This year's roast turkey with giblet gravy

Thanksgiving is always fun for our clan. We had 20 people gather at my Lisle abode. Dinner was a massive feast. It consisted of roast turkey, a slow roasted picnic ham, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing (or dressing) mashed rutabaga and carrots, mashed baked sweet potatoes, candied sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberries, mac-n-cheese, a salad, homemade breads, pumpkin pies, and apple pies. 

I pulled the twenty pound turkey out of the refrigerator around 9:30 in the morning, to bring it to room temperature. I just lightly seasoned it, and it spent about 4-1/2 hours in the oven. I don’t get fancy with turkey. Here’s how I roasted it.

20 lb. turkey with giblets

4 tbs. of butter

Adobo seasoning

Poultry seasoning

Olive oil

Onion flakes

Bay leaf

1 quart of water

Flour

Chicken broth

White pepper

Preparation

About  forty five minutes before you plan to put the turkey in the oven, take it out of the fridge, and remove the packaging. I never buy a frozen turkey because I keep my refrigerator so cold, that it would take almost a week to thaw. The extra expense of a fresh turkey is worth it to me. I found that sometimes they really try to hide the giblets. I expect to find them in the cavity, but all I found was the turkey neck. After looking around, I found the bag of giblets in the neck opening. 

Place the giblets in a sauce pan, and add the water, about a quarter cup of onion flakes, and the bay leaf. Bring that to a boil, let it simmer for about an hour, then let it cool. Save it for the gravy.

Preheat the oven to 350º. Place the turkey in a rack in a large roasting pan. Rub the turkey with olive oil, and then dust the top of it with the adobo seasoning. Sprinkle on some poultry seasoning, and grind on some white pepper. Cover the turkey with aluminum foil. Set the turkey in the oven, and start it roasting. 

After about two hours, remove the foil, and baste the turkey with some of the drippings. Baste the bird about every half hour. The general rule is about 20 minutes per pound, but different ovens vary in the actual temperature. Aim for 165º or 170º as the coldest internal temperature reading. It took a little longer for my turkey to reach the proper temperature.

Remove the turkey when the internal temperature is reached, and set it on a carving board to rest while you make gravy. You’ll probably have more turkey fat than you’ll need for gravy, but maybe not. I made a half gallon of gravy, and it was all gone by the end of the meal. 

Set the roasting pan so it straddles two burners, and start it sizzling. Chop up the giblets and add them to the fat. Sprinkle on enough flour to absorb the fat, and then add first the strained broth from the giblets. Stir and then add chicken broth, a little at a time, until the gravy is thinned out to the right thickness. Let it simmer for a minute more to make sure it right, and then pour it into a huge bowl. 

Have someone carve the turkey for you, while you enjoy a glass of wine, and then ring the dinner bell.

Serving

The hardest part about serving a feast like this, is finding room for all the food. We had a ton of food, lots of wine, lots of beer, and lots of laughs.

Saturday night leg of lamb

On Friday, I made a trip to a grocery store in Naperville because they had bone-in leg of lamb on sale for only 3.99 a pound. These days, that’s a great price. All day long Saturday, I was looking forward to a good lamb dinner. Finally, just about the time our blizzard stopped, I pulled the lamb out of the fridge, and seasoned it up.

When you have a good lamb roast like this, you don’t want a heavy hand with the seasoning. It is important to let the wonderful lamb flavor shine through. A little garlic under the fat, will be plenty, along with a little dusting of cajun seasoning. Saturday night, I had my neighbors over for dinner, and I got rave reviews. Here is how I prepared the lamb.

5 lb. bone-in leg of lamb

1 large clove of garlic

Cajun seasoning

White pepper

Thyme

Olive oil

Sea salt

Flour

Water

1 sprig of fresh rosemary

Preparation

About a half hour before you plan to start cooking, pull the roast out of the fridge, and set it in a cast iron pan, fattest side up. Take a large clove of garlic and cut it into little slivers. Use a sharp knife, and insert the garlic slivers through the fat, into the meat. Once they are all inserted, rub the roast  with olive oil, and then season it with a light dusting of cajun seasoning, a little thyme, and some white pepper. Sprinkle the lamb with some sea salt, and then let it sit for a half hour at room temperature.

