Kitchen Tip: Make Chopping Garlic Easier

When you want to really chop the crap out of some garlic cloves so they form a paste or a fine mince, sprinkle the peeled cloves on the cutting board with some coarse salt. The grains will help break down the garlic and keep the bits from flying around the cutting board as you chop.

When I’m making a marinade with chipotle in adobo along with garlic, as I did tonight, I like to add the chipotle on top of the garlic/salt mix and mince it all together; again it makes the chopping easier to handle, and the flavors will become more mingled. It would be nice to be able to say that the salt serves as a buffer to keep your cutting board from getting stained by the chipotle, but alas, in my experience, any difference in the level of orange-tint saturation is of an almost imperceptible degree.

Thanksgiving Made Easy! (Well, Easier.)

Last year, as regular readers may recall, my cousin The Beez and I prepared a very Brooklyn Thanksgiving for our family who were kind enough to travel to us. This year, Turkey Day dinner will be at the Massachusetts home of our aunt (a.k.a. the Turkey Ninja) and uncle, and we will be preparing apps and desserts with my mom. I have mixed feelings about not being responsible for the whole feast; on the one hand, it’s a welcome respite from pressure at a time when I’m emerging from an all-consuming work wormhole; on the other, I’m kind of bummed to miss out on preparing the biggest meal of the year.

(On that note, I’m excited for, though slightly envious of, Alyce that her fam will be having Thanksgiving dinner at her BK apartment this year—at least one of the Brooklyn Girls Cooking will be cooking in Brooklyn on this high holy foodie day!!!)

While Thanksgiving dinner is made easier for me this year by the fact that I’m not making it, you, gentle reader, should have the benefit of learning from the meal-planning lessons of the past. Herewith, please find some of BGC’s classic (read: year-old) Thanksgiving how-to posts…because recycling is good for the planet, amirite?!

• Grocery Shopping
• Planning What to Make
• Timing the Meal
• Making Turkey and Pan Gravy
• Using Up Leftovers

Thanksgiving 101: Turkey! (And Pan Gravy)

Before we begin, could we all take a moment to be thankful for the fact that I did not title this post "Talkin' Turkey" or something equally cheesy? You're welcome! Now, since we don't have much time before T-Day, let's get right to the point: how to ensure the bird is prepared properly and deliciously.

Now, there is no one exact right way to cook a turkey, although there are certainly right and wrong things to do with each method. I’m personally a proponent of going the classic roasting route, but if you want to do your bird deep-fried (I’ve sampled such a bird and found it surprisingly non-greasy)—or whatever other trendy method you’ve read about—go for it. I would just suggest doing a trial run if you’re trying a brand-new technique; a holiday meal where everyone is gathered is not the best time to experiment.

First, figure out how much turkey you need. For a smaller group, you might want to consider doing just a bone-in turkey breast, which still has an ooh-and-aah-inducing effect presented on a platter. For a larger group, consider buying an extra package of drumsticks in addition to the whole bird, so nobody has to fight over them. (Apologies if you could have put this advice to use sooner, gentle reader; planning my own feast and, oh yeah, working for a living have been sucking up precious blogging time!)

I am a fan of brining the turkey, though this is not necessary. A lobster pot or even a brand-new plastic garbage barrel are good vessels to contain the bird and the liquid, which tend to be heavy. You can brine the bird overnight; if refrigerator space is an issue and you live somewhere the temperature drops below 30° at night, you can keep the container on your porch. (This year, we're doing a dry brine since The Beez's fridge isn't big enough, and it's supposed to be like 50° in Brooklyn. Thanks a LOT, global warming!)

Thanksgiving 101: Timing Is Everything

Timing is a challenge in any kind of cooking—and especially when it comes to a meal as ambitious and symbolically significant as Thanksgiving.

Much as I love the fact that my cousin and I have taken over making our extended family's T-Day dinner, there are always some performance-anxiety jitters about getting everything on the table on time. In fact, in the week or so leading up to the big meal, I invariably have an annually recurring nightmare that we are supposed to serve dinner at 4:00 but it's 3:30 and the turkey has not gone into the oven yet. (Seriously, it's a really specific dream—even my subconscious is anal-retentive.)

To keep you from getting Butterball-related butterflies in your stomach, here are some tips on Thanksgiving-dinner time management.

Thanksgiving 101: Grocery-Shopping Template & Tips

For the past few years, my cousin The Beez and I have more or less hijacked the planning and preparing of our extended family’s Thanksgiving dinner. And while hosting Turkey Day (or Tofurkey Day, if your relatives are hippies) for a crowd is many people’s worst nightmare, we get totally geeked out about it, to the point of making multiple spreadsheets for planning purposes. (Oh, you snicker now, but if you skip our advice and end up running out to 7-Eleven at 4pm on Thanksgiving Day for canned cranberry sauce, who will be laughing?)

This year, rather than schlepping on the Bolt bus on the most nightmarish travel day of the year, we are having T-Day right here in Brooklyn, chez The Beez. The prospect of not leaving the mother of boroughs is a massive relief to both of us. And I would like to pass that stress savings along to you, gentle reader; hence Thanksgiving 101, the BGC guide to Thanksgiving planning!

