The Rules of Turkey Engagement

I am feeling the joyous Thanksgiving buzz all around me. The grocery stores are jammed with people, casual conversation inevitably turns into discussions of where to get a good deal on turkey, and more importantly how to cook that darn bird. What a great holiday, all centered around cooking, eating, and being with people you love. Because so many of you want to know, here are my rules for Turkey engagement:

1. Do not be afraid. Embrace the challenge and put all the love you have into your turkey, there's no one way to turkey. Turkey IS the way.

2. To brine or not to brine. This is a hot debate in around Thanksgiving. Soaking your turkey in a mixture of salt, water, herbs & seasonings is intended to give you a juicier bird. I will brine this year, since I am already devoting myself to 2 days of cooking, so why not? But don't get all worked up about brining, just throw in some extras that you already have around for your other dishes.

* 1 cup kosher salt
* 1/2 cup light brown sugar or regular sugar
* 2 gallon water or vegetable stock
* 1 tablespoon black peppercorns

Feel free to throw in some lemon, orange peels, fresh sprigs of thyme, parsley, a bay leaf, a little beer, white wine, maple syrup, whatever floats your boat. Place your defrosted turkey breast down in the brine for 8-16 hours. Weigh down if necessary. Flip bird halfway through brining. Keep in refrigerator or a cool area of your kitchen.

3. Don't play guessing games. Buy a thermometer and stick it in the widest section of the breast, it should read between 161-165 degrees, and in the joint between the thigh (without touching the bone), it should be 180 degrees. The juice should run clear. If you can help it don't poke it too much, or the juices will escape.

4. Keep it simple. I'm doing my turkey with a simple butter and herb mixture from Saveur's recipe.

Pat your turkey dry with paper towels. Season turkey all over and inside the cavity with salt and pepper.

Combine the following:
12 Tbsp UNSALTED butter, softened
2 TBSP finely chopped sage & thyme
2 tsp paprika
2 tsp light brown sugar

Rub the herb butter mixture all over your turkey, and under the skin, where the breast is, like Julia Child. Save some butter mixture to melt for basting.

Pre-heat oven to 500 degrees. Set turkey on roasting pan with rack on the lowest part of your oven. Pour 2 cups of water in the bottom of your roasting pan and roast bird for 30 minutes, baste with butter once. Then reduce temperature to 350 degrees and bast occasionally until your temperature reaches the guidelines listed above. Cover loosely with foil and let it sit for 15-30 minutes before carving.

5. We love stuffing, but not in the bird. Make your stuffing separately from the turkey. I know it's called stuffing -or dressing if you're in the south- but it will just mess up your bird, because by the time the stuffing is cooked your bird will be dry and overcooked, or worse, you could give yourself food poisoning.

Instead fill your turkey cavity with this mixture:

1 medium carrot, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped,
1 rib celery, chopped
orange or lemon slices, some leftover sprigs of fresh herbs

****Here is a great stuffing/"dressing" recipe from Food Network's Tyler Florence with sausage and chestnuts!

6. What to drink? The herbs and butter in this turkey will be great with a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.

7. I'm from New England, so you got to have FRESH cranberries. Here's an easy, refreshing cranberry sauce:

1 seedless orange
1 12 oz. fresh cranberries

pulse in food processor, add 3/4- 1 cup sugar according to your taste, some thyme if you have it.

Makes 2.5 cups

8. Have a wonderful, joyous, food coma-inducing Thanksgiving! I hope you have many things to be thankful for!

Free Asian Street Food Cooking Demo at Surfas!

Saturday, October 10, 12-1 PM @ Surfas Chef's Warehouse

Asian Street Foods with Chef Minnie Luong

Do you crave colorful bites bursting with big Asian flavors?  Join Chef Minnie at Surfas for a FREE cooking demo and learn the secrets to creating fiery Korean BBQ tacos, fresh Vietnamese spring rolls, and fragrant lemongrass chicken Banh Mi sandwiches.  It’s so easy you can do it at home, in a truck, or on the street.

