Hal­cian Pierre

Here at home, an in­flux of turkeys (and hams) at our lo­cal gro­ceries and su­per­mar­kets sig­nals the start of the Christ­mas sea­son. In North Amer­i­ca how­ev­er, com­ing down to the end of No­vem­ber, Amer­i­cans start talk­ing au­tumn, wool scarves and of course, Thanks­giv­ing, which was cel­e­brat­ed on No­vem­ber 22nd, and fea­tures that very huge bird, the turkey.

Of course, we Trinida­di­ans love eat­ing turkeys too, but un­like our Amer­i­can coun­ter­parts, we take our turkey at Christ­mas time. Now that the Christ­mas sea­son has be­gun, the quest for a nice, moist and ten­der turkey takes prece­dent. Giv­en our predilec­tion for meat on the whole, we al­so eat turkey year round and some gro­ceries sell what we call "Turkey Stew" pieces of turkey legs, thighs, breasts and wings cut up and pack­aged in clear plas­tic and Sty­ro­foam, des­tined for the stew­ing pot. Stew­ing is our thing, re­al­ly. Bak­ing an en­tire turkey how­ev­er, takes some con­sid­er­able skill, but it is not that dif­fi­cult (as you will soon see, just check our tips be­low.)

This week, I'm shar­ing a sim­ple turkey and stuff­ing/dress­ing recipe. Per­son­al­ly, I don't stuff my birds, be­cause of the risk of hav­ing a per­fect­ly baked turkey and an un­der­cooked stuff­ing. I make it and bake it in an­oth­er dish on the side, per­fect for peo­ple like me who love the crispy bits! En­joy!

Lemon-Herb Roast­ed Turkey

In­gre­di­ents

• 1/2 cup but­ter, melt­ed

• 3 ta­ble­spoons lemon juice

• 2 tea­spoons grat­ed lemon peel

• 1 tea­spoon minced fresh thyme or 1/4 tea­spoon dried thyme

• 1 turkey (14 to 16 pounds)

• 2 tea­spoons salt

• 2 tea­spoons pep­per

• 1 medi­um lemon, halved

• 1 medi­um onion, quar­tered

• 14 gar­lic cloves, peeled

• 24 fresh thyme sprigs

• 1 ta­ble­spoon all-pur­pose flour

• 1 turkey-size oven roast­ing bag

Method

• In a small bowl, com­bine the but­ter, lemon juice, lemon peel and minced thyme.

• Pat turkey dry.

• Sprin­kle salt and pep­per over the skin of the turkey and in­side the cav­i­ty and brush with but­ter mix­ture.

• Place the lemon, onion, gar­lic and thyme sprigs in the cav­i­ty.

• Skew­er the turkey open­ings and tie the drum­sticks to­geth­er.

• Place flour in the oven bag and shake to coat. Place the bag in the roast­ing pan and add turkey, breast side up.

• Cut six inch slits in top of bag; close bag with the tie string pro­vid­ed.

• Bake at 350° F for 2 1/4 to 2 3/4 hours, or un­til a meat ther­mome­ter reads at 180 de­grees.

• Re­move turkey to a serv­ing plat­ter and keep warm.

• Let stand for 15 min­utes be­fore carv­ing. If de­sired, thick­en the pan drip­pings for gravy.

Easy Stuff­ing/Dress­ing

In­gre­di­ents

• 1/4 cup fine­ly chopped onions

• ? cup chopped lo­cal cel­ery

• 1/3 cup but­ter

• 2 or 3 stalks chive, sliced thin­ly

• 1 small bunch fresh thyme

• 4 to 5 cups bread cubes

• 1/8 tea­spoon black pep­per

• 2 eggs, beat­en

• 1/2 tea­spoon salt

• 2 to 3 chopped pi­men­to pep­pers

• 1/4 to 1/2 tea­spoon poul­try sea­son­ing

• Turkey or chick­en broth

Stuff­ing Method:

• Saute onion and cel­ery in the but­ter un­til soft­ened. Add in the chive and re­move the leaves from the thyme and add to the pot. Com­bine onion mix­ture with bread, pep­per, eggs, salt, pi­men­to pep­pers and poul­try sea­son­ing in a large mix­ing bowl. Stir in broth un­til well moist­ened. Stuff your turkey.