Preheat the oven to 350º. Set the roast in the oven. The usual guide is twenty minutes per pound, but well before that time is up, start taking internal readings with an instant read thermometer. Lamb should be roasted medium rare. Despite what the cookbooks tell you, you should take the lamb out of the oven when it has an internal temperature that just reaches 120º. At that point, the lamb is rare, but if you take the roast out, set it in a warm place (usually near the oven vent) for about ten minutes, it will be perfectly medium rare when you slice it.

Set the lamb on a serving plate, and set that by the oven vent so you can make gravy. Set the cast iron pan on the stove over medium high heat. Sprinkle on enough flour to absorb most of the fat, and it become a slurry. Stir and cook the wet flour mixture for about three minutes. Season it with salt and white pepper, and if you like, a little adobo seasoning. Start adding water, a little at a time, to make a gravy. Take a rosemary sprig, and snip it with a scissors over the gravy. Stir that in. When you think you have the thickness right, let it simmer another minute, you may need to add a spec more water. When the gravy is a nice thickness, you are ready to serve.

Serving

We served our sliced roast lamb next to a pile of mashed potatoes. Smother both with gravy. Add a pile of mixed vegetables, and some homemade bread and butter. I had a medium bodied Cabernet Sauvignon to go with dinner.  Sorry about the sloppiness of the photos. I forgot to snap them, until my second helping. Thank goodness there was still some left.

Pizza with Kalamata olives and imported provolone

The other night I had a craving for pizza. As I was driving home, I wasn’t sure if I had enough cheese to make one. I knew I was completely out of Mozzarella. I did a mental inventory as I drove. I really didn’t feel like making a stop at the grocery store. When I remembered I had a block of imported Italian Provolone, and a few slices of Colby and Pepper-jack, I knew I was good to go.

I started making the dough when I arrived home. As I did, I remembered I had some imported Kalamata olives as well. The earthy taste of the Kalamata olives along with the extra sharp Italian Provolone really made this pizza tasty. This ended up being one of my favorite pizzas. Here’s how I made it.

2 cups of unbleached bread flour

1/2 tsp. of salt

1/2 tsp. honey

Extra virgin olive oil

2 tbs. yeast

1 cup of lukewarm water

8 oz. can of tomato sauce

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

Splash of Tabasco

1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese

1 tsp. of oregano

8 Kalamata olives, sliced off the pits

Several slices of Pepper-jack cheese

Several slices of Colby cheese

2 cups of freshly shredded Italian Provolone

White pepper

Corn meal

Preparation

Place the flour, salt, honey, about two tablespoons of the extra virgin olive oil, and the yeast in your mixing bowl. Add the water and bring the dough together with your dough hooks. Adjust with extra flour or water if needed. Knead the dough for about a minute or so. Set it aside while you put the sauce together.

Place the tomato sauce in a bowl. Add about a tablespoon of your good olive oil to it. Stir in the Parmesan cheese and the oregano. Give it a splash of Tabasco and a final stir.

Place the dough on a floured surface, and use your fingers to work it into a sixteen inch circle. Don’t measure, just guess. It really doesn’t matter, right ladies?  Slide the dough into t a pizza pan that has been sprinkled with corn meal. Roll the edges up to form a crust.

Pour the sauce on to the pizza dough, and spread it out evenly, with a spoon. Add some sliced Pepper-jack and Colby slices around the pizza. If you don’t have those, other types of cheese, Swiss, Cheddar or whatever you have, will work. Add the sliced Kalamata olives evenly. Now, add the shredded Provolone. Sprinkle the top of the pizza with some fresh ground white pepper, and bake the pizza in the oven at 410º for about twenty minutes or so. 

When the pizza is golden brown and bubbling, it is ready. Remove it to a cutting pan, and top it with a splash of your very best extra virgin olive oil and a little more white pepper. Wait five minutes before slicing.

Serving

With pizza, you should probably have a big tossed salad. I didn’t bother that night. I just served this pizza as a single serving portion. What can I say? I was tired and hungry. Any light bodied red wine will work.

Chicken soup with pasta

I don’t know why it is, but on Sunday’s, I really become lazy. Maybe it is because most Saturday nights I have my neighbors over for dinner, and sometimes it goes late. Whatever the reason, I don’t get much done on Sundays. This past Sunday, I did a few chores in the morning after my newsletter, and then spent most of the day with a book, reading by the window.

