Page 28
November 2013
ALL AROUND PENNSAUKEN
Give Thanks With Fresh Herbs From Your Garden
By Kathleen
Harvey,
Owner, Plant Artistry, LLC
Thanksgiving, I was invited to dine with
a family whose tradition was for every
one to bring something home made. I
As Thanksgiving approaches,
our volunteered to make turkey gravy. Upon
thoughts turn to people,
places,
and announcing my choice, the overwhelm to be thankful
this
things we all have
for
ing response was, “Are you sure? That’s
past year. Of course,
one
of
those is the the most challenging thing to make in
traditional Thanksgiving
feast. Last the entire dinner!” I assured them I
could indeed make good turkey gravy.
Delicious homemade turkey gravy can
be accomplished with fresh herbs from
the garden and a few family secrets,
which I am willing to share with you, my
readers. So if you are hosting Thanksgiving dinner this year, or asked to contribute something, try my recipe. It’s
good on mashed potatoes, stuffing, and
of course, turkey. Happy Thanksgiving!
Home Made Turkey Gravy
Ingredients:
Turkey drippings
Cooked turkey neck
4 cloves fresh roasted garlic, mashed
2-3 slices of fresh onion, minced
Several branches of parsley, chopped
4-6 medium to large sage leaves,
minced
About 12” of rosemary springs, remove leaves from stems and mince
About 8” of thyme sprigs, remove
leaves from stems
1-2 tbsp corn starch
Salt and pepper to taste
While the turkey is in the oven, either
place the turkey neck in the bottom of
the roasting pan, or put in a sauce pot,
cover with water, and simmer until the
meat is tender enough to fall off the
bones. Once the neck is cooked, remove
from sauce pan or roaster, and separate
the neck meat from the bones, shredding
the meat into small bits. If the neck was
boiled, reserve the water for the gravy.
Also, while the turkey is in the oven,
take a whole bulb of garlic, unpeeled,
with all the cloves; place it on a small
piece of aluminum foil, drizzle with olive
oil, wrap the garlic with foil so that it
looks like a small baseball, and place in
the oven with the turkey. Check periodically; the garlic is roasted when it is soft
to touch. Use a few cloves in the gravy,
the rest can be used in other recipes and
will keep up to a week in the refrigerator
once roasted.
As soon as the turkey has finished
cooking, use the turkey baster to remove
all the drippings from the bottom of the
roasting pan, placing the drippings into a
heat and cold resistant bowl or the sauce
pan used to cook the neck. Immediately
put the bowl of drippings into the freezer
for 30-60 minutes while the other ingredients are prepped. Putting greasy turkey
drippings into the freezer will cause the
turkey fat to rise to the top and congeal
into a white solid where it can be scraped
off and thrown away, leaving a grease
free and reduced calorie gravy base.
In the bowl with the shredded turkey
neck meat, add chopped onion, parsley,
sage, rosemary, and thyme. Remove the
turkey drippings from the freezer, scrape
off the fat, and put the remainder in the
sauce pot with the neck meat and fresh
herbs. The remaining drippings may
have formed into a gelatin like substance; it will “melt” when reheated.
Place on the stove, over low heat, and
add the mashed roasted garlic cloves. Stir
and bring to a slow boil.To thicken, take
a coffee cup, add about a cup of water,
put in the microwave for a minute, then
slowly add a couple tablespoons of corn
starch (I use corn starch instead of flour
in case any dinner guests are gluten intolerant). Stir the mixture as the corn
starch is added to the hot water. Then
slowly add this mixture to the sauce pot
on the stove. Any remaining lumps will
sink to the bottom of the coffee cup, and
can be thrown away.
Stir the gravy until thickened, add a
pinch of salt and pepper, put in a gravy
boat and serve.