Brined Roasted Turkey Breast

Before this year, I'd never brined a turkey before. The process, meant to infuse turkey with flavor and liquid certainly has its fans. Whole roasted turkeys tend to dry out from spending so long in the oven. Since I usually make turkey breasts, which have a shorter cooking time, I've never had a dryness problem. However, I was interested in how brining could improve the meat's flavor. I like turkey just fine, but it's never been my favorite part of the Thanksgiving dinner. Could brining change that?

I almost brined last year and chickened out, so to speak, opting instead for more traditional roasted turkey with herbs stuffed under the skin. Getting those herbs under there is a real pain and, while it adds some flavor to the overall dish, it doesn't really do much to flavor the turkey meat. For that, you need to brine.

I was concerned the process might make the meat too salty, but a recent talk by America's Test Kitchen guru Christopher Kimball addressed that issue while providing the best explanation I've ever heard for how and why brining works. His new Cook's Illustrated book, The Science of Good Cooking, explains how brining works by diffusing salt into the meat and, through osmosis, moving water through cell walls. There are some important warnings to heed: 1) don't brine a “self-basting“ or kosher turkey, 2) don't brine longer than recommended or the meat will be too salty and 3) don't use too much salt, or the salt will extract moisture from the meat, making it drier. 

I patted my turkey dry after brining, but letting it set in the fridge overnight after removing it from the brine might have helped brown it even more.

I actually broke one of those rules: I brined my turkey breast for 24 hours, twice what Cook's Illustrated says is necessary. Despite that, I was pleased with the results. Very pleased. The turkey was fantastic. The highlight of the dinner. I used this recipe from the latest issue of Bon Appetit, although I did not do the turkey leg and wing confit. I like that this brine recipe included a lot of herbs and spices--their flavor really came through in the turkey.

Brined Roasted Turkey Breast
Adapted from Brined Roasted Turkey Breast with Confit Legs, Bon Appetit, November 2012

6-8 lb. turkey breast

Brine for breast:
2 tbsp. juniper berries
1 tbsp. fennel seeds
2 tsp. ground all spice (note: the recipe called for 2 tbsp. allspice berries, but I couldn't find them in the store, so I just substituted some ground all spice)
1/2 cup kosher salt
1/3 cup sugar
1 sweet onion, sliced
1/2 fennel bulb, sliced
8 sprigs flat-leaf parsley
8 sprigs thyme
2 bay leaves
2 whole cloves

Roast breast:
1 sliced sweet onion
1/2 bunch sage sprigs
1/2 bunch thyme sprigs
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
Seasoned salt and fresh-ground black pepper



1. Place juniper berries and fennel seeds in a resealable plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin. Transfer to a large pot or brining bag. Add all spice, salt, sugar and 2 cups hot water. Stir until the salt and sugar have dissolved. Add onion, fennel, parsley, thyme, bay leaves and cloves. Add 3 quarts cold water and stir to combine. Place turkey breast in pot/bag. Cover and chill overnight.

2. Preheat oven to 450 F. Set a V-rack inside a roasting pan. Place onion slices, sage and thyme sprigs on rack. Remove turkey breast from brine and pat dry with paper towels. Put turkey breast on top of herbs on rack. Brush all over with melted butter and season with salt and pepper.

3. Roast turkey for 30 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 300 F, cover loosely with aluminum foil, and continue roasting until an instant-read thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the breast reads 165 F, about 2 1/2 to 3 hours total roasting time. Let breast rest 30 minutes before carving.

Roasted Parsnip-Quinoa Salad with Shallot-Lemon Dressing

Quinoa is all the rage these days, but it's not universally loved, as The Washington Post recently wrote about. I'll admit to finding the healthful grain a bit dull sometimes, but I was determined to find a way to make it shine for Thanksgiving dinner.

The flavor of quinoa ranges from almost nothing to a bit bitter. It's biggest selling point is its texture: adding a bit of crunch. To play off its strengths and make up for its weaknesses I wanted a dish where its blandness would be outweighed by richer savory and sweet flavors, but its texture would provide a welcome counterpoint.

I hit on parsnips as the perfect vegetable counterpoint. Although far less popular than its root vegetables cousins the potato and the carrot, parsnips can hold their own even in a dessert. Let's be honest: they're awful raw, but roasted until they start to brown and they develop a nice toasty sweetness. Playing up the sweet and the crunch, I also tossed in dried cranberries and chopped pistachios. To pull the flavors together with something sharp, I created a lemon-shallot vinaigrette.

