T-Day 2010 Epilogue

Turkey came out moist, juicy, cracklin skin despite thermometer fail.* The Zak Pelaccio recipe made the best Brussels sprouts I've ever had in my life. I may have to make another batch this weekend.

Perfection!

Arlo was on emergency retrieve ops. 

Bill made curry roasted cauliflower and dressing,
Jon made roasted beet salad.

Eminently edible sprouts. Thanks Zak!

Sombody finally manned up to eat the leg
after a 2 hour game hiatus

*Well, thermometer kept changing its mind over temp. So just took turkey out after 2.75 hours. Breast meat was done, but dark meat was still a bit rare. So we carved off the breast meat and set it aside, then stuck the rest of the carcass back in the oven for another 15 minutes or so, shooting for a doneness of 161ºF in leg.

For dessert: pecan pie, 'Wichcraft pumpkin pie, vanilla ice cream.

Injuries sustained: Hot cranberry splatter in eye, burn on foot from taking out top rack after preheating, stepped on random piece of glass dislodged from under fridge.

Live Blogging T-Day 2010: Pie comes out, Pie goes in

Pie comes out. Turkey goes in. Rinsed, patted dry, stuffed with steeped aromatics (celery, sage, 1/2 onion, apple, carrot, thyme), and brushed with oil. 500ºF on lowest rack for 30. Foil tent over breast and temp to 151ºF.

First casualty of the day. Arlo takes a bite out of pie.

Arlo eying the little butterball. No he did not lick it. 

Live Blogging T-Day 2010: Pecan Pie + Cranberries

Blind baked crust.
Pie weights: pennies & stones.

Just poured pecan pie slurry.

Topped it with a steamer for a makeshift splatter guard.

Pecan pie (corn syrup-free)
2 eggs room temp
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter melted
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon whole milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 400º F. Beat eggs until foamy (quickly bring eggs to room temp by soaking in warm water for a few minutes), stir in melted butter. Stir in both sugars, flour, mix well. Add vanilla, milk, pecans.

Pour into 9-inch pie shell. Bake in preheated oven for 10 min. Lower temp to 300. Bake for 50 minutes or until browned on top. Cool before serving.

Cranberry sauce
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2-3 organic oranges, enough for 1 cup juice (zest one orange)
2 teaspoons extract of orange
1 12 oz bag cranberries

In a medium saucepan, heat 1/2 cup with the orange zest, orange juice, sugar and extract over medium-high heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the cranberries and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the cranberries burst and the sauce has thickened slightly, about 7 minutes. Let sauce cool to room temperature or chill slightly before serving.

Live Blogging T-Day 2010: Bake it from scratch

The key to good pie crust: Keep it Cold, Limit Handling. Recipe I used is adapted from Flying Pigs Farm's adaption of this Melissa Clark article. There's also a great video clip on NY Times today about crusts.

Melissa Clark says lima-bean size balls, not pea-size!

Leaf Lard and Butter Pie Crust (for 1 pie)
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour (I substituted 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour)
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoon unsalted butter softened if measuring from a tub (Ronnybrook!)
4 tablespoon rendered leaf lard (I used Flying Pigs')
2 to 5 tablespoon ice water

Double recipe for 2 pie crusts.

*I think a food processer is supposed to make this easier, but I don't have one and frankly, it really only took about 15 minutes even by hand all said and done. 

Sift flour and salt into a mixing bowl. Measure in butter and lard. Put the mix into the freezer for 20 minutes to chill. Toss mixture together with your fingers, gently cutting fats into the flour. Be careful not to overwork it. Add water a tablespoon at a time until just moist enough to form a ball. Pat into a disc and store in an airtight container in fridge for at least one hour and up to 3 days ahead. Roll it out while it's still cold.

Check out this link for an exhaustive list of tips for perfect pie crusts.

Live Blogging T-Day 2010: Super Brine!

I'll be making my third turkey (care of DiPaola Turkey Farm) this year. No need to fix what ain't broke, but then again.... the potential of developing a super brine from mashing several recipes together is undeniably too tempting to pass up. Especially when I have a cupboard spilling over still from spices I bought at Kalustyans a year ago to enter the Curry Takedown. I hope I don't live to regret this.

Herbs, sugars, spices

Nab a 5-gallon pickle bucket from any deli worth its pickle.

FrankenBrine 
1 14–16 lb. turkey
2 cups kosher salt 
1 cup white sugar 
1 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
1 cup molasses
12 cloves
1 tbs. coriander seeds
1 1/2 cinnamon sticks
5 pieces star anise
3 bay leaves
2 tbs. peppercorns
2 ginger candies chopped
several leaves each fresh thyme, sage


Throw it all in your biggest pot with enough water to dilute, bring to a boil. Don't bother tasting. Yuck. 


Cool with ice. Add turkey. Weight it with a plate or plastic wrapped brick or something. Immerse turkey in brine overnight (add more water to submerge) in fridge, turning over half way through. 
In the morning, rinse, drain well, pat dry.

Okay, so big disappointment, turns out my DiPaola turkey is totally frozen! No wonder it was so heavy to carry. Just a big chunk of ice. Well, at least it made the cooling the brine easier. (Wonk, wonk.)

Plastic-bag free produce storage!

Don't you hate it when you say you don't need a plastic bag and the counter person just tosses the one they were about to use in the trash? Well, here are these cotton bags you can get to throw your veg or fruit in and also use to store. Dampen to keep them fresh. Other methods from Berkeley farms conveniently already posted at Fake Plastic Fish (Thanks!).

Plus just placed an order for some of these cotton bags. Keeping greens in damp cotton bags or wrapped in tea towels seems to have met with success!

Take Down Ribs Korean Style

*Image courtesy BanginFood.com, possibly the best blog name ever.

The great thing about Korean cooking is it's pretty forgiving. Which is great, because when I picked up some short ribs from The Meat Hook in Williamsburg, I scarcely had a clue what to do with them. Only that for $9/lb, I better make them pretty amazing.


The marinade was fairly easy, I already had most of the ingredients, just needed to pick up some green onions and ginger.


Marinade 

• 1/2 medium apple, sliced and quartered
• 1 oz ginger root (about a 2 inch knob)
• 1 oz garlic (about 4 medium cloves)
• 1 cup tamari or soy
• 1/2 cup each sake and mirin (I didn't have either so I used a half bottle of Wolaver's pale ale and some rice wine vinegar. You can probably use any cheap beer you have in the fridge and/or a sweet white wine)
• 1/4 cup water
• 6 oz sugar (I like brown sugar)
• 2 anise star seed (optional)
  
• roasted sesame seeds
• sliced green onions
  

Granted, I didn't really measure any of the liquids or sugar, just eyeballed it. Then you plop everything except sesame seeds and green onions into a pot, bring to a boil, then turn down to simmer for 15 minutes. Spoon off any skim. Let cool overnight or stick it in the freezer to cool.



Meanwhile, preheat oven to 425ºF.

Take your ribs, remove film and trim them of any excess fat and membrane. Or better yet, have your butcher do it for you and also slice into 1 inch wide lengths. Line them in a deep dish.


Take the marinade mixture, strain and add sesame seeds and the green onions. Pour over the ribs and let soak at least 15 minutes.

Heat a cast iron until piping hot. Sear meat on all sides. Finish in oven. About 10 minutes for rare depending on how thick your cuts are.

Serve with rice flecked with toasted nori and sesame seeds, lettuce leaves, kochujang and plenty of pan chan.