Better Flavor With No Hassle (Turkey Stock, Braised Brussel Sprouts)

Just a quick note here, since Thanksgiving is here and for some reason I took a catering gig on Friday.  The Fresh Fun Foods kitchen is a busy place and the Fresh Fun Foods fridge is stuffed to the gills.  When you are cooking tomorrow, be sure to make a quick turkey stock from the neck and wing tips of the bird.  Use peelings for flavor.  Why throw them out?  That’s what chefs do.  There is really nothing that you can do to help out your meal like making stock and using it in your gravy, to baste the turkey and to braise brussel sprouts.  

Turkey Stock

turkey neck and wing tips

1 gallon cold water

1/2 cup onion peelings

1/2 cup carrot peelings

the trimmings from celery, bottom and leaves

1 clove garlic, crushed

pinch fresh thyme

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 bay leaf

This is a quick stock where clarity is not paramount, so we’ll take a few shortcuts.  It will be perfect for our Thanksgiving needs. 

Combine all ingredients in a large stockpot.  Turn the heat on medium and bring the stock to a simmer in about 30 minutes.  Skim off the froth that rises to the top.  Reduce the heat and simmer lightly for 60 minutes.  Strain the stock through a fine strainer and pick the meat from the neck to chop and use in your gravy.

Baste your turkey with this stock by pouring a 1/2 cup over the turkey every 30 minutes (or when you think about it).  This way, you will have a deeply caramelized bird and a pre reduced pan juice to magically turn into gravy using Grandma’s flawed recipe.  At least this way you’ll have concentrated flavor to start out. 

Additionally, consider braising your brussel sprouts in turkey stock.  Score the bottom of the sprouts and blanch them as you normally do.  In the mean time, peel and chop a carrot and some onion.  Sauté them in a large pan.  Maybe add some bacon?  Drain the sprouts and add them to the pan, season with salt and plenty of fresh black pepper.  Cover the bottom of the pan with about 1/2 inch of stock and braise them uncovered in a 350° oven for 20 minutes. You can do everything except the braising the day before.  Resist the temptation to roll sprouts in olive oil and char them all to hell in a blazing oven.  I don’t know where this came from.  It is a poor technique that produces dried out veg coated in bitter ashes.  Drizzling them with Balsamic vinegar doesn’t make you Mario Batali.

…and no matter what the experts say about brining turkeys, don’t do it.  It’s evil, immoral and wrong, a tacky fashionable trend that ruins the pan juices that you need to make a proper gravy.  Just use a thermometer and take the turkey out when it reads 160°.  Rest the thing for 20 minutes before carving.  That’ll give you plenty of time to eat the crispiest skin before your jerk brother does.

Pots and Pans For Cheap (Apple Crisp)

As I have often said, you won't see shiny pots and pans in my kitchen.  I don't do glitz or bling well.  Our Cuisinart was a wedding present.  At thirty years-old in June, it is not holding up as well as the marriage.  It has some dings, but keeps chopping along.  The motor smokes and belts scream, although what wouldn't after three decades of my use/abuse?  Like me, the cooking equipment is a little battered, rough around the edges or simply worn thin.  That's not a bad thing.  I think that it means that there is some character in those scratches and dents.  So what if my knife box looks like it is filled with tools right outta CSI.  The blades get the job done in a surprisingly efficient manner, maybe even with a little style.

I haven't purchased a new kitchen toy in recent memory, unless being bullied into buying a Pampered Chef garlic press counts.  My big problem is that I am hard on kitchen tools.  I am always bending pots and snapping off handles.  So I have a choice, either spend a bunch of money on durable stuff or find durable stuff for cheap.  There are a few places where I find the equipment that I need.  First, yard sales are the thing.  Often people are willing to let you haul away their excess stuff at almost no cost.  I remember getting six large spoons and ladles marked USN from a guy selling his Dad's WWII Navy gear.  I got some seriously heavy duty utensils from The Oklahoma, originally paid for by your tax dollars in the 40's, for about a buck a piece.  The problem with yard sales these days is that too many folks watch Antiques Roadshow and think that everything they are selling is gold.  Also, bargaining gets ugly way too fast.  We live in a hostile society.

Thrift shops are a better route.  Three, Care and Share in Souderton, Impact Thrift in Montgomeryville and Good Stuff Thrift in Fairless Hills stand out.  I like Care and Share, because once before going in in I told Cathy that I hoped that I could pick up a good tortilla press for cheap.  Moments later, a top quality press was in my hands.  In a Mennonite thrift shop, that was like Babe Ruth calling his shot.  Their prices have gone up recently, making me be more selective as I fill my basket.  Impact tends to put too much out on the shelves, so you have to sort through many second quality goods.  That said, they move a huge amount of equipment and it is smart to stop by often, just to see what is on the shelves today.  My favorite is Good Stuff Thrift, mostly because they employ my daughter Maggie, but also because I got a twelve piece set of vintage Le Creuset enamelware pots and roasters for $70.  While you are there, say hi to Mag and take a look at the wildly creative paper art she sells at The Paper ReStore.  

Today's recipe is something that I made in an iron enamel-clad Dru oval roaster I snagged at Impact for $6.  It is a heavy beast, completely overbuilt, something that I hope my great great grandchildren fight over sometime in the next century.  While it is prefect for cooking a duck or goose, it served equally well to hold an Apple Crisp that I knocked out last week.  Since it is apple season, this is an easy dessert to make this weekend.  There really is no such thing as the perfect cooking apple, no matter what your Grandma said.  Use a variety of fresh apples for this one.

Apple Crisp with Dried Cherries

8 medium apples, mixed varieties, peeled and sliced
3/4 cups dried cherries
1 cup water
2 cups sugar
8 tablespoons butter
1 cup flour

Place the cherries, 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water in a medium sauce pot.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes, until the cherries have softened and reconstituted.  Cool to room temperature.

Use 2 tablespoons of butter to grease the inside of a 9 by 12 shallow baking dish.  In a large mixing bowl, combine the sliced apples, cherries and the syrup in which they were cooked.  Pour the apple/cherry mixture into the baking dish.

Preheat the oven to 375°.  In a large mixing bowl, mix 1 cup of sugar and 6 tablespoons of butter.  With you hands, work this into an even consistency as if you are making sugar cookies.  Pour in the flour and mix only until combined.  The resulting topping will contain both large and small lumps.  Sprinkle the topping all over the apples and cherries in an even coating.


Bake the Apple Crisp for 30 minutes, turning it regularly so that the crust browns evenly.

Serve hot, maybe with some good vanilla ice cream and definitely a shot of Calvados.