Thanksgiving 2012

Wow, it is that time of year already? Yes, Thanksgiving is here and the kitchen is already humming at the MacEntee household in Chicago.  We'll be having a small dinner for a total of five people and here's a preview of what I'll be serving:

• Romaine salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, blue cheese and vinaigrette dressing
• Turkey breast, ordered from Gepperth's Meat Market
• Leg of Lamb from Costco
• Feta cheese
• Tzatsiki
• Mashed potatoes
• Sweet potatoes
• Mixed vegetables
• Stuffing
• Gravy
• Pumpkin  and cheery pie 
• Wine

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

© 2012, copyright Thomas MacEntee

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Turkey Sausage Patties

With me following the Atkins diet since the start of 2012, I've tried to come up with a breakfast protein to accompany eggs. Bacon is fine but I'd love to have something with less fat.

Solution: homemade turkey sausage patties using ground turkey and a few spices.  I fry them in a non-stick pan or on the George Foreman grill.

INGREDIENTS

• 1.5 pounds ground turkey
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon dried sage
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper

PREPARATION

• In a large bowl place the ground turkey and then all the spices on top.

• Mix with your hands until well blended. You can use a food processor as well.

• Heat a frying pan or non-stick grill or griddle.

• Form the turkey mixture into patties and brown on both sides to 165 degrees or no longer pink in the center.  About 10 minutes.

Makes about 10 patties

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Turkey Stock

I have recovered the carcass from yesterday's turkey feast at my brother and sister-in-law's house so I will be making turkey stock today. We ate like dingos in a maternity ward!

If you've ever made stock before, you know there are a variety of ways to do it - with aromatic vegetables (celery, onions, carrots) or without; with salt or without; condensed or uncondensed.

My method is to use my 13 qt Le Creuset stockpot, no vegetables, no salt. I don't add salt because I never know what the stock will be used for and that recipe may have other ingredients high in salt, etc.

And I make a very rich condensed broth that I refrigerate overnight in order to skim off the fat. If the broth is too rich, I can always add more water to it later when I use it.

Then it goes into 1 gallon freezer bags and into the freezer!

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Stuffing

My stuffing is made the old fashioned way that I learned from my mother and she learned from her mother. It uses plain old white bread, peppers, onions, poultry seasoning and chicken stock.

I no longer place stuffing in the turkey for two reasons: it tends to get greasy from all the turkey fat and stuffing in a raw turkey increase the chances of bacteria especially if you pre-stuff and refrigerate the turkey. This recipe is baked in a buttered casserole which produces a nice crust.

And as for the photo - I really miss Bell's Poultry Seasoning. This is what I grew up with and it is almost impossible to find here in Chicago.






INGREDIENTS:

2 loaves of white bread
1 large onion, chopped
2 large green peppers, chopped
8 large sage leaves, chopped
1 tsp black pepper
3 tbsp poultry seasoning
6 cups chicken stock (1 large can)
1/2 cup Butter (1 stick)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. You can choose to let the bread dry out in the oven overnight or not. I've made it both ways.

2. In a very large bowl, tear or break bread into small pieces.

3. Over medium heat, cook the onions and peppers in 2 tbsp butter until soft. Remove from heat.

4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

5. Place peppers and onions in bowl with bread. Add sage, pepper and poultry seasoning.

6. Begin to mix with hands and add 1 cup chicken stock at a time. The mixture should not be too dry - the stuffing will lose moisture as it bakes. You may not need all the chicken stock.

7. Butter a large casserole or 13 x 9 x 2 pan very well with butter.

8. Place stuffing in the casserole. Any remaining butter can be placed on top of the stuffing.

9. Bake for 30 - 45 minutes depending on how much of a crust and how brown you want it.

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Turkey Gravy - And I Cheated!

Another true confession - I cheat when it comes to making turkey gravy, or any gravy for that matter. I rely on my Knorr gravy mixes.

I know you might be surprised but after years of fighting with greasy, time consuming turkey gravy and trying to make it while the turkey is resting and the rest of the side dishes are in the oven, I gave up.

The Knorr mixes are great and much better than McCormick brand which tends to be too salty. I can make it with water as directed or I use non-fat milk for a cream gravy.

And when I buy them through Amazon's grocery division, I can get free shipping and pay no sales tax. On the box of 24, it brings the price down to $1 per packet or less when my local supermarket is charging $1.75 a packet!

