Sushi Day

My brother REALLY loves Oreos, so when I came across this German Milka Oreo Torte, I decided I HAD to make it for his birthday!

If you want to try it, you can buy a Milka Oreo Torte here.

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Sweet potato fries, homemade squeaky cheese curds, caramelized onions, dried cranberries, maple-glazed turkey, and turkey gravy – we’re making Thanksgiving Poutine!

When both MaryJoStaebler AND Morhokai redeemed their fishcoins to choose Canada, I knew I definitely wanted to make poutine! And since we had two redemptions, don’t you worry – another Canadian recipe will be coming up!

I’d made poutine before, back on my Twitch stream. But at the time, I used store-bought cheese curds (which weren’t all that great) and overall it was good… but not great.

And you know me, I can’t help but put a twist on things.

Since today is Canadian Thanksgiving, I figured – let’s do thanksgiving poutine!

Last week was dedicated to all the components of this recipe – so all we gotta do now is make our poutine!

Normally, poutine uses normal french fries, but you can’t have Thanksgiving without some sort of sweet potato dish! I’m not a huge fan of super sweet sweet potatoes, so these savory fries were perfect. We’ll start with a base of those oven-baked sweet potato fries Shrimpy made for us.

Then, the one traditional thing we made – my homemade squeaky cheese curds that I showed you in our very first Sushi Labs! I was seriously nervous about our very first Sushi Labs video, so I’m really so happy that you all enjoyed that!

Every poutine’s gotta have gravy! Obviously for a Thanksgiving poutine, it’s gotta be a turkey gravy, so we’re using that sweet maple turkey gravy that Shrimpy made for us.

Caramelized onions are a Thanksgiving thing, right? Something something green beans… okay fine, I just like caramelized onions because they’re delicious and sounded like they’d be tasty here. Shrimpy’s caramelized onions come next!

I didn’t want to do cranberry sauce because to be honest, I don’t love cranberry sauce enough to go out of my way to make some. But I definitely wanted that tartness to cut all the heaviness and sweetness from the other ingredients, so we’re using dried cranberries here.

And then of course – the most Thanksgiving thing, we’ve got to have some turkey! We shredded up the maple glazed turkey I made (once again, ignore that it’s actually a chicken), and scattered that over the poutine – don’t forget some of that bacon!

And voila – you’ve got thanksgiving poutine!

Thanksgiving Poutine

Ingredients

• sweet potato fries
• homemade cheese curds
• maple turkey gravy
• caramelized onions
• dried cranberries
• maple-glazed turkey (and bacon!)

Cooking Directions

1. Layer all ingredients, and dig in!

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We’re making sweet potato fries!

For… reasons. Which you will see tomorrow.

These fries turned out tasty, but contrary to the original recipe mine were not crispy AT ALL. Possibly because I used cornstarch instead of arrowroot powder? Not sure… but it’s okay, because the fries don’t need to be crispy for the final recipe.

Tune in tomorrow to see what we’re cooking up!

Baked Sweet Potato Fries

adapted from The First Mess

Ingredients

• 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled (about 750g total)
• 2 tbsp arrowroot powder or cornstarch
• high heat-tolerant oil spray
• fine sea salt

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 425F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Cut the sweet potatoes into 3-inch long and 1/2-inch thick fries. Place the cut sweet potatoes into a large bowl and cover them with cold water. Let them sit for at least an hour or up to overnight in the refrigerator.
3. Drain the sweet potatoes and lay them on a clean kitchen towel. Place another clean kitchen towel on top and loosely roll them all up. Massage the sweet potatoes in the towels for a bit so that the fries are as dry as possible.
4. In another large bowl, toss the cut sweet potatoes with the arrowroot. The cut sweet potatoes should have a light, powdery, all-over coating of arrowroot.
5. Spray the parchment on your baking sheet evenly with the oil spray. Arrange the sweet potatoes in rows on the baking sheet. Spray the tops of the sweet potatoes with the oil spray before sliding them into the oven.
6. Bake the sweet potato fries for 25 minutes or until very lightly browned in spots and the arrowroot is forming a light “webbing” on the undersides of the fries. Remove the fries from the oven and carefully flip them all over. Slide the sweet potato fries back into the oven and bake for another 25 minutes.
7. At the end of the 25 minutes, the sweet potato fries should have some strong brown spots and crisp exteriors. If they still look like they need crisping, carefully flip them one more time and bake until they’ve reached your desired doneness.
8. Quickly transfer the fries to a large bowl and toss them with a fat pinch of sea salt.

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Now that we’ve made a maple-glazed turkey, we’re making gravy!

Definitely save the pan drippings from the turkey/chicken, those are gonna come in handy here.

