I got out of bed on Thursday, Thanksgiving Day morning, when
I heard people stirring (I was reading).
I got a cup of coffee and we all eased into the day.
We discussed dinner times and eventually began to cook! First
thing was a bone-in, skin-on turkey breast, that had been sitting in the fridge
overnight. I had smeared it the night before with a simple wet rub Carla made
from olive oil, minced garlic and chopped rosemary, sage and thyme. Carla added
a little of her homemade turkey stock to the pan, just so the bottom wouldn’t
burn. That went into the oven to bake, first at 400 degrees (to crisp the skin)
and then 350 to cook.
Note: that was NOT going to be part of the Thanksgiving
dinner, I should add. This is only for turkey sandwiches, later on. Jake and Carla were busy with other things, so
I checked and pulled it when the internal temperature reached 165. I set it
aside to cool.
Dinner today was designed to be a riff on the traditional
Thanksgiving Day meal. It will consist of a Turkey burger, cranberry ketchup
and Napa cabbage slaw on a French bun with hand-cut shoestring fries and turkey
gravy dipping sauce. Dessert will be a pumpkin-buttermilk pie with homemade
whipped cream.
Anyway, then we got down to it! As I said, most of the prep
had been done the day before. So, I cleaned and quartered exactly three ounces
of button mushrooms that Jake pulsed in the food processor.
I cut up sage and stripped thyme leaves as Carla added
chicken stock to unflavored gelatin.
Sidebar: I cannot give you exact measurements here, as I was
too busy to pay attention. But it’s an America’s Test Kitchen recipe, if you
want to look it up.
Meanwhile, Jake pulsed frozen chunks of turkey thighs. They
had taken off the skin and deboned it yesterday, then frozen them. When they
reached the consistence of ground turkey, Jake removed 1/3 cup of the meat.
That was mixed with the chicken stock and now-gelled gelatin. The herbs were
mixed in olive oil and everything except the mushrooms were pulsed a few times
more. Jake then took the mixture and incorporated the mushrooms by hand. He
formed that into three big patties that went into the fridge to harden.
Sidebar: Now one might ask (I did) why not just go buy a
pound of ground turkey? According to America’s Test Kitchen (and as one who ate
a lot of ground turkey back in the day, I can attest to) , ground turkey fried is much drier
than ground beef. So, to mimic the texture and juiciness of a beef burger, both the
mushrooms and the gelatin mix helps retain the water.
Carla and I made turkey gravy from her homemade turkey
stock, some A/P flour and salt and pepper. We all had to taste-test as Jake and
I both prefer a lot of pepper, while Carla and I prefer more salt. But we
finally struck a happy medium.
While they were hardening in the fridge, Jake heated up
canola oil in the Dutch oven. I drained the shoestring potatoes that Jake cut
yesterday on the mandolin and stored in water and then dried them as best I could between two
kitchen towels.
Meanwhile, Carla, who had sliced the Napa cabbage yesterday,
salted it and let it drain overnight, made the coleslaw dressing. She
deliberately did not add vinegar to it, since the cranberry ketchup is quite
acidic on its own.
Note, they had made the cranberry ketchup before I arrived.
It consisted of fresh cranberries, allspice, Worchester sauce, soy sauce,
pepper and brown sugar. That was put into the food processor and then strained.
Jake and I began frying the French fries as Carla fried the
turkey burgers. We had a lot of potatoes, so it took quite a few batches.
Jake toasted the French bread buns and Carla began to plate.
The gravy went into little metal ramekins. The sandwich was the bottom bun,
cranberry ketchup, the turkey burger, the slaw and the top bun.
Dinner was paired with a very nice Sauvignon Blanc.
Everything was fantastic! The turkey burger was tart from
the ketchup and crunchy from the coleslaw and seriously excellent. And, the
shoestring French fries, dipped in turkey gravy? Oh my God!!!
We were all stuffed, so dessert had to wait. But, of course,
eventually we rallied. Carla whipped some whipping cream and Jake plated the
pie with a dab on each piece. They made the pie before I came as well, so I
can’t tell you ingredients. But I know it was pumpkin pie made with buttermilk.
The buttermilk added a tang, and somehow made it a lot less “filling” than a regular
pumpkin pie. Perfect.
We watched three Netflix movies: The Sightseers (an unusual British
film), Nebraska (with Bruce Dern and great – I heartily recommend this one) and
Vhs2 (too scary for me).
Somewhere in the middle of all of this, we made turkey sandwiches
and ate them with pickles and chips. The turkey was nicely seasoned and very moist. Outstanding!
I gave up on the scary movie and went to bed around 9:30
p.m. I read for a little bit and then it was lights out.