HYDE PARK>> Tony Nogales likes to keep his Thanksgiving simple and traditional.
An assistant professor at the Culinary Institute of America, his speciality is American cuisine and he said Thanksgiving has always been his favorite holiday.
A great Thanksgiving dinner starts with a great turkey, he said.
He opts for a free range bird, and he seasons it with lots of salt and pepper and some fresh herbs like thyme and sage.
He recommends adding a little lemon.
The flavor is enhanced by a little acidity, he said.
“I try to keep it as simple as I can,” he said. “Buy really good ingredients, then don’t manipulate them.”
Put the turkey in a hot oven and then cook it until the internal temperature with a thermometer is 165 degrees Fahrenheit, he said.
“You could really use a thermometer on Thanksgiving day,” he said. “It will definitely help you.”
And patience is a virtue when it comes time to take the turkey out of the oven, he said.
He recommends letting the turkey sit 30 minutes before cutting it for the best results.
He said turkey is great because it’s an economical bird and yields a lot of servings.
As for the gravy, he said the drippings in the pan are absolutely critical to making it taste great.
“That’s where the flavor is concentrated, you definitely want to incorporate that,” he said. “The gravy unifies the whole meal, the mashed potatoes and the stuffing.”
The trick to great mashed potatoes is making sure that everything is hot including the cream and milk that is added, he said.
It’s also important to ensure the potatoes are cooked thoroughly in salted boiling water, and to drain them in a colander pan, and then dry them in the pan to ensure the excess moisture goes away.
Then use a spoon to mash them, he said.
For seasonings, he sticks to the basics: salt and pepper.
His mom hails from Texas so he likes to add a little Southern flair to his table with cornbread stuffing.
He called it a mixture of regular bread stuffing and cornbread.
“In the fall corn is ending its season, but there is still some around,” he said. “It adds quite a unique flavor to the whole meal.”
He then mixes in some diced onions, diced celery and some fresh sage and thyme.
The recipe is heavy on butter, calling for four ounces, he said.
Then he adds some diced bread, bread crumbs and adds cornbread.
For cranberry sauce he likes to keep it simple as well.
It’s very simple to do just take cranberries, a little sugar, a little water, and a little orange juice and boil them up, he said.
He said a great dinner comes from balancing of sweet, savory and tart.
“Think of the whole meal,” he said.
Most of all, he said it’s important not to stress out.
Planning is key to avoiding stress, he said.
“Don’t try to have everything ready at the same time,” he said. “It shouldn’t be a day where you’re worried about stuff.”
Consider how long are things going to take, he said.
“Maybe cranberry sauce can be made ahead of time,” he said.
And teamwork helps, he said.
“Get people involved in the kitchen,” he said. “It’s much more fun that way.”
It will taste better than if just one person does all the cooking while everyone else watches the football, he said.
Nogales said he started teaching at the institute in 2008 after stints at the Bard College and the Wiltwyck Golf Club in Kingston.
Before that he worked with Larry Forgione, who he called one of the godfathers of the American cuisine movement.
He said Thanksgiving always makes him think back to a time during his childhood when he grew up in an American household in Venezuela during the 1960s and 1970s.
Nogales said his mother would go to great lengths to celebrate Thanksgiving, which was an odd holiday to South Americans, who don’t celebrate it.
Perhaps the hardest ingredient to get was cranberries, he said.
“My mom would drive all over for them or get them from the U.S.,” he said.
He said the holiday is so loved because it brings comfort and memories served up with turkey, which is not often cooked during the rest of the year.
While Nogales likes to take a traditional approach to Thanksgiving, he said he’s seen a lot of shifts in the holiday.
One of them he said is the rise of a more Latin and Mexican take on turkey, with Chipotle seasoned turkeys becoming popular. And the once sacred tradition of staying home for a turkey dinner is being challenged as more people go out to eat for Thanksgiving, he said.
He said the trend started in the 1980s and 1990s as restaurants started opening and families started going out to restaurants rather than preparing these meals at home.
Nogales said this represents a doubled-edged sword for him, as many of the institute’s graduates are involved in the restaurant trade, but at the same time he said a sense of community is lost when families go out to eat.
But most of all, he said Thanksgiving represents a time for everyone to be thankful for everything they have.
“It’s a feeling we should have every day,” he said.
