Food Lush

How Do You Cook YOUR Turkey?

By Nora

{Photo from foodnetwork.com}

Okay guys, we are approaching very dangerous territory as I know that there are many, many ways one can cook a turkey, and so many people have VERY strong opinions on just how it should be done. It's amazing, really, all of the methods that can be utlized to create the most succulent, flavorful bird.  Some folks swear by brining the turkey a day before in order to get maximum juiciness and taste. Then there are some people (close friends of mine included), that ONLY deep fry their turkey and swear that once you eat a deep fried turkey you'll never eat it any other way again. This method both terrifies and intrigues me, if i'm being honest. I've been a fan of the traditional roasting method for as long as i've been cooking turkey, but i've varied what I do to it. I've spread rosemary butter under the skin AND over the skin, i've stuffed it with citrus fruits, onions, apples, garlic, bay leaves, you name it. I've draped a cheesecloth soaked in melted butter over it (Martha's method), and i've basted it with cider every 15 minutes (exhausting). For the last few years i've also been cooking just the turkey breast (because no one in my family is a dark meat fan), so that's saved on tons of leftovers. And while every year it turns out tasty, but i've never had the turkey that's completely blown me away---the one that lives in infamy through every subsequent Thanksgiving.

This year, however, we may try something different. This summer we became the proud owners of a Weber Smoker, and my husband is determined to smoke everything and anything possible.  So, of course, the turkey is on the list.  I'm worried though that it will taste VERY smoky, and i'm not sure that's how I want my Thanksgiving turkey to taste. Has anyone out there smoked a turkey before? If so, can you tell me whether it's worth it?

Also, i'd love to hear how you Food Lushers do YOUR turkeys!  Do you go the traditional roasting route, or do you have another favorite cooking method?  Do you cook the stuffing separately, or in the bird? Tell me all your turkey secrets!!!

Pantry Staple: Canned (and Dried) Lentils

Editor's note: Welcome to the lovely Sarah Anne, who is joining Food Lush's ranks. You can learn more about her at Fear No Food and on Twitter, too. 

***

by Sarah Anne

Hey folks! I'm Sarah, a new addition to Food Lush, and I'm pretty excited to be able to talk to yet MORE people about food. Consider yourself warned!

As someone really keyed into not only the enjoyment of food, but also true nourishment, I tend to be a bit obsessive about making sure that we eat a well-rounded diet with plenty of fiber, protein, and other nutrients. It helps that I am constantly looking up nutritional stats of most foods, but it also helps that I keep my pantry and freezer well-stocked. Out of the many foods I keep on hand, which hopefully I'll go through in time, one of my most favourite pantry staples is a can or bag of lentils.

They are a great source of cholesterol-reducing fiber, vegetarian protein along with a couple B vitamins, folate, iron, manganese and a host of other vitamins and minerals. Not to mention, lentils are low calorie and nearly free of fat. As a vegetarian, I'd say they're a pretty good staple to have on hand, and we eat them a few times a week. 

There are several different types of lentils – brown/green, french or puy lentils, split red lentils, each of which has their use; I use brown or green lentils most often, with split red lentils coming a close second in the wintertime.

Canned lentils can be a great quick fix, and are wonderful in the summertime when you don't want to heat up the kitchen, as I rarely do in my 500sq ft apartment. Toss the rinsed lentils with chopped veggies and prepared vinaigrette for a nutritious and filling salad. Add a whole grain for even more oomph. Do the same in the fall or winter, but saute the vegetables and add the rinsed lentils toward the end, toss with dressing or sauce and you have a hearty, belly-warming meal. Our favourite this past summer was to add quinoa and canned lentils to Greek salad for a complete and super easy meal.

A bag of dried lentils can be just as useful, and even less expensive, but requires a bit more planning and prep time just to rinse and cook. It's still worth the effort to me! Here are a few of my recent favourites that used dried lentils. I've made each of these and have LOVED them. As an aside – so has my husband who is usually the test of a good, people-pleasing recipe.

Dreena Burton's “No-Fu” Love Loaf

(Source: Hannah Kaminsky & Plant Powered Kitchen)

Veggie Balls from Huffington Post

(Source) 

 

French Lentils with Walnuts and Goat Cheese from Laura Calder, Food Network Canada

(Source)

Lentils are such a versatile ingredient and a great option for meat eaters and vegetarians alike and are cheap to boot! From lentil loaves to indian style curries, everyone can get on board with something about lentils. Do you cook with lentils often? What kind? Do you have a favourite recipe that uses them? I'd love to find some new ones!

