Best Thanksgiving Turkey Ever!

Browning of the turkey comes from rubbing the skin with duck fat

Okay, the title might be an exaggeration, but honestly, I just baked the best Thanksgiving Turkey I’ve ever baked. Granted, I’ve never liked turkey very much (it usually tastes like cardboard to me). But, I actually enjoyed this one so much that I couldn't resist picking small morsels off the pan with my fingers and popping them in my mouth. Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 14-15 lb turkey (not brined)
• Herbes de Provence, equal parts:
• 1 tablespoon dried basil
• 1 tbsp dried sage
• 1 tbsp savory
• 1 tbsp marjoram
• 1 tbsp fennel seeds
• 1 tbsp dried oregano
• 1 tbsp dried thyme
• 1 tbsp dried rosemary
• 7-8 teaspoons salt (or half a teaspoon of salt for every lb of turkey)
• 1/4 cup duck fat

Instructions:

1. On the day before Thanksgiving, dry rub the turkey with the herbes de Provence mixture and salt. Separate the skin of the turkey from the turkey meat. This helps to render the fat underneath the skin and helps crisp the skin. Mix a portion of the herbes de Provence with the salt so the salt looks well peppered and rub most of it beneath the skin of the turkey. Cover the turkey with Saran Wrap and place in the oven for 24 hours.
2. On Thanksgiving day, adjust the rack in the oven, and preheat to 400 degrees. While the oven is heating, rub the duck fat all over the turkey skin and salt a bit more. If you want, you can fill the cavity of the turkey with celery, and other leftover aromatics, although it is still unclear to me whether this does anything to flavor the turkey.
3. Put the turkey breast side up on a raised grill over a cookie sheet and insert in the 400 degree oven  for 1:15 or until the skin is slightly browned. Place a tent of aluminum foil over the turkey, and lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees and cook for another 2 hours.
4. Check the turkey temperature 15 minutes before the timer. Remove the turkey when it is 165 degrees. When I checked the temperature, it was around 190 degrees -maybe my thermometer was not calibrated- surprisingly the meat was not overcooked.
5. Let the turkey rest for 30 minutes before carving.

Observation: what really makes this turkey better than any of the other turkeys I’ve made, I think,  was the dry brining, the herbes de Provence, and the duck fat. The duck fat smelled delectable as the turkey roasted, more so than any other Thanksgiving. Lesson learned: when it is necessary to boost flavor, such as when using naturally flavorless meats like turkey, use duck fat!

A short video of the Thanksgiving meal we made for two people, which for some reason, my husband insists on doing every year, even though we had already spent Thanksgiving at my cousin's house.

Jamaican Jerk Chicken with Caramelized Plantains

Mark and I just returned from a 2 week dive trip to the Cayman Islands. Whenever possible, we sampled the jerk chicken there. I was inspired by our meals in the Cayman Islands to make my own jerk chicken. Traditionally grilled, I converted this jerk recipe to oven-roasting. I think baking at a lower temperature helps to encourage moister meat, while still being hot enough to crisp the skin. I also modified the recipe so that I could cook the plantains at the same time, capitalizing on the rendered fat from the chicken to coat the plantains underneath. I served the jerk chicken with plantains with a Greek cucumber salad, and rice and beans. I think it turned out pretty well, or at least good enough to write down. Anyways, here is my recipe:


Ingredients
Note: This jerk marinade recipe was doubled for future meals. Do not pour entire jerk sauce over the chicken.

• 6 Leg quarters or thighs with skin on
• 1 bunch of scallions (6-8 scallions)
• 3 tablespoons of fresh thyme
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 1-1.5 cups of soy sauce
• 5 Habanero peppers, deveined and deseeded
• 1 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
• 2-3 teaspoons of cloves
• 1-2 tablespoons of ground all-spice
• 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 plantains

Instructions:

