Irish Shepherd's Pie (with Turkey)

Ingredients, Serves 8-10:

For the mashed potatoes topping:

• 1 1/2 pounds russet potatoes
• 1/4 cup half-and-half cream
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 egg yolk

For the meat filling:

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 3 carrots, peeled and diced small
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 celery stocks, chopped
• 3 pounds ground turkey
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons tomato paste
• 2 cup chicken broth
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon paptrika
• 1 tablespoon freshly chopped rosemary leaves
• 1 tablespoon freshly chopped thyme leaves
• 1 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels
• 1 cup fresh or frozen English peas

Pre-heat the oven to 400ºF.  Peel the potatoes and cut into 1 inch cubes. Place in a pot and cover with cold water. Set over high heat, cover and bring to a boil. Once boiling, uncover, decrease the heat to maintain a simmer and cook until tender, approximately 10 to 15 minutes. Place the half-and-half and butter into a microwave-safe container and heat in the microwave until warmed through, about 35 seconds. Drain the potatoes in a colander and then return to the pot. Mash the potatoes and then add the half and half, butter, salt and pepper and continue to mash until smooth. Stir in the yolk until well combined.

While the potatoes are cooking, prepare the filling. Place the EVO oil into a large deep walled pan and set over medium high heat. Once the oil shimmers, add the onion, celery and carrots and saute just until they begin to take on color, approximately 3 to 4 minutes. Add the garlic and stir to combine. Add the turkey, salt and pepper and cook until browned, approximately 3 minutes. Sprinkle the meat with the flour and toss to coat, continuing to cook for another minute. Add the tomato paste, chicken broth, Worcestershire, rosemary, thyme, and stir to combine. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer slowly 10 to 12 minutes or until the sauce is thickened slightly.

Add the corn and peas to the turkey mixture and spread evenly into an 13 by 9-inch glass baking dish. Top with the mashed potatoes, starting around the edges to create a seal to prevent the mixture from bubbling up and smooth with a rubber spatula. Sprinkle on the paprika.   Place on a parchment lined half sheet pan on the middle rack of the oven and bake for 25 minutes or just until the potatoes begin to brown. Remove to a cooling rack for at least 15 minutes before serving.

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Turkey Breast Roulade with Wild Rice and Mushrooms

Sous Vide Details: Cook Turkey Roulade at 138ºF for 3 hours

Ingredients, Serves 4:

• 1 large Turkey breast with skin on
• 1 cup cooked wild rice (I used a basmati herbed rice mix)
• 1 cup of your favorite mushrooms (I used mix of shitake and oyster)
• 2 cups fresh spinach
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped celery
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup small toasted bread crumbs (slightly smaller than 1/2" x 1/2")
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley
• 1 tablespoon chopped thyme
• 1/4 cup finely chopped shallots
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Sauce:
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped shallots
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped thyme
• 1/4 cup thinly chopped scallions
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley
• 3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cubed

I love Turkey breast sous vide, but it seams that I'm always waiting until Thanksgiving to have it.  Well, it's party because seeing the slices whole breast of white meat brings Thanksgiving visions to me every time.  So I decided to do a Turkey breast roulade as a change up.

Pre-heat water bath to 138ºF.  First we need to make the roulade stuffing.  Heat a medium skillet on medium high heat.  Add garlic and shallots and cook until shallots are transparent and there is a nice aroma.  Add the celery, mushrooms and thyme and cook until mushrooms are tender and soft.  When done, transfer the mixture to a large bowl and add the cooked rice, parsley, pecans and toasted bread crumbs.  Stir to combine, salt and pepper to taste and set aside.

Now, we need to "flatten" our Turkey breast.  Take the breast, skin side up, and make a horizontal slice in one side, stopping about 1" before getting to the other side.  Open the breast up like a book.  Place a large sheet of saran wrap on the counter and place the opened Turkey breast on the saran wrap. Place another large sheet of saran wrap over the top of the breast.  Using a meat mallet, flatten the Turkey breast until it is roughly 1/2" thick.  You can use a slightly diagonal striking motion to move the meat away from the center.

