Turkey Brine

Two years ago we discovered the wonders of brining. Brining makes foods incredibly juicy and gives the food a wondeful aroma if you add aromatics into your brine. Our Thanksgiving turkey always comes out moist and we can't get enough of it. When you brine a turkey, the white meat tastes just as flavorful as the dark meat.

Brine
7 qts water
2 c kosher salt
1 c brown sugar
8 bay leaves
1 T pepper corn
3 pieces of dried tangerine peel
5 pieces star anise
2 T fennel
8 slices of ginger

Boil 1 quart of water and add the aromatics and sugar and salt. Let the mixture simmer for 15 minutes. Add the rest of the the water in and let the brine come to room temperature.

Place the turkey into the brine mixture and let brine for 24 hours.

When you are ready to cook the turkey, stuff the cavity with lemon, carrots, celery, onion, apple, rosemary, and bay leaves. These extra aromatics really give the turkey a wonderful flavor as it cooks.

Jasmine Rice

Jasmine rice is characterized by its fragrant aroma. It is the rice most normally served in Asian restaurants. Everyone has their own favorite brand and it's debatable which one is the best.

My go-to brand had been the three ladies brand. I really liked it because the individual grains were separate from one another and it had a very fragrant and lovely aroma. Many people, however, recommended the Golden Phoenix brand. They really liked it so this past weekend I had run out of rice and decided to give the Golden Phoenix brand a try.

I found that I actually don't like the Golden Phoenix brand as much as the three ladies brand. The Golden Phoenix brand isn't very fragrant and is more chewy. Each grain of rice is almost too pronounced, causing the rice to almst be chewy to eat. The three ladies brand of rice is much more pleasing to my palate and my lesson is to not switch rice brands in the future.