A bit of North American culture to my fellow Spanish readers. Yes, Canada has its own Thanksgiving. Yes, I swear. And No, it's not the same day as the American one :) Sorry if it sounds stupid for most of you but you would be surprised by the amount of people that do not know this bit of information. The American Thanksgiving is celebrated on the 4th Thursday of November as the Canadian one is on the 2nd Monday of October. The logical explanation behind the different dates is the location; the USA being south, their harvesting season finishes later on, which brings on the later date. The Americans usually celebrate it "a lo grande" a lot more than us Canadians. Yet, I prefer our date in order to have more time in between holidays. To each their own :)
Back to the kitchen. The main menu for both is usually the same: Roasted turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, veggies, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie... I skipped the cranberry sauce as neither of us eat it and you can't really find that fruit here. I had invited friends over that were pretty curious about this famous North American tradition. Let's just say they left amazed :)
First of, the turkey. I never really liked turkey as I am not a fan of dry white meat. My Mom would always give me part of the leg. Thanks Mom! I was reading 2 years ago preparing myself to make my turkey and read that brining makes a huge difference. I decided to give it a try. Well, I am never going back! Brining is the key to a moist and juicy turkey. No doubt about it!
I have bought turkeys at my poultry store at the market before and everytime I get the surprised look. You are seriously buying a whole turkey and not having it chopped up? You will roast it whole? How do you cook it? Ahhh, it's like in the American movies?? Haha! The people that work there know me well and always laugh when people give me the "look" and start questionning me. Last Christmas, I had the whole lineup listening to the cooking methods of a turkey! It was pretty funny, the employees were waiting for the customers to keep ordering but they were all so absorbed in my explanation! It sure makes for good stories to tell :)
So here goes my roasted stuffed turkey recipe:
Brined, Stuffed & Roasted Turkey
Ingredients:
Brine:
8 liters of water
2 cups brown sugar
2 cups salt
rosemary
thyme
2 oranges quartered
2 lemons quartered
Stuffing:
500grs ground beef
3 celeries
1 green onion
4 bread slices
2 eggs
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1/2 nuts (if desired)
cumin
salt
pepper
parley
oil
6kg turkey
butter
In a large bowl or bucket, mix the brine ingredients. Add the turkey and brine for about 24 hours.
Remove the turkey from the brine, rinse well under cold water and pat dry with paper towels.
Preheat your oven at 180C.
Right when you are about to start cooking the turkey, prepare the stuffing. My Mom always told me to start cooking it before stuffing just to make sure you have no cross contamination.
Dice the green onion and celery.
Add oil to a pan and heat. When ready, add the veggies.
Sweat for a few minutes and add the meat.
Cook until it is still a bit pink.
Transfer to a mixing bowl.
Add parmesan cheese, parsley, cumin, salt and pepper.
Roughly break apart the bread and add to the mixture.
Mix well.
Add the eggs.
Mix well.
Using a spoon (or your hand), fill the cavity of the turkey with the stuffing.
Sew the opening shut.
Now, your turkey is ready for some basting!
Melt some butter in the microwave and brush the turkey completely with it.
Place the turkey in the roasting pan breast down to make sure it stays moist.
Add a bit of water to the bottom of the roasting pan and pop in the oven.
Instead of adding water and basting the turkey with it, I grabbed a bit of turkey fat and meat and heated it in water. It make a broth and I used that to roast it in. If you don't have any, use some chicken stock and it works great as well.
Baste the turkey every 30 minutes with about 1 cup of broth and always make sure that it has liquid at the bottom of the pan.
Cook breast down for about 2 hours.
Flip the turkey over to get a nice roast on the breast side.
Cook for about 2 more hours breast side up. You know it's cooked by the skin at the legs. If not, you can use a meat thermometer to check it.
Remove from the oven and let cool 20 minutes while covered.
Cut the turkey open and remove the stuffing from inside.
And there you have it!
Make some mashed potatoes and some greens (I made green beans).
Use the pan juices to make the gravy (make a roux and add the pan juices slowly). Result:
Serve at the table and carve the turkey there as well. Makes for a nice show. David is the carving expert at our house, like my Nonno is at our family gatherings :)
And a few pictures of the table (turkey, green beans, mashed potatoes, gravy, brie with wild fruit sauce and stuffing).
Close up of the dishes.
And the crowd patiently awaiting to get served! And a proud host on the right :) Me!
and a typical thanksgiving plate (minus the cranberry sauce):
And now, even though your stomach and eyes are full, dessert time!
Pumpkin Pie
Ingredients:
1 can of pumpkin puree
1 cup of evaporated milk
2 eggs
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp grounded cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup flour
55grs frozen butter
pinch of salt
3 tbsp cold water
In your mixer, add the flour and salt.
Cut your frozen butter into cubes. Add to the flour.
Mix until it forms a breadcrumb texture.
While mixing, add the water slowly until it unifies. Stop mixing. You really have to be careful to not overstir it because the butter will get softer and it won't be a crispy crust.
Remove from the mixer and cover with saran wrap.
Let rest in the fridge for about 15 minutes.
Place your dough on a floured surface and roll it out until you form a nice pie shape.
(As you can see, I had made double the recipe to have some extra dough, turned out, I did well... I needed that dough for this one... you'll see why later on!)
Place in your pie dish.
Ok, here is the important note. If you cook a pie blind before adding the fillings... leave the pie overlapping on the sides. Otherwise, it will shrink and will look horrible. I learned quicky. Lucky me, I had made an extra batch of dough and I did not cut the crust before blind cooking it.
Blind cook for about 10 minutes.
In the meantime, prepare the filling.
In a large bowl, mix the pumpkin puree, sugar, salt, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, eggs and evaporated milk.
Pour into the precooked pie shell.
Cook at 180C for about 40 minutes (checking with a toothpick to see if the middle is cooked). Cut off the excess pie crust :)
Here is my friend Chus being a pro pie cutter.
And there you have it! A perfect Thanksgiving Dinner kilometers away :)
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