Once you have flattened the breast, remove the top saran wrap and place the spinach leaves over the breast.  Add the stuffing mixture over the spinach in a uniform layer.  Now, using the front of the saran wrap as a guide, carefully roll the Turkey breast into a log, wrapping the bottom saran wrap around to tighten the log form.  Pinch and twist the two sides to create a tight "log".  Place the whole Turkey breast log into a plastic bag and seal.  Place in the water bath and cook for 3 hours.

About a half an hour before the Turkey roulade is done, preheat the oven to 450ºF.  You can also start on the sauce.  In a medium sauce pan, heat the shallots and garlic over medium heat until shallots are transparent.  Add the white wine and reduce heat to a simmer and simmer until wine reduces to a thick liquid (almost completely reduced). Add the heavy cream, parsley, thyme and scallions and simmer until reduced to a thick consistency.  Season with salt and pepper.  Add the butter, one cube at a time and whisk to combine.  Keep sauce warm, but not boiling until ready to serve.

When the Turkey is done, take it out of the water bath and plastic bag and carefully pat it dry.  Place it on an oven tray and place it in the oven.  Cook until skin is golden brown (about 5-8 minutes).  Remove from oven and place on cutting board.  Take a new sheet of saran and place it over the Turkey roulade and using a large knife, cut the roulade into slices.  Remove the saran and place the slices on a serving tray.  Serve with sauce on the side and enjoy!

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Whole Turkey (Deconstructed)

Sous Vide Details: Cook turkey dark meat at 176F for 8-10 hours, cook turkey white meat at 145F for 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hours

Ingredients, Serves 4 - 6:

• 15 lb whole turkey (organic or natural works best)
• Your favorite poultry herbs (I love rosemary, thyme and sage)
• 16 oz duck fat
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Brine (needs to be done the day before cooking):
• 1 gallon vegetable stock
• 1 cup kosher salt
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 2 tablespoon peppercorns
• 1 gallon iced water
• 1 clean 5 gallon bucket with two bag liners

I LOVE Thanksgiving!  To me, giving thanks for my family through a wonderfully cooked meal is a perfect way to celebrate.  I've been cooking Thanksgiving dinner for as long as I can remember and have tried many recipes, although they all have involved cooking the turkey whole in the oven and doing all sorts of gyrations during the day to keep the breast moist and not over-done.  This usually meant opening up the oven many times to "baste" and "tent" and "re-read" the always foggy meat thermometer, which actually also prolonged the cooking time!  I thought of this "dance" as my badge of honor as a chef!

Well, this is my first Thanksgiving as a Sous Vide chef so I wanted to "change it up".  One of the important aspects of turkey is that the bird is actually made up of two types of meats: white meat and dark meat.  In the ideal world, the two types of meats should be cooked at different temperatures and for different amounts of time because they are completely different in fat and muscle composition.

With Sous Vide, cooking the white meat and dark meat separately at different temperatures and times is a snap!  The only difference is the "whole turkey" concept has to be "deconstructed" before cooking, not after.  That was fine with me since you do it the day before cooking the turkey, which is a "less stressful day" so you can take your time.

One note from the "Planning Department":  Remember that a frozen turkey takes a "LONG TIME" to thaw in the refrigerator, which is the safest way to thaw the bird!  DO NOT THAW ON THE COUNTER TOP!  You will be creating a perfect breeding ground for bacteria like Salmonella!  So the most important timing aspect of Thanksgiving turkey is buy it early so you have time to thaw it.  For a 15 lbs turkey, mine took 4 full days in the refrigerator (could have actually taking a 5th day) to thaw it out.  Add to that the preparation need the day before Thanksgiving and you really need to be thinking of purchasing your turkey 5-6 days before Thanksgiving!  That would be Nov 18th.  Put it on your calendar!

The day before Thanksgiving is the start of your sous vide turkey experience!  First, you want to prepare the turkey brine.  Brining is a method that uses osmosis to infuse the turkey meat with salt which causes it to retain more moisture during the cooking process.  Start by combining the vegetable stock, salt, brown sugar, and peppercorns in a large pot and bring to a boil.  Then remove from heat and cool to room temperature and then refrigerate.

