Ever since I read Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation I think twice about eating any ground meat, which kind of takes the fun out of burgers! If I order it directly from the butcher, I ask them to grind it fresh in front of me. Call me paranoid but I just don't trust it. But now with my new schnazzy KitchenAid and meat grinder I can make my own.
I took it for a test run last weekend. Determined to make chicken sausages, Joe and I went to Wholefoods and bought 5 pounds of chicken drumsticks and thighs. I am proud to say that while not perfect they turned out quite well.
After taking several pictures, I realized that making 5 pounds of raw sausages look appealing is really hard. There were so few angles that didn't make them look totally obscene. In future I might have to seek Deb's assistance.
To make these sausages, I used the KitchenAid meat grinder and sausage attachment with good results. Although I used the coarse grinding attachment, I made the mistake of passing the chicken through the grinder twice. While still tasty, the resulting mince was too fine and lost all texture.
There were a few other things I learned in this process. The meat and skin needed to be frozen more before it was ground. I also think that the skin should be ground after the meat. I found that some of the skin fibers got caught in the cutting blade and caused the meat that followed to be squashed through the grinder rather than cut cleanly.
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 large onions, sliced
4 1/2 pounds chicken thighs with bones and skin
2 garlic cloves, chopped finely
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
Juice from 1 large lemon
1/4 cup fresh parsley leaves, chopped
Spices
2 tablespoons paprika
2 teaspoons fennel seed
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
2 teaspoons ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
Sausage casing (5 feet should be enough for 5lbs of meat)
1. Heat oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add onions and sauté until soft and translucent allow to cool.
2. Separate skin from chicken and de-bone. Slice the chicken meat into smaller strips so that will fit into the meat ginder shoot. Place meat and skin on a baking
sheet and place in the freezer for about 20-30 minutes or until the flesh is firm.
3. Using the coarse meat grinder attachment, grind chicken meat once since you want some meat texture and definition in the final product. Using the same attachment pass the chicken skin and cooled onion mixture through grinder.
3. Combine ground chicken mixture with remaining ingredients and spices. Working quickly to prevent fat from melting, blend thoroughly. Fry a small patty until done to taste seasoning and adjust accordingly.
4. Flush sausage casings in cold running water until clean and removed of salt. Pass casing opening onto sausage funnel and feed the entire length of casing onto funnel. It is much easier to do this under running water. The water passes through the casing walls and acts as a lubricant, allowing the casing to easily slide over itself. Tie a knot at the end.
5. Stuff sausage into casings. Occassionally wet casing on funnel to help it glide off as it fills with stuffing. Using a sewing needle gentle prick the stuffed sausage as it fills.
6. Apparently the KitchenAid should be on setting 4 for grinding and sausage stuffing. I also found it useful to stuff the casings loosely. That way you can twist them into links without risk of breaking. Tie the links in even lengths with butchers twine and knot at ends.
Any remaining sausage mixture can be wrapped in plastic and frozen for later use. Left over sausage casing can be packed in salt and refrigerated for up to a year.
For some reason I had to make a meat pie tonight. Maybe, subconsciously, I was homesick, but I had to make the pie. The kind of pie I had at primary school, juicy chunks of meat in a thick rich gravy. Perfect food for the unexpected (at least for me) cold day we had today.
I had bought the chuck steak and puff pastry several weeks ago at Wholefoods and had placed both in the freezer to make when I had some time. I found out tonight that if you don't make the puff pastry yourself, this dish doesn't take long at all. It is simply a beef or lamb stew piled into a pastry lined dish and covered again with pastry. Bake for 15 mins. Serve with a relish or chutney if you want to be fancy or ketchup if you want to feel homey.
To my surprise the pie was exceptional. I was surprised since it was not only the first time I had made it, but I totally winged the recipe. I took a little direction and technique for making a classic Lamb Navarin and combined it with some extra ingredients from Ken Addington's (Executive Chef of Eight Mile Creek) Aussie meat pie to wonderful results.
