Kickass Lemongrass Turkey

Filed under: Food & Drink

People have different recipes and ways to prepare their holiday turkeys.  The receipe below is one which my mom passed to me with a couple of tweaks.  The most important thing to remember here is to check the internal temperature of the turkey.  You will want to measure the temperatrure of the breast meat throughout the cooking cycle.  The temperature of the breast meat needs to be around 170 degrees.  Do not use the readiness indicator that might already come with the bird.  I have found thatwhen that goes off, it is always too late and you’ll be left with a dry turkey.  This recipe does not allow room for stuffing.  Cooking stuffing in a bird sounds like a good idea, but more likely than not actually dries out the bird due to the extended cooking time or does not actually get cooked.  In my opinion, its safer to cook a stove top stuffing rather than stuff the bird.

What you’ll need:

• Turkey (of course)
• Several stalks of lemongrass (available at your local Asian grocery and in some supermarkets)
• Garlic salt
• 4-5 Cloves of garlic
• 3 sticks of butter
• Reynolds Oven Bag
• Spoonful of flour
• Deep baking pan
• Alumium Foil

Preparation:

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
• Several days before your’s ready to roast up the turkey, put the turkey in the fridge to defrost it.  If the turkey is still frozen when you’re ready to cook it, place it in a vat of room temperature water and change the water every 30 minutes until the turkey is defrosted.
• Remove the giblets from the turkey and set aside if you want to use these to make a soup or gravy.
• Wash the turkey in and out with room temperature water.  Pat the inside and outside dry with paper towels.
• Rub a generous amount of garlic salt inside and outside of the turkey.
• Put one stick of butter inside the turkey.
• Smash 1-2 garlic cloves and put it inside the turkey.
• Rinse the lemon grass under water and dry.  One at a time, bend each lemongrass stalk and stuff into the turkey until you have used up all the lemongrass or you can not fit any more in.
• Take the turkey size oven bag and put one spoonful of flour in it.  Shake the bag to dust the flour around the bag evenly.  Discard the remaining flour.
• Place the turkey carefully into the oven bag.
• Cover the open gap where the lemongrass is stuffed with aluminum foil, trying to seal all of the gaps.  This is important since it will keep your turkey moist during the cooking process.
• Cut the remaining butter into 1/4 inch slices and place under the skin of the turkey, on top of the turkey skin and between the turkey legs.
• Chop the remaining garlic into a fine cut and spread evenly over the top of the turkey.
• Close the oven bag with the oven tie or tie it shut.
• If you have a meat thermometer, put it into the turkey making sure you avoid touching any of the bones.  Doing so will cause the thermometer to report a higher than actual reading.
• Cook the turkey according to the times listed on your turkey packaging.  About one hour before the turkey is supposed to be ready, start checking the turkey internal temperature.  Once the breast meat has reached 170  degrees, take the turkey out.
• Cut the bag open and let the turkey set for about 15 minutes before taking the turkey out.

You should now have a delicious moist turkey ready for your holiday feast.  The turkey will not have the golden brown color which many people expect.  Some websites have recommended firing up a blowtorch and carefully running the flame along the skin to crisp it up and to give the turkey that dark golden color.

Chunky Mushroom Soup

Filed under: Food & Drink

Here is a great recipe for a mushroom soup on cold winter day.

1 8oz box White button mushrooms (medium)
1 8oz box Baby Bella Mushrooms
5 Stalks Green Onion
1 Small White Onion
1 Small can, Cream of Chicken or Mushroom Soup
3 Tablespoons Canola Oil
1 Cup of water
2 Cups of Half and Half
Salt and Pepper to Taste

1. In a medium saucepan, heat the oil on medium heat. Chop the white onions finely and saute them for a one minute.
2. Slice the Mushrooms so each piece is about half a centimeter thick.
3. Put all of the mushrooms into the saucepan and sprinkle one tablespoon of salt over the mushrooms. Continue to stir for about one minute.
4. Add one cup of water and cover for 5 minutes. This will allow the mushrooms to cook down.
5. Add the can of cream of mushroom or chicken soup along with the half and half. Stir and bring the mixture up to a boil. Continue stirring until the half and half, and soup are well combined. Cover and reduce heat to medium-low. Let boil for 10-15 minutes.
6. Coarsely chop the green onions and add into the soup mixture. Reserve some of the green onion for garnish.