When the brine goes into the refrigerator, you can start on "deconstructing" the turkey.  There are several videos on youtube that show you how to separate a chicken into pieces (click here for one example) and that is the same basic process for your turkey.  Here are the steps:

1. Place the turkey on its back (breast up) with one leg nearest to you.  Taking a sharp knife, slice the skin between the leg and the body exposing the thigh.  Stay as close to the leg as possible leaving most of the breast covered with skin.  Keep cutting the skin and eventually the meat while prying the leg and thigh away from the body.  Holding the thigh firmly, pry it down until you hear the "joint" pop. You should see the joint.  Work your knife to separate the thigh from the body at the joint.  Do the same for the other leg and thigh.  
2. Now we want to separate the legs from the thighs, If you place the thigh on the cutting board, skin side down, you will see a fat line across the leg/thigh joint area.  This is your "cut line".  Slice the fat line with your sharp knife and it should split the leg from the thigh right at the joint!  Taking a sharp knife, slice the meat away from both sides of the main thigh bone until you can get your knife "under" the bone.  Insert the knife end from one side of the bone to the other and slice the meat away from the bone, removing the bone from the thigh.  Do the same with the other thigh.  Place the legs and thighs in a large pan.
3. Next are the wings.  grab the wing near the body and pull it away from the body exposing the skin.  Slice through the skin near the body.  Again, hold the wing firmly near the body and pry it down, popping the joint.  Use your knife and carefully cut around the joint until you separate the wing from the body.  Do the same with the other wing.  Place them both in the pan with the legs and thighs.
4. Now, we separate the body.  On both sides of the body where the legs connected to the body, there are "sideways Vs" which you use as a guide to cut from the bottom of the "V" towards the neck of the turkey.  You are "splitting" the body in half, separating the back of the turkey from the breasts.  When you have cut both sides to the backbone, you should be able to take grab the breasts in one hand and the backbone in the other and pry them "open", like you're "splitting a wishbone"!  This exposes the joints near the neck.  Take your knife and working carefully, separate the joints and meat and cut through both sides of the backbone.  The back should separate from the breasts at this point!  Place the back in the same pan with the legs and wings.
5. Now we separate the breasts.  Place the breasts, skin side down, on your cutting board.  Using a meat clever make a small chop cut right in the middle of the collar bone between each breast.  This should allow you to pry both breast downward, cracking the breastbone right in the middle.  There is a heavy breast bone that you want to remove before actually splitting  the two breasts.  Using your knife, slice the membrane on each side of the breastbone, exposing it and then using your fingers, pry the breastbone out.  It will look like a "mini dagger"!  This is somewhat tough, but stick with it, you can do it!  Now you can take your clever or sharp knife and split the breasts in half, separating them.  Place them into a separate pan.  You did it!!!!

Now, line your 5 gallon bucket with two plastic bags and take your brine solution out of the refrigerator and pour it into the bucket along with a gallon of cold water.  Place all the turkey parts into the brining solution along with some ice.  The solution needs to be below 40F.  Place the bucket somewhere cool/cold (I placed mine outside).  You need to brine the turkey for roughly 7-10 hours.  When done, take the turkey meat out and thoroughly wash the meat under cold water.  Pat dry.

Now you're ready for seasoning and bagging the turkey.  Liberally salt and pepper all the meat to taste.  Place the dark meat in separate bags from the breast meat.  Depending on your bag size, you can either place all the separate pieces of meat into separate bags or place multiple pieces in single bag.  I have large bags so I places both legs into a single bag, both thighs in a single bag and both wings into a single bag.  Everything else went into separate bags.  Add your favorite herbs into each bag.  I used rosemary, thyme and sage.  Be careful not to over do the herbs, remember, with sous vide, the herbs concentrate in the bag.  I used only a few twigs of each herb in each bag.  Then place equal amount of the duck fat in each bag.  Duck fat gives the turkey a nice "depth" in taste. Vacuum seal each bag.  Make sure the sealing area of the bag is "clean and dry".  Use a paper towel if you have to.  This will allow the bag to seal properly.  When done, your turkey should look like this:

Turkey dark meat all bagged up and ready to go!

