Turkey roll

Most of the time, I hesitate to bring a whole turkey back home, no matter how big the turkey is, it is definitely much larger than chicken. It is not easy to handle this, time consuming and too much leftover for a family with only two members. And, this is an era of green, using
several hours even half a day to bake is not environmental friendly in deed.

One day, I drew a conclusion which seems to change our life, that is, the reason that cooking a whole turkey is so time consuming is BONE. So, why don't I cook boned turkey and at the same time, making a stock with calcium?

In another one hour, I carried a whole turkey from our local supermarket :-D

As the first important step, BONE THE TURKEY, very clean skeleton, eh?

Prepare marinated sauce: 1/4 cup ketchup, 1/4 cup soy sauce, 2 tbsp sugar, 2~3 tsp salt, 2 tbsp lemon juice, 1/4 cup water.

Marinate halved boned turkey in sauce overnight (keeping in the fridge).

Place peeled carrot in the middle of turkey, roll tightly to form a long tube and tie with kitchen twine. Wrap with aluminium foil and seal the two sides.

Preheat oven to 400F，bake for about 1 hour or until instant-thermometer registers 160 - 165F.

Open one side carefully, transfer sauce to a bowl.

Let turkey rest for 10 minutes.

Transfer turkey to a cutting board, remove twine and slice.

Place slices on a platter, drizzle sauce on and garnish with parsley flakes. It can also be served with cranberry compote.

For leftover turkey, drizzle sauce on and reheat in microwave oven or sauté with vegetables / mushrooms.

Simple dish for weekend: salted turkey

Weekend, time for relaxation. I made a simple dish -- salted turkey, which tastes marvellous.

Two boned turkey drumsticks, rinsed and dried.

Rub 8 tbsp salt over drumsticks and let sit in the fridge overnight.

Rinse drumsticks to remove excess salt.

Place drumsticks in a pot, add 1 L water, bring to boil.

Remove foam with small size sieve.

Add several white parts of green onion, cover and stew for 30 minutes.

Remove drumsticks from broth, cool on wire rack.

Slice and serve cool.

As for broth, bring to boil, add fresh baby spinach, bring to boil again and serve immediately.

Spicy turkey

This spicy turkey recipe is derived from a famous Chinese Sichuan dish named Mouth Watering Chicken, which is of extremely good smell and hot taste.

In a pot, add water and two boned drumsticks (water level should be a little bit over drumsticks), bring it to boil. Use a small size sieve to remove and discard foams floating on the surface thoroughly; put in a tea ball, in which there are two star anises, a pinch of dry fennel seeds (optional), a pinch of Sichuan pepper. Cover and stew under medium-low power for 30 minutes or until an instant-read thermometer registers 160F. Don't open the cover, let drumsticks sit in the broth for 2 hours, so that the meat can absorb flavour fully.

Transfer cool drumsticks to the cutting board, dice and then place in a plate.

In a bowl, blend mashed garlic, six soup spoons' broth (about 2 cup), 1/2 tbsp soy sauce, 1/2 tbsp rice vinegar, 1/2 tbsp sugar, 1/2 tbsp salt, and 2 tbsp roasted white sesame.

In a pan, add some oil and heat under medium power. Stir in chopped dry red pepper, and keep on stirring until strong aroma forms. Pour hot oil / pepper mixture into the bowl, mix well and drizzle over dices. Garnish with chopped green onion.

The broth, can be used to cook very delicious soup after fat is removed.

Boned, braised and sliced turkey in soy sauce

I made this dish for my guests, who like to try different cuisines all over the world. I promised that I would cook something with local raw materials but possessing quite different tastes.

The dinner party was held right before Christmas, therefore, I chose turkey as main dish. Besides, I found people here like soy sauce very much, they even directly stir soy sauce into steamed rice to promote the smell. Okay, I have almost had the idea:

1. Two turkey drumsticks, boned and cut in half lengthwise; then marinated in the mixture of dark soy sauce and 1 tsp salt (the amount of dark soy sauce is not precise, because it doesn't bring too much salty taste, instead, it gives the beautiful color) over night (kept in the fridge).

2. Heat an empty wok (without oil) over high temperature. When the wok is hot, place turkey drumsticks skin side down into the wok, until the skin is brown.

3. Turn over the drumsticks, add water (leave skin out of the water), two star anises and the left marinated sauce. Evenly sprinkle 2 tbsp sugar on the skin. Bring to boil, cover the wok and braise under medium heat for 20 minutes.

4. Switch to high temperature, remove cover, turn over drumsticks several times, so that both meat and skin can be covered with thick sauce.

5. Stop heating and transfer drumsticks to the rack when there is about 1 cup sauce left in the wok. Remove star anises from the sauce and transfer sauce to a container.

6. Cool drumsticks for about 10 minutes and slice. Warm the sauce when necessary, pour warm sauce on the sliced drumsticks, decorate with parsley flakes and vegetable flowers.

Voilà!

My guests were surprised to see that turkey could be cooked in this way, and they emptied the whole plate of turkey ;=P

I will continue to introduce you my recipes on cooking turkey, hope you will like them.