Happy Turkey Day!! Part 1

Welcome to the Turduchen!

So here is the menu for our feast this fine turkey day;

• Turduchen
• Mashed Potatoes
• Three Bird Gravy
• Apple Stuffing
• Green Bean Bake
• Chanterelles Sauteed with Kale & Bacon

My Bi-Annual Thanksgiving treat. What is this "turduchen' of which you speak you may be asking. Well a Turduchen is a turkey stuffed with a duck stuffed with a chicken. So I woke up at the crack of 9am (heheheh) and began my days work with three birds and five pounds of homemade sausage. The method to the madness was simple. I would de-bone all three birds (yup thats right me a2.5in pairing knife, a 5.75in utility knife and some kitchen sheers. The four of us were going to extract the bone from these fowl beasts.) Working one at a time I managed to gt them done in just under an hour. Really that is too long, but I was out of practice so....

But what should I do with all of those bones? I mean I can't waste the the carcai <--- that would be the plural of carcass. So out comes the brew pot (15gal, stainless steel) and in go the fowl bones, and an onion or two, half a bottle of inexpensive red wine, a cup of other alcohol, a few trimmings from vegetables used later in this post, a gallon of water and simmer away. The stock will be used for the gravy, yum yum. But back to the bird at hand. So we lay out the new boneless floppy turkey pack a good 2.5# of sausage over the meat. Then we lay the duck down and cover him with ohhh about 1.75# of sausage. Next we plop the good old chicken in the middle run the remaining sausage, and add a special treat two whole heads of garlic. Now we will magically fold this bird in half ( a good long handled spoon helps with this) and lace it right up.Now we put the whole wonderful 22# meatball into a 300f oven for ohhh say how about 5hrs or until we get an internal temp of 155f. Then we remove the bird tent with foil and let rest for 30 minutes before serving. In the meantime we have five hours to kill.....

Goose Island Matilda anyone? (Review on this later this week).

So on we go to starting a fine apple stuffing. I look at the recipe and you know what? All it is going to make is hard crunchy funny tasting bread cubes garnish with apples. This will not do. So I just tweek it...a little bit... And viola the following appears;

Apple Stuffing (makes one 13x9x2 pan)

• 1 loaf bread, cut in 1" cubes
• 1 can evaporated milk
• 6 eggs
• 1t salt
• 1t pepper
• 2t thyme
• 1/2t fenugreek
• 1/2t galangal
• 1c chicken stock
• 1ea parsnip, diced
• 1ea carrot, diced
• 1ea leek, diced
• 1ea red onion, medium, diced
• 2ribs celery, diced
• 4ea apples, medium, cored, large dice
• 2slices bacon, minced
• 1/2c Italian flatleaf parsley, chopped, loosely packed

Whisk together the liquids and spices. Pour over cubed bread press the bread into the mixture and place in the fridge until the rest of the ingredients are ready. Heat oil over medium high heat then add you vegetables and sautee until aromatic. Remove them from the pan add bacon and a little more oil. Cook the bacon strring occasionally until it begins to render. Then add apples. Cook the apples for 2-3 minutes before stirring. (You may have to do these in batches). Combine the Vegetables, the apples, and the bread mixture. Place into a 13x9x2 cake pan and compress until it fits. Allow to rest for 30min up to over night. Cook at 350f until firm to the touch, should take about 35-40 minutes.

Alright then we have the stuffing made, we have the bird in the oven what is next? A quick little green bean casserole. Let us start with an awful recipe from Campbell's ... Ugh everything out of cans and just dump together... Ok new version sautee one and a half pounds of mushrooms with one tsp of fish sauce. Add a cup of chicken stock, and a pint of heavy cream. Reduce by one third. Take some wonderful fresh green beans (1.5#) wash and cut them into 1-2 lengths. Pat lightly dry and toss with three tbl of flour. Pour the soup over the top and sprinkle with fried onions. This will bake up wonderfully in the oven at 350f, 20minutes covered, 20 minutes uncovered. The green beans will be warm flavorful and crisp. The soup thick and clingy.


OK there is part one. You will Just have to wait for the rest of the recipes until later. Oh darn ...