Thanksgiving turkey with everything goes sauce

I am one of those people whose least favorite food item during Thanksgiving has always been the turkey. I detested chicken as a child and turkey was just more dry and bland meat. That is until this year! My  daring task this year was to cook my very first turkey. It seemed intimidating at first but it was actually quite easy.. you just need to know a few tricks. So after this year's thanksgiving I can no longer say that I don't like turkey.. I just have to be the one to cook it!
I picked a 10lb bird since we didn't have any family over for thanksgiving. It was gone in 2 days... not that it was a small bird.. it was just so delicious. It's a bit late but I will teach you my tricks for a super moist and tasty turkey.

4 days before
Start defrosting the bird by putting it in the fridge instead of freezer.

3 days before
Make a compound butter by melting a stick of salted butter and mixing it with the spices of your choice. I chose rosemary and thyme. I also added truffle oil, truffle pieces, salt, pepper. You want this butter to be as tasty as possible. Store in the refrigerator.

2 days before

1. Hopefully the turkey will have thawed at this point. If not, immerse it in room temperature water for 30 minutes or until it's completely thawed.
2. Take out the interior organs of the bird (save the neck).
3. Get your hands (gently) between the skin and the muscle so as to make room. Almost like an envelope. You are going to put the compound butter (at room temperature) into this pocket you have created. Try not to tear the skin when doing this. Also try to open up the skin between the leg. You won't get all the way around the bird's breast and legs but you can try your best without ripping the skin.
4. Once the butter is all rubbed inside the pocked you have created.
5. cover the bird with a brining bag and store in the fridge until the big day.

You must be wondering what all this butter is for? It will keep your bird moist and give it a lot of flavor since the butter has been seasoned and rested for a day. Otherwise your bird wouldn't have any flavor below the skin.

day of

1. Put the turkey on a roasting pan (cover the bottom of the pan with aluminium foil for easy clean up -it will get messy.) Place sprigs of fresh herbs inside the cavity (I used thyme, rosemary, and cooked brown rice with raisins and almonds)
2. Tie the bird together for even cooking
3. Place in the oven at 250-300 F and set your timer to 30 minutes.
4. Meanwhile prepare a mixture of chicken stock and white wine (about 3 cups worth) and melt half a stick of butter. Have all these handy.
5. Every 30 minutes you will brush the turkey with this liquid mixture and butter. This will keep your bird very moist and add more flavor. Don't forget to set the timer.. every 30 minutes for as long as the turkey takes to bake. If it's a large turkey you may need extra liquid and butter for brushing.
6. Most turkeys have that small red dot that tells you when it's done, I don't trust them so I like to check my meat with a thermometer. It is likely that doing the turkey with this method I just described, the bird will cook quicker. Mine should have taken 5 hours and it took 3. So when you think the turkey looks done, poke it with a thermometer and it should read 180 degrees. Over-roasting will make the turkey dry out.

So then what about the gravy right?
Well.. to tell you the truth.. this turkey doesn't need gravy.. it has so much flavor.. but I did make a pan sauce to go with it that was quite delicious. My husband liked it so much he wanted to put it on everything.. even an empty spoon!

1. With the neck you saved from the turkey you'll sautee that with a little butter and 1/4 chopped onions.
2. Once the meat has browned and the onions have color, deglaze the pan with 1/2 cup milk.
3. Add 1 tablespoon of milk, whisk a little, and take out the turkey neck (discard it). By adding 1/2 cup white wine and extra milk, you will make a bechamel sauce out of this mixture. 
4. Season with salt, pepper and sage.
5. As this mixture cools while you wait for the turkey, it will ticken, but right before serving the turkey, add another 1/4-1/2 cup liquid to the sauce to make it runny again.
6. Whisk 1 minute and serve with your turkey!

I was proud of this big bird!

Turkey with tangy sweet mashed potatoes and the everything goes sauce!

The mashed potatoes were super healthified, I boiled them, then mashed them and added some yogurt (1/3 cup) and ricotta cheese (1/4 cup) to make them creamy. I seasoned them with salt, pepper and DONE! The easiest thing on the menu.

The reason I did not become a Savoury Chef

David Backhum, as my husband called it, came to dinner last night.
I did not take any photos of this venture on purpose as it might frighten some of you.

