1MYLIVE HOTSPOT

This mashed potato recipe certainly isn’t low fat, but definitely delicious. In our house it’s reserved for holidays only

Serves 6, double or triple quantities as necessary.

Ingredients:

6 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks.

1⁄4 cup cream

1⁄4 cup real butter

1⁄4 cup sour cream

1⁄4 cup milk

3 peeled cloves of garlic (optional)

Chopped fresh chives of parsley (optional)

Salt and pepper to taste

Place potatoes in large saucepan and cover with water, add a little salt and peeled whole garlic cloves if using. Bring to a boil and cook over medium or high heat for approximately 15 to 20 minutes or until tender. Drain, discard garlic and return to pan.

Add the milk and beat potatoes with electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add a little of each of the ingredients and keep mixing. Depending on your preference you may want to add a little extra or less sour cream. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Finally add the chopped chives or parsley if using and stir well. Serve immediately.

Note: For roasted garlic potatoes, use the same recipe as above but do not add garlic cloves to potatoes while boiling. Instead crush the garlic cloves, and sauté for about 1 minute over very low heat in a little olive oil. Add mixture to potatoes once cooked, and mix with all other ingredients.

The turkey is the central element of any good Thanksgiving meal. An otherwise perfect meal can be ruined by a dry, overcooked turkey.

Since a whole turkey isn’t something we cook on a weekly basis, it’s not easy to pull off the perfect turkey. But look at our recipe, and here are some helpful tips below.

Start with a quality turkey. Yes, you can find supermarket or non-name brand turkeys for quite a bit less, but keep in mind that a lot of the pounds you will be paying for will be saltwater injected into the turkey as brine, which will be loaded with salt.

Spend a bit more and buy the good quality bird.  You’ll be glad you did when you get all the praise for the delicious turkey you’ve made.

Thaw the turkey slowly in the fridge. Keep in mind during your planning stage that this can take upp to several days. Doing this instead of submerging the bird in water is much gentler on the meat, resulting in a more tender finished product.

When you are ready to cook your turkey, position the shelves in your oven to make sure the turkey will fit in the center as far as possible. Then preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Then remove the neck, giblets and anything else that may be stuffed in the chest cavity of your bird. Look around carefully. Then rinse it very thoroughly inside and out.

If your bird comes with a turkey lifter implanted into the tail, leave it. If it comes with the string lifters, position them according to the package instructions for easy lifting out of the bird for carving without scalding yourself.

If you are going to stuff the bird, follow the instructions, and do not overly cram the neck and body cavity. It needs to allow room for the heat to circulate and the juices to flow into the stuffing (though the stuffing will be more fattening when you make it this way).

If you are not going to stuff it, cut up a peeled onion, 3 stalks of celery and a few carrots. Big chunks are fine, since these vegetables are just for flavor. Stick them in the body cavity. They will infuse the bird with flavor as it cooks, and help keep it moist.

Then set the turkey in a large roasting pan, on its back, on a wire rack big enough to hold it.

Melt a cup of butter in the microwave. Use a turkey baster to baste the turkey with butter. Don’t use all of it, just enough to get your turkey lightly basted.

Spread the wings and legs away from the body as far as they will go, and cover the legs and breast loosely with foil. Cover the ankles so they do not get withered. The tin foil will stay on the breast until about 30 minutes before the bird is done.

Pour 1 cup of cold water into the bottom of the pan; this will keep the turkey from drying out.

After 15 minutes, lower the oven temperature fro 350 down to 325 degree oven.

Baste it every 30 minutes with the juices that collect in the bottom of the roasting pan. Add more water if the bottom of the pan starts to scorch.

About half way into the cooking, uncover the legs, except for the ankle.  About 30 minutes after, uncover all of leg.  30 minutes before the bird is done, uncover the breast to brown it.
Here are some general guidelines for how long your bird should cook:

8 to 12 lbs. 2 1/2 to 3 hrs.
12 to 14 lbs. 3 to 3 1/2 hrs.
14 to 18 lbs. 3 1/2to 4 1/2 hrs.
18 to 20 lbs. 4  to 4 1/2 hrs.
20 to 24 lbs. 4 1/2 to 5 hrs.
As a general rule, it is about 15 minutes per pound of meat.

Or, cook until temperature on meat thermometer reaches 180 degrees (check in the thickest part, and in a couple different places).

Don’t overcook or it will be dry, but do make sure it is done.  It should never be pink.

Many turkeys have pop up timers. Generally the turkey will be overdone if you rely on them alone.