It also helped that we opened a bottle of the Italian Castello di Fonterutoli, 1999 Chianti Classico we brought back from Italy last year. An excellent pairing.
3 lbs chuck steak diced in 1/2 inch cubes
2 tablespoons corn oil
1/4 cup plain flour
1 onion diced finely
2-3 carots diced finely
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons tomato paste
3 bay leaves
2 cups veal stock (or chicken or beef)
Puff Pastry (I used Dufour, a local NY brand)
1 egg, beaten, to glaze crust
salt & pepper
1. Preheat oven to 375oF.
2. Heat oil in a frying pan until smoking. On high heat, cook beef in batches until browned. Remove and set aside in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Go light on the salt since the soy sauce will add more later on.
3. Discard excess oil, leaving sucs on bottom of pan. Add onion, carrots and garlic and saute on medium heat for 1 - 2 minutes. Return beef to pan and add flour. Stir until combined and flour starts to brown. You want to cook the flour for at least 5 minutes to eliminate the raw flour taste.
4. Add the soy and Worcestershire sauce and cook until absorbed. Add the stock, bay leaves and tomato paste and simmer until the mixture thickens like gravy. If the meat is tough you may want to continue simmering for a while, periodically adding water, until the meat tenderizes. Set aside to cool.
5. While meat mixture is cooling, like a baking dish with puff pastry. Cover with parchment paper and bake in oven for approximately 8 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove and allow to cool. This allows the pastry to deflate and crispen.
6. Add meat mixture to baking dish and top with remaining pastry. Brush top with beaten egg wash and bake a further 10-15 minutes (depending on size of dish) or until pastry is browned evenly.
Note: You don't even have to eat this the same day it is baked. Like any stew, this dish is better a day or two after preparation since the flavors have had a chance to develop.
It wasn't too hard to believe that tonight was the first night Joe and I ate a meal we cooked in over two weeks. It was good to stay inside and spend some time together, watch the rain fall outside and feel conflicted about the war. After last night going out seemed a weird thing to do tonight after the "shock and awe" campaign released today.
So last night, after working late we went with some friends to Jean-Georges' new restaurant 66 located in Tribeca. This was close by, and perhaps not so surprisingly given the war and the heavy rain, we were able to get a table for 5 at 9:30. In fact while we were waiting, Jean George himself greeted us in his chef whites as he thumbed through the reservation book.
66 is definitely highly stylized. The interior design is beautifully white with cloudy resin tabletops and wall dividers. Salt water aquatic tanks (fish tanks would be to ordinary a descrition) separate the large open kitchen from the buzzing dining room. Waiters are excessively attentive in their soviet block uniforms, whisking away dirty plates and replacing them with clean ones between mouthfuls of food.
With 5 of us we sampled a large variety of dishes and concluded that a few menu items were worth noting. The scallion pancakes were perfectly fried triangles of delicate onion with a tempura like coating. The Lobster Hargow dim sum were excellent with large plump peices of lobster and 4 types of colored roe as jewels in its crown.
The impressive entree was the chilli prawn with lilly bulb. Sweet firm prawns with a spicy chilli sauce tempered with the cool crunch of the lilly bulb. From the choice of desserts, the Ovaltine pudding was interesting, but the winner was clearly the complex vietnamese chocolate ice-cream served in a Chinese soup spoon. If you can afford a $12 cocktail you shouldn't pass up the opportunity to have the cumquat mojito.
Doesn't it sound good? Well it was, until the point in the night when we caught ourselves having fun and immediately felt awkward and guilty. A response we all recognized as one we had months after September 11 whenever we went out for dinner, to a bar or were simply enjoying ourselves. "They" tell us our lives must go on. I suppose this is yet another internal conflict we need to resolve.
Last week I bought about a pound and a half of Italian frying peppers at Wholefoods. Which, according to Fresh Direct, are also called Cubanelle Peppers. Who knew?
