For Thanksgiving, here are a couple of recipes.
Among my friends, my turkey is "legendary". I've roasted a turkey a year since 1985 on 4 continents and haven't missed a year..... yet. Before coming to the US, it was always a Christmas turkey, but now, it's my Thanksgiving turkey.
Roast turkey is always dry and tasteless - don't believe it. It's all in the technique. I haven't seen all of what I do in the cookbooks.... so here goes.
When I lived in Singapore, I couldn't get fresh turkeys, but they are easily available here. I don't use a pre-brined bird, and I don't brine it. Yet, the breast meat is always moist and flavorful. Here's how I do it.
1) The stuffing provides moisture from the inside out.
2) Cover almost all the exposed skin with fat, fat bacon.
3) Seal the whole turkey in foil to almost steam-cook it.
Make sure the turkey is well de-frosted if not using a fresh bird. Even if you buy a fresh bird, a lot of the time it's partially frozen due to transport, storage, etc. So, turn the temperature on the refrigerator up a bit the night before Thanksgiving to make sure that the bird is well de-frosted.
Morning of Thanksgiving - while everybody else is asleep, take the bird out, wash it, remove the giblets and put away, and thoroughly dry it inside and out. Leave it on the kitchen counter. You want the bird to start cooking from room temperature. This year, we got a free-range, organic bird from the Local Market.
The main event:
16lb turkey
2lb bacon (the cheap fatty version)
2lb butter (well softened in the microwave 45 seconds)
Prepare the stuffing:
1lb sausage meat (pork with sage this year)
1/2lb duck liver pate
1/2lb bacon
2 green apples (granny smith preferred) cored and diced
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup cream
1 oz dried porcini mushrooms (soaked in a little hot water)
1/2 cup sultanas
1/2 cup pine nuts toasted till fragrant but not burnt
8 oz bag of artisan dried bread crumbs
Dice the bacon, and fry in a large frying pan with a little oil until it's crispy and all the oil has rendered out. Into a large mixing bowl, empty out the bag of bread crumbs (or stuffing mix if you will). Take the fried bacon out and throw on top of the bread crumbs. Add the duck liver pate (diced into 1/2 inch cubes). Mix it up.
Cook the sausage meat in the bacon oil, breaking it up, adding butter if needed. When cooked, tip everything into the bread crumbs/bacon. Use the 1/2 cup of stock and 1/2 cup of cream to de-glaze the pan, scraping off the yummy frond and pour into the mixing bowl. Mix it up.
Add the diced apples, the soaked porcini mushrooms (and the soaking water but being careful to leave the dirt behind), the sultanas, and pine nuts. Mix everything up real good with your hands, and stuff into the turkey. There are actually two cavities - the abdominal cavity, and the cavity in front of the breast under the neck skin. The stuffing distributes about 3:1 among these two cavities.
Tie the legs together to hold the stuffing in. Fold the neck skin down so as to hold the front stuffing in.
Pre-heat the oven to 350 deg.
Tear off about 6 sheets of wide heavy-duty aluminum foil each about 4ft long. Get a large roasting pan, and lay them across like an * star. Press the middle down. Generously spread butter on the bottom of the pan (top layer of foil) and place the turkey on the butter.
Spread about 1lb of butter all over the turkey. Cover as much of the surface of the turkey as you can with the bacon. The breast can also benefit from 2 layers of bacon.
After that's done, you want to use the long strips of aluminum foil to seal the bird in - but "tented" so that the foil is not tight on the skin/bacon. In order to do this, you make folds to join the edges of the foil together. With a bit of practice, it's quite easy. Overlap about 1/2 inch of two pieces of foil, and crumple them together so as to form almost an air/water tight seam. When you do this, the turkey is inside a large aluminum-foil bubble in the roasting pan.
For a 16lb stuffed turkey, it will roast like this untouched for the next 4 1/2 hours. You'll have time to prepare the other dishes (more later)
Open the oven, take the turkey out and tear off the aluminum foil (be careful of the hot steam). If you got the aluminum foil sealed right, you'll find the turkey sitting in a large pool of liquid. With a baster, baste the turkey well. Suck up 3/4 of the liquid into a saucepan, put the giblets in, and set the liquid to slowly boil and reduce (this will be your gravy). I usually add one piece of Chinese dried orange skin, a stick of cinnamon, 2 cloves and one petal of a star anise to flavor the gravy.
Put the turkey (now uncovered) back in the oven and turn the temperature up to 375 deg. After half an hour, take it out and baste it very well. If there is too much liquid, use the baster to suck it up and into your gravy pan (still reducing). You don't want the turkey to be sitting in a pool of gravy, so most of it is sucked up.
You will want to baste 4 times (30 mins x 2 hours) and then in the final hour, turn the temperature up to 400deg F, baste every 15 minutes to crisp up and brown the bacon and skin.
By the time it's done, there won't be any turkey skin, the bacon will have integrated into the skin and you get a lovely crispy crust. Total roasting time of a 16lb bird with 3lbs of stuffing is 6 1/2 to 7 hours (about 30% longer than most recipes).
Let the bird rest for at least 20 minutes after cooking before carving or you'll undo everything and end up with a dry breast. Even the dark meat should be fall-off-the-bone tender.
In the 4 1/2 hours while the bird is roasting, you can make candied yams (next recipe).
