Le Cordon Bleu Portland - KPTV - FOX 12

Joe V got some handy Thanksgiving cooking tips from Le Cordon Bleu Portland on Monday.

Recipe #1 Cranberry Orange Relish…Super easy!

• 2 large oranges
• 4 cups cranberries (fresh, rinsed)
• 2 cups sugar or 1 1/2 cups honey

    Cut oranges into 1/8's and remove any seeds. Place cleaned orange sections and rinsed cranberries into a food processor and pulse, mixing well. And sugar or honey and continue to process. Resulting relish should be neither chunky or pasty...somewhere in between. recipe yields 1 quart.

Recipe #2 Brine for Turkey

•  1 cup lemon juice 
•  3/4 cup fresh orange juice 
• 1 cup Kosher salt
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1  yellow onion, peeled and chopped 
•  2 oranges, cut in quarters
• 3 cinnamon  sticks (1-2")
• 2 tablespoons whole cloves 
•  2 tablespoons whole allspice berries
• 1 cup brandy
• One 6 to 6 and 1/2 pound whole turkey breast
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 gallon of water
• 1 tsp dry thyme

    This brine recipe is ideal for a 6lb turkey breast. I would double the recipe for a 15# whole turkey. Use a plastic, lidded cambro or non-reactive pot (stainless steel or non-aluminum) and make sure you have room to fit it in your refrigerator for up to 3 days, or pack the cambro tub into a cooler with bags of ice on either side of the tub.(It's recommended that a 15# bird be brined up to 3 days). Rinse the bird before placing it in the Brine. When you are ready to cook the bird, remove it from the brine and roast it based on your bird's weight and the seller's recommended cooking time

Gluten free Stuffing

4oz diced celery (medium)

4oz diced onion (medium)

8 oz butter

8 large tamales- prefer pork filled tamales

2 cups chopped rice bread

3 cups chicken stock

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

Saute Onions, Celery in butter. Chop cold tamales and rice bread into one inch cubes, add sauted vegetables and put in large bowl. Pour chicken stock over tamale mixture and carefully mix, be careful not to break up the tamales too much. Stuff into turkey.

Pumpkin Tart Recipe

12 oz Pumpkin puree

6oz Eggs, (lightly beaten)

6 oz. Turbinado Sugar

1 ½ cups Sweetened Evaporated Milk (Or Heavy Cream)

1 tsp. Salt

2 tsp. Ground Cinnamon

½ tsp. Ground Cloves

½ tsp. Nutmeg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla gin

Put the filling in a par baked tart shell or pie tray.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and place the tart on a baking rack and place in oven.

Bake for 40 -45 min take out and let cool.

Serve and Enjoy

Rum Tart dough                                makes enough for 2 9" tarts

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold, cut into small cubes
1/4 cup ice cold rum, plus more if needed

I tablespoon sugar (optional)

1. In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour and salt; pulse to combine. Add butter, and pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs with some larger pieces remaining, about 10 seconds. (To mix by hand, combine dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl, then cut in butter with a pastry blender.)
2. With machine running, add ice water through feed tube in a slow, steady stream, just until dough holds together without being wet or sticky. Do not process more than 30 seconds. Test by squeezing a small amount of dough together; if it is still too crumbly, add a bit more water, 1 tablespoon at a time.
3. Turn out dough onto a clean work surface. Divide in half, and place each half on a piece of plastic wrap. Shape into flattened discs. Wrap in plastic, and refrigerate at least 1 hour or overnight. The dough can be frozen for up to 1 month; thaw overnight in the refrigerator before using.

Candied Bacon Brussels Sprouts

Serves 6

2-2½ dozen Brussels sprouts

2 c heavy cream

1 lb bacon

½ tsp fresh grated nutmeg

½ c brown sugar

1 tsp fresh ground pepper

1 tsp salt

Begin by trimming the excess leaves from the sprouts and scoring the stem-end of each sprout with an "x". Bring a saucepot of water to a boil, add the sprouts and cook for one minute. Plunge the cooked sprouts into an ice water bath until chilled, then set aside to drain.

Cut the bacon into ½" lardons. Line a sheet tray with foil. Coat the bacon with the brown sugar and bake at 350 until crisp; making sure it doesn't burn. Drain the fat from the pan and reserve.

Heat the cream in a heavy-bottomed saucepot to a simmer and reduce by ½. Add the nutmeg, salt and pepper and set aside.

Cut each sprout in ½ lengthwise.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the reserved bacon fat to medium heat in a heavy bottomed skillet, add the sprouts and sautee for 3 minutes, slightly browning the sprouts. Add the reduced cream and simmer for two minutes. Serve in a shallow ceramic dish, sprinkling the candied bacon over the top.

For more info on Le Cordon Bleu, visit http://www.chefs.edu/Portland.

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