Take the turkey out of the oven, cover it over again, and leave it to stand at least 20 minutes before carving.

If you need to put other items into the oven to cook alongside the turkey, give an etra 10 to minutes of cook time. Or, just wait to cook it while the bird is standing in a warm place ready to carve.

Then enjoy!!

For the Stuffing:

1⁄2 cup whole chestnuts, or dried if you can’t find whole

2 Tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, peeled and minced

2 celery ribs, chopped

2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed

1 teaspoon dried sage

1 teaspoon dried rosemary

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 cooking apple, peeled, cored and thinly sliced

1 egg, lightly beaten

5 cups stale bread, cubed

1 1⁄4 cups chicken broth

1⁄4 cup butter, melted

Olive oil

Salt (sea salt is preferable)

Pepper

1 10 lb. turkey

For the Gravy:

2 carrots, roughly chopped

1 onion, diced

2 celery stalks, roughly chopped

Corn flour

Chicken stock, low sodium if possible

Butter (if necessary)

Directions:

The Night Before:

If possible, the previous night, or at least one hour before cooking, prepare your turkey. Remove any giblets and rise well (inside and out) with cold water, then pat dry with paper towels. Generously rub turkey with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover and place back in refrigerator until time to cook.

The Next Morning:

Preparing the Stuffing:

To roast the chestnuts, cut an X on the flat side of each chestnut and bake 15 to 20 minutes at 375F oven. Let cool for 10 minutes and then peel and chop.

Do not turn oven off as it will need to be preheated for cooking the turkey.

In a large pot over low heat, heat the olive oil then add onions and celery. Saute for about 3 minutes or until soft. Stir in crushed garlic, sage, rosemary, thyme and apple and sauté for a further 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in egg, then add chestnuts and bread. Toss mixture well. Stir in warm broth and season with salt and pepper. Set aside to cool.

Preparing the Turkey:

Remove turkey from fridge and loosely stuff the neck cavity with chestnut stuffing, fold the skin under and secure in place with a toothpick. Then loosely stuff the main cavity, making sure to leave room for expansion and the air to flow through.

Then prepare your roasting pan. Use a large roasting pan and at the bottom add two roughly chopped carrots, onion and celery. Place the rack over the vegetables. Now place your turkey, breast side up, on the rack. Drizzle with melted butter.

Bake, uncovered, at 375F for the first 30 minutes, then baste and reduce oven temperature to 325F. Continue basting turkey every 25 to 30 minutes. The cooking time should be approximately 20 minutes per pound of turkey, which would be about 3.5 hours for a 10b turkey. To check if the turkey is cooked pierce the thigh bone, juices should run clear without any pink. Also use a meat thermometer on the thickest part of the thigh. The temperature should show 180F. Turkey should be golden and crispy on the outside too.

Remove the turkey from roasting tray and reserve juices for gravy.

Tip: For extra added safety, I like to remove the stuffing from turkey once turkey is cooked and bake on a separate dish for approximately 10 extra minutes.

For the Gravy:

Mash the vegetables in the roasting tray, then push all ingredients through a sieve. Discard any remaining vegetables or fat. Place the sieved liquid in a saucepan and simmer over low heat. If you don’t have enough liquid then add 1 cup or more (depending on how much gravy you need) of chicken stock; You can also add a couple of tablespoons of butter.

In a small bowl add two tablespoons of corn flour and mix with cold water (about 1⁄2 cup) until all lumps dissolve. Slowly add a little of this mixture (tablespoon by tablespoon) to the saucepan, stirring well after each addition and allowing time for gravy to thicken. Keep adding corn flour/water mixture until gravy thickens.

Tip: You can also add a couple of tablespoons of red wine to the gravy or Madeira for a richer taste. The alcohol will dissolve during the cooking process and children will be able to have the gravy.

In this series we will give you the essentials for a fabulous family meal without breaking the bank, or your waistline!

Main course, sides, get a recipe a day here.

Thanksgiving Recipes in this series:

Traditional Roast Turkey with Chestnut Stuffing & Homemade Gravy

Creamy Thanksgiving Mashed Potatoes

Classic Green Bean Casserole

Candied Yams

Cornbread Stuffing

All Butter Apple Pie Crust

Fancy Lattice Apple Pie

Easy Pumpkin Pie

Cranberry Pumpkin Bread

Pumpkin Pecan Muffins

Nothing says autumn quite like the Pumpkin!

Get great Pumpkin Recipes are online at Nutrition Goddess.

Enjoy Halloween and Thanksgiving even more with these tasty treats.