Weekend recap and a recipe for Leftover Turkey Gumbo

Nov26

I hope you have all had a pleasant long weekend; or at least a pleasantly long one.
Since we don’t have many relatives who live nearby (let alone on this side of the Atlantic), my parents usually have Thanksgiving dinner with their friends and I have it with mine. Screw my birthday or New Year’s – friendsgiving in the best day of the year, because there’s nothing like spending a whole day preparing a feast to share with my favorite people in the world. But as it turned out this year, I had a small dinner with my parents instead. My mom and I got to cook together and it was nice. I did get to see my friends later at night though, since we decided to go shopping at midnight. None of us urgently needed to buy anything but I was just curious what Black Friday would be like, since I’ve never done it before. The funny thing is that most of the stores didn’t really have special deals – they were just open at a strange time – but people were still stuffing their shopping totes and pulling plastic out of their wallets as if in preparation for the apocalypse. It’s amazing how much humans love to hoard possessions and how willingly we succumb to tricky marketing strategies.

New sweater and necklace thanks to Black Friday

The following day I had to go downtown to the passport office and submit a renewal application, where I waited on line for an hour and a half. It wasn’t the best place to hang out on a Saturday afternoon but at least Rene was there to keep me company, God bless his heart. When we finally got out, we headed straight to the Shake Shack nearby. I got to indulge in one of my favorite treats – Shake Shack’s perfectly crispy crinkle fries dipped into their silky custard. Some of you will probably think this is gross but it will only be those that haven’t tried this yet. I ordered the custard special of the day, which was called “Pumpkin pie, oh my!” – vanilla custard blended with a whole slice of pumpkin pie. Eating this completely erased my memory of the previously annoying 1.5 hrs. “Oh my!” indeed.

Later I got around to making this soup, which is another Thanksgiving tradition I have. It’s a simple recipe and it is the best way to use up leftover turkey.

(Yield: 4-6 servings)

Ingredients:

3 tbsp vegetable oil

2 tbsp flour

1 yellow onion, diced

1 large carrot, diced

1 celery stick, diced

1 green or red bell pepper, diced

1 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp poultry seasoning

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

4.5 c turkey or chicken stock

1 c shredded turkey meat (or chicken, if made year-round)

Salt/pepper

1 c prepared white rice

Chopped scallions

Procedure: Heat a large enamel soup pot over low heat. Add oil and flour and whisk together for 2 minutes, until the roux is a light caramel color and smells nutty. Add vegetables with 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper, and other seasonings. Stir with a wooden spoon and cook for about 10 min, until vegetables have softened, stirring occasionally. Then add stock, stir, cover pot tightly with a lid, increase heat to high, and bring soup to a boil. Once boiling, remove lid, turn heat down to medium-low and simmer for 15 min. Then add meat and simmer for another 15 min. (Soup should thicken slightly). Serve soup hot, topped with white rice and scallions.

How was your weekend?

Do you have any experience with Black Friday?

What Thanksgiving traditions do you have?

Ground turkey stew

Oct9

Since early last spring, it has been collecting dust in the far end of my kitchen. But alas, the season of autumn has come and it is time to pick up where we left off. I tense up my arms and try to move swiftly, as it always manages to seem heavier than it was when I last hid it. Yet its unwieldiness doesn’t faze me. I am happy and my mouth stretches into a wide smile; my mind races with ideas, my hands are shaking in anticipation. I take the lid off and look inside, imagining the endless variety of ingredients that can be contained in its round walls. I am talking, of course, about my Dutch oven.

(Yield: 6 servings)

Ingredients:

3 tbsp olive oil

3 garlic cloves, sliced

1 large yellow onion, diced

1 ½ lbs ground turkey

2 tsp chili powder

1 ½ tsp poultry seasoning

1 c shredded white cabbage

1 carrot, diced

1 red bell pepper, diced

1 tbsp yellow or brown mustard

12 oz crushed tomatoes

¼ c water

1 tbsp tomato paste

2 potatoes (to peel or not to peel is your decision)

Salt/pepper

Sour cream and dill for garnish

Procedure: (It’s important to remember that dishes with numerous ingredients with different cooking times also require the seasoning of every layer.) Heat a Dutch oven over medium heat; add olive oil and garlic. Cook until fragrant, about 1 min, and add onion with a pinch of salt. Cook until translucent. Raise heat to high and add turkey, chili powder and poultry seasoning. Break up with a wooden spatula and cook for about 8 min, stirring frequently. Next, add cabbage, carrot and pepper, along with mustard.

