Saw this on my newsfeed. Thought I’d share. :)
Happy thanksgiving everyone!
(Source: facebook.com)
Tracks
Wednesday: Wait. We cannot break bread with you. You have taken the land which is rightfully ours. Years from now, my people will be forced to live in mobile homes on reservations. Your people will wear cardigans and drink highballs. We will sell our bracelets by the roadsides. You will play golf and enjoy hot hors d’oeuvres. My people will have pain and degradation. Your people will have stick shifts. The gods of my tribe have spoken. They have said, “Do not trust the pilgrims, especially Sarah Miller.” For all these reasons, I have decided to scalp you and burn your village to the ground.
Adams Family rocks my world.
(Source: burningyears)
Turchetta -
my first try at a ridiculously complex turkey day meal that turned out better than fabulous.
I based this recipe off of something I got off of chow.com, but I improvised a bit on some stuff I didn’t have. Almost everything I got from my local grocery store (Dominicks). It’s a pretty messy process - you have to skin and debone the turkey, so be prepared for being covered in fat and turkey bits.
Speical supplies
Cheese cloth - 22inch square
butcher’s twine (or string or dental floss - no flavors!)
Foil, a large pan, baking rack, the usual turkey basting supplies…
For the rub:
4 1/2 teaspoons whole fennel seeds
2 teaspoons whole black peppercorns
2 tablespoons Diamond Crystal kosher salt or 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon Morton kosher salt
4 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary leaves
2 teaspoons minced fresh garlic about 2 to 3 medium cloves
2 teaspoons red pepper flakes
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
For the turkey:
1 15- to 18-pound turkey, thawed if frozen
Kosher salt
Ground black pepper
5 cups about half of 1 recipe Sausage Stuffing (or stove top)
Extra-virgin olive oil
4 large celery stalks, coarsely chopped
2 medium yellow onions, coarsely chopped
1 cup dry white wine
1 fresh rosemary sprig
1 fresh thyme sprig
1 bay leaf
10 whole black peppercorns
For the gravy:
3 tablespoons dry vermouth
About 1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
To prepare the rub, I lightly toasted the fennel seeds over medium heat in a frying pan (about 4-5 minutes) until they were fragrant. I mixed them with the peppercorns and chopped them in one of those mini chopper/magic bullet things because I didn’t have a spice blender. It did the job, and it smelled like good sausage by the time I was done.
The bottom left is the crushed toasted fennel seeds & peppercorns.
I put all the dry ingredients into a small bowl (soup bowl was good enough) and mixed thoroughly before adding the 1/3 cup of Olive Oil. I mixed that with a fork and set it aside. Now comes the hard time-consuming part…
THE TURKEY PART:
My bird was about 17 lbs. Remove all the giblets and stuff from the inside including the plastic and temperature popper. Save the neck. Rinse in water and pat dry with paper towels, mentally prepare yourself for skinning this thing in one piece.
With a boning knife (or another smaller super sharp knife), cut off the wings, but leave the drumlets on. Slice down the backbone to the tail and separate the skin from the meat, ensuring that none of the meat comes off with the skin. It’s best to remove as much of the back skin off as you can, then turn it breast side up and then remove from there. Cut the skin around the ankles of the drum sticks and finish skinning the turkey. After skinning, you can remove the drumlettes too.
By the time you’re done you should have: skin in one piece (with wholes where the drumlettes and drumstick ankles should be) , turkey wings, turkey drumlettes, the neck, and a skinned turkey torso (there’s a pic below of the skin in one piece)
After skinning it, debone what you can from the turkey - the breasts and the tenderloins being the main parts. Make sure to take out the tendons in the tenderloins by slicing them in half and grabbing the tendon with a paper towel and pulling it while separating with a knife.
This is post-removing tendon
You can also remove the meat from the drum sticks and from the back. Make sure you get as much as you can. Even the small pieces help to fill in the spots on the roll. With the really thick pieces (breast) slice it once diagonally so you get a thinner piece (and so it’ll be easier to roll). Transfer the pieces of meat to a large bowl for marinating.
For every pound of meat, use about 1 tablespoon of the fennel-rosemary rub. I more or less just used all of it because what else would I use it for? In the end, it still turned out perfectly seasoned. Rub the spice into the meat evenly and cover in a large bowl and refrigerate overnight.
The next day…
This is what my turkey skin looked like with the marinated meat on the side.
You’re done with the hard time-consuming part (yay!)
Pre-heat the oven to 450 F, and flatten the skin on the table, with the inside of it facing you. You can trim some excess fat off if you want…
Evenly place meats on the skin, alternating between light and dark. Then put the stuffing on the meat, lightly pressing to make it stick. I threw some cranberries and other dried fruits on there for some extra kick. It’s definitely a plus. from one end, start to tightly roll.
After rolling it up tightly, drizzle generously with extra virgin olive oil and season well with salt and pepper. Then place into the cheese cloth and tightly wrap it. This will help it to keep it’s shape, so make sure it’s pretty tight. The twine/string/floss/whatever will help after you wrap it. With the excess cloth, tie it off at one end with string.
As you can see, I used some floss when I didn’t have enough string. It worked out perfectly fine, so long as it wasn’t flavored floss.
In retrospect I should have used much more string to tie it up. Make sure the segments are about an inch in thickness.
Once you’re done with that, then you can place it on the large roasting pan with the coarsely chopped celery and onions. The neck and wings also go on the pan. The rosemary sprig, dry white wine, peppercorns, thyme all go in there and are seasoned with salt, pepper and oil.
I didn’t have a roasting rack so I took a large piece of foil and rolled it lengthwise nad made a figure eight. You can also use two rings. Both are pretty good.
With that you can finally place it into the oven!
Yay! After about 40 minutes, turn it down to 325 F and baste every 30 minutes or so. After about 2 hrs (or until the internal temperature is 135-140F) you can take it out and serve! Yaay!
Congratulations, you’ve made a turchetta. When you’re done, you can cut the twine and cheese cloth and put it on a cutting board and slice. My turchetta served 16 people and there were still leftovers. So it all depends on how much your group eats. But it’s great and a really yummy way to not have the risk of having dry turkey!
For the gravy:
Place the roasting pan across two burners over medium-high heat. When the pan juices boil, add the vermouth and scrape the pan bottom with a wooden spoon to release any browned bits. Cook until the alcohol evaporates, about 1 minute. Remove the pan from heat and discard the turkey neck. Strain the pan juices through a fine-mesh strainer set over a medium heatproof bowl or measuring cup, pressing on the solids. Discard the solids. Using a spoon, skim away as much fat from the surface as possible; discard the fat. The amount of pan juices collected will vary. If you have less than 1 1/2 cups, add enough chicken broth to bring it up to 1 1/2 cups total; set the pan juices aside.
Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour and let it bubble, whisking constantly, until it’s the color of peanut butter, about 5 minutes. Slowly whisk in the pan juice–broth mixture until smooth (be careful, it may bubble up). Bring to a boil, whisking constantly. Remove from heat, taste, and season as needed with salt and pepper.
Babelgum: Kids Reenact The First Thanksgiving
…with some smallpox blankets and whiskey!
