Cascadia's Thanksgiving Recipe Twists & Wine Pairings

We think the best way to spend Thanksgiving is by sharing home-cooked meals with our closest friends and family.

This year we’re opening up our Cascadia Family Cookbook to share a few of our tried and tested recipes, from our homes to yours. Every good dinner needs to start with the perfect, shareable appy. The team in our Parksville store swears by this sweet and salty snack, especially when paired with a glass of local bubble.

Bacon-Wrapped Maraschino Cherries

Ingredients:

• 36 Maraschino cherries, stemmed, drained, and juice reserved
• 18 slices of bacon, cut in half
• 36 toothpicks

Directions:

1. Set oven rack about 6 inches from broiler.

2. Soak toothpicks in water.

3. Wrap each cherry in a half strip of bacon and secure with a toothpick, arrange on a baking sheet.

4. Drizzle the reserved cherry juice over the wrapped cherries.

5. Broil until desired crispiness, about 3-10 minutes. Pair with Blue Mountain Gold Label Brut to match the salty and sweet flavours! 

At Thanksgiving, everyone is expecting a turkey and stuffing. Understandably so! Our Langford team has the best stuffing recipe that complements the Quadra Village teams' butterflied turkey recipe. You'll be stuffed by the end of this main course, but do save room for some savoury sides!

Bacon and Apple Stuffing

Ingredients:

• ½ pound bacon cut into chunks
• 6 apples
• 4 medium onions
• 4 celery stalks, chopped ½ cup dry white wine – Ogio Pinot Grigio will work great!
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh thyme
• 2 tablespoons fresh sage leaves
• 12 cups of bread (cut up a baguette into ½ inch cubes)
• 1 ¾ cups turkey or chicken stock
• 2 eggs beaten
• ⅓ cup fresh parsley leaves

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.

2. Fry bacon pieces in a skillet and transfer to a paper towel lined plate. Reserve some bacon grease in the pan.

3. Sauté apples, onions, and celery in bacon fat until softened (about 15 minutes)

4. Add wine and herbs and simmer for 1 or 2 minutes until wine has nearly evaporated.

5. Mix with cooked bacon, 1 ½ cups broth (reserve ¼ cup), and remaining ingredients and salt and pepper to taste.

6. Place bread in a large bowl and toss with mixture from the skillet and remaining ¼ cup of chicken broth to combine.

7. Place in a buttered casserole dish and cover with foil.

8. Bake for 45 minutes until cooked through.

9. Finally remove foil and cook for 15 minutes until stuffing forms a golden brown crust. Perfection!

Butterflied Turkey with Bourbon Maple Glaze

Ingredients:

• Turkey 12-14 pound turkey, giblets and neck removed.
• 2 tablespoons of kosher salt for the bone side of the turkey, and 2 teaspoons of kosher salt reserved for the top of the turkey rub.
• 2 teaspoons of black pepper
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 large onions, peeled and halved

Note: This works best if you have a roasting pan with a v-rack. If you don’t, you can place the turkey on a sheet pan with a rack or use cut half onions to raise the turkey up off the bottom of the pan. That way you'll have good airflow around the turkey and the skin crisps up nicely.

Directions:

Preparing the Turkey

1. Place your turkey breast side down on your work surface.

2. Butterfly the turkey using a pair of heavy-duty kitchen shears to cut along both sides of the backbone. You may have to use a sharp knife to get through the thicker rib bones. Once you’ve removed the backbone set it aside to use in your gravy.

3. Turn the turkey over and press down firmly on both sides of the breastbone until you hear a cracking sound. You want to get the turkey as flat as you can at this stage.

4. Using your fingers or the handle of a wooden spoon carefully separate the skin from the meat on the breast and thighs.

5. Take a skewer or a sharp knife and use it to poke holes in the fat deposits on the breasts and the thighs.

6. Rub the bone side of the turkey with 2 teaspoons of salt and 1 teaspoon of pepper. Flip turkey over and rub 2 tablespoon of salt under the skin.

7. Tuck the wing tips under the top of the breastbone. Pull the legs together on the bottom of the breast and tie them with kitchen twine.

