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.

Ours/Yours?

Here's our menu for today.

Garlic and chile pickles
Corn and fresh cheese fritters, preserved lemon mayonnaise dip 

Turkey with sage, sausage and mushroom stuffing
Giblet and roasted garlic gravy
Orange cranberry sauce
Mashed potatoes
Braised sweet potatoes with maple syrup
Cortland applesauce
Brussel sprouts cooked with bacon and aromatic vegetables

Apple pie
Pumpkin pie
Pumpkin and cinnamon ice cream

Beaujolais Nouveau
Home fermented hard cider
Trimbach Gewurztraminer

...and yours?

Back to the kitchen.  Happy Thanksgiving. 

Lou

Mashed Potatoes and The Rolling Stones (mashed potatoes)

Yesterday, I heard Jack Bishop and Bridget Lancaster of America's Test Kitchen being interviewed by Terry Gross.  http://www.npr.org/2013/11/26/247336038/dont-stuff-the-turkey-and-other-tips-from-americas-test-kitchen  You should listen to their discussion.  These are folks with whom I generally agree.  They are willing to throw out a cooking myth if reality, food science, gets in the way of what yer Mom did in the kitchen.  They think at the stove, something I’m going to encourage all of you to do.

When discussing mashed potatoes, Bishop mentioned that people appreciate homemade mashed so much that they give the cook a little room to play.  He offered a recipe for paprika and garlic mashed that really sounds interesting, but would get my head handed to me by everyone at the table.  At our house, mashed potatoes are sacred.  Once, about 20 years ago, I put garlic in the mashed and I’m still hearing about it.  So, much like the “expanded, reimagined” version of Exile on Main Street that the Stones put out a few years back, altered, adulterated, messed with mashed potatoes are something that we just do not do at the Farrell house.  You don't screw with something that is already perfect.  The risks are too great.  That’s too bad, because Bishop’s recipe looked good.  Maybe I’ll make it some evening when Cathy is out of town and I know that the kids won’t be dropping by.  It will have to be a dark, long night.  If I should get caught with anything other than the standard mashed…I don’t even want to think of the penalty.

There’s good reason for the kids love of my mashed potatoes and it has to do with the selection of the ingredients and the method used to make the stuff.  What we do is suspend as much butter and cream in the potatoes as is possible.  First, use peeled white potatoes and peeled russets.  The combination gives a fluffy finished product with enough body to make that lake of gravy that we all want.  Additionally, they fry up better the next morning as potato pancakes, if by chance you have any leftovers.  We never do, in spite of the vat of taters that I make.  No Yukon golds, too waxy and no boiling in their skins, too much waste when you try peel them hot.  Learn to drain them properly.   

Secondly, you shouldn’t worry about heating the butter and cream.  Potatoes have an atomic number above Plutonium, so they hold heat like nothing else.  Pouring hot liquid into a mixer is something you see in a workplace safety movie as a “don’t.”   Lastly, whip the potatoes in small batches in a mixer, I have one of those Kitchen Aid counter models.  Yeah, they cost $200, but we bought ours 20 years ago and I haven’t been able to kill it.  Mix all the batches together in a large pot and keep it warm in a double boiler.  A crockpot on low would also work.  You can prepare the mashed 2 hours before serving, making your life easier on Thanksgiving, continuing our theme of promoting sanity on a day that is inherently loony.

So, the following is the best mashed potato recipe that you will ever see, hands down, don’t argue.  Ask the Farrell children and all the people who have dropped by for dinner over the years.  (You should see what the Franklin and Marshall football team did to a 20 pound batch!)  We’ll be making a big batch in the foolish hope of leftovers.  If you think that it is too caloric, and you’d be correct, simply back off on the butter and follow Julia Child’s advice to “Just add more cream.” 

One last tip, don’t eat sticky buns while you are typing up your blog!  Thank you, Ann.

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Mashed Potatoes

4# white potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks

2# russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks

12 tbs. unsalted butter, cut into ½ inch slices

1 pint heavy cream

salt and white pepper

Heat a large stockpot filled with 1.5 gallons of salted water to boiling.  Add the white and russet potatoes.  Cook about 20 minutes, until the potatoes are soft and a knife goes through them evenly.  Drain in a colander until dry, about 5 minutes. 

