Indian Turkey, Heady Turkey Broth, and the Perfect Turkey Sandwich

I may have set a record for getting every last gram of turkey off the carcass this year. It was a 10-pound wonder from Diestel that got spatchcocked/butterflied — i.e., I took some sturdy shears and snipped out the backbone, first one side of it, then the other, then kinda flattened the whole thing out — and slathered it with a blended combo of sauted onion, cumin, coriander, fennel seed, cardamom, tomato, and homemade applesauce, all spooned under the skin, and roasted for about 90 minutes at 375. I used cut-up ruby grapefruit wedges as “scaffolding” to layer it into my pan. It was as excellent as Indian turkey could be, and again made me wonder, as it does every November, why we only cook this bird a few times a year.

I’m a sucker for a good turkey sandwich, so I macked on them for a good four days. Lots of permutations, but here was the winner: combo of dark and white meat, on toasted sourdough, slathered with:

• drizzle of olive oil
• schmear of Grey Poupon
• drizzle of salad dressing made mostly with hachiya persimmon
• slices of fuyu persimmon
• liberal dusting of tangerine salt and freshly ground pepper

Fruity, hints of sweetness, juicy as hell. A close second was a sandwich with a liberal dose of mango chutney, thus rounding out the full Indianness of this highly versatile bird that Indians ought to love! (does anyone know if turkey is served in India?)

The carcass, tossed into a stockpot along with a few carrots, bay leaves, chilies, and dried galangal, along with enough water to cover it all,  yielded a huge wealth of meat and a rich, smoky, intense broth that got bagged up in Ziplocks and frozen. It turns out to be much more pleasant to make stock with a turkey carcass than it is with a chicken carcass, I think because the fat content is just so much lower; virtually no de-fatting was necessary.

I hope everyone had a good holiday.  Would love to hear about any standout moments! And, if you like, your favorite way to prepare turkey/turkey sandwiches.

(photo by the hypertalented Annabelle Breakey)