Tur-what?

One thing that Hubs has always wanted to do is take on the culinary masterpiece known as Turducken.  For those of you who are somewhat less familiar with this delightful dish, it's a chicken stuffed inside a duck stuffed inside a turkey.  Yes, it's ba-na-nas.  A little cray-cray even.  And thanks to Whole Foods, you too can take classes in learning the art that is Turducken.

We arrived at the Roosevelt Whole Foods location, excited about our Turducken adventure.  Now, I highly recommend the Whole Foods cooking classes.  We have taken a class at Sur la Table previously, which wasn't nearly as interactive, which I feel is imparative if you're taking a cooking class.  Whole Foods is the shiz-nit.  And they give you wine, and highly encourage the consumption of it throughout the class, which automatically qualifies you as Tres Cool in my book.

But I am getting off track.  The class was being taught by this guy:

Source



This guy is Gabriel Claycamp and he is kind of awesome.  After my years in the food service industry, I've met many a saucy, sassy-pants cook/chef, and he is definitely all of those things.  Katie likey.  This guy knows his way around a piece of meat for sure.  After a quicky demo on how to remove the bones from our various poultry friends, we were set loose to try for ourselves.

I'll spare you the details, but I will say that this is definitely not something to try at home if this is your first time cutting open an animal.  On a scale of 1 to 10, this has an ick factor of about a 15.  You get raw meat under your nails, all up your arms... it's gross.  Yet strangely fun.  Perhaps it was all the wine I drank, or maybe it's the satisfaction that you get from cutting out the bones of a bird, leaving all of the skin and meat intact, but I had a blast. 

Anyhoo... once you're done deboning your creatures, it's time to assemble your new friend.  Take your chicken, season with salt and pepper, fill with a layer of stuffing, fold over and set aside.  Do the same thing with Mr. Duck, laying Mr. Chicken inside of him, folding over, and set aside.  You then stuff Mr. Turkey, put Mr. Duck/Chicken inside, and now you're ready to seal him up and cook him.  Tie him up with kitchen twine, or you can apparently seal him up with Caul, which will make a nice seal around your bird and keep all the delicious juices inside. 

At this point in the class, they did a drawing for the five Turkduckens that the class had assembled.  We did not win, making us both Very Sad Pandas.  However, we noticed that one of the couples that "won" didn't want their Turkducken.  Being Very Sneaky, we decided to hang around the class and wait until everyone left, when we then hijacked the Turkducken and took it home.

Score!

But what does one do with a 3 lb chicken stuffed inside of an 8 lb duck stuffed inside of a 10 lb turkey? 

You call up your friends and host Turducken Thanksgiving, that's what.

*First, cook your new friend Turducken in the oven at 200 degrees for 8 hours, or until the internal temp reaches 155 degrees.  He is then ready to enjoy, and is really juicy and tasty*



Yummy yummy Turducken...sorry about the blurry picture :(

Turducken Thanksgiving was a great success!  However, I personally think that it all kind of tasted like turkey.  It was a lot of work, and we probably won't ever do this again, but it was definitely fun and a great excuse to have both Date Night and a fun get together with friends.

Picky, Picky

My husband is a really good eater (just ask his mom...hee hee...).  He will eat most anything, which makes cooking pretty easy most of the time because he will eat what I make.  However, recently we have made the decision to start eating healthier and made a few rules for ourselves.

1.  Cut back on the drinky-drink- Joel actually said I could have one glass of my beloved vino each night.  I decided it's probably better if I try to limit drinking to the weekends only, and the occasional happy hour.
2.  No bad carbs at dinner.  This means no bread, no pasta, etc.  We are trying really hard to make meals out of lean proteins and lots of veggies and fruit.

Sounds pretty easy right?  Well, one of the veggies that I really love is broccoli.  Steamed, a little lemon, salt & pepper... yummy!  Or even just raw, as a snack.  Joel happens to HATE broccoli.  Hates the taste, and hates the texture.  So I decided to trick him last night into eating broccoli with a little help from my friends at Black Bottle, who have an amazing recipe called Broccoli Blasted. 

Broccoli Blasted
Recipe courtesy of Bon Appetit
4-6 Servings

1 1/4 pounds broccoli, cut into florets (about 8 cups)
3 1/2 Tbl Olive Oil, divided
2 garlic cloves, minced
Large pinch of red pepper flakes

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.  Toss broccoli and 3 Tbl olive oil in a bowl to coat.  Transfer to rimmed baking sheet lined with foil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Roast for 15 minutes.  (It might be a little brown and crispy at this point- that's ok, it's supposed to be this way)  Stir remaining olive oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes in a bowl.  Drizzle over broccoli and return to oven for 8 minutes*.  Season with salt & pepper to taste.

* I found that it was easier to transfer the broccoli back to its original bowl and toss it with the garlic and red pepper mixture to get all of my broccoli coated- this is where you get all the yummy flavor that makes your broccoli not taste like broccoli. 

The result?  Crispy, yummy broccoli that the hubs actually ate.  He said he liked it because it "didn't taste like broccoli and the texture wasn't like little spermies."

Yes, he actually said that.  I am One Lucky Girl, I am.

So, if you have a broccoli hater in your family, I highly recommend you steal this recipe immediately and make it.

XOXO,
ECH