Some of my family members do not enjoy the traditional turkey. Their prejudice, if you will, is that the meat is dry. Ours never is, but their minds are made up... :) Our solution to the problem is to cook a turkey roulade with traditional herbs for us, and something else for the rest of the crew. We rotate between most of the other available proteins out there. This year, we chose Cornish hens with a garlic, salted pork and plantain stuffing.
The side dishes consisted of traditional mashed yukon gold potatoes, mashed roasted sweet potatoes and traditional stuffing. One new side dish we attempted was mashed celery root and apple pureé. Personally, I did not enjoy it. The rather strong licorice taste of the celery root is more than I enjoy. You might love it.
We also decided to change things up a little bit on the dessert side. We decided to make apple pie empanadas (turnovers) instead of the traditional pie. Most of my family loves a crunchy crust, so that was the easiest way to guarantee crunchiness for everyone :)
Our mid-day snack consisted of a rather lavish French plate of various cheeses (Camembert, Brie, Eppoisses, Roquefort), Pâtés (Champagne, Duck liver mousse), and warm Foie Gras with a currant and pomegranate reduction sauce. The Foie Gras was a big hit, and it paired with the burgundy wine and the sauternes exceptionally well.
If you'd like to try these, here are the recipes:
Roast Turkey Roulade with herbs
Ingredients:
1 turkey breast
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 teaspoons of kosher salt
1 teaspoon of freshly ground pepper
2 teaspoon of thyme (approx.), finely chopped
4 cloves or garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon of old bay seasoning
butcher's twine
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 375°F
Mix the garlic, the herbs and the spices with some of the kosher salt. Use the salt to grind the garlic and the herbs together to mix in the essential oils with the salt. (Feel free to use a herb/spice mixture that you like).
Using a boning knife, or a thin sharp knife, remove each breast meat from the breast bone, retaining the skin.
Place the breast skin side down and using the same narrow knife, butterfly the breasts around the thicker part to make them about 1/2 inch in thickness. You can also cover the breast with plastic wrap and pound each breast out to achieve the same thickness.
Distribute half the garlic and herb seasoning mixture as evenly as possible.
Roll the breast onto itself to form as even a roll as possible. You can tuck the ends into the roll to make it more uniform.
Using the butcher's twine, tie up the roulade to form a small roast.
Brush or massage the skin with half of the olive oil, then sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
Repeat the same procedure for the second breast.
Place the roulades on a roasting pan, skin side up and roast in the oven until the meat registers about 140°F around the center. About 30 minutes. Turn the roulade upside down and bake for another 10 minutes, or until it registers about 155°F.
Remove from the oven, and rest on a plate, skin side up, for about 10 minutes.
Remove the butcher's twine and cut into 1-inch slices.
Any gravy you like would go great with it. you could also make a mushroom-herb gravy or a sage butter sauce.
Roasted Cornish hens with mofongo stuffing
Mofongo is a Caribbean side dish served in Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Dominican Republic. It is essentially a mashed plantain ball seasoned with garlic, salted pork and the local adobo all purpose seasoning. It can be served soft with fried pork or chicken, or fried up with consomme or soup. It has a savory, starchy flavor that is well complemented by the garlic.
Ingredients:
2 Cornish hens (look for them packaged in pairs in the poultry section)
3 teaspoons of adobo seasoning (Goya brand on the ethnic aisle) OR
equal parts of cumin, garlic powder, onion powder,
oregano, salt and pepper (optional)
2 tablespoons of olive oil or butter
For the stuffing:
3 light green plantains. They should look like a large green banana.
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
about 4oz. of salted pork (preferably with some meat), soaked in cold water for at least 30 minutes. Drained and chopped into 1/4 inch strips. (Bacon also works fine for this)
olive oil
Coarse salt (like kosher)
Vegetable oil (for frying)
Special equipment:
- Mortar and Pestle. Medium to large ones (> 1 cup ) work best for this.
It might be possible to achieve close enough results with a food processor, but I have never tried it.
Preparation:
Preheated oven set to 450°F
Wash and clean the hens. Pat dry and season with the adobo to taste. brush or rub the skin with the oil (or butter). Cover and refrigerate while you prepare the stuffing.
Cook the salt pork or the bacon in a skillet with about a tablespoon of oil set to medium heat until most of the fat has been rendered out and the pieces are crisp. Drain the pieces on some paper towels.
Prepare a dutch oven or any other deep cooking vessel with about 1-inch of oil set to 350°F
While the oil heats up, peel and slice the plantains by cutting about 1 inch off each end, then making two shallow lengthwise cuts on each side. The idea is to cut deep enough to peel the skin, but not too deep as to cut the plantain in half. Using your thumb or a butter knife (thumb preferred), lift the skin on one end and run the thumb lengthwise to lift the peel off the fruit until it falls off.
Cut the peeled plantains cross-wise into 1-inch discs.
Place the cut plantains in the oil for about 3-4 minutes. The idea is to blanch the plantain so that the inside is soft and the outside has a light golden color, but it is not very crispy.
