Bacon Wrapped Turkey and How I learned to Cook It

Thanksgiving, 1992, San Francisco, CA, my first away from home as a newly minted full-grown adult. I figured I would make the turkey, since of my 3 roommates, 2 were veggie, and one had no interest in taking on the bird. And so, I got us a huge frozen turkey that sat in our fridge for a few days befoere Thanksgiving.

The big day arrived. I went to the fridge and found that the turkey was nowhere near thawed. It was around 8am PST and our party started at 6pm. The phone (which had a very long cord, we for some reason didn’t have a cordless, and no cell phones yet) was dialed and Gran Fran came on the line (it being 3 hours later in NY, her turkey was well on its way. Must also mention here, that Joe was well out of the house, too, since he cannot be in the house with odor of the roasting bird.)

“Well, you’ll need to run cold water on it to get the ice to thaw. And, to make sure it’s ready to cook, you don’t want to give everyone salmonella.” (note: Gran Fran is very wary of all manner of undercooked food for fear of diseases.)

OK, so the turkey is huge, our sink is not. Into the bathroom I go with the turkey, dragging the phone through the length of our flat. The bird is dumped into the bathtub, cold water is run over it for an hour or so, and it is thawed. (Picture my two veggie roommates coming into the bathroom and seeing me wrestling with a gigantic turkey. Needless to say, as soon as it was thawed, I was back in the bathroom armed with bleach and tub cleanser to get all meaty-juices off the surfaces).

The turkey made it into the oven around 10am, plenty of time for it to cook through. I went about my business to make other dishes, and help get the house ready for our guests. We were dressed up and the house lit with candles just in time.

The turkey had a beautifully browned skin, the meat was moist, the side dishes were delicious.

But, I had forgotten one thing. The paper wrapped innards were still in the turkey cavity. Oy, this was a tough one to explain to the guests. Suffice it to say, the turkey had been cooked for so long that the innards had been cooked, too, no danger of salmonella. But, boy, what a discovery was made when that cooked white sack was found!

Luckily, we were mostly a bunch of out-of-towners on our first solo Thanksgivings, so all was ok, as long a the wine and beer kept flowing and the pies made their way to the table.

Now, 20 years later, I have perfected many a turkey, but my all time favorite is this bacon wrapped version. The skin is rubbed with brown sugar, sage and cayenne pepper. Spicy, sweet and wonderful. I did also use butter, which I don't usually do for poultry, but it really added a great depth of flavor. You can stick with just the bacon to moisten the turkey, but I have to say the butter added amazing flavor.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Bacon Wrapped Turkey

serves 6

Ingredients

• 1 turkey breast
• 2 turkey legs
• 2 turkey thighs
• 1 1/2 pounds bacon
• 3 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 6 tablespoons cayenne
• 10 sage leaves
• 6 cloves garlic

Method

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees f
2. Place bacon on a rimmed backing sheet in a single layer.
3. Bake bacon for five minutes, just until the fat starts to liquify in the bottom of the pan.
4. Put the butter, brown sugar, cayenne, sage and garlic in a food processor and pulse until a paste has formed.
5. Place the turkey in a large baking dish.
6. Coat the pieces with the brown sugar mixture. It may not adhere 100%, but you should try and put some under the skin of the turkey where the flavors can really permeate the meat.
7. Remove the bacon from the oven, let it cool a bit and then start wrapping the turkey with the bacon slices. If you have enough bacon, create a lattice by laying one piece of bacon over another to create a shell over the turkey. Don't worry about making it perfect, just try to cover the whole surface of the turkey. This helps keep the meat moist.
8. Bake in the preheated oven for about an hour. Check on the thighs after 45 minutes, they may cook a bit quicker than the breast.
9. Remove from the oven, let rest for ten minutes, tented under aluminum foil, and then serve!

Thanksgiving: We Love Stuffing

Stuffing was never high on my list of Thanksgiving loves. I never loved the flavor, and was put off by the number of ingredients involved.

That all changed about three years ago when I started making my own, with lots of bacon and sausage.

Anything that can act as a vehicle for as much meat and savory goodness as you can stuff into a pan is good by me. Thanksgiving dishes give me an opportunity to go a little bit crazy and not worry so much about the healthier way that I usually eat. Portion control in the stuffing and mash potatoes department are completely gone. I figure once a year, I can really let loose and pack in the good stuff.

If you can line up all your ingredients and cook the elements you need in advance, this stuffing will come together quickly and easily. There will be lots of dicing, browning and dishes, but all for the good cause of making the best stuffing ever.

This year, I used port to rehydrate the dried porcini mushrooms and added dried California figs, instead of dried apricots.

You can amend this recipe however you'd like: use wine instead of port; morels instead of porcini; pecans instead of chestnuts. Whatever you do, keep the earthy flavors balancing out the sweet and nutty flavors and you'll have yourself a wonderful stuffing.

