The Literate Chef

Posts Tagged ‘Roast Turkey’

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With Thanksgiving but a Week Away…

In General Articles, Recipes, Thanksgiving on November 15, 2012 at 10:01 AM

…if, you are still planning your Thanksgiving menu, perhaps we can be of assistance. Last year we posted our traditional family Thanksgiving recipes; here we link them in this update, which we hope that you will find helpful.

Ready and Waiting for the Carving Knife

This year, as our long-time close friends, Marge & Dan, as well as their 3 children and their families will be joining us, we will have 22 at table. Accordingly, we will be doubling up on the Roast Stuffed Turkey with Dorothea’s Italian Sausage and Mushroom Stuffing, and tripling up on the sides of Fresh Cranberry Sauce, Bourbon Sweet Potatoes and Brussel Sprouts Roasted with Hazelnuts.

Fresh Cranberry Sauce

Roasted Brussel sprouts with Hazelnuts

In addition to sharing this special meal with special friends, we will enjoy the added bonus of a double quantity of Turkey Soup after the feast is but a happy memory.

Turkey Soup with Cheese Tortelloni

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our subscribers and readers!

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Roast Stuffed Turkey

In Recipes, Thanksgiving on December 4, 2011 at 4:01 PM

Ingredients:

20 pound Fresh Free Range Turkey
Dorothea’s Italian Sausage and Mushroom Stuffing
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
4 cups of dry red wine

Preparation:

1.    Remove the turkey from the refrigerator and packaging about 2 hours before ready to cook.
2.    Remove the neck and gizzards from the turkey cavities.
3.    Rinse the inside and outside of the turkey and pat it dry.
4.    Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees and position the rack so that there will be a couple of inches above the turkey for the air to circulate.
5.    When the oven temperature reaches 450 degrees, stuff both turkey cavities with the stuffing, being careful to not pack it too tight so that the heat circulates inside the cavities. Secure the stuffing in the neck cavity with the skin flap, using two small skewers.
6.    Sprinkle the skin with salt and pepper.
7.    Place the stuffed turkey on a rack in a large roasting pan and place in the oven.
8.    Roast at 450 degrees for 20 minutes to seal in the juices.
9.    Reduce temperature to 350 degrees and set timer for 1 hour and 40 minutes.
10.    After the two hours in the oven, pour 2 cups of wine over the turkey and rotate the pan 180 degrees. Continue roasting for 1 hour, then pour 2 more cups of red wine over the turkey and reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees. At this point the turkey will have been roasting for 3 hours and should be ready in about another 60 to 90 minutes. So set the timer for 30 minutes and then baste the turkey with the pan drippings every 30 minutes until ready to remove from the oven.
11.    The turkey is done when a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh reads 175 degrees, probably 4 & ½ hours
12.    Remove the rack from the oven and place it and the turkey on a large platter, cover with aluminum foil and prepare the gravy.

For the Gravy:

1.    Make a broth from the neck and gizzards. Place them in a 3 qt. pot, add 4 large whole shallots, 1 tablespoon of whole peppercorns, 1 teaspoon of kosher salt and cover with water. Bring to a boil and lower heat to a simmer. Cook until reduced to 2 cups. Strain and remove the liquid to a container and wash out the pot.
2.    When the turkey has been removed from the roasting pan, strain the drippings into a fat separator. Combine the de-fatted, strained drippings and the 2 cups of broth in the roasting pan. Place the pan across two burners on the stove and bring to a boil add 1cup of red wine and  whisk in 3/8 cup of Wondra flour. Stir and boil down to desired thickness.

Please also see: The Turkey that Keeps Giving

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The Turkey That Keeps Giving

In General Articles, Recipes, Thanksgiving on December 4, 2011 at 3:59 PM

Here it is nine full days after Thanksgiving and we are still enjoying the gifts given up by our 21 pound Plainville Farms Thanksgiving turkey. The turkey dinner and its side dishes are but a memory.  The leftovers of hot turkey sandwiches smothered in gravy, accompanied by re-heated stuffing and the counterpoint of tart cranberry sauce, as well as cold turkey sandwiches on rye bread slathered with homemade Russian dressing disappeared days ago; and now the last of the Turkey Soup is gone as well. I have had my fill of Tom Turkey and if I don’t meet him again until next Thanksgiving, that will be just fine with me. But it is remarkable how many meals one can squeeze out of a single bird.

Our Thanksgiving feast this year started out with a gift of more than two dozen deliciously sweet and briny East Dennis Oysters™ compliments of John and Stephanie Lowell of the East Dennis Oyster Farm and our mutual friend Serge. I first became acquainted with these briny delights in Biloxi, Mississippi while on the payroll of Uncle Sam and stationed at Keesler AFB. Having had a long established relationship with another hard-shelled creature of the sea, Cherrystone clams, I never felt the need to meet their cousin. But clams were not readily available on the Gulf Coast, while oysters were in abundance, thus began a long-standing conflict; clams or oysters or both!

I am an able-bodied clam shucker, but never developed the skill of oyster shucking, so have always had to depend on the kindness of strangers. Our son-in-law, having grown up on the North Shore of Boston and on Martha’s Vineyard, is a skilled oyster shucker. He was assigned the task of prying these creatures from their shells, and as you can see from the picture, did a remarkable job in doing so.

Original East Dennis Oysters™

My wife, bravely tried her first raw oyster, but happily for the rest of us, demurred from having a second. As a result, our two daughters, son-in-law and I finished them off in a flash, washing them down with a well-chilled bottle of Crémant de Loire.

By the time we finished off the oysters, the main meal was ready. The Roast Turkey, having been filled with Dorothea’s Italian Sausage and Mushroom Stuffing, was waiting to be carved.

Ready and Waiting for the Carving Knife

I dutifully performed that task while my wife readied the delicious Bourbon Sweet Potatoes and the additional side dishes of Brussel Sprouts Roasted with Hazelnuts and Cranberry Sauce. The latter was prepared by following the recipe on the bag of fresh cranberries, as opposed to opening a can.

Fresh Cranberry Sauce

Sitting around our harvest table, with no gift-giving, or tinsel, or Christmas music to distract my thoughts, I reflected upon how fortunate I was to be surrounded by the love of our ever-growing family, which over the past 40 years has grown from two to seven.

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