These peppers were just too good to pass up. One of the things I enjoy about Wholefoods is that most of their produce is certified organic. Generally this means the food tastes like it should. It also means that I could trust the bright green color and high gloss exterior to be natural and not chemically induced.
My mother used to cook these peppers all the time and I remember them more as a refrigerator staple than the common bell pepper. She would either fry them with a little olive oil in a covered frying pan and serve them whole as a side or, if she had a little more time, they would be roasted, sliced and tossed with roasted tomato, a little olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper.
I preferred the roasted method since it adds a charred flavor to the pepper that counters their natural sweetness. For me the "salad" was even better if it was served on a thick slice of toasted Italian bread.
Last night I was all alone since Joe was in Poughkeepsie spending time with his piano teacher and mentor, Blanca Uribe. Getting hungry, I started rumaging through the fridge, saw the peppers and decided to make this salad.
1 1/2 pounds Italian frying peppers
1 tomato sliced horizontally and seeded
1 garlic clove
Olive oil
Salt & pepper
1. Roast peppers and tomato under broiler or over an open flame. Periodically rotate peppers and tomato halves so that they char and soften evenly.
2. When evenly chared, remove peppers and place in a plastic bag to sweat. The steam or "sweat" will make it easier to peel the now black skin from the pepper flesh. The tomato may take longer to roast and can be peeled without placing in plastic bag.
3. Slice peppers and tomatoes into thin strips. If you want a rustic salad you don't have to remove pepper seeds.
4. In a bowl, gently mix pepper, tomato, crushed garlic with a little olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm or cold as a side to fish or meat.
Note: You could substitute bell peppers for the Italian frying peppers, using different colors for a better presentation. If I had one, I would have also added a chilli pepper to give the dish some spice.
One of my new favorite restuarants is Supper, Frank Prisinazo's relatively new East Village restaurant. I went there last night with a friend visiting from out of town. We wanted something casual, inexpensive and given the winter storm, something that would warm us up completely. Supper did that perfectly.
What I like at Supper more than the prices is that the kitchen does simple northern Italian fare well, very well in fact. I had the calamari which were served perfectly tender in a garlic broth. For my pasta entree I had the "priest stranglers". They were al dente tossed in a great marinara sauce and the plate garnished with a dollop of ricota cheese. The service this time around was much improved and there was no "didactic" host, which more than pleased me.
It is hard to eat here and wonder why you had to eat so many bad Italian meals. Supper really respects the ingredients it uses and it shows. The kitchen takes advantage of quality ingredients used in simple combinations. They don't rely on garlic as the only means of imparting flavor nor do they use olive oil as a heat transfer medium but rather an ingredient in its own right.
I am beginning to appreciate the nature of simplicty at work and starting to translate that into other things around me such as my cooking, which isn't as easy as it sounds.
My dinner tonight was inspired by Supper's simple menu. I didn't want to waste time preparing anything, dealing with multiple pots or cleaning up after fancy creations. I had 3 eggs in the fridge and a half pound of asparagus, so I decided that an asparagus omelette was going to be my dinner. My mother made this all the time as a side and I loved it as a kid. I love it more now for the fact that all you taste is the asparagus, fresh, green and crisp.
1/2 pound of asparagus
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 eggs
Salt & pepper
1. Trim asparagus and then cut into 1 inch lengths. If the stalks are thick, you might need to cut them in half lengthwise.
2. Heat the oil in a non-stick frying pan until very hot and smoking. Add the asparagus and cook on high heat until browned, about 5 - 10 minutes depending on the stalk's thickness. Season with salt and pepper. Spread the asparagus so that it evenly covers the bottom of the frying pan.
3. While the asparagus are cooking, beat 3 eggs, add salt and pepper. Add eggs directly to asparagus in the pan. Reduce heat to medium and cook until egg is set on bottom.
