Hello universe. I am sure many of you have that American holiday on your minds. A great tradition to remember that first year on the eastern shore of our homeland and a time to bring family together around the table to share in the harvest. Okay, let's be honest. It's an excuse for us to watch football, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, eat ourselves into oblivion and enjoy "gobbler" sandwiches for the next week. We all love this gorgefest of a holiday no matter what our traditions may be.
It has been a while since I've posted and I wanted to get ahead of this massive cooking holiday by sharing some favorites, new and old, with you all in hopes you might try something different this year! This will be a three-part series:
- The Main Event: covering the bird, the gravy and the stuffing. I am attaching some videos and linking to the recipes I have used in the past that have been providen winners.
- A Little Something on the Side: we all know the side dishes are what make this meal as good as it is. It would be shameful to not dedicate an entire post to these gems.
- Give Me Some Sugar: even after all the carbo-loading we do during the meal, with our stretchy pants on, we manage to indulge a little bit more by sampling the tastiest pies and such. I have a few tried and true recipes that have been given to me by friends and family that I am going to share with you. But only if you promise to keep them super secret, okay?
Thanksgiving has been my Grandma Alford's favorite holiday for, like, well, forever. The itinerate foodie she is, her Thanksgiving table was always filled with the ten of us--my grandparents, my mom and dad, my younger brother Bill, my aunt Ginger, uncle Jack, and cousins Rob and Dave. That may sound small to some of you, but it's the biggest family meal I've been to! We always at the traditional turkey and stuffing,. Then there were the side dishes: mashed potatoes, candied yams, gravy, jellied cranberry mysteriously shaped like an aluminum can, and the peas. Oh heavens, the peas. There are definitely two camps in my family: canned vs. frozen. (Does anyone get the drift as to why I might not have been too fond of veggies as a kid?) We always have a bowl of each. In my opinion, we can just skip the peas altogether!
My birthday is November 23...in other words, RIGHT before or after this enormously important holiday in my family. My memories of birthdays and Thanksgiving as a child often bleed together. While I haven't shared a Thanksgiving meal with my family in several years, the memories remain. I often find myself a bit reflective and a little sad to be so far away from my loved ones this time of year, but I sublimate by making it my own each year.
Last year, I shared Thanksgiving with my dear friends Kristina and Ken. Kristina shares my love for yummy food, so we decided to turn the dial on Thanksgiving up a notch. Since there were no traditions to keep or precedences set, we decided to pick some new recipes to try and it made for a showstopping meal.
Now, if I was psychic, I would've taken pictures of all the fabulous dishes we prepared (minus all the shots of us drinking copious amounts of wine) and would post them here. Since I am not psychic, we will have to live with video clips and links to the recipes. I'll have to make sure to record the day for the blogosphere this year.
Turkey with Truffle Butter (Barefoot Contessa)
The Food Network begins airing these marathons of Thanksgiving-themed episodes this time of year. Last year, I happened to catch an episode of Barefoot Contessa where she was making a turkey with a friend of hers. My biggest complaint about this busty bird is that it is sort of flat in flavor, and generally dry. I've never been a huge fan of turkey meat, but this recipe definitely made me a fan. Since apparently everyone else in the MetroWest area of Boston seemed to be making the same version of turkey as us, we could not find white truffle butter or white truffle oil for that matter. We improvised and used regular butter and blended olive oil and some black truffle oil to rub on the skin. There were four particular things I loved about this recipe: there was no stuffing in the bird (we'll discuss this later), there was no basting required, the skin was crispy, it took less than four hours to cook, and the meat was so moist! Okay, that's five, but they're all good points! Did I mention the flavor? WOW! There actually was some, I couldn't believe it. This was the best turkey I've ever had, hands down.
Since I am limited to YouTube videos on Blogger and one doesn't exist for this episode, I have included a link to another site for the turkey preparation video here. It's the whole 20 minute episode, but it's in high resolution!
Roasted "Turkey" Gravy (Loosely based on a Tyler Florence recipe)
Okay, so Tyler Florence had this brilliant idea of making turkey stock from some turkey wings and using that to make the gravy rather than relying on the drippings from the turkey. The beauty of this is that you can make the stock weeks in advance and freeze it until you need it!
We made our stock with roasted chicken instead because it was just far more accessible and versatile. I love making chicken stock and stashing it in my freezer. Especially now that soup season is back on!
We cut up a whole chicken and roasted it with simple accoutrements: salt, pepper and olive oil. Once it was cooked (about 45 minutes) and cool enough to handle, we added the chicken pieces to the simmering stock mixture and let it go for about three hours. The stock was a deep amber color and had so much flavor! When it was gravy time, it was so darn simple to make! Pour stock in pan and heat. Add to flour and butter mixture in another pan and whisk until there are no more flour clumps and the gravy has thickened. Let boil for about five minutes and voila! Packed full of rich, layered flavor (and less fat because you can skim it off the stock), this tasted so delicious on the turkey and mashed potatoes.
Sausage and Herb Stuffing (Barefoot Contessa)
I have a very strong opinion on stuffing. I grew up in a household where we cooked the stuffing inside the bird, but it just never did anything for me. I always longed for the crunchy bits that you'd get when mom would make the Stove Top stuffing. Unfortunately, I didn't get my wish until I took the meal by the horns, so to speak, and began to make it my own. There are other reasons besides the crunchy bits to consider when determining whether to cook your "stuff" outside of the bird. There is a delicate balance when cooking one unit, like a whole turkey that has been stuffed with a wet mass of holiday deliciousness.
The biggest issue is that it takes longer to cook the stuffing than it does to cook the turkey. If you cook the turkey to the right temperature, chances are your stuffing won't be fully cooked. "What does that matter?" you might ask. Well, I personally don't want to eat a congealed glob of soggy seasoned bread. I also don't want to get salmonella poisoning. The bacteria from the raw meat hunkers down in that nice, warm, moist little den of love you've made and stays there until the stuffing reaches about 170 degrees...hot enough to kill it. If you cook the bird until the stuffing is done, the bird will be as dry and tasty as shoe leather.
The other issue is how on earth to do you get it out without sacrificing the good bits? It's just too much work! Isn't just easier to thorw it into a baking dish and be done with it?
Okay, so the recipe...it was the first time I had made a sausage stuffing. In my household, mom always bought the Pepperidge Farms stuffing cubes and seasoned the bujeezus out of it with dried herbs, salt and pepper. She adds sauteed onions and celery to the mix, some chicken stock, and of course handfuls of walnuts. All very traditional, I might say. Don't get me wrong, this is quite tasty, but I hate walnuts. I would a considerable amount of time picking the bitter nuts out of the stuffing in order to enjoy it...again to much work! A few years back, when I was just making Thanksgiving for myself, I had tried an apple, pecan and cranberry stuffing and loved it. This new recipe wasn't too far off the mark so we threw caution to the wind and went for it. We were so pleasantly surprised at how this turned out. High marks on the flavor scale and it really complemented our turkey nicely.
Here's a quick video showing the preparation of the stuffing. Simple, fast, delicious. You definitely need to give this one a whirl.
Now, if you've managed to read this far and haven't quit yet, I'd love to hear about some of your Thanksgiving traditions or favorite recipes. Do you have any turkey tips? Until next week, gobble gobble!
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