Turkey Burgers and Sweet Potato Fries

The other night I decided to use up that 2 lb of ground turkey I purchased. I found a recipe I'd wanted to try for awhile. I don't know how many of you watch Top Chef (one of my favs), Spike who was a contestant but not the winner went on to open a restaurant in Washington DC. His turkey burger has turned out to be President & Michelle Obama's favorite burger. Well, aside from that it is now my absolutely favorite turkey burger. I followed this recipe closely except for adding 3 cloves (finely chopped, of course) garlic. Made the Guac and the combined tastes to make for a very happy mouth. I decided to make healthy sweet potato frys to go with that, I'm including that recipe as well. The curried yogurt dip to go with the frys is so good, a little sweet/tart and truly complements the frys. When making the sweet potato frys the secret is to heat the cookie sheet to very hot, this helps to crisp up the potatoes. COOK ON....

Spike Mendelsohn's White House Turkey Burgers

Ingredients:

2 lbs ground Turkey

1 Cup diced celery

1 Cup diced apples

1 Cup diced red onions

1 Tbsp mango salsa

Handful of chopped Parsley

Juice of 2 lemons, and fine zest from the lemons

1 Tbsp Olive Oil

Neutral Cooking Oil

A dash of Cayenne

Salt & pepper to taste

Slices of Muenster cheese

Method:

Heat olive oil over medium heat, and toss in the red onions, turning them so they don't burn; "sweat" this for about 45 seconds, turning with wooden spoon so it doesn't burn

Add apples and celery and mango salsa, sprinkle in cayenne then salt & pepper, and season to taste. Keep stirring while everything binds; scrape the pan, and toss in chopped parsley at the last minute, then set aside to cool.

When ingredients are cool, combine with turkey meat. Squeeze in the lemon juice while combining, and add the lemon zest. Mash it all together well, so fruit and onions are well distributed throughout the meat. Spike suggests re-seasoning a little at this point, to taste. Make eight balls with the mixture, and refrigerate until ready to cook.

To cook burgers: In a deep skillet, heat a small amount of neutral cooking oil on medium heat, almost to the smoking point. Put in four burger balls to cook at a time, and flatten down with a spatula. Cook for 3 minutes and flip, and cook an additional 3 minutes on the other side. In the last 30 seconds of cooking, pop Muenster cheese slices on burgers, and cover pan so it melts.

5. Serve on toasted Multi-grain buns, with lettuce and tomato slices, and top with Spike's Gucamole (recipe below).

Spike's Guacamole

Ingredients:

3 Avocados

1 Cup ripped cilantro

2 Tblsp chopped red onions

Juice of 2 lemons

Salt

Method:

1. Peel and pit avocados and crush with a whisk

2. Stir in lemon juice, onions, and cilantro

3. Add a couple of finely chopped chilies for heat, if you prefer

4. Salt to taste (lightly)

Serve on Turkey Burgers.

SWEET POTATO OVEN FRIES

Ingredients:

2 large sweet potatoes, washed, peeled, and cut lengthwise into 1/8 wedges (I cut mine thinner, depends on your own taste)

3 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup cilantro leaves, washed, dried, and chopped fine

Salt

Curried Yogurt Dipping Sauce:

1/4 cup mayonnaise (full-fat is best, low-fat will work fine, non-fat will not!)

1/2 cup plain yogurt (again, full-fat yay! low-fat yes! non-fat NO!)

Juice from 1/2 lemon

1 tbsp honey

1 1/2 tbsp curry powder

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions:

Sweet Potato Oven Fries:

Preheat oven to 475º F. Line a half-sheet pan with foil and place in hot oven for at least 20 minutes to get hot.

Using clean hands, toss sweet potato wedges with extra virgin olive oil, kosher salt, and freshly ground pepper until all surfaces are coated evenly.

Remove hot sheet pan from oven, and arrange coated sweet potato wedges in a single layer. Place sheet pan back in the oven and roast for about 25-30 minutes. About half-way through roasting time, flip the wedges onto the other side so that they brown evenly. Sweet potato wedges are ready when all sides are evenly browned and slightly crispy on the outside.

