18 – 20 cups of bread crumbs (used Whole Foods prepped "fresh" bread crumbs - 1.8 lbs by weight)
4 cups fresh parsley (chopped)
4 tablespoons lemon peel (grated)
Cook
1.5 cups olive oil
3 large onions (chopped or food processed)
2 lbs fresh baby spinach (wilted)
2 teaspoons black pepper (freshly ground)
2 teaspoons sea salt
Combine
contents of pan and bowl
Add
2 lbs of fresh oysters (from Albertson & Whole Foods, Henderson), cleaned, drained, and chopped
2 eggs
6 oz. chicken stock
Bake
375 degrees, 1.5 hours, uncovered.(Stir after the first 45 minutes)
Notes
Fill pans with a shallow layer of stuffing.If it’s too thick, it will have to roast longer, and then the oysters will overcook.
Also, it’s hard to time everything to finish at once.If you only have one oven, you may need to roast one pan of stuffing in the toaster oven on toast/bake setting.
Dissolve 1 cup sea salt (next time use kosher salt?) + ½ cup honey in 1 cup simmering water
(Next time add dried herbs?)
Add about 3 quarts cold or room temperature water
Cool pot of water on an ice pack
Put brining bag in the turkey pan without the rack
Put turkey in the bag, breast side down
Pour in water and seal
Use rubber bands to cinch the bag tight (so whole turkey covered by water if possible)
In the morning, flip the turkey in its brining bag.
Remove from refrigerator 1 hour before roasting.
Rinse off brine and place on rack in deep pan, breast side up.
Place quartered small onion and lemon inside turkey, pin legs together.
Rub turkey with olive oil and pepper.
Flip turkey breast side DOWN.
Do not cover turkey
Preheat oven to 350 F and remove all racks except bottom rack.
Roast turkey breast side down.
After 1 ½ hours, flip and baste turkey.Cover legs with foil (we did this since the legs looked really brown.I’m not sure what effect this had, but the turkey was perfect).
Roast another 1 ¾ hours. (Half way through, remove drippings and baste with oil from drippings)
Check temperature 15 minutes before it should be done:place thermometer into the fleshy part of each thigh (test both, close to but not touching the bone).When fully cooked, turkey should register 175F.
Let turkey stand at least 30 minutes.Temperature of thigh meat should eventually rise to about 180 F.
Cranberry Sauce
(adapted from the Time-Life Holiday Cookbook, 1976)
2 cups (1/2 pound) fresh cranberries, washed
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon finely grated orange peel
Combine cranberries and sugar in a small saucepan
Bring to a boil
Reduce heat to low, simmer uncovered for 4-5 minutes until the skins begin to pop
(Do not overcook to the point of mushiness)
Place into a 2 cup mold
Refrigerate 2 – 3 hours
To unmold, run a knife around the edge and dip the bottom in hot water
Oyster Stuffing
(adapted from the Time-Life Holiday Cookbook, 1976)
Mix16 – 18 cups homemade bread crumbs
(2 loafs of bakery white bread – used Meijer Vienna bread in 2009 –
Toasted, broken by hand into fairly large pieces but not too big:they don’t shrink)
2 cups fresh chopped parsley
4 tablespoons grated lemon peel
Cook1.5 cups olive oil (strong and grassy)
5-6 small onions (or 3-4 medium onions), chopped
24 ounce package of pre-washed spinach, wilted.
2 teaspoons black pepper (freshly ground)
2 teaspoons sea salt
Combine contents of pan and bowl
Add2 lbs of fresh oysters (from Colony Market), not cleaned or drained, with juices
1.5 eggs (1 egg, 1 egg white)
½ of the turkey drippings (don’t add water to the drippings)
Bake375 degrees
1.5 hours, uncovered.(Stir after the first 45 minutes)
Notes:Fill pans with a shallow layer of stuffing.If it’s too thick, it will have to roast longer, and then the oysters will overcook.Also, it’s hard to time everything to finish at once.If you only have one oven, you may need to roast one pan of stuffing in the toaster oven on toast/bake setting.I regret adding water to the drippings.
Candied Sweet Potatoes
(adapted from the Time-Life Holiday Cookbook, 1976)
1/2 cup of freshly squeezed orange juice
1 lemon’s squeezed juice
4 large sweet potatoes, cut into disks and then quartered
1/2 cup of sugar (slightly over) plus 1 packet Splenda (or 1 cup sugar)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 tablespoons of olive oil (Pasolivo tangerine if available)
1 teaspoon lemon zest
Dissolve orange juice, lemon juice, cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar in Japanese ceramic pot
Put sweet potato disks in layers in the pot.
Simmer over stovetop, covered (constantly baste potatoes in the orange juice)
Continue to cook until almost done (30 minutes?) and finish in oven if juice won’t congeal.
After turning off the heat, stir in lemon zest
Gravy
(adapted from the Time-Life Holiday Cookbook, 1976)
Neck, gizzard, heart and liver of the turkey
1 tablespoon salt
1 medium sized carrot, peeled and cut
1 small onion, peeled and quartered
4 sprigs fresh parsley
3 dried bay leaves
4 cups water
1 cup of turkey stock
2 tablespoons of cornstarch
Combine everything (except turkey stock and cornstarch) in a small saucepan
Bring to boil, and then simmer covered for 1 – 1 ½ hours
Remove everything but the broth
Stir cornstarch into a small amount of cold water, add mixture to gravy
Add turkey stock
Cook under high heat until the sauce thickens and is smooth
Reduce heat to low and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes
Brussels Sprouts
(adapted from Momofuku – GQ recipe)
Clean and cut stems off Brussels sprouts.(Next time, cut in half.)
Fry a slice of bacon from Colony Market, and remove.
We naturally think about food most of the time. So when we spend less time sourcing and preparing our food, we just end up spending more time on our couches eating. (And by we, I mean me.) Since I can't stop thinking about food all the time, I've decided to use this fixation to become a better cook.
