Maple Bourbon Glazed Turkey Wings

turkeywings

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Chanukah everybody! Hope everyone who celebrates is enjoying the holiday and relaxing a bit. I also hope you’ve indulged in some good foodie fun!

Because Chanukah and Thanksgiving only coincide once every 70,000 years or so, KOL Foods selected a group of eight bloggers to come together and share eight days of fabulous turkey recipes with you! At the end of Chanukah, you will have the opportunity to vote for your favorite Thanksgivukkah recipe and you’ll also have the opportunity to win $200 in credit towards your next KOL Foods purchases! Learn more about the contest here. If you aren’t familiar with KOL Foods, they are the only source online for domestic, 100% grass-fed, kosher beef and organic, pastured, kosher chicken, turkey and duck.

We’ve been celebrating Thanksgiving for the past few years with an assortment of good friends and family. The great turkey debate happens in the house each year. Our friends and family are a mixture of vegetarians and meat-eaters, and there is always a discussion of whether to change things up to a dairy Thanksgiving dinner. Somehow, tradition always wins out, and a giant turkey is prepared. Somehow, the turkey business always lands in my kitchen. I usually rely on my parents for trusty Thanksgiving turkey recipes. The giant 20-pound birds often intimidates me. I decided to come up with my own bird ideas this year.

Each year when we make the turkey, there always seems to be a race to the favorite turkey parts. In our gaggle of friends, the thighs and wings seem to be the most popular. Probably because they retain a lot of turkey flavor and juice. Unfortunately for us, turkeys only have two thighs and two wings. This year, I decided to forego the whole turkey and only cook up the various turkey parts that our guests prefer. I love using pastured, grass-fed turkey and KOL Foods sent me some turkey wings to work with. I decided to go with a maple bourbon glaze for my turkey. I’ve done a similar glaze on chicken and thought it would work well with turkey.

I preheated the oven, then I sliced some onions and laid them in my roasting pan, along with some cubed sweet potatoes, acorn squash, garlic and herbs. I used a combination of fresh thyme and fresh sage. I laid the turkey on top of the cubed veggies and stuffed some additional herbs and garlic under the skin. I ground some salt and pepper over the turkey skin. In a bowl, I mixed together the maple syrup, olive oil, bourbon, soy sauce, dijon mustard, garlic paste, apple cider vinegar, chopped sage and thyme. I poured everything over the turkey and veggie mixture.

prepped-turkey-wings

I then baked it in the oven for about an hour and a half or so. I checked on the turkey a few times to baste with the pan juices and to make sure that the turkey skin wasn’t burning. Some sort of magic happened in that oven. As I pulled the turkey out of the oven, even I, the turkey hater, was tempted to take an early bite of these turkey wings. That crispy skin promised to be amazing.

baked-wings

Good news. The turkey did not disappoint.

If you have some leftover  turkey wings (or other parts) from your recent turkey feast, I would recommend you lightly brush on some of the sauce and bake/reheat the turkey at 325 until heated through to a safe temperature. Keep in mind, for a few small pieces, you do not need as much sauce. It is a great way though to refresh a bland or drier turkey. You could also chop up leftover turkey and  pan fry with some of the glaze and chopped veggies and onions. It tastes amazing. We did this with a leftover semi-dry turkey breast and it totally revived the turkey!

Check out the recipe below and then head on over to KOL Foods to enter to win $200 in KOL Foods credit!

Maple Bourbon Glazed Turkey Wings
 
Author:
Ingredients
  • 6 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 10 sage leaves
  • 12 sprigs of thyme
  • 2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
  • 1 small acorn squash, peeled and cubed
  • 1 large onion. chopped
  • 4.5 lbs turkey wings
  • ½ cup Bourbon
  • ½ cup Maple Syrup - Grade B
  • 1 tbsp. olive oil
  • 1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tbsp. dijon mustard
  • 1 tbsp. soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp. garlic paste
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350
  2. Place the onions, sweet potatoes, squash and half of the garlic in the bottom of a roasting pan
  3. Chop up the herbs and place about a third of them over the veggies
  4. Place the turkey wings over the veggies and onions.
  5. Sprinkle ground pepper and salt over the turkey
  6. In a mixing bowl, mix up the bourbon, maple syrup, olive oil, vinegar, garlic paste, mustard and soy sauce. Mix in about a third of the herbs.
  7. Pour the sauce mixture over the turkey.
  8. Sprinkle the remaining herbs and garlic over the turkey.
  9. Bake in the oven for about 1.5-2 hours. Check and baste the turkey every 30 minutes.
  10. Enjoy!

turkeywings

Wild Mushroom & Roasted Garlic Latkes

mushroom-and-potato-latkes

We light the first candle on our menorah for Chanukah tonight. My kids are so excited. Dreidels and chocolate gelt have already begun to make an appearance in our house. The kids are curious what we have in store for the holiday. Chanukah is always a fun time in our home. As a kid, I patiently waited for Chanukah to start so we could light candles and open some presents. The light of the menorah against the dark night is always beautiful.

Chanukah is also one of my favorite foodie holidays. To commemorate the miracle of the oil in the ancient temple, there’s the tradition to eat fried foods during the holiday. Who doesn’t love fried foods? That Chanukah happens to fall at the same time as Thanksgiving in the US – extra foodie fun!

