Sasha's Kitchen: Maple Glazed Thanksgiving Turkey with Oranges, Paired with Wagner Vineyards Riesling

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. This year, my family came in from Rochester for Thanksgiving and Brad and I hosted, which meant quite a bit of holiday cooking. It was such a nice meal, and everything turned out great, just the way I had hoped. There is so much to be thankful for - my family, my wonderful husband, our health and all the things we have. Sometimes it is so easy to just think about the things we want and don't have more often, but there has to be a balance between the two. At any rate, this year, we made quite a few recipes for Thanksgiving - some new recipes and some old favorites. I look forward to sharing them here over the next week or so.

For the turkey, I decided to do an orange-maple flavored turkey, which seemed perfect for the season. Of course, and not surprisingly, they key to an amazing turkey, the centerpiece of Thanksgiving, is the quality of the bird you start with. Our turkey was a free-range, organic turkey from Plainville Farms, which might just be the best turkey I have ever had. When cooked properly, it is succulent, juicy and just perfect. You can order these delicious, organic turkeys from Fresh Direct.

We paired the Turkey with Wagner Vineyards' semi dry Riesling, a light, refreshing citrus infused wine, that was more citrus than sweet and an excellent table wine. We also noticed hints of pear and peach.

Sasha's Orange-Maple Roast Turkey
1 12-14 lb organic turkey
sea salt and pepper
paprika
two oranges
1 onion
fresh thyme
fresh oregano
1 stalk of celery
bay leaf
fresh tarragon
6 T of butter
1 cup of orange juice
1/3 cup of Vermont maple syrup
1 T of fresh grated ginger

Gravy
2/3 cup Riesling (I used Wagner Vineyards' Semi Dry Riesling, which I received in a generous shipment several months ago with several bottles of their other wonderful wines)
3 cups of turkey stock
3 T flour
1 T canola oil
1 T butter

Heat the oven to 425 and wash the turkey inside and out with cold water. Pat dry with paper towels and empty the body cavity. Keep the various turkey parts from the body cavity, and put in a pot to make the turkey stock. Add three cups of water, a stalk of celery, a dice onion, a couple carrots and some herbs to the stock solution (tarragon, thyme, a bay leaf and oregano). Bring the pot to a boil and allow to simmer for about two hours on low until you can strain the vegetables and turkey parts and keep the stock.

In the meantime, fill the cavity of the turkey with the two oranges, chopped celery, quartered onion, and fresh bay leaf, thyme, oregano and tarragon. This should be bulging out of the turkey cavity. Generously season the bird with sea salt (which is much healthier than regular salt) and pepper. Rub the turkey with paprika as well, to season. Set the bird in a roasting pan. Cover with a double layer of cheesecloth. Melt two tablespoons of butter and combine with 1/3 of a cup of orange juice. If you prefer, you can based with canola oil instead, but I recommend butter. Use the butter/orange juice solution to baste the turkey with a baster.  You can add a bit of water to the bottom of the roasting pan after you baste the turkey. Roast for 30 minutes. Then, take the turkey out and rebaste with another 2 T of melted butter combined with 1/3 cup of orange juice.  Lower the heat to 350, and loosely cover with a piece of aluminum foil. Roast for thirty minutes more and rebaste. Continue roasting at 350 for approximately three hours, basing periodically (about twice) during the interim. The turkey should be done after about three hours, when a mean thermometer registers 170 degrees in the breast and 180 degrees in the leg.

Heat 1 T of grated ginger in a pot with the maple syrup over medium heat until combined.  Glaze the turkey with this solution using a pastry brush, and allow to sit for about 20 minutes until you carve the turkey.

To make the gravy, combine the flour with a tablespoon of canola oil. Add to the three cups of turkey stock that you prepared and heat for about five minutes over medium heat. Add the Riesling and cook until reduced by half, and longer until the gravy thickens. Season with a bit of pepper.

Carve the turkey using an electric knife, and serve with the gravy and plenty of delicious side dishes (recipes soon!). Yum!

Sasha's Kitchen: Maple Glazed Thanksgiving Turkey with Oranges, Paired with Wagner Vineyards Riesling

Sasha's Kitchen: How To Roast A Rack Of Lamb (New Years Eve Dinner)

The main course of our New Years Eve dinner last night was a herb crusted rack of lamb. I had actually never prepared a rack of lamb, even though lamb chops are one of my favorite foods, because they are also generally on the expensive side. However, that makes New Years (or any holiday) the perfect occasion for preparing such a dish. I purchased a 3 pound  rack of lamb for about $40 at M&S Prime Meats (a wonderful Italian Market and butcher) here in Park Slope.


I found an online recipe that was surprisingly simple from the now-deceased Gourmet Magazine online at Epicurious. The original recipe can be found here.  I made some changes that are below for the final recipe that I adapted.

Here is the recipe that I prepared – I used a lot more herbs than the original recipe called for, which was absolutely delicious.

Two 1 ½ pounds racks of lamb, trimmed to only one layer of fat (I used regular chops, not french chops)
1 ½ tsp salt
¾ tsp pepper
1 tsp canola oil

Herbs
3 cloves of garlic, diced
¼ cup parsley, diced
3 T chopped fresh thyme
3 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
3 ½ T pepper
1 ½ T canola oil

To prepare the racks of lamb, heat a Dutch oven with oil for two minutes. Rub the meat with the salt and pepper, and sear on all sides, about 5 minutes.

Transfer to a roasting pan and coat with the herb mixture. Coat well and densely, pressing so that the herbs adhere to the meat on all sides.

We cooked the meat on convection roast setting for about 40 minutes at 350 until it was tender and slightly pink. After about 30 minutes, cover the meat with aluminum foil for the duration of the cooking process. However, this process will vary depending on the oven you use, and the size and shape of the rack of lamb. Cut each rack into chops and serve.  In my case, we had 6 chops (3 each) which was plenty.  These are single chops which are a bit harder to cut into chops and not as "pretty" looking as french double chops, which we will use next time.

Our pug, Dakota (who normally does not beg for food unless it is one of her favorites) went crazy for this – she really wanted a bite! After dinner she ran round the apartment looking under the table to see if there was just one morsel left. We did save a tiny bite for her New Years Eve treat.  Preparing a rack of lamb may be a bit pricey, but is actually quite simple and not a lengthy process like braising meat.  Happy New Years!

Sasha's Kitchen: How To Roast A Rack Of Lamb (New Years Eve Dinner)