Thanksgiving Leftovers Pasta

             

I saw this recipe in Instagram a few days ago. It looked delicious! and I needed a good use of the left over turkey that I shredded from the soup. 

It's very simple and very very tasty. I altered mine a bit, but basically followed this lady called Thedaleyplate, if you want to look up her Instagram account.

INGREDIENTS

-300 grams of pasta (aprox)
-250 grams of shredded left over turkey (aprox).

-1 small onion.

-2 cloves of garlic.

-1 spoonful of butter.

-200 ml of single cream (nata liquida para cocinar).

-1 cube of chicken stock dissolved in 125 ml water.

-A good bunch of spinach.

-50 grams of corn (if you have it).

-1/2 teaspoon of onion powder.

-1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder.

-1 teaspoon of chilli flakes.

STEPS

1. Get the pasta going first of all in a pot while you assemble the sauce.

2. In the meantime, dice up onion and sautee with the butter (not oil) in low fire.

3. Add garlic in small thin bits for another 5 minutes. DO NOT LET IT BURN.

4. Now add the fresh corn if you have it. This is a good addition because it will add a crunchy element to the dish. Sautee for another 5 minutes.

5. Now add the turkey that has already been shredded and cook a little, like 2 minutes, adding now all your spices, which are the garlic powder, the onion powder, and the chilli flakes as well as some black pepper. This will all give it a great colour.

6. Now add the chicken stock and let it soak a little, like 5 minutes to low fire. 

7. After this add the single cream and at the same time add the handful of spinach, so that it wilts. 

8. Give it all a good toss and let it come together for about 5 minutes until it is all cooked and mixed. VERY IMPORTANT: heat it all up with the cream, but do NOT let the single cream get so hot that it boils because guess what will happen: it will curdle.

9. Now add this wonderful turkey sauce to the pasta that should be ready by now and mix together. No need of cheese in this recipe.

10. Add more chilli flakes and decorate with sweet potatoes here and there or onion flakes, it gives a great touch of orangy color.

SO SO SO good.  

A couple of pics of where the corn came from, was just decoration.

 

Easy Sage turkey for Thanksgiving or Christmas

I have made this recipe 3 times and it has always worked. 

I mean, seriously what's the fuss about cooking the turkey in Thanksgiving? 

I find the other plates SO MUCH HARDER. 

I think in Thanksgiving with so many cinnamony spices, etc, you want the turkey to taste as normal as you can. That is why I like this recipe, cause it's so simple.  

Now here is the secret to a good turkey: it has to be FRESH. If you start freezing the thing, forget it, your turkey will not be nearly half as good, but I understand this is not always possible in some countries. 

Fortunately, it is possible here in Spain.

The next key ingredient of this recipe is lot and lots of fresh sage.... this is what will make the turkey truly distinctive and delicious.

INGREDIENTS:

For the bed of the turkey:

-2 onions sliced (3 in total)

For the stuffing inside and tray:

-1 turkey.

-1 onion.

-1 apple.

-1 lemon.

-1 tsp. of salt.

-1/2 tsp of rosemary

-1/2 tsp of thyme

-1/2 tsp of sage.

-1/3 tsp of black pepper.

-One bundle of sage (2 bundles in total)

-1 and a half glass of water. 

For the butter paste to anoint the turkey with:

-3 big spoonful of butter.

-5 garlic cloves minced.

-1 tsp. of salt.

-1/2 tsp of rosemary

-1/2 tsp of thyme

-1/2 tsp of sage.

-1/3 tsp of black pepper.

-Lots of fresh leaves of sage chopped up.

STEPS:

1. Firstly get your turkey outside to room temperature as you prepare it.

2. Cut up two onions in slices and place the turkey in a bed of onions.

3. Now prepare the stuffing. In a bowl I mix the salt, pepper and spices and mix it all together and then just put half of that mix inside the turkey, in the cavity. Reserve the other half to season the vegetables in the next step.