Street Cred:

Minnie Luong, a private chef, food writer, and cooking teacher, grew up eating in the bustling streets of Boston’s Chinatown. She has cooked in professional kitchens, high profile private homes, and for large scale catering events.  She is the author of a popular food blog called, MinnieEatWorld.Com and the editor of Hungry? Boston: the Lowdown on Where the Real People Eat, a restaurant guidebook featuring local eats from secret food trucks, to historic diners and hole-in-the-wall Mom and Pop joints.  Her work has been published in The Boston Globe, Where to Eat Magazine, The Somerville News, Boston’s Weekly Dig, and Swindle Magazine.

Top Chef Fabio Sighting!

LA is the limitless land of celebrity sightings. I could indulge you on some of the very ordinary celebs I've come across, but that would be boring.  I get more of a kick out of cooking for these illustrious stars and yes, I can say I've made food that has touched the lips of Brad and Angelina.

But when I ran into Fabio Viviani, of last season's Top Chef, I transformed into an aggressive picture taking seeker, and he was gracious enough to pose with my bulging eyes.  Fabio even offered me a job, cooking at his Cafe Firenzi restaurant, which I think it was nice gesture, but all I really wanted was this picture.

So there you have it, my Top Chef geek moment.

A Quick Bite of Heaven

Some vegetables, such as portabello mushrooms, can have a meaty quality to them. For me a dense, juicy, slice of a summer ripened heirloom tomato is the kobe beef of vegetables. From the corner of your eye they even resemble a rare piece of steak or tuna, but without the price tag.

So, when all I had in the kitchen was an heirloom tomato, a garlic clove, a basil plant, and a half a baguette, I did not despair, because it was exactly enough to create a light, but soul satisfying lunch.

Recipe:

1. Slice a garlic clove in half lengthwise and rub on an oven warmed baguette.
2. Drizzle with olive oil.
3. Place a slice of your tomato on top. Season with salt & pepper; drizzle more olive oil.
4. Garnish with torn basil leaves.

If this takes you more than 5 minutes to make, you're over thinking it.

Tips on Heirloom Tomatoes:

1. I recently got a a variety box at Trader Joe's for only 5 bucks!
2. Fry the green ones in a bread crumb mixture (see my post on Fried Green tomatoes)
3. Grill think slices to get a nice smoky, carmelized taste.
4. NEVER refrigerate your tomatoes, unless you like them mealy. Think MEATY not MEALY.
5. Don't be afraid to salt them; as with meat, salt is what brings out their flavor.
6. Slice them horizontally so you can "oooh" &"aaah" over their beautiful Persian rug-like patterns.

Edible Gifts

Some friends actually invited me over for dinner, and I'm really excited to try someone else's cooking for a change. Of course it has been drilled into my head since an early age never to show up empty handed, so I'm bringing this cute edible arrangement over as a hostess gift. I found these chilies at my favorite Asian farmer at the Brentwood farmer's market, and added some fragrant Thai Basil leaves to complete this incredible, edible bouquet. If you have a nice herb garden consider plucking some herbs as a nice hostess gift, or bring some of your surplus zucchini. Good cooks love fresh veggies, and it is a nice simple gesture that will set a tone of goodwill and friendship.

10 Tips to Becoming a Better Cook Right Now!

1. Look at several different recipes for a dish, and choose the simplest one. I use recipes to understand the architecture of a dish, then modify it to my own tastes, and the different ingredients that I have in my pantry. For example if something calls for sherry vinegar, I know I can also use red wine vinegar that I have in my cupboard instead of running out to buy sherry vinegar.

2. Learn how to sharpen your knives. Cooking is no fun when you are hacking away at something with a dull blade. Once you learn how to create a nice sharp edge, you'll be halfway there to improving your knife skills.

3. Use Youtube to learn technique. Sometimes it's easier to see how to do something than to read about it in a cook book. I found a great new way to clean lamb ribs using a piece of string.

