Bacon Latice Blanket

A certain turkey basting technique has been popping up in magazines and on the Internet and Lovey and I both have come across it lately.  Bacon is woven into a lattice-work 'blanket' then draped over the breast of the turkey. I made a rather tiny one since we had a small roasting chicken.  I used a high quality, thick-sliced smoked bacon.  The bacon we selected was very short slices but it worked for our chicken. Using normal sized slices will make your blanket larger for a turkey


 
I decided to try this new-to-me technique. 

Start by covering a cookie sheet with parchment paper.  Begin 'weaving' by placing about 7 to 8 slices of bacon horizontally, sides touching, on the parchment paper.  

Starting with the top slice, from the left side fold the top slice back half way. Repeat with every other piece of bacon.  Now, lay a piece of bacon vertically against the left edge of the horizontal pieces.  Fold the horizontal pieces back over the vertical piece.  

Now, beginning with the horizontal second from the top, fold that back from the right edge over to the left.  Repeat this with every other horizontal piece under that slice. Place a vertical slice up against the first vertical slice.  Fold the horizontal pieces back over into their normal position.

Repeat this beginning with turning the top horizontal slice from right to left, and repeat with every other slice.  Tuck a vertical piece up against the previous slice, then fold the horizontal slices back to their normal position.

Repeat this process until you have a tightly woven blanket.

This is how our little blanket turned out.

I have also used it as a top to a quiche.  I baked the "blanket" before placing it on top of the quiche.

 

Turkey Burgers

I've tried recipe after recipe for turkey burgers and they always seem to end up blahhhhh. No flavor and they usually have the taste and texture of cardboard. I eat a lot of cardboard so I know how that tastes.  I found this recipe from Martha Stewart and it's actually pretty good and Lovey liked it; which is what really matters in this house if I'm making a burger out of turkey instead of beef.

There aren't a lot of ingredients; but the few that there are pack a punch of flavor.

Fresh sage.

 

Roasted garlic. This can be done earlier in the day or the day before. Here's how I do it.

 

 Provolone cheese.

 And, of course, ground turkey.  I prefer a mixture of white and dark.

Just mix it all up.

 

Divide the mixture into four portions and form into patties. Conveniently, these can be made early in the day or even the day before.

 

 I threw them on a medium-high grill for about 3-4 minutes per side.

NOTE:  I doctored my first burger up like I do a beef hamburger with onion, tomato, lettuce and kosher pickle.  Although good, it really masked the flavors that this burger has.  I prefer with minimal condiments because the meat is flavored really nice with the sage and garlic.  The original recipe suggested using a simple tomato pureé spread on it.

ALSO:  Although char-grilled flavor can't be beat on a burger, I prefer these cooked in a cast iron skillet. The garlic, sage, and cheese flavors are much more prevalent.

Turkey Burgers
Yields 4 burgers

Ingredients:
1-1/2 pounds ground turkey - mixture of breast and dark-meat turkey
1/4 cup roasted garlic
2-1/2 tsp. finely chopped fresh sage
1-1/4 cups grated provolone cheese - about 5 ounces
1/2 tsp. each Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
4 hamburger buns
vegetable oil
melted butter

Mise en Place:

• roast garlic
• chop sage
• grate cheese

Method:
In a medium-sized mixing bowl, gently combine with your hands the turkey, garlic, sage, cheese, salt and pepper.  Do not overwork the meat.  Shape into four patties.  Refrigerate, covered, until cold, about 1 hour or overnight.

Preheat grill to medium-high (if you are using a charcoal grill, coals are ready when you can hold your hand 5 inches above the grill for just 3 to 4 seconds). Brush grill and burgers with vegetable oil. Grill, flipping once, until cooked through, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Alternately, you can prepare inside using a cast iron skillet.

Brush both sides of buns with melted butter and place on grill until lightly toasted.

Serve with crispy oven fries.

Turkey Stock

Good stocks are always welcome items in my freezer.  They couldn't be easier to make. They may take time, but there is always a good day to mark on your calendar to spend comfort time in the kitchen. Turkey stock is the champion during the holiday season.  It can be used for gravies and soup bases.

