Josh and I hosted our first dinner in our (not so new anymore) apartment, a gathering with some friends to do a Secret Santa exchange. Our menu was somewhat of a traditional holiday meal, which featured a roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, and cranberry sauce. We also made marinated and broiled London broil, sautéed green beans with garlic chips, roasted asparagus, Caesar salad, and potato zucchini kugel.
Our full holiday dinner table (not a great shot unfortunately because we were too busy setting everything up)
We’ve never roasted a turkey by ourselves before and knew that we wanted to brine it first, since we’ve read that it really helps keep the meat moist and flavorful. Finding a non-kosher, non-butterball turkey was actually kind of hard, and we went to several supermarkets before we finally found one that suited our needs. I forget what brand it was but it was frozen and cheap, weighing in at almost 13 lbs. Following a recipe from Cooks Illustrated, we let it defrost for a day, then soaked it in a simple brine made from two gallons of water and two cups of salt. Seriously, that’s it. It was really easy – the hardest part was finding a tub big enough to hold the turkey and brine but small enough to fit in our refrigerator.
Turkey brining in salted water
After brining the turkey for four hours (that’s all it needed!), we set it on a v-rack uncovered in the fridge to dry out the skin. This helps the skin get more crispy during roasting, but you don’t have to do it if you don’t mind soggier skin.
Turkey hanging out in the fridge to dry over night (for some reason our turkey was missing a chunk of skin on the breast!)
To prepare the turkey, we simply put carrots, celery, onions, thyme, and melted butter into the body cavity, then tied the legs together. We put the same mix of vegetables into the bottom of the roasting pan with some water. Then we brushed melted butter over the entire turkey.
Trussed turkey ready to go into the oven
We cooked the turkey according to the directions from the Cook’s Illustrated recipe for classic roast turkey. This involved rotating the turkey every so often so that it cooks more evenly. The total cook time is approximately two hours, so it’s really not that difficult or time consuming to make a roasted turkey!
The result? A golden turkey that was super moist and flavorful. The skin didn’t get as crispy as we would have liked but the rest of the bird was perfect. It was really juicy and the meat was seasoned the whole way through. Seriously, everyone should brine their turkeys from now on! Our cheap bird ended up tasting divine, and we were both thrilled with the results.
Golden turkey right out of the oven
Although there weren’t enough pan drippings to make a gravy, fortunately we had saved all the giblets and innards, which Josh sauteed with some onion to develop the flavor. He made a gravy using those giblets, the vegetables from the turkey roasting pan, some chicken stock, and white wine. The gravy was thickened with a simple roux of butter and flour, and it was one of the best gravies I’ve ever tasted.
For the London broil, we bought two steaks that were a little less than 2 lbs each. We marinated each steak separately in large Ziploc bags overnight. First we liberally sprinkled salt, pepper, and garlic powder on each side of the steaks and rubbed it in a bit before placing them inside the bags. Then we just poured the marinade ingredients into the bags directly. The marinade for each steak included a 12 oz bottle of beer (any kind, we used a cheap one so that we wouldn’t waste a good beer), a healthy drizzle of soy sauce, a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce, a squirt of sriracha (we like a little spice but you can omit this if you don’t want any heat), and two crushed cloves of garlic. Close the bags and leave a bit of air so you can squish everything together until the marinade is combined and coating the pieces of steak. Then open the bag a tiny bit, squeezing excess air out until the marinade sticks to the steak more closely. At that point, reseal the bag the whole way and place the bags in a container to catch any leakage and place it in the fridge to marinate overnight.
London broil marinating in ziploc bags
To cook the steaks, place them on a big flat sheet pan that’s covered in foil for easy cleanup, pour some marinade over the top, and place it directly in the oven under the broiler. The steaks cook for about 10 minutes on one side and slightly less on the other side (we like our steak to be rare). When you flip, pour some more marinade on the other side. They’ll form a nice brown outer crust and are still pink in the middle. Slice it thinly on the bias, against the grain. This is a cheap cut of meat so it can be a bit tough, marinating the steaks overnight and slicing it thinly really helps make it much more tender.
My proudest contribution was the potato zucchini kugel. I followed this recipe, and it really was so simple to make and very delicious. I grated the potatoes, zucchini and onion by hand, which was the part of the recipe that required the most work, but I thought it was easier than using a food processor and trying to do everything in batches.
Grated potatoes, zucchini, and onion
I had made kugel only once before, a potato kugel for Rosh Hashanah dinner at Josh’s house, but I thought the zucchini really added a lot more to the dish. The zucchini made the kugel taste lighter and fresher, and this is the version that I’ll be making from now on.
Potato zucchini mixture ready to go into the oven
The other sides were pretty much no-brainers. Mashed potatoes = easy; boil peeled potato chunks + butter + cream + salt + pepper.
Cranberry sauce = 1 can of Ocean Spray cranberry sauce + 1 can Dole pineapple chunks, crushed; combine and mix together.
Sauteed green beans = sautee a few cloves of chopped garlic in olive oil + throw in washed green beans with ends trimmed; sautee until tender but still crunchy.
Roasted asparagus = washed asparagus with tough ends snapped off + drizzle of olive oil + chopped garlic + salt + pepper + grated parmesan cheese; rub the oil and seasonings over the asparagus and spread out the spears on a large flat baking sheet, roast at 400 degrees for 10 minutes until tender but still crunchy. Remove from oven and grate parmesan cheese over the top.
We also made a Caesar salad with homemade dressing, but I’ll do a post on that at a later time. Caesar salad topped with homemade croutons and some sort of protein is one of our favorite quick suppers.
London broil, asparagus, green beans, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, potato zucchini kugel, turkey
In the morning, Josh and I had created of schedule of when we needed to start prepping certain dishes and when they needed to be cooked. It got a bit hectic towards the end but we managed to finish on schedule. Our tiny kitchen was a disaster, but we really had a fun time with the dinner and the Secret Santa exchange. Both of our Santas knew us all too well. I got a gift certificate to Becco, my favorite restaurant, and Josh received a bottle of wine and a Vinturi wine aerator. All of those will be put to good use, for sure. Thanks, Santas! And we hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday season!