A Recipe For Thanksgiving: Maple Bourbon Glazed Turkey with Local Bacon and Dried Cherry Stuffing

This recipe was a special creation for The Asheville Citizen Times which appeared in print last week alongside my article on giving thanks for locally raised turkeys. For those of you still deciding on how to roast your Thanksgiving bird, consider the following. The maple bourbon glaze candied the turkey's skin, creating a crunchy, sweet crust, outside perfectly juicy meat. A tart bite from cherries with salty local bacon made for a perfect stuffing to dress it with. This recipe may become a new tradition at our place. Thank you to The Asheville Citizen Times and to East Fork Farm for inspiring this year's holiday table. And a heartfelt thanks to you for reading!

Maple Bourbon Glazed East Fork Farm Turkey with Local Bacon and Dried Cherry  Stuffing:

Local Bacon and Dried Cherry Stuffing:

*1lb Hickory Nut Gap Farm Bacon

*2/3 cup dried cherries

*1 large loaf sourdough or traditional French bread (about 1lb)

*1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

*1 garlic glove, minced

*sea salt 

*black pepper

*5 tablespoons butter

*1 medium onion, finely chopped

*2 large celery stalks, finely chopped

*1 small green bell pepper, finely chopped

*1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

*1 1/2 cups hot chicken broth

*1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. 

Line a baking sheet with parchment. Arrange bacon on baking sheet and bake until crispy, about 10-15 minutes. Transfer to paper towels and set aside.

Place cherries in a bowl and cover with boiling water for 15 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Remove crust from bottom and ends of bread loaf and discard. Cut bread into 1 inch cubes and place in a large mixing bowl. Add garlic and olive oil. Toss. 

Spread out on a rimmed baking sheet and sprinkle with sea salt and black pepper. Bake until slightly crunchy, stirring often, about 20 minutes. 

Remove from oven and return to the same mixing bowl.

Place a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add butter. Saute onion, celery and green pepper until soft, about 8 minutes. Add to bread mixture. Stir in chopped bacon, cherries, broth, parsley and pecans. 

Set aside for stuffing the turkey. 

Maple Bourbon Glazed East Fork Farm Turkey:

*1 local pastured turkey, rinsed, giblets removed, and patted dry

*local bacon and dried cherry stuffing (see recipe)

*4 tablespoons butter

*2 cups chicken broth

*sea salt

*black pepper

*1 1/2 cups maple syrup

*1/2 cup bourbon

Preheat oven to 425. 

Place turkey in a large roasting pan fitted with a rack. Stuff chest cavity with local bacon and dried cherry stuffing. Tie drumsticks together with kitchen twine.

Pat turkey dry with paper towels. Smear with butter and liberally season with sea salt and black pepper. Add broth to bottom of roasting pan.

Place turkey on bottom rack of oven and roast for 30 minutes before reducing heat to 350. Roast for 45 minutes. Baste with pan liquid and loosely cover turkey with foil. Baste after 35 minutes, adding more liquid to pan if needed. 

Bring maple syrup and bourbon to a gentle boil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Reduce heat and simmer until liquid is reduced to about 1 cup. Set aside. 

Begin brushing turkey with glaze every 30 minutes within the last hour and a half of roasting. You should brush with glaze at least 3 times before turkey is done. Reheat glaze as needed if it becomes too thick.

Once a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh reads 165 degrees, remove from oven. Stuffing must also reach 165 degrees. Brush turkey one final time with glaze, reserving at least 1 tablespoon for gravy.

Allow turkey to rest for at least 10 minutes before transferring to a platter. Let it rest for an additional 35 minutes before carving. 

Meanwhile, make gravy from drippings

Maple Bourbon Gravy:

Transfer turkey drippings to a saucepan, adding 2 1/2 cups stock (made from giblets) and about 1 tablespoon remaining glaze. Bring to a simmer. Add 1/4 cup flour to 1/2 cup cool water in a small mixing bowl and whisk with a fork until completely dissolved. Slowly whisk flour mixture into drippings and simmer until thickened. Pour through a strainer into a serving vessel and serve immediately. 

Gather, give thanks, and enjoy!

A Simple Method for Extracting Pomegranate Seeds

Fruit takes on a special appeal this time of year. Abundant throughout the growing season, cooler weather now limits us to only a handful of seasonal options. Pomegranates, with their little seeds surrounded by sweet, jewel-like fruit happens to be a personal favorite, arriving on the scene just in time to appear on the holiday table. Though the task of plucking each ruby seed from a web of fine, papery skin puts a damper on the fun. This tutorial from the Gourmet test kitchen (while it still existed) is a total game changer. I have been using this method for extracting pomegranate seeds with 100% success. The discovery was so exciting, I thought I would share it here. Enjoy!

