Turkey Curry

Last week I flagged this post by Mark Bittman for turkey leftovers. I am so glad that I did because Bryan and I both really loved it.

I don't think that I've tried a curry recipe before in the past, but it will become a new staple in our house. Prep and cook time was under 20 minutes, maybe even under 15 minutes.

Start by cooking minced garlic and ginger for a few seconds in peanut oil. Then add onions if you are using them. I skipped ahead to adding tomatoes, stock, and cream (I didn't have coconut milk on hand, so I substituted some heavy cream). Once the tomatoes have broken down enough for your picky non-tomato eater, add turkey and spinach. Once the spinach has wilted (about 2 minutes) remove and serve over rice.



This is by far my favorite way I've ever had turkey. I may make it again another night this wek.

Thanksgiving Recap

Sorry I've been such a bad blogger last week. I didn't have time to put my posts together and then with preparing for Thanksgiving, I just let it slide. Sorry.

But today I have my Thanksgiving recap. I didn't use Mark Bittman's recipe for splatchcocking, or whatever it is, but maybe next year. Since it was my first year to cook the turkey, I wanted to do it up right... the traditional way.

Here she is:



I brined our little turkey for almost 24 hours. Moving the brine bag in and out of the fridge by myself was challenging, but I accomplished it.

Thursday morning I had to miss out on parade viewing to prep the little sucker, but it was totally worth it... in the end. Removing the neck was a traumatic experience, but we were able to move past that unfortunate ordeal. I stuffed it with some veggies and put some thyme butter under the skin. I'm not sure if this really did anything, but I was told to do it and I did.

I put little turkey in for one hour and then prepared to remove it to flip the bird breast up and start with my first basting. This is when chaos insued. I had bought a disposable aluminum pan as I did not have a roasting pan and thought this would help with the clean up. Little did I know that it would be too flimsy. When Bryan went to pick it up off the rack a hole was formed in the pan.

I got to stand here like this for 10 minutes while Bryan ran to the grocery for backup.



There was also this mess to clean up:



All was cleaned up and forgiven and with three pans we were ready to get back to cooking.



At hour two, our sweet bird looked like this:



And finally she was ready.


(Ignore the whoppy skin on the bottom left.)

Once Bryan carved the turkey, we were ready for the feast everyone had put together.





We had a great meal and have so much to be thankful for this year.

Hope everyone had a great holiday!