Early afternoon, I decided to make a chicken soup. I had meaty chicken bones, that were left after I carved the chicken for dinner Saturday. Since I was only making soup for me (about four servings), that was enough. This is a two part soup. First I make a stock out of the bones, then I pick the meat out of the strained bones, and make a soup with the meat and the stock. Here’s how I did that.

Meaty carcass of a roast chicken

2 quarts of water

1 large bay leaf

Adobo seasoning

1/4 cup of onion flakes

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

Oregano

Olive oil

1 large carrot, chopped

2 stalks of celery with leaves, chopped

1 large onion, chopped

1/2 tsp. Hungarian paprika

1/2 tsp. ground savory

1/2 tsp. poultry seasoning

1 tsp. flour

1 tbs. Worcestershire sauce

Fresh ground white pepper

Pinch of saffron

1 cup of lasagna noodles, broken up into small pieces

Preparation

Step one is to make the stock. Place all of the chicken bones, with the meat attached in a dutch oven. Add at least two quarts of water, then add the bay leaf, a generous sprinkle of adobo seasoning or seasoned salt, the onion flakes, the garlic powder, and about a half teaspoon of the oregano. Bring that to a  boil, reduce to a bare simmer, and simmer partially covered, for at least an hour.

Once that flavorful stock is ready, and all the vegetables are chopped, strain the stock into a bowl. Let the chicken bones cool. When it is cool enough to handle, go through and pick off all the meat and set it in a small bowl. Pick through the bones carefully because there is a lot more meat in there than you think. Once you get all the meat off, you are ready to start on the soup.

Put the dutch oven back on the stove, and add enough olive oil to coat the bottom. Add the carrots, onion and celery. Stir and let that sizzle until it softens. Add the chicken and sprinkle on the, savory, paprika, poultry seasoning and flour. Stir until everything is sizzling, and then add in the chicken stock. Bring the broth to a boil, reduce to a simmer. Stir in the Worcestershire sauce and the saffron. Let that simmer for an hour, partially covered.

Taste and adjust the soup. Mine needed more adobo, white pepper, and even a few onion flakes. I also added another teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce for a little depth in the flavor. When everything is right, stir in the broken lasagna noodles, simmer for twenty minutes and you are ready to serve. 

Serving

I served this very simply. I had a loaf of white bread made with honey, that was still hot from the oven, which I sliced thickly and slathered with butter … and several bowls of this soup. Simple but good.

Cheesy baked eggplant

Over the weekend, I invited my neighbors over for dinner. I made a simple garlic marinara sauce, a loaf of homemade white bread, a pizza style anchovy bread, sausage and peppers, and this baked eggplant.

Why do people find this scary?

Many people look at eggplant as a mystery. What the heck do you do with that strange purple thing? This is a great way to solve that dilemma. 

The secret to eggplant is using good olive oil, which will impart its flavor on the eggplant. The other secret to this recipe, is to use good imported Italian Provolone, Pecorino Romano, and Italian San Marzano tomatoes. With ingredients like that, how can the eggplant not taste good?

1 large or two smaller eggplants

Lots of salt

Extra virgin olive oil

4 large cloves of garlic

28 oz. can of San Marzano tomatoes

5 large basil leaves

White pepper

1 cup fo flour

Italian Auricchi Provolone

Italian Pecorino Romano

Shredded Mozzarella cheese

Preparation

An hour or two before you plan to cook, peel the eggplant, slice it lengthwise, and cut those slices in half. Heavily salt both sides of the eggplant slice, and set it in a colander. Repeat until all slices are salted and stacked in the colander. Place a plate on top to weight them down, and set the colander over a bowl. This will drain the bitterness out of the eggplant. You’ll be surprised how much liquid comes out.

The tomato sauce for this is very simple. Place about a half cup of very good olive oil in a medium sized sauce pan and heat it. For goodness sake, don’t measure, just guess. Peel the four garlic cloves, and smash them with the blade of a metal knife (one loyal reader did this with one of those expensive porcelain knives, and broke it). Add the smashed, but still whole garlic cloves to the oil. Now don’t brown the garlic, but as it sizzles, remove it from the heat, swirling it, return it for more sizzle, and so on, until the garlic softens. Remove and discard the garlic.

