Favorite Turkey Day Recipes C'mon Down!

Let's get some culinary diversity goin' on here with everyone's favorite Thanksgiving Day recipes!

Just the usual stuff here. No fancy recipes. Roast turkey, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, squash, pies, etc. I'll be eating at my sister's in Maine, so I'm not cooking. However, usually I have my home made Steuben Rose with the dinner, but the grapes were so late this year, I'll have to have it with Christmas dinner.

Traditionally....we BBQ the bird on Thanksgiving.

Traditionally....we BBQ the bird on Thanksgiving.

Lemon Stuffed Turkey

1 Turkey, 12 to 15 pounds
2 Cloves fresh garlic, minced
1 T Fresh thyme
1 T Fresh sage
1 T Fresh rosemary
2 to 3 Whole fresh lemons, washed
Salt & pepper to taste

Finely chop the thyme, sage, and rosemary and mix well in a small bowl ... add the minced garlic and mix well again ... after salt and peppering the body and neck cavities to taste, place 2/3 of the mixture inside the body cavity and 1/3 of the mixture inside the neck cavity ... pierce the lemons three or four times with a fork and place the lemons in the body cavity ... salt and pepper the outside of the turkey to taste ... place on rack breast side down and grill over indirect coals until the internal temperature reaches 185 degrees ...

This grilling method moistens the meat from the inside out ... you will not believe how juicy the bird ends up being doing it this way AND with just a VERY SUBTLE hint of lemon - almost un-noticeable ... guests who have never eaten turkey prepared this way swear they have never eaten such a juicy bird !

[Robin Garr]

Let's get some culinary diversity goin' on here with everyone's favorite Thanksgiving Day recipes!

Never mind Thanksgiving DAY ... my favorite dish of the holiday is leftover turkey sandwiches. Leftover turkey meat, leftover dressing, and the <i>piece de resistance</i>, leftover cranberry jelly, on thick-sliced white toast.

Let's get some culinary diversity goin' on here with everyone's favorite Thanksgiving Day recipes!

2 Packages Fresh cranberries
2 Large fresh oranges
2 C Sugar

Freeze the packages of cranberries ... in a food processor, carefully grind the cranberries into a coarse ground mixture ... put into a large bowl ... slice the very ends of the oranges off and cut the whole oranges into quarters ... in a food processor, carefully grind the orange wedges into a coarse ground mixture ... put into the bowl with the coarsely ground cranberries ... add the sugar to the cranberry and orange mixture and stir until the sugar is dissolved or mostly dissolved ... cover and place in the refrigerator ... regrigerate for 24 hours, stirring occasionally ...

Try this and you'll NEVER go back to cranberry jelly or the canned cranberry what-ever-that-stuff-is !

Let's get some culinary diversity goin' on here with everyone's favorite Thanksgiving Day recipes!

I'm a huge gravy guy. I don't think there's anything more important relative to a turkey dinner than great gravy. Here's a link to some great Q's&A's about troubleshooting and creating spectacular gravy.

http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/perfect-gravy

OK.

Let me be more specific.

First, I rub the bird with basil oilive oil. Then I rub in a fair amount of coarse ground salt and pepper and poke in a pop-up thermometer near the breast but away from the bone.

Then I start the coals and when they are ready, I push half of the pile, one to each side in a kettle style grill [Weber].

I put the bird in a roasting pan with a cup of water and cover it with foil then place the bird on the grill and cover.

I smoke the turkey with pre-soaked hickory chips by feeding them to each side of the kettle where the coals are.

The eventual pan drippings become my gravy.





I hope I pass the audition.

If we're eating here I will often smoak the turkey, if we're eating at Mom's then it's always a traditional slow roasted bird. A few years back, I had a chance to try a fried turkey, and I've always wanted to try my own hand at it since.

However, like Robin, for me the true joy comes in the days after. Hot Brown's, Turkey sandwiches, Hot Brown's, Turkey Soup, Hot Brown's, Turkey Tetrazini, and most of all, Hot Brown's!

....The eventual pan drippings become my gravy....

I use an electric smoker with apple wood, as I have an apple tree in my yard, (not this year - maybe Christmas) that has a porcelain water bowl that catches all the drippings. I save these drippings and use it make split pea soup with the leftover smoked turkey.

[Jenise]

I'm having a Huntington Beach Refugee Thanksgiving with two other families who moved into this neighborhood in the last three years from the same town in So Cal where none of us knew each other. I'll brine an all-natural free range bird and slow roast it with champagne, which makes one heckuva deeply colored and tasty gravy. The menu:

Roast Turkey with champagne gravy
mashed potatoes
sausage, celery and chestnut dressing
maple-cranberry compote
creamed pearl onions and leeks
steamed carrot bundles tied with green onion and drizzled with truffle butter
apple, yam and cinnamon crustless 'tart' (this in place of the dreaded yam/marshmallow thing)
whole green beans with caramelized onions and almonds
zucchini gratin
home made bread
scratch fresh-pumpkin pies

The wines will be reisling and pinot.

That all sounds fantastic, Jenise! I especially find the champagne gravy intriguing.

I've never lived in Huntington Beach but I drove through there once... may I come too????

[Jenise]

Sure you can! We start at 4:00. But hey, thanks. I want the table to have lots of color and a sense of abundance, and I want the house to smell amazing. One of the best things about the apple yam thing (I bake it, layered, in a tart pan with removable bottom, so it goes on the table on a platter wafting those sweet cinnamon/butter/apple aromas everywhere). Even if no one ate a bite (and they will, it's one of those things about which most people say, "wow, I hate yams but I like this), it would do this amazing job of filling the room by just being there.

