Not All Flounder are Created Equal

Good-looking and inexpensive Pacific arrowtooth flounder fillets are showing up in more and more grocery freezer cases. Beware. Unlike other flounders and soles, this fish gets reduced to a mushy pulp when cooked "because a protease enzyme degrades mycosin and leads to excessive softening of the muscle tissue when cooked" (per the Alaska Science and Technology Foundation). If you've ever cooked this fish you know what I mean by "mushy pulp". Like me, you may have initially thought there was something wrong with the way you handled the fish during thawing and preparation. Let a word to the wise be sufficient. The fish is nutritious and inexpensive but its cooking properties are awful. Incidentally, whiting has the same enzyme and the same problem with softening during cooking, though not to the same extreme.

Grilled Pork Chops

If your history is like mine, you grew up thinking "steak, burgers, or chicken" when it came to grilling. For a taste revelation for folks from that background, toss some pork chops on the grill. Season them however you like - salt and pepper is adequate, anything else is optional. I know, I know, the internet has a million recipes for brining them, marinating them, saucing them, and otherwise insulting the pig in a wide variety of ways. Trust me. Treat them like steak (but cook them just barely till the juices run clear, which is hopefully longer than you would cook a beef steak of equivalent thickness), you won't be disappointed. If anything, your pork chops will come off the grill with more of the flavor you're looking for than will your steaks, or your chicken or burgers. Pork takes to smoke like no other meat with the possible exception of lamb. If you see things at the store like "pork steaks" or "pork sirloin steaks", they're less-than-the-most desireable chops, and they, just like pork loin or pork rib chops, are very tasty, grilled. Snatch up the bargain, fire up the grill, and give it a try. Most garden-variety 1/2 inch thick chops will need no more than 4 or 6 minutes per side directly over coals. Pork "white meat" (for example, loin center chops) will cook - and dry out - a little more quickly than pork "dark meat" (sirloin, "steaks"). Don't confuse "boneless country-style ribs" with grillable pork chops, the "country-style rib" is not a simple thing to cook (for staters, it's too thick for easy grilling, and what's more, it may be from the butt, or the loin - very different pieces of pig).

If you have pork chops and a kettle grill of the Weber type, try putting all your hot coals on half of the grate, and going 3 mintes per side directly over hot coals, lid on, then moving the chops to the side of the grill with no coals, and letting them bask in indirect heat for a few more minutes, lid on. For a gas grill (and pork chops are absolutely delicious prepared on a gas grill), you know how to translate the charcoal recipe, right?

If you must marinate them, try a few hours in 3 parts olive oil, 2 parts lemon juice.

Turkey Stuffing - Seasoning is Optional!

In the great stuffing debate, I'm a devotee of the Bell's Seasoning recipe, which I usually multiply by two and a half, and end up with a fully stuffed 11-15 lb bird plus enough extra to fill the type of (greased) casserole dish you'd use to make scalloped potatoes. There are, however, two changes I enjoy making from time to time in the recipe. First of all, you can reduce or eliminate the seasoning altogether and produce a subtly flavored, delectable stuffing. This is only an option if you cook most of the stuffing in the bird - if you're an exclusively "outside the bird" type, you'll want to season. Second, you can eliminate the additional liquid the recipe calls for, and your in-bird stuffing won't be dry at all, you just won't get as much of the mixture into the bird, because tossing the stuffing with the additional liquid tends to compress it. Unless you're roasting some free-range, non-enhanced turkey, today's commercial birds are pumped up with enough broth that plenty of liquid will migrate through the cavity to moisten your stuffing - and it will impart a more savory poultry flavor than if you moisten your bread (and reduce its absorptive capacity) before stuffing with some other liquid. In the reduced-liquid scenario, you will need to add some liquid to the part you cook outside the bird - and whether or not you reduced the liquid called for in the Bell's recipe, you should annoint your "outside the bird" part with a few basting-bulbs worth of drippings immediately before cooking.

Here's the recipe, multiplied by two and a half from its original proportions:

Sautee 1 scant cup minced onion and a generous 1-1/4 cups chopped celery in 10 TBSP butter (1 stick plus 2 TBSP) until golden.

Pour sauteed vegetables and 1-1/4 cup water or milk (liquid is optional!) over 20 slices of white bread torn into small pieces and toss. I don't toast the bread slices but do try to let them dry out for a minimum of 4 hours, or ideally overnight, so that I can tear the bread without compressing it.

Add 3 1/2 tsp Bells Seasoning (optional! if you wish to season and can't find Bell's, "poultry seasoning" (of the salt-free type) is next best), a good dash of pepper, and a scant teaspoon of salt. I also sprinkle with MSG. Toss until mixed. The gentlest way to toss is with your hands.

Do not compress the stuffing into the turkey cavity, just gently fill it. At every step of the process of making the stuffing, try to avoid compressing it.

For the stuffing baked outside the bird, keep it refrigerated until placing it in the oven (covered) during last 45 minutes to 1 hour of turkey cooking time. Foil sprayed with something like PAM makes a suitable cover if your dish doesn't have a glass cover. If you want a little crust on it, uncover it for the last 10 minutes.

If you're leery of trying out these reduced-seasoning, reduced-liquid ideas on a large holiday gathering, give them a try with a roasting chicken sometime.

Turkey Gravy

My favorite recipe for turkey gravy came from an insert to a Butterball turkey. I have modified it slightly here.

Pan drippings
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
Cooked giblets, chopped fine (optional)
Canned chicken broth, or neck-giblet broth
Salt and pepper
MSG, if desired

Pour drippings from roasting pan into 4-cup measure (or gravy separator). Remove 1/4 c fat from drippings, and place in the roasting pan (do not apply any heat under the pan). Discard remaining fat from drippings. Add chicken broth or neck-giblet broth to drippings to make 4 cups (this is still outside of the roasting pan - at first, you will want nothing but fat, flour and crusty bits in that roasting pan). If you like milk in the gravy (I don't, but live with someone who does), substitute 1 cup milk for 1 cup of the broth. Stir flour into fat in roasting pan till smoothe. With no heat under the pan, slowly stir in 1 cup of the broth/de-fatted drippings mixture and stir, getting up all the crusty bits from the roasting pan. Pour this mixture into a sauce pan - an operation which may require a helper. Place on medium heat, slowly add remaining broth and stir until gravy comes to a boil and thickens. Continue cooking 3 to 5 minutes. Season with salt & pepper (and a dash of msg, if desired). Add giblets, if desired.