Flipping the Bird: Get the most out of your Holiday roast!

From Dish Danielle:

A week before Thanksgiving with no real holiday plans, the bf and I decided to host a little something at my place. We felt the right thing to do was to bring all the turkey day strays together to share a proper feast. The 8-10 person guest list quickly grew to 18… My one requirement: bring a dish to share with the group! This was a holiday potluck, so I honed in on the one dish the hostess would be responsible for: the turkey complete with stuffing.* I ordered a bird from a local farm upstate and was informed she (Florence…yes we named her…), was sacrificed only 4-5 days before our feast! Fresh as a daisy, I had to do right by her. I resolved to use every scrap of pretty Florence that I could, both pre/post roasting.

 

This meal was honestly the very best Thanksgiving spread I have ever seen/eaten. Everyone’s contributions were absolutely deeeelicious. Although I sent everyone home with piles of left-overs, the bird was far from stripped. I decided to make a soup with the leftover odds & ends.

DISCLAIMER: This recipe is NOT meant to be followed to a tee! Riff on it however you see fit. Hang onto your roasting scraps and see where your soup takes you. This kind of soup can be made all winter long and interpreted in many different ways.  It’s time consuming but fairly hands off, so great to make while you’re having a cozy afternoon at home. What scraps do you having looming in your fridge right now?

Ingredients:

1 bird carcass

3 leeks, rinsed and sliced (tops also rinsed, sliced and set aside)

4 shallots, sliced

1 head of fennel cut into 1” chunks

10 garlic cloves, sliced

2 parsnips

3 carrots

¾ bottle of white wine

1 box veggie stock

3 qts water

3 bay leaves

1 apple, pitted & chopped

1 pear, pitted & chopped

2 apple cores (leftover stuffing scraps)

2 pear cores  (leftover stuffing scraps)

2 stems of sage

1 handful of rough chopped fresh parsley

2 handfuls small potatoes, cut into 2” chunks

1 bunch fresh thyme, pruned and rough chopped

red chili pepper flakes

S&P

cheesecloth

Start by sautéing leeks, shallots, and fennel in your largest stock pot over med-low heat. Add garlic and cook until fragrant. Add parsnips/carrots and cook for 5mins. Add wine and raise heat to simmer. Pour the rest into a wine glass and enjoy. Sip and simmer for 20mins. Add stock, water, and bay leaf. Once you’re back to a simmer add Flor the bird! Arrange so it’s completely submerged. Toss in two pinches red chili flakes. Let it bubble awhile…

Now, pile the leftover scraps into several small heaps: the apples/pears, the cores, the leek tops, and the sage. Using the cheesecloth, bundle 2-3 small piles up into the cloth and tie with kitchen string. Drop satchels into soup and continue to simmer. Add thyme. Season with S&P. Add potatoes. Soup should be just about done when potatoes are cooked to your liking. Remove from heat and discard cheesecloth bundles. Pull the bird out of the soup and allow to cool on large platter. Tear meat off bones, shred into smaller pieces and toss back into the pot.

Once soup has cooled, skim fat off top.

Garnish with fresh parsley, serve with crusty bread and a glass of apple cider. Enjoy turkey day’s bounty one more time and count the things you’re thankful for. It’s holiday season y’all.

*I hate to admit it but, dish Amelia’s pumpernickel & rye stuffing bested this hostess’s!

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Beach Blanket Brisket

Ed.’s Note: We’re trying something new at SLD! This month, the Dishes have each agreed to flip through the archives and cook another girl’s recipe, with modifications to reflect differences in her own taste preferences and/or cooking style. The idea is to feature some of the terrific recipes we’ve collected in 2+ years at Saucy Little Dish, and also to show by example the way that these posts are just guidelines that can inspire new dishes, with just a dash of creativity.

From Dish Gwen:

Brisket? In July? During a New York City Heat Wave? What are you thinking?!

I was thinking “Let’s get this freaking brisket out my freezer and make room for ice cream!” And I wanted brisket sandwiches to take to the beach. Just four hours of blistering inferno in my kitchen and it was all worth it.

