Christmas Turkey - Salted Herbs and Shallot Gravy

Pretty tasty. As other who cooked this turkey have noted, the end result is very similar to a brined turkey, but without the brine effort and unusable carcass. The turkey is salted inside and out with an herb salt, left to sit in the fridge overnight, then rinsed clean and cooked with lemons and onions inside.

Herbed Salt

• 1/4 cup coarse kosher salt
• 2 teaspoons dried rosemary
• 2 teaspoons dried sage
• 2 teaspoons dried thyme
• 2 teaspoon crushed black peppercorns
• 3 torn bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel

Mix all ingredients together. Wash the turkey well, but do not dry. Cover in salt, and place covered in the fridge for 12 hours or so (Christmas Eve). When ready to cook, remove and rise all the remaining salt off, and pat dry. Stuff the turkey with loosely cubed:

• 1 onion
• 1 celery stalk
• 1 whole lemon with peel
• dried rosemary
• dried rubbed sage
• dried thyme
• 1 stick unsalted butter

Roast for 17 minutes per pound. We made a gravy out of sauteed shallots, white wine, and the amazing amount of drippings the bird put off. A very brown, juicy turkey, not too salty at all. Very good drumstick meat, will try this on drumsticks alone next time, or maybe a roasted chicken.

Thanksgiving Turkey - Apple and Smoked Bacon

The 2008 Thanksgiving turkey, an adaptation of the Bon Appetit cover recipe. Prepared with the standard butter rubbed method. Butter mixture included fresh sage, salt and pepper, lemon juice, and 1-2 pieces raw diced applewood smoked bacon. The stuffing was a fennel apple bacon mixture, sauteed onions, celery, fresh fennel bulb, and about 6 pieces cooked and drained applewood smoked bacon, as well as fresh Italian parsley. The bacon gave the stuffing a pleasant smoked flavor, which carried over to the turkey. The end result (after cooking for about six and a half hours, was a very brown, tasty turkey that could be cut with a butter knife.

Sweet Potato and Sausage Soup

What It Is: A very good soup, probably unlike most things you have ever had. Broth bursting with flavor to compete with the best Thai and Vietnamese soups, although this hails from Spain. There is one ingredient that makes this dish work, so it should not be done without it. Make something else if you don't have:

1 string Palacios Spanish Hot Chorizo sausage

Authentic Spanish chorizo is made from the same acorn fed (up to 30 pounds per day) Iberian pork that becomes jamón Ibérico. Ground pork is seasoned with paprika, garlic, salt and sherry and the sausage smoked over a period of months. The result is a sausage unlike you have tasted before, and an incredible improvement on the fresh chorizo available in the supermarket. Slice the sausage into thin rounds, and maybe eat one or two slices. Meanwhile, in a soup pot, saute

2 chopped onions
3 chopped garlic cloves

with a little olive oil. Add

1-2 peeled, cubed yams
1-2 small, peeled, cubed potatoes

And cook until starting to brown, about 10 minutes. Add

6 cups of decent chicken broth

And let simmer until potatoes are soft, about 20 minutes. At this point, taste the soup. It will be boring. Not to worry. In a small amount of olive oil, saute the sliced sausage until they brown, about 8 minutes. This will produce a good amount of seasoned oil, which you can use later, or save for some fried eggs in the morning. When the soup is ready, add the sausage and let that simmer for a little bit. We let the soup sit for a half hour, which helped to spread the sausage flavor around. At the last moment, add

Several large handfuls of fresh spinach

to the pot, and stir until wilted. Serve with crusty bread.

The Omnivore’s Hundred

The idea: cross out everything you wouldn't eat, and bold everything you have eaten.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
- Most recently, the borscht at the Bozeman Co-Op after a rainy night of camping. Served hot.
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
- aka 'Why cook aloo gobi, when you can Bend It Like Beckham'
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
- Only a tiny amount, shaved atop Michelangelo's Truffle Risotto in Salt Lake City
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
- Most recently, pear wine.
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
- Handmade gelato can't compete with Hagen Daaz
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
- Lots of options here, most notably fields of wild blackberries on the coast of California.
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
- From a road side stand in Costa Rica, served plain or with a side of chicken fillet.
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
- Most recently, from The Bakery in downtown Salt Lake, and from the Living Traditions Festival there before.
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
- Snowbird Resort's Octoberfest
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
- Abalone risotto in Monterey, California
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
- Again, Octoberfest
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
- And made it that way.
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill (no, but Ann has)
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
- Most recently, at a thriving Thai place in Lava Hot Springs, Idaho. Not the typical destination for authentic Thai food, but good nonetheless.
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
- Late season nasturtiums from the garden
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

A total of 51. Not too bad for living in the intermountain west for my entire life. Next to track down: Lapsang souchong

Pepper Crusted Ahi Tuna

A pretty simple recipe. First, stick a skillet on the stove until it is super hot. Rub a small amount of salt and a large amount of cracked pepper all over a good chunk of fresh ahi tuna. Add several tablespoons of sesame oil to the hot skillet, and drop the fish steak. Cook until you can't stand the smoke and you get hungry, about 3-4 minutes per side depending on how thick the cut is, and how tasty (i.e. raw) you want your fish.

