What do you want to eat on your birthday?
One of the nice traditions we have in making a birthday special is that the person being celebrated is given their choices for the day. This gave me time to pause and think about my own upcoming birthday. I am also painfully aware that I had planned many culinary wonders for the holidays that never were developed and the various ingredients lay in my 3 freezers.
I had planned our version of what Chef Paul Prudhomme made famous… the Turducken. His recipe is very nice but I’d leave out the eggplant and remove the skin from the inner birds. BTW, I am very fond of Louisiana Cooking be it Chef Prudhomme or that of Chef Emeril John Lagasse and found autographed cookbooks by both for my daughters Karen & Kristin’s Cookbook collections. I had to insure that I had everything I needed!
Most people shy away from this wonderful dish, in part because many find deboning the birds a rather physical task. However, if you take your time and do it the day before… it is rather simple.
Here’s how I debone the turkey!
Each bird should be accompanied by its own stuffing! With so many wonderful stuffings out there, you can choose just the right one for each bird! Chef Prudhomme recommends an Andouille corn bread stuffing which is perfect even if you only make a turkey! Other stuffings that are fun are versions of wild rice, cashew, and mushroom and saffron. There are some fun stuffings for the smaller birds made from ancient grains that don’t over power… but add interest as well.
One thing you might consider is to place strips of bacon between the string lattice you made and the turkey… this is often referred to as ‘banding’ and adds a lot to the experience.
So, now all I have to do is wait to put this all together and celebrate something… oh yeah, my birthday!