I cooked my first Thanksgiving dinner this year. It was also my first turkey. I didn't know what I was doing, but I did my research online, and the results of the dinner were a big hit.
For the turkey, I had always heard that brining it with spices was the way to go. So I started with Martha Stewart's brining recipe because I figured I could trust her. I studied other brining recipes and discovered that many of them used juices to replace some of the water, so I did that as well. I substituted orange and cranberry juices for some of the water along with some apple cider. Since the recipe called for juniper berries, I added some Tasmanian pepper berries because they have a smell that is reminiscent of juniper. I added some voatsiperifery, Ashanti pepper and cubeb to the black pepper. Voatsipifery goes well with white meats, so it seemed a safe bet. Since I was adding fruit juices, I added some of my dried Indian fruits: aamla, kokum, amchur and anardana. Along with the bay leaves, I added some boldo leaves, because they can be used in a similar fashion. Since fennel was on the list, I added radhuni, ajwain, and black cumin just because I had them. And then I added some grains of paradise because I like them.
The result was the most flavorful turkey I had ever had. It was a big hit with everyone.
For the mashed potatoes, I added garlic and parsley. For the pepper, I used black pepper as well as both kinds of long pepper which I crushed in a mortar and pestle. I also added some alligator pepper and korarima as well. I liked the potatoes very much, but they were not as popular. Some thought them to have too much of a burn, but that is what I liked about them.