Pulled Turkey Thighs with Maple Ginger Soy Reduction

The combination of hot, salty, sour and sweet is greatly recognized in Asian cooking. Together, these flavors celebrate the palate's often unexercised spectrum. Slow cooked, local turkey thighs, tenderly pulled from the bone, offer the perfect canvas for this sweet and salty sauce, spiked with fresh grated ginger and garlic.

Pulled Turkey Thighs with Maple Ginger Soy Reduction:
*2-4 large pastured turkey thighs
*1 onion, sliced
*sea salt
*black pepper
*1/2 cup high quality tamari
*1/4 cup maple syrup
*1 tablespoon stone ground mustard
*2 garlic cloves, minced
*1 1/2 teaspoons fresh grated ginger

Rinse turkey thighs. Place in a slow cooker or heavy braising dish fitted with a lid. Cover thighs with cool water. Add onion. Season with sea salt and black pepper. Bring to a simmer before reducing heat to low. Slow cook for about 3 hours or until meat is ultra tender.
Meanwhile, prepare the sauce:
In a medium saucepan, bring tamari and maple syrup to a boil. Reduce heat to low. Add mustard, garlic and ginger. Gently simmer until reduced by half, and liquid coats the back of a spoon.
Remove turkey thighs from pot with a large slotted spoon. Discard skin. Pull meat from bones and transfer to a bowl.
Sauce will be rather salty until incorporated into meat. Sprinkle a small amount of reduction over meat, tasting often before adding more. Serve with Asian greens and rice, or on a soft bun with slaw.

Snacks For Wee Ones: Mini Quiche

As kids and toddlers dutifully adhere to an agenda of perpetual growth, the egg offers a solution to the snack-food dilemma. Baked into mini, crustless-quiches, the benefits of eggs translate into easily portable, on-the-go snacks, nutritionally impressive and proportionate to little hands. Packed with highly bioavailable fat-soluble antioxidants (say that ten times fast), protein, all eight essential amino acids, good cholesterol and choline (required for proper brain development), omega 3 fatty acids, vitamins A, K, E, D and B-complex, eggs also offer a healthy dose of essential minerals such as iron, calcium, phosphorus, and potassium. These properties have been shown to combat skin damage from the sun, reduce the risk of certain cancers, protect vision, and reduce high cholesterol. It's no wonder eggs have been called The Maker's perfect food. This recipe takes about as much active time as scrambling some eggs, making these mini-quiches the perfect snack.

Mini Quiche: (amounts can be approximate, play around with ingredients and fillings)
*5-6 pastured eggs
*2 cups high quality milk or cream (raw if available)
*1/2 cup (or more) shredded cheddar
*sea salt and black pepper to taste
*1/2 cup chopped spinach (if frozen, thaw and squeeze excess water before adding to recipe)
*basil and or parsley, chopped fine

Preheat oven to 375. Generously grease 2 mini muffin trays with butter or olive oil. Whisk eggs in a medium mixing bowl. Add remaining ingredients. Transfer mixture to a liquid measuring cup. Pour into individual muffin tins, filling 3/4 full. Bake on center rack of oven until tops are golden, about 15 minutes.
Cool completely. Run a knife around the perimeter of each muffin tin before releasing from mold. Store in an airtight container and refrigerate.

A Trader's Creed:

The first trade:
Dust for flesh.
A rib bone
for a companion.
Forbidden fruit
for holiness lost,
knowledge gained.

Flesh with flesh,
new life.
Seed to soil,
provision.
Sprouts to wheat.

Toil for harvest,
bread.

Blooms for pollen.

Bees for honey.

Bread for breaking.

Wood for carving.

Table.

Moon rise

for sun up.

Winter for rest.

Frost for dew.

Spring for planting.

Youth for age.

Long stories told,

for memory's keeping.

Children running.

Chickens scratching.

Old bones rattling.

Birth for death.

Close the door.

Summon a chair.

Sit.

Tell.

Listen.

Laugh.

Cry.

Eat.

Flesh for dust.

Rain for earth.

There is holiness still.

Beholden.

