Thanksgiving, Part 2

As usual, December has been beyond crazy, so the Thanksgiving recipes have been a little late in coming. That said, here in time for Christmas are a few more.

Brined Turkey (Gluten Free)

Brine:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Turkey-Brine/Detail.aspx
(This is the brine recipe I used, though I subbed fresh herbs for the dried since that's what I had. I just fished out the herbs with tongs before I used it. I also found that a wine box that formerly held a dozen bottles of Charles Shaw merlot made the best vessel for containing the turkey and brining bag. Just line the box with the bag, folding the edges back over the rim, place bird in box (may be a tight fit if you're over 18 pounds), pour in brine, seal bag and place in fridge. If the box is too tall, you can split it at the corners and fold down the sides to get it in. Worked perfectly, didn't cost a dime and was disposable.)

Turkey:
After draining the turkey in the sink and patting dry with paper towels, I treated my weighty friend with a butter massage. I slipped about two tablespoons of softened butter under the skin and spread that around and then rubbed a thin coat of butter all over the outside of the bird. Oil would be fine, I just had butter floating around and used that instead. I gave him a little salt sprinkle internally and externally and placed him in a roasting pan with a rack. Once he was settled, I turned his wings back behind him (he was resting breast-side up) and stuffed him with a quartered onion and half a juiced orange (a lemon would have worked too). He went into a 375 degree oven for the first 20 minutes or so, then was treated to a foil tent and reduced heat for the last two hours of cooking time since he browned faster than intended due to the minscule nature of my oven and the proximity of the upper element. He came out mahogany brown and rested for half an hour before he was carved.


Cranberry Relish (Gluten Free)

Ingredients:
-12 oz bag of fresh cranberries
-2 sweet apples, peeled and diced
-1/2 cup apple juice or apple cider
-1/2 to 2/3 cup sugar, depending on taste
-2/3 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:
Combine cranberries, sugar and juice in a saucepan over medium heat and bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally. When berries are starting to burst and the liquids are thickening stir in the apples and walnuts. Cook for another five minutes, stirring a few times to combine and remove from heat. Chill before serving. This can be made a day or two in advance and is lovely on toast and muffins as well as with the turkey.


Braised Leeks (Gluten Free):
Clean leeks by trimming off root end but not enough that they fall apart. Trim the dark green leaves off the top, leaving the white and light green. Split the leeks down the middle and rinse under running water, being sure to get into all the layers to rinse all the sand out. Drain in a colander as you go. When all leeks are cleaned, bring a large, heavy-bottomed/oven safe pan to high heat with some olive oil. Throw in the leeks and brown a bit, turning frequently (tongs work best here). When browned to your satisfaction but not cooked through, pour a liquid into the pan and toss the leeks around to coat them thoroughly. You can use broth, a broth/wine mixture or whatever sounds good. Mix in a few tablespoons of cream if you're willing, but not the fat-free half and half or milk--they curdle. There should be just under half an inch of liquid in the pan. Turn leeks and swish around a bit to evenly coat in broth/cream mixture. Place the pan in a 400 degree oven for 25-40 minutes, turning the leeks once or twice to promote even carmelization and redistribute the sauce. The leeks are done when soft, caramelized and most of the sauce is absorbed. Remove from oven and let cool a bit--this will be harder to do once you've tasted them. Serve as a side dish to whatever sounds good, on their own, or my personal favorite, chopped up and served on toast with loosely scrambled eggs on top.


Sweet Potato Biscuits--I'm not going to provide the recipe I used, as I didn't really end up liking them much. If you really want to know, ask and I'll send you the site.


Caramelized Onion Tart

Ingredients (9x13 sized pan):
-2 tubes of crescent roll dough
-3 pounds of onions, sliced thin
-2 1/2 TBsp olive oil
-dash salt
-5 oz goat cheese, softened

Directions:
First, assemble your crust. Unroll the crescent dough, trying your best to keep the sheet intact, and line a lightly greased 9x13 casserole dish with the dough, making sure to come up the sides a bit. You may have to be a little creative here to get the whole thing lined. Make sure all seams are pressed together as well, so that the whole thing bakes into one piece. Follow baking instructions on your package, taking care not to overbake and cover the edges with foil if they start to brown too much.
While the shell is baking caramelize the onions. Heat a large pan over medium heat, add the olive oil, onions and just a touch of salt and toss to combine. Stir the onions frequently to prevent burning and cook until deeply caramelized.
Allow the crust and onions to cool before you assemble the tart. To do this, spread the goat cheese evenly over the pastry and spoon the onions over the cheese, spreading into an even layer. To finish, cover pan in foil and reheat tart in a 350 degree oven until hot and a bit bubbly, about 15-20 minutes.

