Sauced In New York Sometimes the food is in the sauce, sometimes we are
I must confess to a whole bunch of whining in the past about Thanksgiving. It is not one of my favorite celebrations. The family time is great, but the meal… the meal…
Much like my issues with ham, turkey just does not make me say “YUM!”
We’ve had it deep fried (nearly set my parents’ 150 year old home on fire), we’ve had it basted constantly in its own juices through its numerous hours in the oven, and we’ve had it in extra large cooking bags. We haven’t (to my knowledge) tried brining yet, and maybe we need to do so before completely lamb-basting the dish…
Lamb! Now that would be a good Thanksgiving dinner! Or better yet, lobster!
We did serve lobster one year when we hosted. Thanksgiving became quite the expensive venture. Aaannd we ended up having to cook a turkey in the end, to quiet the protesting complaints from the apparent lobster-shunning crowd. (Not a bit of lobster was left over. There was, however, turkey left over.)
Second confession of the post: with all of this pronounced distaste for turkey, my plate was wiped clean at the end of the meal. While turkey may not be my thing, the side dishes can really make a Thanksgiving meal: candied sweet potatoes, stuffing, mashed potatoes, creamed spinach, and [un]healthy amounts of gravy.
Thanks to all that, today feels a bit like a muffin top day.
Huh? What was that? What do you mean ‘one meal does not a muffin top make’???
Sheeesh. Time to get out the walking shoes.
We may have a solution to your turkey woes. This year we stopped at BC and Fr. Michael Davidson, a Jamaican Jesuit, had prepared jerk turkey. He infused the turkey beforehand repeatedly with jerk sauce and then had a sauce to go over it. It was very good. Of course, a healthy supply of rice and peas, curried pork and curried goat and many other sides did not hurt, either.
Goat??? Yum! Love! Jerk Turkey sounds pretty cool too!
Claire, it all sounds good to me. This year we enjoyed to turkeys (smaller) cooked differently. One was smoked, which is favored by all, and the second was a Jacques Pepin recipe we found in the NYT food section. This was interesting in that it was first soaked in brine overnight, then steamed, and finally roasted with a glazed baste. It was both succulent and delicious! The jerked turkey does sound fantastic. I’ll put it on my probable list for next year…
Enjoy