This is based on Dish Jodi’s leg of lamb recipe from back in April. The only difference is that I used a brisket, which is a big hunk of fatty beef, instead of lamb, which is a baby sheep. I also substitute paprika for cumin because I didn’t have any cumin, and I used both white and red wine, because I had two half bottles of white and red.

Ingredients:
– A 3-4 lb brisket
– Salt
– Black Pepper
– Olive Oil
– 1/2 bottle of white wine
– ½ bottle of red wine
– 1 head of garlic
– 4 or 5 sprigs of thyme
– 4 or 5 sprigs of oregano
– a dozen or so cardamom pods
– 1 teaspoon paprika
– 1 cinnamon stick

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Heat oil to medium in a large pot, and rub the brisket with with olive oil and salt and pepper generously. Sear the brisket on all sides until brown and crispy, then set aside on a plate.

Keep the pot simmering, and pour in the wine into pot and stir with the meat drippings (as Jodi puts it, “scrape up all the yummy brown bits”). Break up the head of garlic and put it and the rest of the ingredients into wine.

Bring to simmer then put the brisket back in, and add water until the brisket is completely covered (this is also something that strays from Jodi’s recipe – a braised Brisket generally requires to be fully submerged in liquid. Don’t ask me, ask your Jewish grandmother.) Cover and put in oven for FOUR HOURS.

While your meat simmers, you should retire to the air conditioned bedroom and watch a couple of movies or several HBO miniseries episodes in a row. And have a beer.

Pull out the brisket, eat half of it with some bread and salad, and put the rest in the fridge so you can slice it up and make sandwiches later. Save all of the beef stock that’s left in the pan too – it’s good broth and you can make gravy with it. Just strain the stock into a couple of tupperwares and throw them in the freezer for later. Brisket!

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Homemade Croutons (And Homemade Stuffing, too)

From Dish Rachelle:

I realize that as I write this, NYC is coming off the heels of a heatwave, and so the last word that East Coast readers probably want to hear is “roast”. Feel free to ignore the second half of this post if you’re too busy sweating your face off to think about using your oven! I made this meal a few weeks ago, when it felt like Spring would never arrive; when my little sister’s outdoor graduation ceremony was so cold that the family stole towels from the hotel to keep ourselves warm. That said, making croutons is a terrific way to salvage stale bread, and they can be used in all sorts of seasonally appropriate meals – like Caesar salads, panzanella salads (it’s almost tomato season!) – really, anything cold.

Ingredients:
Stale bread – I used ciabatta, but any ol’ baguette will do.
Olive oil
Garlic powder
Oregano
Dried rosemary
Dried thyme
Salt
Pepper

This bread, from Aroma Bakery, was a day or two away from being hockey-puck hard.

Time to make croutons! Preheat oven to 350 and cut the bread into small squares.

In a bowl, drizzle with olive oil and toss, so that the pieces are mostly coated but not drenched. Add spices, salt and pepper – there’s no need to be overly precise. Just shake and toss until each bit of bread is nicely seasoned. Go ahead and stick your fingers in to taste it. You’ll be surprised by how familiar that “crouton” flavor is.

Spread bread out on a baking sheet…

And bake for 10-15 minutes until bread is toasty, golden brown.

Now, these croutons are ready to eat, but if it isn’t 90 degrees outside, and you have a whole chicken on hand…get ready to stuff!

Stuffing Ingredients:
A few handfuls of fresh croutons (depending on the size of the bird)
1 shallot, chopped
1 stalk celery, sliced thin
3 tbsp. unsalted butter

Saute butter over medium heat until mostly melted, and add shallot and celery. Cook until vegetables are soft. Pour butter and veggies over the dry croutons and stir. For moisture, add about a quarter cup of chicken stock or water, so that the croutons will smush together (though you don’t want them to be too mushy).

Stuff damp croutons into the cavity. When the bird is in danger of overflowing, grab your string and truss it shut.

Roast your bird (about 20 mins per pound at 350) and let it rest. When you’re ready to eat, untie him and scoop out the stuffing with a long spoon.

Croutons are so versatile!

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