1. Separate skin from leg meat. This will help the fat to render and coat the plantains underneath. It will also help the skin to crisp.
2. Blend scallions, thyme, garlic, soy sauce, Habanero peppers, nutmeg, cloves, all-spice, and olive oil in a food processor. Make adjustments to ingredient amounts for taste.
3. Pour 1 cup of the jerk marinade over the chicken meat in a bowl and coat all over. Let soak in refrigerator for 2 hours minimum, turning the meat over every so often.
4. Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
5. Cut plantains into 3/4" diagonal slices. Layer the bottom of a lasagna pan with the slices. If the plantain peels are not completely black or ripened before using, sprinkle 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar over the top of the plantains to encourage carmelization. Layer marinated chicken leg quarters over the plantain slices, skin side up.
6. When oven has heated up to the right temperature, place lasagna pan into the oven and bake for 1 hour and 40 minutes or until the leg meat is cooked to 165 deg F or leaks clear juices when pierced. Remove the chicken from pan and let rest for at least 5 minutes.
7. Pour excess chicken fat out of lasagna pan. I like to save the rendered chicken fat for other recipes. Change oven setting to broil. Place plantain layer underneath broiler and broil for an additional 15 minutes or until caramelized.
8. Once chicken leg quarters have rested, cut drumstick away from thigh meat with a chef's knife and plate. Spoon fresh jerk sauce over the top.

Serving suggestions: Serve jerk chicken with plantains with a cucumber salad and rice and beans.

Mina's customization: I like my jerk marinade on the strong side, so I added a couple more Habanero peppers and a lot more all-spice and cloves than normally recommended. I also added way more scallion and garlic than normally recommended. The end result is that it actually tastes a lot like the jerk chicken served at my favorite Jamaican restaurant in San Jose, Back-A-Yard. Back-A-Yard is still the bench mark for jerk chicken, unfortunately, despite all of the jerk chicken we sampled in the Cayman Islands.

Baked Egg in Yorkshire Pudding

This past Christmas, we had some leftover Yorkshire puddings. This recipe makes good use of the leftovers, and it looks and tastes great, if I say so myself. Baking the Yorkshire pudding twice makes the Yorkshire pudding crispy and stiff enough to lift by hand. Here is the recipe for the Baked Egg in Yorkshire Pudding.

Ingredients

• Yorkshire puddings
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Bacon (1 per basket)
• Egg (1 per Yorkshire Pudding)
• Optional: Chives

Instructions

This recipe is designed to be made with pre-made Yorkshire pudding. I used Gordon Ramsey's Yorkshire Pudding recipe:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees F. 
2. Place the Yorkshire puddings into oven-safe containers, and place containers onto a cookie tray. I chose to put a half inch of water in the tray which steamed up the oven and prevented the eggs from drying out. 
3. Place one bacon strip into each Yorkshire pudding. I chose to loop the raw strip around inside the pudding but you can also pre-cook the bacon in the microwave if you prefer not to eat the rendered bacon fat.
4. Once the oven has reached the correct temperature, place the tray into the oven for 15 minutes or until the bacon is almost cooked. 
5. Take the tray out, and put one egg into each pudding over the bacon. Place the tray back into the oven and cook for 10 minutes for soft-boiled yolks. I cooked mine for 12 minutes, and the yolks were almost fully done when they came out. 
6. Take the Yorkshire puddings out, and sprinkle salt, pepper and chives over top. Let cool. The Yorkshire puddings should be crispy enough to hold by hand.

Mussel and Corn Chowder

I went on a seafood foraging outing along the coastline with some friends, and came back with too many mussels to eat in one sitting. We had a dinner party to help consume all the shell fish we found, but were only able to eat through half of our live mussels.  With the impending threat of mussels gradually dying and causing a huge stink on my patio, I forced myself to cook the leftover mussels today. 

So, today, I made a chowder out of the leftover live mussels and the result was pretty good, if I say so myself. I found the recipe on the web, but added my own flourishes, such as the corn and chives. This recipe is versatile; you could substitute the mussels with some other type of seafood to make all manner of chowders.

Ingredients

5 lbs of mussels, or enough to yield one bowl of chopped mussel meat

1 bottle of white wine (Sauvignon Blanc or similar)

6-8 cloves of garlic, minced finely

1/3 cup of tarragon, thyme or parsley

Corn kernels removed from 3 ears of white corn

3-4 cups of mussel stock

Olive oil

1 large onion, chopped coarsely

2 large Idaho potatoes, peeled and sliced into 1" squares

4-8 celery stalks, sliced into 1/4" slices

4-7 bacon strips, sliced into 1/4" slices

2-3 cups of milk (from skim to cream, whatever your preference)

3-4 tablespoons of sliced chives for garnish

Instructions

1. Scrub the mussels under cold running water to remove barnacles and other growth.  You can scrub one mussel shell against another mussel shell to efficiently remove barnacles from both mussels.  Soak mussels in fresh water for 1-2 hours.

