High Roast Turkey, Deconstructed

Thanksgiving for one.

Salt everything and let it sit in your refrigerator for 3 days. Refrigerate uncovered overnight.

Rub the turkey with melted butter. Bake an hour at 400F on a broiling pan with assorted veggies underneath. I used yams, carrots, celery, and onions. 

Your target temps are 165 for breast and 175 for dark meat. Dark meat is near impossible to overcook. White meat dries quickly.

I overcooked on the breasts this time. At one hour, temp was 150. After 10 minutes longer, temp was 175. Next time, I will put flavored butter under the skin of the breast.

Shepherd's Pie

Preheat 400F 

To a frying pan, add ground beef, diced onion, frozen mixed vegetables, worcestershire sauce, and tomato paste. Top with mashed potatoes. 

Be sure to salt and pepper along every step of the way.

Perfect Overnight Oatmeal

Weekday breakfasts used to go something like this: a bowl of multi-grain cheerios with skim, or fruit with yogurt and granola in the summer, or maybe some slices of toast. None of it was particularly nutritious, and I was always ravenous by 10 AM. The only reason I kept these options around is because they were fast. Breakfast needs to take ten minutes tops from start to finish.

A few weeks ago, I started making oatmeal in the crockpot, and I'm totally hooked. The only thing tricky here is the ratio of water to oatmeal and cooking time. This will vary depending on the size and temperature of your crockpot, but after a few runs and tweaks, I've finally found my perfect weekday breakfast -- easy, warm, and filling.

You'll need steel cut oats, water, salt, and an electrical timer. Steel cut is much better suited than rolled oats -- they're tougher so they'll hold up to the longer cooking time. (And even though I don't think this is technically accurate, they just feel like the healthier option.) Salt is key, so don't skip it. It doesn't make your oatmeal salty, just more flavorful. Brown sugar and cinnamon are optional.

 In your crockpot, mix the ingredients according with these ratios: 1 cup steel cut oats, 3 3/4-4 cups water, 3 good pinches of kosher salt. I also add 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1 teaspoon of brown sugar. It will look totally unappetizing.

Set the electrical timer so that the oats cook at the crockpot's lowest setting for 2.5-3 hours and then shut the crockpot off. Time this so that the oats have about 30 minutes to thicken and finish cooking in the still-warm crockpot before you're ready to eat.

Stir before serving.

Asian short ribs/ papaya salad

Southeast Asian inspired: beef short ribs, papaya salad, and vermicelli

Marinate short ribs in Mamacita brand bbq, oyster sauce, cilantro, sugar, salt, pepper. Cook over medium charcoal.

Papaya salad making station

Vermicelli, boil, drain and cool. 

Papaya salad: roughly julienne the green papaya. Mash/beat with garlic, fish sauce, crab paste, shrimp paste, sugar, lime juice, chili pepper, tomato. Garnish with cilantro.

 

Serve with toasted unsalted peanuts.

High Roast Chicken

What makes this recipe awesome and unique:

insanely hot oven: you won't find many recipes at this heat.

heat = speed; chicken roasted in 40 minutes

brined chicken = a chicken breast that isn't tough and stringy and dry

potatoes that soak up the flavor of the chicken while getting an amazing crust

unique chicken not found at any restaurant or store

broiling pan, chop russet potatoes, toss in olive oil and seasoning.

cover in broiling pan

 lay your butterflied, brined chicken flat

tuck in its legs so that they are between the thighs and the breasts. A trick I learned from Gordon Ramsay: slice the skin in a ring at the very end of the drumstick so that the skin can move as it crisps.

another view

bake at 500F for 20 min. rotate and continue for 20 min.

breast should be 160F

 

will be super juicy make sure your cutting board is on the meat side, have towels ready

first cut straight down the middle between two breasts. Then pull off the thigh by holding the drumstick and passing your knife down the path of least resistance.

Eat immediately for best results.

Roasted potatoes

Cut potatoes. Oil and season. Place flesh down and bake covered in foil @425F x 20min. Remove foil and bake 15 min. Flip and bake 10 min. Remove and toss in garlic puree and rosemary.

I used russet potatoes (pictured here) and red potatoes. With these timings, red was superior. The potato texture was creamy and dense. The russets were fluffy and the crust was slightly leathery, disconnected from the flesh of the potato.

But both tasted amazing and the russets were crispier and less expensive.

Naan sandwiches

Buy naan to go for 75c a piece. Fill it with cold cuts, cilantro, and their yogurt cilantro dipping sauce. Wrap in foil to go.