Place the San Marzano tomatoes in a bowl, and using your hands, squeeze them, and break them up. This way, they still have more texture than regular sauce. Add this to the hot oil and bring to a simmer. 

Take the five basil leaves, stack them, roll them up, fold the roll in half, and slice that razor thin with a sharp knife. Add the basil to the tomato sauce. Taste and adjust the sauce for salt and pepper. Turn the heat off.

Wipe the salt off the eggplant slices, and set them on a plate. Heat a small cast iron pan, and add about an inch of extra virgin olive oil. Place the flour in a bowl. In batches, rub each slice with the flour, and fry them in the oil. Turn them over, and when it is nicely golden brown, set it on a plate lined with paper towel. Repeat until all the slices are fried. Grate about a cup each, of the Provolone and the Romano.

Spoon a little of the tomato sauce into a baking bowl, or small casserole pan. Add half of the eggplant and then top that with more sauce, and half of the grated Provolone and Romano. Add the rest of the eggplant, the rest of the Provolone and Romano, the rest of the tomato sauce, and top that with about two cups of shredded Mozzarella cheese. Press the shredded cheese down, so it gets down into the sauce. Bake at 390º for about thirty five or forty minutes, until the sauce is bubbling and the cheese is browned.

Serving

What a meal! Pasta with a garlic tomato sauce, cheesy baked eggplant, fresh bread, anchovy bread, sausage and peppers, olives, and lots of wine. 

Anchovy and olive oil bread

Saturday night I had a big dinner of pasta marinara, baked eggplant, sausage and peppers, olives and this anchovy bread. I know, as soon as I say the word anchovy, I lose most of you. Anchovies bring a hiss out of most people, kinda like holy water and Dracula. That’s too bad, because I love anchovies, and I really love this anchovy bread.

I’ve made this a few different ways over the years. One of my favorites, is to put the anchovies and oil only on one half of the dough, fold the other half over, cut some slits in the top, and brush the dough with lots of olive oil, before and after it is baked. 

Today’s recipe is a little simpler than that. It is basically a pizza, topped with anchovies, and lots of olive oil, and, when it comes out of the oven, a little bit of cheese. The result is a salty, anchovy flavored bread. It is a little bit crisp, due to the oily bread being toasted in the oven. Here’s how I put this together. Use only your very best olive oil on this.

2 cups of unbleached flour

1 cup of lukewarm water

1 tbs. yeast

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. honey

Extra virgin olive oil

1 tin of anchovies in olive oil (buy a good brand)

Fresh ground black pepper

Corn meal

1/4 cup of grated Italian Provolone

Preparation

Place the flour, water, yeast, salt, honey, and two tablespoons of your best olive oil, in a mixing bowl. Bring the dough together with your dough hooks, and adjust with a little extra flour or water if needed. Knead the dough for a minute or so, and let it rise for about forty five minutes in a warm place.

Knead the dough again, and on a floured surface, work the dough into a large circle, about sixteen inches or so. Slide the dough into a pizza pan that has been sprinkled with lots of corn meal. Roll up the edges of the dough to form a crust. Let it rest for about ten minutes. 

Open the tin of anchovies, and distribute the filets evenly on the pizza dough. Pour the oil from the tin evenly over the dough. Add about two tablespoons of your very best olive oil evenly on top of the bread surface. Tilt the pan, this way, then that, so as to let the oil spread out on the top of the bread. Grind some black pepper over the top of the bread. Bake it at 400º for about twenty to thirty minutes, until the bread turns a light golden brown.

Remove the bread to a pizza cutting pan. Drizzle a little more of your best olive oil over the top of the bread. Sprinkle that good imported Provolone on to the top of the bread. Let it rest for about ten minutes before slicing.

Serving

I served this anchovy bread with a cheesy, olive oily, baked eggplant. We also had a garlicky marinara sauce over pasta, sautéed sausage and pepper, and a bowl of assorted olives in olive oil. The wine was a large double bottle of Chianti. It seemed like the dinner guests were very pleased. Some passed on the anchovy bread, but that’s to be expected. It’s a special dish, made for just those few who appreciate it.