Turkey breasts all bagged up and ready to go!

Now here's where your first major decision point comes in.  Are you a morning person or not???  Do you have two water baths?  Since the dark meat takes 8-10 hours to cook, you have to decide whether you're going to cooking it starting Thanksgiving morning (really early) or start it the day before Thanksgiving at night and then re-therm it right before searing and serving.  Well... what are you???  I'm a morning person!  So I decided to get up at 5AM (which I normally do) and start the dark meet on Thanksgiving day so I didn't have to re-therm it.  If you're not a morning person or if you only have a single water bath, you need to start cooking the dark meat the day before Thanksgiving.  I would figure out when you're going to wake up on Thanksgiving day and subtract 10 hours and that is your start time for the dark meat!  So if you get up at 8AM, then start the dark meat at 10PM the night before.  Pre-heat the water bath to 176F and drop all the dark meat into the water bath.  Make sure you have a large enough water bath so that the meat will cook evenly.  Also since you are cooking at a high temperature, you might need to place a plate on top of the bags so that they don't float out of the water since some air (through steam) might accumulate inside the bags.  If you started the night before, you will need to pull the dark meat out on the morning of Thanksgiving and quick chill them in an ice bath for 45 minutes and then place the bags in the refrigerator.  You will re-therm them later.  Here is my dark meat cooking away:

About 4 hours before dinner time, you can start the white meat.  Pre-heat the water bath to 145F and drop the white meat in.  Here's my turkey breasts cooking away:

If you need to re-therm the dark meat, about an hour before the white meet is done, heat up a large pot of water to 145F, using a thermometer to track the temperature.  Drop the dark meat in the pot for 45 minutes to re-therm it to temperature.

When the white meat is done, remove all the bags, one by one, and open and using paper towels, pat the meat dry.  Pre-heat your broiler.  Place all the turkey meat that has skin on a broiling pan, skin side up.  Sear the turkey for approximately 3-5 minutes.  Be careful since you don't want to over cook the meat, since it is already cooked!  Don't sear any meat that doesn't have skin since all you're going to do is over cook the turkey meat!

When searing done, slice the breast, plate the turkey and enjoy!!!!!!!!!

Thanksgiving was a wonderful feast again this year, only better!  The white meat was so tender and moist, it was almost unbelievable!  I actually think I liked the white meat better than the dark meat and I'm a dark meat lover!  Once again, Sous Vide brought a truly transformative culinary experience to our home!  Can you say "Turkey for Christmas??"

Check my other blog entries for the other dishes in this picture!

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Turkey Breast with Red Wine Mushroom Sauce

Sous Vide Details: Cook Turkey Breast at 140F for 2 hours

Ingredients - Serves 2-4:

• 2 turkey breasts (skin on)
• Poultry seasoning
• Sprigs of thyme and rosemary (you can also use savory or oregano or your favorite herb)
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Red Wine Mushroom Sauce:
• 1 1/2 cups of Shimeji mushrooms (you can use Chanterelle or Oyster)
• 2 T butter
• 1 Cup good red wine (the kind you would drink!)
• 1 T Chopped Thyme

I decided to pre-test Thanksgiving Sous Vide Turkey before Thanksgiving!  That way, if something went wrong I wouldn't have an angry mob waiting at the dinner table!  So I brought home a pair of nice "skin on" Turkey breasts.  Seasoned with with poultry seasoning and salt and pepper and popped them into separate bags.  I added a few sprigs of Thyme and Rosemary, but you can add your favorite aromatic herbs.  Just remember to be sparing as sous vide magnifies the aromatics.  Seal the bags and heat the water bath to 140F and pop them in for 2 hours.

When the Turkey is done, turn on your oven broiler.  Take the Turkey out of the bag and save the liquid in the bag!  Put the Turkey (skin side up) on an oven pan and place in the oven under the broiler.  Sear the Turkey until the skin "brown".