Cooking the Turkey

• Place the oven rack in the lower middle position and heat the oven to 275 degrees.
• Cook the turkey for 2 to 2 ½ hours. 
• When it is finished a thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the breast reads 160 and the thickest part of the leg will register 175.
• When it is finished remove it from the oven and let it rest for 30 minutes to 1 ½ hours.
• Before returning the turkey to the oven for 30 more minutes, increase the temperature to 450 degrees. This may take time to heat the oven, so make sure you're turning the over back on before the entire resting time is up!

Bourbon Maple Glaze

Ingredients:

• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter
• ½ cup apple cider
• ¼ cup bourbon - Try Maker's Mark Kentucky Bourbon
• ½ cup maple syrup
• ¼ teaspoon fresh ground pepper

Directions:

1. While the turkey rests add the butter, apple cider, bourbon, maple syrup and black pepper to a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Reduce heat to medium and simmer, stirring occasionally, until liquid is reduced by half. This should take approximately 30 minutes.

2. Divide glaze into thirds. Brush turkey with 1/3 of glaze and return to oven to roast for 7 minutes. Brush an additional 1/3 of the glaze on the turkey and roast for another seven minutes.

3. Finally, glaze the turkey with the rest of the glaze and roast for an additional 10 minutes. Transfer turkey to cutting board and rest for 20 minutes before serving.

Your turkey is now ready for the dinner table! Now that you've tackled the turkey, be sure to pair with a great red wine. 

Brandied Cranberry Sauce

You can’t have a Thanksgiving spread without cranberry sauce! We’re digging this boozy but boujee sauce from the Courtenay team. 

Ingredients:

• 16 oz cranberries
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/3 cup Brandy – we suggest St. Remy VSOP

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325F.

2. Mix cranberries and sugar and place in a large glass baking dish.

3. Bake for 1 hour. Remove from oven, add in Brandy and stir well.

4. Portion out into serving dishes and let it cool completely on the counter. Once cooled, place in fridge until chilled.

You really can’t skimp on side dishes, so try out these recipes from our Nanoose Bay and Eagle Creek teams. Don’t worry, these aren’t the same old boring brussels sprouts Grandma brings every year.

Roasted Parmesan Acorn Squash

Ingredients:

• 3 acorn squashes
• 0.5 tbsp vegetable oil (enough to coat squash)
• Salt and pepper to taste (tsp each)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2-3 oz grated Parmesan
• 10 sage leaves, thinly sliced

Directions:

1. Preheat over to 400F.

2. Clean and slice squash into 1 inch slices.

3. Toss squash slices in olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic.

4. Bake for 25-30 min.

5. Remove from oven and sprinkle with Parmesan and sage.

The sweetness of the squash goes well with Rodney Strong Chardonnay. It's crisp vanilla and spice notes pair well with the sage and sharp Parmesan of the squash!

Roast Beets with Goat Cheese

Ingredients:

• 6-8 Medium or large beets
• ½ or 1 tbsp vegetable oil (enough to coat beets)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 4 oz goat cheese
• 10 Basil leaves chopped
• 1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
• 5 sprigs oregano
• 1 clove minced garlic
• Juice and zest of 1 large lemon
• 2 cups arugula

Directions:

1. Preheat over to 400F. Clean and chop beets into bite size pieces.

2. Toss beets in olive oil, salt, and pepper. Roast for 30-40 min.

3. Prepare goat cheese by mixing in herbs and lemon juice. If the mixture is too thick, slowly drizzle in a bit of olive oil.

4. Toss together cooled beets and goat cheese mix. Serve over arugula or greens of your choice! 

One Last Pairing

You might be way too full after all that for dessert, but can you even call it Thanksgiving without a pumpkin pie? Now some of us just aren’t that great in the kitchen, so we just zip out to the grocery store and pick up a pie from the bakery. Shh…we won’t tell if you do!

One way to level up a store-bought pumpkin pie is to pair it with the perfect drink. We love Blandy’s Duke of Clarence Madeira with dessert. It’s a luscious and sweet elixir that tastes of honey, raisins, and chocolate. Honestly, it’s great as dessert all on its own!

There you have it, a delicious Thanksgiving spread complete with wine pairings for each course! Let us know which one you've tried and is your favourite by tagging #CascadiaLiquor in your photo. Happy Thanksgiving Vancouver Island!