Serve immediately with a small garnish of green onion on the top.

Fogo de Chao

Filed under: Food & Drink

This genuine Brazilian restaurant is a meat-lover’s haven and one of my favorite restaurants to go to for a special celebration event, but it doesn’t hurt to go there for the heck of it.  Every one of the “Gauchos” are trained in Brazil before making their way to one of these restaurants in the U.S.  With this training comes the responsibility for preparing and slow-cooking their choice cuts of meat to perfection.

To start the evening off, you make a trip to the extensive salad bar.  Here you are not presented by with the standard fare of salad bar items, but instead have a wide selection which include artichoke hearts, marinated shiitake mushrooms, breads and cheese, smoked salmon and many others.

Once you have finished with your salad, prepare for the meat feast.  To signal the “Gauchos” to fill your plate with delicious meat, turn the token over to green and they’ll bring you slow cooked pieces of meat for you to savor.  Polenta, plantains, mashed potatoes and cheese puffs are also brought to the table to complement your meal.  Eat as much or as little as you want, you will always leave wanting to come back.

To complement the meal, Fogo de Chao offers an diverse wine list and many of the wines are reasonably priced.  Don’t know what to pick?  They always have some recommendations depending on your tastes.  If you have anyone in the party who doesn’t want to partake in the meat selection, tell the server and you can choose the salad option.  I have friends who are extremely satisfied with the salad bar alone.  Every time I go, I take my wife and/or a group of friends with me.  We always have a great time and it is one of the places I will always dream about going back to.  Trust me, visit one of their location when you have a chance.  Did I mention they are not only located in Houston?  You will not be disappointed.

Website:  http://www.fogodechao.com/

Sinh Sinh Restaurant

Filed under: Food & Drink

Address: 9788 Bellaire Blvd, Houston, Texas 77036

Last weekend I had the pleasure of joining some of my friends to celebrate the completion of their Masters in Nursing Science degree at the University of Houston.  One of the evenings, all of us visited a Vietnamese/Chinese restaurant called Sinh Sinh in the so called Chinatown area of Houston.  This restaurant hosts some very traditional Hong Kong style cuisine.

I strongly recommend trying the fish and the BBQ.  Among all of the Chinese restaurants in Houston, I think this one has some of the best Asian BBQ.  One dish which is not on the menu but you can order is a combination barbecue meat plate.  You basically choose the meats you want (duck, chicken, barbecue pork, roasted pig) and they will put a plate together for you.   The barbecue pork and the sucking pig are great picks if you don’t know where to begin.

If you are visiting the restaurant with a group of four or more people, ask for the combination menu.  This is a excellent way to taste the different dishes which they specialize in.  We chose the six person menu option which included a soup, Peking duck, steamed fish (grouper), stir fried chicken with vegetables and walnuts, and a seasonal vegetable.  This was more than enough for us and we left very very satisfied.

Some people complain that the service is a bit slow here, but from the minute we walked in the door, we were immediately seated and were waited upon.  The food was extremely fresh and the service was prompt during our visit.  Of course, your experience may vary.

Juan in a Million: The "Don Juan"

Filed under: Food & Drink

Some of you that have watched the show “Man vs. Food”, may have seen the episode for Austin, TX. In that episode, a small restaurant called “Juan in a Million” was featured to have some of the best breakfast tacos available. For those who are not familiar with the breakfast taco, it is a bunch of breakfast ingredients cooked and then served in a warm tortilla.

Their special taco is called the “Don Juan” which is a secret combination of potato, egg, bacon and cheese in a deliciously hot tortilla. Upon ordering this taco, I was suprised when the waitress asked if our party wanted extra tortillas with our order. This is the first time I was ever asked such as question for a breakfast taco! Once the order came out, I understood why. This taco was absolutely humungous! It probably weighted in slightly smaller than a burrito from Chipotle.

I will say that this breakfast taco is incredibly good but you might want to share it with someone as one can literally put you into a coma.

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