I try to come up with new latke ideas each year. Some years I’ve focused on a different root veggies, other years I’ve added some herbs. This latke idea came to me just the other day as I was making dinner. Mushrooms are one of my favorite veggies. Why not try and add them to latkes? I had a bag of dried wild mushrooms that I thought would complement the latkes very well. I paired the wild mushrooms with some sage and roasted garlic. Latke perfection! I’m so glad I made these right away!

I roasted a head of garlic and then I soaked the mushrooms in boiling water.

soak-mushrooms

I shredded the potatoes, mushrooms and onions in my Cuisinart food processor. I then mixed everything together and added some eggs, potatoes and sage.

I fried up the latkes and then drained them on a wire rack lined with paper towels.

fry-in-oil

drain-on-towels

These latkes were a huge hit! I highly recommend serving them with sour cream. Enjoy and Have a Happy Chanukah!


Wild Mushroom & Roasted Garlic Latkes
 
Author:
Ingredients
  • 1 head of garlic, roasted
  • 5 Idaho Russet Potatoes
  • 1 large yellow onion
  • 2 cups of dried wild mushrooms
  • 5 oz. cremini mushooms
  • 2 tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp. pepper
  • ½ cup flour
  • 3 large eggs
  • oil for frying
  • additional salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 400. Cut off the top quarter-inch of the head of garlic to expose the cloves. Drizzle some olive oil over the garlic and wrap in foil. Place in oven for 30 minutes and roast. Then allow to cool.
  2. Rinse the dried mushrooms and soak them in boiling water for about 15 minutes. Drain and set aside.
  3. Peel and quarter the onions and potatoes.
  4. Rinse and quarter the Cremini mushrooms.
  5. With a shredding disc, process the potatoes, onion and mushrooms in the food processor.
  6. Transfer to a colander and squeeze as much liquid out of the potatoes as possible. I sometimes like to place them in a tea towel and squeeze more water from there like I did with this latke recipe.
  7. Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl.
  8. Squeeze out the roasted garlic cloves in to the bowl.
  9. Add in the chopped sage leaves.
  10. Stir in the eggs, flour, salt and pepper.
  11. Heat up the oil in a deep fry pan.
  12. From potato mixture in to patties and fry. Flip the latke over when you see the edges begin to brown.
  13. Transfer the finished latke to a rack positioned over paper towels to drain and cool.
  14. These latkes are great with sour cream.
  15. Enjoy!

latkeswithtext

Cranberry Glazed Corned Turkey Roast

Cranberry-Turkey

A whole bunch of Jewish holidays just ended and I’m already gearing up for the next set. How did that happen so fast?

This year, in the good ol’ US of A, we have the pleasure of two holidays happening at the same time. Thanksgiving happens to fall on the first night of Chanukah! They say this awesome phenomenon won’t happen for another 79,000 years. Since I don’t plan on being around for the next round of Thanksgivukkah, I thought it best to do something this year to honor the holiday. Two great foodie holidays colliding! I’ve got to do something, right? So stick around this blog. I hope to share a few more Thanksgivukkah recipes with you over the next month.

When I was at the kosher market the other day, they had a display of corned meats. My husband loves corned beef,  and when I saw they had corned turkey roasts, I decided that this would be perfect. I rarely make turkey, so this would be a special treat.  My aunt makes a great corned turkey, and swears that when she makes it, it tastes a bit like ham. I can’t be the judge of that, but this corned turkey came out pretty good, and would be perfect for a Thanksgiving/Chanukah holiday dinner mashup. It’s also great for any shabbat or festive dinner.

The corned turkey comes vaccum-sealed and wrapped in twine. I recommend rinsing the turkey well before cooking. You first boil the turkey for about an hour and a half, then you glaze it and bake it further. I took the twine off before baking, but left it on while I let it simmer. I added some pickling spice and onions to the water bath.

For the glaze, I usually make something similar to what I do for corned beef, but since I have Thanksgiving on my mind, I created a cranberry glaze for this dish. It worked out well! I will definitely do it again!

corned-turkey-cooking

 

Cranberry Glazed Corned Turkey Roast
 
Author:
Recipe type: Poultry, Thansgiving, Main Course
Ingredients
  • 3 lb corned turkey roast (If you can't get corned turkey where you live, you can substitute corned beef)
  • 2 tbsp. pickling spice
  • 1 onion, sliced
  • ½ can whole berry cranberry sauce
  • ¼ cup brown sugar
  • 2 tbsp. white vinegar
  • 2 tbsp. chopped rosemary
  • 1 tbsp. chopped thyme
  • 2 tsp. chopped ginger
  • 2 tbsp. chili sauce
  • 1 tbsp. chopped garlic
Instructions
  1. Rinse the corned turkey roast.
  2. Place the turkey in a large pot of water. Add the pickling spice and the onion. Bring the water to a boil. Turn down the heat and cover with a lid. Simmer for an hour to and hour and a half.
  3. Preheat the oven to 375.
  4. After the hour and a half, transfer the turkey roast to a baking pan.
  5. Mix up the rest of the ingredients and pour over the turkey.
  6. Bake in the oven for around 40 minutes.
  7. Baste the turkey every 20 minutes with the sauce.
  8. Remove from the oven. Let cool a few minutes.
  9. Slice and serve.
  10. Enjoy!

Cranberry-Turkey

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