4. Use your senses. Get acquainted with your sense of taste, smell, touch, and sight. Be sure to taste everything as you are going along. For example, when making a salad dressing, mix together the acid and seasonings and taste them. If your taste buds feel good only then add your oil. If not, you can always adjust it, before adding oil. I often forego a kitchen timer and know that when the entire kitchen smells like chocolate chip cookies, it means that their close to being done. Learn how to tell when meat is cooked by touching it. Use your eyes to create visually appealing presentations, using a prism of different colors. If it looks like you put too much of one ingredient in a dish, you probably did.

5. Avoid overworking your food. Alot of people make the mistake of flipping or stirring their food too much, thinking that they are really cooking now. You need to let the food make contact with heat in order to cook it, and if you move it around too much it will not cook evenly.

6. My friend says that the best meals I make are what we call "refrigerator dishes." That's when I limit myself to cooking with only the ingredients I already have. This is great way to hone your innate creativity and spontaneity and to use up any leftovers you have. Leftover roasted vegetables and the last piece of cheese can be added to lettuce for an exciting new salad. Just about anything can be transformed into exciting crepes, soups, spring rolls, pizzas, fried rice and dumplings. Fried eggs and sriracha are great on top of almost anything!

7. Don't be afraid to mess up. Chances are you won't mess up as much as you think you will. I'm a believer that the only way to truly learn to cook is to make mistakes and learn from them.

8. Take pictures of your dishes. Alright, my dining companions may get a little annoyed when I turn every meal into a photo shoot, but after visually cataloging all the meals I've made I get a sense of accomplishment when I see what I've created. It is also a great reference for what I did right and wrong, and helps jog my memory when I'm trying to improve upon the dish many months later.

9. Your freezer is your friend. Freeze garlic and ginger paste, or chopped herbs that can be used in a pinch for soups, stir fries, Indian food, sauces, salad dressings, marinades, and pasta sauces. I keep hard to find ingredients like kaffir lime leaves, chilies, and fresh tumeric in the freezer for times when I want to add some Asian flavor to a dish. Other items I always have in the freezer are butter, chicken stock, peas, which are great for throwing into rice, pasta dishes, and paella, miso, pita bread, red curry paste.

10. Keep fresh herbs around at all times. At the Vietnamese table you will find a beautiful plate arranged with fresh, fragrant herbs to be used like condiments at almost all times. I keep a "vase" of fresh herbs in my fridge at all times, to add aroma, color, and flavor without adding alot of calories. If you don't use them up by the end of the week you can always make your own pesto and freeze it for later.

A Laid Back Friday Night

It's Friday night, so that means it's date night. After a day of re-arranging furniture in our postage-stamp-paradise by the sea, I feel like enjoying the pleasure of a tasty meal without messing up the kitchen. So, I decided to make a Margherita pizza, paired with a tasty arugula salad with prosciutto, toasted pine nuts, parmesan and truffle vinaigrette. It turned out to be a simple and satisfying dinner!

Arugula, Prosciutto, Pine Nut Salad with Truffle Vinaigrette:

The rich aroma of truffle vinaigrette goes well with the spicy kick of arugula, and the nutty pignolias, and of course the salty, creamy Prosciutto. I could eat this salad as a main course!

Salad:

Arugula
Shredded red cabbage (for color & crunch!)
Good Prosciutto sliced thin
Parmesan cheese, shredded
Pine nuts

Truffle Vinaigrette:

1 Tablespoon minced shallots
1 Tablespoon white truffle oil
2 Teaspoon of dijon mustard
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
4 Tablespoons of olive oil
salt and pepper

1. Whisk together all ingredients in a bowl except for olive oil. Add olive oil in a thin stream while whisking to emulsify the vinaigrette. Set aside to let the flavors meld.

2. Toast the pine nuts in a pan until golden and the kitchen smells of pine nuts.

3. Toss the arugula and red cabbage with the truffle vinaigrette, adding salt & pepper to season. Artfully arrange the prosciutto slices on a bed of the arugula, garnish with parmesan and pine nuts.