This dish is attractive and tasty and, as a cool dish, lends some nice variety to meal dominated by hot sides.

Roasted Parsnip-Quinoa Salad with Shallot-Lemon Dressing

2 lb. parsnips, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice
2-4 tbsp. olive oil
Seasoned salt
1/2 cup quinoa
3/4 cup roasted pistachio nuts, coarsely chopped
3/4 cup dried cranberries

Dressing:
2 tbsp. minced shallot
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
Salt and pepper

2 tbsp. chopped flat-leaf parsley

1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Spread parsnips on a baking sheet. Toss with olive oil and seasoned salt and roast until the parsnips are cooked through and browned on some sides, about 30 to 40 minutes (stir with a spatula halfway through). Allow to cool.

2. Put quinoa in a mesh strainer and rinse, then submerge in water and soak for 15 minutes. In a medium saucepan, bring 1 cup of water to boil, add quinoa, cover pan, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and leave covered, allowing quinoa to rest another 5 minutes. Remove lid and stir. Allow to cool.

3. Make dressing by whisking together shallots, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper in a small bowl.

4. In a large bowl, combined roasted parsnips, cooked quinoa, chopped pistachios and dried cranberries. Add dressing and toss to combine. Serve topped with chopped fresh parsley.

Roast parsnips 30-40 minutes at 400
Rinse quinoa then soak for 15 minutes. Drain. Bring 1 cup water to boil, add quinoa, cover, reduce heat to simmer. Simmer 15 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to rest 5 minutes more.

Italian stuffing

Stuffing is one of the essential dishes of a good Thanksgiving dinner. And there's nothing wrong with having more than one option. I always make a fairly traditional sausage-corn bread stuffing, but if I make second one, it gives me a chance to experiment.

Like the Oregon stuffing last week, this dish has a theme: I went with Italian flavors, using Italian bread, pancetta (Italian bacon), pine nuts and figs to give Mediterranean flair to this hearty dish. A similar recipe by Delish helped me conceive this dish.

Italian Stuffing

1 Italian bread loaf, crusts removed, cut into 3/4-inch cubes

1 tbsp. olive oil
1/2 cup pine nuts

3 oz. pancetta, diced

1 medium sweet onion, diced (about 1 cup)

1/2 fennel bulb, diced (about 1 cup)
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf (Italian) parsley
1/4 cup chopped sage
2 tbsp. fresh thyme leaves
3/4 cup chopped dried figs (about 10 figs)
2 tbsp. white wine vinegar
Salt and fresh-ground black pepper to taste
2 cups chicken broth

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Toss bread cubes with olive oil, place on a baking sheet, and bake until the bread is dried out and lightly browned, about 15 minutes. Set aside.

2. In a small frying pan, over medium-low heat, toast pine nuts until lightly browned. Set aside.

2. Heat a large frying pan over medium heat. Add pancetta and fry until cooked through and crisp, about 8 minutes. Remove from pan, leaving drippings to sauté vegetables. Add onions, fennel and garlic and saute until softened, about 10 minutes.

3. Return oven to 375 F.  In a large bowl, combine toasted bread, crisped pancetta, toasted nuts, cooked vegetables, and all remaining ingredients. Transfer to a 9 X 13 baking dish. Cook in oven until browned on top and sizzling, about 30-40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.

Apple, Manchego and Pecan Salad

This dish is inspired by a recent lunch at Jaleo, where Chris and I started our meal with two salads: a beet salad with grapefruit, oranges, pistachios and frisée and a fennel-apple salad with Manchego, a Spanish cheese that Whole Food sold aged 3, 6 or 12 months. I tossed together ideas from both salads to come up with this dish, which I think would be a perfect simple salad to serve for Thanksgiving.

Apple, Manchego and Pecan Salad

1/3 cup coarsely chopped pecans
2 oz. young manchego cheese ("young" in the sense that it hasn't been aged long, I used 3-month aged cheese)
1 honeycrisp apple, peeled, cored and chopped into 1/2-inch dice
2 cups torn romaine lettuce
2 cups frisee
2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
2 tsp. sherry vinegar
1/2 tsp. Dijon mustard
1 tsp. honey
Salt and fresh-ground black pepper to taste

Combine pecans, cheese, apple, lettuce and frisée in a large bowl. Whisk together oil, vinegar, mustard, honey, salt and pepper. Toss salad with vinaigrette.

