Upside Down and Backwards!! (That’s My Technique)

Roasted Turkey with Herbs Under SkinMy turkey roasting technique that is!!

I recently read a blog post by Darya Pino of Summer Tomato on How to Become a Great Cook Without Being a Chef.  She’s right! You don’t need to be a chef to cook really good food. But, (and this is a big BUT sticking out) you do need a few of Chef’s techniques.

When I studied at the California Culinary Academy the focus was on learning technique, not so much on recipes.  The philosophy is simple: If you understand how and when to incorporate each ingredient into a dish you can create your own recipes.  And it is true!!  By learning HOW to cook, not only was I able to create my own dishes, it became much easier to follow a recipe.  Sounds silly I know, most recipes are well research and clearly written. Yet, when I incorporated my knowledge of cooking with say – Betty Crocker – goodness, the dish took on new textures and flavors.

It is this nuanced change that I am referring to when I say Upside Down and Backwards.  Because that is exactly what I did.  I roasted my turkey upside down and backwards.  Follow me here, this is where it starts to get good.

The challenge for every cook on Thanksgiving is to cook the turkey making sure that the legs & thighs are cooked while keeping the breast meat from drying out and becoming stringy.  Americas Test Kitchen performed a definitive study last year on turkey roasting trying all of the different roasting techniques and endorsed a good, albeit cumbersome, technique for preparing your bird: they cut the turkey into pieces and roasted the legs and thighs separately from the breast.  Boo, I say. That takes away all of the fun of carving for dad!

I acknowledge the reasoning behind this approach but promise you one better. Actually FOUR better!!  Now Darya Pino, this is where being a chef does make a difference. Chef Suzanne and I put our heads together determined to roast a turkey whole while keeping it moist and giving it great flavor . . . and we nailed it the first time out.  Here’s what we did.

BRINING: Brining is a technique where the turkey is submerged in a saturated water mixture containing salt, sometimes sugar and oftentimes spices.  It is a fun technique but takes time and refrigerator space. Sometime in the future I will share a recipe with you but for now I give you this short cut: Butterball.  Yep, we bought a Butterball turkey simply because it was already brined.  Butterball has been in business since before I gnawed on my first turkey leg and I trust their technique.  I was not wrong then and I am not wrong now.  Their birds are flavorful.  But alas, I have had dry Butterballs before. So . . .

Butter On BreastHERBED BUTTER: Here is a technique I just love.  Suzanne and I took a half pound of soft butter and mixed in about 6 cloves of chopped garlic, salt and pepper to taste, and a small bunch each of Sage, Marjoram and Thyme chopped fine.  We then loosened the skin covering the breast of the turkey and rubbed the Herbed Butter directly on to the meat.  A lot of people will season the skin leaving the meat unadorned.  I use this technique nearly every time I roast fowl.  It always amazes!! I suggest that you thaw the bird the night before, pat it dry, rub in the herbed butter and leave it covered with plastic in the refrigerator overnight.  Then it is all ready to pop in the oven on Thursday with a little extra flavor-infusing time.

UPSIDE DOWN: I like this technique a lot especially with turkeys because of their size. Bigger is better may be the American motto but it can play hell when roasting. Three factors come in to play when roasting: Time, Temperature and Gravity. With gravity being the only constant. Since I cannot change the effect of gravity I decided to use it to my advantage.  I roasted my bird Up Side Down!! The effect was simple, all of the juices collected in the breast meat instead of the back of the bird.  Yum!!

Upside Down TurkeyTIME & TEMPERATURE: Here’s the secret sword thrust of roasting. Start your turkey at 450° F. That’s right, low and slow works for BBQ meats that are full of collagen and you want to fall apart. Starting hot and fast . . . well . . . it’s better, that’s all.  Actually this is how I understand what is happening.  Collagen, the ‘moisture’ in the bird, is water soluble. In a slow oven, low temperature, the water temperature in the meat rises slowly and begins to drain from the meat carrying the collagen away with it, essentially drying out the meat.  The longer the meat temperature stays at or near the boiling point of water the dryer the meat will become. Starting in a hot oven will push the meat temperature passed this mark more quickly leaving less time for the collagen to dissolve into the water.

