Turkey’s Day After

Thanksgiving comes and goes. You eat roast turkey to your little heart’s delight and your tummy’s sacrifice. You’ve packed your fridge with leftovers. The family is mostly gone. And the thought of another bite of straight turkey sends you running for the hills. What should you do with all that day old delicious meat?

Make some Turkey and Rice! That’s what I did and it was a hit! You’ve already done the toughest part, cooking the bird. The easy part is staring you dead in the face. So let’s get to it!

Ingredients
1/2 cp bacon, diced
1 large onion, diced
1/4 cp cilantro, chopped
1/4 cp parsley, chopped
4 cps cooked turkey meat, chopped
2 tbsp vegetable oil
3 cps rice
1 packet Knorr Sazón
4 cps broth or water
1 cp beer (or water if you don’t wish to use beer)
Sea salt to taste

Here’s what:
You will need a large saucepan with a tight-fitting lid. Cook the bacon until lightly brown, then add the onions and cook until they become translucent. Add the cilantro and parsley, after stirring it in add the turkey pieces. Remove all to a plate and set aside.

In the same saucepan, add the vegetable oil to heat up. In the meantime, rinse the rice. Once you have drained the rice, add it to the pan, stirring to coat it with the oil. Now add the packet of Sazón, making sure that the powder is evenly distributed on the grains of rice. Now add the liquid and check the salt, season as needed. Bring it to a boil without disturbing it.

Once the water is almost completely evaporated, add the turkey mix and cover with the lid. Lower the temperature to low and allow the rice to cook/steam for 30 minutes. At the end of the 30 minutes, incorporate the turkey into the rice and serve.

Turkey #2 – D-Day Turkey

This is how I make turkey every year, or rather, every time I’ve made turkey in the past. This is my true and tested method for a deliciously moist bird without fail. No basting, no fussing. The only fussing I do, takes place a day or so before T-Day. Just long enough to allow the bird to swim about in the briney water, relaxing in all the spices and seasonings I chose for that ocassion.

Then on the day it is to be served, I just lay it breast-side down on a roasting pan, brush it with butter and olive oil and forget about it until it needs to come out of the oven. It is always successful and enjoyed by all. You should try it this way, I promise you won’t be disappointed.

I’m not cooking this one until tomorrow (Thursday), but I wanted to give you a play by play in case you were searching for an easy way to prepare your bird. I will update the pictures as things evolve.

Turkey Brine (1-2 days before serving)
In a saucepan, combine:
6 tbsp sea salt
4 bay leaves
2 tbsp sage, powder
3 tbsp Herbs d’Provence
6 cloves garlic
5 cloves
1 tsp black peppercorns
1 orange, quartered
3 cps water
Bring this to a boil for about 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and let it cool down.

The turkey I’m working with is a 20-pounder. Remove giblet bag and neck, reserve these to make broth and gravy. Rinse the turkey under cool running water. In an oversized storage bag or a bowl, add the cooled brine, place the turkey in and top it off with more water–about 1-1/2 gallons of cool water. Give the turkey a couple of turns in the bag to ensure the water and brine mix in. Seal the bag or cover the bowl with plastic wrap then foil paper.

Put the whole thing in the fridge overnight. Usually I start this process 1-1/2 days before I am roasting the bird and I flip the bird every 8-10 hours or so, if it’s not completely submerged in the brining liquid.

 

Roasting Day
Remove turkey from the bag and drain any brining liquid that may be in the openings. Pat dry the turkey. Melt 1/2 cp butter (1 stick) with 1/4 cp extra virgin olive oil, 2 cloves of garlic (peel and cut them in half). Brush this mixture (avoiding the garlic) over the breast side of the turkey. Put it in the fridge for about 15 minutes, then flip the bird so the thighs are on top and brush with the rest of the butter. Place it in the fridge for another 15 minutes.

In the meantime, preheat oven to 400°. Coarsely chop:
2 oranges
2 carrots
1/2 cp parsley
4 cloves garlic
5 cloves
and mix in:
1 tbsp sage
1 tbsp thyme
1 tbsp rosemary
1 tsp sea salt
Use 1/2 of this mixture to loosely stuff the large cavity of the bird and arrange the other 1/2 under and around the turkey. Put the bird in the oven for 20 minutes then lower the temperature to 325° for the remainder of its cooking time.