Herewith, the first installment of we-haven't-decided-how-many-yet in our Thanksgiving 101 series: how to gather all the groceries you need without running around town like a turkey with its head cut off. (See what I did there?)

Pack a Non-Soggy Sandwich for Lunch At Last!

Last night I had the very cool opportunity to attend a reception for Popular Mechanics’ annual Breakthrough Awards, which featured demonstrations of these amazing scientific innovations. And clearly, upon my return home, I was inspired by that spirit of innovation. Except, instead of thinking of ways to benefit human beings’ quality of life via genetics or engineering or green energy, I opted to do so by improving the quality of their sandwiches.

Although I doubt this particular innovation will make next year’s awards list, I am nevertheless pretty excited to have developed a method that solves a major and persistent problem in our fast-paced modern workaday society: how to pack a sandwich for work or school the night before, without the bread ending up soggy and bloated like a body that Benson and Stabler just dragged out of the East River. In fact, my new technique ensures that—brace yourself—the bread remains completely impervious to moisture absorption the next day. Suspend your disbelief, gentle reader, for it is true! Behold, the future of sandwiches is here now!

How-to: Cutting Butternut Squash / Toasting Squash Seeds

Fall—a.k.a. squash season—is just about here! A recipe for curried butternut squash bisque is forthcoming on BGC…but for now, I thought I'd get everyone in the squash spirit with a quick how-to on cutting butternut squash, which can be daunting since it's so dense. As you may have learned from experience, randomly hacking away with a kitchen knife is likely to result in a frustrating "Sword in the Stone"-type moment.

(Plus, below is a bonus how-to on toasting seasoned squash seeds, which make a great healthy munchie or a sophisticated garnish—throwing the raw seeds out is such a waste!)

Kitchen Tip: Chopping Cherry Tomatoes

Here is a tip for easily halving cherry or grape tomatoes, a staple for summer salads—and also awesome in omelets, sandwiches, pasta, et al. These small tomatoes can be squirmy and annoying, but I’ve figured out a trick for cutting them easily. Doing so is worth it, because no matter what you’re eating, biting into a whole cherry/grape tomato and having it splurt all over you is annoying; plus, the flavor integrates more easily when they’re chopped. (Food freak though I am, I stand by the priority order of these reasons; do I need a dry-cleaning bill? No.)

just a little tip- add chorizo!

hi everyone,
it has been a hectic couple of weeks, doing some freelance work, traveling a bit, and in the midst of it all, i got pretty sick. when i'm too busy to go to the grocery store, i fall back on my pantry.
today i arrived home, still congested, after a whirlwind trip down to Orlando to watch the Celtics take game two of the Eastern Conference finals!







Sorry, I digress.






I got home, and with only a few hours before heading out to tutor and getting a haircut, needed something to eat, and grabbed a can of soup. I wasn't happy about having to eat a can of soup, and a "Healthy Choice" low sodium, can of soup at that. I needed to eat it, but I also needed to jazz it up a bit, so I grabbed some chorizo that I had in the fridge, cut it into little pieces, threw it into the pot, crushed a clove of garlic in there, and then added the can of soup.
I know that with the addition of chorizo, it was no longer low sodium, or the "healthiest" according to the label, but it was much tastier, and I felt satisfied.

Remember, you can doctor up prepared sauces, soups, salads, anything, with the tools you have in your kitchen- sautee a little onion and garlic, and then add the jar of pasta sauce, or even a can of crushed tomatoes, and you've got a much fresher tasting, more satisfying option. The key is keeping a stocked pantry and being creative with what you've got when you are working with prepared foods.

Kitchen Tip: Cleaning Grill Pans

Grill pans are a great kitchen tool but a hassle to clean, as greasy and/or charred stuff often gets stuck in the ridges. Here's the best way I've found to clean one:

Rinse off the pan under hot water. Sprinkle it liberally with baking soda and place it on a stove burner.

Pour water onto the pan and turn the burner on high.

Let the water boil. As it boils off, you may want to (carefully) pour on more water, depending on how caked the pan is.

Turn off the burner and CAREFULLY carry the pan to the sink. Pour out the water and run hot water onto the pan. Let it cool a bit, then use a scrubber brush with a handle to scrape off the remaining goo.

Rinse the de-gunked pan and return it to the burner. Turn it on high again and let it go just till the water burns off. Let the pan cool and put it away.

Cooking Tip: Chicken Skin Compromise

Here's a little trick I came up with recently to find a happy medium between skin-on (= fattier) and skinless (= flavorless) chicken.

When roasting leg/thigh pieces or bone-in breasts, I remove the skin from the raw chicken (kitchen shears help with this, or you can just slide your fingers under the skin, peel it back, and pull).

But! Then I throw the skin into the roasting pan and let it render (i.e. melt) while the oven is preheating. I then season the chicken parts and once they are ready to go in the hot oven, there is a nice little layer of grease to toss them in. That way, they don't stick to the pan, and they have some schmaltzalicious flavor, but you're not just straight-up eating the skin. There! Now everyone is happy!

N.B. When roasting an entire chicken, I leave the skin on. I'm not a psycho.

Shown above: Seasoned chicken legs (Detail view of this meal)