Notes:
-For a smaller tart, halve the ingredients and use a nine inch pie plate or square or round cake pan instead. Be creative in fitting the crust in and proceed as usual.
-Variation--This also works well with roasted tomatoes instead of or in combination with the onions. Slow roast enough tomatoes to fill whatever sized tart you'd like to make, rough chop them and use them to top the goat cheese. To make slow roasted tomatoes, halve ripe (even ripe winter specimens) tomatoes from stem to bottom, removing the green bits of stem. Toss lightly in olive oil, sprinkle with salt, pepper and/or steak seasoning and place in a 200 degree oven for 10-12 hours (overnight works great). Tomatoes should appear shrunken and somewhat drier than when you put them in. The flavor will have concentrated and the texture will have softened. These are great on their own as well and will probably get their own post in time. Make a huge batch, you'll find uses for them.

Thanksgiving, Part 1

This year I hosted Thanksgiving for the first time, and I'm happy to say that everybody seemed to have been ok with the menu. For the record, this was the menu:
Roast Turkey
Cider Gravy
Cranberry Apple Relish
Sausage Apple Cornbread Stuffing
Braised Leeks
Roasted White Asparagus
Sweet Potato Biscuits
Mashed Potatoes
Candied Sweet Potatoes
Onion Tart
Pecan Pie
Cherry Pie
Mini Pastries (thank you, trader joes...)
Butter Cookies

I've been asked to provide recipes for all of it, so I'll try, though this will probably take a bit. First up is the most-requested one--the stuffing. (By requested I mean begged and demanded, repeatedly.) It was a bit labor-intensive, but more than made up for it in both quantity and result. Here goes:

Sausage Apple Cornbread Stuffing

Ingredients:
-1 pound bulk sausage (pork, turkey, doesn't matter, as long as it's not in casings)
-1 large or two small onions, chopped
-1 large or two smal bulbs fennel, chopped
-4-6 ribs celery, chopped
-2 handfuls shredded carrots or 2 medium carrots, chopped fine
-4 granny smith apples, peeled and cubed
-5 cups chicken broth
-1 bag Pepperidge Farm Cornbread Stuffing mix (or some other similar one)

Directions:
Brown the sausage in a large saucepan over medium heat, breaking it into marble-sized bits and cooking until there is no pink left. Drain sausage of as much grease as you can and remove from the pan and place in a bowl. Pour off remaining grease from the pan and toss in onion, fennel, celery and carrots, if using chopped and not shredded. Cook the vegetables over medium-high heat until browned and nearly cooked through. Remove vegetables from the pan and toss in the apples. Sautee the apples until the edges are browned but the apples aren't cooked through. Pour the chicken broth into the pan and allow it to come to a boil with the apples. In a large (VERY LARGE) bowl combine the stuffing mix, sausage and vegetables and toss to combine. When the broth has come to temperature pour it and the apples over the stuffing mixture and stir to incorporate the broth and apples into the stuffing. Add more broth if the mixture is too dry. As there is nothing left that isn't cooked, the stuffing could easily be eaten at this point, but to finish it off in true thanksgiving fashion, load the whole lot of it into a greased 9x13 pan and bake at 375 for 30-40 minutes. This will brown the top a bit and get the edges a little crusty, as baked stuffings should be.

Notes:
-The whole thing can be made up to the point where you'd bake it and then thrown in the fridge. Just keep in mind that it will take longer to all come to temperature in the oven that way and it will need some extra time. No worries if it doesn't all heat up though--there is nothing in it that hasn't already been cooked and no eggs to worry about not setting up.
-This stuffing will probably have a texture different to what you're used to if you generally make bread stuffings. It comes out chock full of veggies bound together by the cornbread.
-This may well taste fine if you use regular bread crumb stuffing mixes and not cornbread. I just prefer cornbread myself and I think it goes well with the apple.


And second up, the gravy:

Cider Gravy

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/recipes/2007/11/14/cider-herb-gravy/
(I'm being lazy about typing for this one)

The gravy was based on the above recipe from the Washington Post, with the following changes:
1. I didn't have parsley or brandy, so I left them out.
2. I didn't see the point of putting in butter, so I didn't.
3. I made the base pretty much as instructed, minus the butter and thickened it with a few tablespoons of cornstarch mixed in with the cream to form a slurry. As I didn't feel like taking the time to chop herbs, I put a whole sprig of rosemary, two or three of thyme and two stems of sage into the simmering broth and pulled it out with the tongs right before I thickened it. The cider/broth mixture was infused, but there weren't any hard bits of rosemary leaves or thyme stems left floating in it.
4. I didn't measure my drippings, but I did skim the fat off of them as best I could, which left me with about two cups or so (it was a big turkey). I combined that with another two cups or so of chicken broth and the gravy base and heated the whole thing through. It was a touch runny for my taste, so I added some more cornstarch slurry and that thickened it up nicely. A little sherry or brandy may have been a nice addition at that point, but it certainly wasn't missed.
5. This whole thing resulted in about 4 or 5 cups of gravy, which in our family was just about perfect for the amount of leftovers we had.


Coming soon: Turkey, Cranberry Relish and Braised Leeks