Lexington Chefs Share Holiday Recipes
Todd Heberlein
T odd Heberlein will prepare more than 400 gallons of gravy, all hand whisked and over a 1,000 lbs. of Butternut squash, all mashed by hand, as well as stuffing, Brussel sprouts and other sides this Thanksgiving. And that’s before he even heads home from the kitchen at Wilson Farm to prepare dinner for his own family. So it’s a good thing he loves what he does.
His Wild Mushroom Stuffing recipe incorporates a lot of his favorites. “I love mushrooms. The mushrooms we’re using now may not be the same mushrooms I’d use in a couple of weeks, you want to use whatever mushrooms are best at the time your making it. That’s part of the excitement for me – seeing what mushrooms will be available for the next batch and how it will alter the flavor. It never comes out the same twice when you use different mushrooms,” Todd says, “I also wanted to incorporate something still fresh off the our fields. Kale is perfect for Thanksgiving because it’s a late crop and it can stand up to be being baked”.
And then there’s the truffle butter. Todd has a particular love of truffle butter, so it finds its way into this recipe. “Puts it over the top,” he says with a twinkle in his eye, “you don’t have to include it, it’s a luxury, but come on Thanksgiving is only once a year. If not now, when?”
Todd also likes this recipe because it’s substantial enough to satisfy the vegetarians at the table. Combining egg, mascarpone, asiago cheese, and mushrooms creates something like a savory bread pudding. Baked in a casserole it can double as an entree.
“Usually at Thanksgiving I really only like to eat, turkey, stuffing, and gravy. That’s why I put so much love into my stuffing. It comprises about half of my plate,” he says. But for the other seventeen or so family members at his Thanksgiving table this year Todd will prepare a full feast. His wife Jennifer is a pastry chef, so while he takes care of dinner Jennifer will whip up the tasty desserts.
“I love Thanksgiving. So it’s no problem for me to go home and cook after being here. No difference between here and home, I take same care here that I do cooking for my family”.
Marian Morash is the daughter of a professional chef, but she didn’t catch the bug until her husband Russ began a TV show with a relatively unknown cookbook author, named Julia Child. “The show was live and so they would have a raw chicken, a chicken ready to cook and a cooked chicken on the set. Russ would bring home a half cooked chicken with all the directions. I’d call friends and say, ‘we’re having this or that tonight. Come on over’ “, Marian recalls. All she had to do was add vegetables to complete the meal.
Again her husband helped out. Russ Morash began the classic gardening show, The Victory Garden, in the mid seventies. The success of the show got Marian in the kitchen coming up with recipes to share with the growing number of viewers – and gardeners. “The first few years they didn’t have recipes, the viewers would write in and say, ‘I grew all these leeks, now what do I do with them?’, so I’d come up with recipes for them to use on the show,” says Marian.
One of her family’s favorite recipes came from that period. Marian developed the recipe using her favorite squash, Waltham Butternut, developed right around the corner at the University of Massachusetts Waltham Field Station and a nod to her mother and a family tradition. “You can make this soup without the chestnuts but I use them for both enrichment and nostalgia,” she says, “They add a rich earthy flavor and remind me of past holidays. My mother always made brussel sprouts with chestnuts for Thanksgiving and roasted chestnuts on Christmas when they’re readily available. They are a seasonal treat.”
Although the Morash family usually gathers on Nantucket for the holiday, they’ll be spending it closer to home this year. The turkey will be roasted in the oven unlike on Nantucket where “Russ fries one outside. You know it’s the men go out and kick the tires and fry the turkey and the women stay inside cooking the vegetables,” laughs Marian.
She hasn’t done the soup in a while but it’s back on the menu this year to the raves of the whole family.
Marian’s Tip of the Day:
Make your gravy ahead of time. Buy necks, wings, legs, whatever is available. Make a turkey stock and prepare your gravy. You can freeze it until the holiday. On Thanksgiving just add drippings from the turkey and you’re ready to serve.
This year Helen will be cooking dinner at the home of her goddaughter who is expecting a baby the week before the holiday. “My husband, Keith, is an expert with the weber grill and he’s been in charge of the turkey for years. He smokes it so it has a fabulous taste and comes out with this wonderfully dark golden skin. I handle all the sides.”
One of the sides she’ll make comes from her mother, the renowned Chinese Chef Joyce Chen. Oyster Sauce Fried Rice started out as a stuffing, but now that the turkey has moved to the grill and the family clamors for leftovers, Helen prepares it as a side dish.
“My mother developed this fried rice to use as a stuffing for our Thanksgiving turkey. The giblets and oyster sauce give a wonderful savory flavor to the big bird. It’s tasty enough to stand-alone and is even better the next day when the flavors have mellowed and blended. It warms up beautifully in the microwave.”
Helen says her goddaughter is partial to brussel sprouts. “I’ll par boil them and then add an asian flair by stir frying them with bacon. I prefer to stir fry, rather than boil. It maintains a lot more of the flavor,â”Helen says.
If you’d like to find out more about cooking with a wok, how to find a great wok or Chinese home cooking, visit www.helensasiankitchen.com.
Helen’s Tip on cooking Brussel Sprouts:
Cut a crosshatch in the stem end of the sprout before cooking. The brussel sprout will cook more evenly.
Lynne Wilson began creating recipes out of necessity. In a season heavy on eggplant her husband, Alan Wilson, came to her for help. She came up with some creative eggplant recipes that had people who had never tried eggplant cooking it up. “It worked so well that it wasn’t long before I was asked to do the same for carrots and spinach,” Lynne notes in The Wilson Farm Country Cookbook, “Soon I had a new job – creating and supplying recipes for our customers.”
Wilson Farm customers and employees were Lynne’s best critics. New recipes were taste tested by the employees and Lynne was found on the farm every week sampling her new creations to customers
That’s how her Squash Cake became a favorite. “One time a little girl about eight years old came back for seconds and then brought her mother over to get the recipe because it was the ‘best cake’ she had ever had,” Lynne remembers, “I don’t know if it’s the best cake I’ve ever made but everybody makes pumpkin pie or squash pie for Thanksgiving. I like this because it’s something different.”
I made this cake myself the other day. I’m not sure I could wait until dessert on Thanksgiving to enjoy it. Just the smell when you take it out of the oven is hypnotic. I’m thinking I’ll enjoy as a late morning treat with that second cup of coffee while preparing the meal for later in the afternoon. If anyone else wants to wait until after dinner, I admire their will power.