4. Now cut up 1 onion, 1 apple, and 1 lemon in medium cubes and season with the rest of the salt&spices. Toss them well so that they are well coated and now stuff it all inside the turkey.

5. Now dry off the turkey with paper towel until the skin is dry (if it isn't dry, you won't be able to brush it with butter, it won't adhere).

6. Now start making the butter paste for outside the turkey. Add the butter in a bowl and melt it for about 10 seconds in microwave until it is softer. Now add the rest of the ingredients until you create a tasty paste. 

7. Now stick inside the skin of the turkey, in between the breasts and the skin....make some space and add there the succulent paste. 

8. Now with the rest of the mix, with the help of a basting brush, paint the whole turkey with the succulent butter. It will give it a great awesome flavour and will make it crispy and help it get a tanned.

8 and 1/2. Pour 1  and a half glass of water into the container so that a sauce is created.

9. Ready! Now stick this baby into oven and cook in 150 degrees for 2 or 3 hours to begin with. Warning this is ALL depending on how many kilos your turkey is you will need to cook it for longer. But I have found that this ratio is true: 13-15 minutes per pound, so that is 450 grams for every 13-15 minutes. Another thing you can do that the turkey is done is to stick a thermometer and when it is 65 degrees celsius. 

So my last turkey was only 3 kilos so 1,5 hours or 2 was enough, and the previous one was 4 kilos son 3 hours was enough at this low temperature (150 degrees). And then the rest of the time I spent it making it gold, or as my husband said: the tanning session. 

10. The tanning session is necessary because a turkey simply will not come out perfectly golden in the right places. YOU are the person who browns it to perfection. Your oven won't do that for you magically....at least mine is not that smart. 

So what I do is to rotate the tray over and over and over as many times as I need it until the turkey beautifully browned and tanned. This is a lot of work, getting the tray in and out of the oven, but it's worth it. I make it to 200 degrees ALWAYS keeping an eye on the turkey because it can burn fast.

Another trick here is to cover it with foil in the places which have already been tanned, and continuing to work on the pasty white ones. Keep doing this until you bird looks darn good!

11. That's it. Once it is perfectly done, get it out and leave it on counter and cover with lots of foil until your guests come, it will give the turkey time to rest and the juices get relaxed, etc. 

12. Now show off your turkey for a second to your guests and then carve it! Garnish it with lots of fresh sage to make it taste amazing. So good and juicy.

       

Maybe next year I will look into this video of Gordon Ramsey about how to do butter for thanksgiving turkey.

Another tip if you want the golden colour that looks like the turkey is straight out of a movie then follow this video of Martha Stewart in minute 3. Basically you need a cheese cloth that you dip into  butter 300 grams and 1 bottle of white wine, all melted, you dip the cloth with it and you cover the turkey with it. 

Pumpkin Pie Custard for Pie or Minipies

 My experiment turned out a great!

I wanted to do a pumpkin pie but had no idea how. I more or less followed this great recipe and it worked! But my pie did not have crust, but the custard, of the pie, tastes great. I will do this again.

INGREDIENTS:

-400 grams of pumpkin flesh.
-2 eggs and one yolk.
-3 heaped spoonfuls of condensed milk.

-1,5 spoonfuls of cornstarch.

-1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

-1/2 teaspoon of salt.

-1/3 teaspoon of black pepper.

-1 teaspoon of pumpkin spice.

-1 teaspoon of mixed spice.

-1/2 teaspoon of ginger.

-1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon.

-1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg.

STEPS:

1. Roast the pumpkin for about 1 hour or 2. When it cools off peel off and put flesh without seeds to prepared in a bowl.
2. Blend with a fork. Now add all your spices.
3. Add the condensed milk, and the vanilla extract and mix everything with a hand blender.
4. Now add the cornstarch and the two eggs andthe yolk and mix all together again until it is smooth (I did it this second time with a whisk).

