- Recipe tester Leah Brickley (cautiously!) experiments with indoor turkey-frying in Food Network Kitchens.
Sometimes being married to a kitchen gadget geek has its perks. For our November issue of Food Network Magazine, we had to test Cat Cora’s deep-fried turkey recipe. Deep-fried turkeys have become really popular over the past few years and Cat’s is rubbed with a delicious Cajun spice blend. The turkey comes out crispy and really flavorful.
Our test kitchen is located in New York City’s Chelsea Market building, and the outdoor green space available to set up a vat of boiling oil is very limited to non-existent. Luckily, my husband, Paul, had a rather interesting solution to my deep-fryer problems: Why not fry it indoors? At first I thought he was crazy, but then he told me about this new (and safe) indoor turkey fryer made by MasterBuilt. It sits right on your counter, uses about half the amount the oil and has a safety magnetic break-away cord.
Read more »
- Tyler's Mashed Potatoes
We’re teaming up with other food and garden bloggers to host Fall Fest 2010, a season-long garden party. Each week we’ll feature favorite garden-to-table recipes and tips to help you enjoy the bounty, whether you’re harvesting your own goodies or buying them fresh from the market. To join in, check out awaytogarden.com.
Sure, we all love the Thanksgiving feast: The turkey, stuffing, cranberries, green beans, mashed potatoes, all covered in gravy. But no matter what you serve, it’s about who you’re passing the platter to year after year: your friends and family. These are the things we look forward to making, eating and enjoying every year.
Our Thanksgiving favorites »
A few words from the winner …
On why he signed on for Season 3 of The Next Iron Chef:
“The only show that I would have done on TV was The Next Iron Chef. There are a lot of other chef shows, competitions that are on TV that I won’t name by name, but The Next Iron Chef is the only one that truly says, we want to see you as a chef, and we want to see who can actually be an Iron Chef. Not to see who can entertain us with the after-work antics and all this kind of stuff. It’s about the food.”
On how his life has changed:
“Just last night, I walked back into the kitchen through the dining room and every table was looking around and pointing me out. That used to happen every once in a while, but now, every table, they’re like, “Oh! That’s him!” I got stopped on the street coming into work yesterday and again this morning…It’s wild. I’m really kind of a humble, chill person. I’m having a great time, don’t get me wrong, but it’s a big change.”
On the Next Iron Chef experience:
“I’ll be 100 percent honest: I didn’t think it was going to be as hard as it was. Not to say I went in thinking it was going to be easy, but I kind of went in there thinking, you know, you do what you do, you see what happens. Which is the philosophy that I had the whole time: Just cook your food and relax…”
Read our full exclusive interview with Iron Chef Forgione.
Each day from now ’till Thanksgiving, we’re sharing a new side dish. We’ve talked about everything from stuffing to mashers to scalloped sweet potatoes, but don’t forget about turkey’s favorite sidekick: cranberry sauce. Like macaroni without cheese or cookies sans milk, turkey just isn’t the same without sweet-tart cranberry sauce on the side. Guy’s bright whole-berry version gets a spicy kick from two kinds of hot peppers, and added flavor from orange juice. Your turkey — and your tastebuds — will never know what hit ‘em.
Get the Recipe: Guy’s Red Devil Cranberries
Vote For the Best: Guy and Paula’s Cranberry Sauce Showdown
Get hundreds more Thanksgiving recipes, menus and tips at
FoodNetwork.com/Thanksgiving.
When we visited Chef Marc Forgione at his restaurant (in secret!) shortly before his winning moment aired on The Next Iron Chef, we wanted to see him in his element: Back in the kitchen, cooking. But Restaurant Marc Forgione is closed for lunch, so the laid-back, mohawked chef asked what he should prepare from the menu. We got back to him with this proposition: “Just make yourself some lunch. Doesn’t have to be anything fancy—whatever you’d normally whip up.”
The resulting pork belly and pickled apple sandwich is so addictively delicious, we had to share Chef Forgione’s recipe with you. Iron Chef Forgione’s recipe, that is.
- Chef Forgione's late-night lunch: The B.A.D. Sandwich
Check out the making of this sandwich and get a tour of Marc Forgione (the restaurant). Plus, read our exclusive Q&A with the newest toque in Kitchen Stadium.
What did you take away from the experience of competing on The Next Iron Chef?
The coolest thing I took away from the experience was dozens of new friends and acquaintances. Obviously amongst my competitors, but also from “behind the scenes.” I also learned how long and tedious the world of shooting reality TV can be. I have a newfound respect for anyone working in that world, as it’s certainly not as glamorous as it may seem.
How did you feel about the dishes that sent you home when you presented them?
As far as the finale goes, I felt I respected the Chairman’s directive and delivered a nearly flawless meal that “honored tradition.” At this level of cooking, unless someone makes a technical error, it really does boil down to personal preferences.
If you could have a do-over, what would you change about that fateful dish?
In retrospect, I think the “tortelli di zucco” risotto may have been too unfamiliar to the judges’ palates and, while they all thought it was perfectly executed, there was some discussion about using sweet flavors in savory food. Obviously, not everyone enjoys that.