Below is the recipe, but here are links to some of the main ingredients, which I've posted before:

Roast Chestnuts

Corn Muffins

Oven-baked Bacon

Thanksgiving Porcini, Bacon, Sausage, Cornbread and Chestnut Stuffing

serves 6

Ingredients

• 5 corn muffins, crumbled (click here for the recipe)
• 10 to 15 roasted chestnuts, chopped into bits (click here for the recipe)
• 2 to 4 slices oven-baked bacon, chopped into small bits (click here for the recipe)
• 4 dried figs, sliced into small pieces
• 8 ounces dried porcini mushrooms
• 1 cup port (or red wine or brandy)
• 2 hot italian sausages, casing removed
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 sweet onions, diced
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1/4 cup walnuts, smashed
• 6 sage leaves, minced
• 1 cup chicken stock

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat.
3. Add the sausage, breaking it up into small pieces with a fork.
4. Sauté for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until he meat has browned.
5. Meanwhile, put the porcini mushrooms and port in a small saucepan over medium-low heat.
6. Cook the porcini until they have absorbed 2/3 of the liquid.
7. Once the sausages have browned, add the onions and garlic and cook until they soften, about 10 minutes.
8. Take a rimmed baking dish and place the corn muffins, chestnuts, walnuts, sage and bacon bits into it.
9. Add the porcini and the port to the sausage pan, stirring for about five minutes.
10. While everything cooks, grab a pair of kitchen scissors and cut the porcini into small pieces. You may also need to chop up the sausages a bit, too.
11. Remove the sauté pan from the heat and add the ingredients to the rimmed baking dish, mixing everything up.
12. Pour the chicken stock over the stuffing and mix it in to help the cornbread to absorb it.
13. Place in the oven for 30 minutes, stirring once. It may take a bit longer, it's done when you find the sausage nice a crispy.

Featured: DailyBuzz Moms: Strawberry, Sage and Grapefruit Granita

I was looking at the DailyBuzz Moms site today and stumbled across my Strawberry, Sage and Grapefruit Granita on their Top 9!

Loving that I'm featured and can't wait to try the Blackberry Lime Tarts from Thyme of Taste's website.

Click on over to see the feature and check out some of the other recipes while you are there.

Going Down the Hill: Strawberry Grapefruit and Sage Granita

Have you ever made granita before? I hadn't until last night. It was so easy that I think this will become a regular thing with all of these great Spring-into-Summer fruits coming my way.

Some of my favorite summer moments include walking Down the Hill to the pizza place to get a frozen Italian ice. Down the Hill is treated as such, since it was a title for a small hill made up of dirt that created a shortcut between our suburban Queens neighborhood and a small strip of stores just off the LIE eastbound. If you needed something from the store you were directed to go Down the Hill.

Of course, there was another hill just on the other side of the shopping mall, but that was not Down the Hill, you know what I mean? There were times that my mother, Gran Fran, made it clear we were not supposed to go Down the Hill, but down the hill. This was mostly when we wore shorts, flip flops, sandals, or were otherwise in danger of scraping ourselves on bits of broken glass or other debris left in the dirt. Oh, and sometimes when it was raining, icy, snowy, or just a regular Tuesday. You see where I'm going with this?

The Italian ice that we had came pre-packaged and was made by a company called Marino's. My parents grew up in Brooklyn and had hand-made Italian ices that we would periodically venture across borough lines to enjoy. The Brooklyn ices definitely tasted more like the fruit they said were included (lemon was my fave). But the packaged kind are still what comes to mind when summer weather shows itself, however briefly, here in SF (this weekend has topped out at a whopping 79 degrees without a cloud or fog bank in sight).

As I grew up and started to venture to other cities and states I found there were regionally produced ice-like treats. In Philly I came across Water Ice. Not a huge fan of this style of ice treat. I can't put my finger on why, and it may just be because it's not the same as what I knew as a child. But, I do know plenty of people who love them a good Water Ice.

In California, I was treated to Hawaiian Shaved Ice, but it's too bumpy and doesn't have that nice rich consistency that I love. I do, however, love the variety of flavors, and the less common ones, that are available for your very own custom shaved ice.

I wasn't sure it was going to turn out, since it was such a simple recipe. All the recipes I came across used quite a bit of sugar, which I decided to reduce. The first version I made used only half of what I'm recommending here, and no water. That batch was very tart. Fine for me, but I think most people would like their granita quite a bit sweeter.

Please enjoy this and let me know about any other types of ice-related goodness that I didn't go over here. I'd love to try more!

Strawberry, Grapefruit and Sage Granita

Ingredients

• 1 pound strawberries
• 1 large grapefruit skin removed
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup grapefruit juice
• 1/2 cup water
• 4 tablespoons lemon juice
• 8 sage leaves minced

Method:

1. Put all of the ingredients in a blender and puree
2. Pour the mixture into a freezer-proof baking dish.
3. Freeze for 4 to 5 hours, until solid.
4. When ready to serve, take a fork and scrape the ice mixture into serving bowls or glasses.
5. Serve with a bit of sage on top.