Panini Night

Turkey Cranberry Cream Cheese Panini:

Sliced Turkey
Cream Cheese
Whole Berry or Jellied Cranberry Sauce
Sprouts
Sourdough Bread, sliced

Spread softened cream cheese on sourdough bread. Spread cranberry sauce on top of cream cheese. Layer sliced turkey. Top with slice of bread. Lightly butter outside of bread. Press in panini press. May add fresh sprouts when sandwich done. Enjoy!

Turkey Brine:

1 cup Kosher Salt
1/2 cup Dark Brown Sugar
1 Gallon Vegetable or Chicken Stock (I used chicken and like it better)
1 Tablespoon Black Peppercorns
2 teaspoons Allspice Berries
2 teaspoons Candied Ginger
1 Gallon Iced Water

Combine ingredients, except ice water in a stock pot, and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve solids, then remove from heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled. Early on the day of cooking, (or late the night before) combine the brine and ice water in a clean 5-gallon bucket. Place thawed turkey breast side down in brine, cover, and refrigerate or set in a cool area (like a basement) for 6 hours. Remove bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard brine. Roast turkey as directed. Here's how I do mine:

Brine recipe and cooking instructions courtesy of Alton Brown, The Food Network, modified by Laura Lee.

A few minutes before roasting, heat oven to 500 degrees. Place bird on roasting rack inside a wide, low pan and pat dry with paper towels. (At this point you may place aromatics--apple, lemon, rosemary, etc. in cavity.) Tuck back wings and coat whole bird liberally with canola (or other neutral) oil.

Roast on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F. for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cover breast with double layer of aluminum foil, insert probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and return to oven, reducing temperature to 350 degrees F. Set thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours or roasting. Let turkey rest, loosely covered for 15 minutes before carving.

Brine recipe courtesy of Alton Brown, The Food Network, modified by Laura Lee