Tuesday late afternoon found me at the local supermarket feeling a bit wishy washy. I knew I had to find something for dinner, along with some trash bags and kitchen scrubbies. Shopping for meat at one of these places doesn’t fill my heart with glee. The chance of getting something worth while is usually quite slim. I figured just so I could get out of there fast, I grabbed the first thing I thought would work, a turkey breast piece. I was on my way out when a light went on, an idea. In my frame of mind though, this light was no larger than a bic lighter flame. It was enough to pull me back to the meat coolers and pick up some halfway decent bacon. I was OFF !!!
Photography Note: I find that my best shots come from single focal length lenses. I know I know, everyone loves those zoom rigs. I suppose their good for many things, but last night wasn’t one of them. For this one I pulled out the Nikkor AF-D 60mm f2.8 Micro set to f33. KERPOW.

The ideas snowballed from there. I could marinate the turkey piece in fancy super coarse rock salt first, excellent.
I used about 1/3 cup of super coarse fancy Italian salt. This sat out on the counter for an hour. You can do the fridge, leave it in there for about 3 hours or so.
When ready, WASH THOROUGHLY. Dry it thoroughly as well, use a hair dryer or fan. Dry it, get the picture?

Rub turkey with butter until it starts giggling. I had some garden fresh, then dried sage that I pounded in a mortar & pestle, put that on. Pepper, no salt. I noticed a forelorn can of Dean & Delucca MEAT HERB can, crunchy crunch. That went on. Sprinkle on some fancy hot paprika and spray with light coat of soy oil, olive oil or whatever.
I decided to try the convection oven Big D gifted me this time. First time for meat! IT WAS A-FLIPPENMAZING. If you ever get a chance to get a convection oven, either portable or built in to your range, do it. The cook time is cut considerbly and my gas oven NEVER made crust this crispy at 350 degrees. Meat juicy, crust crispy.

It took a little over an hour to roast the sucker, it was quite large. Pull & tent with foil. Oddly enough, there wasn’t much in the pan for making gravy. So I added a bit of lard to the pan and got the fat hot. Dice small that onion you bagged in the fridge the other day, add that and simmer well until translucent. Add some flour or Wondra to thicken things up a bit, not too damned pasty. Heat floury slurry. Add some natural chicken broth until it has the consistency of gravy, simmer until warm.

Strain oniony gravy in to sauce pan and simmer until you get the consistency you enjoy. Salt & pepper to taste. At this point it was quite rich, velvetty and full of love. Coats the back of a spoon.

One of our first lemons off our first lemon tree, yay!
The last few gravies I’ve made, adding a tad of fresh lemon juice has really made an amazing difference. It seems to sling-shot the gravy flavor in to your taste buds and cause gravy enduced brain freeze. This in turn drives your mouth towards the entire sauce pan full of gravy. It’s only then reality hits and you plate up your families dinner. Phew!
Uh, I added only a few squeeze from 1/2 lemon.

The turkey meat was limber and juicy, skin crispy & bright full of herby flavors. Gravy bright, driving home the flavors delivered. Perfection on a warm pre-spring evening.
Xo Xo