WHAT A TURKEY

Ah, Thanksgiving is upon us.  It brings back so many memories of the holiday celebration when I was a kid…… Autumn leaves, pumpkins, football games and EEEK…….  Mom’s turkey!  I don’t want to disparage my mother’s culinary skills, but when I hear the term, “Mom’s home cooking,” a little shiver goes up my spine.  My mom, bless her, had many good qualities, not least of which was her wicked sense of humor, but pumpkin pie, turkey or anything that took place at or near a stove, had disaster written all over it.  Here’s the sad thing……. she had no clue that cooking wasn’t her biggest talent and went about making Thanksgiving dinner with a gusto and zeal that you just had to admire.  The results, however, not so much.

A turkey, according to Mom, needed to be cooked in a covered roasting pan for a very loooong time.  She would start the bird the evening before, cook it all night, then all morning, then……… well, you get the idea.

At dinner she would proudly exclaim over the fact that the turkey was so tender, “it’s falling off the bone”, while the family mournfully stared at a bare turkey carcass with bits of stringy meat piled around it.  The gravy went perfectly with the turkey.  One year, my sister Aggie got into big trouble when, in answer to Mom’s question, “Would you like some gravy?” answered, “Sure, I’ll have a lump!”

Now, many years later, the turkey is perfect, the gravy lump free and my memories of Thanksgiving are viewed through the soft lens of time.  Somehow, magically, they seem as sweet as Mom’s apple pie.

So, here’s wishing all five of you that follow my blog a bountiful and blessed Thanksgiving day.  For a special treat, I’m leaving you with my mom’s secret technique for roasting turkey.  Just Kidding!

Instead, I’m sharing a new family tradition, … my son John’s recipe for his justifiably famous Thee Mushroom Cream Soup.  It’s awesome.  Enjoy.

P.S.  The package of ladyfingers that I bought in early August and left on my microwave oven are doing beautifully!  No mold, no signs of age, and still as soft as a baby’s bottom.  I don’t know about you, but that scares the living bejeebers out of me.

THREE MUSHROOM CREAM SOUP

Our son, John, has been making this soup for us since his days cooking at the Mystic Hilton in Mystic, CT


1 or 2 ounces dried porcini mushrooms
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 leek, white and light green only, cleaned and thinly sliced
2 medium carrots, diced
2 ribs celery, sliced thin
2 or 3 garlic cloves, minced
1 bunch scallions - white and 1 or 2 inches of green, sliced
1 Tablespoon ginger, minced
8 ounces shitake mushrooms, stems removed and caps sliced
8 ounces crimini (baby bella) or button mushrooms, sliced
6 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
Pepper, to taste
Soy sauce, to taste

Soak porcini mushrooms in hot tap water (enough to cover mushrooms) for 10 to 15 minutes, strain through cheesecloth or paper towels and chop mushrooms.  Set aside mushroom liquid.

Heat olive oil in large pot over medium heat.  Add leek, carrots and celery and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.  Add garlic, scallions and ginger and cook an additional minute.  Add shitake and crimini mushrooms and cook until mushrooms give up their liquid and start to take on color, about 5 or 6 minutes.  Add porcini mushrooms and reserved mushroom liquid.

Add chicken broth and bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes.  Add heavy cream and heat, but do not boil the soup.  Add soy sauce and pepper to taste.

NOT JULIA’S BEEF STEW

Speaking of Julia, (see previous blog, where I humbly confess my sins to the Patron Saint of home cooking), Mike and I went to see “Julie & Julia”, and I have to say that the poor actress, Amy Something, that played Julie had a tough slog.  The character of Julie came across as a whiney whiner and every time she was in a scene, I wanted to shout, “PLEASE GET OUT OF THIS MOVIE!”  But, Meryl Streep was a revelation.  It was such fun watching her channel Julia Child that I thought she was actually a better “Julia” than Julia.

Mike and I met Julia Child, (the real one, not Meryl) in the early nineties at a King Arthur Flour function and I have to admit that she scared me.  For one thing, she was huge!  I’m five feet nothin’ and she towered over me.  I felt like I was in kindergarten and she was the Principal.  She was eighty years old and still very much in command of any room she was in.  She also said whatever popped into her head.  Mike and I drove her to…well, I don’t actually remember to what…and she explained that anyone under eight or over eighty could say whatever they pleased!  So she did.  When Mike asked her why some points were so difficult to get across at a cooking demonstration, she stated that it was because “some people are abysmally stupid”.  Okey dokey then!

We are also the proud owners of a signed copy of “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”, a real gen-u-wine photo of Julia and Mike and a mug that I had made up with Mike and Julia’s picture and signed “Michael, thank you for all your help, love Julia” that is soooo fake.  [Michael – It was a lot of fun to flaunt and it used to drive some of my uptight, former co-workers crazy.  It was so worth it.]

When we got home from the movie, I immediately got out Julia’s cookbook to decide what to cook first and discovered I didn’t use her cookbook very often because ….I can hardly say this out loud….I don’t like it!  OMG, I feel like a French gendarme is going to arrest me for, oh, I don’t know, blasphemy or something, but I felt exhausted just reading the recipes.

So, in order to exhibit my vast inferiority to Julia and forever ruin my reputation as a great cook, - O.K., I don’t actually have a reputation as a great cook – I now present my pathetic version of Boeuf Bourguignon.  I call it, um, beef stew.


Michael says:
After seeing the movie and looking at “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” I feel the urge to make Julia's version of Boeuf Bourguignon.  I know that it's silly but it fits into my compulsive nature.  On one of these (too soon to come) Maine winter days I'm doing it - especially if we have some fresh bread to go along with it,

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Not Julia's Beef Stew

I use Chuck for the stewing meat.  Chuck is perfect – he’s tasty – just a little tough.  But, with patience and a little heat, he goes all soft and tender.

2 lb. Chuck, cubed

1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt (or 2 teaspoons Kosher salt)

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

2 Tablespoons olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1 cup carrot, chopped

1/2 cup leeks, chopped

1/2 cup fennel, chopped – optional but yummy

1/2 cup chopped celery

1 bay leaf

4 or 5 cups beef or chicken stock

1 teaspoon dried herbs, whatever you like (or 1 Tablespoon fresh)

1 cup wine, beer –whatever you’re having

3 o 4 carrots, peeled and sliced

3 or 4 small potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 parsnip or turnip, optional

1 Tablespoon parsley, finely chopped

Mix flour, salt and pepper together and put on a plate or in a shaker.  Dredge Chuck in flour mix – don’t worry, he likes it.  Brown Chuck on all sides in olive oil – don’t crowd or Chuck gets all gray and wet.  Remove meat and add a leetle more oil if needed and cook chopped onion, carrots, leeks, celery and fennel, if using, until somewhat softened, about 5 minutes.  Add liquids and herbs and bring to a simmer.  Cover and simmer for 1 to 1-1/2 hours.  Add sliced carrots, potato, etc., re-cover and simmer an additional 30 minutes until veggies are tender.  Top with chopped parsley and serve.

Note:  I have huge burners on my stove and it’s hard to maintain a simmer, so I usually bring my stew to a simmer, cover it and put it in the oven at 350º F for the same cooking time.

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For a printer friendly copy of our Beef Stew go to our web site at http://www.stoneturtlebaking.com/webdocs/recipes.htm .