Thanksgiving 2011, version 2.0 (Roasted, braised turkey)

Thanksgiving this year was a quiet affair. Having used up most of my vacation time for our wedding and honeymoon, I volunteered to work a half day at the paper, then we went to a good friend's house for a potluck.

The potluck was wonderful -- my first Thanksgiving with egg rolls. I think I may never go back!

But, that left us in the curious position of not having any Thanksgiving leftovers, except for a few slices of pie.


So, Friday night, we hit up Cub Foods and bought the smallest non-frozen turkey we could find (12 pounds) and a few other provisions for Thanksgiving 2.0.

I spent most of Saturday cooking our very first married Thanksgiving. Jake also points out that Michigan, his favorite college football team had a miraculous win on our wedding day, then had another big win on the day of our first married Thanksgiving. This appears to reaffirm that our marriage was, indeed, the right choice.

Having never actually roasted a turkey before, I did some internet research. I decided to follow Michael Ruhlman's Roast/Braise method, as the idea of keeping the turkey really moist seemed to be the biggest challenge.  Basically, you stuff the turkey with all the good stuff: onions, herbs, citrus, then fill your pan with stock making goodies: more herbs, more onion, some carrots, celery (I used fennel, it was grand), a little tomato paste, a little alcohol (I used half a bottle of Riesling, but beer, whiskey, probably anything would do), then add water until the dark meat is resting in it.

When the white meat is cooked to 160 at the fattest part, you remove the turkey (this is harder than it sounds...), slice off the dark meat, and put the dark meat back into the braising liquid for a bit, while you cover the white meat to keep it juicy, tender and awesome.

So, aside from probably using too much tomato paste (so the broth was redder than I would have liked), I think it turned out really well.

In Carey family tradition, I removed and devoured the turkey neck.


Here's the turkey after the initial "roast" stage. This was the maiden voyage for the roasting pan we received from our wedding, as well as the baster (which was metal, so hard to see how much liquid you've pulled into it) and the meat thermometer. What Ruhlman's recipe doesn't mention is that one half of the turkey may cook faster than the other, so on one of your basting times, pull the turkey out, get the temp on each breast, and rotate accordingly. He also fails to account for the 12 lb turkey and 2/3 a roasting pan full of liquid being REALLY FREAKING HEAVY. Use adult supervision accordingly for the lifting, turning, whatever.When the cooler breast has reached 160, that's when I declared it done.


So, while the turkey was roasting, then the dark meat braising (seriously, the meat on this thing was so tender, and stayed so moist even through the week of leftovers), I got to work on the other aspects: mashed red potatoes with roasted shallots, Wendy's pecan sweet potatoes, and stuffing.

Although I have grown to appreciate real, gourmet stuffing, I still love the Pepperidge Farm stuff my mom used to make from the bag. We made two bags (yes, for two people... deal with it). This year I branched out a little and crumbled in a little cooked "all natural" sausage (about 1 1/2 packages for the two bags), but truly, that's as fancy as I'll get.

Here's the finished plate: Clockwise from top left: mashed red, turkey, stuffing, mashed sweet with pecans, and bread (which I picked up from Diamond City Bread in Elk River, after reading a colleague's profile of the place)


At some point, I also decided on a whim to use up the rest of my buttery pie dough and make another pie. I had already brought two pecan pies to the potluck (one with a homemade crust, one with a store-bought crust, which happened during my frustrating with my sticky homemade crust), and two chocolate pudding pies (again, tribute to my mother. They're simple, but she made them, and I love them). This was my fifth and final Thanksgiving 2011 pie: and yes, I'm still using that damn Pioneer Woman recipe from last year


So, all in all, I would call Thanksgiving 2.0 a success. You can see Jake smiling as he piles up his plate here. Happy husband, happy wife, happy Thanksgiving. :)

#LetsLunch: Pies edition

June edition of LetsLunch already? This month we're tackling pies. Now, you're probably looking at my photo and saying, hmm, decidedly NOT a pie, yes?

I first made these hand pies at Easter (mostly as a means to use up random items in my fridge to make room for the Easter food, but also to have something to snack on while I was cooking, so I wasn't tempted to pick at the Easter food) and loved them. 

When pies were being bounced around as our June theme for LetsLunch, I knew I would probably make a savory pie option. Over the past few years, I have definitely gotten much more adventurous about food but there is one quirk I refuse to budge on: cooked fruit.

So yes, this means I rarely eat apple pie, peach pie, rhubarb pie and all those other crazy cooked fruit pies (I had a nice lemon pie I liked once.... ). And yes, I know there are plenty of non-fruit sweet pies, but they all scream WINTER to me, rather than SUMMER.

