Everything but the turkey, and you'll find out why

I set out the other day to recreate a delicious turkey I had made some years back, not on Thanksgiving, mind you, but 3 days after. It was my peevish response to a take-out turkey we’d had with relatives, and I just felt I had to flex my Thanksgiving dinner muscles or else lose ‘em. It was a de-boned turkey, restuffed into shape, roasted, basted, sliced, and enjoyed and it looked a little like this:

You can't judge a book by it's cover, that's for sure

This is the turkey I made the other day, and this is the turkey that was, well, inedible. Yes, I’ve gone to the front and I return with warnings about organic/natural/free-range turkeys. But I’ll get to that later.

I did make a flavorful stuffing for the bird with cornbread, dried sour cherries, fennel, almonds, sausage, and sage. That was not a horror story. But I’m still smarting over that turkey.

Cherry, Almond & Sausage Stuffing | 10 servings

This will make enough to fill a 12 to 14-pound turkey, plus extra for a casserole.

6 cups dried cornbread chunks, or one Cornbread recipe
4 cups good-quality white bread chunks, such as a ciabatta (about 1/2 loaf)
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 pound sausage, or 2 Italian sausages
1 large onion, diced
1 fennel bulb, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
3/4 cup coarsely chopped dried cherries
3/4 cup raw slivered almonds
Sprig of fresh sage, about 8 large leaves, minced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups unfiltered apple juice or cider
1/2 cup chicken stock or turkey stock (for overflow stuffing)

Tear the bread into chunks.

I used half a ciabatta (left) and a recipe of cornbread (right)

Spread the bread evenly in one layer on baking sheets

Dry the bread in a 225°F oven, tossing occasionally to dry evenly. It will take no more than an hour to dry out.

While the bread is drying, prepare the other stuffing ingredients. Heat the olive oil and 1 tablespoon of the butter in a pan over medium. Remove the sausage casing and break up the meat in the pan.

With the tip of a sharp knife, make a long slit in the sausage casing

Pull off the casing and discard

Break up the sausage into small bits - I used 1 spicy and 1 mild Italian sausage

Cook the sausage until browning. While the sausage is cooking, dice the onion, fennel and celery.

Trim the top and root off the fennel and cut out the tough core

Slice the fennel along the grain

Holding the slices together, turn the fennel and slice against the grain

With a slotted spoon, remove the cooked sausage and set aside.

Scoop the sausage onto a small plate or into a bowl until needed

Add the diced onion, fennel and celery to the sausage pan and cook until wilted, about 10 minutes.

Sprinkle in some salt and pepper at this point -- it's important not to underseason stuffing

Measure the breadcrumbs into a large mixing bowl.

Generous cups because everyone love stuffing

My beat-up old stainless bowl works well

Add the cherries and almonds.

It's very hard not to snack away at the ingredients

Add the cooked sausage, wilted onions, fennel and celery, and sage, and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Mix well.

Stuffing is really deceptively simple

You could really throw any flavors in here that you like -- green chiles or chestnuts or bacon or proscuitto or feta (you get the idea...)

Just before stuffing the turkey, pour in the apple juice, mixing well. Taste again and adjust the seasonings. The idea is to dampen but not soak the bread crumbs, since the juices from the turkey will do that.

Stop short of 1 1/2 cups of juice if the bread becomes too wet, or add more if it seems too dry

Note: Lots of stuffing recipes call for melted butter instead of apple juice, but in the interest of health I always use juice. I also like the slightly sweet note it adds, which brings up the savory flavors nicely.

Any extra stuffing can be piled in a buttered casserole (using the extra tablespoon of butter). Add the chicken or turkey stock and baste occasionally with turkey drippings. Cook, covered with foil, along with the turkey for 45 minutes, taking the foil off for the final 10 minutes if you like crisper top.

Overflow stuffing cooks nicely in a casserole but will be a little drier than the stuffing cooked inside the turkey

At this point I’d love to show you how I re-stuffed my de-boned turkey but I’d only be misleading you. So here’s my little word of warning:

Turkeat Emptor (Turkey-Buyer Beware)

We spend a lot of Thanksgivings wringing our hands over the safety of the bird — undercooked, bad, too long at room temp, bad. These are concerns, but really, it’s just a big chicken. Follow the same care you’d take with a whole chicken and you’ll be fine.

