Sunday, December 28, 2003

Kat shares:

Recipe courtesy Alton Brown

Recipe Summary
Yield: Yield: 10 to 12 servings
1 (14-16 pound) frozen young turkey
For the brine:
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 gallon vegetable stock
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1/2 tablespoon allspice berries
1/2 tablespoon candied ginger
1 gallon iced water
For the aromatics:
1 red apple, sliced
1/2 onion, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup water
4 sprigs rosemary
6 leaves of sage
Canola oil

Combine all brine ingredients, except ice water, in a stock pot and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve solids, then remove from heat, cool to room temperature refrigerate until thoroughly chilled. Early on the day of cooking, (or late the night before) combine the brine and ice water in a clean 5 gallon bucket. Place thawed turkey breast side down in brine, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area (like a basement) for 6 hours. Turn turkey over once, half way through brining. A few minutes before roasting, heat oven to 500 degrees. Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick and cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes.

Remove bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard brine. Place bird on roasting rack inside wide, low pan and pat dry with paper towels. Add steeped aromatics to cavity along with rosemary and sage. Tuck back wings and coat whole bird liberally with canola (or other neutral) oil. Roast on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cover breast with double layer of aluminum foil, insert probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and return to oven, reducing temperature to 350 degrees. Set thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let turkey rest, loosely covered for 15 minutes before carving.

3/4 pound ground lamb
3/4 pound ground beef or ground veal
1 small yellow skinned onion, minced or grated with hand grater
A handful flat-leaf parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon (1 turn of the pan) extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup dry white wine
1/2 lemon

Preheat a medium skillet over medium high heat. Combine meats, onion, parsley, salt, and pepper. Add butter and oil to pan and begin rolling small, bite-size balls, adding balls to pan as you roll them. Cook balls 10 to 12 minutes, shaking pan occasionally to brown equally on all sides. Deglaze pan with wine and allow wine to reduce by half, 1 or 2 minutes. Remove pan from heat and squeeze the juice of 1/2 lemon over the meatballs.

Serve in a bowl.

[via Malia]