Stock can be made way ahead of the holiday. In the Fall, as soon as I see packages of turkey necks, wings, legs, gizzards, etc. show up in the meat department of my favorite grocery store, I get to work.



This year I used turkey necks, wings and legs.  Everything gets rubbed in oil, salted and peppered.


 
These get roasted in a 400° oven for about 45 minutes.


 
 While the turkey parts are roasting, prepare the vegetables. I used carrots, onion, garlic, celery, and fresh sage leaves.


 
Once the meats are roasted, remove them, temporarily, and place the vegetables in the bottom of the roasting pan.  Give the vegetables a toss to coat with the drippings in the pan.


 
Return the meats to the pan placing them on top of the vegetables, turning the meats over with the roasted side down.


 
This gets returned to the oven to roast for 35 minutes longer.


 
Once the turkey parts and vegetables are removed from the oven they are placed in a large stock pot, covered with water and simmered for 2 hours.


 
Everything is strained and the stock is cooled in the refrigerator so any fat can be skimmed off.


 

The stock is now ready for freezing.  Pour into four 1-quart Mason jars or four 1-quart plastic freezer bags.  If you freeze in Mason jars, be sure to leave space at the top for the stock to expand and put the lid on loosely until the stock is frozen solid.  If you elect to freeze in freezer baggies lay them flat on a sided baking sheet until the stock is frozen solid.  Also,  I would highly suggest NOT using the bags with the slider zippers.  They can leak while the baggy is lying flat on a baking sheet.  Once frozen solid, the baggies will stack well in the freezer.
 

Turkey Stock
Adapted from a recipe of Guy Fieri's
Yields 4 quarts of stock


Ingredients:
2 turkey legs
2 turkey wings
2 turkey necks
2 Tbsp. canola oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 large garlic cloves
2 large yellow onions, quartered
2 large carrots scrubbed
3 stalks of celery, chopped in half
6 fresh sage leaves
6 quarts water

Method:
Preheat oven to 400°F.

Evenly rub turkey parts with oil.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Place turkey parts in a large roasting pan, skin side down, in oven and roast for 45 minutes.

Prepare and combine vegetables and sage leaves.  Reduce heat of oven to 350°F., briefly remove turkey from roasting pan. Add vegetables to roasting pan, tossing to coat in pan juices.  Return turkey parts placing skin side up on top of vegetables and continue to roast for another 35 minutes.

Remove pan from oven and transfer turkey parts and vegetables to a 10 quart or larger stock pot. Place the roasting pan over burners of range top (do this only if your roasting pan is a heavy-duty pan), add 2 cups of water to the pan and boil, scraping up any stuck bits.  Pour this into the stock pot.

Add 6 quarts of water to the stock pot.  Bring to a boil then lower heat and keep to a medium to low simmer for 2 hours, uncovered until stock is deep in color and flavor.  Strain turkey and vegetables from stock, pushing any vegetable matter through strainer.  Let stock sit, overnight in refrigerator if time allows, then skim off any fat from top.

Divide stock into 4 Mason jars or plastic freezer bags and place in freezer.

Parmesan-Turkey-Ranch Rollups

I was flipping through my recipe files looking for something easy to prepare for this past Super Bowl Sunday.  I made Beef Stew for dinner, but wanted to have some snacks to munch on between church and the game.  

Lovey is pretty hard to cook for because he's such a picky eater.  This one seemed to be a good choice because it has several elements that he likes; flour tortillas, roasted turkey, lettuce, tomatoes, well....they had the right stuff.

 
There's not a lot of prep work.  Turkey is from the Deli (I had it sliced very thin),  veggies are diced, and the Parmesan grated.


The base of the rollups is Ranch dressing.  I prefer Hidden Valley made from scratch rather than purchased pre-made in the bottle; and I'm partial to the mix that calls for buttermilk.  Use whichever floats your boat.




Use 6" to 7" flour tortillas.  I laid all mine out on the counter and prepared them assembly-line style.  Spread each tortilla with the dressing.


Sprinkle each with the cheese, green onions, and tomato


Lastly, add the turkey then the lettuce.  Roll them up cigar-style and secure with toothpicks.  I suppose you could slice these into individual bites, each secured with its own toothpick.  I knew Lovey would just pick up a whole one and eat it so I didn't bother.

