My friend was wondering if a 10lbs of turkey for a small family like us would be too much. We didn't finish it all at once, there are many ways for us to consume a turkey, so, I don't have to worry too much about the left over. In fact, I can skip cooking for few days. :-)
I can make turkey sandwich, fried noodle or rice with turkey, and the turkey bones will be used for porridge or soup.
Fried Bee Hoon : 1. 200g rice noodle - presoaked 2. 1/2 sweet onion - sliced 3. 4 mushrooms - sliced 4. 1 ~ 2 cups cabbage slices 5. some snow peas or desired vegetable 6. 1 cup bowl of turkey meat & some dripping 7. Some water
Seasoning : 1. 2 tsp oyster sauce 2. 1 tbsp soy sauce or to taste
Steps : 1. Grease the heated frying pan, fragrance the onion slices over high heat. 2. Add in mushroom slices and 1/2 of cabbage, stir for 30 seconds. 3. Add in rice noodle and seasoning. Sprinkle some water and stir fry for 2~3 minutes. 4. Add in snow peas, turkey meat, sprinkle some water. Continue to cook for another 3~4 minutes. 5. Serve with warm with some sambal chili. :-)
I have had a terrible sore throat these few days, it was getting worst since yesterday. I didn't sleep at all. Tom took me to the urgent care the first thing in the morning....ya...my Merry Christmas day --- in urgent care! :-( . The doctor gave me some antibiotic (pretty strong one) and pain killer - it helps a little bit, but still very painful when I try to swallow even just liquid...
Tom told me to hold off my turkey adventure as he saw me so sick. I didn't want to because I already started the marination yesterday, and I wondered if it may not turn out right if I change my plan.
So, in this post, I have to give credit to 3 people. The first person is my honey - Tom. He helped me most of the baking process ( I was asleep after taking medicine), and also making the mashed potato. Yummy! Love ya!
Another 2 people are Joanne and Sherry. I got to know them from Tzu Chi. They are very good and experienced in culinary arts and are very kind to share a lot of recipes and tricks with me. I am glad to know them.
Here's the recipe and steps I would like to share. My first turkey turned out tender, juicy and delicious! Whew!!!! I would definitely cook this again in special occasion celebration.
A) 1 X 10lbs turkey
B) Marination : 1. 5tbsp salt (every 2 lbs = 1tbsp) 2. 1 tbsp fresh ground white pepper 3. 1/2tbsp corn pepper (crushed) 4. 1 inch ginger - crushed 5. 3 star anise 6. 6 greed onion - cut to approx. 3in strips 7. 5 quarts water (or enough to cover the whole turkey)
C) Vegetable base - any kind of vegetables you like. I used baby carrot, cabbage and sweet onion slices. You may add some celery strips too.
D) Some honey for glazing (optional)
E) Gravy - the gravy pack came with the turkey, I just added some dripping and bring to boil.
F) Serving with some boiled brocolli and baby carrot seasoned with some salt, garlic powder and parsley.
Steps :
1. Defrost the turkey according to the packing instruction. 2. In a non-stick pot, sauteed the salt, white pepper and corn pepper without oil over medium heat. 3. Pour in the water and the rest of the ingredients, bring to boil. 4. Remove the pot from heat and let it cool COMPLETELY. (I cooked the marination one day ahead before I start the marination process). 5. Slowly place the turkey into the marination water, make sure the turkey is completely soaked in the water. 6. Marinate in the fridge for 24 hours. 7. Remove the turkey from the fridge 2 hours before cooking. Discharge the water. 8. Preheat the oven at 350F. 9. Place your desired vegetable at the bottom of the pan. 10. Place the turkey, breast side up on the pan. 11. Cover with rather loose aluminum foil. Don't let it touch too much or it will stick. Or use a pan with a cover. 13. Bake at 350F for 2.5 hours, then 250 for 2.50 hours. 14. Scoop the dripping and pour over the turkey every 1 hour. 15. Glazing (optional) - remove the aluminum foil, brush with some honey, baked for another 30minues at 350F, un-covered. I think I will skip this steps in future, because it will dry out the turkey a bit. I did that just for better color for the photo presentation.
We finally got our Christmas tree set up yesterday night, whew!!! Another busy month almost gone with full of parties and joys!! This year is a very different and challenging year for me. I am very grateful for everything that happened to me, no matter good or bad, I have learned something from it. Year 2009 seemed to be a tough year to a lot of people due to the economic crisis. I wish the tough situation will recovery soon and everyone is strengthen to overcome the problem. I wish every one Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. May everyday in the new year glow with cheer and happiness.
My new challenge in Christmas holiday is --- fixing a turkey!!! This will be my first attempt. Never deal with turkey before. Wish me luck!!:-)
Slowly...everything is getting back on track. This month is going to be an extremely busy month with parties! LOL, we have at least 5 parties to go for the next 10 days. Not sure how many more will be held until the end of the month!
As such, I won't cook too many complicated meals - got to let our stomach take a break after being stuffed with a lot of goodies from Penang and get ready for the marathon party.
Here's one of my meatless but tasty meals for our 2 vegetarian day practice every month. It is not Buddhism vegetarian, so, you will still see garlic and onion in my ingredients. For those whom just want a meatless meal, this might be one of your choices.
Ingredients :
1. 3 eggs - beat with 1~2 tbsp fresh milk or water and a dash of white pepper
2. 1/2 medium sweet onion - sliced
3. 1 stalk Chinese leek - sliced (split the white and green portion)
4. 2.5~3 cups overnight cooked rice (cooled)
5. 1 tbsp oyster sauce
6. 1 tbsp soy sauce or to taste
7. some salt to taste
8. Some water
9. some green onion or cilantro, red chili for garnishing
Steps :
1. Heat up a greased frying pan, scramble fry the beaten eggs until just cooked, remove from heat and set a side.
2. Heat up the pan again with some vegetable oil, sautee the onion slices and white portion of the Chinese leeks until fragrance.
3. Add in rice, oyster sauce, soy sauce, salt and the green portion of Chinese leek.
4. Sprinkle some water and stir fry for 3~4 minutes
5. Add in scramble egg and stir fry for another 2~3 minutes.
Many people are wondering why did I take such a short trip back to Penang. The main purpose for this trip was bridal photo shooting. We had to save some vacation time for next longer trip for the wedding ceremony. I know it sounds weird. We should have it done long time ago. But due to the visa, green card restrictions, working problems, vacation timing...etc, and also I didn't find the right bridal shop earlier, so......"sigh" long story!! The second night we got home, I woke up at 3.30am and couldn't get back to sleep anymore. We had not got a chance for grocery shopping yet, so, I made an easy bread with my bread maker for Tom's breakfast. Both of us finished the whole loaf of bread in that morning.
The texture of this bread is similar to "Bengali Roti" in my home country, light, soft!! Best eaten with soft boiled egg.
I am still un-packing and cleaning, but will slowly catch up my blogging...! Stay tuned ya!!
Recipe for the bread (use basic regular function) :
1. 150g water 2. 25g egg 3. 25g salted butter - cut to small cubes 4. 13g sugar 5. 3g salt 6. 250g bread flour 7. 3g instant yeast.
Method : Put all the ingredients into the bread pan in the order listed as above (DO NOT let yeast directly contact with salt and liquid). Select basic regular function, press start. The bread will be ready in 2 hours 40 minutes.