Remove from the heat, and cover tightly. Quickly add soy sauce and cooking sherry in a 1 to 3 ratio to the skillet, which will bubble tremendously. Toss in some chopped green onions and cook until the sauce is thickened (only a matter of minutes if the pan is hot). Drain the sauce on the fish and serve immediately with roasted yams, broccoli, and radicchio. Enjoy.

Fall Butternut Squash Soup

A pretty simple soup, for a simple fall evening.  Combine equal parts (about 3/4 cup each) of chopped onions, carrots, and celery in a pot with some butter, garlic, and olive oil.  Saute until things start to smell good, and add 3 cups of chopped butternut squash (skin and seeds removed) and mix well.  After the squash has sufficiently moistened, add about 2 cups of chicken or vegetable broth (we used some leftover turkey carcass broth) and cook for 15 minutes, until everything is soft.

Remove from the heat, and blend the soup in blender in batches, until everything is creamy.  Return to the pot, reheat, and season with salt and pepper as needed, and maybe some fresh sage.  Garnish with the last of the nasturtium blossoms.

Beets!

The color of beets is due to betalain, a naturally occurring pigment most often found in flower petals.  Prickly pear fruit (another ingredient in our refrigerator) also exhibits this pigment, and swiss chard (still hanging on in the garden outside) owes its color and taste to being a subspecies with beets.  They make a good meal tossed with carrots, garlic, and montreal steak seasoning, and roasted in olive oil in the skillet.

Beef Short Ribs

A pretty simple fall recipe for two people.  Fill a slow cooker with approximately:

1 C red wine

1/2 C chopped onion

1/2 C dried mushroom chunks (we used foraged boletes from Wyoming and Montana)

6 whole garlic cloves

1/2 can tomato chunks

handfull of Italian parsley.

Salt and pepper 4-5 beef short ribs, and add to the pot.  Cook on low for 8 hours, and serve with toasted acorn squash, seasoned with a homemade 5-spice mixture.

Pan Fried Duck with Parsnips

What you are going to do is pan fry the duck in its own fat. Only wonderful animals can fry themselves: duck, pig, bear, and whale. Mmm, that could one up the turducken... the Wheariguck™, a duck stuffed in a pig stuffed in a bear stuffed in a whale. Maybe next Thanksgiving.

Cut some of the excess fat from the duck parts into thin strips, and add to a deep dutch oven to start rendering the fat.  Salt and pepper the duck, and place in the pot skin side down.  Cook until the skin is nicely brown and there are a fair amount of dripping in the pot (about 15 minutes), then add some chopped parsnips, shallots, garlic, and fresh rosemary.  Cover with a tight fitting lid, and steam everything on medium heat until done.  You may want to take out the duck at the last few minutes and broil to crisp the skin back up.  Garnish with italian parsley.

Pear Poached in Wine Sauce

Pick out some of the best looking pears you can find, favoring ripe pears with still a hint of firmness.  We used Bosc pears, ideal for their slightly spicy, luscious flavor and firm texture.  For each pear, add about

1 cup water

1/3 cup dry white wine

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 fresh lemon juice and zest

to a saucepot, and bring to a boil to dissolve the sugar.  Remove from heat.  Slice off the bottom of each pear-so they stand upright-and scoop out the seeds and pit from the bottom.  Peal the pears, drawing fancy patterns in the pear peals if you so choose, and add them to the sauce.  Each entire pear must be fully submerged, so add more water and wine if necessary.  Fold several paper towels in half, and place over the pears (drawing liquid over the pear) and then weigh the pears down in the sauce with a plate.

Return the sauce to a boil, and then reduce the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes, or until the pears are soft throughout.  Put the entire pot-pears, sauce, paper towels, and lid-in the refrigerator, and eat dinner.

When everything has sufficiently cooled off, remove the pears from the sauce, and re-heat at a fast boil until thickened into a syrup.  Remove from heat, and add several drops of Angostura Bitters, or failing that, a dash of vanilla  Arrange the pears, and pour the syrup over, and garnish with more lemon zest and some mint sprigs.

Homebrew Spreadsheet

For the past several years I have been doing some homebrewing as a hobby, and to supplement the Boca Noir wine and grappa we make at Casa di Lamberti. The beer making has taken off once I moved to Salt Lake City, UT. The Puritanical Mormons and their alcohol laws and post hoc revelations (Post hoc ergo propter hoc - trans "after this, therefore because of this") do not for tasty beer make. The last several batches have turned out nicely, especially the Christmas Ale, a slightly spiced light-brown ale with hints of chai, banana esters, and cloves.

Thanks to Google Docs I have put a spreadsheet in an iframe (very simple, just publish the Google doc to share it with everyone, and wrap it in an iframe). I'll try and keep this updated as the brewing process continues. Homebrew is much more ephemeral than commercial beer, and undergoes a dramatic transformation in taste over a period of a few months; therefore the beer you make is not the same as you finish your last drop, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. Enjoy.