Ask your mother. Or chef Edward Levesque, for that matter: cooking a full traditional turkey dinner is a lot of hard work.
From the dragging the frozen bowling ball home from the grocers to the thawing in the bathtub – not to mention the stuffing and the trussing – by the time on day three that the festive fowl is finally ready to go into the oven, you’ll be so sick of the damned thing, you won’t be bothered to eat it. And then there’s leftovers!
I’m not a complete Scrooge come the holidays – well, not any more curmudgeonly than I am the rest of the year – and get that turkey hankering like everyone else. A few weeks back while researching NOW’s Meat issue, I was snooping around St. Andrew’s Poultry (17 St Andrew, at Spadina, 416-596-7305) in Kensington Market and noticed turkey legs for $1.39 per pound. Big suckers like you’d find on a 20-pound Butterball.
Sure, you could just throw them in a 375F oven and roast them for an hour but that’s hardly Delia Smith or Paula Deen, y’all. Why not slow-braise them Italian-style a la osso buco lamb shank? Even better, brine them first!
After consulting a number of experts – Martha, Gordon, Jamie, Mario, my mom and even Emeril – I came up with a recipe that recreates a turkey dinner with all the trimmings for four people for under $20. And the whole thing will only take three hours to prepare instead of three days. And no leftovers!
For the brine:
4 turkey legs (about 4 lbs)
kosher salt
water
2 bay leaves
2 tbsp olive oil
Have the butcher cut off the bottom two-inches of each leg and reserve to make stock. Place legs in a bowl and fill with enough cups of water to cover. Pour the water into a pot and add 1 tbsp of salt for each cup of water. Add bay leaves and any other aromatics you like (garlic cloves, peppercorns, fresh herbs, carrot) and bring to a boil. Completely cool and return to bowl with turkey legs, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 8 hours.
Once brined, rinse and pat dry the legs before dredging them in flour and browning them in olive oil in two batches in a skillet over medium-high heat for five to eight minutes per side.
For the stock:
4 turkey leg cut-offs
1 chicken back, neck attached (available at St Andrew’s)
6 cups water
2 bay leaves
4 sage leaves
4 sprigs thyme
fresh pepper
In a large pot, combine all of the above and bring to a boil. Cover, Reduce heat to low and simmer for 2 hours, occasionally skimming off the scum and fat. Strain and refrigerate for at least 8 hours.
For the braise:
2 tbsp olive oil
2 parsnips, scrubbed and chopped
2 carrots, scrubbed and chopped
2 cooking onions, peeled and chopped
1 medium sweet potato, scrubbed and chopped
4 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped
1 cup white wine
8 sage leaves
6 sprigs of thyme
2 bay leaves
2 to 3 cups of stock
salt and pepper to taste
Heat the olive oil in the skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic and sautee about two minutes, constantly stirring. Add the white wine, chopped veggies and fresh herbs. Continue to stir and cook another five minutes. Transfer to larger pot, add the browned turkey legs and enough stock to cover. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer over low heat for 2-1/2 to 3 hours. Serve garnished with sage leaves crisped in olive oil for two minutes per side.
For the rice pilaf:
You can use any kind of grain you like – wheatberries, quinoa, millet – but I find the Black Pearl Medley of long-grain parboiled brown rice, black barley and daikon radish seed sold at Bulk Barn (2 Carlton, at Yonge, 416-597-0330, and others bulkbarn.ca) for $5.99/kg makes an appropriately nutty side that approximates the taste of stuffing. Don’t forget the cranberries!
1 cup/454 g Black Pearl Medley
125 g dried cranberries
2 cups stock
salt and pepper to taste
In a pot, bring the stock to a boil. Stir in the rice mix, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 1 hour or until the rice is cooked. Add cranberries and salt and pepper.
For the Brussels sprouts:
1 lb Brussels sprouts
100 g bacon, pancetta, or pork belly, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
grayed parmesan
This side will have even those who regularly turn up their noses at the lowly sprout coming back for seconds. The secret: cook them quickly so they can’t stink up the kitchen!
Trim the bottoms off the sprouts and thinly slice them across the leaves in a chiffonade. Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium-high, add chopped bacon and quickly stir-fry for a minute. Add sprouts and continue stir-frying until cooked, about 3 to 4 minutes. When plated, garnish the sprouts with a shaving of parmesan.
