Planet Turkey

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Apéritifs
Guava and Caribbean Cheese Sandwiches
Fire-Roasted Walnuts
Black Bean Hummus

The Real Deal
Cuban-Style Picadillo-stuffed Turkey, basted with Citrus Garlic Butter
Roasted Sweet & Purple Potatoes
Ensalada de Aguacate

Many of these recipes were adapted from other sources, with my own touches added in. The bird, admittedly, was tricky, but the rest of it is a piece of cake (so to speak). Tricks of the trade? Make lots of snacks, and put them in some location away from the kitchen, to keep people out of your hair.

Most of these recipes are a snap to put together.

Let's start with the easy stuff. Olives, bought from the deli case at the Kash 'N Karry, get sexier when you marinate them with some olive oil, fresh minced garlic and crushed red pepper flakes overnight. Put out some guava paste and Caribbean cheese, to be eaten together on Cuban bread. Sliced on the diagonal, the bread is also the perfect carrier for black bean hummus.

In a blender or food processor, whirl together black beans (contents of 1 12-oz. can, rinsed to remove the saltiness), a few tablespoons of olive oil and four cloves of garlic.

Scoop into a bowl and garnish with parsley.

(Note: There is a big taste difference between flat-leaf parsley, which resembles cilantro, and curly-leaf parsley, which adorns steak dinner plates worldwide. Don't substitute the curly, it just isn't the same.)

Flaming Nuts
For the nuts in your group, offer up these fire-kissed walnuts. I adapted this recipe from one demonstrated by Gourmet executive food editor Zanne Stewart during a cooking class in Texas; it's part of their 60-year anniversary cookbook. I hate nuts — pick them out of my food, usually — but these babies are absolutely addicting, a beautiful balance of sweet, salt and cayenne flame.

As follows:

1. Take about 2 cups of walnuts, and cover with water in a medium-sized pot.

2. Bring water to boil, and let the nuts sit in the boiling water for 5 minutes or so. They should soften enough for you to press your fingernail into them and leave a mark. Remove from water.

3. Let the nuts dry on a paper towel for 40 minutes or so. I left mine out as I was doing other stuff — and even an hour later, they were still moist and had to be blow-dried. (Hey, that thing comes in handy!)

4. Once your nuts are dry, toss them with some powdered sugar. If your nuts are too wet, the sugar will turn into gloop, so make sure they're dry. (Neat tip: Did you know you can make powdered sugar by tossing it in a blender or processor? I haven't tried it personally, but that's the word on the street …)

5. This part requires patience. Pour a ton of vegetable oil into a large pan about 2 inches deep. Using a candy thermometer, bring the oil to 350. This is very hot, so be careful.

6. The easiest way I found to fry these babies is to use a spider — one of those curved wire baskets on the end of a large stick, used to scoop things out of a wok. Taking just a handful of nuts at a time, lower them into the hot oil.

7. Fry them for about a minute or two. This is one of those cases where you've got to try a few first to make sure you're doing it right. Taste 'em for doneness. Although it's tempting,do not toss them all into the oil at once. Doing so will lower the temperature of the oil, and your nuts will end up absorbing the oil instead of frying in it.

8. Transfer the nuts to a baking sheet. Do I>not P> line it with anything —- your nuts are coated in liquid sugar, and they will stick to paper towels, etc.

9. Dust with salt and cayenne pepper to taste. MMM mmm good, enjoy.

Dig In, this is the Real Deal.
The how-to of the turkey-making is outlined above in All You Can Eat. I would suggest buying a turkey ahead of time and defrosting it the safe way; in the fridge, as recommended by the packaging on the bird. But the recipe for making the bird — the garlic-butter basting and the citrus juice —- is highly recommended. Both the Stuffed Turkey and the Ensalada de Aguacate were adapted from Memories of a Cuban Kitchen, by Mary Urrutia Randelman and Joan Schwartz.

