Turkey in August! Asian Inspired Brine

So now you are thinking this gal is nuts. Who in their right mind would even think about turkey when it is 100 degrees outside.

Every year around Thanksgiving markets have their specials for turkey. Buy so many dollars in groceries, get a free turkey. I always take advantage of these sales; sometimes I have the butcher cut the turkey in half and we roast a half during the winter and maybe cut the other half up for stews, a small roast or soup. Frequently I take one down to the local foodbank. When I manage to get a couple (if I ever have that much room in the freezer), I love to brine one and smoke it.

The bird we prepare at Thanksgiving is always prepared one of two ways. It is either boned and roasted flat (with the stuffing under the bird. The best way to prepare for a group...so easy to carve) or brined with the Chez Panisse's Turkey Brine Recipe.

So here I was on Wednesday, hanging into the deep freeze trying to figure out why the darned thing was so full. Rummaging through the half-loaves of bread, the bags of chicken stock and the totally unknown plastic containers I came upon the turkey. Taking up considerable room, room that could be filled with blueberries, I yanked that puppy out of there and put it into the pantry fridge to thaw.

Fast forward three days and the making of the brine.

Chez Pannisse's is always the first choice, but when I went to the baking cupboard I could not find the juniper berries. Odd, because I do not remember using all of them last year. (Guess where hubby found them, under the lip of the cabinet on the floor. Now who would have dropped them and not picked them up???) So, what to do?

I started rummaging through the regular spice cabinet. Yes, I have two different cupboards for spices, savory and sweet or baking spices. Some spices-herbs fall into the either-or category, but there are some that get less use around here and they go in the baking cupboard. But I digress. I needed something different to brine this turkey and I need it now.

ASIAN INSPIRED BRINE

2 1/2 gallon cold water
2 c. Kosher Salt
1 c. sugar (plain white poison)
2 tbsp. Star Anise, broken
1 whole garlic head, separated, peeled and crushed
1 tbsp. gourmet peppercorns
1 tbsp. Trader Joe's 21 Salute

Line pot or other container large enough to hold the turkey with a food-grade plastic bag.

In another large container, combine water, salt sugar, anise, garlic, peppercorns and seasoning. Mix with a non reactive spoon until salt and sugar are completely dissolved.

Put turkey into bag, cover with brine (you may need to add more water to bring level of brine over all of the turkey. Close the bad removing excess air with a twist-tie. This time, like most of the times I brine something I used a second bag to reduce the chance of a flooded refrigerator. Not sure I want to find out what two or three gallons of salty water would do in the bottom of our refrigerator and then on the floor.

Put entire mess into refrigerator. Brine at least 24 hours. This bird went several days past that because we were so darned busy. Remove bird from brine, rinse and at this point you can either roast it in the oven, or using indirect heat, cook on BBQ, or as we did, fire up the smoker and at a very low heat, let her roast away.

SMOKING THE BIRD

Mesquite lump charcoal (bought in Oregon at "Cash and Carry", similar to
Smart and Final in California). Chunks of oak and mesquite smoking wood. We use chunks of wood when we smoke something that will be in the smoker several hours. Soak the smoking wood in water for several hours or overnight. However if you can only get the smoking wood in the small chips or wafer or almost sawdust form don't panic, just soak some and wrap it up in aluminum foil and when you add it to the fire just poke a few holes in it. Make sure you have your charcoal chimney, newspaper and matches and internal thermometer all ready.

This is where, usually, my husband comes in. He loves his equipment and even though I know what to do and can hold my own, I love for him to be the "finisher", so to speak, on my projects. Besides, I worked that day and I could not be here to tend to the fire and the smoke as necessary.

The bird is placed on a vertical turkey roaster. In a disposable container let soak several chunks of wood of your choice that work for smoking. We used a mixture of oak and mesquite. Allow to soak at least 1/2 hour but hours or overnight is even better. (We keep a licorice container on hand for this, when done pop the lid on and save for the next time). If you cannot find the chunks of wood go ahead and soak the fine chips or wafer smoking wood and then wrap in foil. Pierce just before tossing onto the fire.

All ready to start? Place an assortment of sizes of lump charcoal into the chimney. Wad up one piece of newspaper and put under the chimney, place chimney onto rack in the bottom of the smoker (firebox) and light the paper. A small grill in the bottom of the firebox provides better airflow giving you a better fire. Get a beer (ok, if it isn't Saturday, a nice cup of tea) while the charcoal lights. This is surprisingly quick, less than 10 minutes and should not be more than thirty minutes. Dump the nicely lit charcoal into the fire bowl, toss on some of the wet, soaked smoking chunks of wood (or your foil pouch of smoking chips), put the three-quarter filled water pan on, put the grill on above the water pan, put the bird on the rack, and make sure the bird and rack balance on the grill and then smack the lid on, turn down the vents to get between 170-180 degrees and leave it alone. Check the temp and adjust in thirty minutes. Monitor the temperature but you don't need to hover there and chase your desired temp, adjust and give it time to reach and stabilize at the new temperature.

In 2 hours or so, check the fire bowl, add more lump charcoal if necessary. In another couple of hours, add more smoke chips and charcoal if required. If your temperature goes higher than you want with the fire low you might be low on water. Keep doing this until at least 5 hours have gone by. Then and only then, lift the lid and check the internal temp of the bird, away from any bones, with a meat thermometer. 180 is a good temp. With luck you will not be there quite yet, throw more wood on, more charcoal on and check your water level, don't let the water level get too low! If you keep the temperature in the middle of your smoker's smoking range and out of the higher heat ranges your bird can cook eight, ten or even twelve hours and come out tender and moist. Allow the bird to sit a bit, ha, like you can do that! But for nice slices of breast that is a good idea. We just put it into a roasting pan, tear off the legs, munch on the bits that fall off and enjoy the heck out of this.

All this and the house stays cool.

The first night we are turkey sliced with sesame green beans, and a nice Asian rice side. The next night, hot turkey sandwiches on garlic-sourdough bread with homemade cranberry I also found in the freezer and quick mashed potatoes and gravy. Tonight we will have turkey stir-fried with the lovely greens I found at the farmers market in Lake O. Smoky, juicy turkey. Nummy.

A note on the charcoal: Hubby thinks that the "natural" lump charcoal is the only way to go, no chemical smell and taste. There are several good brands and the big names in briquette charcoal are also selling lump charcoal so go to the trouble to find some and use it. I'd check out the local restaurant supply houses for the big bags at a far cheaper price per pound.