Turkey

Here is a nice one I whipped up a couple weeks ago when we brined a turkey. It just popped out of my head based on what we had around :-)

I took the organs from a medium sized turkey and just put the organs in my large cast iron pan on about 1/4 heat on my electric range and turned them a few times over 15 minutes. I then tossed them into my mini-chopper food processor with about 3/4 cup cooked oatmeal that was left over from the boy's breakfast. I tossed in 2 really small end-of-thumb sized potatoes with skins on but this would be about the same without them. Also put in 1 tbsp of summer savory, 1/2 tsp salt (or less to taste), 1/8 tsp pepper. And I put in a few good tablespoons of fresh turkey fat from my mason jar, and a couple of cloves of garlic.

The other day we were rushing about for whatever reason I do not even recall now, and I had to come up with a good, quick meal for the boys that was healthy and easy to throw together. A few days before this I'd made turkey noodle soup for them, and there was still a half jar (about 250ml) of canned turkey in the fridge that was left over from it, so I wanted to use it up whatever I did. It was canned up at Christmas just passed, from the leftovers. While thinking about that fact, I recalled that I'd also canned up a fantastic turkey organ gravy. I put two-and-two together and a great idea popped into my head.

So I dug through the cupboard and came out with a few different forms of pasta - whole wheat penne, whole wheat rotini, and some regular elbow macaroni. Combined it was about two and a half cups. It was only in hindsight after I'd had them all in the post of boiling water, when I realised I should have cooked the whole wheat ones for about 5 minutes before adding the non whole wheat elbow macaroni. So I cooked it all about 13 minutes and the elbows were a little overdone, and the rest of it a little underdone. No big deal, really.

Oh my, I cannot believe I forgot to post this excellent recipe! At Christmas time just passed I picked up 2 turkeys because they had been mis-priced and I just could not refuse less than half price! My wife does not like putting the organs into the stuffing, and I do not like wasting food, so I put a call out to my friends on facebook for recommendations on what to do with the organs. The first suggestion that came back was "gravy", and I did not even have to ask for a recipe because ideas just started jumping into my head!

Here is what I came up with. It worked really well and I canned some up. I was just reminded of this now when my son wanted some gravy for the pork we had for supper, so I got a 250ml jar of it from the basement.

Here's one I just whipped up last night that turned out way better than I'd expected! I'll definitely make it more often as it was so easy and so yummy (and so healthy)

• 1 package (375g) of President's Choice Whole Wheat Rotini
• 1500 ml mason jars canned turkey and chicken
• thyme (1/2 to 1 tsp)
• rosemary (1/2 to 1 tsp)
• salt to taste
• pepper to taste
• corn starch (4 or 5 tablespoons)

It's been quite a few years since I've made casserole of any kind, and back then it always had a can of cream-of-something soup in it. Nowadays I don't like using processed foods in anything I cook, if I can help it at all. So here is my sans-soup turkey casserole, made with leftovers from the brined bird I did on boxing day.

Turkey

I chunked up leftover turkey until I got about 5 cups. This went into my 9 cup pyrex measuring cup, got covered with water, and put into the microwave on high for 22:22. It ended up coming to the boil at about 15 minutes, and boiled for almost 7 and a half. I drained the broth into a 1.5 litre pot and set the turkey aside. There is an awful lot of yumminess in a brined bird, and I wanted to bring some of it out into liquid form, to make my sauce for the casserole.

I collected about 750 ml / 3 cups of pan drippings from the bird the other day, and of course made gravy with it. It's very easy to do, and with drippings from a brined bird you don't have to add any other spices - it is simply fantastic as-is. I just dump off the drippings, and be sure to scrape out all the gunk as well and use it, since it adds a lot of flavour.

One thing about pan drippings from a brined bird is that they can be extremely salty! The first thing you need to do is taste the drippings and dilute with water if they are too salty. Dump the drippings into a largish saucepan (3 quart / litre) and give them a good buzz with a hand blender until they are uniform with no chunks. Then taste, and dilute with a little water at a time, buzzing with the hand blender between additions. Note that you can happily leave it a bit saltier than you normally would tolerate, because when you put it onto your plate it will get diluted again by the things you are eating it with.

I started doing this a little over a year ago when I tried bining my bird for the first time at Thanksgiving. And I liked it so much I keep doing it, whether I'm deep frying the bird as I was back then, or roasting it in the oven the old fashioned way. In fact, I've since done a lot of different meats brined, and they are absolutely terrific! Salt's basic function in food is a flavour enhancer, so in controlled amounts it can be very beneficial in the overall enjoyment of a meal. And as the salt gets drawn into the meat, it takes with it some of the rest of the herbs, spices and sugars that are dissolved in the solution, so be creative but at the same time use caution with ingredients like pepper, and spicy ingredients and when in doubt use less the first time. But onions, garlic and many herbs like oregano and the likes would be pretty difficult to have too much of.

Mix the lower amount of salt in this recipe for a light brine that even at a 24 hour soak will probably not be a "sodium explosion" for anyone who otherwise knows where the sodium in their diet is coming from. For me, I just don't worry about it since I don't eat any packaged foods at all, so the only salt I get is direct. Or most of it anyway - the bakery certainly puts salt in the bread we buy.

For people like my wife who are actually under doctor's orders to get more salt in their diets, use a full brine for 48 hours to make meat for stews and boiled dinners.