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Pumpkin Mascarpone Pie

  • November 29, 2020

Are you “pumpkined-out?” I can’t blame you if you are since you’ve probably been gobbling the remaining leftovers since Thanksgiving — and I know for a fact that some folks (you know who you are) have even raided the refrigerator for a pumpkin pie breakfast. Still, this recipe (adapted from Everydaypie.com) is so delicious I just couldn’t wait until next Thanksgiving to share it. There’s no shame in baking another pumpkin pie before the season is out. I used a “cheese pumpkin” for this recipe, which gave it an exceptional flavor, but you can certainly use canned pumpkin instead. Actually, you could even make this pie with different squashes too, or even pureed sweet potatoes. Whatever you do, make sure you prick the crust and blind bake it before filling it or you’ll end up with a wet bottom — and who wants that?

To blind bake the crust, I usually butter one side of a piece of aluminum foil and place it into the uncooked pie crust, then gently pour in some beans to weigh it down. These beans have been reused countless times over the decades. They’re at least thirty years old, if not older.  I just store them in a tin until I need them again. Follow the instructions in the recipe below.

Place dollops of the mascarpone filling atop the pumpkin, then swirl them in using a knife, or chopstick. Since I was using some pumpkin I had leftover from another recipe, I had only about 1 1/2 cups and it really didn’t fill the crust as high as I would have liked. Try to use about 2 cups of pumpkin, which is what you’ll get from a 15 ounce can.

I have to say that this was really one of the best pumpkin pies I’ve ever eaten, and I don’t know if it was because of using the cheese pumpkin, the addition of mascarpone, the mixture of spices, the perfectly baked crust or a combination of all of them. I do know that I’ll be making this again and I won’t wait for next Thanksgiving to do so. I hope you try it too. Don’t forget to add the whipped cream on top!

Click here to connect with me on Instagram and find out what’s cooking in Ciao Chow Linda’s kitchen each day (and more)

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Pumpkin Mascarpone Pie
Author: 
 
Ingredients
  • 1–9″ pie crust, homemade or purchased, blind baked (see instructions below)
  • 1 cup (8 ounces; 227 grams) mascarpone cheese, room temperature
  • ¼ cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
  • 4 large eggs, divided
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (This turned the mascarpone a beige color, so I might eliminate it next time and just add the vanilla to the pumpkin instead.)
  • ½ cup packed (100 grams) light brown sugar
  • 1–½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated
  • Pinch cloves
  • 1 (15 ounce) can 100% pumpkin puree (I used 1½ cups of freshly cooked and drained pumpkin but 2 cups would have been better)
  • heavy cream for whipping and decorating the top of pie
Instructions
  1. TO ROLL AND BLIND BAKE THE PIE CRUST:
  2. Roll out the pie dough to an 11″ circle and line a 9” pie plate, crimping the edges as desired.
  3. Prick the bottom of the dough all over with a fork to let steam escape during baking. Place the pie in the freezer for 30 minutes to let the pie dough chill.
  4. While dough is chilling, preheat oven to 375ºF.
  5. Remove the pie from freezer and line the pie dough with a parchment round piece of paper (or aluminum foil that is greased on the side that touches the pie dough) and then add pie weights (or dry rice or beans or lentils) to fill the pie shell, making sure to push pie weights to the edges.
  6. Bake for 20 minutes on the lower rack, then remove from oven and remove the parchment and pie weights.
  7. Return to oven and bake for an additional 10 minutes.
  8. Set aside until ready to use. Lower the oven to 325ºF.
  9. ASSEMBLE THE FILLING:
  10. Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the mascarpone and the sugar, until smooth.
  11. Add in 1 egg and beat until thoroughly combined.
  12. Scoop out ½ cup of the mascarpone mixture and set aside.
  13. Then, add to the mascarpone mixture the remaining eggs, vanilla, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and pumpkin puree.
  14. Beat together until fully combined.
  15. Add half of the pumpkin filling to the fully baked pie crust.
  16. Spoon in a few dollops of the set aside mascarpone filling to the pumpkin mixture.
  17. Then, pour the remaining pumpkin mixture over the top. Spoon drops of the remaining mascarpone mixture.
  18. Using a knife, chopstick or toothpick gently swirl through all layers of the pumpkin filling to achieve a marble effect.
  19. TO BAKE:
  20. Bake the pie on the middle rack for 45-55 minutes, or until the pie reaches a temperature of 180ºF and the outer edges have started to puff up but the center is still slightly wobbly.
  21. Remove from the oven and let cool at room temperature before placing in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours to finish firming up.
 

