This year, all of us at High Sabatino and Associates are focusing on gratitude. We're eternally grateful for our customers and friends; we know we wouldn't have gotten through 2020 without your support and trust. Yes, our holidays are going to look different this year. Yes, we know so many families are suffering during this pandemic. And, yes, we're doing all we can to bring the things for which we're thankful to the forefront.
With that mindset, we were lucky to get together with our High Sabatino family, and we wanted to share a special meal with you we prepared in our test kitchen to appreciate our staff. Chef Tommy helped us put together some iconic and traditional Thanksgiving dishes we have on our tables year in, year out, but this time with our own commercial foodservice twist.
Using the RATIONAL iCombi Pro, RATIONAL iVario Pro, an Irinox Multifresh, and the Henkelman Boxer 35, Chef Tommy created a Thanksgiving meal for the entire High Sabatino office. Starting with a turkey brined with salt, sugar, cloves, orange peel, and bay leaves, the turkey was then then cooked in the iCombi Pro using the 'Roasted Turkey' program in iCookingSuite. Set at medium coloration and an internal temperature of 165 degrees, the bird cooked to a beautiful golden form in about one hour and 45 minutes. The meat was perfectly cooked and amazingly tender.
The other center of plate protein prepared was a bone-in rib roast. Seasoned with just salt and pepper. The roast was seared for about 10 minutes in the iCombi Pro and then transferred to the Irinox Multifresh. Chef Tommy then set the ‘Low Temperature Cooking’ program to run overnight using Irinox heating technology. The blast chiller slowly heats up to a maximum temperature of 185 degrees. For the roast, he set the phases to raise to 175 until the internal roast temperature was 125, then the Multifresh lowered the cabinet temperature to 158 until until the roast reached 132. After that, the chiller kicked in and cooled the roast to 37 degrees to preserve it until the next morning. Once he arrived back at the kitchen, he used the iCombi Pro to reheat the Roast using Rationals ‘Finishing’ function.
As for the sides we shared, Chef Tommy made smoked gouda mac and cheese. The sauce base was a bechamel sauce made using the iVario Pro. RATIONAL's iVario Pro has patented ceramic tiles built into pan base of this state-of-the-art tilt skillet. The tiles can either heat up extremely fast or in this case heat very evenly and gently. He added white wine, garlic and smoked gouda to the bechamel and then tossed the cavatappi pasta in with it. I cooked the pasta using the iVario Pros lifting arm and boiling basket. This feature allows for the iVario to lower and raise the pasta in and out of the water based of the parameters set. Once combined, he put the pasta and sauce into a pan, then topped with parmesan bread crumbs and using the ‘Browning and Crisping’ function of the iCombi Pro, created a beautiful, crispy and delicious mac and cheese.
The team also had a corn casserole that's a secret Sabatino-family recipe, but what we can say is it's somewhere between corn pudding and corn bread -- and it's incredible. It was delivered to Chef Tommy as a batter, and he cooked the casserole in the iCombi Pro using the ‘Casserole’ function.
Of course, there was also dessert! Chef Tommy prepared two delicious desserts using both the iCombi Pro and the iVario Pro. First, he made a pumpkin cheesecake using the ‘NY Style Cheesecake’ function in the iCombi Pro. The process took 45 minutes, and the result was fantastic! The cheesecake was made with 16oz cream cheese, three egg yolks, and one whole egg. Added to that mixture was one small can of pumkin puree and a teaspoon of vanilla extract. The mixture was sweetened with ¾ cup sugar and poured into a springform pan with a gingersnap crust.
The apple pie was made using the iVario Pro to sautée the apples with butter, cinnamon and sugar. Then they were added to the pie crust and topped with more dough. The pie was then baked in the iCombi Pro at 350 degree setting for 15 minutes. Served with caramelized apples and a cinnamon-vanilla whipped cream, the desserts were a huge success!