I also set out a small bowl of extra ranch dressing for dipping.  I thought they benefited from a little extra dressing
 
They were easy and Lovey approved; that in itself was satisfaction.



Parmesan-Turkey-Ranch Rollups
Yield:  8 rollups

Ingredients:
3/4 cup ranch dressing + extra for dipping
8 (6" - 7") flour tortillas
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
4 green onions
1 medium tomato
2 cups chopped iceberg lettuce
12 ounces thinly sliced deli turkey

Mise en Place:

• if making from scratch whist together the ranch dressing
• grate cheese
• dice the green onions (white and green parts)
• seed and dice the tomato
• chop the lettuce

Method:
Lay out all of the tortillas on the counter (I placed mine on wax paper).  Spread the dressing evenly on 1 side of each tortilla.  Sprinkle evenly with Parmesan, green onions, and the tomato.

Divide the turkey among the tortillas and top with the lettuce.  Roll up the tortillas and secure with toothpicks.

Turkey Stock and a Soup to Take the Chill Off

Thanksgiving dinner clean up in our kitchen usually means throwing things together for turkey stock.  It was super easy this year because we had a smaller turkey than usual; a 13 pounder.  I didn't have to get the chain saw out and cut a 20 pound carcass into pieces.

Place your turkey carcass in a 5-1/2 quart Dutch oven (or larger if you have a big turkey).  Now, start going through your refrigerator and pantry and grab anything you can add to help create a rich stock.  I used the rest of my celery, carrots, an onion, garlic, some fresh oregano and rosemary.

I'm too full and tired to start the stock Thanksgiving night so I cover the pot with foil and put it in the refrigerator overnight.

The next morning I filled the pot with water, added a little salt and brought the pot to a boil.
Once boiling, I turned the heat down, covered (lid slightly ajar), and simmered for about 4 hours.

Allow to cool a bit and remove all solids.  If there is a substantial amount of meat on your turkey carcass you can pull that off at this point and save.  Strain broth then strain a second time through a cheesecloth lined strainer.

Broth is cooled in refrigerator to allow fat to rise to the top and solidify.  Scrape the fat off, discard, and store broth in an airtight container if using within the next few days.  If not, freeze.

I ended up with 8 cups of turkey stock.

To turn the stock into a hearty soup I added a turkey thigh that was obviously not being eaten as leftovers

zucchini & yellow squash

 

 and some small pasta shells; because that's what I had at hand.

 Once you have your turkey broth you can add anything you want and create the perfect soup that's just right for you and your family.

 I'm not going to post a formal recipe since this is a throw - together type of soup.  You don't even have to use the broth right away.  Freeze it for another day.

 

Thanksgiving Summary

I've been busy and lax about posting since October.  Thanksgiving dinner this year was a small yet nice gathering of family.  We had the regular dishes that grace our Thanksgiving table but I did play around with a couple of things.

We tried an organic heirloom turkey this year.  It had the prettiest complexion!

I tried a new seasoning/cooking method from my norm.  Lynne Rossetto Kasper of The Splendid Table posted a rub that sounded interesting so I tried it.  Yes, it looks like someone got sick all over my turkey.  At Lynne's suggestion, I tried it breast side down for the first portion of roasting.

The results were fine and the seasoning made for a very interesting gravy (translated: it was really good but Lovey likes the old fashioned regular gravy I make better).

 

 

 

Made some pastry cut-outs to decorate the crust of the pumpkin pie.  Pumpkin pie recipe is straight off the Libby's label.  I go back to it every time.  Can't beat the good old recipe.

I strayed from the normal pecan pie and made a bourbon pecan pie (post to follow).


Rounded off the dinner with mashed potatoes, dressing and green beans.  Christanne  brought a great sweet potato dish.  I will say that sweet potatoes combined with goat cheese and pistachios make for a very tasty side dish (will see if I can get her to post the recipe).  I believe it was her dad's favorite way he's had sweet potatoes.

Although the food seems to edge it's way to the forefront of Thanksgiving, it's really about who you spend it with isn't it?  I was blessed this year to be able to spend time with daughters, grand kids and in-laws.  There was still al ot of family I didn't get to spend time with but they were in my heart just the same.