First, the turkey - we got an organic turkey at our go-to store, Whole Foods. We stuffed it with veggies and herbs to help infuse the drippings with flavor. Organic turkeys, however, don't ooze fat and what-all like Butterballs used to - I take this as a good thing - so I basted the turkey in the beginning with safe chicken broth until the drippings had a chance to percolate.
Gravy
This was the first big challenge. I've made homemade gravy in the past, but I'd gotten lazy over the years and started buying low-fat, pre-made gravy. Not this year. I surfed the internet for gluten-free gravy recipes and got back a ton of options. The one I choose was pretty darn simple. I adapted a recipe I found on Gluten-free girl and the chef. Since we can't have butter, I replaced the butter with the turkey drippings from the bottom of the pan:
Gluten-free Gravy
1/4 C turkey drippings
1/4 C sweet rice flour
shredded turkey neck meat
2 C turkey gizzard broth + pan juices
One of the coolest investments I ever made was a fat separator cup. It's this funky measuring cup with a long spout that is a must when making gravy from drippings. After the turkey is roasted and moved to a plate to rest, pour the pan juices into this handy gizmo. As it sits on the counter, the oil separates from the pan juices. Viola! Easy fat extraction. I used my turkey baster to suck up a quarter cup of fat to add to a sauce pan.
The night before, I started my turkey gizzard broth. This is something my mother used to make day-of in a saucepan - just water, celery, carrots, onions, gizzards, salt and pepper to taste. Simmer all day and you have turkey broth to supplement gravy. I opted to go a different route since I knew my day-of would be packed with all kinds of new recipe activities.
I pulled out my crockpot, added the gizzards (minus the liver, of course), onions, roasted garlic, carrots, celery, bay leaf, fresh thyme, and parsley. I added two quarts of chicken broth, set to low, and let simmer overnight. I strained it in the morning after a slight-cool down and shredded the neck meat into a container for later use.
I actually ended up doubling this recipe b/c my daughter - who also started the diet and loves gravy - was concerned we would not have enough for leftovers. I had almost exactly a 1/2 C of turkey drippings, so it worked out perfectly.
Instructions are as follows:
- combine equal parts fat and sweet rice flour in a saucepan
- whisk until combined
- heat contents until it browns up nicely
- add pan juices and whisk to combine
- slowly add in heated broth until evenly combined*
- add shredded turkey neck meat
- simmer until it thickens to your liking
- adjust flavor with salt and pepper
*I confess I did not warm the broth or slowly add it in. I just dumped the broth in semi-cold and whisked the snot out of it. Then I added the warm pan juices. I didn't mean to do it in this order, I just forgot to add the juices, even though it was sitting right in front of me.
I had no problems with lumps. Sweet rice flour does not clump like starches do. It works gravy miracles as far as I'm concerned. Tastes great, too.
Since I used chicken broth, I did not need to correct the salt much. In fact, I will taste it first next time to see if it even needs salt. My bad. Not as experienced with this stuff yet. In time.
Homemade Cranberry sauce
Homemade cranberries is something I started making a couple of years ago. My mother never fussed with such things. She bought a can of Ocean Spray cranberry sauce - the solid, jellied kind -opened it, sliced it, and called it good.
Since moving to the Pacific Northwest and making friends with women who actually know a thing or two about baking, I became aware that Reddi-whip may be good, but homemade whipping cream was an epiphany. And extremely simple to make if you have a stand mixer.
Anyway, I started to dabble in homemade goods, expanding my cooking repertoire to include things I always assumed came pre-made in box or can - like pies. And whipped cream. And eggnog. I can't drink eggnog anymore, but I stopped buying it in a carton when I had it homemade. Holy cow! What a difference in taste. Deadly good. Hugely fattening. Nothing, nothing, NOTHING at all like what you get in a carton. I could never drink prepackaged eggnog again.
You can say that again, b/c I can't have eggnog - ever - with an egg allergy. But I did decide to tackle homemade cranberry sauce. When bags of cranberries started showing up during the holiday season, I read the recipe on the back of one and realized - sugar, water, cranberries, heat - I can do that.
Now that I have sugar allergy, I assumed I could no longer do that. Then I discovered sugar substitutes. Hallelujah! Homemade cranberry sauce, here I come:
Cranberry Sauce
1 C beet sugar
1 C filtered water
1 12 oz. bag fresh cranberries
Combine in saucepan, bring to a boil, let simmer ten minutes. I let mine simmer longer b/c the fluid didn't get gel-like. Maybe it's the beet sugar, but I simmered this for fifteen to twenty minutes until the consistency seemed right. Turn off heat, let cool completely, then store in fridge until dinner.
Next is mashed potatoes, a side (rice "stuffing"), and our amazing dessert, but I will leave that for another post. Suffice it to say, we had a delicious meal and didn't feel deprived at all.