Pull the pieces from the oil and drain in paper towels. Do them in batches until all of them are cooked.
Pull the hens from the refrigerator.
Place about a good pinch of salt on the mortar. Add some chopped garlic and mash using the pestle. Add some pork and about 3-4 pieces of plantain (start with the coolest ones first), depending on the size of your mortar and mash the mixture together. Add more plantains if you can. If the mixture seems dry, drizzle some olive oil to moisten it.
Pull the mixture from the mortar and use your hands to form a ball (careful as the mixture might be quite warm). If your mortar is small, make more and add to the ball to get the size you need to stuff the cavity. If the ball is too warm, set aside for a minute or so. Repeat the same to make another ball for the second hen.
Note: Plantains lose moisture very fast in this application. If they dry out, the starches solidify and the texture will be crumbly, which makes it difficult to work with. They will taste fine and re-hydrate while in the hens, but forming the ball will be a pain. It is best to work with the plantains while they're still warm because they are more pliable. Use the olive oil to keep the plantain mixture moist, or cover with plastic wrap if you need it to cool.
Stuff each hen's cavity with the plantain stuffing ball until it is full, but not tight. Place hens in a roasting rack and roast for about an hour, or until they register about 160°F at the thigh joint. Pull from the oven and cover with foil for about 5-10 minutes.
Using a large knife or a cleaver, cut each hen length wise and serve each half with your favorite gravy (plain old brown gravy works fine for me) and your favorite side dish.
Serves 4
Celery root and apple Pureé (Ina Garten)
Seared Foie Gras with a currant pomegranate reduction sauce.
Ingredients:
1 tube or Foie Gras (D'Artigan in my case) or a medium size foie gras, deveined and cut into 1/4 inch slices.
1/4 cup of dried currants
1/2 cup of red wine (Pinot variety preferred)
1/4 cup of pomegranate liqueur
Preparation:
Place the currants, red wine and pomegranate liqueur in a small sauce pan over medium heat and bring to a boil, about 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to a simmer and continue cooking until the liquid is reduced to about 1/3, about 15 minutes.
Note: you must work fast, or you will wind up with very expensive melted fat on the pan!
Heat a small non-stick frying or sautee pan over medium heat. Place each foie gras slice on the pan for about 5-10 seconds until it starts to melt, flip and repeat. Remove from the heat into a serving platter. Repeat for the number of slices you plan to serve (no more than 2/person).
Drizzle with the reduction sauce and serve as is, or with sliced country bread and a glass of Sauternes or a glass of Burgundy.
Apple Pie Empanadas
Ingredients:
1 pack of 4-inch empanada wrappers
(Goya found in the frozen section.
You would also use large round wonton wrappers)
1 large egg
1 tablespoon of water
Apple pie filling (use your favorite recipe)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
1/3 cup light brown sugar
4 Granny smith apples
1 teaspoon of cornstarch dissolved in water
Two large baking sheets lined with parchment paper
Oven set to 375°F
Preparation:
In a nonstick pan, cook the apples, sugar and spices until tender. About 10 minutes. Stir in the cornstarch slurry to thicken the liquid and set aside to cool.
Whisk in the water and the egg to make an egg wash.
Using a lightly dusted surface and a rolling pin, roll out each round to about a 6-inch disk.
Place about 4 teaspoons of apple pie mixture in the lower half of the disk, leaving about 1/2 inch edge all around.
Brush the egg wash on the lower half of the disk.
Fold the upper half onto the lower half, meeting the edges to form a half moon shape. Try to get as much air out of the pouch as possible.
Press the edge lightly with a fork to seal the empanada.
Place the empanada on the baking sheet. Brush the tops with the egg wash if desired for a crunchier top.
Repeat the same procedure for the rest of the empanadas and bake in the oven for about 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown and slightly blistered.
Let rest for about 5 minutes and serve as is, or with vanilla ice cream
On the wine side, we had:
2000 Pierre Morlet Brut 1er Cru Millesime (Champagne)
- This was a "new try" from a small grower in the Reims region. Very crisp with apple notes. It had a pretty good bead, good acidity and a short finish. Definitely good as a starter, but would work just fine with chicken or fish. Not easy to find, but definitely worth the cash.
2005 Frederic Magnien Morey-St.-Denis (Burgundy)
- A little young, but still showed lots of promise. The fruit was relatively well concentrated for such a young wine, and the tannins were pretty well balanced. In a few years, this wine should be excellent. I wish I could afford to get a whole case of this!
2000 Kracher Trocken No. 9
- This is a German wine in the sauternes style. It was recommended to us when we went out to get a bottle of Yquiem about 4 years ago. It is a beautiful example of a sauternes. Good grape concentration. Very good acidity balance with a nose of citrus and apples. It was excellent with the Foie Gras.
Well, I hope you have a chance to try one these recipes and/or wines.
I have to start thinking of what protein to serve next year, and what desserts to cook for the upcoming holidays.
Later,
