Bird is the word It’s a been a long time since Thanksgiving stopped being about Pilgrims and Indians and buckled shoes and became America’s No. 1 food holiday. Blame the Food Network and the age of the celebrity chef. Thanksgiving dinner is not simple as it used to be – a bird, canned cranberry, potatoes and something green. The meal is now a thankless test for home cooks, hours in the making, minutes on the plate. That’s why we turned to NST’s own celebrity chef, Sid Binstock, for advise and guidance on the year’s main meal. “Actually,” says Sid, “Thanksgiving has become very easy. You can just punch in to any computer how to put a dish together and it’s all there for you. But people, I find, end up looking slavishly at the recipe. They don’t realize that you can refine them very simply once you learn what goes with what.” Sid’s most challenging Thanksgiving was only a few years ago, he says, when he decided to prepare T u r d u c k e n for the main course. (A Turducken is modern contrivance onsisting of a deboned c h i c k e n stuffed into a deboned duck, which is in turn stuffed into a deboned turkey.) Getting them all to come out cooked right can be nerve wracking, even the best chefs will tell you. How’d it taste? “It was OK,”Sid says with shrug, “But I wouldn’t do it again,” Instead, he prefers to cook turkey with what he calls the “öldfashioned European” method. “I cook it high, 425 degrees,” Sid says. “That 18 pounder will cook in 2½ to 3 hours. Much faster.” He starts with a bed of vegetables – onions, celery and carrots -- on the bottom of the roasting pan. Mix in some garlic and bay leaves. “After three hours in the oven, it makes the best gravy ever tasted.” Two secrets to a great bird, says Sid, are, first, leave the turkey out on the counter for at least a half hour before cooking. “It should be room temperature before going in the oven, never straight from the fridge.” And second, cut a lemon into eight pieces and insert under the skin before r o a s t i n g . “ ” L e m o n helps break down the meat and make it soft,” he says. S i d comes by his Thanksgiving e x p e r t i s e honestly. A former executive with the restaurant group Restaurant Associates and the retired owner of his own corporate-catering firm, Gourmet International, his specialty is “cooking for large numbers of people,” Sid says. Sid, by the way, will not be at home in the Towers for Thanksgiving. He has a date every year at a charity facility in Florida where he cooks dinner for hundreds of less fortunate folks. He is a regular every week at the stove of the soup kitchen in Hempstead, Long Island, half the year. And he does the same in Florida during the winter months. “You’re welcome to join me for Thanksgiving in Florida,” says Sid. “We can always use someone who knows how to cook.” North Shore Towers Courier n November 2014 13 Sid puts finishing touches on his peach cobbler Celebrity Chef Sid Topping: 1/2 cup flour 1/2 cup brown sugar 3/4 tsp. cinnamon 1/4 tsp. salt 1/2 cup (one stick) chilled unsalted butter cut into 1 inch cubes. 1 cup old fashioned oats 1/2 cup 1/4 in. cubes of crystallized ginger Preheat oven to 350 degrees Filling: 1/2 cup sugar 2 tbs cornstarch 3/4 ts; cinnamon 1/4 tsp. salt 4 lbs firm, ripe pears, peeled cored, and cut into 1/2 in. cubes. (about 6 cups). Topping: Mix first four ingredients into a bowl, add butter. Rub with fingertips until clumps form. Stir in oats, almonds and ginger. Set aside. Filling: Mix first four ingredients in a bowl. Add pears and toss. Transfer pear mixture into a lightly buttered dish 13x9x12in. Place topping on top. Bake 40-45 min. until light brown. Remove from oven. Let cool Serve with fresh whipped cream. Serves 6 Ingredients: 2 sweet potatoes, quartered lengthwise 1 butternut squash, quartered and seeded 2 TBS olive oil 3 TBS butter 1/2 onion, chopped 2 TBS all-purpose flour 2 cups milk (2% or whole) 3/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice 1 pinch garlic powder salt and pepper to taste 1/4 cup grated asiago cheese Preheat oven to 350 degrees Instructions: 1) Grease an 8X8 in. dish 2) Brush sweet potatoes and squash with olive oil.and arrange sweet potatoes on a baking dish. 3) Bake 6-8 minutes. Then add squash to sweet potatoes and cook until tender, about 10-12 min. 4) Remove from oven and let cool. 5) Heat butter in a saucepan over medium heat, then add onion and cook and stir until tender, about 10-12 min. 6) Add flour, milk and pumpkin pie spice and cook and stir until sauce thickens. 5-10min. 7) Remove and discard skins from sweet potatoes and squash. 8) Arrange sweet potatoes on bottom of prepared dish. 9) Layer the squash on top. Pour about less than half of butter sauce on top. Sprinkle with half of grated cheese. then repeat with the rest of ingredients. Cover with foil and bake for 25 min. Remove foil and bake 10 min. longer. harvest pear crisp and candied ginger Sweet Potato And Butternut Squash
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