Luci's Tasty Adventures

Thanksgiving would not be the same without a nice juicy turkey.  Please follow my brine instructions, and my baking instructions and you will not be let down.

Aromatics:

1 comice pear quartered
1 yellow onion quartered
1 cinnamon stick
A healthy bunch of FRESH sage, rosemary, thyme, and flat leaf parsley steams

Method:

Heat oven to 500 degrees.

Washed the brine off turkey and dried it completely.  Set up turkey in roasting rack, and tuck wings under the sides of the bird to prevent burning.  Insert all the aromatics into the turkeys cavity.













Prep turkey shield.  This is Alton Brown's part, basically his method is to bake bird in a 500 degree oven on the lowest rack for 30 minutes, then pull turkey out and put turkey shield on the bird to prevent the breasts from drying out.  This idea and method caught my eye because it was based on the temperature of breasts to indicate when you turkey is done vs the hours per pound method most use. 

Turkey Shield:













1 sheet of heavy duty foil made into a triangle
olive oil
1 probe thermometer

Brush olive oil over the foil and press it onto the turkey creating a mold of the breasts.  Remove turkey shield and set aside to use later. 

Rub olive oil all over the turkey and place it in the lowest point of your oven for 30 minutes.  After 30 minutes is up reduce your ovens temperature to 350.  Pull your turkey out and insert your probe thermometer into the deepest portion of the breast meat.  Set your probe thermometer to 161, and put the turkey back in the oven.  My turkey was 15lbs, and took 2.5 hours to cook, including the 30 minutes at 500.  Once your turkey hits 161, take it out and cover it will foil and let it rest for at least a half hour.













Gravy

drippings from the turkey
fat separating measuring cup 
fresh rosemary
8 oz Cabernet Sauvignon
1/3 cup flour
1-2 cans of low sodium chicken broth
pepper and salt

Method:


Remove turkey from roasting pan and set aside.  Add broth and wine to roasting pan over medium heat.  The amount of wine and broth used depends on how many drippings you have. Make sure you scrape the bottom of the roasting pan getting all the bits up, continue to cook it to reduce it down.  Poor liquid into your fat separator, let sit for about 5 minutes. 

Take about 1/3 cup of liquid from fat separator and poor it back into your roasting pan over medium heat.  Slowly whisk in flour, gradually add more the the liquid from the fat separator till you have the consistency you prefer.  Whisk for about 5 minutes add your fresh rosemary, salt and pepper and serve.

The finished product!

1/3 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
Zest of one orange
½ cup of honey
12 ounces of fresh cranberries
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

Method:
Wash the cranberries, and toss out any dried or wrinkled berries.  Heat orange juice and honey in a sauce pan over med heat. Bring this to a boil, reduce to med heat add cranberries, cloves, and orange zest.  Continue to simmer over med heat for about 10 minutes.  Remove from heat and place in severing dish and refrigerate till you are ready to use it.

Yum... Stuffing has always been my favorite part of Thanksgiving.  My recipe is a combination of my Mother's and my Aunt Brenda's recipe.  Its actually a very simple common stuffing, but I just adore it and never seem to try any other recipes when it comes to turkey day.

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp non salted butter
1 tsp kosher salt
2 cups chopped yellow onion
2 cups chopped celery
2 cloves of garlic finally chopped
4 ounce can of chopped mushrooms drained
1 lb Jimmy Dean sausage
10 cups white bread cubed stuffing- not seasoned
2 tsp Bells Seasoning
2 14 ounce cans of chicken broth

Method:

Heat olive oil and butter in large skillet on medium heat.  Add onion, celery, and kosher salt.  Sweat vegetables down till they are almost tender about 5 minutes.  Add chopped garlic and mushrooms.  Cook for another minute and remove from heat, and place vegetables in a large mixing bowl.  Return skillet to stove and reduce temperature to medium low.  Break sausage into small pieces and cook on low heat for about 15 minutes.  Remove from heat when finished and combine with vegetables.  Add cubed bread crumbs, bells seasoning and mix well.  Slowly mix in chicken broth and transfer stuffing into a butter greased baking dish.  Cover with foil and bake at 350 for about a half hour and then  remove foil and bake for another 15 minutes till crispy on top.