4. Transfer pan to broiler to cook egg on top. Another 5 minutes.
5. Invert onto serving dish and serve, sliced in wedges.
For a variation, you could add diced tomotoes when cooking the asparagus and/or add any type of grated cheese to the egg mixture.
While I hate tax time, I do love running reports off Quicken and reaping the benefits of having downloaded my financial data off the Internet. I am fascinated to see my life's habits and daily movements tracked by credit and debit purchases.
It is one thing to see how much is categorized under "Food: Dining Out", but another to see trends and patterns at any one particular establishment. The frequency and amount I spent at the local Vietnamese restaurant, Thai Son, is truly disturbing. Also, did I really buy that much chocolate at NY Cake and Baking Supply?
The only good thing to come out of this exercise was that I found some paper scraps scribbled with recipe notes. I had jotted the notes down on my trip to Australia several months back and had filed them away with receipts from the same trip.
This is exactly why I have a food blog. I needed a place to capture and organize such peices of information that would otherwise be lost amongst receipts, movie ticket stubs, newspaper clippings and old magazines that lay around my house.
The recipe I found was my friend Paul's all purpose marinade. He's a great cook, making wonderful meals mainly by taking a basic recipe (or something he has seen dining out) and improvising with whatever is in the fridge or pantry. His dishes usually have an Asian twist to them that is uniquely Australian.
While I have seen Paul use this marinade for anything intended to hit his outdoor grill, including quail, chicken and shrimp, it should also work for pork and dark meats.
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon Hot English mustard
2 cloves crushed garlic
1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon cracked black pepper
1/4 cup of olive oil
1/4 cup of roughly chopped parsley
1. Combine all ingredients together and pour over meat to marinade.
2. Let meat marinade for at least 1 hour before using.
You guessed it! I have been making fresh pasta all week and, of course, love it. However, I will spare everyone the pain of having to listen to yet another person wax lyrical about the taste of fresh pasta and that if you have never tried it you don't know what you're missing. It's really no surprise. Pasta like almost everything else is better when made by hand and from fresh indgredients!
In trying to get my pasta right, I have read many recipes this week and everyone mentions how superior it is to dried or even store bought "fresh pasta". However, what they almost all fail to mention is the necessary process of kneading the dough for anything between 6 - 12 minutes. For that crucial step I needed to search the Internet for dozens of user comments and suggestions.
My first attempt at the pasta, saw me barely caress the dough with my palm for fear of over glutinating the mixture. A definite no-no in the pastry kitchen. I was much more agressive with my second and third attempts and found the results better. It was astonishing how quickly the dough transformed under my fingers at about the 7th minute. Suddenly the hard, unyielding mass, became smooth, shiny and had exactly the right amount of give (elasticity) to produce perfectly "al dente" when boiled for a few minutes.
I still have a few questions on this process, namely, do different types of pasta (e.g. ravioli) need different kneading times?
2 cups of plain flour
1 teaspoon of salt
3 eggs
1 teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup of water (on hand if needed)
1. On a clean work surface or in a large bowl, mix flour and salt together.
2. Form a well in the center of flour. Add eggs and oil into well. With a fork gradually combine wet ingredients with dry. Don't whisk eggs with fork as you don't want to incorporate air into the dough. If the dough appears dry, add some water until it's soft and pliable, but not wet and sticky.
3. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and, using the heal of your hand, knead for at least 7 minutes. When finished, wrap in palstic wrap and allow the dough to relax in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
4. Divide dough evenly into 6 pieces. Pass one peice at a time through the pasta machine's rollers at their widest setting. Then on each pass thereafter, on progresisvely narrower settings until you have a long, wide, blemish free strip of pasta.
5. My machine has 6 width settings. The thinest (#6) is to be used for raviolis with lighter fillings such as ricotta. Settting number 5 for raviolis with a heavier meat filling, linguine and fettucine. Setting number 4 should be reserved for spaghetti.
6. Place these wide strips on a floured surface and allow to air dry for about 10 minutes. This will prevent the pasta strands from clumping together once they are passed through the shape cutters.