(Still seasoning every layer, right?) Stir to combine and cook for about 12 min, or until vegetables have softened. Then add tomatoes, paste and water. Stir, bring to a simmer, cover tightly with lid, lower heat and cook for about 10 min. Finally, add potatoes, cover, and cook until potatoes are cooked through, 15-20 min. Turn heat off. Taste and re-season if necessary. Serve hot, topped with sour cream and chopped dill.

If you are interested in more fall recipes, see: Chick pea stew, Pumpkin curry w/ chicken and Coq au vin.

Baked turkey meatballs in roasted red pepper sauce

Sep21

The recipe for these meatballs is loosely based on Alton Brown’s recipe – watch the video. It’s quite educational. But the sauce was all my idea. So ha!

This is one of those recipes with lots of ingredients and several steps so I recommend reserving it for a weekend dinner.

(Yield: 18 balls/about 6 serving)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs. ground turkey

1/2 c grated Parmesan cheese

1 egg, beaten

1/2 c bread crumbs, divided

1 tsp dried parsley

1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper

Sauce:

4 red bell peppers

2 tbsp olive oil, divided

1 tbsp butter

1 yellow onion, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 c dry red wine

1 tbsp flour

8 oz canned diced tomatoes

1/2 tsp dried parsley

Cayenne pepper to taste

Salt/pepper

Parmesan cheese for garnish

Procedure for meatballs: Gently combine all ingredients (only use half of bread crumbs!) in a bowl using fingers. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. Preheat oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet with foil. Place remaining bread crumbs into cappuccino cup or a small bowl. Using an ice cream scoop to measure, form turkey mixture into balls between palms and place onto sheet. Roll each ball in crumbs by swirling cup (if you don’t understand what this means, watch the video!)

Place balls 1 inch apart on tray. Bake for 20 minutes…

Until they look like this…

Procedure for sauce: Preheat oven to 375F. Line a baking sheet with foil. Rub peppers with half of oil.

Bake for 30-35 min until blistered. Remove from oven and let cool before handling. Peel and discard skin. Remove seeds and discard. Dice flesh and set aside.

Heat remaining oil and butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add onion with a pinch of salt and sweat out for about 5 min. Add garlic and cook for 1 min. Add wine, turn heat down, and simmer for 4 min. Stir in flour and cook for 1 min. Add peppers, tomatoes and seasonings. Stir, cover with lid and cook for 15 min. Place sauce into food processor, or proceed with immersion blender, and puree to desired texture. Pour sauce back into saucepan and re-season if necessary. Nestle meatballs into sauce and reheat for several min.

Serve over pasta, topped with cheese.

Turkey Shepherd Pie

Dec2

December is here again. On one hand I’m sad because yet another year has flown by. But on the other I’m happy! December is one of my favorite months. I get to celebrate my birthday, Christmas and New Year’s. NYC is the loveliest, jazz sounds the best, the first snows come down, the fall semester finally ends and cookies are in abundance everywhere during this magical month. What’s not to love?

Enough banter – let’s get to the food. Shepherd pie has always fascinated me. I’ve never tried/cooked it before but heard about it and it’s been on ‘the list’ for a while. I decided to make it for tonight’s dinner. I wasn’t feeling the mashed potato component though and decided a crispy texture on top would be more fitting. I looked at a few recipes of fellow bloggers and on the internet and concocted my own.

This dish came out amazing! The meat was so flavorful and the potatoes’ crispness did exactly what I’d hoped they would. The aroma that filled the house was incredible. And my family was impressed.

(Yield: 4 servings)

Ingredients:

1 carrot, diced

1 celery stalk, diced

1 red onion, diced

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1 lb ground turkey

1 tsp poultry seasoning

A few pinches of cayenne pepper

¼ c dry red wine

1 tsp spicy brown mustard

½ c chicken/turkey broth

½ c canned peas, drained and rinsed

4 small russet potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced

Extra virgin olive oil

Salt/coarsely ground pepper

Preheat 2 tbsp of oil in a large skillet on medium heat. Add carrot, celery, onion and garlic, with a bit of salt, to the skillet and sauté about 5 min. Add the turkey, poultry seasoning, cayenne, salt and black pepper. Brown the meat, breaking it up with a spatula, 10-12 min. Then add the wine and simmer another 10 min, for the alcohol to evaporate. Then add the mustard and stock and simmer another 12 min.

In the meantime, preheat the oven to 400F. Toss potatoes with olive oil, salt and pepper.