It is important to work quickly so that the potatoes do not cool too much.  Put 1/3 of the potatoes and 1/3 of the butter in a mixing bowl.  Season lightly with salt and white pepper, then whip on a medium setting, breaking up the large chunks into a smooth puree.  Take care not to over whip the puree or the potatoes will get gummy, resembling taffy, instead of creamy. 

Transfer the puree with a rubber spatula into a large pot that can serve as a double boiler, keeping the potatoes hot until serving.  Repeat this process until all the potatoes have been pureed.  Adjust the seasoning with salt and white pepper before serving.

Happy Thanksgiving gang!  Thank you for following the Fresh Fun Food Blog.

More Thanksgiving Sides (Baked Sweet Potatoes, Braised Brussel Sprouts)

Good news!  The Fresh Fun Food Blog has been picked up by Feedspot.  http://www.feedspot.com/  Now you can register with them and get all you blogs delivered in a daily digest.  I get Salon and Politico, you?

Continuing on our theme of not going insane on Thanksgiving, here are two recipes that can be prepared ahead, then heated up just before serving.  Everyone likes sweet potatoes, however far too many recipes hide the flavor of the vegetable, instead coating them with thick syrup and stuff like marshmallows.  You might as well be sprinkling them with jimmies!  My stripped down version adds acidity and really brings out the flavor of a traditional Thanksgiving vegetable.  Vegans take it on the chin with the second side dish, brussel sprouts with bacon.  Now is the time of year that these little guys are showing up in farm markets.  The key here is not overcooking the sprouts before braising. 

Each of these dishes, along with the glazed mushrooms, roasted beets, parsnips, applesauce, cumin pumpkin seeds and pumpkin bisque described in earlier blogs can be made ahead and reheated just before the turkey hits the table.  Do as much as you can before the big meal.  Don’t make yourself crazy like the rest of your family.  Zen your way through Thanksgiving!

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Baked Sweet Potatoes

1.5 # sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks

1 cup orange juice

½ cup maple syrup, the real stuff

3 tbs. unsalted butter, softened

1 cup chopped walnuts

salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 °.  Heat a stockpot of salted water to boiling.  Blanch the sweet potatoes for 5 minutes, until the just begin to soften.  Drain in a colander while you prepare the sauce.

Whisk the orange juice, maple syrup and butter together in a large mixing bowl.  Add the sweet potatoes and season with salt and pepper.  Mix the sweet potatoes and sauce together to coat.  Arrange the sauced sweet potatoes in a baking dish large enough to hold them in one layer.  Top with the walnuts. 

Bake the sweet potatoes for 25 minutes, until they are cooked through and glazed with the orange/maple sauce.  A toothpick inserted into the sweet potatoes will push through evenly, without resistance.  Remove from the oven and cool.  Reheat at 350° for 20 minutes before serving.

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Braised Brussel Sprouts

2 qts. brussel sprouts

3 slices bacon, chopped

2 tbs. diced onion

2 tbs. diced carrot

1 cup chicken stock (or water)

½ tsp. dried thyme

1 bay leaf

salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 °.  Heat a stockpot of salted water to boiling.  Clean the brussel sprouts by removing the large, loose outer leaves with a paring knife.  Cut the stem flush and score it by cutting an X in the bottom, pushing the knife deeply into the core so that boiling water can reach inside and evenly cook the brussel sprouts.  Blanch the brussel sprouts in the salted water for 10 minutes, until they just begin to soften.

While the brussel sprouts are blanching, heat a sauté pan large enough to hold the brussel sprouts.  Slowly cook the bacon, rendering the fat.  When the bacon begins to brown, add the onions, carrot, thyme and bay leaf.  Continue to stir the vegetables, taking care not to burn them.  Remove the brussel sprouts from the water and add them to the pan with the bacon and aromatic vegetables.  Deglaze the pan with the chicken stock and braise the brussel sprouts in the oven for 30 minutes.  The liquid will have cooked down to a glaze.  You can serve them immediately or cool, then reheat them at 350° for 20 minutes before serving.