Chef Joe Dalessandris |
Chef Maria Easter |
By Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer
CARIBOU — Martha Stewart the average home cook is not.
Resultantly, the cool calm exuded by the homemaking icon can be lacking in any given kitchen on Thanksgiving day, as the smoke alarm precedes the timer in indicating that the rolls are done and the cornstarch turns to chalky lumps in what should have been be the gravy.
Cooking Thanksgiving dinner typically means preparing well over a dozen separate dishes, each demanding a chef’s undivided attention and threatening to scald if left unattended. Making matters worse, the Thanksgiving cook typically has only four burners and one oven to coordinate this orchestra of recipes (thus shedding light on why such celebratory feasts are only cooked a few times a year).
Through experience and seemingly innate skill, some have overcome the tumultuous challenges of the kitchen and have transcended into chefs, a title revered by the culinary-inept.
Two of Caribou’s chefs, Joe Dalessandris of Napolis and Maria Easter of Mari Jo’s, have years of experience creating culinary treats for their patrons’ taste buds. The two imparted a bit of culinary knowledge with the Aroostook Republican on how to keep Thanksgiving an enjoyable experience for cooks, instead of something to mentally recover from. They were each asked a few different questions about common cooking mishaps and provided their advice on overcoming those culinary pitfalls.
We’re talkin’ turkey
There are a handful of dishes that will be found on most every table on Wednesday, Nov. 24 from Maine to California, but dish that never fails to yield that “wow” factor is, of course, the turkey.
Cooking tips for the star of the feast differ greatly depending on the means of cooking.
Easter, for example, has ample experience roasting turkeys and she prefers cooking the dressing in the bird (which denotatively makes it stuffing).
“It gives the stuffing that crusty outside that’s really good, plus your turkey will have more seasoning and moisture by cooking the stuffing inside,” Easter explained.
While the stuffing will help keep the turkey moist, Easter has another way to keep a roasting turkey from drying out.
Easter uses aluminum foil to keep the meat moist, but she ensures that the turkey’s juicy by using plastic wrap.
“Plastic wrap keeps the moisture in the turkey,” Easter explained, calmly assuring this quizzical reporter that no, the plastic wrap doesn’t melt. She says that the plastic wrap is so effective, she uses it to keep baked potatoes from drying out as well.
As human-error is inevitable, some households are going to wake up on Thursday morning to find a frozen turkey still rock-hard in their freezer. While initial thoughts promptly turn to placing a panic-included pizza order, Easter assures that a frozen turkey is cookable — it takes longer than normal, but as long as the cook is equipped with a good meat thermometer and patience to afford the bird enough time to cook, Thanksgiving Dinner will stay right on track.
“Placing the bird in cold water in the sink works too,” Easter said, “but [frozen turkeys] come out just as good — it just takes longer to cook,” Easter said.
For those with ambitions of frying their holiday bird, a frozen turkey won’t fly.
Fried turkey is Dalessandris favorite Thanksgiving dish, but frying a turkey comes with it’s own set of safety precautions.
“You have to make sure it’s fully thawed before you put in into boiling oil,” he emphasized.
Fried turkeys should be cooked outside and away from anything remotely flammable, and while there is something suspicious about three gallons of oil boiling over an open flame “the taste is unbelievable,” Dalessandris said.
For either method of cooking, there is one universal must — remember to remove the package of giblets from inside the turkey.
Tuber time!
Though it may seem sacrilegious to offer up advice about cooking potatoes in a place like Aroostook County, it would be a public disservice not to advocate against lumpy mashed potatoes.
Dalessandris has two tips for lump-free potatoes:
• make sure the potatoes are fully cooked, and
• don’t skimp on the beating.
“But if the potatoes aren’t cooked all the way, you’ll get lumps,” Dalessandris cautioned.
Another potato mishap is over-seasoning — perhaps by being overzealous with the butter or not realizing the top of the salt shaker was set to “pour” instead of “sprinkle.” Either way, both Easter and Dalessandris agree that the best way to neutralize over-seasoned mashed potatoes is to add more potatoes.
“The only fix is to make more potatoes to compensate for over-seasoning,” Easter advised.
When hosting a large feast for many people, Easter also suggests that it’s better for cooks to under-season, rather than over-season their food.
Easter reasoned that a cook may not be attune to everyone’s level of spice preference, and diners can always add a little more salt and pepper to adjust a plate to their taste.
She also suggests that cooks not fear the sweet potato — after all, loaded sweet potatoes are one dish that tends to do well at Mari Jo’s.
With some butter and brown sugar — even a couple of marshmallows — Easter says that the loaded sweet potatoes her mother-in-law makes are her favorite Thanksgiving dish.
While the sweet potato’s flavor is a far cry from the white flesh of standard potatoes, the vegetable is worth the table space.
“A lot of people like glazed carrots, and they’re more like that as long as you sweeten them up.”
Avoid panic-mode
Those last 15 minutes preceding the feast tend to be action-packed, to say the least. Trying to serve everything piping-hot all at once can be overwhelming, but Easter has a little tip that can help even the most aloof cook keep from burning or overcooking this Thanksgiving.
“I use a lot of timers,” she said. “They trigger me to check the oven if I’m in the middle of cooking while stuff is baking.”
Multi-tasking of Thanksgiving proportions for cooks is really just the day-to-day of chefs, but Dalessandris offered a suggestion to help ease stress in the kitchen.
“Instead of serving everything on the table all at once, you could serve courses,” he suggested.
Serving Thanksgiving course by course with time in between each dish allows not only for a less-stressed cook, it also affords diners time to digest and an extended feast also means spending more time with the loved ones, which is a central theme of the holiday.