But yeah on the champagne. It browns on the bottom of the pan during cooking and gives you a deeper fond for gravy-making later. My gravy is always a deep chestnut brown. Very attractive, and of course delicious tasting. And I make it with broth, not water. I'd rather have just 2 tblsp of the most intensely flavored little sauce than a cup of the weak gravy I grew up on (and have had at most people's houses). Not that 2 tbslps is all anyone will get, not at all, I just used that amount to emphasize how important flavor is.

I think you will surely succeed in the abundance and color and aroma and flavor areas!

Are you able to share the recipe for the apple/yam tart? I love those flavors together.

I've just decided to do the champgane gravy. That sounds absolutely delicious. Thanks for the idea and the info!

I completely agree about the richness and intensity of sauces. I always make a very rich turkey stock sometime in the weeks before Thanksgiving so I can reduce it and have a really terrific gravy.

[Jenise]

Good on you for pre-makng the stock. I do too, but I tell friends to even use canned--anything but water.

The apple/yam recipe--I got the idea ten or fifteen years ago, probably from a printed recipe, but it's long gone. No matter, this one's easy to play by ear: prebake about two medium sized yams (I use the rubies because I perceive them to have a finer texture) and allow them to cool. Peel and slice about 1/4" thick. Peel and slice about six apples. Create five layers in a tart pan with 2" sides, a souffle dish or iron skillet, starting and ending with apples. Melt about 2/3 or a stick of butter, sweeten with sugar and cinnamon. Pour about half over the dish and bake for about an hour, and pour over the second half after about 30 minutes. Finish baking, then melt some apricot jelly or orange marmalade, brush that over and put under a broiler to color. Serve warm. Especially if you're artful with that top later of apples, the finished dish is magazine worthy and, like I said, those aromas!

Oh my, Jenise! Thank you so much!! I am definitely making this.

Never mind Thanksgiving DAY ... my favorite dish of the holiday is leftover turkey sandwiches. Leftover turkey meat, leftover dressing, and the piece de resistance, leftover cranberry jelly, on thick-sliced white toast.

Robin, I love those too! One of the things I love about New England is you can get these sandwiches at just about ANY deli, ANY time of the year. They are usually called something clever like: The Mayflower, Turkey Gobbler, or a John Alden.

whole green beans with caramelized onions and almonds

Jenise, I'm doing something similar this year -- whole green beans with carmelized shallots, and shitake mushrooms. In the past I have made green beans almondine with chopped or sliced toasted almonds, butter and a hint of Amaretto.

Also, I always do a Chardonnay gravy. Assume it's similar to your Champagne version -- it too is always very rich and deeply hued. Btw, I always simmer an extra pot of stock, using the neck, gizzards, heart, and a few extra wings, onions, carrots and celery. Always want to be sure there is enough gravy, because it gets poured with a heavy hand in our house.

Aaron, this is without a doubt the one recipe I will always make for Thanksgiving. I've been making it since it was first printed in Gourmet in 1991.

JELLIED CRANBERRY AND PORT SAUCE

a 12-ounce bag of cranberries, picked over
1 1/2 cups sugar, or to taste
1 cup Tawny Port
1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, or to taste

In a large saucepan combine the cranberries, the sugar, the Port, the zest, and the lemon juice, simmer the mixture, stirring occasionally, for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the berries have burst and the mixture has thickened, and let it cool. Spoon the mixture into a lightly oiled 1-quart decorative mold and chill it, covered, for at least 3 hours or overnight. Run a thin knife around the edge of the mold, dip the mold into warm water for 10 seconds, and invert it onto a serving plate.

Serves 8.

Gourmet
November 1991

[Jenise]

Carrie, that's similar to what I do, though I use maple syrup in place of the port and sugar. A little fresh squeezed orange juice goes in as well. I've never molded it but I like that idea a lot. Wonder what I have around that would do the job? Hmmmm...thanks!

Never mind Thanksgiving DAY ... my favorite dish of the holiday is leftover turkey sandwiches. Leftover turkey meat, leftover dressing, and the <i>piece de resistance</i>, leftover cranberry jelly, on thick-sliced white toast.

I am soooo with you on this RG! The best part on Thanksgiving Day for me is preparing all the wonderful goodies everyone loves and expects, and then watching them enjoy with gusto around the table. For my palate though, it's hard to beat a leftover turkey sandwich with all the trimmings several times over in the days after the main event!

[Jenise]

That sounds great, Bill. Maybe I'll try that with my extra turkey (I bought a fresh free range bird for tomorrow, but got a free frozen turkey with another purchase). I've never tried grilling a whole turkey before.

Slightly OT, but a great practical joke:

A woman I know who's got a sharp sense of humor has a sister who is... let us say, "a bit slow." OK, she's blonde. In any case, while preparing T'day dinner, my friend sent her sister to the store on a pretextual errand. While sis was gone, my friend took the stuffing out of the turkey and inserted a stuffed quail.

When it came time to slice open the turkey, the blonde sister was given the privilege. She opened the turkey only to find the small bird stuffed inside. My friend exclaimed, "Ohmigawd, that turkey was pregnant!" whereupon the blonde sister burst into tears.

[Jenise]

ROFL, Stuart. I will tell that story tomorrow!