Smoked turkey and green pea soup

If you are lucky enough to have a smoked turkey carcass lying around (or in our case friends who had one and didn't know what to do with it), you can make a terrific green pea soup with it. Just make sure that there is some meat on the carcass too.

Ingredients - Stock

1 smoked turkey carcass stripped of most of its meat

Enough water to submerge the carcass (at least 1 1/2 US Gallons) 

Ingredients - Soup

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

3 large yellow onions (not sweet, but more like Spanish or Bermuda onions), finely diced

1 whole celery head, stalks finely diced

1 lb carrots, finely diced

2 (or more to taste) hot chile peppers, finely chopped. I used 2 Thai chilies from the garden

2 lbs split green peas

3/4 US gallon smoked turkey stock. (Possibly more if the soup gets too thick)

1 1/2 lbs smoked turkey meat, taken from the carcass

3 Tbsp rice wine vinegar

salt/pepper to taste

Method - Stock

Place all of the carcass into a stockpot and cover with water. Simmer over low heat for at least 3 hours. Strain (I stored ours in a 1 gallon milk container). Note there are no other flavorings in the stock.

Method - Soup

Putt the oil into a large pot over medium heat. Add the onions celery, and carrots, and hot peppers. Cook gently for about 10 minutes until the onions are translucent.Take care not to brown the onions. While sweating the vegetables, you might want to add a little salt to draw out some of the moisture.

Rince and drain the split peas, checking to make sure that there are no rocks or other undesirable elements. Add the peas to the pot and then add 3/4 gallon of the stock. Bring to a simmer stirring often. Simmer for 20 - 30 minutes - until the peas have lost their raw texture, but still have a little bite.

While the peas are simmering, shred the turkey meat into small chunks - a bit larger than the carrots. They need to be able to fit onto the spoon. Set the turkey aside.

Whn you think the peas are cooked, taste for doneness and seasoning. This is when I dd the majority of the salt/pepper. Knowing that both the stock and the meat will be a bit salty.

Once the peas are at the texture you want them, use the stick blender to smooth out the soup. For a hearty soup, stop short of pureeing completely. For something more elegant, puree all the way and then pass through a strainer.

At this point add the turkey and the rice wine vinegar for balance. You may want to add a bit more liquid at this stage

Either heat the soup through and serve immediately or refrigerate and reheat just before serving. 

Thanksgiving 2015

We had a small event this year - but that didn't mean we skimped on anything. Serious Eats provided much of the inspiration, so although we didn't follow any of the recipes precisely, the essence was there.

The secrets were:

• Home made cornbread
• Sausage stuffing (dressing because it was outside the bird}
• Low and slow sweet potatoes
• Spatchcocked turkey - recipe here - no need to improve on perfection! I dry brined using 7T and 1T baking powder and followed the storage instructions from here.
• Standard home made cranberry sauce - using bitter orange marmalade as a flavoring - from this blog post

For the Serious Eats recipes, please follow this link.and search for Thanksgiving. For our meal, please read on.

Cornbread

I was quite suspicious of this cornbread - it seemed awfully wet. But it came out spot on. There is no wheat in the recipe, so no gluten formation. Those friends of ours who have gluten issues are delighted.

Ingredients

15 oz yellow corn meal. We just used Quaker.

6 t baking powder

1t baking soda

2t kosher salt

1t sugar

2 1/2 cups buttermilk (we used left over from making our own butter)

1 stick unsalted butter - melted

3T rendered pork fat (from salt pork that we had rendered for a different dish)

3 eggs

Method

Preheat 10" cast iron skillet in a 375 degree oven. Whisk the eggs into the buttermilk and drizzle the melted butter whisking constantly. Mix the corn meal, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar thoroughly. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix quickly. Do not over mix. When the batter is mixed, grease the inside of the hot skillet with the pork fat. Pour the batter into the hot pan. Bake in the center of the oven for 45 minutes - until the internal temperature reaches 205 degrees.

Leave to cool in the pan before turning out onto a wire rack.

Sausage Stuffing (Dressing)

Because this is not stuffed into anything, I prefer to call it dressing. But either way it was pretty darned delicious. The Serious Eats recipe calls for sage sausage. No luck finding that here, so we substituted.

Ingredients

1 recipe bread pudding (as above) cut into cubes - about 3/4"

1 stick unsalted butter

12 oz sweet Italian sausage

12 oz hot Italian sausage

1 large yellow onion - diced

4 stalks celery cut into pieces the size of the onion dice. Any leaves are fine too.

3 cloves garlic - minced

A small handful of sage leaves - minced fine

3 1/2 cups turkey stock (we used frozen left over from a year ago, thawed) - divided use

4 eggs

1t habanero vodka (aka secret ingredient)

Kosher salt/pepper to taste. You won't need much because the sausage is well seasoned.

1/4 cup minced parsley. 

Method

Place the cut corn bread onto a sheet pan and bake in a 425 degree oven turning occasionally until the outsides are fairly dry and a little toasted. 10-12 minutes.

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat, wait for it to stop foaming then add the sausage. Cook the sausage, breaking it up with the wooden spoon until there is no more pink.

Add the onion, garlic and celery. Cook until the vegetables are soft (10 - 15 min(. Do not allow the vegetables to brown. Remove from the heat. Deglaze the pan with 1 cup of the stock.

Whisk together the remaining stock, the eggs, habanero vodka, and half of the parsley.

Place the sausage/onion mixture into a large bowl. Stir in the egg mixture and then add the cornbread. Transfer to a 9x13 baking pan (or a 10x14 oval pan) and cover with foil

You can leave it overnight in the fridge. It does firm up.

