A holiday turkey is one of those dishes where you do it so infrequently that it’s hard to remember all the steps, even with a recipe, to turn that bird into a succulent meal.  As guests arrive, you’re nervously looking at the temperature- is it behind or ahead of schedule?  If underdone, you risk sending your family home with a stomach-ache… if overdone, then it’s a tough, dry and your mouth feels like you’ve eaten sawdust.  What if the breast is done, but the thighs are 20 degrees behind?  What about the gravy?!  What if the white meat is still pink?!

Yep, been there, done that.  And with that, there’s (hopefully) experience gained.  So here’s how I do the Turkey and gravy now…

1. Turkey- a frozen turkey will take about 4 days to thaw in the fridge, but I like to put it into an ice bath to thaw more quickly.  Once it’s thawed, I take out the neck and giblets and make a turkey stock.
2. Brine.  1 cup of kosher salt to a gallon of boiling vegetable stock.  Add in some peppercorns, brown sugar, and spices as you see fit.
3. Let the brine cool down to room temp, then in a large stock pot (or bucket, cooler) pour in the brine, add turkey, and another gallon of ice water.  I’ll top it off with ice so the brine covers bird.  I usually let the bird sit in the brine overnight.
4. Aromatics- in a glass bowl, I’ll put in a quartered apple, 1/2 onion, and a cup of water.  Microwave for 5 minutes.
5. Bird prep- pull bird out of the brine and rinse off.  pat dry and cover with butter or canola oil.  Place in roasting pan (the ones with a pull out rack works great!) breast side DOWN.  stuff in the aromatics.
6. Pre-heat oven to 500 and put big bird in for 30 minutes.  Then drop temp down to 350.
7. After an hour, pull bird out of over (be quick so that you don’t lose too much heat) then flip bird over so the breast side is UP.  The reason is to get the thighs and drumsticks a head start as they take a bit longer to cook.  Insert thermometers- one into the deepest part of the thigh, and another into the deepest part of the breast.
8. Overall, the bird is done when it’s 165, but this means no bacteria can survive even for a second at this temperature… but if the temperature is at 150 for 3 minutes, it will have the same effect on bacteria.  So, watch the breast and thigh temperature.  When the breast hits 150, and if the thigh is over 165 (170-180 is ok since the dark meat can handle the higher temp, and in fact, might be more pull apart from the bone tender) then pull bird out, cover with foil and let it rest for at least 20-30 min.  It’s also great to have an instant read to check a few place in the breast and thigh to confirm the temperature.
9. Usually time is also a good guideline- 14 lb bird should take around 2-2.5 hours.  Apparently the brine reduces the cooking time, although I’ve never experimented with this.  The amount of aromatics might have an effect, so I never stuff cavity full.
10. Gravy- Once the bird is on the cutting board covered in foil (here is where the removable rack comes in handy), then the pan and drippings go back onto the burner.  I try to remove some of the fat from the drippings, but hey, it’s the holidays.  I’ll have about 2/3 cup of flour ready, and a few tablespoons of drippings back into the pan.  Turn on the heat, slowly add flour, and make the roux.  Whisk like crazy, and add in the rest of the drippings and the turkey stock until it’s smoooooth and a nice consistency- not too thick, not too runny.  Salt/pepper to taste, and if you really want to jazz it up, you can add in some red wine and finely chopped up turkey giblet.
11. Carve the bird, add in the mashed sweet potatoes, roasted vegetables, stuffing, gravy, cranberry, and rice to round out a nice meal!
12. Thanks to Alton Brown for the brine recipe, and a few other ideas from various blogs and recipes!

Addendum- One other thing to try is dry brine, so basically cover the bird, inside and out, with kosher salt/pepper/spices for 2-3 days.

What seems to be emerging as an annual family event is the crab boil… basically finding the largest stock pot- then buying a few crabs, corn, spot prawns, mussels, baby potatoes, clams, and sausages… spread a whack of newspaper over a picnic table to contain the impending mess, and have lots of napkins and bibs at the ready.

Seafood goes into the pot, and a few minutes later comes out onto the table where people devour food using their bare hands.  Concept is straightforward, but like everything, the attention to detail and timing is what makes for a great crab boil vs. chewing rubber.

1) Fill stock pot about halfway with water.  Toss in some sea salt and old bay seasoning.  Can add other seasoning as you like to flavor the water.  Bring it to a nice rolling boil.

2) The size of the pot and number of people will determine the amount you buy, but we found that 3 dungenous crabs, a few pounds of mussels, a few pounds of clams, and maybe a couple of pounds of prawns work out well for about 8 adults

3) buy a few pounds of baby potatoes. a pack or two of your favorite spicy sausage, and of course a few ears of corn.

4) toss in the potatoes and corn.  Grill part of the sausage on the BBQ, and toss the other part into the pot.

5) Make sure the seafood is nice and chilled beforehand.  This makes the crab docile and easier to handle.  There was a recent study about whether shellfish feel pain, and up to now, the thinking was that they did not.  Crabs and other shellfish have been put to death in countless ways- the cleaver method, the chopstick method, boiled alive- all of which doesn’t sound too humane.

For me, I’ve never had to kill a crab before, so I was contemplating how to best go about this.  I read that you can chill them down so they are docile, and then toss them into boiling water.  The shock will kill them “instantly”… so when the water was really boiling, I took them out of the cooler and into the pot they went.  Of course there was some thrashing, so I kept apologizing for those few seconds.  Crab should be boiled for about 7 min per pound, so if you have a bunch of 2 pound crabs, boil all of them for about 14 minutes.

