I ended up making a Butter Roast Turkey with fresh Thyme, onion, garlic, with homemade turkey gravy.
Picked up a 12 pound turkey from the local market and allowed it to thaw in the refrigerator for 3 days. (1 day per 4 pounds of turkey).
On the day of prep, I opened up the turkey and removed the gizzards and excess fat and patted the bird dry.
Added to the Turkey Cavity:
- Quartered Onion
- 3 or 4 cloves of garlic (paper on)
- Fresh Thyme (2 or 3 sprigs)
- Kosher Salt (course grain)
- Fresh Black Pepper
I melted down a 1/4 pound stick of butter and brushed the melted butter all over the turkey and lightly salt and peppered the bird. I originally tried a family glaze that included salt, pepper, sugar, and cooking wine (Hess Red Wine) but I did not like the consistency of the solution as well as the taste. Maybe I bought the wrong wine for the mixture. I think a light white wine would be better next time.
After seasoning the bird, I chopped up carrots and celery into 1-inch pieces and placed them into the roasting pan along with some more garlic. I put a little bit of olive oil into the base of the pan as well. I tied the legs together of the turkey and placed it upside down on the roasting rack. I never knew this was possible, but I went this way after taking a suggestion from my mother.
I preheated the oven at 350 and covered the turkey with a "tent" of Aluminum foil and let it cook for 2 hours and 30 minutes. After removing it, I flipped it right side up and cooked it for 20 minutes uncovered so that the skin would become crispy. After taking it out of the oven, I tented it and let it finish cooking until my thermometer read 170 degrees. (Actually removed it when it indicated 160).
Gravy
- Turkey Fat drippings
- 1.75 cup Chicken Broth
- 0.25 cup Red-wine (Cabernet or Merlot)
- 3/4 cup All-purpose (unbleached) Flour
I strained out all the turkey parts, carrots and celery out of the of pan, and allowed the fat to separate from the broth (I don't have one of those fancy fat separator things). I placed the roasting pan on medium heat, and added approximately 2 or 3 tablespoons of fat from the bird into the pan and added 1/4 cup of Flour.
[Whisk]
I found that the flour and fat clumped a bit... meaning either a) I didn't put enough fat into the pan for the amount of flour, or b) the heat was too high.
No harm done, I added the chicken broth and red wine, increased the heat a bit until it was steaming and then whisked the crap out of it until the clumps were gone and the gravy thickened up. (Apparently some sort of cross-linking reaction between the flour and fat thickens up the gravy).
I tasted the gravy and added water/flour to taste so that the solution wouldn't be too salty. It turned out very well, and I added some more fresh Thyme to the gravy to give it more flavor.
Terriyaki Marinated Tri-Tip
Materials
- 6 pieces of Rib-eye (gotta love Costco)
- Yoshino's Terriyaki/Cooking sauce
- 5 cloves of Garlic
- 1 onion (sliced into 2 inch pieces)
- Soy Sauce
- Salt (to taste)
- Pepper (to taste)
- Sugar (to taste)
- Steak Sauce (optional)
Procedures
- Cut up the onions, garlic and place into roasting pan, approximately 12"x20" in size to adequately accommodate the meat.
- Prepare the Marinade by mixing in a 1.5:1.0 ratio of Terriyaki Sauce to Water. Mix adequately and add approximately 2 teaspoons of salt and pepper, in addition to maybe 2 or 3 teaspoons of sugar.
- Salt and Pepper the meat, and add a little big of olive oil to lock in spices. (You can also put whole cloves of garlic into the meat. Make sure you cut with the grain of the meat).
- Place the meat into the marinade (Shouldn't be completely submerged).
- Cover and allow to marinade for atleast 1 hour each side, in this case, I allowed it to marinated 8 hours per side).
- When ready to cook, simply uncover, and BAKE at 375 for approximately 30-45 minutes on each side. When the Marinade begins to start bubbling, you know you're at a good heat.
- Flip the meat over at the 40-45 minute marker and continue to cook the other side at the same heat.
- Take the meat out and allow it to rest on a plate (covered in foil) for about an additional 15 minutes. It should be about rare when you take it out but the meat will continue to cook to a nice medium rare.
- Slice and serve!
So that was it. I had a nice juicy turkey (that I still need to learn how to carve), and home made gravy served on the side. The tri-tip was devoured in literally 5-10 minutes. I messed up the ratio for this batch, and ideally I would love to grill it, but no worries. It was enjoyed. It was a really fun experience, total cook time was approximately 3.5 hours for the turkey, and 2 hours for the tri-tip. 5.5-6 hours start to finish.
Next up: Asian cuisine!
-Until next time,
Hammie