Picadillo Stuffing

1. In a large pot over low heat, get about 2 TB of good, preferably Spanish oil, nice and warm.

2. Toss in your aromatics, all finely chopped: I large onion; 5 cloves of garlic; and 1 bell pepper. This is your classic sofrito, the base of Cuban cooking.

3. Turn your heat to medium low, and let this mixture sit for 6-8 minutes until the onions are translucent, stirring occasionally.

4. In a separate pot, blanch 1/2 cup of slivered almonds — toss them in boiling water for a minute or two, then remove & drain on paper towels.

5. Add 1 pound each of ground pork, beef and turkey. I would recommend crumbling these by hand while raw before adding to the pot; otherwise they might clump together. (When buying the meat for this, I could only find turkey and pork in prepacked boxes of 1.25 pounds … so I bought 1.25 pounds of beef to balance it out. The proportion thing seemed to make sense to me, but I'm sure you could throw in any amount of meat and this would still taste mmm mmm good.)

6. Use a wooden spoon, and break up the clumps of the meat as this cooks.

7. Raise the heat to medium, and cook for 15-20 minutes.

8. Then, add in all your fancies to the pot of meat: the almonds, 1 28 oz. can of whole tomatoes, 2 handfuls of raisins, 1/2 cup chopped olives and 2 tsp of paprika. The recipe called for pimento-stuffed olives, but I prefer fresh to canned, so mine were plain.

9. At this point, I tasted my hash — tasty, but my Texas tastebuds wanted more kick, so I added two jalapeños and more garlic.

10. Let all the good stuff simmer for a while and serve hot. You can totally make this ahead and reheat it in the pan — it's sturdy.

11. Here's an important tip — if you're going to stuff the bird with the picadillo before you cook it, make sure the stuffing is hot — not straight from the fridge. You really don't want to take the chance that your stuffing will be too chilled to come up to a safe temperature — and all sorts of bad bacteria will breed that way. No good will come of this.

Roasted Sweet & Purple Potatoes

1. Scrub clean a selection of sweet potatoes and purple potatoes. For about 10 people, including two non-meat eaters, I used 4 purple potatoes and 3 large sweet potatoes. (Purple potatoes can be found in fancy grocery stores, like Fresh Market, and add lovely fall color to the dish. But regular potatoes could work just as well.)

2. Dice potatoes, and a Texas sweet onion or two, into bite-sized chunks.

3. Toss the potatoes and onion with olive oil to coat (about 3 TB for my batch), sea salt, fresh cracked pepper, a handful of chopped cilantro and the juice of one lime.

4. Roast in the oven at 350 — right after you take the turkey out. The potatoes will need about 20-30 minutes to cook — just enough time to let your turkey rest before carving it. Taste-test for doneness.

5. Before serving, sprinkle with more salt and pepper and add more cilantro for visual appeal.

Ensalada de Aguacate

1. Pick out a selection of lovely salad greens from the grocer, whatever floats your boat. Buy plenty — this is the easiest way to stretch out a meal to feed a group. Wash, and rip into pieces.

2. Prepare your avocados. If you've never done this before, don't sweat. Essentially, the interior of an avocado has a big ol' stone in it, but the flesh is very soft, and easy to cut through. Stand the avocado up on its base, and run your knife all along the fruit, cutting it in half vertically. (If you rotate the 'cado as you cut it, you can do it in one cut. Peel off the hard, leather-like exterior, and then slice lengthwise to form lovely slices. Douse the 'cado with a little lemon juice to prevent discoloration.

3. Thinly slice an onion and any other veggies you want to add. I chose a red onion and a red bell pepper for color.

4. In a food processor or blender, puree a handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley, the juice of one lemon and some olive oil. (The recipe called for 1/2 cup, but I prefer using less oil.)

5. Toss the dressing with the greens.

6. Add the veggies and toss slightly for visual impact, being careful not to let the heavy veggies sink to the bottom of the bowl.

7. Add a sprinkle of sea salt, a round of fresh cracked pepper and a handful of parsley leaves in the center for visual impact.

This article appears in Nov 24-30, 2004.