7. Drop the pasta in boiling salted water and cook for approximately 5 minutes or until al dente. You can add a couple of olive oil drops to the water to prevent the pasta from sticking.
This is my grandmother's recipe for making Sfinci or Italian doughnuts. Just like any fried food, they are delicious. Sfinci are a regional sweet, originiating in the south of Italy (Sicily) and are typically served for the Festa di San Giuseppe on the 19th March.
My grandmother isn't very religious, despite coming from a small Sicilian town called Militello (province of Catania), so I doubt she made Sfinci for San Giuseppe. However, she did make Sfinci every year on Good Friday (the Friday before Easter Sunday). Probably due more to the proximity of March to Easter holidays than any pious responsibilities.
Good Friday is a public holiday in Australia and marks the beginning of the Easter celebrations. For Italians its also starts a 3 day eating marathon. Friday evenings would see my whole extended family (some 25 people) eating dinner at my grandmother's house.
With the help of her daughters she would cook all day, preparing lasagne, roasted meats, vegetables, salads and sweets, which included her sfinci. Since there was no school I was often helping out, or rather lurking around, trying to lick spoons and bowls.
I am sure everyone came over just for those little doughnuts which we would all eat the moment they came out of the hot oil. While similar to Zeppole I much prefer Sfinci. Sfinci are smaller, lighter and coated with cinnamon sugar which doesn't form a soggy paste like the powdered versions of zeppole you see in New York.
1/2 liter milk
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon superfine sugar (plus extra for coating)
2 teaspoons cinnamon (plus extra for coating)
self rising flour
vegetable oil for deep frying
1. Heat milk until warm and add to large mixing bowl.
2. Using an electric mixer, beat on medium speed while adding, salt, sugar and cinnamon. Continue beating and slowly add flour, one tablespoon at a time. Stop adding flour when mixture thickens and becomes the consistency of porridge or normal cake batter.
3. Cover bowl and let stand for 30 - 60 minutes in a warm place.
4. When ready to fry, heat oil to 350oF.
5. Have a small bowl of water close by to wet fingers and prevent the mixture sticking. Using a tablespoon scoop mixture on spoon and scrape into hot oil with finger. In other words, drop small dollops of mixture into oil. The dough should float to the top and expand to form small balls. Be extremely careful not to allow water to drip into the oil or otherwise splatter oil on yourself.
6. Once the bottom of the sfinci are browned underneath, use a wide slotted spoon to turn them over. Remove when browned evenly (about 30 seconds each side).
7. Drain on paper towels and immediately toss in a bowl of superfine sugar and extra cinnamon. Serve immediately.
Note
I have seen recipes for sfinci that use yeast instead of self rising flour and eggs to richen the dough. I haven't tried these alternatives, but would be interested in the outcomes of those that have.
Lately I have been fascinated with tiny sweets, mini replicas of traditional desserts. They are a huge hit with guests who appreciate the delicate work involved while allowing them to try a variety of tastes rather than committing to just one.
It should be noted that smaller doesn't necessarily mean less effort or better results. In fact I found the contrary to be true. Smaller products, need more time to produce, require patience, attention to detail and practice.
These bite size peppermint meringues are the first in this series of mini treats. I will post more recipes once I have the opportunity to repeat their results and guarenteed success.
2 egg whites
pinch of salt
1/2 cup of superfine sugar
1/4 teaspoon peppermint essence
1. Preheat oven to 175oF
2. Beat egg whites with salt in a clean dry stainless steel bowl using an electric beater on high speed until stiff peaks form.
3. While still beating, gradually add sugar a tablespoon at a time until the egg whites are very stiff and glossy. Depending on the size of the eggs used, you may not need the entire 1/2 cup of sugar. Stop adding sugar when it no longer dissolves in the mixture. See note below.