 

Crumb-topped Pumpkin Muffins

  • November 20, 2019

Fall is the season for squash of all kinds – pumpkins, butternut, acorn and many other types, and I love them all. Sometimes there can be too much of a good thing however. After making the stuffed pumpkin from my previous post, we finished all the stuffing and some of the pumpkin flesh, but after three days, we were still left with a lot and were bored with eating buttered pumpkin again. Rather than continue to eat it all as a vegetable, I took some of it and whirred it in the food processor to use in these muffins.

I found the recipe on the internet from a website called Celebrating Sweets, and let me tell you, the muffin part was delicious and a great way to use up some of the leftover pumpkin, but that crumb topping — oh my. It just took the muffins to a new level. I think I’m going to keep cooking up more pumpkins just to have the leftover for these muffins. Or maybe I’ll just buy a can of pureed pumpkin instead and make it easy on myself. I may pour the batter into a cake tin and make this as a cake next time.

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Click here to connect with me on Instagram and find out what Ciao Chow Linda is up to in the kitchen (and other places too.)

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Crumb-topped Pumpkin Muffins
Author: 
 
Ingredients
  • FOR THE CRUMB TOPPING:
  • 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • ¼ cup brown sugar
  • ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ⅛ teaspoon salt
  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
  • scant ½ cup all purpose flour
  • FOR THE MUFFINS:
  • 1½ cups all purpose flour see note
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice
  • ¾ teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 2 large eggs
  • ⅔ cup light brown sugar
  • ⅓ cup canola, vegetable or melted coconut oil
  • 1¼ cups canned pumpkin puree
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • FOR THE CINNAMON ICING:
  • Cinnamon icing:
  • 5 tablespoons powdered sugar
  • 1-2 teaspoons milk more, if needed
  • ⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
  1. FOR THE CRUMB TOPPING:
  2. In a medium bowl, combine sugars, cinnamon, salt, and melted butter.
  3. Whisk until combined.
  4. Add flour, and stir until the flour is combined.
  5. Set aside.
  6. FOR THE MUFFINS:
  7. Preheat oven to 350°F.
  8. Grease a 12 cup muffin tin, or line with paper liners.
  9. In a medium bowl, combine flour, cinnamon/spice, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
  10. In a large bowl, whisk eggs, brown sugar, oil, pumpkin puree and vanilla, until combined.
  11. Add flour mixture, and stir until combined (I use a rubber spatula), being careful not to over-mix.
  12. Divide the batter between 12 muffin cups.
  13. Pinch off small pieces of the crumb topping and scatter them over the tops of each muffin.
  14. Bake for approximately 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean.
  15. Place the pan on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes, then remove the muffins from the pan and place on the rack to cool completely.
  16. FOR THE ICING:
  17. Whisk all ingredients until smooth.
  18. Adjust the consistency by adding more powdered sugar (to thicken) or more milk (to thin). Use a small spoon to drizzle icing over the tops of the cooled muffins.
 

Turkey Roulade

  • November 26, 2018

Maybe you’re “turkeyed-out” after the Thanksgiving holiday, but not me. I didn’t have the traditional bird on the big day. Instead, I was tempted by too many other offerings at Commander’s Palace, a landmark restaurant in New Orleans. My husband and I spent a few days in New Orleans during the holiday week, visiting relatives and expanding our waistlines. (Those of you who follow me on Instagram saw photos of lots of the food we ate, plus the wacky hats and costumes people wore at the racetrack on turkey day).  We ate so many delicious meals at so many wonderful restaurants each day, recommended by my husband’s son and wife, who moved there from New York a couple of years ago.

