Text 10790, 67 rader
Skriven 2007-01-21 19:57:00 av JIM WELLER (1:123/140)
Ärende: Turkey 1
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My Mennonite connection didn't deliver this year so I am reduced to
buying supermarket birds after five wonderful years of beautiful,
mature, uber-tasty, free range birds. S-market birds are battery raised,
underdeveloped, killed too young, and generally lacking in taste. Even
the thigh meat is damned near white meat, it's so pale.

I managed to flavour up the last one satisfactorily though, using a
variety of techniques talked about on the food message boards a lot last
Christmas, which I roasted up on Friday.

First: soak for two days in a salt, sugar, vinegar, soy sauce and bay
leaf brine. Sort of an adobo brine.

Second: seasoned fat under the skin and in the cavity. I melted 1/3 cup
of saved sausage grease and added 1 tsp each cayenne, white pepper,
poultry seasoning, thyme and basil. Oh yes and 4 cloves of minced
garlic. I worked my fingers in under the breast and back skin, lifting
it from the meat without tearing it and then poured in the seasoned fat.

Third: a dry rub. I coated the bird with just enough cooking oil for the
spice to adhere and made a mixture of 1 tsp each white pepper, poultry
seasoning, thyme and basil. I figured the bird already had enough
cayenne in it so I skipped that part.

Fourth: high temp roast. I was skeptical about this but it worked. I
covered the wing tips and the ends of the drumsticks with tin foil so
they wouldn't overcook and laid the bird (unstuffed) on a rack in the
roaster back side up and popped it into a preheated 450 over for 2
hours. After one hour I flipped it over, breast side up and removed the
tin foil. The last half hour I basted with pan juices twice. (Some time
ago at Christmas I received two turkey forks: they are quite sturdy with
short handles and look like little stubby pitch forks with four tines
about an inch apart. They are great for stabbing and lifting or turning
a turkey.) The bird turned out quite well after 2 hours; just barely
cooked with moist breast meat and lots of really crispy skin. And with
all those extra seasonings, quite tasty.

I pan fried the liver, the only giblet in the craw of this one, sliced
thinly in butter and served it on crackers with mustardy mayo and a thin
slice of raw onion while we waited for the bird to cook.

With the bird we had wasabi and chile oil mashed potatoes and white
asparagus with Hollandaise sauce.

After supper, I made two large baggies up of the leftovers... one each
for me here and Roslind in Edzo. And of course made turkey carcass broth
for future soups and gravies.

I generally do turkey at 300 and turn up the heat at the end to crisp
the skin but quick roasting at 450 works too as long as the bird is
lubricated sufficiently.

All in all a tasty dish considering it's mediocre beginnings.
       


Cheers

Jim, in Yellowknife




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