4. Fold in peppermint essence when the mixture has taken as much sugar as it can and is still stiff.
5. Spoon mixture into a piping bag fitted with a star tip and pipe 1 inch rosettes 1 inch part on a silpat or parchment line cookie sheet.
6. Bake undisturbed in oven for 1 1/2 hours. Turn oven off and allow to cool inside with door closed. After about 1 hour meringues should be dry and white.
7. Store meringues in an air-tight container in a cool dry place where they will last for a week or more.
Notes
During the beating process, occassionally pinch a small amount of egg white mixture between your fingers. The mixture should be smooth and silky without the feel of sugar grains between your fingers. Only add more sugar when the existing sugar has completely dissolved. This is important otherwise the meringue's surface will be grainy surface instead of smooth.
You can replace the peppermint essense with any flavoring you like. Vanilla, rose oil, or even a few drops of espresso would work well.
Nougat is one of those things that you never have to make at home. But for exactly that reason it is extremely satisfying to reproduce, if not better, the quality of store bought nougat in your own kitchen. Since nougat is simply candied sugar it has a long shelf life. This is ideal for making ahead of time when you have the whim, and serving it on a special occasion or when you want to feel fancy.
Given the impressive results it's suprising this recipe only takes about 45 minutes (plus chilling time) to produce.
2 cups superfine sugar
1 cup liquid glucose or corn syrup*
1/2 cup honey
2 egg whites
1 stick of butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups of unsalted shelled pistachios (or other unsalted nut)
1 1/2 cup of dried cherries (or other dried fruit)
Rice Paper
1. Place sugar, glucose, honey and pinch of salt in a heavy saucepan with 1/4 cup of water. Dissolve sugar over low heat and bring to boil without stirring. Cook until sugar reaches hard-ball stage (approximately 250-265F).
2. Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form, being careful not to over beat. With mixer still running, in a thin, steady stream pour a quarter of the syrup down the side of the bowl and continue beating for another 5 minutes. The mixture will become thick, smooth and glossy. At this point its color will change to a light brown.
3. Return remaining syrup to heat and cook without stirring until syrup reaches hard-crack stage (300-310F). Working quickly, with motor running, pour remaining syrup down the side of the bowl in a thin, steady stream. Continue beating until mixture is very thick.
4. Cut butter into peices and gradually add to mixture. Once combined, stir in vanilla. With motor on slow add the nuts and dried fruit, mixing until well combined.
5. Spoon mixture into rice paper lined tins (8inx12in) or baking tray. With wet hands smooth surface and top with more rice paper. Press nougat firmly, ensuring it spreads evenly within mold. With weights on top, cool to room temperature and then refrigerate until firm.
6. Turn nougat onto chopping board and with a sharp knife (a bread knife works well) cut into desired shapes. Wrap individual peices in rice paper, cellophane or waxed paper and store in refrigerator. Nougat will keep like this for at least a month. Bring nougat to room temperature before serving.
Notes
Corn syrup is a form of liquid glucose made from cornstarch and the two are pretty much interchangeble. Since they are liquids they don't crystallize easily and are prefect for making candies and icings.
You will know you have over beaten the egg whites when the egg white's surface goes from smooth to lumpy and starts returning to liquid in the bottom of the bowl.
Try altering the flavor of the nougat by using types of honey or even flavored water (e.g. rose). You will be amazed at how much better this nougat tastes over commercial products.
Chef Paul Prudhomme is alledgedly the inventor of this dish and his recipe is ridiculously long and involved. He has you boning the birds yourself, preparing three different stuffings to lay between each bird and a sweet potato and eggplant gravy to serve tableside.
It doesn't have to be this complex. For me, the main objective of this dish is to have the flavors of three birds asthetically layered in one slice, bound together with a complimentary stuffing and gravy. To that end get a butcher to do the hard work of boning each bird and prepare only one stuffing to spread between each bird. This won't sacrifice taste and will preserve the asthetics of having three meat color layers.