When ready to bake, cover with foil and bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for about 45 minutes. At least that is what the recipe said. I turned the oven up to 400 and it still took an hour for the insides to be properly heated through - probably because I started it out too cold from the fridge.. I had suspected this, so allowed extra time in the timetable anyway. (See this posting from several years ago). And because You want the internal temperature (in the centre) to be over 150 degrees.

Bring out of the oven 15 minutes before serving and sprinkle the rest of the parsley on top.

Sweet potatoes

The good folks at Serious Eats suggested that we warm the sweet potatoes in the circulator at 145 degrees for a couple of hours. Then bake them low and slow. I tried this a couple of days ago, and in a blind tasting we couldn't tell the difference. So ditched the circulator for the big day.

There are also schools of thought about texture. I like them not to be whipped. A rough mash texture. But YMMV

Ingredients

4 large sweet potatoes (Beauregards, garnets or whatever you can get your hands on).

16 sprigs of thyme

1T vegetable oil

1 stick (4 Oz) softened butter

1t habanero vodka (aka secret ingredient)

3T sweet sherry (we had some PX left over from another party, so used that. Good move!)

Method

Rub the skin of the sweet potatoes with oil, wrap them in foil with 4 thyme sprigs in each packet. Place on a rimmed baking sheet and bake in the 300 degree oven until the interior registers 208 degrees. The sweet potatoes should be quite soft.

Remove them from the oven, peel the sweeta potatoes into a large bowl. Beat in the butter and habanero vodka. Add the sweet sherry and beat some more. When the sweet potatoes have reached the desired consistency, transfer to vacuum bags and store in the fridge. To reheat, use the circulator set at 150 degrees for 1 1/2 hours. Easier than trying to it on the stove top because you can setit and forget it..

Turkey

In many ways the turkey is the easy part of thanksgiving provided a few basics are adhered to. I have tried just about every method known for roasting and serving a whole turkey. High heat, low heat, wrap in cheesecloth and soak in butter, bacon on the breasts, wet brine, dry brine, stuffed, not stuffed. The list is endless. However, I have settled on the simplest approach that I have found so far. And now having done it 2 years in a row, I am hooked. 2011 we did a small one (12 or so lbs). This year a monster (22+lbs) Diestel. It is (of course) the well named “Judy Bird” which I found here. What I am about to describe is my take on that – including the inimitable Alton Brown’s method of trussing the bird. My goal is to produce a perfectly cooked bird that could grace the cover of a magazine. And yes, the pic above is the one we did this year - the picture kindly taken by my friend Jim Brewer.

I start this on Monday at midday prior to the Thursday Thanksgiving feast. The time doesn’t depend on the size of the turkey.

Ingredients

1 22lb turkey (this is for a fresh turkey, no comment for a frozen one)
5T Kosher salt (master recipe calls for 1T for every 5lbs of turkey)
3 large yellow onions
½ head celery
6 large carrots
1 lemon quartered
1T unsalted butter
3T flour (more or less as needed)

Method

Remove the giblets, plastic bags, clips and any other strange items that you might find on the turkey (including that irritating pop-up device). Remove the wishbone (to make for easier carving – you will thank me later)

Rinse the inside and outside of the turkey with cold water. Dry the inside and outside thoroughly. Sprinkle 1/3 of the salt onto the breast of the turkey, ¼ on each thigh/drumstick and the remainder on the back. Place the turkey inside a large bag, seal closed and place in the refrigerator for 2 days. It is now Wednesday at lunch time. Remove the turkey from the bag, and set uncovered in the fridge to dry out. This helps the skin brown when cooking.

Cooking time should be (in total) less than 12 minutes/lb. But you are advised to pay attention to the rate at which it is cooking. Use a probe thermometer to ensure that you are doing it right! See this post. That's why I am so opposed to the little pop ups. You want to know when it will be done, as well as when it is done!

At least an hour before you want to start cooking the turkey, remove it from the fridge. Pat dry (it will in all likelihood be completely dry anyway, but it is safer to ensure it. Slide some sage leaves up between the skin and the breast – just to make it look nice. Put a chopped onion and the quartered lemon into the cavity.  Truss the turkey as mentioned above. Follow the Alton Brown video carefully.

Heat the oven to 425F. Into a roasting pan put 1 remaining onion, rough chopped, ½ of the celery toughly chopped, 4 carrots roughly chopped and 2 cups of water. The water helps moderate the heat at the bottom of the pan and prevents burning of the initial drippings.. Place the turkey on a V rack, breast side down over the onion/carrot/celery in the roasting pan. Place the pan into the oven, and cook for 20 minutes (small turkey) or 30 minutes (large turkey). Remove from the oven, and turn the turkey breast side up, and set the oven to 325. Roast the turkey uncovered until the temperature reads 160 or so in the thickest part of the breast. Carry over heat will take it to the 165 temperature recommended by the FDA.

While the turkey is cooking, dice one onion, and the remaining carrot and celery. Soften in the butter until the onion is translucent. Dice up the giblets, heart, neck and other unmentionables from the turkey, add to the onion mixture and sauté until browned and fragrant. Cover with water and simmer over low heat for 2 hours. Of course you can do this the day before - especially if you plan to use some of the unmentionables in the dressing as we did.

Remove from heat, strain the pan liquid and discard the onions and giblet solids (retaining the liver and heart for adding to the dressing if you like). Allow the fat to rise, and separate it. This fat will be used as the basis of the roux for the gravy.

To make the gravy, take the remaining fat, the remaining onion, diced and sauté until translucent. Add the flour and cook for about 10 minutes watching carefully to prevent burning to make a light brown roux. Add the reserved giblet stock, stirring constantly to remove lumps. This will be very concentrated, so thin to desired thickness with water. Bring to boil to thicken.

When the turkey is cooked, remove from the pan and stir some of the roasting pan juices into the gravy. It will darken it a bit and add extra richness.