As much as I love dining out, I also missed the smells and tastes of a good old-fashioned turkey dinner. So after returning home, I restocked at the grocery store yesterday and made a scaled-down version of a Thanksgiving meal for the two of us last night. Instead of a full turkey, I bought a boneless turkey breast and stuffed it with a sausage/dried cherry/pecan stuffing. It was a lot easier to prepare than you’d think (and way easier than cooking a whole turkey) and would make a great meal for company around the Christmas holiday too.

Start out by preparing the stuffing. I used a mixture of bread cubes, cooked and crumbled Italian sausage, dried cherries soaked in rum, toasted pecans, eggs, plus some fresh herbs and spices. If you don’t like dried cherries, use whatever dried fruit you like – cranberries, apricots, or figs for instance.) Don’t like pecans? Then use walnuts, pine nuts or hazelnuts instead.

This is the turkey breast I bought. It was about 1 1/2 pounds and when stuffed, could easily serve four people (maybe five, depending on appetites). Make sure you buy a breast with the skin still attached.

Here’s what it looks like when you flip it around. Obviously, it’s too thick to stuff this, so you have to do a little prep work. It’ll take you only five minutes to complete.

Slice the breast parallel to the counter surface, so that the meat opens like a book. It’s still too thick at this point, so use a mallet (first cover the meat with plastic wrap) and pound it flatter.

This is how mine looked after pounding, and sprinkled with salt and pepper. Be mindful that the skin that was on the meat before you started pounding it, will now be on only a small part of the meat after you’ve pounded it. Here you can see it sticking out at the bottom of the meat. So when you start rolling it up, start from the side that doesn’t have the skin.

Spread the filling around the surface and dot with a little bit of butter.

Roll it up, starting with the length of meat that doesn’t have any skin attached to it. You’ll want the skin to end up on the outside, so if you started with rolling up where the skin is, you’ll have the skin inside the meat, which you don’t want. I hope that’s not too confusing.

See, the skin is right where it should be when you flip it over.

Tie it up well with butcher’s string so that it stays together when roasting.

Then season with with salt, pepper, paprika, some thyme and rosemary (the fresh herbs actually burned midway through the roasting, so I’m not sure I’d do that again). Scatter some onions all around, then pour in some white wine (I would have added some chicken broth too, but I didn’t have any). Drizzle some olive oil over the onions and the meat and roast at 400 degrees for about 50 minutes, or until a meat thermometer registers 150 degrees. Actually, when the thermometer reads 140-145 degrees, take it out, since it needs to rest about ten minutes and the temperature will continue to rise a bit when it’s resting.

Remove the twine and slice.

Enjoy! Happy Belated Thanksgiving. Hope you had a wonderful time with family and friends.

Check out Ciao Chow Linda on Instagram here to find out what’s cooking in my kitchen each day (and more).

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Turkey Roulade
Author: 
Serves: serves 4-5
 
A boneless turkey breast, rolled and stuffed with sausage, pecans and dried cherries.
Ingredients
  • 1 boneless turkey breast, with skin on (about 1½ pounds)
  • ¼ cup dried cherries
  • rum, to cover the cherries
  • ½ cup toasted pecans
  • 1 link of Italian sausage
  • about ½ cup diced onion
  • ¼ cup diced celery
  • 2 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 3 cups bread cubes
  • about 4 tablespoons melted butter
  • salt, pepper
  • fresh sage and parsley, minced
  • 2 onions, cut in large chunks
  • olive oil to drizzle
  • 1 cup white wine, or chicken broth, or a combination of the two
Instructions
  1. Start by soaking the dried cherries in rum.
  2. Melt one tablespoon butter in a sauce pan and add the onions and celery.
  3. Sauté until wilted, then add the sausage and crumble with a spoon.
  4. When sausage is fully cooked, add it and the onions to a bowl.
  5. Drain the cherries from the rum and discard the liquid.
  6. To the bowl with the sausage, onions and celery, add the cherries, the bread cubes, the eggs, the toasted pecans and seasonings.
  7. Melt the remaining butter and add to the bowl and mix well.
  8. Slice the turkey breast open like a "book."
  9. Using a mallet, pound it flatter, using plastic wrap to protect the meat.
  10. Spread the stuffing over the meat , adding a couple of pats of butter.
  11. Roll up the meat, making sure you end up with the skin on the outside.
  12. Tied it with butcher's string to hold everything in place.
  13. Place in a roasting pan and roast at 400 degrees for 50 minutes to one hour, or until a thermometer reads about 140 - 145 degrees.
  14. The temperature will continue to rise for a short while and should reach 150 degrees.
  15. Let the meat rest, covered with aluminum foil, for at least ten minutes.
  16. Slice and serve.
 

