusso of Encore’s Botero calls Thanksgiving the “low-pressure holiday.” “It’s my favorite holiday because it’s focused around food and family and friends,” he says. And since moving to Vegas in 1998 to open Bellagio, LoRusso has been celebrating Thanksgiving twice—once with his family on the Sunday before, and once on Thanksgiving night with the majority of his restaurant staff. Botero diners are lucky enough to taste these vanilla-scented yams with homemade marshmallow.
Vanilla-Scented Yams with Marshmallow
1 vanilla bean
5 yams, peeled and quartered
1 lb. butter
Salt and white pepper
2 tbsp. marshmallow
Scrape the vanilla bean and reserve both the shell and the insides. Add the shell to a pot of water along with the yams and boil until tender. Pass the yams through a strainer and purée in a food processor with butter and vanilla bean scrapings. Spoon into a baking dish, pipe marshmallow on top and place under broiler until golden brown.
Marshmallow
MAKES 30 SERVINGS
3 egg whites
11/3 up sugar
1½ cups corn syrup
1 vanilla bean
1 sheet gelatin, bloomed
With a whisk attachment on a mixer, whip egg whites until medium peaks form. Place mixer on lowest speed. Heat sugar and corn syrup with a bit of water to 235° (thread stage). Add vanilla bean and gelatin to sugar mixture. Turn mixer back to medium speed, and slowly add sugar mixture to egg whites. Beat until cool. Store mixture in a piping bag, and keep refrigerated between uses.
