On the Thanksgiving checklist is to buy the turkey, turkey lifter, and turkey stock. Add one more item: get your knives sharpened. A dull knife is a dangerous knife, because the knife will slip while cutting slippery onions. A sharp knife is not only safe, the slices of turkey breast are beautifully straight and not shredded.

Kitchen Conservatory offers overnight knife sharpening every day and on Wednesday, November 26, bring all your knives in for while-you-wait knife sharpening between 9:30 am to 4 pm. The knives are sharpened on a water-cooled stone wheel at a 20-degree angle, $3 per knife. Then on Thanksgiving, have the sharpest knife in the drawer!

I need to take a sweet potato dish to a Thanksgiving party, but I don’t want to take my mother’s super-sweet syrupy sweet potatoes. Do you have a suggestion?

Yes! Sweet potatoes are already sweet, so why do we add more sugar? How about this creamy gratin:

Sweet Potato-Corn Gratin

• 2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into large cubes
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 4 ears of corn
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes
• 14-ounce can of unsweetened coconut milk
• 2 tablespoons breadcrumbs or panko

Toss the sweet potatoes with olive oil and roast on a lined sheet pan at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Grill or roast the corn until browned, then cut off the kernals. Toss the corn with cumin, red pepper, salt, and black pepper. Place the sweet potatoes on the bottom of a 9×9 baking pan. Top with the corn. Pour the coconut milk over the vegetables and top with the breadcrumbs. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

Note: A reader called and said, “how do you roast corn?” Here are several choices. Husk the corn and grill until golden brown, then cut off the kernals. Or cut off the kernals and dry-cook in a nonstick skillet until golden brown. Or place the cut kernals on a sheet pan and bake until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Roasting the corn gives this gratin a more nutty flavor, but of course you can still make the gratin without roasting the corn.

Stop by on Sunday, November 23 for our annual Champagne Stroll from 12 to 5 pm. We will have delicious holiday goodies and, of course, our favorite champagne punch available. Kitchen Conservatory and the other merchants on Clayton Road between Brentwood and Hanley roads all participate in a scavenger hunt. The winner gets a gift certificate that can be used at any of the stores.

Sunday also marks the start of our holiday hours. We will be open for shopping Monday through Thursday from 9:30 am to 7 pm, Friday and Saturday from 9:30 am to 5:30 pm, and Sundays 12 to 5 pm. Yes, we still offer complimentary gift wrapping!

Our website is open 24 hours a day. This year, Kitchen Conservatory has a special new service: online gift certificates. You can purchase a gift certificate online and then print it from your own computer — so you don’t have to fight traffic to visit us or rely on the mail service. The gift certificates can be used for merchandise or cooking classes and can be redeemed online or over the telephone or in person.

Champagne Punch

• 2 cups cranberry juice
• 3/4 cup superfine sugar
• 2 cups pineapple juice
• 1 bottle (750 ml.) champagne or sparkling wine

Combine the cranberry juice and sugar and stir until dissolved. Add the pineapple juice and chill. When ready to serve, add the chilled champagne.

Food scientist Harold McGee confessed yesterday in the New York Times that he does not brine his turkey. Neither do I. His complaint with brining is that the turkey drippings are too salty and tasteless for making a delicious pan sauce – and the gravy is the crucial component. I do not brine turkey because I find it an unnecessary step. I tried brining, but the result was ho-hum. If you do not overcook the turkey, there is no reason to brine. Some cooks argue that if the turkey was frozen, brining is an essential step.

Here is how I roast a turkey: Buy a fresh, never frozen bird (which is harder than it sounds, because supermarkets sell “fresh turkeys” that have been kept at 24 degrees). I have ordered a turkey from a local farm. Season the turkey with salt and pepper. Rub softened butter between the skin and the breast meat. Insert a probe thermometer into the deepest part of the breast meat, but do not touch the bone. Let the turkey come to room temperature (about 5-6 hours). I like to stuff the turkey and tie the legs together. Place the turkey in a v-rack in a roasting pan. Place pieces of aromatic vegetables in the pan (onion, celery, carrot). Cook the turkey for one hour at 400 degrees. Lower the oven temperature to 325 degrees and cook until the thermometer reaches 150 degrees, about 2 more hours. Remove the turkey and — using a turkey lifter — move the turkey to the carving board and let rest for 30 minutes before carving. I do not cover the turkey because I want the skin to stay crispy.

