Turduchen pt2

So now that I have kept ou all in susspence over the week end let us contine with the feast that was Turduchen. The "bird" was in the oven. The stuffing was prepared, the green bean bake waiting to go. What was left? Well we still needed potatoes, gravy, and something with chanterelles.

So we took the stock that was gentle rolling and bubbling just simmering away. And with it I began to play. Two pots a ladel and a way to go. I slowly reduced the stock from just over one gallon that had simmered for 3 hours now to how much? 3 cups. But what to do with my remaining carcai and such? I dug through the flake mash of remaining poultry. For there was gold in the bottom of that pot. I had tossed in the magic little package that they include with all those birds. I found it and into the blender it goes, giblets, hearts, and livers with a cup of reduced stock. This mix was pureed then added back to the gravy pot. (Use caution when pureeing hot liquids!!).So with three cups of three bird stock I thickened it up with a little brown roux. (1.5tbl of butter and 2 tbl of flour simmered to gether in a pan until it drys browns and smells like toasty hazelnuts.) Now our gravy was almost done it sat aside to warm, the finall ingredients was the fond from the turduchen pan deglazed with plum wine.


Ok back to the turduchen, three beers and 4 and a half hours later out she comes. Out and to the counter tented with foil. Internal temp 155. And into the oven goes the stuffing and green bean bake. The pan is deglazed and add to the gravy. Which is heavily whisked and brought to a boil. This leaves but two dishes to go. The potatoes had been boiled (how dissapointing) but they were soft nonetheless, add potato masher, elbow grease, half stick of butter, a cup of heave cream and a half cup of sour cream ( Maybe next year, yogurt & cream cheese.....) Salt pepper done. Creamy and fluffy and no one knows how I did it.... Oh wait except I just told everyone.

Turduchen still reasting, side dishes still baking at 375f. ten minutes to kill.... Sautee pan three sliced of minced bacon medium high heat. Washed and chopped kale, 4oz cleaned chanterelles, three tablespoons of red wine vinegar.(<-----shameless plug for my work) Render bacon add kale and vinegar, cover for 5 min and reduce heat to med-low, turn heat to high uncover add chanterelles salt pepper and cook and toss until au sec. Allright everything is done now: Serve and enjoy, as always comments or questions welcome.

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 ...