About five years ago, I was in Minneapolis to help my parents when my mom was ill. I had hired a woman to help out at the inn so that I could be away from our bed and breakfast. My husband (Zig) was working nights and had never really cooked our breakfasts at the inn—although he is a capable cook.
Everyone at my parents’ house went to bed early and so Zig didn’t want to disturb us when he got a call at 11:00 at night from the woman hired to help, saying an emergency had come up and she couldn’t come in the morning. So he made the decision that he would make the breakfast himself. After all, he had watched me many times and also helped with the serving.
All of our guests were very sympathetic to his plight and told him they didn’t mind at all spending 2 hours having breakfast served one item at a time. He managed to fix all the dishes tastily enough, but he just couldn’t get them done at the same time. This is a common problem among beginning cooks. I was eleven when I cooked my first family dinner—everyone thought it was delicious when we dined at 11:00 pm.
Another related problem is when, for whatever reason, the meal which you have carefully and lovingly prepared is going to be delayed. Some foods can be successfully held or reheated, but can they all? One of our readers asked me to touch on how to hold food for a time.
And there’s advance meal preparation for say, Thanksgiving dinner, when you have so many dishes to prepare you’d like to cook well in advance whatever possible. Here are a few timely tips on these questions.
Bringing it all together at the right moment requires some advanced planning. I always make a schedule—even for the breakfasts at our inn which I have been cooking for over nine years. A pen and paper are the best tools for this job. If you aren’t an experienced cook, it is especially important to plan out the time for every meal until you feel confident about getting it all done at the same time. I suggest you include a prep time (estimate high), a cooking time and a standing time. If it’s a dish that needs to marinate or which has to rise, etc., be sure to include that in your schedule.
Delayed meals are a frustration but many foods can be reheated or kept warm without harm. In reheating, it’s the oxidation of fat that gives leftovers that warmed-over taste. Don’t reheat food in aluminum or add salt early in the preparation. Liquids like sauces and gravies should cook gently for 1 or 2 minutes after reaching a simmer. But don’t recook the food. Meat and poultry are difficult to reheat. If you must, warm a liquid such as meat juices gravy or sauce slightly. Then slide in the meat and heat gently. Warm chilled meat to room temperature and then place thin slices on warmed plates and cover with very hot gravy or meat sauce. You can reheat a room-temperature casserole for about 30 minutes in a 325 deg. oven.
To reheat a cold baked potato, dip it in cold water and bake for 10 minutes at 350. To reheat deep-fried foods, place them, not touching each other, on racks, uncovered, in a 250 degree oven until heated through.
Here’s a recipe for make-ahead mashed potatoes for a crowd—serves 12—a great Thanksgiving dish.
5 lbs potatoes, cooked and drained
1 8-oz cream cheese, softened
1 stick butter
½ cup half and half, added as needed
1 tsp. seasoned salt such as Lawry’s
1 tsp. onion salt
Pepper to taste
¼ tsp. baking powder
Mash cooked potatoes coarsely. Put into bowl of mixer and add butter, cream cheese, salts, pepper and half and half. Mix until smooth. Add more half and half if potatoes seem too stiff and dry. Put into large casserole. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to bake. Before baking, add baking powder and stir in well. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Watch if top starts to brown too fast and cover with foil.
Fresh green vegetables are probably one of the most fragile foods to hold over since they grow mushy and gray as they sit. Blanching and refreshing are the professional secrets to beautiful, perfectly cooked vegetables. Begin by filling a large saucepan with water and bringing it to a rolling boil. Gradually add the cleaned vegetable. If you have lots of water, it will quickly return to the boil. This is important because the more quickly the water returns to the boiling point, the greener the vegetable will be. As an average, count 8 to 12 minutes for a whole vegetable and only 3 to 4 minutes for a sliced or diced vegetable. To test, take a piece out and taste it. If the vegetables are to be served without delay then drain, butter and serve. If they are to be eaten later, then they must be refreshed; to refresh blanched vegetables, drain the water and toss them into a bowl of ice-cold water. This stops the cooking, sets the color and preserves both the texture and the flavor. Place an absorbent cloth in a dish. Skim vegetables out of the cold water and place them in the cloth-lined dish. Refrigerate until ready to serve. To reheat, place the vegetables in a saucepan and pour enough boiling water over them to cover. Boil for ½ minute; drain and serve.
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