Christian O’Dowd’s Famous Holiday Recipes
Thanksgiving
Turducken
Dating from the 1700s, when rich foods were de rigeur, Christian has revived the Turducken for today’s adventurous cook. A Turducken is a chicken wrapped inside a duck wrapped inside a turkey with stuffing on each layer. Christian’s recipe and instructions for this moist, tender, flavorful concoction that cuts like a loaf of bread are easy to follow, making this festive dish something anyone can create; and something everyone will remember eating!
To complement the Turducken, Christian recommends these side dishes (See recipes below): Rum-based Cinnamon Applesauce and Beets Served in a Pumpkin.
A Couple Tips:
- Use your favorite stuffing recipe and be sure to use the giblets—that’s where the real flavor is! Christian uses a Grand Marnier and Dried Apricot Stuffing with a little Andouille sausage, which gives a sensational flavor. (See recipe below.)
- Buy the birds at your local butcher shop and make absolutely sure you have the butcher de-bone them for you. This will save you a lot of time. You must have every bit of bone and cartilage removed from the chicken and the duck. Leave the drumsticks and the wings on the turkey—they are necessary for the appearance of the final product.
- As a garnish use Japanese Skimmia, which are lovely garnet berries on glossy green leaves.
Ingredients:
1, 18 - 19 pound fresh turkey
1, 7-pound fresh duck
1, 3 - 4 pound fresh chicken
1 recipe (see below) Dried Apricot and Grand Marnier Stuffing
4 oranges
To Assemble the Turducken:
Lay all three birds skin side (breast) down on a clean flat surface. Starting
with the turkey, press about ¾ of an inch of the stuffing firmly into the
flesh. Lay the duck on top of the turkey and stuffing, spread it out, and
repeat the process only this time use about ½ inch of stuffing. Next, lay
the chicken on top and put a small mound of stuffing in the center.
Cut 5 pieces of butcher’s twine into 30” lengths. You want to tie the turkey back together so that it looks like a turkey again. Slide each piece of the cut twine under the turkey. Gently fold the sides of the turkey up and tie it back together. It may take a few tries, and a few extra pieces of twine, but that is ok.
Turn the Turducken over and place in a roasting pan. Squeeze the juice of the oranges over the skin, cover in foil, and put it in the oven at 225°. You want to cook it slow and at a low temperature. You need to cook a Turducken this size for about 8 hours. During the last 2 hours you can uncover it to brown the skin. To make sure it is done, stick a meat thermometer into the deepest part of the Turducken. You have to be sure that the internal temperature is 165°. Take the temperature in a couple of places to be safe.
Christian likes to serve the Turducken on a nice wooden platter garnished with apricots, currants, berries; whatever is fresh, colorful, and available. Cut right through the middle of it with a sharp bread knife to show off the layers of the birds.
Dried Apricot and Grand Marnier Stuffing
Ingredients:
1 cup dried apricots; chopped coarsely
1-1/2 cups Grand Marnier liqueur
4 cups homemade poultry broth – make this from the carcasses of the de-boned
birds
2 cups celery, coarsely chopped
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 pound Andouille sausage
1 cup Gala apple pieces, chopped
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
16 ounces breadcrumbs (day old brioche is fantastic)
Freshly ground black pepper
Kosher salt
1 cup slivered almonds
Instructions:
Place apricots and 1 cup Grand Marnier in a small saucepan. Heat to a boil
to plump the apricots. Remove from the heat and set aside.
For the poultry broth, preheat the oven to 400°. Place the reserved carcasses (bones, necks, hearts, wings, and fat) in a roasting pan with salt, pepper, carrots, celery, and onions; put in the oven for about 30 minutes; and roast until the bones are a rich golden brown. Next, put all of the bones and vegetables in a stockpot and add about two gallons of water. Bring to a gentle boil, and then reduce the heat to a slow simmer for about 2 – 3 hours. Cook until the stock is reduced by half and has a rich poultry flavor. Strain and refrigerate or freeze until ready to use.
In a large skillet, cook the sausage. Remove from heat and chop parsley.
In a large mixing bowl, combine breadcrumbs, apricots with liquid, sausage, chopped apple, onion, celery, almonds, and poultry broth. Stir to combine. Add remaining Grand Marnier. Stir well to moisten stuffing. Season with thyme and pepper to taste.
Homemade Applesauce with Cinnamon and Rum
Homemade applesauce is the simplest thing on the planet to make! It has other great attributes as well. Your house will smell amazing for an hour after this comes off the stove!
Instructions:
Start with 8 cored apples – Christian mixes them up between Gala, Macintosh,
Granny Smiths, whatever is in season, always trying to get green and red
in there. Cut them into chunks and place in a saucepan. Add a couple of inches
of water, just enough to almost cover the apples. Then add 1 cup of rum and
a dash of cinnamon. Boil until soft, strain, and put the whole mix into a
food processor. Process until it reaches the desired texture. Christian
likes to leave it a bit lumpy. This will ensure that some of the great colors
from the skins are visible. If you process too much, the color will mix
and you will lose the great visual effect. Serve warm or cold.
Roasted Root Vegetable Jewels – Golden and Purple Beets with Baby Turnips Served in a Pumpkin
Ingredients:
2 bunches baby turnips
1 bunch baby red beets
1 bunch baby golden beets
Instructions:
Simply steam the vegetables together until the skins come off easily.
