Easy Thanksgiving Shortcuts

How to Make Stock & Gravy for the Holidays

These are two great project to make this weekend and freeze for your holiday next week. You don’t need to wait until the turkey is cooked before making your gravy. You can make the stock in a slow cooker, much hands off and you don’t need to precisely cut the vegetables since you will discard them after the stock is made.
This time of year all grocery stores, especially the high end ones, Whole Foods, Gelsons, Lazy Acres, Bristol Farms will carry turkey and chicken pieces for your stock. You can mix chicken parts with the turkey and you won’t notice a difference.

Even if you say you don’t want ‘pre-made’ gravy and want to wait until your bird is done, make the roux (flour and fat which thickens the gravy) ahead of time and refrigerate. Cut up the vegetables for the stock, put them in a freezer bag and pop in the freezer until you make the actual stock. There’s enough to do at the last minute! I know many of you will balk at not stuffing your bird but it’s very dangerous and takes so much longer to cook that the turkey is usually overdone. If you insist that the dressing tastes better there are a couple of ways you can accomplish more ‘turkey’ flavor in the dressing. One, use turkey stock to make the dressing/stuffing and mince some turkey parts to mix in with the dressing. You can buy gizzards, hearts etc. and use them to make stock then mince and add to the dressing. Here’s a really great trick to cut down on time in the kitchen….Cut your turkey into pieces instead of cooking a huge unwieldy bird. Add the dressing to the pan with the turkey 30 minutes before it’s due to come out of the oven and you’ll have that ‘cooked in turkey’ taste. The turkey not only cooks faster, it’s easier to serve, easier to carve and the clean up is next to nothing. You won’t have that carcass that you try and cover and stick in the overcrowded refrigerator and you will have a perfectly cooked bird as you can now remove the breast pieces from the oven when they are done rather than take the chance the breast will be overdone before the legs/thighs are cooked.

So those are my simple tricks to make Thanksgiving an easier meal to cook. Get started with these two short video’s and get cookin’ this weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Here are a couple of video’s that I made with my friend, Christina Peters from
Food Photography Blog

Bone Broth or Stock

12 / 9 / 1512 / 9 / 15

There is very little difference between bone broth and stock, actually it’s just the addition of a good apple cider vinegar like Bragg. The terms broth and stock are confusing as they seem to be used interchangeably for one another. Broth is usually made from the meat where stock is made with bones. Stock is a little hardier and more flavorful, both enhance any dish you use them in or if you just heat and eat as a soup. They keep well for 3 days refrigerated, you can re-heat the stock and keep for another 3 days or freeze for up to 6 months. I like to freeze in 1/2 cup portions so I can use the stock to make rice instead of using water. Vegetables simmered in stock is also a great way to get extra flavor. When making stock be sure not to add salt until it is all finished, the stock will reduce as it cooks and if you salt it initially it will become over salted.

Here’s a quick little video that Christina Peters & I made

The Food Shooter and The Chef

How to Make Mashed Potatoes

11 / 27 / 1311 / 5 / 14

How to Make Mashed Potatoes!

(Easy Peasy)

1 medium organic* russet potato person

1 tablespoon Kosher salt

1 -2 tablespoons butter, REAL BUTTER, unsalted

1/2 cup milk (cream if you want to be decadent, or mix the two)

Sea Salt and pepper

1 tablespoon sour cream, optional

1 teaspoon chives, optional

1 tablespoon grated cheese, optional

Wash potatoes and then cut into large chunks, place into a large saucepan and cover with cool water. Add a tablespoon of Kosher salt, bring to a boil and cook until fork tender, about 15 minutes.

Heat the butter with the milk (I use the microwave). If you use the microwave wait to heat until the potatoes are cooked. Drain the potatoes and peel the skin off with tongs. For creamy soft mashed potatoes slip through a ricer into the still hot saucepan that you cooked them in (without any water!) If you don’t have a ricer just put the chunks back into the pan, place on the stove over low heat for a minute or two. This helps to dry them a little further so they absorb the butter and milk more evenly.

Add enough butter and milk (or cream) to the potatoes and lightly mashed with a potato masher, they should come together easily. Don’t overwork the potatoes or they can turn gummy. Season with sea salt and pepper to taste and add any optional ingredients, serve.

If you’re making potatoes for a crowd they can be made about 1 hour ahead of time and kept warm on low in a preheated slow cooker! (I don’t remember where I learned that trick but thank you to whoever it was that shared it)

*Organic potatoes, all kinds of pesticides and sprays are used on conventional potatoes to keep bugs from eating them while they grow. Then to harvest them and finally to keep them from sprouting in the store. Choose organic for your health.