Thanksgiving Day Dinner for Two or 4..or 6..
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Cooking time: 3 - 4 hours for menu Cooking schedule: see below for "menu" instructions |
This menu is for 2 - 4 but there will be leftover turkey, stuffing and pie. If you increase the soup, stuffing and sweet potatoes, it could easily serve 6 - 8; Everything expands easily... It's a smaller soup recipe than usual - because it's a bigger dinner. You could serve it in coffee mugs for your guests (or you) to sip while standing around chatting rather than a proper sit-down first course if you are feeling cramped for either space or time!
If you don't feel like making the Cranberry Pie- pick up a pie at the local bakery.
Pumpkin Soup Time: 30 minutes
This is our first course and our vegetable course. Doing a small Thanksgiving dinner, I have just chosen our favorites to enjoy - the sweet potatoes are also a vegetable ....we've plenty of healthy food to be thankful for!
1 medium leek
3/4 - 1 cup pumpkin it should be left from the can used in Sunday's lasagne
1 cup chicken stock
1 tbs butter
1 tsp tomato paste
pinch of nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp marjoram
1/4 - 1/2 cup milk
1 - 2 tbs Greek or plain yogurt
Clean and slice the leek. In medium sauce pan sauté leek in butter until transparent. Add pumpkin, stock, tomato paste, marjoram, ginger and nutmeg. Heat to boiling, reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes. Puree soup - either with blender or immersion blender. Add enough milk to get desired consistency. Gently reheat but do not boil. To serve, ladle into soup plates or bowls (or coffee mugs). Add a dollop of yogurt, sprinkle a bit of nutmeg on top and serve.
Roast Turkey with Sage Stuffing Time: 3 - 4 hours
A stuffed 8 - 10 pound turkey will take 2 1/2 - 3 1/2 hours to took. You need a meat thermometer so you don't over cook it. It is overcooking that causes dryness. I found a small, 7 pound turkey that will be perfect for us and should take 2 1/2 - 3 hours. BTW, I checked some of my many cookbooks for roasting times and they ranged from 2 1/2 hours to 4 hours for an 8 lb bird...that's a big range - get a thermometer. I considered brining, and decided not to - it's a challenge to find a place to keep a turkey, covered in brine, cold. Besides, if you use a meat thermometer you won't have an overcooked, dried out bird! This recipe will work with a brined bird, as well.
The Bird
1 small turkey, large chicken, medium capon 6 - 8 lbs
3 tbs soft butter
2 tsp dried sage
2 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp Dijon-style butter
1 - 2 cups turkey or chicken stock see below
1 cup Madeira
1/4 cup regular coffee or 1/4 tsp instant granules
2 - 4 tbs cornstarch dissolved in 2 - 4 tbs chicken stock or more, depending on how much stock you
have from the turkey
Mix 2 tbs of the butter, the herbs and the mustard. Loosen skin across top of bird by pinching gently. Work your hand under the skin on the breast. With your finger tips rub butter mixture over the breast under the skin, covering as much of the surface as you can. Rub the remaining 1 tbs of butter over the outside of the skin. Spoon some stuffing inside the cavity loosely, about 3/4 full, and tie legs together. Spoon some more stuffing inside the neck cavity and skewer the neck flap closed. ( I have used anything from proper turkey skewers to toothpicks to safety pins.) Put turkey on a rack in a roasting pan and into a 450F (230C) degree oven for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 325F (165C) and roast until temperature in thickest part of thigh reaches 180F (82.2C) or 170F (76.6C) in breast, or until juices run clear when pierced with a knife. For a 6 lb bird this should take about 2 1/4 hours; an 8 lb bird 3 hours.
To baste: Combine the coffee and 1 cup turkey stock. Baste the bird every 15 minutes or so alternating between stock, Madeira and the pan drippings.
The stock - if making
Turkey Stock Time: 1 hour - earlier in the day
If your bird came with the neck and giblets - lucky you. This is what you do with it - before you make the stuffing:
Heat 2 cups of chicken stock with 2 cups of water. Add some celery tops (the ones you cut off the stalks for the stuffing, an onion, cut in half, a carrot cut into chunks and the neck. Bring to a boil, skim off any scum that rises. Simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes, then add the gizzard and heart. Simmer another 20 minutes, skimming. Then add the liver. Add any chicken livers if you saved them from the weekend. Simmer another 20 minutes. Strain the stock into a bowl and use in both stuffing and turkey basting.
Discard the vegetables. Finely chop the giblets. Pull the meat of the neck and chop. Add the meat to the stuffing along with the onions,celery, Prosciutto.
