Thanksgivng in April!!!

Every year as a Christmas gift from UPS Brian gets a turkey. A weird gift some may think but over the last five years we have looked forward to that bird. Brian has been mainly support staff in the kitchen but over the years he has loved getting new recipes so we can perfect our turkey. Recently he was down in California with his family and his Aunt Angie suggested a recipe she uses, with trepidation I agreed to try it. Not that I didn't trust her but it required me to put away my beloved turkey bag and try a new method.

So we invited over a group of friends for our "Thanksgiving in April". Everyone contributed a new dish that they wanted to try out and it was a great evening with wonderful food!

So back to the turkey. I had a stressful start since the recipe requires you to baste the turkey every 1/2 hour for 2 1/2 hours but in the end it was totally worth it. This was by far the best turkey we have ever done and it will remain the recipe we use! Thank you everyone for contributing such wonderful dishes and thanks to Aunt Angie for the suggestion!!!

Perfect Roast Turkey

Ingredients:

• 1 cup coarse salt, plus more for seasoning
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 medium onions
• 2 medium leeks, white and pale green parts only, rinsed and coarsely chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled and coarsely chopped
• 2 celery stalks, coarsely chopped
• 2 dried bay leaves
• 3 sprigs fresh thyme
• 3 sprigs flat-leaf parsley
• 2 teaspoons whole black peppercorns, plus freshly ground pepper
• 1 fresh whole turkey (18 to 20 pounds), rinsed and patted dry
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick), melted, plus 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup dry white wine such as Sauvignon Blanc
• cheese cloth

Directions

1. Put salt, sugar, onions, leeks, carrots, celery, bay leaves, thyme, parsley, peppercorns, and 10 cups of water in a large stockpot. Bring to a boil, stirring until salt and sugar have dissolved. Remove from heat; let the brine cool completely.
2. Add turkey, breast first, to the brine. Cover and refrigerate 24 hours. Remove from brine; rinse the turkey throughly inside and out and pat dry with paper towels. Let stand at room temperature 2 hours.
3. Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees, with rack in the lowest position. Stir together melted butter and wine in a medium bowl. Fold a very large piece of the cheesecloth into quarters so that it is large enough to cover the breast and halfway down sides of turkey. Immerse cloth in butter mixture; let soak.
4. Place turkey; breast side up, on a rack set in a roasting pan. Fold wings under turkey. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon each salt and pepper inside turkey. Loosely fill body and neck cavities with your stuffing. Rub turkey all over with softened butter; season with salt and pepper.
5. Remove cheesecloth from butter mixture, squeezing gently into the bowl. Reserve butter mixture for brushing. Lay cheesecloth over turkey. Roast turkey 30 minutes. Brush cheesecloth and exposed turkey with butter mixture. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees. Roast, brushing every 30 minutes, 2 1/2 hours more; cover with foil if browning too quickly.
6. Discard cheesecloth, rotate pan. Baste turkey with pan juices. Roast, rotating pan halfway through, until skin is golden brown and an instant-read thermometer into the thickest part of the thigh registers 180 degrees and stuffing reaches 165 degrees, about 1 hour. Transfer to a platter. Set pan with drippings aside for gravy. Let turkey stand at room temperature at least 30 minutes.