I decided to cook my first whole chicken yesterday... when I unpackaged the chicken.. I had a bigger surprise than I thought. feet with nails still on it, kidneys and hearts still inside, and this head with eyes staring right back at me. Oh it was horrendous. I didn't think I could do it. I had to beg my husband to get the head and the feet off and had to put on gloves to remove the heart and kidneys and liver. This is the reason why I am a Pastry chef and not a Savoury chef. I couldn't handle the full animal, I think I'd become a vegetarian.
But I have to say that after that first hour trying to manage that chicken, I was able to create a delicious roasted chicken that was incredibly moist and not dry at all!
The secret is in making a flavored butter and stuffing it between the skin and the meat of the breast and the legs. Try not to rip the skin and then massage the contents to spread them around the hard to reach places.
I used regular butter and herbs with a little bit of truffle oil. Avoid oil if you can because it becomes bitter when cooked, only mix it with a larger amount of butter.
I also stuffed the cavity with sauteed vegetables and a little precooked rice. The vegetables gave flavor to the chicken from the inside and also helped to keep it moist. Those veggies tasted delicious after being roasted too.
One more tip, every 30 minutes take the chicken out and pour the juices that fell ont he roasting pan back on. If you don't have enough juice add a little bit of white wine and drizzle on top.
The chicken took 1h 40 m to cook. It was a large chicken too.. so give it a shot.. I just hope your chicken is headless and feetless...

Here's what I used for the chicken:

Rubbing between skin: salted butter with tarragon and basil and truffle oil mushed into a paste.
For the Cavity: salt, pepper, sauteed red onion and leeks, cooked white rice, tarragon sprig, garlic clove

Seperately I cooked some white rice with the leftover sauteed leeks and red onion which didn't fit inside the cavity, and then for the last 10 minutes of roasting I placed it on the grill pan to soak the chicken's juices.

Remember to allow the chicken to rest 10 minutes before carving.
Bon Appetit!!

Last Day: Roasting

It's not thanksgiving yet but I am getting practice with the most minute version.
Poussins.. or very small chickens. I'd never cooked anything whole before and the only thing I had ever bought from the supermarket in one piece was Duck for a delicious portuguese duck rice.
At first, with the Poussin I didn't know what to do with it. Here's what the cute little thing looked like after I very generously rubbed it with truffle butter underneath it's skin....

and stuffed its cavity with aromatic ingredients such as garlic, bay leaf, thyme, salt and pepper.

It doesn't look glamorous but hey it tasted great!

then we tressed them which means tying up the meat so that the smaller parts cook just as evenly. Just make sure the meat isn't too too tight. Then brown it on all sides and stick it in the oven.

Roasting is DRY heat so the roasting pan must be low sided so that air can circulate. It's ideal to put the meat on a rack so liquid falls and allows the meat to dry. And also always cook meat uncovered, otherwise you cause steaming.

Meat should be roasted with its skin on and covered in fat such as butter. This conducts heat better so aids in cooking and ads to color and FLAVOR. Oil should be avoided for roasting because in high heat it turns bitter.

There are two ways of roasting. Low heat and slow, or high heat and fast. Less tender cuts need low and slow so they will become tender. For tender cuts we can use high and fast. Chicken can really go either way and it's a good idea to baste it often so it will not dry out.

Never wash meat before cooking as it dries out!

These beautiful mushrooms go with the roasted veal tenderloin. It's great to sautee vegetables and make a reduction in the pan used for browning the meat so don't throw it away when you're done with browning.

And if using hard liquor for cooking to add flavor.. always burn off the alcohol. it doesn't taste good in savoury foods, only desserts. A great way to do this is by flambeeing it off

Set fire to your pan and shake it till it dissapears. Then simmer the rest off. I was very afraid of doing this as you can tell, but after you do it once you realize how fun it is. The flame isn't going to burn you or your kitchen as long as you have an exhaust guard on top of your stove, so fire away!!

The same rule applies for roasting vegetables.. we want dry heat to circulate. Harder veggies like squash do take a long time so keep that in mind. These pan patty squashes took about 35 minutes.

Discard any super burnt brown bits when serving.

These veggies were all marinated for a while before cooking. It ads a complexity of flavors that you wouldn't be able to get otherwise.

Carving meat is another beast all in itself. For carving birds you want to cut off the legs first. Then the back bone which has no meat, and then cut right in half of the breast bone.

Carving the veal tenderloin is much easier..

You simply cut against the grain on a bias (angled diagonally) and taadaa. The mushrooms were placed uner the meat for the meat to stand out more.

And dinner is served...

And the Culinary bootcamp team waves goodbye...