The stuffing
Sage, Prosciutto, (Giblet) and Celery Stuffing
12 slices white bread, dried lay it out the night before to let it dry out, doesn't have to be perfectly,
evenly
dried - mind the cats, dogs, whatever
If you are using the giblets add 4 more slices of bread
1 - 2 cups turkey or chicken stock
1 large onion
4 stalks celery
3 - 4 slice Prosciutto
4 oz mushrooms optional, instead of giblets
chopped giblets if you have them
1 tbs sage
1 tsp thyme
2 tbs butter
1 egg
Chop the onion and celery. Trim and chop the mushrooms, if using. Heat the butter in a large, nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add onions, celery, (mushrooms) and sauté until tender, about 10 minutes. Chop the Prosciutto and add to the onions. Sauté another 5 minutes. Set aside. Tear bread into small chunks and put into a large bowl. Add sage and thyme and mix well. Add celery/onions and chopped giblets and mix well. Now comes the hard part: I can't tell you how much stock to use. It depends on how dry your bread is, how moist the celery and onions are, etc. Start with 1/2 cup and drizzle over the top of the bread chunks. Mix well. Continue adding 1/4 cup at a time and mixing well. Mixture should just start to cling together, not all of it but most of it, and none of the bread cubes should be totally dry nor should they be mushy. Got it? At this stage stop adding stock. In small bowl lightly whisk egg. Fold into stuffing mixture and combine thoroughly. Stuff turkey. Refrigerate the remaining stuffing until ready to bake. An hour before dinner, (turkey should be almost done) put the stuffing into a roasting pan, cover and put into the oven. Bake the stuffing for 30 minutes, remove cover and bake 15 minutes longer. Oven temp is whatever works for the rest of the dinner. The stuffing in the turkey will be very moist and in the pan rather dry - mix the 2 before serving.
The finish:
Remove the turkey and put on a platter. Cover with a foil 'tent' and let rest for 20 - 30 minutes. Pour juices from the roasting pan into a saucepan, adding stock to roasting pan to help scrape up the bits on the bottom if necessary. Skim off as much fat as you can (butter?). Add any remaining stock and/or Madeira and bring to a boil over medium heat. Taste - need anything? Give cornstarch mix a stir and slowly whisk into the stock, stirring until thickened to your liking - more or less cornstarch as needed. Keep the gravy warm while you carve the turkey. Remove stuffing from turkey - both ends, and combine with baked stuffing. Carve turkey, serve with stuffing and gravy on the side.
Maple Glazed Sweet Potatoes Time: 60 minutes
These are not overly sweet - no mini-marshmallows. The taste of the sweet potatoes shines through and is enhanced, rather than overpowered, by the maple.
24oz (1 1/2 lb, 750gr) sweet potatoes, 2 - 3 large
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tbs butter
pinch of nutmeg
Peel sweet potatoes and cut into 3 or 4 'rounds' (the short way). Cook in boiling, salted water until just tender, easily pierced with a knife. Remove and drain. While potatoes cook heat the syrup, butter and brown sugar to boiling in a small saucepan. Reduce eat and simmer 5 minutes. Slice potatoes into 3/4 inch (2cm) rounds and place in a baking dish just large enough to hold them all easily. Don't fuss with the layers but do spoon a bit of syrup over each potato slice. Pour the rest of the syrup over the top and bake, uncovered, 350F (175F) for 30 minutes. Baste once after 15 minutes with the syrup from the bottom of the baking dish. Serve.
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Cooking schedule: Time: 3 - 4 hours |
Mix coffee with turkey/chicken stock |
Cranberry Cheesecake Pie Time: 15 minutes plus 2 hours chilling
We've had enough pumpkin and need some cranberries to round out our dinner. This is a no-bake pie and goes together quickly. And it's yummy! Or you could buy one...then you wouldn't have leftovers.... Based on a recipe from 'My Great Recipes'
1 8 - 9 inch (20cm) graham cracker or cookie pie shell
8 oz ( 250gr) cream cheese, softened should be removed from fridge for 30 - 60 minutes
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbs milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup whipping cream, or heavy cream, whipped
1 can cranberry sauce, 16oz (500gr)
1/2 cup orange marmalade
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
Whip the cream, using whisk or electric mixer, until you have soft peaks. Stir together the soft cream cheese, sugar, milk and vanilla. Should be well blended, soft and creamy. Carefully fold in whipped cream (Stir very gently from the bottom up through the top and only until blended. You don't want to deflate the whipped cream.) Spread mixture into pie shell. Mix cranberry sauce, marmalade and walnuts. Spread on top. Chill for at least 2 hours to set.
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Cooking for Two? Or more?
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