2. In a large pot, add a few tablespoons of olive oil, and add minced garlic.  After 2 minutes, pour in the bottle of white wine. Add salt to taste. Once boiling, add the mussels and cover.  Lower the heat to medium heat. Simmer for 8-15 minutes, or until mussels are opened.

3.  Remove mussels from heat. Remove mussel meat from shell.  Remove the beard from the mussel meat. Pour and reserve the mussel stock, without pouring out the grit and sand on the bottom of the pot. 

4. Chop the mussel meat finely until organs are not recognizable and put aside, in the refrigerator if necessary.

5. In a large pot over medium high heat, cook 1/4 cup of olive oil and the bacon until the bacon is browned around the edges.

6. Add onions and the celery and cook until the onions begin to become translucent - 6-8 minutes.

7. Add the mussel stock and potatoes, and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to medium and simmer for 8 minutes.

8. Add the corn kernels and herb of choice and cook for 4 more minutes.

9. Add minced mussel meat. Add milk (3 cups) to taste. Add salt and pepper to taste.

10. Ladle soup into individual bowls, and sprinkle with chives and serve.

Fish Tacos and Salsa Fresca

Fish tacos are much easier to prepare than one would think.  I tried making them for the first time, and they tasted surprisingly authentic:

Fish Tacos 
Corn tortillas
White fish (I used rockfish)
1/2 cup canola oil
salt to taste (generous)
cayenne pepper to taste

Instructions:
1. Lower the rack in the oven to 4" from the heating element. Set oven to broil. While the oven is heating up, prepare the Salsa Fresca, or prepare the fish:
2. Coat a broiler pan with the canola oil.
3. Place the white fish in the pan. Coat the fish on both sides with the oil using a brush.  (You can also try marinating the fish in lime juice and cilantro for 15 minutes beforehand. I didn't do it, and it is probably unnecessary.)
4. Season fish generously on both sides with salt
5. Season fish with cayenne pepper on both sides
6. When the oven is hot, place the fish in the broiler pan on the rack and cook for 10 minutes, or until fish is flaky. (Don't worry if the canola oil gives off a strange smell while cooking.)
7. Let fish cool, and flake the fish.  There will be a lot of liquid in the pan after cooking, so it is important to salt the fish generously.
8. Place fish in warm corn tortillas with pinto beans and Salsa Fresca below. Garnish plates with lime slices.

Salsa Fresca
1-2 Jalapeno peppers (if using seeds, just 1 pepper is enough)
5 Vine-ripened Tomatoes
4-5 Radishes
1/2 cup cilantro
1/2 red onion
Juice from half a lime
Salt to taste

1. Chop all ingredients in a blender separately.
2. Combine ingredients in a bowl.

I didn't make the cabbage garnish this time, but I looked up a simple Bobby Flay recipe, which I will be sure to attempt next time:

Cabbage Garnish
Shredded white cabbage
Crema or sour cream
Hot sauce
Thinly sliced red onion, and green onion
chopped cilantro leaves
Crema or sour cream

1. Combine all incredients and garnish fish tacos.

Chicken Tikka Masala

This recipe is from The Best of America's Test Kitchen Best Recipes and Reviews 2009. It's pretty good. See my comments below in blue.

Chicken Tikka

• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed (I used drumsticks and thighs)
• 1 cup plain whole milk yogurt (I thought this was a waste of yogurt - try 3/4 cup)
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 garlic cloves (minced)
• 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger (ginger is difficult to grate since it gets stuck in the grater, try a mini-food processor)

Masala Sauce

• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 onion, minced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tsp grated fresh ginger
• 1 serrano chile, minced (I used thinly sliced)
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon garam masala
• 1 (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes (I used 1/5 less tomatoes and it was fine)
• 2 tsp sugar
• salt to taste
• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1. For the Chicken: Combine the cumin, coriander, cayenne and salt in a small bowl. Sprinkle evenly on chicken. Refrigerate for 30-60 minutes.