 

Gjelina’s roasted yams

  • November 21, 2017
 
 I know it’s nearly heresy to mess with family favorites at Thanksgiving. But if you crave something a little different from the traditional mashed potatoes or candied sweet potatoes, this recipe from “Gjelina:Cooking From Venice, California,” might hit just the right note. Even if you don’t make it for Thanksgiving, try it for an ordinary Thursday night (or any other night of the week).
It’s a snap to make, starting out with roasting some chunky slices of yams, tossed in olive oil, honey and espelette, or red pepper flakes.
 When they emerge from the oven, drizzle with the yogurt and lime dressing, and top with fresh green scallions.
And if you’re looking for a way to brine and roast that Thanksgiving turkey, click here for instructions.
Happy Thanksgiving!
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Gjelina's roasted yams
 
Ingredients
  • 3 large yams
  • 2 Tablespoons honey
  • 1 Tablespoon espelette pepper, or crushed red pepper flakes
  • 3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
  • ½ cup Greek style yogurt
  • 4 Tablespoons fresh lime juice
  • 2 scallions, both white and green parts, trimmed and thinly sliced, for garnish
Instructions
  1. Heat oven to 425. Cut the yams lengthwise into 4 wedges per yam. Put them in a large bowl, and toss them with the honey, ½ tablespoon of the Espelette pepper or crushed red-pepper flakes and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Let it sit for 10 minutes or so, tossing once or twice to coat, as the oven heats.
  2. Transfer the yams to a foil-lined, rimmed baking sheet, season with salt and pepper and then bake until they are deeply caramelized around the edges and soft when pierced with a fork at their thickest part, approximately 30 to 35 minutes.
  3. As the yams roast, combine the yogurt, lime juice and remaining tablespoon of olive oil in a small bowl, and whisk to combine, then season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
  4. When the yams are done, transfer them to a serving platter, drizzle the yogurt over them and garnish with the remaining Espelette pepper or red-pepper flakes, the scallions and some flaky sea salt if you have any.

Roasted Acorn Squash

  • November 15, 2016

 This has to be one of the easiest, most delicious and most colorful side dishes you can make for your Thanksgiving table – or for any fall or winter meal, really.

Acorn squash, aside from its rich taste and nutritious qualities, has the added benefit of thin, edible skin – no peeling necessary.
The hardest part is cutting the slices — you need a sturdy knife and steady hand.
But once that’s done, you simply roast the slices in the oven, then sprinkle some pomegranate seeds on top, with a drizzle of balsamic syrup, and a scattering of fresh herbs. I’ve used parsley and lemon balm, but if you’re a cilantro fan, that would be welcome too.