By doing them together the golden beets will pick up a hint of the color from
the purple beets and the look is fantastic! Immerse them in an ice bath and when
they are cool enough to handle the skin will slide right off. Next, quarter the
vegetables and place in a small baking pan, drizzle them with oil, and a dash
of salt and cracked black pepper. Put in a preheated 375° oven for about 30 minutes
or until fork tender. They are fantastic hot or at room temperature. Serve in
a hollowed out pumpkin. Use the top of the pumpkin (the part with the stem) as
a garnish. Lay it off to the side of the pumpkin but still high on the body and
with a wooden skewer lock it into place.
Grilled Black Mission Fig with Mascarpone Foam and Sliced Prosciutto
This is one of the most amazing combinations that you will ever try! And, it is beautiful too!
Ingredients:
6 fresh Black Mission figs
¼ cup unsalted butter, just enough to coat the figs
¼ cup sugar, just enough to coat the figs
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
12 thin slices of prosciutto
2 tablespoons mascarpone sauce
Instructions:
Make sure the figs are ripe. Slice them in half from top to bottom.
Melt the butter and dip each fig half into it – covering them completely. Next,
dredge the figs in the sugar. In an oiled pan on medium heat grill each fig on
each side for 2 minutes or so – just enough to soften them. Sprinkle on a dash
of kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper. Put aside in the refrigerator
until ready to serve.
Mascarpone Foam (Makes about 1.25 Cups) Ingredients:
1/4 cup mascarpone cheese
1 cup chilled heavy cream
Salt and fresh cracked black pepper to taste
Mascarpone Foam Instructions:
Mix the mascarpone and cream in a medium-sized bowl until they blend and start
to thicken. Add salt and pepper to taste.
To Assemble the Figs:
Lay a slice of the prosciutto on a plate. Lay one half fig, skin side
down, in the center of the prosciutto. Place a small dollop of the sauce in the
center of the fig and wrap the prosciutto around it.
Smoked Salmon, Roasted Beet, and Goat Cheese Squeeze!
Instructions:
Christian suggests using baby golden beets as the color is amazing and
the flavor is surprisingly good and rich.
Simply steam the beets until soft. Immerse them in an ice bath and the skin
will slide off easily. Use a melon baller to scoop out little balls of the
flesh and put aside. Next, with a good quality side of smoked salmon, take
the individual layers and separate – some may need to be cut in half. Lay these
on parchment paper and put in the refrigerator. For the goat cheese squeeze,
here is a sauce that is thick enough to stay in place but still be smooth enough
to be able to be put into a squirt bottle:
¼ cup good quality French goats cheese
¼ cup cream cheese
2 tablespoons of heavy cream
1 tablespoon of chopped chive
1 tablespoon of chopped red onion
White pepper, to taste
Put all ingredients into a food processor and pulse until blended smoothly.
Put the sauce into a squirt bottle; the kind they would use for ketchup at
a diner.
The last thing you need is something to skewer this hors d’oeuvre on. Christian
really loves the knotted 4” bamboo skewers sold by Miya Company, Inc. at www.miyacompany.com.
To Assemble:
Take a slice of salmon and make a W out of it. Slide the bamboo skewer through
it, piercing the skin four times. Bunch it up about half way up the bamboo
and add a golden beet. Then, lay the hors d’oeuvre on the platter that you
will be using – black is perfect as the colors will really jump – and drizzle
a bit of the sauce on top. The colors, flavors, and textures are amazing!
Pear-Infused Honeycomb Martini
Ingredients:
2 ounces of Grey Goose Vodka (you can also use Absolut or Stoli vodkas)
.75 ounces of pear infused simply syrup
1 small piece, about a square inch, of fresh honeycomb
1 Amber Martini Glass from Swankmartini.com
To Make the Simple Syrup:
Dissolve 2 cups of sugar into 1 cup of water in a small saucepan. Bring to
a boil, turn heat to low and add a coarsely chopped Anjou pear to the mixture.
Let it simmer for 5 minutes – very slow on a low temperature. Remove from
heat, strain, and allow to cool. This will stay good in your refrigerator
forever and is the basis for many cocktails.
To Make the Martini:
Fill a cocktail shaker with crushed ice and add the vodka and pear-infused
simple syrup. Shake vigorously for at least 20 seconds. The extra shaking
will actually help create a great consistency in the cocktail. Pour into
the amber martini glass. Add the honeycomb, which the honey will slowly drip
of out of, sweetening the cocktail as it dissolves and changing the color
of the drink. The silky honey also a smooth texture to the cocktail.
This cocktail creation looks like a snowball in a blizzard! While it sounds a bit kitschy, sipping “Snowballs” is a great way to bring out the holiday cheer! The drink is made up of part vodka and part ice cider, which adds tastes of vanilla, silky honey, and a bit of oak to the drink. Ice cider originated in Quebec, Canada when apple pickers decided to let their apples hang late into the autumn, actually freezing them. Blend the vodka and ice cider until they are “slushy” and then pour into an ice martini glass. (Yes, a glass made entirely out of ice and available through www.icecaters.com!) Garnish your “Snowball” with a lychee. Absolutely delicious, lychees are a small red heart-shaped Chinese fruit that is sweet and juicy and available in your local oriental market.
Ingredients:
2 ounces of Grey Goose Vodka (you can also use Absolut or Stoli vodkas)
2 ounces of Ice Cider (a non-fermented alcohol product)
1 small lychee
1 Ice Martini Glass from www.icecaters.com
Instructions:
Put the vodka, Ice Cider, and ice into a blender. Blend on high until
it is slushy. Pour cocktail into an Ice Martini Glass and garnish with the lychee.
Ice Martini Glasses last about an hour.