Where it’s possible to go astray, though, is in the brand and type of bird you buy and how you cook that bird. Not all turkeys are created equal. That’s what I found out with my…yes, inedible…bird.

We are seeing more and more “organic,” “natural,” and “free-range” birds out there, as well as “kosher” and “heritage” and the old standbys, Butterballs® and grocery store brands, and it’s now become crucial to know how to deal with them.

My turkey was a “free-range” turkey, raised locally, though I can’t immediately distinguish between the free-range and organic or for that matter natural. The website says of free-range: “These turkeys are raised on healthful grains and allowed to roam in areas four times the size of the average commercial turkey ranch.  Their high protein diet provides the optimum amount of nutrients for the turkey to grow into a bigger and more flavorful turkey than one typically found in the supermarket.  You won’t find any antibiotics, animal by-products, preservatives or hormones in a Mary’s Free-Range Turkey.”

For the organic it says: “Mary’s Free-Range Organic Turkeys are fed a certified organic high protein diet complete with the finest grains and vegetable proteins and grow naturally with plenty of open space on a certified organic ranch in sunny California. Because of cleaner living quarters, a healthier and happier turkey is produced having a better taste.  You won’t find any antibiotics, animal by-products, preservatives or hormones in a Mary’s Free-Range Organic Turkey.” Sheesh — what’s the difference? I can’t really parse it out. Maybe the organics have less space?

My turkey was de-boned, which presents the first cooking challenge. Though it was re-stuffed, it needed to cook for less time. I knew that, and watched that bird like a hawk. In taking its temperature (which I did frequently) I noted that the breast meat never got tender, and there was little thigh to test. Free-range birds are longer, less “plump” than the Butterball-style turkeys of our childhood. All in all, this turkey yielded less than 1 tablespoon of fat, and I had generously rubbed it with butter, both inside and out. Lean. Really lean.

So free-range, natural and organic turkeys can have very little fat, which would translate into moisture. To get that moisture they would benefit from being brined. Whole Foods sells different varieties of these, depending on the location of the store and their regional source, so a conversation with the butcher would provide further information.

Heritage is most like a wild turkey, and even leaner than the organics or the free-range.

Kosher turkeys have been brined, thus they are more moist but can be salty.

Butterballs have been injected with “up to 8% of a solution of Water, Salt, Spices to Enhance Tenderness and Juiciness.” Does make the classic Norman Rockwell turkey, but it’s a little watery.

Grocery store brands usually come frozen or have been frozen. This can give the turkey an institutional flavor.

This is the beginning of my serious examination into this turkey equality problem, but I have some early conclusions to share. I would recommend brining any organic, natural, or free-range turkey. Ditto for the Heritage turkeys. Russ Parsons, in his series of articles for the Los Angeles Times, likes the flavored dry-brine method: Sprinkle the bird with 1 tablespoon of kosher salt for every 5 pounds of turkey — and the salt can be mixed with “aromatics” (like fresh or dried rosemary, sage, citrus zest, etc.) — place in a sealed plastic bag, and refrigerate for 2 1/2 to 3 days. After a day or so there may be accumulated liquid in the bag, but that will reabsorbed by the turkey, giving it the moisture it needs. In the future I will lean toward the dry-brine since my refrigerator will not accommodate the large pot filled with salty liquid needed for wet-brining.

Maybe I overcooked my turkey, maybe not. But next year I’m going to dig deeper into this problem, because this year I won’t be making another turkey  (we’re going over the meadow and through the woods for Thanksgiving). Little did I know how prophetic this funny card that came my way would be:

Until next year...

©2010 Kitchenelly. All Rights Reserved.

Summer's on, get out the grill

I can grill year-round here in Southern California, but I must still be on my Okie schedule because the urge to smell that grill smoke comes over me around mid-May. That’s when I get serious and do some grill clean-up and rehab. And yes, I am the grill operator in the household, in part because I’ve written some cookbooks on it but it was also where I staked a claim early on. My observation is that members of a couple tend to plant a flag in some republic of household food production, and men often race to the barbecue. I beat The Husband to that one.