Dress­ing Method:

• Do all steps, then bake in a greased cov­ered shal­low casse­role dish at 325oF for about 35 to 45 min­utes. Take the cov­er off the last 5 min­utes to brown. Serve on the side of your turkey.

Turkey Tips

THAW­ING

Re­frig­er­a­tor Thaw­ing: Thaw breast side up, in un­opened wrap­per, on a tray in the re­frig­er­a­tor. Al­low for at least 1 day of thaw­ing for every 4 pounds of turkey.

Cold-Wa­ter Thaw­ing: Thaw breast side down, in un­opened wrap­per, in enough cold wa­ter to cov­er it com­plete­ly. Change the wa­ter fre­quent­ly to keep the turkey chilled. Es­ti­mate a min­i­mum thaw­ing time of 30 min­utes per pound for a whole turkey.

Nev­er put a turkey out in the kitchen to thaw 'just so'. You run the risk of en­cour­ag­ing harm­ful bac­te­ria.

TO SEA­SON OR NOT TO SEA­SON?

The av­er­age Tri­ni will sea­son their turkey in some way be­fore bak­ing, and the most pop­u­lar meth­ods are to brine or flavour in­ject it.

Brin­ing: Mix 1 cup salt, 1 cup brown sug­ar and 2 quarts of wa­ter or ap­ple juice in a large pot. For flavour, add a few smashed cloves of gar­lic, some fresh thyme, a 2 inch piece of gin­ger (sliced), some pep­per­corns, fresh or­ange peel and a bay leaf. Every­thing gets warmed on the stove for 15 min­utes, then cooled down. Put the thawed turkey in a deep plas­tic con­tain­er like a souse buck­et or peanut but­ter buck­et, and then pour the cold brine over it. If it doesn't cov­er the bird com­plete­ly, add an­oth­er one or 2 quarts of wa­ter. Place it in the fridge overnight. The next day, re­move it from the liq­uid, rinse it off and pat it dry with pa­per tow­els. Place in a roast­ing pan and rub a lit­tle but­ter on the skin. Roast at 350 de­grees and time it ac­cord­ing to its weight on the chart.

Flavour in­ject­ing: We Tri­nis can get very cre­ative with this, but the key to a good in­jec­tion liq­uid is to avoid the solids that could clog up your nee­dle. So no chunks of gar­lic or pep­per flakes, etc. Good things to look for are sea­soned oils, juices, vine­gars or fine­ly crushed spices, wines or beers. Even chick­en broth and soy sauce will work well here too.

BAK­ING/ ROAST­ING

Bak­ing times for your turkey will vary ac­cord­ing to if you're stuff­ing it or not. In gen­er­al you bake a turkey at 325°F to 350°F. Nev­er in­crease the heat; it's not go­ing to help it cook quick­er. You will get a dry, stringy bird for your trou­ble.

Cook­ing times (Un­stuffed Turkey)

4 to 8 pounds: 1 ½ to 3 ¼ hours

8 to 12 pounds: 2 ¾ to 3 hours

12 to 14 pounds: 3 to 3 ¾ hours

14 to 18 pounds: 3 ¾ to 4 ¼ hours

18 to 20 pounds: 4 ¼ to 4 ½ hours

20 to 24 pounds: 4 ½ to 5 hours

Cook­ing times (Stuffed Turkey)

8 to 12 pounds: 3 to 3 ½ hours

12 to 14 pounds: 3 ½ to 4 hours

14 to 18 pounds: 4 to 4 ¼ hours

18 to 20 pounds: 4 ¼ to 4 ¾ hours

20 to 24 pounds: 4 ¾ to 5 ¼ hours

CHECK­ING FOR DONE­NESS:

In ab­sence of a Meat Ther­mome­ter

Pierce the turkey with a fork in sev­er­al places; juices should be clear and with­out a trace of pink colour.

Us­ing a Meat Ther­mome­ter

Place the ther­mome­ter in the thick­est part of the thigh. It should be at 165 de­grees.

Re­mov­ing the Turkey from the oven

Once you re­move the turkey from the oven, tent it with alu­mini­um foil and al­low it to rest for 20 to 30 min­utes so the meat can firm up and hold the juices, mak­ing it eas­i­er to carve.