6) Clams and mussels take about 4-5 minutes.  They may need some scrubbing beforehand.  Some recommend that you put them into cold salty water so they spit out any sand or ??  which means you don’t have to eat whatever they spat out.

7) Prawns are about 3-4 minutes for small/medium, 5-7 minutes for the big ones.  Of course, these are the live ones with head on.  Boy these things can kick around!

I kept a stop watch handy to keep track of everything.  The problem is when you toss something in, the water stops boiling and takes a few moments to come back to a boil.  For timing, you’re supposed to start the timer when the water comes back to a boil.  I didn’t, and the results seemed fine.

Anyways, time everything so that they are done at the same time.  If you want, you can immerse the crab in cold water to stop the cooking process, but I just let them sit on a plate for a few minutes to cool down.  I guess the extra time may have compensated for starting the timer when the crabs went in rather than when the water came back to a boil.

If there are any mussels/clams that failed to open, they get tossed.

Basically everything gets poured onto the biggest platters/bowls we have, along with a few extra bowls for shells, prawn heads, etc.

We try to buy the crabs with a missing limb, that way they are cheaper (anywhere from 4.99 to 6.99 per pound).  The prawns by far are the most expensive at around 22 per pound, but they sure are tasty!

Update- so with the crab, another way to time is by tossing them into rapidly boiling water, and pulling them out after 10 minutes.

What can I do with it?  It’s pouring rain so I don’t really want to fire up the BBQ or soak some cedar planks.

Here’s a recipe we got from ‘BC’s best salmon recipe’ book and have used it quite a few times with great results.

You make the BBQ sauce first, then pour it over the fillets and broil on high (top rack) 10 min per inch.

The sauce consists of:

• 2 TB melted butter (or more)
• 2 TB lemon juice
• 2 TB ketchup
• 1 TB Worcestershire sauce
• 2 TB minced onion
• 1TB brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp dry mustard
• 1 tsp salt

Pour the ingredients into a saucepan and heat until it starts to bubble.

The key is getting the cooking time right, and tucking parts of the filet so that the thickness is more uniform.  Time counts, an extra 45s can make a difference, so keep a fork ready to test if it is done.

crack some pepper and lemon juice over the fillets, and serve!

Baby back ribs, succulent and moist.  I remember the first time I made ribs.  I (shudder) boiled them for hours and did something with a roasting pan.  Needless to say, the method underperformed.

awhile back, I came across a very easy recipe that guarantees fab results.  Basically you create a dry rub using the following:

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp coarse salt
• 1 tbs garlic powder
• 1 tbs paprika
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

For the ribs, ideally you use baby back ribs, but I have used side ribs.  Remove the membrane from the ribs (I found using an oyster shucker works well for this) and rub the dry rub all over (the amount is enough for 2 full racks).  Wrap each rack in tin foil, ensuring the seams are tightly sealed.  I generally put it back into the fridge to allow the rub some time to do its magic.

When it comes time to cook, place the ribs in the oven or BBQ at 300F for about 2 to 2.5 hours, meaty side down.  Once done, carefully open up the foil and you should see nicely done ribs with the meat shrinking a bit from the ends of the bone.

Next, get a cup of BBQ sauce.  I like Cattleboys Original.  Brush on a good amount and place under the broiler until the sauce bubbles and has nicely melded with the ribs.  Portion the ribs then flip them over, cover with sauce and broil again.

When done, the ribs will be juicy (from being cooked in foil), tender, and favorful.  No boiling required.  The best part is that on sale, 2 racks are about $10, and it easily feeds 4 adults.

Yes, this seems like an odd topic to write about.  The story here is that it’s one of our main comfort foods… and my Mom isn’t here to make it for me.

So I went onto the internet just to see what exists in the way of recipes (I can hear my mom’s voice- “you don’t need a recipe, just use what you have!)

Yes Mom.

However there are variations and I like to see what other people are using.  Anyways, I think I’ve come up with a “base” recipe, to which you can use as a starting point and modify as needed.

So here goes, the secret unveiling to “Durwin’s fried rice”

• 3 cups of uncooked rice
• 4 chinese sausage
• 5 eggs
• lots of chopped green onions
• 1.5 cups of frozen peas (or mixed vegetables)
• cooked oil
• sesame oil
• Oyster sauce
• light soy sauce
• Tumeric
• Salt and Pepper

The rice is made first earlier in the day, and set in the fridge to chill.  Heat up the frying pan and put in 3 or 4 tablespoons  of “cooked oil” (Not sure what it is exactly, but we have a jug of Corn oil that’s been heated up and cooled).  Dump in the rice and give it a good stir.  While the rice is getting up to temperature, beat the eggs in a bowl and dump that into the pan, stirring to mix well.  When the egg solidifies and browns a bit, dump in the Chinese sausage (which will give the dish a nice saltiness) and maybe 2 tablespoons of sesame oil.  Sesame oil smells yummy when heated.  Next, sprinkle in maybe a teaspoon of Tumeric.  Not too much, so watch the amount carefully as a little goes a long way, and give everything a good mix.  Now add a teaspoon of Oyster sauce, a decent amount of pepper, a little bit of salt, and the frozen peas.  After about a minute of stirring, add the chopped green onions.   When everything gets nice and hot, add Soy sauce to taste.  Again, a little goes a long way so maybe just start with a teaspoon and add until you get the right salt content.

By this time, everything should be nicely mixed and the dish is nicely sizzzzzling!  Have a final taste, adjust the spices as needed, and enjoy!