While oven fries are hot, sprinkle with a few flakes of fleur de sel and the chopped cilantro. Transfer to a serving dish. (NOTE: I used a parchment paper cone for serving, which looked lovely if I do say so myself!)

Curried Yogurt Dipping Sauce:

1. In a work bowl, mix together mayonnaise, yogurt, lemon juice, honey, and curry powder with a fork. Make sure there are no lumps and everything is incorporated evenly. Season to taste with salt and pepper, transfer to a serving bowl, and serve alongside the sweet potato oven fries.

Yield: 2 servings of a healthy, wonderfully flavorful and colorful alternative to ordinary french fries

Salad Rolls and Noodle Salad

I had a wonderful time cooking with "my girls" in California. Our menu was Japanese and it was so delicious a feast really. The Menu:

Shrimp salad rolls w/a peanut sauce and dipping sauce

Pork Dumplings w/dipping sauce

Shrimp Udon Noodle Salad

Teriyaki beef

Sweet chicken skewers w/veggies

Steamed rice

Mochi & Almond cookies

I'm going to include the Noodle Salad, healthy, and satisfying and also the salad rolls. A little labor intensive but easy to do and worth it. COOK ON.........

Salad Rolls

Work with one sheet of rice paper at a time. (Keep remaining sheets covered with a barely damp cloth to prevent curling.) Immerse rice paper in warm water, quickly remove and place on dry towel. It will soften within seconds.

Drain the carrots. Lay one piece lettuce on bottom third of softened rice paper. On lettuce place 1 tablespoon noodles, 1 tablespoon each shredded carrot and bean sprouts and a few mint leaves.

Roll paper up halfway, and then fold sides of paper over the filling. Lay 2 shrimp halves, cut side down, along the edge of the cylinder and place several cilantro leaves along the shrimp. Finish rolling into a cylinder. Place rolls on a plate, covered with a lightly dampened cloth, as you assemble the remaining rolls.

Pour dipping sauce into small bowls and sprinkle chopped peanuts over sauce. Dip rolls in sauce.

Nuoc Cham (Vietnamese Dipping Sauce): This sauce may be prepared a day in advance; if so, cover and chill. Remove from refrigerator an hour before serving.

Combine all ingredients in blender or food processor and process 30 seconds. Cover until ready to serve.

Serve at room temperature.

Nuoc Leo (Vietnamese Peanut Sauce): In small saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Saute garlic, chile paste and tomato paste until garlic is golden, about 30 seconds. Add broth, sugar, peanut butter and hoisin and whisk until smooth. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer 3 minutes.

Serve warm or at room temperature. Before serving, garnish with ground peanuts and sliced chiles

JAPANESE NOODLE, SHRIMP, AND CUCUMBER SALAD

2/3 c. rice wine vinegar

1/4 c. soy sauce

1/4 c. vegetable oil

3 tbsp. sugar

1 tsp. dry mustard

Pinch of cayenne pepper

SALAD:

1 lb. fresh bean sprouts

14 oz. dried soba noodles

1/4 c. oriental sesame oil

2 lbs. cooked bay shrimp

3 lg. cucumbers, peeled, halved, and thinly sliced

6 green onions, sliced

Red cabbage leaves

For Dressing: Whisk together vinegar, soy sauce, oil, sugar, and mustard in small bowl. Season with cayenne pepper. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and leave at room temperature.)

For Salad: Blanch bean sprouts in boiling water 30 seconds. Drain and refresh in cold water. Drain. Bring large pot of salted water to boil. Add noodles and boil until tender, stirring occasionally, about 3 minutes. Drain noodles. Refresh in cold water. Drain and place in large bowl. Add sesame oil and toss to coat. (Can be prepared up to 6 hours ahead. Cover and refrigerate bean sprouts and oriental noodles separately.)

Add bean sprouts, shrimp, cucumbers, and onions to noodles. Drizzle with dressing. Toss gently to combine. Line platter with cabbage leaves and mound salad in center.

California here I come......

I'm off to California tomorrow for a few days. While I'm there I'll be participating in a "Brazin" Women cooking day with my foodie friends. Tentative plans are for a Japanese meal, I will share the best of the best with you when I get back. Have a wonderful week, now is the time to make soup, I've included a nice little soup recipe to keep you warm, it is an easy Asian Dumpling soup. one of my favorite. COOK ON..........