Lamb is so good grilled, so it’s my first pick of the season. There are some mighty good gas grills out there, but for the traditionalists who want charcoal flavor, here are some grill lighting tips. Look for mesquite or hardwood charcoal (not a fan of the “shot-through-with-mesquite” stuff). They burn hotter and cleaner.

Grilled Lamb Skewers

Some of the best lamb comes from New Zealand, where it is raised on real grass and is hormone-free. I buy mine at Whole Foods, which gets their lamb from Atkins Ranch in New Zealand. I called their local representative to make sure the lamb really comes from New Zealand, and in fact, it does.

Start with good quality lamb

1 1/2 pounds top round boneless lamb
1 large pinch chopped fresh rosemary (about a 4″ stem)
1 large pinch chopped fresh mint (about a 4″ stem)
2 large garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil for the marinade
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar for the marinade
Black pepper
4 carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
10 ounces red pearl onions, or about 16 onions
Olive oil for the carrots and onions
Salt
10 skewers

Cut the lamb into 1 1/2-inch chunks. Put the chunks in a ziplock bag with the chopped rosemary, mint, garlic, olive oil, vinegar, and several generous grinds of black pepper. Set aside to marinate, preferably overnight or at least while you light the grill.

Nice pieces, not necessarily perfect cubes

Press the air out of the bag and distribute the marinade evenly

While the lamb is marinating, there are several jobs that will take about the time needed to light and have a ready grill (30 to 40 minutes). First, soak the skewers in water if you are using bamboo.

Second, parboil the carrots and onions. Heat an inch or so of water in a saucepan, drop in the cut-up carrots, and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon to paper towels to drain. Drop in the pearl onions and simmer 3 minutes. Drain and cool slightly. When the onions are cool enough to handle, trim off the root end and gently pull off the top papery layer. Rub the carrots and onions with a little olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Set aside.

This makes the job of peeling them, well, possible rather than crazy-making

Trim the root first and the top paper layers slide right off

Third, prep the chard and onions for the couscous (see recipe below) and get it started.  Prep and marinate the cucumbers (see recipe below). Do all this before grilling the meat so that it is all ready at the same time.

When you’re ready to grill, make up 8 to 10 skewers, depending on how far you can go with the meat and vegetables and how big your skewers are. Alternate meat and vegetables.

Grill the skewers for a total of 10 to 12 minutes, turning with long-handled tongs to grill all sides.

The coals are still bright red under the layer of ash -- that's a perfect temp

I like to have the grill cover on but the vents open and maybe even the cover not quite tight. That makes a hot grill and cooks fast. Let the skewers rest under a tent of foil for 5 minutes or so before serving (you can recycle the foil to save any leftovers).

Green Chard with Couscous

Chard is so delicious but not always on everyone’s radar. It’s big and fibrous looking, and the leaves look like you could upholster a small armchair with them. But it is one of the health-giving greens, sharing the characteristic bitter but earthy flavor. In the nutrition awards it would take away all the prizes. I’m always looking for ways to get my greens, and this is a good one. You can use the red variety in this recipe as well.

1/2 pound green Swiss chard (about 5 leaves), washed and drained
1/4 red onion, chopped
Olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup Israeli couscous
1 cup chicken stock
1/4 lemon

Trim the rib from the leaves of the chard and chop them. Chop the leaves separately.

The ribs take a little longer to cook than the leaves

This is a nice texture for the couscous

Pour a little olive oil in a skillet and over medium heat saute the chard ribs and chopped onions for 10 minutes, until starting to color a little. Sprinkle them with salt and pepper while they cook. Add the couscous and stir to coat the grains, about 2 minutes. Add the chard leaves and the chicken stock. Cover and simmer over low heat for 10 to 12 minutes, until the couscous is tender but not mushy. Squeeze lemon over the couscous, and fluff and separate the grains before serving.

Mix the chard leaves and couscous and then add stock

Cucumbers & Feta Marinated with Vinegar

2 cucumbers, partially peeled
Small pinch of sugar
Small pinch of salt
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 ounces crumbled feta
3 mint leaves, thinly sliced in ribbons

Thinly slice the cucumbers. Sprinkle with sugar, salt and rice vinegar. When ready to serve crumble feta and mint over the top.

©2010 Kitchenelly. All Rights Reserved.