5. Now set the oven to 180 degrees and prepare the baking dish. I used baking paper to line well the dish. It is soooooooooooo much better than using butter. No mess.

6. Place in oven for at least an hour to 180 degrees and just keep watching it until it becomes solid. When the knife comes off clean it is ready! Turn heating off but still let it be there for a little longer to continue drying out.

7. Let it cool off completely before cutting slices. 

8. Or alternatively fill up the little pies with a pipe bag and decorate. 

I really like pumpkin pie dessert.  What an amazing thing heat it. It turns liquid into creamy custardy things....wow, superb result. 

The key for the flavour of this recipe is to really just keep trying until it tastes just like you want it, spicier or sweeter or saltier.... ideally I'd say it should be sweet and with a great cinammony and gingery kick.

Baked Brie-- Super Easy Thanksgiving Starter

This is a fantastic dead-easy recipe for a Thanksgiving starter.  

INGREDIENTS:

-1 Brie cheese.

-1 Camembert cheese.

-2 or 3 spoonfuls of jam of fig or raspberry 

or whatever you have.

STEPS:

1. Place the cheeses with the jam on top on a plate that you can place in the oven for about 30-40 minutes. 

2. Bake at 180 degrees for 30-40 minutes until the cheese is very soft and jam has caramelized.

3. When you serve, let it cool off 10 minutes so that it is not volcanic hot.

 

So so so good, and so easy. Even you can take it somewhere because the cheese will harden a little but it is still so good with the jam caramelized. 

Bread Stuffing for Thanksgiving

Let's be honest, stuffing is perhaps my favorite dish of Thanksgiving. But it does require some serious work (as in hours and hours, I'd say 3 hours!) of total cooking and prep time.

 

Worth it though. I have followed this recipe every year and it has worked year after year. I like my stuffing more on the dry side of things, not wet and mushy and soggy but a little tough. The way you make this work is by

1. not adding too much stock at the end and 2. drying out the bread before hand.

So let's get started!

INGREDIENTS:

-1 big loaf of crusty bread Surdough.  

-1 cup of walnuts or pecans.

-400 grms of sausage meat.

-1 large yellow onion, diced.

-3 medium celery stalks.

-2 tablespoons of sage, thyme and oregano (mixed).

-1 large apple.

-1 tsp of salt.

-150 aprox.  of concentrated chicken stock.

STEPS:

1. Dice up the bread in small dices and toast it for 10 minutes at 220 degrees in the oven.

2. Now add the nuts and toast again for another 10 minutes. Set apart.

3. In the meantime, cook the sausages and break it up into crumbles and brown it for 1o minutes.

4. Now add the vegetables to the sausage.  Start with the onions in small dices for 5 minutes until they are translucent. Now add the celery in thin slices too for another 5 minutes. Now dice up the apple too for 3 minutes. Add a little pepper to all this.

5. Now combine all the ingredients. Mix the toasted bread, nuts, 2 eggs and stir until it is all evenly coated.

6. Now transfer all to a baking dish (or two!).

7. Now add the broth. I put one broth cube for the 200 ml so that it tastes strong. Now I like stuffing on the dry side, not mushy so I put less broth. If you like it dry like me do not put more liquid. 

8. Stick in oven for about 1 hour in 180 degrees until it all begins to dry out. 

9. Now open the door of the oven and let all the steam go and continue cooking with the oven open about 25 degrees. The water has to disappear! and the bread has to go hard again, the only way to do this is to opening the door of the oven. WEIRD! but yup, necessary. I have never had to open the oven door to cook a this, but turns out you have to. 

10. Continue watching it until it is all crispy and golden but do not let it brown. Use the grill as well, but watch out it is so easy to have it burned. 

11. Let it cool briefly before serving.

That's it. This recipe is quite a gem.

  

Abraham Lincoln told me it was awesome.