 

Roasted Acorn Squash 
Wash the squash thoroughly, then cut in half. Remove seeds, then cut into slices about 1/2 inch thick. Coat each side of the slices with olive oil, and season with salt, pepper and herbs. I use a homemade herb salt, but you can mince some fresh or dry herbs such as rosemary, thyme and sprinkle on top.
Place on a cookie sheet and put into a preheated 425 degree oven. They’ll need only 5 to 7 minutes, after which you’ll flip to the other side. They’re done when they pierce easily with a fork. Remove them to a platter, then drizzle a balsamic glaze on top. (If you can’t find balsamic glaze in the store, make your own by boiling down supermarket balsamic vinegar until thick and syrupy.)
Sprinkle with pomegranate seeds and scatter fresh herb leaves on top (I use either parsley or lemon balm or a combination of the two.)
Want more Ciao Chow Linda? Check out my Instagram page here to see more of what I’m cooking up each day.
You can also connect with Ciao Chow Linda here on Facebook, here for Pinterest or  here for Twitter.

 

Cranberry Upside Down Cake

  • November 23, 2015
She’s a looker, isn’t she? But she’s not just another pretty face. She’s got good flavor going for her too. So pick up an extra bag or two of cranberries this season, before they disappear from grocers’ shelves.
This cake would be welcome any time of year, but especially at Thanksgiving, when cranberries are traditionally served in some form or other.
The topping is sweet and spicy at the same time, with the combination of allspice and cinnamon kicking up the flavor. Like most upside down cakes, it’s best eaten warm, when the cake texture is still soft. But you can make it ahead of time, and heat a slice in the microwave for ten seconds to recapture that fresh from the oven taste.
 I wish you all a peaceful Thanksgiving and a day filled with family, friends and good food.
Cranberry Upside Down Cake
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1 3/4 cups cranberries
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
Preheat oven to 350 degrees with rack in center. Rub the bottom and sides of an 8-inch round cake pan with 2 tablespoons butter. In a small bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup sugar with the cinnamon and allspice. Sprinkle mixture evenly over bottom of pan; arrange cranberries in a single layer on top.
With an electric mixer, cream remaining 6 tablespoons butter
and 1/2 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla; beat
until well combined. In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture to butter mixture in three batches, alternating with the milk, until well combined.
Spoon batter over cranberries in pan, and smooth top. Place
pan on a baking sheet; bake cake until a toothpick inserted in the
center comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes. Run a knife around edge of cake; invert onto a rimmed platter.

Easy Acorn Squash and Thanksgiving Side Dishes

  • November 25, 2013

Still looking for Thanksgiving side dish ideas? Here’s one that won’t take more than five minutes to prepare and tastes great. No peeling involved – you can eat the skin on acorn squash.

The recipe is so embarrassingly simple, it’s hardly a recipe. Just wash the squash, cut in half lengthwise, remove the seeds and cut into slices about 1/2 inch think. Smear with a little melted butter on both sides, then sprinkle each side with salt and pepper, and a mixture of equal parts bread crumbs and parmesan cheese. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes or until you can easily pierce the flesh with a fork.Here are a few more ideas if you still are undecided about side dishes for your Thanksgiving table:

Fennel Gratinée or Roasted Fennel 

Insalata di Rinforza

Stuffed onions

Squash and Couscous casserole

And as a relief for the digestive system: Citrus salad 

If you’re looking for a primer on how to brine and cook a turkey, click here to see how I do it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 
Acorn Squash with Parmesan Coating
Wash the squash, cut in half lengthwise, then remove the seeds and cut into slices about 1/2 inch thick. Smear with a little melted butter on both sides, then sprinkle each side with salt and pepper, and a mixture of equal parts bread crumbs and parmesan cheese. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes or until you can easily pierce the flesh with a fork.

Roasted and Stuffed Chicken, but No Bones About It!