2. For the sauce: Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat until shimmering. Add the onion and cook, stirring frequently until light golden (8-10 minutes). Add the garlic, giner, chile, tomato paste, and garam masala; cook until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Add the tomatoes, sugar, and 1/2 tsp salt; bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium low, cover, and simmer 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the cream and return to a simmer. Remove the pan from the heat and cover to keep warm.

3. While the sauce simmers, adjust an oven rack to the upper-middle position (about 6 inhces from the heating element and heat the broiler). (No wonder my chicken took twice as long. My rack was in the dead middle of the oven.) Using tongs, dip the chicken into the yogurt mixture (the chicken should be coated with a thick layer of yogurt) and arrange on a wire rack set in the foil lined, rimmed baking sheet or broiler pan. (You don't need a wire rack, you can lay your chicken directly on the foil lined sheet.) Broil for 10-18 minutes flipping the chicken halfway through cooking. The exterior should lightly charred in parts. (It took 18 minutes to char on each side if you put the rack in the dead center of the oven.) The chicken should read 160 degrees at its thickest parts.

4. Let the chicken rest 5 minutes, then cut into 1 inch chunks and stir into the warm sauce. Stir in the cilantro, season to taste with salt, and serve.

Aloo Gobi Recipe

Here is the original recipe as posted here with my comments below in blue.

1 small head phool gobhi--cauliflower, chopped into florets and washed (don't chop, tear up with hands)
3 quick cooking potatoes, (they must be the kind that cook in 20 minutes, not the baking kind that take an hour) cut into small cubes and soaking in water (I used 2 small yellow potatoes)
1 small onion sliced
4 garlic cloves cut into slivers
1 tsp crushed fresh ginger
1 tsp whole cumin seeds (substituted with ground cumin)
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2-1 tsp red chili powder
1 heaping tsp ground cumin
1 stick cinnamon
3-4 cardamon pods
2 bayleaves
5 black pepper corns
5 cloves (all of these whole spices come together in your small packet of whole garam masala in small quantities to make it easy for you)
2-3 whole red dried chilies (I used one medium dried ancho chile)
2 fresh green chilies cut in bite sized chunks (de-seed if u like) (I used 1 sliced serrano pepper)
2 tablespoons of roughly chopped fresh cilantro
1/2-1 tsp garam masala powder
2 tablespoons oil
salt to taste

Heat oil in wok until very hot. Add in the whole red chilies, the cumin seeds, the bay leafs, cloves, pepper corns, cardamon, cinnamon stick, and fry around for about 1 minute.

Then add in the onions, garlic, ginger. Fry until onions look translucent and garlic looks crispy.

Then add in the turmeric, red chili powder, and cumin powder. Let this sizzle for one moment, then add in the potato cubes. They must still be wet from soaking in water...this creates steam to help them cook. Stir around well for a few minutes, getting the masala color on them.

Then lower heat to medium and cover. Leave for 10 minutes, stirring a couple of times to prevent bottom sticking.

Then turn up the heat and add in the gobhi---it helps if you gobhi is a tad wet from being washed as well. Stir again coating in the masala oil. You should add your salt now, too.

Then lower heat to medium again and cover for about 10-15 more minutes, stirring occasionally. By now the potato and cauliflower are both cooked, and it is done. They should be fully cooked, but slightly crisp. Definately not mushy and falling apart. Now add the pinch of ground garam masala and the chopped green chilies. With the heat off, cover again and allow the green chilies to steam a bit for a few minutes. Then uncover, add in the chopped cilantro garnish, and serve.

Turkey Follow Up, and More Recipe Stuff

The turkey was nooot good. Serves me right for believing I could make a better turkey than the masses. The turkey was not very salty, tough, and did not exhibit enough carmalization on the skin.

Lessons learned:
(1) the turkey needs to be a few inches from the heat coil at the top of the oven. The "Joy of Cooking" said to lower the rack to the lowest setting. But the turkey was so small, it was too far away!

(2) No more free-range/organic turkey. It was tough.

In other recipe news, I learned how to make my Mom's Chinese turkey stew.

