Monday, December 1, 2008

Thanksgiving Part II

On second thought, a twelve pound turkey is way too much food for two people. If I eat one more meal of thanksgiving left overs, I am going to start gobbling!

Thanks
-J

Thanksgiving Dinner

So, as some of you may know, our plans for Thanksgiving this year experienced a minor wrinkle. Instead of 4-8 people for dinner, we had just ourselves. I decided to go whole hog anyway, and cook a 12 pound turkey (which we are still eating...). I think it is really important to spend Thanksgiving with someone you care about, and to continue the tradition of cooking the meal, in all its glory. It helps to remind you of all the wonderful blessings we have, right?



Here we are toasting the bounty of 2008:





First off here is a picture of the finished plate, all lovely (and as of yet unmolested):



The plate contains everything we prepared (I do mean we, as Jodi was an extremely efficient helper!): Turkey, Dressing, Mashed Potatoes, Green Bean Casserole and cranberry relish (minus the giblet gravy). Okay, there is no pumpkin pie on the plate, but we ate that 3 hours later as a pure safety measure (prevention of unintentional rupture!, see below!)




I think a few of the recipes I used are truly excellent, and are worthy of posting, and follow:

Alton Brown Turkey Recipe:
1 (14 to 16 pound) frozen young turkey

For the brine: 1 cup kosher salt 1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 gallon vegetable stock
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1/2 tablespoon allspice berries
1/2 tablespoon candied ginger 1 gallon iced water

For the aromatics: 1 red apple, sliced
1/2 onion, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup water
4 sprigs rosemary
6 leaves sage
Canola oil

Combine all brine ingredients, except ice water, in a stockpot, and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve solids, then remove from heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.

Early on the day of cooking, (or late the night before) combine the brine and ice water in a clean 5-gallon bucket. Place thawed turkey breast side down in brine, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area (like a basement) for 6 hours.

Turn turkey over once, half way through brining.

A few minutes before roasting, heat oven to 500 degrees.

Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes.

Remove bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard brine.
Place bird on roasting rack inside wide, low pan and pat dry with paper towels.

Add steeped aromatics to cavity along with rosemary and sage.

Tuck back wings and coat whole bird liberally with canola (or other neutral) oil.

Roast on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F. for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cover breast with double layer of aluminum foil, insert probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and return to oven, reducing temperature to 350 degrees F. Set thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let turkey rest, loosely covered for 15 minutes before carving.”


Green Bean Casserole

Beans
2 quarts water
1 tablespoon table salt
1 1/2 pounds fresh green beans, trimmed and cut into bite-size pieces

Bring the water to boil in a large pot. While it's heating, cut up the beans. Add the salt and beans to the boiling water. Cover and cook for 6 minutes. Drain beans in a colander, and then shock in an ice bath to stop the cooking. Let them drain in the colander, shaking every now and then to get off all the water.

Sauce
10 ounces mushrooms (I used buttons)
3 cloves garlic, minced
Generous pinch cayenne pepper (I used hot paprika this time)
Salt to taste
Fresh pepper to taste
2 tablespoons flour
3/4 cup chicken broth
1 tablespoon dry sherry (except I was out of sherry, used Bourbon)
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan (FRESH!)

Trim and discard the mushroom stems and chop the mushrooms into pieces. Spray a non-stick pan with canola oil and heat it. Add the mushrooms, garlic, cayenne, salt, and pepper. Cook until mushrooms are very soft and exude their juices. Add the flour to the pan, and stir (think Roux). Add the sherry and let simmer for 1 minute. Add the chicken broth and simmer, stirring, until mixture thickens. Add the cream and simmer until thick, about 5 to 10 minutes. Add the cheese and adjust the seasonings to taste. Stir in the beans.

Topping
1 1/2 slices whole grain bread
(I used extra bread cubes from the dressing)
1 tablespoon butter
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/16 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3-ounce can of French fried onions


Put the bread, butter, salt, and pepper into a food processor and pulse until crumbly. Pour into a bowl and add the onions. Stir to combine.

To assemble:

Put the green beans into an buttered casserole dish and top with the onion mixture. Bake at 425 F for about 15 minutes. If you are not serving this right away, refrigerate the topping separately. Bring to room temperature before sprinkling the topping on the casserole and baking for about 20 minutes or until hot throughout.

Pumpkin Pie Recipe :

Crust (modified version of Alton Brown recipe)
3 ounces (6 tablespoons) butter
chilled 1 ounce (2 tablespoons) Crisco
chilled 6 ounces (approximately 1 cup) all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling dough
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup ice water, in spritz bottle

Place butter and lard in freezer for 15 minutes. When ready to use, remove and cut both into small pieces.

In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour and salt by pulsing 3 to 4 times. Add butter and pulse 5 to 6 times until texture looks mealy. Add Crisco and pulse another 3 to 4 times. Remove lid of food processor and spritz surface of mixture thoroughly with water.

Replace lid and pulse 5 times. Add more water and pulse again until mixture holds together when squeezed. Place mixture in large zip-top bag, squeeze together until it forms a ball, and then press into a rounded disk and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Place 2 metal pie pans in the refrigerator to chill.

Remove dough from refrigerator. Cut along 2 sides of the plastic bag, open bag to expose dough, and sprinkle both sides with flour. Cover again with plastic and roll out with a rolling pin to a 10 to 11-inch circle. Open plastic again and sprinkle top of dough with flour. Remove pie pans from refrigerator and set first pan on top of dough. Turn everything upside down and peel plastic from bottom of dough. Place second pan upside down on top of dough and flip again. Remove first pan from atop dough. Trim edges if necessary, crimp edges to make PRETTY! Refrigerate until time to bake.

Filling (modified Libby's recipe)

3/4 cup granulated sugar
1-1/2 teaspoon ground Saigon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
2 large eggs
1 can (15 oz.) LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
1 can (12 fl. oz.) NESTLÉ® CARNATION® Evaporated Milk

PREHEAT oven to 425° F.

COMBINE sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves in small bowl. Beat eggs lightly in large bowl. Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture. Gradually stir in evaporated milk. Pour into pie shell.

BAKE for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350° F.; bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean.

Cool on wire rack for 2 hours. Serve immediately or refrigerate. (Do not freeze as this will cause the crust to separate from the filling.)

HUGS
-John