'Friends'Giving 2016 recipes.

'Friends'Giving 2016 recipes.

So since I don't have local family members on the Saturday after Thanksgiving I setup to host up to 15 friends for a feast.   Also since I have no choice on being Gluten Free, my entire meal is gluten free and cows milk dairy free.   But anything but taste free.

My Turkey is never frozen and from a local farmer (Walk Ahead Farms) every year.

This year bread and desserts are from JP's Pastry, a local certified GF baker in the Raleigh area.   I am using his dinner rolls and a pumpkin cheesecake.

The rest of the meal designed to serve 10-12 is as follows.

Main Course:

Turkey (16lb):
This year I mixed a new spice blend from Tadiciones Andines that mixes Yellow Hot Pepper and Black Mint (Salsa de Aji Amirillo con Huacatay) with butter and massaged this mix under the skin as well as on the skin.   Added 4-6 cups water to tray.

Cook first 2 hours at 325 Covered.   Baste with liquid.  Cook for next 2 hours 350 covered. Basting along the way every 30 minutes.   Cook for another hour uncovered in order to brown the skin at 350.

Turkey should be moist and cooked through at end of this process.

Appetizers and Sauces:

Eggs de Diablo (Deviled Eggs):

• Boil 2 dozen eggs
• Half the eggs
• Reserve the cooked yolks
• To make the Yolks added back to the halved eggs:
• Mash the Yolks with Chipolte goat cream cheese (from a local farmer Prodigal farms)

Cranberry Sauce:

• 1 bag of cranberries never frozen
• minced Lime, Orange, and Lemon peel
• Cook for 30 minutes at boil.
• Immersion blend the mixture
• Add in Coconut sugar
• Cook for 1 hour at extreme low to ensure complete blending of sugar.

Sides:

Peruvian Corn (Choclo) salad:

• Peruvian Corn (Choclo)  boiled 20 minutes with sugar
• Greek Feta Sheeps Milk Cheese cubed small
• Parsley diced small
• Red Onion diced small
• Toss with a Dressing made of a mix of:
• Lime
• Mustard
• Avocado Oil.
• Pepper if taste indicates required.

Chicken Causa:

• 8 baked potatoes (Cut small and boil 30 minutes and drained)
• Mash potatoes with Aji Amirillo and garlic
• Boil the Chicken and then mince the chicken by hand.   Mix with an herbed goat cream cheese (from a local farmer Prodigal farms) mixed with 1/2 cup warm chicken stock.
• To assemble:
• Lay a 1/2 inch thick layer of the potatoes
• Cover with the Chicken mix
• Lay another 1/2 inch thick layer of potatoes.
• Chill for at least 2 hours or overnight and serve.

Cauliflower Salad:

• 1 head cauliflower riced
• Dry roast the riced cauliflower for 3 minutes on stove.
• Cool cauliflower before adding to salad
• 1/2 small red cabbage head minced small
• 1/2 red onion minced small
• 1/2 bag of shredded carrots (or 6 large carrots shredded)
• Toss with a Dressing made of Aji Amirillo, mustard, and Avacado oil.

Brussel Sprouts:

• 3 bags of Brussel Sprouts halved and cleaned
• 6 slices of bacon chopped finely.
• Cook the bacon with Salt and Pepper at low medium to ensure the most fat rendered for about 5 minutes. 
• Add in the brussel sprouts once bacon starts turning brown and up the heat to high
• Cook for 3-5 minutes at high to give the brussel sprouts a nice sear.
• Add in maple syrup and lower the heat back to medium for 2-3 minutes.
• Serve.

Chili for 2016 Farmers Market fall chili cookoff

This is the recipe for the chili I made for the 2016 Wake Forest Farmers market chili cook-off event on Nov 19, 2016.   One of the requirements of this cook-off was to buy the majority if not all ingredients from the market.

Ingredients:

• 5lbs goat soup bones (Walk ahead farms)
• 1lb goat stew meat (Walk ahead farms)
• 1lb spicy pork sausage (Walk ahead farms_
• 2lbs beef stew meat (not sure who I purchased from)
• 5 chocolate Trinidad peppers (Gabbbies)
• 7 lemon drop peppers (Gabbies)
• 4 Red Jalapeno peppers (Gabbies)
• Ghost Pepper Salt (Savory Spice Shop)
• Roasted Garlic Powder (Savory Spice Shop)
• 1 large red onion chopped roughly
• Blackstrap Molasses (Grain Mill Wake Forest)
• Honey ( one of the three honey vendors at market)
• Blueberry Jam (Susan West)

To make the sauce:

• 2 hours low and slow cook off soup bones
• After two hours strain liquid to smaller pot.
• Add in the peppers (De-veiened and seeded) as well as all dry spices as well as the onion.
• Cook for another hour or two.
• Using a immersion blendor, blend sauce.
• Add in the blackstrap molasses, honey, and Jam and then on real low heat cook two hours.

To finish the chili:

• Place all meat in slow cooker including the meat taken from the bones used to start the sauce.
• Pour the blended and thickened chili sauce over the meat.
• Cook approx 8 hours at really LOW setting.   Slow and low is key here.   
• Two things get accomplished, the meat gets flavored and the sauce thickens even more.
• Check spice level 2 hours in, after meat cooked to ensure that no further spces need to be added.   The sauce should taste complete as this point, just a little raw.   Add more of what is missing.   Looking for a deep smokey flavor with a kick.   Add spices if any mix well and then let cook slowly for rest of time.
• Serve

Ground turkey and cauliflower salad

This was a meal I created to bring with for a party/potluck.  I needed some merging that can be eaten hot or cold.  This is created using the concept that the Thai chicken salad wraps are based on. 

Ingredients:

4 lbs ground turkey

1 whole cauliflower 

2 cans hearts of palms chopped fine

10 scallions chopped fine

1 head red cabbage chopped fine

Ancho chili powder

Crushed Urfa chilis

Guajillo powder

Ground cumin

Ground turmeric

Ground coriander

Sumac berries

Ground celery seeds

Markut lime powder

White balsamic vinegar powder

Salt

Ground White Sarawak pepper 

Lime juice

Coconut oil

Instructions:

Put 2 tablespoons coconut oil in a hot pan large enough to hold 4 lbs or ground meat easily.  You want space to move the meat around.  

Add the meat.

Add in all the spices except for the lime juice and keep stirring and moving the mixture around the pan until all the meat is cooked and starts to brown. Roughly 5 minutes on high heat.

Remove meat from pan and place into bowl and allow to cool down.

Take the cauliflower and either cut into small chunks or rice in food processor (note this works for either size just less cook time for riced)

Put 2 tablespoons of coconut oil in same pan as before to keep the flavor profile you built with meat for the cauliflower.   Note the turkey meat being used be the cauliflower will both soak up the oil during cooking process.

Cook until the cauliflower turns brown.  Small chunks about 5 minutes on high heat and riced about 2. Finish off with the lime juice for the last minute of cook time and place in same bowl as cooling meat.   Let both cool while you chop up the veggies.  

Once the cauliflower and meat ad cool enough that they no longer steam add in the scallions, red cabbage, and hearts of palm.   

Mix well and serve warm or cold.

To make this vegetarian just leave out the meat and then add the spices to the step of cooking the cauliflower and you have a vegan and vegetarian version where no flavor will be lost.   Also in addition you could add the following veggies as example not complete list:   Bell peppers (haven't tried since I can't have them, but the flavor profile should work), carrots, broccoli, sliced/diced Brussels sprouts (raw or cooked with cauliflower), the red cabbage can also be cooked for a changed flavor profile of dish.