Tabby's Kitchen: Throwback Thanksgiving Meal

Well, it's Thanksgiving week and I'm sure most people are as excited as me about all the yummy food and company of loved ones. This is going to be a special Thanksgiving for me since I will be meeting my boyfriend's family for the first time! Unfortunately, I will not be doing any cooking, but I sure will be doing a lot of eating! Not cooking is making me reminisce about 2011…when I made a giant Thanksgiving feast for me and my roommate at the time…just because I wanted to cook. I even printed out my menu. So here it is…my Thanksgiving Throwback to 2011, complete with the menu!

Appetizer – Tuna Tartare

5 oz sushi quality tuna
1 avocado
Wonton wrappers
2 tbsp Soy Ginger Sesame Sauce
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Coat mini-muffin pans with cooking spray. Place 1 wonton wrapper in each cup and shape to muffin pan to make a cup. Bake until they are golden brown, about 5-6 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.

Chop tuna into very small cubes or pieces, put in medium size bowl. Slice up the avocado to small size, similar to tuna, and add to bowl with tuna. Add Soy ginger Sesame Sauce and stir well. Chill until ready to serve. Since this doesn’t take long, I suggest preparing it no earlier than an hour before serving, since you are dealing with raw fish. When ready to serve, spoon into wonton cups and enjoy!

Turkey Roasted with Butter and Champagne

Turkey – average cooking time is about 13 minutes per pound.
Salt & Pepper
Garlic Powder
Minced garlic
Butter
Bottle of Champagne
2-3 celery stalks – cut in 2 inch lengths
5 pearl onions
1 apple – if needed, cut to fit in turkey cavity
Rosemary

You can brine your turkey overnight before you cook it…I did, but I can’t remember what I used. I will update if I do remember.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees and put rack at the lowest level to make room for your bird.

Place roasting bag in roasting pan and carefully place turkey inside. Be careful not to puncture the bag to keep all the juices and champagne inside while cooking.

Separate the breast and skin and insert pads of butter in between – do as much as you can or want to, makes for moist breast!

Stuff the inside of the empty cavity (make sure you remove the giblets) with the rosemary, apple, celery, pearl onions…put as much as you can.

Pour champagne all over your turkey, inside the bag. Soften some butter and massage butter all over the outside of the turkey.

In a small bowl, mix together salt and pepper, garlic powder and any other spices you want to use. Massage all over buttered turkey along with minced garlic.

Loosely twist the bag opening and loosely knot or fold over. You want it to close off, but you need to be able to get in and out of it as you cook to baste the turkey.

Roast at 500 degrees for about 30 minutes. Remove from heat and reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees. Open the bag and baste with the juices at the bottom. Take your time and get everything. Close up the bag again and return to the oven. Baste every 45 minutes. Your last baste, baste with melted butter or oil to crisp up the skin and you can leave the bag open, if it looks like it needs to get some color, but you will want to do this when it’s almost done so you don’t dry out your turkey. You want to make sure your bird is a least 165 degrees, and you check in the breast, outer thigh and inner thigh areas. If they’re not all at 165 degrees, continue cooking.

While it wasn't a part of this meal, it is relevant to the subject of Thanksgiving. Click for my Turducken/Cornturduck blog post as an alternative to your regular turkey.

Coming Soon:

Cheesy Garlic Mashed Potatoes