While the Turkey is browning, heat a large sauce pan to medium high heat.  Melt 1T butter and add the mushrooms.  Stir to coat and cook for 5 minutes to soften.  Pour the liquid in the Turkey bag into the sauce pan.  Stir for another 2-3 minutes.  Add the wine and Thyme and lower to simmer.  Simmer until the liquid is reduced in half, about 10 minutes.  Turn off the heat and add the other 1T of butter whisking to integrate.

Pull out the Turkey breast.  If you have a kitchen torch, you can use that to sear any areas that didn't brown evenly.  Cut the Turkey breast into 3/4" slices.  Plate the mushrooms and some sauce on the plate first.  Then add slices of the Turkey in a stack.  Drizzle some of the sauce around the Turkey.  Add any sides to the plate you like and present!

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Turkey with Portabello Mushrooms

Sous Vide Details: White meat 140F for 3-4 hrs, Dark Meat 176F for 10 hrs

Ingredients - Serves 4-6:

• 2 Turkey breasts, 2 Turkey legs
• Poultry seasoning
• Sprigs of thyme, rosemary and/or savory
• Salt and Pepper
• 4 T butter
• 4 Portobello mushroom caps
• Sauce:
• 1 cups turkey stock (you can use chicken stock too)
• 1 cup good red wine
• 1 T champagne vinegar (you can use sherry vinegar)
• 1 T butter
• 2 T flour (to make roux)
• Salt and pepper
• Your favorite sprinkling herb (basil, oregano, mint, parsley)

One of the benefits of sous viding a turkey is that you cook the white meat and dark meat at two different temperatures and for two different time periods.  According to the literature, this is HOW turkey is meant to be cooked.  And I've been cooking turkey the old fashion way for so long!  So I decided to give it a test and see.

First you simply seasons the turkey legs with some poultry seasoning and salt and pepper and pop them in separate bags.  Add 1 T butter to each bag.  You can optionally add some aromatics like thyme, rosemary, or savory but not a lot!  Sous vide magnifies the aromatics.  Cook at 176F for at least 10 hrs.  That's a long time, but you basically just "set it and forget it!".  The time will break down the collagen and tenderize the dark meat.

Next, need to de-bone the turkey breasts.  Use a sharp small knife, just work around the bones scrapping the meat off of them.  You should be left with two whole breasts.  Season both sides with poultry seasoning, salt and pepper and pop them into separate bags as well.  Again, you can optionally add some aromatics.  I add thyme and rosemary to mine.  I love their flavor.  Add 1 T butter to each bag as well.  You cook at 140 for 3 hours.  You should try to time it so that both the breasts and legs finish at the same time.  Again, it's not super critical since you can leave both or either in the water bath longer if necessary.

Pull off the stem of the portobello mushrooms and then slice them into thick pieces.  Heat a saucepan on medium heat and toss the mushrooms in with 1/4 cup turkey stock (or water).  Cook the mushrooms for about 4 minutes until they soften.  Stir them frequently to get an even softening.  Add the rest of the stock, the wine and the champagne vinegar and turn heat down to simmer.  Simmer until liquid is reduced in 1/2, about 10 minutes.  Meanwhile, mix the softened butter and flour into a paste (roux) in a small bowl with a fork.  Once the sauce has reduced, mix in the roux and stir to integrate.  The sauce should thicken (that's what roux does!).  You can salt and pepper to taste.  You can also add some chopped herbs of you choice (basil, thyme, oregano, parsley).

When the turkey is ready, pull them out of the bags and pat them dry.  Now, either heat your oven broiler up and pop the breasts and legs into the oven broiler until golden brown, or pop them on the grill or use a kitchen torch (what I did) and give the turkey its just presentation: a golden brown skin tone!  It's funny that the maillard reaction (searing) is purely for presentation and has nothing to do with food doneness!  Oh well, we humans are trained from day one to like "burnt charred" food!

Now, we're ready to plate.  Arrange the mushrooms on a large plate in a pattern that looks nice.  You can slice the breast meat or leave them whole.  Arrange the legs and breat meat around the mushrooms or visa versa!  It's all up to you!  Pour some sauce over the whole dish, sprinkle your favorite herbs and serve it up!  Enjoy!

See, we did!

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