Cocktail: Hot Butternut Rum

Butternut squash soup would make an elegant first course to a more formal Thanksgiving dinner. I prefer to serve my dinner family style, and I never serve soup at Thanksgiving, but I love butternut squash and I wanted to come up with a way to use it as an introduction to the bigger meal. So I thought using it in a cocktail could be interesting.

Recipes for butternut squash soup sometimes call for chipotle peppers (the canned chipotles in adobo) and ginger, which I thought would be interesting in a drink. For the chipotle, I use a few squirts of Tabasco's Chipotle Pepper Sauce, which has a nice smokiness and is not overwhelmingly hot.

To get butternut squash flavor in a liquid form, I used the technique from local bartender Todd Thrasher of PX in Alexandria, Va., to make "Butternut Squash Base," the strained liquid from pureed roasted butternut squash. Thrasher uses it in his drink Butter 'Nut' Craig, which sounds good. I roasted a medium-sized butternut squash, which, after pureeing and straining, yielded about a cup of liquid, enough for 6 to 8 drinks.

This is nothing like Hot Buttered Rum, but the play on the classic holiday cocktail's name fits this drink perfectly.

Hot Butternut Rum

1 oz. Butternut squash base, see recipe below
1 1/2 oz. dark rum, such as Flor de Caña
1/2 oz. Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur
2 squirts of smoked chipotle hot sauce, such as Tabasco Chipotle Pepper Sauce

Combine squash base, rum, ginger liqueur and hot sauce in shaker with ice. Shake until cold. Strain into rocks glass with ice.

Butternut Squash Base
Adapted from Butternut Squash Base by Todd Thrasher

1 butternut squash, halved and seeded
Olive oil
2 tbsp. light brown sugar
Salt
1/4 cup simple syrup, see note below

1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Put cut squash in a 9 X 13 roasting pan, cut side up. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with 1 tbsp. brown sugar and salt. Roast until the squash is sufficiently softened to be easily pierced by a fork, about 40-60 minutes (roasting time may vary; Thrasher's original recipe called for 30 minutes of roasting, but my squash was still pretty hard after only 30 minutes). Allow to cool slightly, then scoop the squash pulp out and transfer it to a food processor. Add the simple syrup and the remaining tbsp. of brown sugar and process into a puree. Place a strainer lined with cheesecloth over a bowl. Transfer the pureed mixture to the strainer and press through. Discard the remaining solids.

Note: to make simple syrup, combine equal parts sugar and water and either microwave in a glass bowl or heat on the stove in small saucepan until boiling. Allow to cool.

Food (Section) Fight!: Week 44

Food (Section) Fight! is my weekly look at The Washington Post's Food section and The New York Times' Dining section with my verdict on which section had the better content for the week.


New York Times

1) “Stuffing, Set Free From Turkey,” by Julia Moskin. Stuffing is a delicious and versatile food, and I’m a big fan. I plan to feature two versions for my Thanksgiving coverage this year. It’s often my favorite part of the holiday meal. Moskin does a nice job detailing the history of the dish and how it used to be standard fare for many home cooks, but has lately been relegated almost exclusively to Thanksgiving. I particularly liked that her article mentioned the late film producer Ismael Merchant (of Merchant-Ivory fame), who was apparently a big fan of stuffing. She even shared his recipe for Spicy Lemon-Ginger Bread Stuffing.

2) “Sandy Offers Lessons to Restaurateurs,” by Glenn Collins. Last week, I gave the Times credit for putting out a great section the day after the hurricane. This week, the hurricane is all over the section. Collins’ article takes a look at how last week’s disaster is pushing restaurants to rethink disaster planning, install drainage devices and perhaps even alter their architecture to move basement kitchen and refrigeration space upstairs.

3) “Why Downtown Needs Diners Now,” Restaurants column by Pete Wells. No review this week, as Wells states it would be unfair to judge a restaurant under the irregular operating conditions of the past week. Fair enough. Instead, Wells has written an essay on how hard hurricane Sandy has been on many of Downtown’s small restaurants. It reads at times like a love letter: “Nowhere in the United States is so much culinary tradition and innovation crammed into so few square miles as in the southern end of Manhattan.” Championing restaurants in this manner may seem an unusual for a food critic, but when you consider it is his role to steer us eaters to where he thinks we should spend our time and dollars, I don’t think it’s unreasonable for him to make such a plea. I’ve certainly had my share of memorable meals below 23rd Street.