Ingredients:
dried shitake mushrooms soaking in water
dried wood ear mushrooms soaking in water
preserved cabbage, shredded, in a can (yellow and red can labelled "Preserved Cabbage")

Instructions:
(1) Boil the carcass in a pot. Also possible, a thigh leg. No carcass necessary
(2) Lower the soup to a simmer. In the meantime, cut the mushrooms and wood ear mushrooms into slices, taking care to remove the woody root of the wood ear. Slices can be 1/8" thick.
(3) Put 1/2-3/4 can of the preserved, salty cabbage into the soup and simmer for a few hours.
(4) Put julienned carrots into the soup. Simmer some more...
(5) The soup is done when the wood ear mushroom makes the soup gelatinous. Serve into a bowl with some Chinese black vinegar (optional).

Roasted Brined Turkey, November, 2008

As you may well know, we take food very seriously in this household. Mark was a former cook, and has spoiled me with his sublime Italian cooking. One of his culinary habits is precision, both in material selection, as well as in following process parameters. Some of his habit has soaked into my cooking style through osmosis. In this spirit, I have begun to write down recipes, so that I can learn and iterate upon them to satisfaction. Sometimes, a little bit of extra effort is required to set oneself apart from the ordinary!

In hopes of eventually perfecting my roasted turkey, and improving from the one I roasted in March, I will be recording the process of brining and roasting this Thanksgiving's 7.22 lbs turkey.

Brining
I did not use my redlined notes from the brining recipe from the "Joy of Cooking", which in retrospect was not a huge mistake since the "Joy" recipe calls for a 6 hour soak, instead of the overnight brining I performed for this turkey. This year I used an adaptation of Emeril Lagasse's brine recipe online:

1.5 gallons of water (24 cups)
3/4 cup of brown sugar (or golden sugar in my case)
1.5 cups of kosher salt (or 3/4 cups of table salt)
2-3 tbs dried rosemary

I hope there is enough salt. The Joy of Cooking recipe called for twice as much salt.

Roasting
Veering slightly from the "Joy of Cooking" instructions, I will be stuffing the turkey with a shallot, a carrot, and a celery stalk. The shallot is taking place of the onion due to the smaller turkey cavity. To encourage browning, the turkey skin will be covered with melted butter.

Per my March turkey blog, I will be roasting the turkey at 325 deg. F on the lowest rack setting. The turkey will be positioned on a wire rack on a disposable, aluminum roasting pan, with a cup of water at the bottom of the pan to discourage burning of drippings. Because this turkey is less than half the weight of March's turkey, it will be difficult to guess how much oven time I will require. To be conservative, I will cook the turkey for even less time than I proposed in my March blog:

The turkey will be breast side up for 1.25-1.5 hours, and then breast side down for 25 minutes, or until the center of the thigh is 170 deg. F (according to the "Joy", this will help ensure the tenderest of breast meat, but the thigh meat will be a bit pink, but still thoroughly cooked).

Resting
I will be resting the bird under a tent of aluminum foil for 15-20 minutes.

To be continued...

Spaghetti con Tonno e Pomodoro

Ingredients:

5-6 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
2 handfuls of black kalamata olives, seeded and chopped in quarters
5-6 fillets of salted anchovies from a can, chopped finely
2 tablespoons of capers
1 handful of roughly chopped fresh arugula (1/4" square)
1 large can tuna fish stored in water or oil (12 oz)
1 large can of San Marzano tomatos (28 oz)
1/2 cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil (preferably Sagra brand)
1 package of Barilla "thick spaghetti" or other pasta
1-2 tablespoons of coarse sea salt
2 tablespoons of regular Morton’s salt
1-2 tablespoons of red chili flakes

Instructions:

1. In a large skillet over medium-low heat, fry the garlic until golden but not brown (4-5 minutes). Add the chopped anchovies midway through and stir together.
2. Push the anchovy garlic mixture to the side of the pan where the temperature is lower. Put the quartered olives on the other side. Put the tuna at the center of the pan. Raise the temperature to medium-high. Cook until slightly brown (4 minutes). Add 1-2 tablespoons of coarse sea salt and 1 tablespoon of red chili flakes and mix together.
3. In parallel cook the thick spaghetti with generously salted pasta water (2 tablespoons of Morton’s salt). Cook until al dente.\
4. Add the chopped can of San Marzano tomatoes with juice to the sauce and simmer for 4-5 minutes. Take the sauce off the heat and add the chopped arugula and capers.
5. Transfer the cooked pasta directly into the sauce. It is okay if pasta water drips into the sauce. Place back on medium-low heat. Mix all the ingredients together including the arugula and capers until heated through.
6. Plate the pasta on large rimmed bowls or plates. Finish the pasta with 1 tablespoon of high quality fresh olive oil.