Spinach Salad for Thanksgiving

Another Thanksgiving classic recipe of my friend Julie:

INGREDIENTS:

- 2 bags of salad.
-1 package of feta cheese 
-1/2 red onion thinly sliced
-3 handfuls of cranberries.
-Almonds sliced or walnuts crushed a bit.
-4 spoonful of balsamic vinegar 
-1/4 of a glass of olive oil.

-5 spoonful of raspberry jam. 

-salt and pepper.

-1 tspoon of sugar if it is too acidic.

STEPS:

1. Place all salad in a bowl.

2. Add all ingredients, the red onion sliced and the feta cheese.

3. Now mix the balsamic vinegar, the jam, the olive oil and salt pepper. It should be a mix of sweet and salty.

4. Season with the dressing, and with the cranberries.

5. The sliced almonds/walnuts are the superb finish but not necessary. 

So so festive. Perfect for Christmas too.

Green Bean Casserole for Thanksgiving

Another great and easy recipe for Thanksgiving and for bland green beans, who knew beans could taste so good, seriously.  Unfortunately this is the only photo I have of the beans, but you can see how yummy it all looks.

INGREDIENTS:

-French cut beans (from bottle already cooked or fresh ones). 
-1 can of condensed mushroom soup (Campbell's).
-Onion flakes (the type you buy).

STEPS:

1. Put the beans in glass container and then pour the mushroom soup and mix everything. 

(If they are fresh boil them for 10 minutes but don't let them get too mushy). 

2. The day of Thanksgiving, place green beans of oven dish and add the entire mushroom Campbell soup and toss so that they are all covered in the sauce. 

3. After 20-30 minutes in 180 degrees baking, add and then and only then, the onion flakes on top and grill for 5 minutes.  Be careful with the order of this step.

4. Be careful with the flakes, they burn in NO TIME.

Sweet Potatoes with Marshmellows--Thanksgiving

 

This dish of the Thanksgiving dinner is one of my favorites. The thing about this dish is that you can make it good or so so good, and it all depends on these little things that make it taste from another world (but also more fattening too). I got the recipe last year from this site. 

INGREDIENTS:

-6 sweet potatoes. 

-50 grams of brown sugar.

-1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon.

-250 grams of white marshmallows.

-1/4 teaspoons of all ground spice or pumpkin spice.

-1/2 teaspoon of salt.

-2 handfuls of pecan nuts.

STEPS:

1. Peel and boil the sweet potatoes for 20 minutes and then roast them in low heat for 2 or 3 hours until they are very very soft.

 

2. Now mash potatoes and mix with the sugar, cinnamon, salt, and all ground spice. Make sure it is neither too sweet not too salty. 

It has to be balanced because of the layer of sugar you are adding next with the marshmallows.

3. Now add to a baking dish and cover with a little bit of brown sugar and some pecan nuts and then a layer of marshmallows. 

(This step is totally optional).

4. Now add a layer of marshmallows and stick in oven in top grill for 5 minutes, but be REAL CAREFUL, they burn in NO TIME.

This dish is Thanksgiving in a nutshell. 

Mashed Potatoes--Thanksgiving

A while ago, my friend Julie gave me some great Thanksgiving recipes. I wanted to keep them all together in one place. They were very good and easy.  So here they are in the next posts, even if it is not for a Thanksgiving dinner, this one will spice up your mashed potatoes. 

INGREDIENTS: 

-7-8 big potatoes. (1,5 kg).

-200 grms. cream cheese.

-2 spoonfuls of butter.
-1,5 teaspoons of salt.
-2,5 spoonfuls of onion powder.

-0,5 teaspoons of garlic.

-a few chives or herbs for decoration.

STEPS:

1. Peel the potatoes, boil them and smash them, really, really, really well.
2. Add the butter, cream cheese, onion powder, garlic powder and salt. Keep adding up more of these spices as you like, but be careful it is not super oniony or salty.
3. Mix it all up until is super creamy and then decorate with some chives or some green neutral herb on top.
 
You can also use Ranch dressing with the mashed potatoes if you want to go crazy american.