  • November 18, 2013
 Roast chicken is one of those meals that feels like a warm hug – a comfort food that reels me back to  when my kids were young and the whole family gathered ’round the table for a Sunday meal. So when my son and daughter announced they’d be home for the weekend, I immediately thought of roasting a chicken, just like old times. But my son, who’s pretty facile himself around the kitchen, suggested I debone the entire chicken, then stuff it and roast it. “Jacques Pepin’s got a video that shows you how,” he said.
“Well, why not,” I said, so I clicked on Youtube and found the instructions. Jacques says it should take  only one minute to debone the bird, and it’s mostly done with your fingers, not a knife. Well, take that with a grain of salt. He’s a seasoned professional who’s probably done it hundreds of times. It took me closer to 20 minutes and at least several viewings of the video before I could free all the bones from this 6 lb. chicken, without ripping any of the skin:
 Check out the Pepin video below. It’s called a galantine, or ballotine, and you can do it too if you’re just patient and follow Jacque’s instructions.
You start out by cutting into the wings and slicing the bird down the back. It gets a lot more complicated, but it’s definitely doable, even for a first-timer, like me. The legs then become hollow, providing more space for stuffing. The only bones remaining are the tips of the legs. And don’t throw out those bones. Use them to make a chicken stock.
See that small white plate in the back?
 Those are the wings that become little “lollipops” for roasting or frying.
This is what the interior looks like before stuffing. “Gross,” according to my daughter, and I’d have to agree. Not too appetizing. But just wait.
 I spread the stuffing into the legs and throughout the interior. The stuffing was made with sturdy Italian bread, sausage, chestnuts and white raisins, bound together with an egg and some chicken broth.
 You bring the two sides together and it almost looks like it just came out of the supermarket wrapper.
 You truss it all together with some twine.
 Season it and put it in a roasting pan (a freebie from a yard sale in upstate New York last month), strewing some onions here and there. Roast it at 350 degrees for two hours.
 The beauty is not just in the flavor, but the ease of slicing. It would make a great meal for family or a special occasion.
 The deboned, stuffed chicken (and two wing lollipops) easily serves six people, assuming you’ve got some side dishes. If you’re not crazy about turkey, this could be a great substitute for the traditional Thanksgiving bird. If you want instructions on how to roast a chicken the old fashioned and easy way, without boning it, click here to see how I do it.
By the way, the acorn squash in the background, coated with breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese, would make a nice addition to your Thanksgiving table. Stay tuned to Ciao Chow Linda for the recipe in the next post.

Chestnut and Sausage Stuffing for Deboned Chicken
Printable Recipe Here


4 or 5 thick slices of sturdy Italian bread, crusts removed, and cut into bits
1/4 cup minced onions
2 T. olive oil
1 link of Italian sausage, casing removed
1/2 cup cooked chestnuts
1/4 cup white raisins
1 T. butter
1 egg
4  or 5 T. chicken stock
minced parsley
salt, pepper to taste

Sauté the onions in the olive oil and add the sausage, breaking it into bits. Cook the sausage and onions, then add the raisins to the pan, along with a tablespoon of butter and two tablespoons of chicken stock. Let it cool slightly. Beat an egg in a large bowl and add the bread and the cooked mixture from the pan. Add some parsley, salt and pepper and stir. It may be dry, so add more chicken stock. The stuffing should be moist, but not soaking wet. Spread the stuffing into the deboned legs and across the body of the chicken. Then take the two sides of the chicken and roll them toward the center. Truss the bird with kitchen twine and season with salt, pepper, rosemary and paprika. Smear a little olive oil on the bottom of a roasting pan, place the chicken inside and roast for two hours at 350 degrees, basting two or three times with the juices and oil that comes out from the chicken. I also placed two onions in the pan, and drizzled olive oil, salt and pepper on them. Turn the onions over when you baste the chicken.
Remove it from the oven and let it rest for about 10 minutes before slicing.

How To Brine And Roast A Turkey

  • November 13, 2011
It’s almost that time folks. Are you ready to roast that big bird or are you running from the task quicker than you can say turkey trot?  To all of you with trepidation in your soul at the thought of tackling this job, fear not — I have one word to help you achieve success — and it rhymes with fine. No, it’s not wine — although a glass of chardonnay or pinot noir for the cook never hurts. The word folks is brine. Since the first time I brined a turkey years ago, I have never looked back. It’s a fail-proof way to ensure a moist, flavorful turkey, even if you forget to baste it and even if you roast it a little longer than required.
Mix salt, sugar, herbs and spices with water and bring to a boil.
Dump the brining mixture over the turkey and add ice cubes (unless you have a refrigerator large enough to contain the large bucket). Let it sit overnight.
Roast the turkey over a bed of celery, carrots and onions and with some whole heads of garlic strewn all around the pan. Baste occasionally.
I leave the carving to my dad, but it’s the same way you would carve a chicken. Remove the legs, thighs and wings, then remove each half of the breast in its entirety from the carcass.
Cut the breast in slices and place all the meat on a serving platter surrounded with the whole roasted heads of garlic.
gobble, gobble!



