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Holiday Recipe Swap
TURKEY - BRINED & ROASTED From Karen Gibbs (Adapted from Alton Brown, Food Network)• 1 (14 to 16 pound) frozen young turkey For the brine: • 1 cup kosher salt • 1/2 cup light brown sugar • 1 gallon vegetable stock • 1 tablespoon black peppercorns • 1/2 tablespoon allspice berries • 1/2 tablespoon candied ginger • 1 gallon iced water For the aromatics: • 1 red apple, sliced • 1/2 onion, sliced • 1 cinnamon stick • 1 cup water • 4 sprigs rosemary • 6 leaves sage • Canola oil Combine all brine ingredients, except ice water, in a stockpot, and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve solids, then remove from heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled. Early on the day of cooking, (or late the night before) combine the brine and ice water in a clean 5-gallon bucket. Place thawed turkey breast side down in brine, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area (like a basement) for 6 hours. Turn turkey over once, half way through brining. A few minutes before roasting, heat oven to 500 degrees. Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Remove bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard brine. Place bird on roasting rack inside wide, low pan and pat dry with paper towels. Add steeped aromatics to cavity along with rosemary and sage. Tuck back wings and coat whole bird liberally with canola (or other neutral) oil. Roast on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F. for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cover breast with double layer of aluminum foil, insert probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and return to oven, reducing temperature to 350 degrees F. Set thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let turkey rest, loosely covered for 15 minutes before carving. RUM BALLS From Virna Gonzalez
The perfect adult indulgence for your holiday dessert menu. There are a few ways to make these morsels and you can adjust the recipe to your liking. I prefer lightly toasted pecans for this dish but you can use chopped hazelnuts, walnuts or almonds. Another option is substituting rum for bourbon. Cooking instructions: To toast nuts: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and have rack in center of oven. Place the pecans on a baking sheet and toast for about 8 minutes, or until lightly browned and fragrant. Let cool completely and then either chop up finely with a knife or place in your food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Transfer to a large bowl. Process the vanilla wafer cookies or shortbread cookies in the food processor until finely ground. Add the crumbs to the finely chopped pecans. To this mixture add the confectioners sugar and cocoa powder and stir until combined. Add the corn syrup and rum and mix well. Chill in the fridge for a half hour then shape into 1 inch (2.54 cm) balls. Place the sifted confectioners sugar into a small bowl and roll the rum balls in the sugar or your choice of garnish. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. These are best if made several days in advance of serving to allow the flavors to mingle. Serve at room temperature. Makes about 4 dozen (48 rum balls). |
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