Here’s the trick behind the technique. Start your turkey, upside down in a rack, in a 450° F oven.  Leave it there until the bird ‘starts talking to you.’ That is, until you can here the turkey snap, crackle and pop. About one half hour.  Then turn the oven down to 325° F. About 2 hours in to the roasting process check the thigh meat with a meat thermometer. Your goal is 175 -180° F for the leg and thigh and 170° F for the breast.  My 13 lb. bird took about 3 hours to cook completely through and MAN was it good.

Carving a TurkeyAfter the turkey reaches the desired internal remove it from the oven and let stand about 20 minutes before carving.  Suzanne and I had great success with this bird.  Both the white meat and dark meat were moist and flavorful.

I hope that your bird turns out as great as mine did.  Stay tuned this week for Pan Gravy and Side Dish recipes.

Until then,

Eat Well and Smile Often!!

 

tj

 

p.s. I get two turkeys this year ;-)

 

I May Be S.A.D.

Sad CatBut at least my shoes are not still warm!!

With the holidays over, the sun still in hiding and my garden overgrown I am experiencing some S.A.D.-ness. Seasonal Affect Disorder.  Yep, I am a bit sad.

I should not be.  I have a great girlfriend, plenty of work and a full head of hair.  For which I am Thankful (girlfriend), Thankful (work), Thankful (vainly so.)  By all measures in life (my big 3) I am comfortable and happy and yet this last 2 weeks I have felt . . . ho – hum.  I am not whining mind you but to be honest this feeling is leaving me a little uncomfortable.

Now local DJs Sarah & Vinnie on Alice Radio 97.3 here in San Francisco, recently had a show where they described the worst week of the year.  The holidays are over, your credit card bill comes in the mail, it is dark outside when you leave the house and dark when you get home, and the car is covered with ice every morning.  No wonder I am feeling off my mark. It is the worst time of the year!

Funny aside: When I was catering on Motion Picture sets,  shortly after I graduated culinary school, I commented to one of the teamsters how depressing it was working long hours, leaving the house before sunrise and returning after dark.  He replied,  “That’s nothing.  The worst is going to bed and waking up to find that your shoes are still warm.” Point made!

I share this because this S.A.D.-ness comes to me the same time every year and every year I have to do something big to shake it.   Take for example this picture of  my prized garden. Looking at this every day is not helping.

Dark Dead Garden

All dark and overgrown, like nobody loves it.  (You may insert your own sad face emoticon here if you like.)

So!  There is only one thing to do:Tear it all out and start again.

Please stay tuned for my next post coming the first week of February.  I will be tearing up the garden, building new raised beds and making a fun little hanging-out-space. Until then I hope you too are beating back the S.A.D.-ness.

Eat Well and Smile Often,

 

tj

 

p.s. You could never in a million years  have convinced me that putting on cold shoes is a good thing.  I guess you really do need to walk a mile . . .

Happy New Year!!

hat new yearsLet me wish you all a very happy 2013!!

2012 was another year of ups and downs, chock full of both personal and professional challenges.  I do not know about you but I am up to my ears tired with the silliness in Washington and our chug, chug, almost chugging economy.  I am satisfied with the deal our elected representatives made albeit not a perfect one from any standpoint.  Still an effort of compromise was made on both sides and that is how adults get along.

That being said I am thankful to you all for taking the time to read my little blog. Your support is giving me continued inspiration to make, bake and serve many dishes I have wanted to try over the years. My biggest fan Suzanne has been my inspiration and partner in crime for many of these experiments and I want to especially thank her and look forward to many more near food fights with her in the kitchen.

May the New Year bring you all that you need and wish for!!

Eat Well and Smile Often,

tj

p.s.  Time to start planning your spring garden.  What will it be this year??

Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head!!

Soup and SammiesWhat to do? What to do? What to do?  A winter’s day ripe for hot tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. But, tomato season is over and I just can’t get my self to buy those pale pink, baseball hard orbs the grocer labels as tomatoes. I remember my mother trying to get the Kids to eat vegetables during the winter and serving us these rock hard, white tomatoes with a wedge of iceberg lettuce and an oversize portion of bleu cheese dressing. Yes, health was on her mind.

Now that I am on the topic, whoever thought it was a good idea to put an iceberg wedge salad on a restaurant menu anyway? Did you not grow up in the 60’s or 70’s?? We have so many more better tasting options than a crispy, crunchy facsimile of food which I find tastes exactly like water.  All iceberg lettuce has ever done for me is thin out the bleu cheese dressing. Better to serve a nice chunk of Roquefort with a glass of water.  Just sayin’.

Canned TomatoesAnyway, this weekend the rain was coming down and Suzanne and I were hankering for something warm and satisfying. Tomato soup sounded great but alas . . . no fresh tomatoes.  Wait!! That is not entirely true. While they were not fresh off the vine in the minute, I did have a jar of tomatoes that I put up right after picking.  I reached into my pantry and came out with a quart jar of lovely ripe, stewed tomatoes.  One of the great challenges of having an edible garden is using all of its produce.  This year I went heavily into tomatoes and was rewarded with a bumper crop. Take a minute to review my Pop Goes the Basil!! post to witness the results of my green thumb.

So out comes the jar of tomatoes, a red onion, some garlic, chicken broth and a heavy splash of whipping cream left over from Thanksgiving.  I started with half the red onion finely diced and 6 cloves of garlic sliced sauteing in olive oil in a stock pot. After about 3 or 4 minutes I dropped in the the tomatoes and let them all stew together for a few more minutes.  On top of that I add a quart of chicken broth, unsalted, and brought it all to a boil for about 5 minutes.

BlenderThe next step is  my favorite.  I like to blend my soups. Now some cooks like to use immersion blenders, those little electric motor sticks with wimpy little blades that barely move your soup around the pot. Me, I like using a blender on low speed until I get the texture I want.  And . . . every once in a while I forget to keep my hand on the lid and oops, I get a little messy. Occasionally I will strain my soup to remove any extra chunky bits.  I tried that this time and was not happy with the results so I dumped the solids back into the pot and was happy that I did.

Strainer Giving the puree’ a taste test I found the soup to be  a little flat so I added just a pinch of kosher salt. Wow!! Did that pick the flavors right up.  Normally I would add some acid to brighten the flavor but the tomatoes brought just enough to the dish so no vinegar was needed.

Now one of Suzanne’s jobs, in our relationship, is to make sure we don’t overindulge in bad or fatty ingredients.  Take a minute to look at her audition video for the Next Food Network Star.  In it Suzanne makes a surprisingly good Massaged Kale Salad.  She made this salad for me one night and I predictably rolled my eyes and turned up my nose . . . until the fork hit my mouth.  It’s a great recipe and kale is a great food for the body.  But . . . this time Suzanne failed me.  Thank goodness!! She MADE me pour the half cup of whipping cream into the soup.  She was right and the taste was amazing.

CreamFortunately for me she did not stop there.  Suzanne also whipped up a little fresh pesto which she used to coat a slice of freshly baked baguette.  On top of which she added slices of Gruyere and Mozzarella.  Get that all melty in the toaster oven and Man!! What a meal.

Pesto Cheesy GoodnessSo, this last rainy weekend, Suzanne and I tucked into freshly baked bread topped with pesto and cheese with a steaming hot bowl of tomato cream soup. Took the shivers right away. My advice is: If you find yourself wanting for grilled cheese and soup one rainy day, dig a little deeper into the pantry and see just what might make make the day a little brighter.

 

Eat Well and Smile Often,

 

tj

 

p.s. Leftovers!!