Shrimpy Tips: lemon juice may seem unusual, but it helps balance the sweetness of the maple syrup in the turkey drippings!

Maple Turkey Gravy

adapted from Five Heart Home

Ingredients

• drippings from the maple-glazed turkey OR 1/4 cup fat such as butter or bacon fat
• 1/4 cup flour
• 2 cups chicken stock OR turkey stock
• salt & freshly ground black pepper
• 1 lemon

Cooking Directions

1. Pour the drippings from the maple-glazed turkey into a pan, or add whatever fat you’re using. Set pan over medium heat and whisk flour into the drippings until smooth.
2. Gradually add stock while continuously stirring. Raise heat to high and bring to a simmer while stirring regularly, until gravy is thickened to your preferred consistency.
3. Season with salt and pepper, to taste, and fresh lemon juice, to taste.

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A juicy turkey seasoned with sage butter and maple syrup, and topped with bacon – we’re making a whole maple-glazed turkey today!

You may be thinking, Allison, it’s the beginning of October, it’s a little early for turkey don’t you think?

But if you’re wondering that, then you may not realize that Canadian Thanksgiving is the second Monday in October!

And can I just note how amazing it is to be in such an interconnected world? The internet may be trash sometimes, but without the web we’d all be so much less likely to be exposed to cultures and countries outside our own.

But thanks to the internet, I’ve been introduced to new foods and holidays and cultural norms… such as my Canadian friends celebrating their Thanksgiving a month before ours!

And… since it’s Canadian… what’s more appropriate than a maple-glazed turkey?

If you’ve been keeping up with our videos then you may have an inkling of what’s coming up soon… but if not, I’ll keep it a surprise!

Let’s make our turkey!

Step 1: pretend this chicken is a turkey, because it’s October! And I’m in California! And I can’t find a reasonably priced turkey that will fit in my teeny tiny oven anywhere! Have you seen the size of my oven? There is NO way I could fit a 14lb turkey in there.

We want the skin to dry out a little so it has a better chance of crispiness. So put your whole turkey/chicken on a rack in a roasting pan, breast-side up, and let it sit out at room temperature for an hour.

Also, make sure you remove any giblets or neck that came with the turkey – there’s usually a bag inside the body cavity. Although… are you even a real cook if you haven’t accidentally cooked the giblets bag at least once? I definitely have. Unfortunately this chicken didn’t come with ANY giblets. I feel cheated!

While your bird is coming to room temperature, mince some fresh sage leaves. This is what will give it that really “Thanksgiving” smell – it’s floral and earthy and almost pine-scented. Stir that into some room temperature butter that we’ll be using to slather our turkey, and then season that with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Before preheating (although let’s be honest, I regularly forget to do this ahead of time and always end up hanging a hot rack on our pot rack – say that five times fast) put the oven rack in the bottom third of your oven so your turkey will fit, and remove the top rack. Now, preheat your oven to 350F.

Before we butter ’em up, liberally sprinkle the turkey with salt and pepper, and use your hands to rub it both inside and out so as much as the turkey as possible is seasoned. Really get in that body cavity.

Once your turkey is seasoned, spread the sage butter over the entire turkey. Since it’s butter, it got pretty slippery, so I just tried to dab it on as much of the surface area as possible. Ease your hand under the skin, and slowly pull the skin away from the meat, getting as far under the skin as you can get without tearing the skin itself. Then stuff some of the butter under the skin as well, trying to get an even layer.

Truss the legs with kitchen string. This helps prevent the skin from burning, but also works to keep the meat moist by minimizing the surface area of the bird.

And – since this is a maple-glazed turkey after all – we’re going to baste our turkey with maple syrup that’s been diluted with a bit of hot water. Since the butter is rather precariously attached to the skin, I kind of dribbled the syrup over the turkey, since painting it with the pastry brush would just brush the butter right off. Don’t worry about using all the syrup, as you’ll be basting several times as it cooks.

And now it’s time to cook! Since I’m using a small chicken instead of a big turkey, my timing is quite a bit different, but I’ll give both times just in case.

Either way, expect to be cooking your bird for about 13 minutes per pound. My 4lb chicken only took a little over an hour to fully cook, but a larger 12-14lb turkey may take closer to 3 hours or more.

Every so often, baste your bird with more maple syrup. For a larger turkey you can do this every half hour, but for my small chicken I did it every 15 minutes.

When about 2/3 of the time has passed (so for a larger turkey, after 2 hours; for our smaller chicken, 45 minutes), take the bird out of the oven, and lay strips of bacon over the breast. Since our chicken was starting to brown quite a bit, we also put bacon over the legs and wings… because more bacon is always a good thing.