Story and Insights behind this recipe
After living with former professional cook professionally for many years, and after watching many cooking shows starring such Italian chefs as Lidia Bastianich and Michael Chiarello, I have incorporated some learnings that differentiate decent pasta from mediocre pasta. Here are some of these insights as well as some of my subjective opinions.

1. It is important to cook garlic over low to medium heat. It is worth the extra 4 minutes to do so.
2. Anchovies add flavor to tomato pastas. You can’t even taste the anchovies in the finished product, but the anchovies make the dish richer and more striking.
3. Adding arugula was an accident. I was trying to clean the refrigerator of excess ingredients. But the arugula marries so well with the tuna, that I would recommend this combination over adding parsley or basil (as recommended in other recipes).
4. Generously salt the pasta water and the pasta will taste as though it absorbed the pasta sauce better.
5. Add pasta water to the pasta sauce. It is better that the sauce taste soupy than too dry.

Turkey Saga, and Relaxing Sunday on the Peninsula

This Sunday was all about relaxing with Mark. Unlike me, he has to work tomorrow, so I made sure he had time to relax after his less-than-ideal dive on Saturday.

The morning started with grocery shopping at the Mountain View Farmer's Market, where we bumped into our friend Joann and her sister, which was a welcome surprise.

I then embarked on a 17 mile bike ride with Eddie and Mark, more for exercise rather than for fun. Also, it was a statement of doing things that Mark enjoys, because he suffered through the scuba diving yesterday, which I enjoy. But I had fun inspite of myself, it was such a beautiful day.

While waiting for the guys at Peets Coffee, I submerged myself in newspapers, pretending I was one of those politically savvy types who read multiple newspapers a day. I realize that I had stopped avidly reading the news since Bush Jr. ascended to the presidency. Why read news, when all news is bad news? Now that we will have a much better president (Republican or Democrat), I vow to read the news more frequently.

In other news, the 3 year old frozen turkey turned out well. Next time, I would like to brine the turkey longer (overnight instead of 6 hours) so that it tastes more salty and is more moist, also, I think I will roast the turkey for 1h45 breast side down, and only 30 min breast side up so that the meat is more tender, or at least until the center of the thigh is 120 deg F.

Right now, utilizing the turkey leftovers in creative ways has been occupying my brain. The Moroccan turkey stew that I created the other night was quite the success. (Next time, I would like to use less water, use golden raisins instead of the yam, use green Middle-Eastern olives instead of the black Kalamatas I used, and eliminate the chickpeas.)

Moroccan Turkey Stew Ingredients:

1 Turkey carcass

1/4-1/2 cup golden raisins

3-4 carrots, sliced in 1/4" pieces

4 celery spears, sliced in 1/4" pieces

3-4 handfuls of turkey meat, chopped in 1" pieces

1 cinnamon stick

2 tbs cumin

2 tbs of curry powder

1 tbs of cardamom

sugar and salt to taste

2 cups of cooked couscous

1-2 cups of halved, pitted Mediterranean, preferably Middle Eastern green olives

2 medium onions, cut into 1" slices

3 cloves of garlic, diced

1 handful of chopped Italian parsley

Moroccan Turkey Stew Instructions:

(1) Place turkey carcass, or large turkey thigh in large stock pot. Fill stock pot with water, maybe 8 inches deep. Cut carcass into smaller pieces if necessary. Boil vigorously, and then lower temperature to simmering. Leave on simmer for 1.5-2 hours. Remove carcass and bones. Skim fat off of soup surface if it exists.

(2) Over medium-high heat, fry the onions, garlic and cinnamon stick for 5 minutes or until soft. Pour onions into soup stock. Let stock simmer for another 10 minutes.

(3) Place chopped celery, and turkey meat into stock pot. Let stock simmer for another 10 minutes.

(4) Place raisins and carrots into stock pot. Simmer until carrots are done. Season to taste with sugar and salt. In parallel, make two cups of couscous according to couscous cooking instructions.

(5) Place 1-2 inches of couscous at bottom of bowls.

(6) Ladle over with the Moroccan turkey stew. Garnish with chopped parsley.