What advice would you give future Next Iron Chef contestants?
Don’t overthink your dishes…less is more! Go with your gut. Focus on the basics. If the secret ingredient triggers an idea, go with it and don’t look back. And remember, no matter how poorly or how well you do, it is not a reflection of your talents as a chef. Cooking as competition and being the chef of a restaurant have very little in common.
Look inside Chef Canora’s Next Iron Chef journal and flip through our behind-the-scenes gallery from the finale.
More about Marco Canora:
Chef Canora on Facebook
Follow@MarcoCanora on Twitter
Hearth Restaurant
Terroir Wine Bar
- The newly crowned Iron Chef Marc Forgione: Simon Majumdar’s "clear winner"
Next Iron Chef judge Simon Majumdar joins us on the FN Dish each week to share his insider’s take on what went down Sunday night.
With dozens of cameras catching every glimpse and grimace, a gallery of excited onlookers and smoke billowing across the set, I could begin to see what all the fuss had been about.
It was my first visit to Kitchen Stadium and I was nervous enough. I could only begin to imagine how Chef Canora and Chef Forgione must be feeling as they walked into the arena. They had not only to impress the three judges one more time, but also to persuade Iron Chefs Morimoto and Flay that they were ready to join the pantheon of the greats.
When given their final task, to prepare for us the finest Thanksgiving feast imaginable, the way they approached it summed up their performances in every challenge to date. Chef Forgione was cool, calm and collected as he followed his story of recreating the first turkey-free Thanksgiving. Chef Canora, on the other hand, was all drama and nervous energy as he dipped into his family cookbook to bring us a traditional Thanksgiving meal. It was not long before he was literally leaving his blood, sweat and tears on the floor.
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- Next Iron Chef Judge Michael Symon is all smiles, three years into his tenure.
Just three years ago Michael Symon sat where Chefs Marco Canora and Marc Forgione are today, battling for a permanent place on the roster of Iron Chef America. Now he frequently dons his jacket and defends chefly honor in Kitchen Stadium. He also serves as a judge on The Next Iron Chef, hosts Food Network’s Food Feuds and hosts Cook Like an Iron Chef on Cooking Channel. Clearly that long-ago Next Iron Chef winning moment was the end of one battle but the beginning of so much more.
“I went through the competition myself and I know how hard it actually is,” Symon said recently at Food Network’s New York City headquarters. “But you know, I feel that the winner is coming into our club, and we need to protect the club, just like Bobby and Mario and Morimoto did when I came through.”
- Who will be the next chef to have a jacket hanging here?
So this season, Symon has enjoyed food from “some of the greatest chefs in America,” and is sympathetic to the fierceness of the competition, but he’s also clear eyed and critical. From battle to battle, even the smallest details made a difference in which chefs stayed and which went. In the wake of last week’s double elimination, Symon compared dishes from Chef Tsai and Chef Tio with those from the two remaining competitors. “Chef Forgione and Chef Canora’s food was just a little more over the top. And because of the nature of this competition, sometimes you have to go a little over the top to win.”
Read more »
Mashed potatoes are a Thanksgiving staple. Find a new way to mash and smash your spuds with our collection of 50 mashed potato mix-in recipes. There’s Blue Cheese-Walnut Mashed Potatoes, Shiitake-Squash Mashed Potatoes, Bacon-Cheddar Mashed Potatoes and 47 more.
But for Thanksgiving, when turkey is a menu must, I try to keep the mashed potatoes buttery, creamy and relatively simple, because one of the best parts of a traditional Thanksgiving feast is rich and steamy turkey gravy. Make classic mashed potatoes and gravy with these sure hit recipes from Food Network Magazine: Perfect Mashed Potatoes paired with Perfect Gravy (and see our gravy step-by-step).
Browse 50+ Thanksgiving side dishes to fill out your menu. And, for hundreds more ideas, recipes and menus for your feast, check out FoodNetwork.com/Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving is inching ever closer, and if you haven’t already, you’re probably starting to give some serious thought about what to lay out on that table of yours. That’s why every day this week, we here at Food Network are featuring different Thanksgiving Side Dishes to help you celebrate this harvest festival in style.
Whether your Thanksgiving is going to be an intimate affair or a more boisterous gathering, it can be tricky to find dishes to suit the myriad tastes of friends and family. Trying to balance all of the likes and dislikes of your family and friends in one meal can send even the most accomplished of chefs into panic mode.
These airy Southern Biscuits from Alton Brown are sure to please even the pickiest eater, and are a perfect alternative to stuffing, dressing, and mashed potatoes. Light and golden, warm and tangy, these buttermilk biscuits pair perfectly with almost anything (and sop up all of that gravy like nothing else). Aside from being irresistibly delicious, this recipe is easy to double for crowds and virtually foolproof. To streamline your day-of preparations, make and freeze them a few days in advance; pop them in the oven for fluffy, homemade biscuits just in time for dinner.
For hundreds more ideas, recipes and menus for your feast, check out FoodNetwork.com/Thanksgiving.
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