Recipe #2: Roast Turkey with Grand Marnier Apricot Stuffing

Recently, when faced with a growing number of dinner guests, I decided to make a turkey, even though it was the beginning of March, and there wasn’t really any traditional turkey days in the offing. Odd that – turkey is cheap, turkey is easy, and turkey is tasty, but I always fall into the Thanksgiving/Christmas trap of preparing turkey only then. But I grew bold and broke out of the mold, and roasted up a very fine turkey. The hit of the meal, though, was the stuffing.

Credit for this recipe goes to the Silver Palate, Good Times Cook Book. Contrary to a lot of the “gourmet” items in that cookbook line, this stuffing is a snap to make, and requires no hard-to-get ingredients. However, it does necessitate the purchase of a bottle of Grand Marnier, which at least at the local Freddy’s – comes quite dear. Thus, the $40/bottle expense for the Grand Marnier obliterated the cheap turkey, but as it also was very good in its typical role of an after-dinner drink, it was enjoyed by all that came to the turkey dinner. A worthy investment.

Grand Marnier Apricot Stuffing (enough for a 21 – 24 # turkey)

Ingredients:

1 cup diced dried apricots
1 ½ cups Grand Marnier
Turkey liver and heart
1 cup (two sticks) butter
2 cups coarsely chopped celery
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1 pound bulk pork sausage (reindeer would work too)
1 pound herb stuffing mix
1 cup slivered almonds
2 cups chicken stock
½ teaspoon dried thyme
salt and pepper to taste

1. Place the apricots and 1 cup of the Grand Marnier in a small saucepan. Heat to boiling. Remove from the heat & set aside. Simmer the turkey heart and liver in water to cover in a small saucepan for 5 minutes; set aside to cool.

2. Melt ½ cup of the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the celery and onion and sauté for 10 minutes. Transfer to a large mixing bowl.

3. Cook the pork sausage in the same skillet, crumbling with a fork, until it is no longer pink. Remove from the heat & add to the celery mixture.

4. Add the stuffing mix, apricots with liquid, and almonds. Finely dice the turkey heart and liver and add to the stuffing mixture; stir to combine.

5. Heat the remaining ½ cup butter and the stock in a small saucepan just until the butter melts. Pour over the stuffing mixture, and add the remaining ½ cup Grand Marnier. Stir well to moisten the stuffing. Season with the thyme and add salt and pepper to taste.