The following recipe is adapted from one printed in the New York Times several months ago. I adjusted some of the quantities, ingredients and cooking times in order to produce a beautifully browned bird that wasn't dry.
Prep time for stuffing: About 1 hour, plus overnight chilling
Assembly time: About 1 hour
Cooking time: About 9-11 hours depending on size of turkey
Stuffing
1 pound pancetta, cut into 1/4 inch cubes
1 pound sweet (or spicey if you prefer) Italian sausage seasoned with fennel
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 cup chopped onions
1 1/2 cup chopped carrots
1 1/2 cups chopped celery
3 cloves garlic, mashed
2 teaspoons star anise ground in a mortar and pestle
1 cup brandy (Calvados worked well for me)
2 tablespoon chopped thyme
5 tablespoons chopped tarragon
2 cups dry baguette in 1/2-inch cubes
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Birds
Get a good butcher to bone each bird, butterflying the chicken and duck drumsticks but leaving the turkey's intact for presentation. Reserve all three carcasses, giblets, necks and the chicken and duck wings to make stock for gravy. Trim duck of most fat, leaving some on the breast.
1 3-to-3 1/2 pound chicken, boned, giblets and wings reserved
1 4-to-5 pound duck, boned, giblets and wings reserved
1 18-to-20 pound turkey, boned, legs and wings intact
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Stuffing
This is best prepared the day before and left in the refridgerator overnight for the flavors to develop and the dry brad cubes to soak up the flavorful juices.
1. Cook pancetta in large sauté pan over low heat until fat is rendered and pancetta is browned but not crsipy. Drain on paper towels. Remove sausage from casing, break into small pieces and add to pan. Cook sausage until no longer pink. Drain on paper towels.
2. Pour off fat in pan. Add olive oil, along with chopped onion, carrot and celery and garlic and aniseed. Cook over medium heat for 2 minutes. Add chicken and duck giblets, and season with salt and pepper. Cook until giblets are almost cooked through. Raise heat to high and pour in brandy. Reduce until almost gone, then shut off heat and stir in thyme and tarragon. Remove giblets from pan and chop. In a large bowl, fold together pancetta, sausage, vegetables, giblets and bread cubes. Taste and adjust seasoning. Let cool and chill overnight.
Assembly
Instead of laying each bird on top of each other and then rolling as one whole, its easier if you first roll the chicken around stuffing, then roll the duck around the chicken and then encase the duck in the turkey. This will give you a more even distribution of white and dark meat when slicing for presentation.
3. The next morning, before you begin, preheat the oven to 250 degrees (F). Have all 3 birds and bowl of stuffing lined up in front of you. Start with the chicken, laying it out skin side down, tail end toward you. Season with salt and pepper. Spread 1/3 of stuffing over its surface. Starting at one side, roll chicken around stuffing into a cylinder. Place to one side.
4. Next place the duck skin side down, tail end toward you. Season with salt and pepper. Spread another 1/3 of stuffing over its surface. Place the rolled chicken along the edge of the duck and roll duck around chicken. Place to one side.
5. Take the turkey and repeat the process. Lat it skin side down, tail end toward you. Season with salt and pepper. Spread remaining stuffing over its surface. Place duck/chicken roll in the center of the turkey.
6. Thread butcher's needle with 3 feet of thin twine. Beginning at tail end, begin pulling sides of turkey together, reforming its body around the duck/chicken roll, stitching every inch or so. Have someone hold bird while you stitch. Do not sew turducken together too tightly or it will split open when cooking.
7. Turn bird over; with a 3-foot piece of twine, truss it as you would a chicken, wrapping the twine around tips of drumsticks, then crisscrossing it and going down around base of drumsticks. Crisscross twine under bird, then bring it up sides and crisscross it on top, wrapping it down and around wings, crisscrossing it on back side, and up again, tying it over breast.
8. Season roasting pan with salt and pepper. Place turducken in pan breast side up, and season it. Drizzle a little olive oil over the bird and in the pan to prevent aluminum foil sticking to bird.