Once the thermometer reads about 170°  in the thickest part of the thigh, remove it from the oven and cover it loosely with foil. Allow it to rest covered for about 15 minutes. Remove the aromatics from the crevices before you begin carving it.

Nutty Apple Squares

Honeycrisp Apples, of course!

I told you I would come up with some ideas to bake with my beloved Honeycrisp Apples. This little treat turned out quite well (after 2 tries), I got the inspiration from pecan squares, Houston’s apple cobbler and my dear friend’s pizza pie.

I took Dorothy’s (Dodo as I call her) pizza pie crust recipe and topped it with my interpretation of Houston’s cobbler–best in town. The result was a buttery crust topped with caramely apples and toasty nuts. And if you really want to indulge, serve it a la mode with some Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla ice cream. Oh yeah!

Preheat oven to 325°
Crust
1-1/2  sticks butter, softened
1-1/2 cp flour
1/3 c. powdered sugar

You can mix the above ingredients by hands, believe me, I love my Kitchen Aid, but this is just way easier than washing the bowl and beater later. Incorporate the butter, sugar and flour; this dough will be very soft and pliable. Then spread onto a 11×17 inch cookie sheet. Don’t attempt to roll it, just pat it out on the cookie sheet. You want the depth of the dough to be about 1/2-inch thick. Bake at 325° for 10 minutes, you don’t need to get it completely browned as it will be going back in the oven.

Raise oven’s temperature to 350°
Filling:
2 cps apples, peeled & diced
1/2 cp water
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 cp firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cp honey
1/4 cp corn syrup
2/3 cp butter
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
3 tbsp whipping cream
3/4 cp each pecans and walnuts, coarsely chopped

In a saucepan, combine the apples, water and lemon juice over medium heat. Cook the apples until slightly soft and the water is absorbed. In the same pan, add the sugar, honey, syrup, vanilla, and spices, then stir in the butter over medium-high heat until melted and it all begins to bubble. At this point, turn off the heat, stir in the cream then the nuts.

Pour this hot filling into prepared crust and bake at 350° for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden and bubbly. Cool completely before cutting into 2-inch squares. This recipe yields about 24 squares.

mmmMashed Potatoes

OK, let’s face it. Mashed potatoes are one of those basics that everyone loves and for which we all have our own standards. I like mashed potatoes, before this batch I didn’t LOVE them. I do now. The potatoes themselves are just standard issue mashed potatoes. I think the difference is in the topping. See, what had happened was…

I wanted to make confit (I did, post to come) and in order to make it I needed to render some fat. I got some pork fat and rendered it, I was left with what I’m guessing are cracklings. That’s the topping. OMG! You could sub bacon for the cracklings, so don’t freak out.

5 medium Yukon Gold potatoes
1-1/2 tsp sea salt
3/4 cp heavy cream
1/4 cp butter (yeah, I know)
black pepper to taste
Dash of nutmeg
1/3 cp cracklins or bacon

Peel and quarter the potatoes and put them into medium size pot. Fill with cool water just to cover the potatoes, add salt and bring to a soft boil. These potatoes are very tender, a hard boil may cause them to break apart. They will need to cook for about 20 minutes or until a knife goes through easily.

Once they’re cooked, drain the potatoes. Place the pot back on the burner with the butter and cream, until the butter begins to melt. Put the potatoes back in the pot and begin mashing them immediately, stirring in the cream and butter. Check the salt, add pepper and nutmeg. Stir and serve topped with the cracklins.

I know I don’t need to say this, but I will anyway. ENJOY!

Onion Brown Butter Sauce

This was pretty easy to make, took me all of 5-7 minutes from beginning to tableside. I used it to bring some turkey back to life, but I bet it would work with any poultry or vegetable.

Here’s how: Heat up a pan and add 2 tbsps extra virgin olive, add 1 cp finely diced onions and cook until translucent and beginning to brown. Remove the onions from the pan.

In the same pan add 1/2 cp butter and melt over medium heat; once melted it will begin to foam, keep stirring and the foam will begin to brown. Make sure you don’t allow it to burn, though, keep your eye on it.  Add the onions, stir. Then add 1/2 cp vermouth or white wine, you can flame this to burn out the alcohol, or just cook it for a few more minutes.

This rocks over turkey AND over mashed potatoes.