Revolutions Are Not Pasteurized

Standing in the grocery store recently, I took a moment to closely read the labels on all the tinned seafood displayed in neat little rows: oysters, clams, crab, sardines. Every single one of them, a product of China. And every single one of them, a food source native to the US. Even in my health food store, dehydrated packaged apples (another product abundant in this country) come from China.
China is stocking American shelves with pet food to the clothing upon our backs to the food we eat, and we are placing these items in our carts and bringing them home to our families. We then turn around and shout for reform.
As our nation stands neck deep in health and financial turmoil, we now find ourselves literally feasting on a large piece of its demise. Goods have long since come from China, but our once sacred dinner table now seats an uninvited guest.
As the 2012 elections draw near, I cannot help but cringe at this gigantic disconnect between what we buy and what we value.
We want better health care, but do not value our health. We want cheaper fuel, but refuse the idea of public transport. We bicker about jobs, but will not spend more on American-Made. We spend heaps of our precious annual income on weight-loss efforts, but sneer at the prospect of buying local food due to its price tag.
Few would argue that the government is not a broken system. But few of us want to see the other driving force behind today's issues: Us. We. The people.
Our habits are kicking our ass.
Change may be as simple as resisting the urge to verbalize our frustrations at every turn, picking political fights within our respective communities, and instead putting our buck where our mouth is.
What would happen if we took the money we spend on reality TV and put it toward reality?
What if we down graded our smart phones for something more basic, and spent more on quality food?
What if the energy we spend arguing our political differences was spent on being patriotic?
What if we didn't buy what they put before us?
What if we broke the law and drank raw milk?
What if we say enough is enough?
What if we quit complaining and started doing?
What if we didn't wait around for change?
What if this country was American again?
What if we mobilized?
What would happen if we were to rise up and take back what was once ours?

Homemade Bone Broth 101 And A Recipe for Chicken Soup

Few dishes rejuvenate quite like chicken soup. I attribute this to a good broth. As with any dish, especially those with few ingredients, the final product is only as good as each of its components. According to folk lure, a well made bone broth should "bring one back from the dead." I have seen this principal in action, mostly this time of year when school is back in session and the social petri dish is thriving.

Broth is healing for many reasons, but mainly due to its structure. Proteins are already broken down into easily absorbed amino acids, giving the body a break from this process of digestion. Gelatin from bones is also released into the simmer liquid, an excellent anti-inflammatory and gut healing property. Important trace minerals are part of a good broth as well, making this an overall highly nutritive base for any meal, in addition to its incredible depth of flavor. Any good soup or sauce leans heavily on a well prepared broth. The difference between homemade versions and store bought (other than the obvious) is in the bones. Manufactures of boxed versions rely on hydrolyzed fats and proteins to create flavor instead of extracting it from real bones, slowly simmered with care.
For the record, broth is a substance made from simmered bones, vegetables, water and meat, whereas stock is slightly more crude, utilizing only water, possibly vegetables and bones minus the meat. A broth or a stock however must always contain bones.
As modern mealtime has been shaped to satisfy busy lifestyles, bones have nearly been swept from the dinner table. The majority of meat cuts sold today are boneless and skinless for convenience sake. This is a shame, since bones are the secret weapon to prideful home cooks and chefs seeking flavorful dishes. Without bones, we forfeit the nutritive benefits as well.
By seeking bone-in cuts from your local farmer or butcher, you not only waste less, but gain more for your money. After you have enjoyed the meat, the bones can then simmer in the stock pot to create the base for your next meal. If broth making seems daunting, you can relax. The stove nearly does all the work. Here are the steps for an excellent chicken broth. Once you are familiar with the process, experiment with fish bones and heads, and bones from larger animals like lamb and beef. You can brown bones from larger animals in the oven prior to broth making for increased flavor and gorgeous color.

Homemade Chicken Broth 101:
*Purchase a whole, pastured chicken. Roast it and enjoy.
*Pick off the majority of the meat and skin.
*Place entire carcass in a large soup pot and cover bones with cool water.
*Add a couple celery stalks, half an onion and a few garlic cloves (optional)
*Add a splash or white wine, lemon juice or white vinegar (the acidity will help pull gelatin and minerals from the bones).
*Place pot over moderately low heat and slowly bring to a simmer. If you bring liquid up to temperature too quickly, it will cause the proteins to become suspended in the cooking liquid resulting in a cloudy broth.
*Once heat bubbles rise to the surface with some consistency, lower heat to lowest setting.
*Allow to simmer a full day or overnight.
*Skim any foam which rises to the top of the cooking liquid.
*Season to taste with sea salt
*Strain contents into a large bowl and chill.
*Skim fat from top (optional)

Broth can then be stored in freezer safe containers our used immediately for soups, sauces and cooking liquid.

A Recipe for Chicken Soup: (you choose the proportions)
*homemade chicken broth
*onion, chopped
*garlic, minced
*carrots, chopped
*celery, chopped
*leftover chicken meat
*sea salt
*fresh ground black pepper
*cooked rice or noodles (optional)
*flat leaf parsley, stems removed, chopped

The key to a good chicken soup is to keep it simple.
Place a large soup pot over medium heat. Coat with olive oil or butter. Add onions. Once fragrant, add garlic, carrots, and celery. Saute until softened. Add chicken meat. Season with sea salt and pepper. Pour as much broth as you deem necessary. Reduce heat to low and simmer until all vegetables are tender. Season broth to taste. Remove from heat. Add cooked rice or noodles and chopped parsley.
Divide into bowls and enjoy.