Asian Dumpling Soup

Ingredients MAKES 4 SERVINGS

4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth

2 teaspoons soy sauce

1 small clove garlic, crushed

1 16-ounce bag frozen Thai shrimp gyoza, or pot stickers

3 cups refrigerated or frozen stir-fry vegetables, any variety

1 egg (optional)

1 teaspoon dark sesame oil

Freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

In a medium pot, heat broth, soy sauce and garlic over medium-high heat. Bring mixture to a boil. Add gyoza and vegetables. When mixture boils again, reduce heat to medium-low and cook for 5 minutes.

If using egg, beat with a fork until frothy. Slowly pour into boiling soup in a thin stream, creating cooked ribbons of egg. If you prefer, you can pan-fry the egg, cut into strips or squares, and use as a garnish.

Remove from heat. Stir in sesame oil. Season to taste with pepper.

Turkey and Spinach Curry

I made this curry last night, it is very, very simple you can use chicken or even left over beef. Such a good recipe to bring back to life a left over. My turkey is finally gone. Make this tonight, before your turkey has to be thrown out, hate to waste food. COOK ON.......

Turkey & Spinach Curry

Ingredients Serves 4

2 tablespoons peanut oil (I used olive oil)

1 small onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 tablespoon Curry Powder (or to your taste)

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1/8 teaspoon cayenne, or to taste (or more if you like a really hot curry)

1 cup tomatoes, chopped (canned are fine; include their juice)

1 cup coconut milk

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1/2 pound fresh spinach, trimmed of thick stems, washed and roughly chopped

2 cups leftover turkey, white or dark meat or a combination, roughly chopped

Freshly chopped cilantro for garnish.

Directions

Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat; add onion, garlic and ginger and cook until they begin to soften, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add cumin, coriander, turmeric and cayenne and cook, stirring, until spices are fragrant, about another minute.

Add tomatoes and their juices and coconut milk and sprinkle with salt and pepper; bring mixture to a boil and reduce heat to medium. Simmer for another 8 to 10 minutes, or until tomatoes break down.

Add spinach & turkey to pan and continue to cook until spinach wilts & turkey is warmed through, 3 to 5 minutes. Adjust seasoning, garnish with cilantro and serve.

The Minimalist: The Turkey That Went to India (November 25, 2009)

Mom's Roasted Turkey

Hi Everyone, hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We sure did. Best food ever I think, it was a pot luck so you get the best of everyone. I am giving you my Roast Turkey recipe, it's not my mom's recipe but it's someone's mom. I got this out of the newspaper about 5 years ago and have used it ever since. The secret to the recipe is that you cook the turkey breast down, which gets all the juice into the turkey instead of out. This year I made two turkeys on two different days so we had enough turkey meat for everyone. I also brined them and I think it really makes a difference. It's a very simple brine and you just do it the night before, that recipe is also included in this post. I thought if you do turkey again for Christmas or New Year you might like to try this recipe, you will be surprised at how delicious the humble turkey can taste. COOK ON................

Mom's Roasted Turkey

INGREDIENTS

1 turkey, approx. 15 lbs.*

Juice of a lemon

Salt and pepper

Olive oil or melted butter

1/2 yellow onion, peeled and quartered

Tops and bottoms of a bunch of celery

2 carrots

Parsley

Sprigs of fresh rosemary, thyme

Need help figuring out how big a turkey to get?

12-15 lb turkey for 10-12 people
15-18 lb turkey for 14-16 people
18-22 lb turkey for 20-22 people

Directions

1. To start, if the turkey has been refrigerated, bring it to room temperature before cooking. Keep it in its plastic wrapping until you are ready to cook it. While in the refrigerator, and or while you are bringing it to room temp, have the bird resting in a pan, so that if the plastic covering leaks for any reason, you are confining the juices to the pan. If you get a frozen turkey, you will need to defrost it in the refrigerator for several days first. Allow approximately 5 hours of defrosting for every pound. So, if you have a 15 pound turkey, it will take about 75 hours to defrost it in the refrigerator, or around 3 days.

Handle a raw turkey with the same amount of caution as when you handle raw chicken - use a separate cutting board and utensils to avoid contaminating other foods. Wash you hands with soap before touching anything else in the kitchen. Use paper towels to clean up.