printable recipe here


Turkey Brine
(Makes enough for up to a 24 lb. turkey)

1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 gallon water
2 T. black peppercorns
1 T. allspice berries
1 onion, sliced
1 large bunch sage
6 bay leaves
ice cubes

The day before (or night before) you want to cook the turkey:

Using a 5-gallon bucket, line it with a plastic bag. Put the salt, sugar, onion, herbs and spices in a pot on the range with only two cups of water taken from the one gallon of water called for in the recipe. Bring to a boil and stir everything to blend the flavors. Remove from the heat and add some ice cubes to cool it off, plus about half of the remaining water. Put the thawed turkey in the plastic bag in the bucket and add the water and herb mixture. If the bucket needs more water to cover the turkey, add it now.

Since I can’t fit the bucket into my refrigerator, I always place it outdoors on the deck, adding ice cubes to the water to make sure it stays cool. It’s never been a problem here in New Jersey in late November, and sometimes it’s gotten so cold that the top layer of water has frozen.  I don’t want to take any risks though, so I always add the ice cubes. Twist the top of the bag and secure it closed. To keep squirrels or birds from pecking into the bag during the night or before it goes into the oven, place a flat baking pan on the top and weigh it down with something heavy. Let it sit overnight and soak.

The next day, drain the turkey from the liquid before roasting.  Pat dry, then place your hand between the skin and the breast meat and spread some butter inside with some sage leaves. Alternately, make an herb butter, mixing some softened butter with minced sage, rosemary or other herbs.

Roasting Method


After rubbing butter between the skin and the breast meat, place the turkey in a pan that has a bed of celery sticks, carrots and onion chunks. Take several whole heads of garlic and slice a shallow slice off the top. Spread them in the corners of the pan. If you’re not stuffing the turkey, place some onion chunks, fresh herbs (parsley, sage, rosemary or thyme or a combo) and a couple of lemons that have been halved, in the cavity. Rub the outer skin with a stick of butter that’s been softened. Roast turkey according to timetable below, basting occasionally. If the breast starts to get overly browned, make a tent with aluminum foil and cover loosely. If wings get overly browned and the rest of the turkey still needs cooking, wrap the wings in aluminum foil. The total roasting time will depend on whether the turkey is stuffed or not.
Here are the roasting times recommended by the USDA. If you’re checking with a meat thermometer, the USDA says the turkey is safely cooked once the thickest part of the breast and thigh reach a minimal internal temperature of 165 degrees. Full roasting instructions from the USDA are here.

Timetables for Turkey Roasting
(325 °F oven temperature)

Use the timetables below to determine how long to cook your turkey. These times are approximate. Always use a food thermometer to check the internal temperature of your turkey and stuffing.

 

Unstuffed
4 to 8 pounds (breast) 1½ to 3¼ hours
8 to 12 pounds 2¾ to 3 hours
12 to 14 pounds 3 to 3¾ hours
14 to 18 pounds 3¾ to 4¼ hours
18 to 20 pounds 4¼ to 4½ hours
20 to 24 pounds 4½ to 5 hours
Stuffed
4 to 6 pounds (breast) Not usually applicable
6 to 8 pounds (breast) 2½ to 3½ hours
8 to 12 pounds 3 to 3½ hours
12 to 14 pounds 3½ to 4 hours
14 to 18 pounds 4 to 4¼ hours
18 to 20 pounds 4¼ to 4¾ hours
20 to 24 pounds 4¾ to 5¼ hours