Sunday, October 18, 2009

Back to Ursula's, after years, for Thanksgiving Turkey

When we were still living in Spalding Lake, I used to go to cooking classes with Ursula, a funny German lady who has been running a cooking school on Cheshire Bridge Rd. since the 60's. She is still going strong....in fact, she catered Jimmy Carter's birthday party at the Carter center earlier this month. I plan to share some of her recipes that I think have merit. They are my interpretation of her recipe and hopefully you can follow them. Just be thankful that you didn't have to try to read my handwriting....even I had a struggle.
This is her 2009 Holiday Turkey......it was truly amazing.....very moist and nicely browned despite the cooking bag. Enjoy!.............Sue (aka Grandma Sue, aka Elle's Mom)

Thanksgiving Turkey a la Ursula 09

Preheat oven to 415 degrees (400 degrees for a convection oven).
Use a 12 -14 lb. turkey (plan to buy about 1 lb. of turkey per person)

Line a baking pan with foil. Use a Reynolds Turkey Bag (ignore any directions that come with the box). Spray the inside of the bag with PAM.

Inside the bag, make a bed of:

1 ½ - 2 cups of sliced onions
1 T. fresh garlic, minced
3 stalks of celery, sliced
½ T. fresh rosemary
½ T. herbes de provence
½ cup soup greens (dried).

Wash out turkey and dry thoroughly. In a mixing bowl, put a 14 oz. package of turkey breakfast sausage removed from the casing. Add a 12 oz. container of Stauffer’s spinach soufflĂ©. Both should be at room temp. Mix in:

3 T. dried minced onions
1 t. dried minced garlic
½ T. fresh rosemary
1 T. Chef Merito turkey seasoning
½ T. herbes de provence.

Mix. Gently loosen the turkey skin from the breast and put the sausage-spinach mixture under the skin. Put a handful of onions and ½ T. rosemary, ½ T. herbes de provence, ½ T. turkey seasoning into the body cavity. Tie the legs together loosely and put the turkey in the bag on top of the veggie pile (don’t slide the veggies back....lift the turkey in carefully). Push back the bag so you can pour ½ cup white wine (which you have already brought to the boil) over the breast skin to seal the pores. Pull the bag back around and seal it tightly and tuck the twisted end of the bag under the turkey. Cook a 10- 12 lb. turkey for an hour (for every lb. above 12, add 5 min.) After the cooking time lower the heat to 400, open the bag (don’t steam burn yourself) with a knife, and fold it back to expose the breast. Put in a thermometer in the thigh and cook until the temperature is 165 degrees.

PAM a pot and transfer the contents of the bag and any juice in the pan to the pot and heat on the stove. Add 1 envelope of brown gravy mix (McCormick) and 6 oz. shitake mushrooms that have been peeled, degilled and sliced. Simmer for a couple minutes and add 2- 3 T. cream.

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