Meanwhile, make the gravy. Strain the liquid in the roasting pan and pour into a gravy separator. Place the roasting pan on the stove on medium heat. Add a few tablespoons of the fat from the turkey. Whisk in several tablespoons of flour and cook until light brown. Deglaze the pan with a 1/2 cup of wine or dry marsala or bourbon. Let the liquid reduce by half. Pour in the liquid from the gravy separator (but do not add any more fat). Bring to a boil and turn down to simmer. Taste and adjust the seasoning. If desired, add more turkey stock or some heavy cream. Or chop up the turkey liver and add to the gravy for giblet gravy.

Chef Bruce Piatek II is the executive chef of Eleven Eleven Mississippi. His wife, Anne Piatek, is also a chef. She works as a personal chef to families creating nutritious and healthy meals. Together, Bruce and Anne teach really wonderful cooking classes at Kitchen Conservatory because their different styles compliment each other so well. At their last class, they made a soup that everyone just loved. Yes, this bisque is rich, but oh, so yummy! We had multiple requests to share the recipe. 

Shrimp and Corn Bisque

1/2 cup diced red, yellow and green peppers
1/4 cup minced red onions
1/4 cup minced yellow onions
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon ground chili powder
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 pounds bay shrimp
3 quarts heavy cream
2 cups corn kernels
salt and white pepper to taste
2 cups tomato juice
1 tablespoon sambal oelek chile paste
cornstarch slurry (1 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with 2 tablespoons cold water)

In a thick bottomed soup pot, saute the peppers, onions and garlic with the oil until semi-soft. Add the shrimp, and cook for another 2 minutes. Combine the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Thicken the soup to the consistency of a chowder or buttermilk, using either roux, cornstarch or arrowroot. Reduce the heat to a simmer and continue to cook for about 20 minutes. Season to taste and serve.

The next class taught by both Piateks is February 26, “Turn up the Heat” and Anne Piatek is teaching “Luxury Spa” on January 12. Register now for more delicious food!

Anne Cori will be on Show Me St. Louis (KSDK, Channel 5) today (Monday, November 10, 2008) at 3:15 pm. Tune in to watch her demonstrate this recipe:

Smoked Trout and Smoked Shrimp with Peach Sauce

• 1 trout, boned
• 1 pound large shrimp, shell on
• Salt and pepper
• 4 cups fresh arugula

In the bottom of a stovetop smoker, place a tablespoon of the smoking dust (such as apple wood dust). Place the trout and shrimp on the rack on the drip tray on top of the dust. Season the trout with salt and pepper. Cover. Turn the heat on high until wisps of smoke appear. Turn the heat down to low (the smoker temperature should be about 150 degrees). Smoke the fish until they reach an internal temperature of 120 degrees (use a probe thermometer), about 3 minutes. Remove the lid to stop the cooking. Peel the shrimp. Serve with peach sauce on top of a bed of arugula.

For the sauce:

• ¼ cup peach jam, pureed
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon wine vinegar
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 teaspoon salt

Mix all of the ingredients together. Serve with smoked fish.

Today, the Kitchen Conservatory culinary book club’s topic is The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken. The author, Laura Schenone, will be calling in to join the discussion!

This very interesting book covers an Italian-American family’s recipe for ravioli and the search for the original recipe in Italy.

Pictured here is cheese ravioli made by hand-rolling the dough to a giant circle, then thinly spreading the filling on half of the circle, then folding the dough over to cover. The checkered ravioli pin on the left was used to make the impressions. I then cut the dough with a hand-held pasta cutter with a fluted edge. I used the rollpat dough mat to roll out the dough, which meant that the pasta never stuck to the counter.