Among my friends, my turkey is "legendary". I've roasted a turkey a year since 1985 on 4 continents and haven't missed a year..... yet. Before coming to the US, it was always a Christmas turkey, but now, it's my Thanksgiving turkey.
Roast turkey is always dry and tasteless - don't believe it. It's all in the technique. I haven't seen all of what I do in the cookbooks.... so here goes.
When I lived in Singapore, I couldn't get fresh turkeys, but they are easily available here. I don't use a pre-brined bird, and I don't brine it. Yet, the breast meat is always moist and flavorful. Here's how I do it.
1) The stuffing provides moisture from the inside out.
2) Cover almost all the exposed skin with fat, fat bacon.
3) Seal the whole turkey in foil to almost steam-cook it.
Make sure the turkey is well de-frosted if not using a fresh bird. Even if you buy a fresh bird, a lot of the time it's partially frozen due to transport, storage, etc. So, turn the temperature on the refrigerator up a bit the night before Thanksgiving to make sure that the bird is well de-frosted.
Morning of Thanksgiving - while everybody else is asleep, take the bird out, wash it, remove the giblets and put away, and thoroughly dry it inside and out. Leave it on the kitchen counter. You want the bird to start cooking from room temperature. This year, we got a free-range, organic bird from the Local Market.
The main event:
16lb turkey
2lb bacon (the cheap fatty version)
2lb butter (well softened in the microwave 45 seconds)
Prepare the stuffing:
1lb sausage meat (pork with sage this year)
1/2lb duck liver pate
1/2lb bacon
2 green apples (granny smith preferred) cored and diced
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup cream
1 oz dried porcini mushrooms (soaked in a little hot water)
1/2 cup sultanas
1/2 cup pine nuts toasted till fragrant but not burnt
8 oz bag of artisan dried bread crumbs
Dice the bacon, and fry in a large frying pan with a little oil until it's crispy and all the oil has rendered out. Into a large mixing bowl, empty out the bag of bread crumbs (or stuffing mix if you will). Take the fried bacon out and throw on top of the bread crumbs. Add the duck liver pate (diced into 1/2 inch cubes). Mix it up.
Cook the sausage meat in the bacon oil, breaking it up, adding butter if needed. When cooked, tip everything into the bread crumbs/bacon. Use the 1/2 cup of stock and 1/2 cup of cream to de-glaze the pan, scraping off the yummy frond and pour into the mixing bowl. Mix it up.
Add the diced apples, the soaked porcini mushrooms (and the soaking water but being careful to leave the dirt behind), the sultanas, and pine nuts. Mix everything up real good with your hands, and stuff into the turkey. There are actually two cavities - the abdominal cavity, and the cavity in front of the breast under the neck skin. The stuffing distributes about 3:1 among these two cavities.
Tie the legs together to hold the stuffing in. Fold the neck skin down so as to hold the front stuffing in.
Pre-heat the oven to 350 deg.
Tear off about 6 sheets of wide heavy-duty aluminum foil each about 4ft long. Get a large roasting pan, and lay them across like an * star. Press the middle down. Generously spread butter on the bottom of the pan (top layer of foil) and place the turkey on the butter.
Spread about 1lb of butter all over the turkey. Cover as much of the surface of the turkey as you can with the bacon. The breast can also benefit from 2 layers of bacon.
After that's done, you want to use the long strips of aluminum foil to seal the bird in - but "tented" so that the foil is not tight on the skin/bacon. In order to do this, you make folds to join the edges of the foil together. With a bit of practice, it's quite easy. Overlap about 1/2 inch of two pieces of foil, and crumple them together so as to form almost an air/water tight seam. When you do this, the turkey is inside a large aluminum-foil bubble in the roasting pan.
For a 16lb stuffed turkey, it will roast like this untouched for the next 4 1/2 hours. You'll have time to prepare the other dishes (more later)
Open the oven, take the turkey out and tear off the aluminum foil (be careful of the hot steam). If you got the aluminum foil sealed right, you'll find the turkey sitting in a large pool of liquid. With a baster, baste the turkey well. Suck up 3/4 of the liquid into a saucepan, put the giblets in, and set the liquid to slowly boil and reduce (this will be your gravy). I usually add one piece of Chinese dried orange skin, a stick of cinnamon, 2 cloves and one petal of a star anise to flavor the gravy.
Put the turkey (now uncovered) back in the oven and turn the temperature up to 375 deg. After half an hour, take it out and baste it very well. If there is too much liquid, use the baster to suck it up and into your gravy pan (still reducing). You don't want the turkey to be sitting in a pool of gravy, so most of it is sucked up.
You will want to baste 4 times (30 mins x 2 hours) and then in the final hour, turn the temperature up to 400deg F, baste every 15 minutes to crisp up and brown the bacon and skin.
By the time it's done, there won't be any turkey skin, the bacon will have integrated into the skin and you get a lovely crispy crust. Total roasting time of a 16lb bird with 3lbs of stuffing is 6 1/2 to 7 hours (about 30% longer than most recipes).
Let the bird rest for at least 20 minutes after cooking before carving or you'll undo everything and end up with a dry breast. Even the dark meat should be fall-off-the-bone tender.
In the 4 1/2 hours while the bird is roasting, you can make candied yams (next recipe).