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Perfect Roast Turkey

In honor of the Thanksgiving "panic" that has suddenly developed at all the stores over the weekend, and which will only get worse and culminate with Mad Wednesday (where people shop as if there were an impending snowstorm or turkeys were endangered species), here is the turkey recipe I use when I am assigned the Thanksgiving hosting duties.

Warning - you will need cheesecloth for this recipe! And I never buy it the week of Thanksgiving since it is hard to find. Stock up!

My partner and I used this recipe for our first Thanksgiving and I nearly burned the house down. I had the beast all ready to go into the oven in his apartment stove (electric - feh!) which had never been used in two years. Can you say single and bachelor? Anyway, I follow the directions as to temperature and all of a sudden there are flames coming out of the oven. The knob for Bake/Broil/Pre-heat had been placed incorrectly so that Bake was really Broil.

This is basically a recipe that Martha Stewart published many years ago. To me it is the best way to make turkey - especially if you like that photo op of having perfectly brown beast on your holiday table.

INGREDIENTS

1 twenty- to-twenty-one-pound fresh whole turkey, giblets and neck removed from cavity and reserved
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, melted, plus 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
Cheesecloth
1 bottle 750-ml dry white wine (chardonnay or poiully fuisse - not sauvignon blanc or pinot grigio)
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
2 small onions
1 lemon
1 orange
2 celery stalks
Sage, rosemary or other fresh herbs

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Rinse turkey with cool water, and dry with paper towels. Let stand for 2 hours at room temperature.

2. Place rack on lowest level in oven. Heat oven to 450°. Combine melted butter and white wine in a bowl. Fold a large piece of cheesecloth into quarters and cut it into a 17-inch, four-layer square. Immerse cheesecloth in the butter and wine; let soak.

3. Place turkey, breast side up, on a roasting rack in a heavy metal roasting pan. If the turkey comes with a pop-up timer, remove it; an instant-read thermometer is a much more accurate indication of doneness. Fold wing tips under turkey. Sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon each salt and pepper inside turkey. Fill large cavity and neck cavity loosely with whole onions, quartered lemon and orange, whole celery stalks and the herbs; do not pack tightly. Tie legs together loosely with kitchen string (a bow will be easy to untie later). Fold neck flap under, and secure with toothpicks. Rub turkey with the softened butter, and sprinkle with remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and pepper.

4. Lift cheesecloth out of liquid, and squeeze it slightly, leaving it very damp. Spread it evenly over the breast and about halfway down the sides of the turkey; it can cover some of the leg area. Place turkey, legs first, in oven. Cook for 30 minutes. Using a pastry brush, baste cheesecloth and exposed parts of turkey with butter and wine. Reduce oven temperature to 350°, and continue to cook for 2 1/2 more hours, basting every 30 minutes and watching pan juices; if the pan gets too full, spoon out juices, reserving them for gravy.

5. After this third hour of cooking, carefully remove and discard cheesecloth. Turn roasting pan so that the breast is facing the back of the oven. Baste turkey with pan juices. If there are not enough juices, continue to use butter and wine. The skin gets fragile as it browns, so baste carefully. Cook 1 more hour, basting after 30 minutes.

6. After this fourth hour of cooking, insert an instant-read thermometer into the thickest part of the thigh. Do not poke into a bone. The temperature should reach 180° and the turkey should be golden brown. The breast does not need to be checked for temperature. If legs are not yet fully cooked, baste turkey, return to oven, and cook another 20 to 30 minutes.

7. When fully cooked, transfer turkey to a serving platter, and let rest for about 30 minutes.

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Turkey Burgers

Our good friend Erica was over for dinner last night. She's the type of friend who feels comfortable calling up on Sunday and saying, "What night are you making Turkey Burgers this week," as a form of invitation. That's how I like my women, sweet but not subtle.

This is a recipe I developed on my own once I knew I had to eliminate saturated fats from my diet. Instead of making hamburgers with ground beef, I wanted a tasty yet juicy recipe that used ground turkey.

Ingredients:

1 package ground turkey meat (1 - 1.5 lbs)
1 egg
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1/2 cup minced onion
1 tsp poultry seasoning
1 tsp olive or vegetable oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

Instructions:

1. Place all ingredients in a large bowl. Mix with hands until combined. Form into 4 or 5 patties.

2. Place on electric grill (like the George Foreman Grill) or non-stick frying pan over medium heat.

3. Cook for 9 minutes. If using frying pan, flip burgers after 5 minutes.

Photo: from PETA - People Eating Tasty Animals, Paul Peracchia, Flickr

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