The culinary book club is open to all; we read the book ahead of time and then discuss the book while eating theme-appropriate food. Please join us!

My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving, because it’s all about the food. And the food for Thanksgiving is so delicious: lots of onions cooked in butter, crispy poultry skin, sweet sweet potatoes, and pie, pie, and more pie. I could eat Thanksgiving food all month long, so at Kitchen Conservatory, we are eating Thanksgiving food all month long. Pictured at right are the wild turkeys in my backyard.

On Sunday, November 16 from 1 to 4 pm, Sustainable Thanksgiving features local Heritage turkeys and seasonal produce.

On Tuesday, November 18 from 6 to 9 pm, My First Thanksgiving has a stress-free traditional menu.

We will roast turkeys and show how to carve them for our Knife Skills classes on November 19 and 20.

Tired of turkey? Only the best parts of the meal are served in The Gravy Train and Stuffing on Thursday, November 20 from 6:30 to 9 pm.

Don’t want to mess up your kitchen? Make life easier with our Make-and-Take Side Dishes on Tuesday, November 25 from 6 to 9 pm and Pies on Wednesday, November 26 from 12 to 4 pm.

Register now.

And, yes, Kitchen Conservatory has all the essential tools for Thanksgiving, plus the pie-making equipment.

If all this turkey-talk is tiresome, sign up for a sushi-making class on Monday, November 24 or Friday, November 28 from 6 to 8:30 pm.

The winter cooking class schedule at Kitchen Conservatory is now posted online. There are 160 brand-new classes to choose among!

We welcome several new cooking instructors, including Francophile Karen Mitcham-Stoeckley of the Eagle’s Nest, chef Pete Slay of Fu Manchu, Frank McGinty of Kaldi’s with a coffee-flavored menu, and Aysha Sadikovic with a Mediterranean menu.

After four years of teaching cooking in Chicago, Christie Saali has returned to teach at Kitchen Conservatory. In addition to offering some glamorous Girls’ Night Out classes, she is reprising her favorite Day in the Kitchen: Beef.

Don’t miss the brand-new Basics of Cooking, a four-part participation cooking class taught by the director of the cooking school, Barb Nack. This important class not only teaches the fundamentals of cooking, but also solves the problem of “what’s for dinner tonight.”

The director of marketing, Ruth Sparrow, continues to come up with clever titles. My favorite is Willing to Bisque It All — in which chef Bernard Pilon offers four different soups. What’s your favorite pun?

Register Now.

In a participation cooking class the other night, the chef-instructor (Cary McDowell of Revival) repeatedly asked the student to “aggressively season” the meat. What a great phrase! Don’t just sprinkle on a little salt, but aggressively season — meaning, coat the meat with flavor. Seasoning — especially salt — may be the biggest difference between home-cooking and restaurant cooking. Restaurant chefs are not afraid of salt and pepper and season before, during, and after the cooking process. The food is then penetrated with flavor. Salt brings out the flavor of all food, including dessert. Chef Cary surprised the class with chocolate-covered bacon for dessert — and all of it was consumed!

What kind of salt to use? Chefs like kosher salt because it is flaked and easy to pinch with fingers. Sea salt lends a delicious, briney taste. Specialty finishing salts, such as gray salt from France or pink salt from Australia, still have the trace minerals which add flavor and color; they are used to best advantage at the end of cooking or at the table.

What kind of pepper to use? Black peppercorns have the best flavor, especially when freshly-ground. Yes, it does make a huge difference in flavor to grind pepper; the aromas vanish quickly. White and green peppercorns are only used in specific recipes. Pink “peppercorns” are a different plant, but can add a beautiful accent to sauces.

Both salt and whole peppercorns have a very long shelf life. Government regulations now insist on expiration dates on all food — including salt — but that’s silly for a mineral that is thousands of years old!