4) “The Wine List Comes With a Friend, Not a Foe,” The Pour column by Eric Asimov. This week, Asimov focuses on the role of the sommelier, the restaurant wine steward who is supposed to help diners find a match for their food and their wallet. This is great story about how many people feel intimidated by sommliers but shouldn’t be; they are there to help you. He offers useful tips for how to make the most of the relationship.

5) “Making Sure Kale Gets a Raw Deal,” A Good Appetite column by Melissa Clark. Kale salad has been a hot trend of late, one I jumped on early this year and then again more recently. Clark uses Kale in place of parsley to make Kale Tabbouleh, a great idea for the hardy greens.

Washington Post

1) “Complement or insult?” by Victorino Matus. For people, like me, who like to think about food in interesting ways, this article is exactly the kind of thing I enjoy reading about. Matus dissects the old adage about steak sauce: that it’s there to cover up bad cuts and isn’t needed for good ones. Of course, this isn’t universally accepted, as he writes about good steak restaurants that have added sauces to please consumers’ demand for them. And maybe that’s not a bad thing, as he writes about the “delicious” steak sauce from Craft by Tom Colicchio—one of three big name chefs interviewed for the article who also contributed their sauce recipes, including Colicchio’s Craft Steak Sauce and Michel Richard’s Green Peppercorn Sauce. I don’t remember seeing Matus’s byline in the Post before, but I hope to see more from him. [And speaking of Tom Colicchio, new Top Chef season starts tonight on Bravo. Yay!]

2) “The best lessons in cocktails come from papa,” Spirits column by Jason Wilson. The creativity continues with Wilson’s spirits column, which this week looks at the drinks written about in the novels of Ernest Hemingway, the subject of a new book “To Have and Have Another: A Hemingway Cocktail Companion” by D.C.-based author Philip Greene. I like that the accompanying cocktail recipe for “A Farewell to Hemingway” finds a use for kirschwasser other than cheese fondue.

3) “The foods trucks with a built-in audience,” by Amanda Abrams. There’s a fleet of mobile food trucks now serving D.C.’s daytime downtown crowd (count me among their well-fed fans), but there’s another division of that industry that gets little attention: the fleet of mobile caterers that serve construction workers. Abrams does a great job writing about how competitive it is to serve that niche.

4) “A room full of drawing boards to go back to,” First Bite column by Tom Sietsema. A recent weekend I walked by the about-to-open Logan Circle restaurant Drawing Board and thought it looked like a place I might want to try. After reading this week’s First Bite, I’m having second thoughts. Sietsema was entirely unimpressed by their burger (which is probably what I’d order) and finds the bartenders’ skills to be subpar (they apparently couldn’t mix a gimlet, a rather basic choice). Thanks for the heads up, Tom.

5) “Ginger-Glazed Baby-Cut Carrots with Cranberries,” Nourish recipe by Stephanie Witt Sedgwick. The Post will begin its two-part Thanksgiving coverage next week, but this Nourish recipe might be considered a preview. I happen to really like ginger-glazed carrots as a Thanksgiving side (I’ll be sharing my recipe soon). The notion to dried cranberries into the dish is a great idea.

Verdict

The Washington Post. It’s a tough call this week, as I found a lot of good stories in both sections to enjoy. Credit Matus’ steak sauce story as the tie-breaker, since it was my single favorite food story of the week.

Score

The Washington Post: 23
The New York Times: 20

Homemade Cranberry Sauce

Making cranberry sauce from scratch is so simple, I wonder why I bought the canned product for so many years. As a child, my grandmother made a wonderful homemade thanksgiving dinner, but even she poured her cranberry sauce from the can (very carefully actually, so that the ribbed lines from the side of the can were intact). This recipe from America's Test Kitchen is very easy, fast (like 20 minutes tops) and so much tastier.

Cranberry Sauce

Adapted from Cranberry-Orange Sauce, America's Test Kitchen's The New Best Recipe 

¾ cup water

1 cup sugar

¼ tsp. salt

1 12 oz bag of cranberries picked over (discard any bruised, bloated or soft berries)

1 tbsp. orange or lemon zest

2 tbsp. orange-flavored brandy liqueur (such as Grand Marnier)

Boil water, sugar, orange zest and salt in medium saucepan over high heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Stir in cranberries, return to boil. Reduce heat to medium; simmer until saucy, slightly thickened and about 2/3 of the berries have popped open, about 5 minutes. Transfer to bowl, stir in orange liqueur, cool to room temperature and serve.