Margherita Pizza:

1 Trader Joe's pizza dough (I used the herb one)
1 Trader Joe's Pizza Sauce, or 1.5 cups of homemade sauce, or another brand.
1 heirloom tomato, sliced
1 large garlic clove, minced
1/2 cup shredded lite mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
fresh torn basil leaves
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
flour to work the dough

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees

2. Slice tomatoes and mix in a bowl with garlic, olive oil, and salt and pepper. Set aside to let flavors meld.

3. Dust your hands with flour like an Olympic athlete. Dust work surface to kneed the pizza dough to get rid of any air bubbles.

4. I like to use a rectangular cookie sheet with a silicone mat for my pizza, you can use a round pan if you have it. Lightly coat the bottom of your pizza pan with olive oil. Shape dough, by sliding your two closed fists under the edge of the dough, using gravity to your advantage. You will improve this technique with practice. Once you have an even thin shape, transfer the dough to your pan. You can patch up holes, and work the dough in the pan to even out the shape, but don't over work the dough too much.

3. Using a silicone pastry brush, spread the tomato sauce evenly on the pizza, reserving a 1/2 inch border for the crust.

4. Sprinkle the mozzarella cheese first; then the parmesan all over the sauce.

5. Artfully place the fresh tomatoes on top of the cheese, and spoon the reserved garlic & tomato juices right on top of the tomatoes.

6. Spread the torn basil leaves on the pizza. I keep a basil plant on my window sill so I'll always have fresh basil. Brush the crust with olive oil.

7. Bake in the oven until the cheese is bubbly and the crust is golden brown, about 15-20 minutes.

8. If you are using a silicone mat, DO NOT use a pizza cutter or knife to cut the pizza. My favorite technique for cutting pizza is to use a clean pair of kitchen scissors. Just snip your way to easy pizza slices!

Look into the whites of their eyes

Meet my new friends-- the Dorade fish, a Mediterranean sea bream that has a nice, delicate texture and flavor that pairs well with just about anyything. I came upon it accidentally, when I was looking for the Bronzino, a similar, highly coveted Mediterranean fish, that is sold at the new seafood emporium at Santa Monica Seafood.


Grilled whole Dorade with bacon, sage, roasted garlic sauce.

A whole fresh fish is best when prepared simply; enjoyed most with intimate friends who take pleasure in making sport out of picking away at the sweet flesh around the bones.

Bacon, Roasted Sage and Garlic Sauce:

To make bacon, sage, garlic sauce:

In a ramekin or oven safe dish combine whole garlic loves, whole sage leaves, and EVOO.

Roast in the oven at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until the entire kitchen smells like garlic and sage.

Chop bacon into 1 inch pieces and render the fat, until the bacon starts to become crispy. Pour off about half the bacon fat and add some chopped shallots. When the shallots become soft, and the kitchen smells amazing, add the roasted garlic and sage, and a few tablespoons of the sage garlic oil, reserving the rest to brush onto the fish. Before turning off the heat hit your bacon, sage, garlic sauce with a squeeze of lemon (preferably Meyer lemon), chopped parsley and coarse ground pepper, and salt if needed.

Grilling the Fish:

Rinse fish and pat dry.

Brush with roasted garlic and sage oil

Season with salt and pepper (not too much salt as the bacon sauce is already salty)

Grill on each side for about 3 minutes

Top the fish with bacon, roasted garlic & sage sauce.

Game Over

Thanks for playing along with me readers, I enjoyed your guesses from fish intestines to roasted slugs. This was a roasted sage and garlic oil that was created for a fun dinner with My friends, Danielle and Teddy, who were visiting from Miami. It filled the entire kitchen up with the most amazing smells. Here's a tip: When you have guests coming for dinner, sizzle your garlic and onions, or roasted some herbs and garlic in the oven so that the whole house smells warm, and enticing.