Thanksgiving special!
Thanksgiving is almost upon us, and this year, Simon and I are hosting it in our new home!
Since we were about 6 years old, and we moved back to Toronto from the East coast, we have been celebrating almost every holiday (Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter) with our best family friends, the Brunini’s. As we have gotten older this has become increasingly difficult. However, thankfully, this year, we are all going to be together (14 of us)!
Simon and I will be whipping up our favorite holiday dinner; a roasted lemon and herb turkey (ordered from Rowe Farms in Leslieville), lemon and pine nut stuffing, sautéed green beans with crispy shallots and toasted pine nuts, caramelized parsnips and carrots with honey and fresh thyme and (of course) Simon’s favorite old school roasted potatoes (his mum’s recipe).
Here are a couple of the recipes and if you stay tuned later this week, I will send out some more!
Roasted Herb and Lemon Turkey
Turkey
1 15-lb free range organic turkey
2 lemons, pricked all over w a fork to release juices
6 garlic cloves, skin removed
2-3 shallots, sliced in half
small bunch fresh rosemary
small bunch thyme
small bunch sage
sea salt and cracked black pepper
Compound butter
1 cup unsalted butter
zest of 3 lemons
2 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
2 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
2 tbsp chopped fresh sage
sea salt and cracked black pepper
Directions
Pre-heat oven to 400.
To make compound butter, place 1 cup softened butter, lemon zest, rosemary, thyme, and sage in bowl of a food processor and pulse to combine. Set aside.
To prepare turkey, rinse turkey with water (inside cavity and out). Pat dry with paper towels making sure that the turkey is very dry both inside and out.
generously season cavity of turkey with sea salt and cracked black pepper. Loosely fill cavity with 2 lemons, garlic cloves, shallots, small bunch of rosemary, thyme and sage. Truss legs to secure.
Rub compound butter generously allover outside of turkey. Season generously with sea salt and cracked black pepper. Place turkey in a large roasting pan, breast side up.
Bake in preheated oven for approx 1 hour at 400 degrees and then reduce temperature to 350 and continue roasting until turkey popper pops or until thermometer placed in thickest portion of the thigh registers at 175. Remove from oven and allow to sit to rest.
Cranberry, Orange and Port Sauce
3 cups fresh cranberries
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup orange juice
½ cup port
Zest of 1 lemon
Zest of 1 orange
1 cinnamon stick
In a large saucepan over medium high heat, combine cranberries, brown sugar, orange juice, port, zests of lemon and orange and cinnamon stick. Bring to a boil and reduce heat and allow to simmer for approximately 10-15 minutes or until cranberries pop and sauce thickens. Allow to cool and store in an airtight container until ready to use.
Food styling by Lindsay Evans (www.delish.ca) and photography by Michael Crichton (www.michaelcrichtonphoto.com)
