Look it. No more messing around.
This is what you've been training for all year.
Hosting and cooking for Thanksgiving is the Super Bowl for cooks. It's the one day you have to get in the kitchen, and show your family and friends why YOU ARE THE BEST COOK THEY KNOW!
The above video playlist exists to serve that goal!
For this month's Stella Culinary Cooking Challenge, I wanted to get back to basics, focusing on a couple simple techniques, and reinforcing the skill set of separating flavor structure from technique.
Learn how to cook Potatoes a la Burton, an easy & versatile approach to making any number of roasted potato dishes. Burton Potatoes are unique because we combine the normal two stage cooking process of boiling, chilling, and roasting, into one singular step. This leads to a more flavorful potato while streamlining the kitchen execution.
Before we get into how the potatoes are actually made, it's important to note that this technique requires a GOOD non-stick pan that isn't beaten up or scratched. And no, unfortunately, a cast iron pan will not work for this process.
In this video, how to make batter fried wedge potatoes!
In this video, I demonstrate how to make seasoned wedge potato fries. To get that perfect crispy exterior and soft, almost mashed potato like interior, we first blanch in acidulated water, then par fry and freeze.
For more videos like this, check out our hamburger cooking resource page at: https://StellaCulinary.com/hamburger
Lear how to make French fries at home, just like the ones you get at McDonalds.
A traditional french fry is usually blanched twice in oil; once at a lower temperature to soften the fry and cook it through, and once at a higher temperature to crisp and brown the fry. While this gives you good results, they still don't have the crisp exterior and mashed potato like interior that french fries served at McDonalds and other fast food restaurants do.
This simple batter is used in our Batter Fried Wedge Potato video, but can be used for just about anything, especially onion rings. Shout out to Alex Downing who is responsible for developing this recipe. Alex was the Sous Chef at Stella while I was there, and is now the Executive Chef.
Chicken and dumplings has to be one of my all time favorite comfort foods. It's easy to make, delicious, and soul-satisfying. In this video, we play on this southern classic by utilizing our leftover Thanksgiving turkey, turning our flavorful stuffing into dumplings.
For best results, start with a home made turkey stock (we have a separate video on this in our related section below).
In part two of our Thanksgiving Day podcast series, we talk popular side dishes including mashed potatoes, stuffing, and gravy. Along with a great turkey, these dishes will make up the core of your Thanksgiving Day meal.
This is a simple pommes purée recipe that I use during the winter months to add color and depth of flavor to some of my meat dishes.
Mashed potatoes are classic comfort food 101. To the untrained eye they can appear deceivingly simple, but the best mashed potatoes require proper technique, a decent fat to potato ratio, and being aware of common snares that trip up the uninitiated along the way. By the time you're done watching the above video and reading through this article, you'll be able to whip up a great batch of mashed potatoes every time, whether you're creating a simple Sunday Super, or bringing the thunder on Thanksgiving.
Oven roasted potatoes are one of my favorite, go-to side dishes when cooking at home. In this particular technique, we first blanch the potatoes using a cold water start (just like we would with any other root vegetable) and then roast in a hot oven until golden brown.
This video will take you through the process that we use to sous vide a rack of lamb at Stella. The nice thing about this process is we cook the lamb rack a second time in a reduced pan sauce which infuses both the lamb and the sauce with an amazing flavor.
This video demonstrates the prep process for making oil poached and pressed potatoes. Fingerling potatoes are first slowly poached in flavored oil until tender, slightly cooled and then pressed with the skin still on. These potatoes can then be fried in olive oil or clarified butter until the exterior is crispy, finished with fresh herbs and sea salt and served as is or as an accompaniment to a meat course.
In this episode of the Stella Culinary School Podcast, we talk about three major starches that every cook must know and understand; polenta, risotto and mashed potatoes. In the discussion segment we go over the meaning of an entrée, appetizer and hors d'oeuvre.
This video will teach you the classic, foundational cuts of dice, julienne, brunoise and batonnet.
