Weekend in Charleston

My Mom took my sister and me to Charleston, SC for a little weekend get-away. We had wonderful food while we were there. Here are the highlights:

We started our restaurant tour with Fish on King Street. This is there house bread, it's essentially a doughnut with soy-chili dipping sauce. Very tasty.

We went the multi-appetizer route. This was my starter of dim sum (from left to right: shrimp spring roll, fried tofu, duck confit steamed bun, and crab wanton).

Mom's crab cakes; they were a real stand-out, perfectly cooked and nicely seasoned.

This soup, the Curried Crab Soup, (my sister's choice) was the best thing we had at Fish. It was spicy, complex and very delicious!

Sorry for the poor photograph. I shut off my flash for all of the photos so as not to disturb my fellow diners... This was my second appetizer the cheese plate. It was served with crusty bread and a fruit compote. From left to right the cheeses were a port salut fondue, a goat cheese spring roll, and a hard cheese that reminded me of an aged gouda (but I can't recall the name).

Mom's second choice: the fried calamari with sweet chili sauce. They were super crunchy and nicely seasoned.

My sister's second choice: the duck confit croque madam.  It was decadent and delicious, but really needed the citrus salad that came with it!

For dessert, the ginger lime cheesecake creme caramel (yes, really)! Delicious, although the cookie crust was a little tough.

Mom's dessert: king cake, an almond puff pastry dessert. Our server told us if we found the whole almond hidden in the dessert we "won". We did find the almond and received glasses of champagne and the desserts on the house.

My sister's dessert: warm banana cake with peanut butter and honey yogurt sorbet. Yummy, but the yogurt sorbet was overwhelmingly tangy. We ended up eating around it.

For our Saturday meals we had brunch at Hominy Grill. It's always a delicious choice. We had regular breakfast fare (and some off the beaten path) eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits, grits, she-crab soup, and a fried green tomato sandwich.

For Saturday dinner we ate at Peninsula Grill. It was a lovely meal with lots of great seafood and truly impeccable service. The standouts of the evening were the lobster and corn chowder, the seafood special which was a pan-seared sheepshead fish, and all of the desserts (coconut cake, chocolate extravaganza and the ginger creme brulee). People make a big deal out of the coconut cake, and having tried it, I can honestly say it's one of the best desserts I have ever had. If you go, you definitely need to order it.

For Sunday brunch we ate at the Boathouse at Breach Inlet on Isle of Palms. The boathouse eggs benedict substitutes crab cakes for the Canadian bacon. Yum!

Thanksgiving Turkey in January

We ate Thanksgiving at my Mom's house this past year, but we still had our free turkey in the freezer from our grocery store. I figured January was long enough to wait to enjoy it.

I used Alton Brown's recipe and highly recommend it. It is definitely worth having a probe thermometer, ours went on the fritz and it resulted in slightly dried out breast meat. Thankfully, the flavor was still nice from the brining and aromatics.

Ingredients

• 1 (14 to 16 pound) frozen young turkey

For the brine:

• 1 cup kosher salt
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1 gallon vegetable stock
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
• 1 1/2 teaspoons allspice berries
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped candied ginger
• 1 gallon heavily iced water

For the aromatics

• 1 red apple, sliced
• 1/2 onion, sliced
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 cup water
• 4 sprigs rosemary
• 6 leaves sage
• Canola oil

Directions

3 days before roasting, begin thawing the turkey in the refrigerator or in a cooler kept at 38 degrees F.

2 days before roasting, combine the vegetable stock, salt, brown sugar, peppercorns, allspice berries, and candied ginger in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally to dissolve solids and bring to a boil. Then remove the brine from the heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate.

24 hours before you want to eat, combine the brine, water and ice in the 5-gallon bucket. Place the thawed turkey (with innards removed) breast side down in brine. If necessary, weigh down the bird to ensure it is fully immersed, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area for 8 to 16 hours, turning the bird once half way through brining.

Calculate the timing of the bird based on the size. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Remove the bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard the brine.

Place the bird on roasting rack inside a half sheet pan and pat dry with paper towels.

Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and 1 cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Add steeped aromatics to the turkey's cavity along with the rosemary and sage. Tuck the wings underneath the bird and coat the skin liberally with canola oil.

Roast the turkey on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F for 30 minutes. Insert a probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Set the thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees F. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let the turkey rest, loosely covered with foil or a large mixing bowl for 30 minutes before carving.