Easy Pantry Meal: Crock Pot Beans and Rice

by Jess M

So many evenings I struggle to squeeze in some kind of dinner between school, homework, and kids’ activities. And sometimes those same evenings come at the end of a day filled with activities for the toddler, or errands or any number of things that can clog up my day and take over any of the time I may have had to prepare dinner ahead of time. On nights like these, it goes without saying that the children are eating a dinner out of the freezer: chicken nuggets or corn dogs, maybe with a side of canned fruit or applesauce if I remember. But my husband and I really want something delicious and preferably healthy, and I don’t want to attempt to make something that is going to take any amount of time to prepare. 

This recipe for Crock Pot Beans and Rice has become a staple for those nights when we hardly have time to sit down together and eat. And it’s also great for those nights when we can’t sit down together and I’m taking one kid one way and he’s taking the other another way. I can leave the crock pot on the counter and we can help ourselves. 

I'm really not sure how I came across this recipe in the first place: I think it was the result of my husband doing some random googling for meal inspiration. 

The recipe is super flexible, you could use any combination of beans you like and any kind of rice you may have on hand. It is also very quick for a crockpot recipe, I've had it be ready in as little as 3 hours on high, though 4 is better. I like to generously sprinkle some salt on top of my bowl and eat it standing up in the kitchen.

Chicken Tortilla Casserole

by Elsha

I usually try to cook healthy, well-balanced meals, but sometimes the day just calls for a yummy, comforting, not-at-all healthy casserole. Chicken tortilla casserole is one of our favorites:

1 can evaporated milk

1 can Cream of Mushroom soup

1 can Cream of Chicken soup

1 can chicken

1 small can chopped green chilies

1 medium onion, finely chopped

10 corn tortillas

2 cups grated cheddar cheese

Combine all ingredients except the tortillas and cheese, and bring to a low boil. Tear the tortillas into small pieces. Layer tortillas, soup mixture, and cheese in a greased 9X13 pan. (2 layers of each.) Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. We serve it with chips and homemade guacamole and really, what else do you need?

(photo credit: www.livebetteramerica.com)

Do you have a favorite comfort-food casserole?

Chicken Wing Style Cauliflower

By Jessica

I haven't had a chicken wing in over two years and even before then I really only liked the boneless chicken "wings" with a thick crunchy coating and slick-yet-sticky sauce. To further "dumb down" my chicken wing card, that sauce I refer to, my favorite wing sauce? Honey BBQ. I simply am too much of a spice weenie to handle the traditional buffalo wing sauce (though I am far and away better than I was when I first moved to Texas) and don't even get me started on whatever Wicked Flaming Firey Death Sauce my husband gets on his wings. They should just call that stuff "Nose-hair curling, make it burn when you pee sauce." No ma'am. 

I do very much miss "chicken wings" though so when I found this picture on Pinterest?

I HAD to follow that pin, even though it was obviously traditional buffalo wing flavored. Doesn't that look fabulous? FABULOUS. 

My version via late night iPhone photography doesn't look nearly as pretty

but it was oh so very tasty. I made a few alterations to her recipe to make it dairy free. DAIRY FREE (I still weep, a little). 

• For the buttermilk I subbed 1 cup unsweetened coconut milk mixed with apple cider vinegar
• For the flour I mixed 1/2 cup AP flour and 1/2 cup chickpea flour
• Added 2 tsp garlic powder to the flour mixture
• Earth balance and olive oil for the butter
• Stubb's Hickory Bourbon and Bull's Eye Kansas City BBQ Sauces for the buffalo sauce
• Dairy free ranch for the blue cheese

After making these I can say that it's very important to use a shallow baking dish or even a cookie sheet covered in parchment. The first batch, the coating came up a little on the soft side and I think that is because I made them in a regular 13X9 pan. When I reheated them the next day on a cookie sheet? They came out much better.

(Photos from: The Curvy Carrot and me)

Easy Crock Pot Beer Brats

by Jess M

This time of year always has me yearning for some nice, heavy, delicious German food. And some nice, heavy, delicious German beer to go with it. So, with football on the TV (Baltimore Ravens!), I wanted something easy and fairly hands-off. I didn’t want to spend my Sunday standing over a pot frying schnitzel.

Last week we made Cook’s Country’s Slow-Cooker Beer Brats. The recipe is pretty simple and doesn’t require a whole lot of prep work. Onions and brats go in the crock pot with a simple mustard mixture and beer. At the end you remove the brats and heat up some sauerkraut. The Test Kitchen recommends you use a light-bodied American lager, but we used a heavier Marzen beer for fuller flavor.

After 4 hours on high, by halftime we were enjoying brats with sauerkraut and mustard and a side of soft pretzels.

(Photo from: Cook's Country)

Stuffed Eggplant

By Jessica

I love eggplant, you can do so many things with it and if I feel like trying something new with an eggplant I might have on hand? I can just do a search for something that I think might sound good, like Sausage Stuffed Eggplant and chances are, I'll find something that is either easy for me to tweak to my own preferences or sounds good as is. 

