Smoked Turkey

I almost always work Thanksgiving. This year is no exception. Instead of celebrating on Thursday, Nick and I host GF Thanksgiving on the next available day. Since we have this wonderful smoker, we thought we would start practicing our turkey cooking skills. For tonight's dinner, we had turkey, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce.

We did not marinate the turkey overnight, as we decided this morning to fix a bird. We used the same rub as GF Thanksgiving 2008. Then we placed the turkey in the smoker and cooked it on medium-high for about 3 hours. I think we overcooked it just a bit. Next time we will cook it a bit differently. I am thinking about cooking it at a lower temperature with hourly basting, and making sure the meat thermometer is in it. (We forgot the thermometer this round.) We also did not stuff it with extra herbs or fruit. This may have helped the turkey to have more moisture in it's environment and for the drippings to be less fatty.

Making gravy GF is still a bit of a mystery. The gravy seems to turn out thicker. The rue just is not the same. I'll have to do some more research. I'd really appreciate anyone's comments. We saved some of the drippings to mess around with later on.

In the spirit of fall, I also made pumpkin bread. I guess what I really made was a loaf of pumpkin bread and 6 pumpkin break muffins. The recipe seemed a little odd to me, because of the seeds, but it is just great. My favorite part is the "crust." I needed 2 cups of flour, but only had about 1.75 of the Arrowhead Mills All-purpose baking flour. I topped off the last bit with GF Bisquick. The Bisquick might have helped the loaf to come out a bit smoother. I find that the Arrowhead Mills leaves a trace of grit or aftertaste or something. I also used 1/5 cans of Libby's pumpkin. The rest of the pumpkin will be re purposed for breakfast parfait. You should try out this easy recipe, complementary (again) of FootNetwork.com/Alton Brown. If Alton Brown happens to ever read this, I would like him to know I have a little crush on him. He's charismatic, smart, and cooks amazingly well. (Too bad it couldn't work out between us.) Oh, and for the record, this bread goes great with a cup of spiced mate tea. Mmmmm!

Pumpkin Bread
by Alton Brown

Cook Time: 1hr 15min Level: Easy Yield: 1 loaf or 1 1/2 dozen small muffins
Times: Prep: 20min Inactive Prep: --

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups shredded fresh pumpkin
• 1 cup toasted pumpkin seeds

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Sift the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together.

In a separate bowl, mix the sugar, vegetable oil, eggs, and vanilla. Combine both mixtures and fold in the shredded pumpkin and pumpkin seeds. Once the ingredients are all incorporated pour into a non- stick 9 by 5 by 3-inch loaf pan. If your pan is not non- stick coat it with butter and flour.

Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. At this point a knife inserted into the middle of the loaf should come out clean. Cool for 15 minutes and turn out onto a cooling rack. Cool completely. For muffins temperature should also be 325 degrees F., but bake for 30 minutes.

Gluten-Free Thanksgiving

On Friday, Nick and I had our first Thanksgiving together- we cooked a full dinner.

After doing a few weeks' worth of research, we came up with recipes for turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. We chose to make green beans as our vegetable, and my roomate made mashed potatoes.

I let out 14 pound bird brine in salt/sugar mixture in a cooler in my refrigerator over night. In the morning, we made a spice rub with coriander seeds, white pepper corns, and fennel seeds. Since we'd never cooked a turkey before, we had to overcome a few hurdles. None of the recipes we read included the key "hints" necessary to bake a flawless turkey, such as:
1. Covering the bird with tin foil during the first few hours, and leaving the thighs/wings covered most of the time, holds in the moisture.
2. When you put a rub on the turkey, be sure to do it on a prep surface separate from the roasting pan, as the seeds use in the rub burn when left in the bottom of the pan and may smoke up your entire apartment.
3. Somewhere in the low 300's is an ideal temperature. (Nobody seemed to agree on this.)

