Since we currently live in a fairly small town in North Dakota (are there any other kinds of towns out here...) I've been looking up thanksgiving recipes and making lists for the last week. I need to know what I can get at the commissary, in town, and what I'll be shipping in thanks to the wonderful thing that is Amazon.com
Although I've often talked about many of our favorite turkey day staples, I find I have never included actual recipes on the blog. This year, recipes!
Ina Garten's Cranberry Fruit Conserve
Ingredients
1, 12-ounce bag of fresh cranberries, cleaned
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and chopped
Grated zest and juice of 1 orange
Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
3/4 cup raisins
3/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
Directions
Cook the cranberries, sugar, and 1 cup of water in a saucepan over low heat for about 5 minutes, or until the skins pop open. Add the apple, zests, and juices and cook for 15 more minutes. Remove from the heat and add the raisins and nuts. Let cool, and serve chilled.
My Notes
My hubby prefers this sans raisins and nuts and it's still very good. Makes 4 cups.
Alton Brown's Roast Turkey
1 (14 to 16 pound) frozen young turkey
Brine Ingredients
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 gallon vegetable stock
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1 1/2 teaspoons allspice berries
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped candied ginger
1 gallon heavily iced water
Aromatics Ingredients
1 red apple, sliced
1/2 onion, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup water
4 sprigs rosemary
6 leaves sage
Canola oil
Directions
2 to 3 days before roasting:
Begin thawing the turkey in the refrigerator or in a cooler kept at 38 degrees F.
Combine the vegetable stock, salt, brown sugar, peppercorns, allspice berries, and candied ginger in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally to dissolve solids and bring to a boil. Then remove the brine from the heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate.
Early on the day or the night before you'd like to eat:
Combine the brine, water and ice in the 5-gallon bucket. Place the thawed turkey (with innards removed) breast side down in brine. If necessary, weigh down the bird to ensure it is fully immersed, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area for 8 to 16 hours, turning the bird once half way through brining.
Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Remove the bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard the brine.
Place the bird on roasting rack inside a half sheet pan and pat dry with paper towels.
Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and 1 cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Add steeped aromatics to the turkey's cavity along with the rosemary and sage. Tuck the wings underneath the bird and coat the skin liberally with canola oil.
Roast the turkey on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F for 30 minutes. Insert a probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Set the thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees F. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let the turkey rest, loosely covered with foil or a large mixing bowl for 15 minutes before carving.
My Notes
The recipe is long and looks intimidating. Fear not! This is how I roasted my very first Thanksgiving turkey and it was a huge success. I've never attempted it any other way since. I've even converted my Mother to making a whole turkey this way.
Click
here for several helpful videos if you're still not convinced!
Brining bonus: you'll never wake up to a still frozen turkey.
Starting the roasting at 500 degrees bonus: it's motivation to really clean your oven before the holidays!
Use a cheap disposable turkey roaster! I set it on a cookie sheet to give it stability/strength. But that's a huge dish that you don't have to dig out/soak/scrub/dry/put away. Just throw it in the trash!
Ina Garten's Pie Crust
Ingredients
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) very cold unsalted butter
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1/3 cup very cold vegetable shortening
6 to 8 tablespoons (about 1/2 cup) ice water
Directions
Dice the butter and return it to the refrigerator while you prepare the flour mixture. Place the flour, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse a few times to mix. Add the butter and shortening. Pulse 8 to 12 times, until the butter is the size of peas. With the machine running, pour the ice water down the feed tube and pulse the machine until the dough begins to form a ball. Dump out on a floured board and roll into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Cut the dough in half. Roll each piece on a well-floured board into a circle, rolling from the center to the edge, turning and flouring the dough to make sure it doesn't stick to the board. Fold the dough in half, place in a pie pan, and unfold to fit the pan. Repeat with the top crust.
My Notes
Makes 2, 10-inch pie crusts. My husband actually prefers his pumpkin pie crust-less with mountains of whipped cream. But I enjoy a good apple or cherry pie made with this excellent and very easy crust!
Grandma's Rolls
Ingredients
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp. salt
2 pkg. active dry yeast
6 cups all-purpose flour
1 stick butter
1 egg
2 cups water
salad oil
Directions
About 4 1/2 hours or up to 3 days before serving:
In large bowl, combine sugar, salt, yeast and 2 1/2 cups flour. In small saucepan over low heat, heat water and 1/2 cup butter until warm (120-130 degrees). Butter does not need to melt completely.
With mixer at low speed, gradually beat liquid into dry ingredients just until blended. Increase speed to medium; beat 2 minutes, occasionally scraping bowl with rubber spatula. beat in egg and 3/4 cup flour to make a thick batter; continue beating two minutes, scraping bowl often. With spoon, stir in 2 1/2 cups flour to make a soft dough.
Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes working more flour in while kneading. Shape dough into ball; place in large greased bowl, turning dough over to grease top. cover with towel; let rise in warm place away from draft, until doubled; about 1 1/2 hours.
Punch dough down. Turn dough over; brush with salad oil. Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap, refrigerate, punching down occasionally until ready to use.
Shape rolls (30 pieces), let rise until doubled. Bake at 400 degrees 15-20 minutes until golden. makes 2 1/2 dozen.
My Notes
This is the original recipe verbatim. I don't worry about heating the water and butter on the stove, I just use hot tap water. I use my kitchen aid mixer which does a lot of kneading for me, although I do turn it out at the end and do some hand kneading. The "salad oil" is just plain canola oil to grease the dough as it rises.
This is what I use my turkey roasting pan for! Perfect size.
These re-heat beautifully in the oven that's cooling off after you remove your turkey. So I make these the day before Thanksgiving.
Ina Garten's Gravy
Ingredients
1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups chopped yellow onion (2 onions)
1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Defatted turkey drippings plus chicken stock to make 2 cups, heated
1 tablespoon Cognac or brandy
1 tablespoon white wine, optional
1 tablespoon heavy cream, optional
Directions
In a large (10 to 12-inch) sauté pan, cook the butter and onions over medium-low heat for 12 to 15 minutes, until the onions are lightly browned. Don't rush this step; it makes all the difference when the onions are well-cooked.
Sprinkle the flour into the pan, whisk in, then add the salt and pepper. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the hot chicken stock mixture and Cognac, and cook uncovered for 4 to 5 minutes until thickened. Add the wine and cream, if desired. Season, to taste, and serve.
My Notes
I'm not a huge onion lover, but this is a good gravy recipe. My Mom cuts the amount of onion in half. I have used powdered onion.
J took this picture 10/13/13