I'm sure the recipe I started with (linked above) is great as it's written but I didn't happen to have any homemade (or even jarred) tomato sauce made, so I decided to go with pesto instead*, I used Italian seasoned Panko Bread Crumbs and of course I don't eat meat so I used Field Roast sausage. I also didn't add the Italian seasoning (since it's in the bread crumbs already) or the garlic powder (since the pesto has more than enough garlic).

My husband and I loved it and my teenager grudgingly admitted it was "pretty good," so I'll take it.

*if you use pesto you are going to need WAY less. I used several healthy tablespoons but that's it. Nothing on the side was necessary. 

(iPhone photo)

Pizza Under the Broiler: The Best Pizza I Have Ever Made

by Jess M

I have long been making my own pizza at home, making my own crust and occasionally my own sauce. But then I cooked it like I thought everyone did: put it in the oven for about 20 minutes at 400 degrees. And it was fine. It was good and tasty. But it wasn’t anything particularly special. It still wasn’t quite worth going to the trouble to make instead of sending my husband to stop for pizza on his way home.

So I started reading about what makes pizza really good. And after good ingredients, the key to really great pizza is high, high heat. That’s why pizzas cooked in commercial ovens or wood-burning ovens are so good: they have been cooked at extremely high heat. And unfortunately our home ovens usually top out at about 500 degrees. So with this article from Serious Eats as my guide, I started toying around with my pizza cooking method.

Here is what I do:

• Start with a homemade crust, I like this simple one from Smitten Kitchen, but any will do. Roll out your crust and have your sauce and toppings ready, once you get started the pizza will cook very very quickly, in under 5 minutes.
• You’ll need a cast iron pan. I use a cast iron pizza pan (I have this one from Lodge Logic), but you can also use a 12-inch frying pan. Put the pan on the stove and heat it over high heat for 10-20 minutes, until it starts to smoke. Turn off the burner, and turn the broiler in your oven on high. 
• Then, very carefully, lay your rolled-out dough on top of the hot pan and follow with your sauce and toppings. As you put on the sauce and cheese, the bottom of the crust has already started cooking. With the best oven mitts you have, put the pizza into the oven as close to the broiler element as possible and shut the door.
• After 45 seconds to 1 minute, open the oven and rotate your pizza 180 degrees. Cook for another 45 seconds to 1 minute and then check on it. If it’s not quite ready, check on it in 20-30 second increments, it will cook and also burn fast. When it’s crispy and bubbly and starting to brown on the tops of the cheese bubbles, you know it’s done.

Have you tried broiling your pizza? Or tried any other high heat methods?

Easy and Delicious Ravioli Dinner (Semi-Homemade)

by Maura

I hate the term semi-homemade because it calls to mind the annoying Sandra Lee from the Food Network and her ridiculous, ever-changing decor. However, I do not have anything against delicious semi-homemade dinners. I'm always looking for a way to make store-bought ingredients taste like I slaved over them even better.

Store-bought ravioli is an easy and tasty dinner, but it can be pretty boring. Using ingredients I have on hand, like pesto, sun dried tomatoes and garlic, I turned this ho-hum product into an easy and delicious dinner.

While the pasta was cooking, I warmed a few tablespoons of pesto in a non-stick frying pan. I added some garlic and sun dried tomatoes and stirred until the mixture was combined. I added a small splash of olive oil to loosen it up, but you may not need to depending on whether your pesto and sun-dried tomatoes are sufficiently liquidy. When the pasta was done, I tossed the pasta in the sauce. 

The result was absolutely delicious! I think it might be even better with some artichokes, warmed at the last minute in the sauce.

What are your favorite semi-homemade dishes?

Adventures in Seafood: Grilled Branzino

by Elissa

I am much more likely to order fish at a restaurant than I am to try cooking it at home. But I'm trying to become more adventurous about preparing fish in my own kitchen.

I usually walk right by the display of whole fish at the fish counter, but a few weeks ago my son was fascinated by them. I decided to try to capitalize on his interest and I brought home a couple of whole branzino (also known as Mediterranean sea bass). I'd had it in restaurants before but had never cooked it myself. Our store will clean the fish for you, which involves gutting and descaling. This is what they looked like when we got them home:

I looked around online for a recipe, and ended up going with this one from Simply Recipes, although we skipped the vinaigrette and just squeezed some lemon over the fish.  After a few minutes of grilling on each side at medium-high heat, here's what we had for dinner:

They were really delicious. The flesh is mild and not fishy-tasting, the skin got crispy, and it wasn't too hard to avoid the bones. Each fish is about a pound, and these two fed two adults and two small children comfortably. I've made them a couple of times now and remain impressed by how easy it is (although I think the fishmonger is probably doing most of the hard work).

Moral of the story: don't be scared by the whole fish!