This month, I'm offering up Chinese sausage and roasted sweet potato hand pies. (also, a small disclaimer, I haven't actually made these yet today. My plan is to get a batch in tomorrow to serve at our housewarming party.

RECIPE: Chinese sausage and roasted sweet potato hand pies
Ingredients:
2 pie crusts (I used the ones that come rolled up in a sleeve, but I developed this dish trying to use them up, so certainly, homemade would work)
2 sweet potatoes, pricked with holes
1/2 medium onion, diced
2-4 logs Chinese sausag, sliced thinly and each round cut in half
small pat of softened butter (~ 1 tsp) or reserve some of the rendered fat when you cook the sausage
1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp brown sugar
1 beaten egg white mixed with 1 TBS milk or water
kosher salt or sea salt
fresh cracked pepper

* Bake the sweet potatoes at 375 for 1 hour or until they are soft. If you hear popping noises, run for the oven and retrieve your potatoes! Don't forget to prick your potatoes with holes so the steam can escape.
* While the potatoes are roasting, heat the sausage pieces and onions together over medium heat until the onion has softened and the fat from the sausage has rendered.
* Cool the potatoes slightly then slice in half and scoop out the flesh. Mix in the fat (butter or from the sausage), the cinnamon, the sugar and the onion and sausage. Spread on a plate or a baking sheet covered i wax paper to cool completely.
* Roll out the pie die and cut into squares or circles. They should be about 4 to 6 inches in diameter.
* Fill each pie with 1-2 TBS of the filling (don't over-fill!) and pinch the dough together tightly.
* Brush with the beaten egg wash and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
* Return to oven and bake on a lined cookie sheet for 10-20 minutes until the pie crust is golden brown.
* Cool entirely (if you can wait that long!) and serve warm-ish.

--

Let's Lunch is a monthly meeting for food bloggers and is the brain child of Cheryl Tan. Our group chooses a date and a theme, then we all post our recipes on the same day.

If you'd like to join us, we'd love to have you! send a Tweet to us using #letslunch (I'm @emmacarew).

I'll update with more posts from the other LetsLunch-ers as I find them throughout the day!

Cathy's Nutella Hand Pies at Showfood Chef

Rebecca's Spanakopita and Rhubarb Crisp at GrongarBlog (Welcome, Rebecca!)

Charissa's Lime-Custard & Curd Pie at Zest Bakery

Linda's Dirt Pie with Compost Cookie Crust at Free Range Cookies

Cheryl's Japanese Curry Pot Pie at A Tiger In The Kitchen

Denise's Summer Chicken Pot Pie at Chez US

Rashda's Pecan Pie at Hot Curries & Cold Beer

Mai's (Mother-in-Law's) Lemon Meringue Pie at Cooking In The Fruit Bowl

Lisa's Pilaf Pie with Chicken, Sultanas and Sweet Spices at Monday Morning Cooking Club

Thanksgiving 2010: Pecan Pie

My second offering for Thanksgiving was a pecan pie. I decided to pair Pioneer Woman's pie filling with a pie dough using Michael Ruhlman's Ratio app.

I decided to use half butter and half shortening for my pie crust after reading this tutorial on Epicurious.

Thanks, Chao for picking up the shortening for me!

Took some smart advice from blogs and retail reporters to stock up on baking essentials the week before Thanksgiving. Prices on ingredients like nuts and butter were way lower than normal.

Pie crust is another great use for the food processor. Fit the bowl with the dough blade and pulse the butter and fat together until crumbly. Then, add ice water bit by bit until a sticky dough forms.

My dough went into the refrigerator over night, then I rolled it out between two pieces of wax paper (harder than it sounds, actually).

Roll the crust over the wax paper, then lay into a pie dish. Trim the edges and cover until ready to fill.

(pretty good for my first real pie crust, huh?)

And again, we were a little pressed for time, so I just whipped up PW's pie filling in a tupperware and brought it with us. We baked the pie at Jake's while we were eating dinner.

It's entirely true that I should not have brought a pie to someone else's thanksgiving that I had never made before in my life. It's also entirely true that I should have listened to PW's note at the bottom of the recipe, where she clearly warns that the bake time for this pie is unpredictable:

"Required baking time seems to vary widely with this recipe. Sometimes it takes 50 minutes; sometimes it takes 75!"

And, indeed, the pie took about 75 minutes. It was soft and beautiful and had a really nice flavor.

Happy (late) Thanksgiving, everyone.