Baste the bacon-covered bird with the maple syrup again.

If you have an oven-safe meat thermometer, then insert that in the meatiest part of the thigh, without touching the bone, and put the turkey back in the oven. I just tested the temperature every time I took it out to re-baste.

From here, you’re cooking the turkey until the temperature hits 165F. Continue basting every half-hour. If the bacon is fully cooked before the turkey is done, you can cover it with foil so it doesn’t burn.

When the temperature hits 165F and the juices run clear, remove your bird from the oven! Tilt the turkey so all the juices run out into the pan – Shrimpy will be using that for gravy next video.

Then place your turkey on a cutting board, tent it with foil, and let sit for half an hour before carving.

Et voila – we are ready to eat!

Maple-Glazed Turkey with Bacon and Sage Butter

adapted from Five Heart Home

Ingredients

• 1 12- to 14-pound fresh or frozen turkey, completely thawed
• 3/4 cup 1 1/2 sticks butter, at room temperature
• 3 tbsp finely chopped fresh sage
• salt & freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup pure maple syrup
• 1/4 cup hot water
• 8 strips bacon

Cooking Directions

1. An hour before roasting, take turkey out of fridge, unwrap, and remove bag of giblets and/or neck. Place turkey on a rack in a large roasting pan, breast side up, to allow it to dry and come to room temperature.
2. Place oven rack in the bottom third of the oven and remove the top rack. Preheat oven to 350°F.
3. Stir minced fresh sage into softened butter until well combined. Season well with salt and pepper.
4. Liberally sprinkle the turkey, inside and out, with salt and pepper. Carefully slide your fingers under the skin of the breast and drumsticks to lift it away from the meat. Slip spoonfuls of sage butter underneath the skin and gently smooth over the top of the skin to spread out the butter in a thin layer. Repeat everywhere that you can reach under the skin until all of the butter has been used. Truss the turkey legs.
5. Combine maple syrup and hot water. Use a basting brush to baste the entire turkey. Place turkey in the oven, basting with maple syrup every 30 minutes. If the breast and/or the tops of the drumsticks turn golden brown before the rest of the turkey, shield them with foil. Plan to roast your turkey for about 13-20 minutes per pound.
6. After about 2/3 of your expected total cooking time has passed, remove the turkey from the oven and insert an oven-safe meat thermometer into the meatiest part of the thigh (without touching the bone). Baste the turkey with syrup once more and arrange the strips of bacon over the top of the turkey with no gaps in between them, until they cover the entire breast. Return the turkey to the oven, continuing to baste about every 30 minutes. Continue cooking, watching the bacon closely so that it turns crisp but does not burn. If the bacon is done before the thermometer inserted in the turkey reads 165°F, shield the bacon with foil (as well as any other parts of the turkey that are brown enough, which might end up being the whole turkey) and continue cooking until the turkey is done.
7. Once the temperature of the turkey reaches 165°F and the juices are running clear, remove the turkey from the oven. Tilt the turkey in the pan so that the liquids run out of the cavity. Transfer turkey to a cutting board, tent with foil, and allow to rest for 30 minutes.

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Today, ya boi Shrimpy is cooking some caramelized onions!

They’re easy to make, but if you want good caramelized onions, you gotta be prepared for it to take a while. No burnt onions on my watch!

Shrimpy Tips: using a combination of oil and butter keeps the butter fats from burning!

Caramelized Onions

Ingredients

• 4 big onions (or lots of little ones!)
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter

Cooking Directions

1. Peel and thinly slice the onions.
2. Heat a nonstick pan over medium-low heat, then add the oil and butter.
3. Add the onions and cover 15 minutes. Then remove the cover and cook for another 1 1/2 – 2 hours, stirring occasionally until the onions are nice and caramelized.

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We’ve been so busy filming and working on videos all the time that I have no idea what day it is anymore.

Almost forgot to post this week’s Weekly Wanderings!

It’s been HOT again, so we’ve been surviving on daily ice cream. My mom made pistachio gelato, and we found some of this fig ice cream in the freezer we had forgotten about!

Now that it’s no longer smoky, we’re aiming for daily walks again. Found a pretty succulent.

And a chalk bird.

Tooooo much information.

Breakfast sandwich (with a double egg because I accidentally broke a yolk).

Son wanted toast and then his bread tried to make a break for it. It somehow slipped between the metal wires in the rack and landed on the heating element in our toaster.

Pretty little flowers. They’re more blue IRL.

Mid-caramelization.

What’s this? (Pretend it’s a turkey.)

Thai basil.

Up a tree.

Bricks.

Have a lovely week, everybody!