9. Cover pan with aluminum foil and bake. After about 3 hours, begin checking bird every 30 minutes or so, and basting when juices form. Turn pan every now and then so it cooks evenly. When a thermometer inserted in turducken reads 140 degrees (probably about 8 or 9 hours), remove aluminum foil and turn up heat to 350 degrees. Baste every 15 minutes or so, until turducken reaches 165 degrees at its thickest point. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes or so. With sturdy spatulas or heat proof rubber gloves, lift onto platter. Cover turducken with foil, and let sit another 30 to 45 minutes. Meanwhile, strain pan juices and spoon off fat.
10. Using a bread knife or carving knife, remove legs, and slice turducken from tail end like a loaf of bread. Serve, passing gravy.
Serves: 16-20
This is a classic french chicken stock and serves as an excellent base for soups, sauces and gravies. This recipe makes about 5 liters, any unused stock can be stored, almost forever, in the freezer to be thawed and added to just about anything to provide flavor.
7 pounds chicken (or other poultry) bones trimmed of any fat
cold water
2/3 pound onions roughly chopped
2/3 pound carrots roughly chopped
1/3 pound celery diced
2 cloves garlic
Bouquet Garni
Some sticks of thyme
3-4 bay leaves
6-7 flat leaf parsley stems
1/2 leek split lengthwise
2 tsps whole peppercorns
4-5 cloves (optional)
1. Rinse bones under cold water. Place in large stock pot and add enough cold water to cover bones completely. Bring water to boil, skimming off any foam as it forms.
2. Lower the stock to a gentle simmer (only a few surface bubbles should be visible) and continue skimming off any foam. Add the onions, carrots, celery, garlic and bouquet garni. Simmer for about 2 hours.
3. Carefully remove bones and any vegetables from stock and strain using a fine chinois. Let cool and refrigerate. If not using stock within one day, transfer stock to smaller zip lock bags, label, date and freeze.
Note: After stock's first boil, it is important that it be kept at a gentle simmer, producing only a few surface boubles, for the remainder of its cooking time. A more vigorous boil will aggitate and loosen the stock's ingredients, causing it to become cloudy.
Lately I have been experimenting with types of salads that are quick to prepare and use some not so usual ingredients. The recipe here creates a "clean" salad for summer that can be a meal in itself or served as a side. Note that the beans in this salad do require soaking, but if planning ahead is a problem, you can substitutute dried beans for canned.
2 cups dried cannellini beans, soaked in cold water overnight
2 cloves garlic
1 cucumber
2 tomatoes
1/2 spanish onion sliced thinly into rings
2 tablespoons of parsley (chopped roughly)
2 tablespoons of cilantro (chopped roughly)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar (balsamic will also do)
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt and coarsely ground black pepper
To soak beans, rinse dried beans under cold running water, removing any old, split or blackened beans. Place in large bowl and cover with at least 1 inch with cold water. Leave out overnight. You will find that the beans will absorb a lot of the water. Periodically, drain and refill bowl with clean water - especially in warmer weather.
Cook the drained beans with split garlic cloves in large saucepan of water for about 30-45 minutes or until beans are tender. Drain well and set aside to cool.
While beans are cooking/cooling, layer the onion slices in a bowl, sprinkling each layer with salt and set aside until ready to combine all ingredients.
Dice cucumber and tomatoes into 1/2 inch squares and roughly chop the parsley and cilantro. There's no need to peel or seed the cucumber as the green skin provides a color contrast to the white beans.
When ready to serve salad, rinse onion rings under cold running water to remove salt. Squeeze out any remaining liquid. Combine all ingredients into bowl - beans, cucumber, tomotoes, onion, parsley, cilantro. Drizzle combined olive oil, vinegar and juice of the lemon over salad and toss gently. Season to taste.
If the salad is a meal in itself. Spread some baby spinach leaves around a flat plate and pile salad in the middle. Garnish with spring of cilantro.