This recipe makes enough to fill 9 by 13, 3 quart casserole dish.

This recipe was made for two people, and we had left overs.  Feel free to double or even triple for a larger crowd.

• ½ pound Brussels sprouts sliced in half
• ½ yellow onion sliced
• 1 garlic glove finally chopped
• 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• kosher salt
• fresh ground pepper

Method:

Heat large skillet on medium high with olive oil.  Add onion slices to the pan with a sprinkle of salt, saute for about 5 minutes.  Add the Brussels sprouts to the pan flat side down.   Cook them for about a minute, then add garlic to pan.  Saute them for another minute add fresh lemon juice and serve.

I have never been a huge fan of mashed potatoes around Thanksgiving time, I myself prefer to fill my belly with stuffing.  This recipe can be made with or without the hard boil eggs, I find adding them gives them a different and welcome texture. 

4 Yukon gold potatoes
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1/3 cup heavy cream
3 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 Hard boiled eggs
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Peel and chop up potatoes and put them into a large pot.  Cover them with water, add salt, and bring them to a boil.  10-15 minutes later your potatoes should be soft when poked with a fork, at this point take them off the heat and drain them.  Placed cooked potatoes back in the pot.  Heat butter and heavy cream in a separate bowl in the microwave and add to potatoes.  Mash them with your favorite masher, add salt and pepper to taste.  Finely chop hard boil eggs and add to your mashed potatoes and serve!

Serves about 5

The Brine!

So for the turkey I decided to brine it for about 16 hours, and then bake it filled with aromatics.  The brine is so worth it, my turkey came out so juicy.  I highly recommend everyone trying this at least once.   

Brine:

½ gallon water
½ gallon low sodium chicken stock
1 cup kosher salt
¼ cup brown sugar
¼ cup honey
1 Tbsp molasses
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp whole pepper corns
1 bulb of garlic chopped in half
1 gallon of ice water

Method:

Combine ½ gallon water, chicken stock, kosher salt, brown sugar, honey, molasses, soy sauce, pepper corns, and garlic in a stock pot over medium heat.  Bring to a boil and then refrigerate brine.

After brine is cooled, combine it with the 1 gallon of ice water in a 5 gallon stock pot, or bucket.  Rinse turkey off and remove all the innards.  Make sure turkey is full covered in the brine, you might have to place a weight on top of it to keep it submerged.  Brine for 6-16 hours.

When you are ready to cook the turkey, remove it from the brine, discard brine, and rinse turkey inside and out in sink.  Pat your turkey dry, and you are ready to prep turkey for the oven.

This soup is similar to my mothers recipe, I made some changes and added bacon... everyone loves bacon!

1.5 lb of white beans - Canellini or Great Northern
4 quarts of water
2-3 lbs of ham shanks
1 lb center cut bacon, chopped up
2 cup of diced onions
2 cup chopped celery
1 1/3 cup chopped carrots
4 cloves garlic, diced
Salt and pepper
Herbes de Provence
Fresh parsley

Method

Soak the beans in at least 3 quarts of cold water for about 2 hrs. Drain the water.

Put the ham shank pieces in a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a simmer and simmer for about an hour. Add the chopped vegetables and beans. Cook for another 2 hours, until the vegetables are soft and the ham meat easily pulls away from the bone.

Remove ham hocks from pot, and discard.  Your beans should be soft at this point, if they are not you need to let them cook longer. 

Heat a large skillet on medium heat and cook bacon till crispy.  Drain bacon on paper towels until beans are soft.  Once the beans are soft, break up the bacon into small pieces and mix into the soup.  Cook for about 15 minutes.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Add a pinch of herbes de provence, and server with fresh chopped parsley.

Serves a lot.