None the less, our turkey was delicious, especially the skin. Nick's gravy was made from the turkey broth we boiled with the neck and giblets, the drippings, and a rue. It turned out a little lumpy, but still tasty. Our green beans were steamed and buttered. Sarah made the mashed potatoes with butter and G-F chicken broth. (Thank you Pacific and Imagine companies for inventing pre-made G-F broth.) The cranberry sauce was a bag of fresh cranberries, a cup of orange juice, a cup of sugar, and a tablespoon of orange rind. For dessert, we ate pumpkin pie and cider. I made the pie following the Libby's recipe on the back of the pumpkin can, substituting the Carnation milk with condensed goat's milk (using extra brown sugar and vanilla to cut the goat taste), and baked it in a G-F pie crust from Whole Foods. I made the cider in a crock pot- 1 bottle of apple juice, 3 cinnamon sticks, and an orange/clove ball set on high while we ate.

I am still loving the leftovers; extra turkey dinner will go with me to work the next two days. I can't wait until next year when we can do it all again! Even my mother called me the next day to compliment us on our presentation, good cooking, and a wonderful time.

What's Cooking, Post Vacation

I was just in Connecticut for a wedding, where I had the best time with my boyfriend. There are a few things that must be eaten while in New England:
1. Mussels
2. Lobster (pronounced in Boston, but not in CT, as "lobstuh")
3. Clams
4. Any other fresh seafood possible.

I conquered 1 and 2 on the list.

I thankfully had the sense to ask for the day off today to catch up on life and avoid going back to my stressful job. That involved buying a grill and grill accessories, getting new baskets to organize my kitchen, and a trip to my favorite farmer's market for food.

With the advent of football season, and my hopes that the 95 degree weather in Atlanta will cool off, I decided on chili. Only, I was too lazy to go to Whole Foods for beans, so I settled on Rachael Ray's turkey and corn chili. Then, I decided while I was at it, I should make some meatballs using a new recipe, so I could freeze them.

One of my friends dropped by with her pooch for a sampling of the yummies. Check out the recipes and pics below.


Turkey Corn Chili
Rachael Ray 10/15/07
http://www.rachaelray.com/recipe.php?recipe_id=862&r=862,477,1087,45,595,716
Serves 4

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 large bell pepper, red or green, chopped (you can use up leftover pepper strips from crudite tray if you have them)
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
1 bay leaf, fresh or dried
1.5 pounds cooked turkey meat, light and dark meat, diced (I used ground turkey for mine)
1.5 tablespoons chili powder (a palmful)
1.5 tablespoons ground cumin (a palmful)
coarse salt
2 cups frozen corn kernals or leftover prepared corn
2 cups prepared chicken stock or broth
2 scallions, white and green, chopped

Heat a deep pot over medium-high heat. Work close to the stove for your chopping. Add EVOO to your pot, about one turn of the pan in a steady stream, then add vegetables as you chop them. Add bay leaf and cook vegetables for five minutes, stirring frequently; reduce the heat if veggies start to stick.

Stir in diced turkey meat and season with chili powder, cumin and cayenne sauce. Season with a little salt, to taste. Add corn, tomatoes and broth. Combine well and adjust seasonings. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 7-10 minutes. Garnish chili with chopped scallions.

Mini Meatballs (Albondigas)
a revised recipe by Jonny Valiant, In Style Magazine, Feb 2008
(serves 12)
1 medium onion, chopped
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1/4 cup minced red pepper
2 jabanero peppers
salt and pepper
1/2 teaspoon corriander
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 pound each ground pork and ground beef sirloin
2 tablespoons dried bread crumbs (I used Whole Foods sandwich bread- it falls apart easily)
1 egg, lightly beaten (in truth, I forgot to add this)

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. In food processor, chop onions. Set aside. Next chop jabaneros (I use gloves so I don't kill my eyes later in the day), 1/4 cup cilantro, garlic, and 2 tablespoons olive oil in food processor. Season with salt and pepper. Set sauce aside.

2. In a large skillet, heat remaining oil, onion, and red pepper; cook until tender, about 4 minutes. Stir in salt to taste, corriander, and nutmeg. Remove from heat; cool.

3. Combine ground pork and beef with bread crumbs (about 1 piece of bread), egg, and onion-red-pepper mixture. Form meat mixture into 1" balls. Place on foil-lined baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes or until cooked through. Serve with with G-F pasta or rice. Garnish with extra cilantro from the bunch.

You'll beg for more!