Remove the neck and giblets(heart, gizzard, liver). Use the heart and gizzard for making stock for the stuffing. The neck can be cooked along side the turkey or saved for turkey soup.

Note: that if your turkey comes with a plastic piece holding the legs together, check the instructions on the turkey's package. Most likely you do not need to remove those plastic ties for cooking (unless you plan to cook your turkey at a very high temperature). If you remove the plastic ties, you will need to use kitchen string to tie the legs together.

2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

3. Wash out the turkey with water. Pull out any remaining feather stubs in the turkey skin. Pat the turkey dry with paper towels. Lather the inside of the cavity with the juice of half a lemon. Take a small handful of salt and rub all over the inside of the turkey.

4. In this method of cooking a turkey, we don't make the stuffing in the turkey because doing so adds too much to the cooking time. For flavor, put in inside the turkey a half a yellow onion, peeled and quartered, a bunch of parsley, a couple of carrots, and some tops and bottoms of celery. You may need to cap the body cavity with some aluminum foil so that the stuffing doesn't easily fall out. Close up the turkey cavity with either string (not nylon string!) or metal skewers. Make sure that the turkey's legs are tied together, held close to the body, and tie a string around the turkey body to hold the wings in close. The neck cavity can be stuffed with parsley and tied closed with thin skewers and string.

5. Rub either melted butter or olive oil all over the outside of the turkey. Sprinkle salt generously all over the outside of the turkey (or have had it soaking in salt-water brine before starting this process). Sprinkle pepper over the turkey.

Place turkey BREAST DOWN on the bottom of a rack over a sturdy roasting pan big enough to catch all the drippings. This is the main difference between the way mom makes turkey and everyone else. Cooking the turkey breast down means the skin over the breast will not get so brown. However, all of the juices from the cooking turkey will fall down into the breast while cooking. And the resulting bird will have the most succulent turkey breast imaginable. Add several sprigs of fresh (if possible) thyme and rosemary to the outside of the turkey.

Chop up the turkey giblets (gizzard, heart). Put into a small saucepan, cover with water, add salt. Bring to simmer for an hour or so to help make stock for the stuffing.

8. Put the turkey in the oven. Check the cooking directions on the turkey packaging. Gourmet turkeys often don't take as long to cook. With the turkeys mom gets, she recommends cooking time of about 15 minutes for every pound. For the 15 lb turkey, start the cooking at 400 F for the first 1/2 hour. Then reduce the heat to 350 F for the next 2 hours. Then reduce the heat further to 225 F for the next hour to hour and a half.

If you want the breast to be browned as well, you can turn over the bird for the last 15-20 minutes of cooking, at an oven temp of 300°F. (Oven must be at least 250°F for browning to occur.) Note that if you do this, you will have a higher risk of overcooking the turkey breast. We never worry about browning the breast. Start taking temperature readings with a meat thermometer, inserted deep into the thickest part of the turkey breast and thigh, a half hour before the turkey should be done. The dark meat in the thigh should be about 175°F. The white meat in the breast should be 160°F to 165°F. If you don't have a meat thermometer, spear the breast with a knife. The turkey juices should be clear, not pink.

9. Once you remove the turkey from the oven, let it rest for 15-20 minutes. Turn the turkey breast side up to carve it.

Making Turkey Gravy

Scrape all the drippings off of the bottom of the roasting pan. Pour drippings into a smaller skillet. Ladle off excess fat with a gravy spoon and save for possible use later. In a separate small bowl take a quarter cup of corn starch and add just enough water to dissolve the corn starch. Beat cornstarch with a spoon to remove lumps. Slowly add the cornstarch mixture to the drippings, stirring constantly. You may not end up using all of the cornstarch mixture. Only add as much as you need to get the desired thickness. Allow time for the cornstarch to thicken the gravy. Add salt, pepper, sage, thyme, or other seasonings to taste.

Save Bones for Stock

When you are finished with your turkey, save the bones from the carcass to make a delicious turkey soup.

Brined Turkey

3 gallon cold water

2 cups salt

1 cup sugar

juniper berry

peppercorn

allspice

Rosemary

Thyme

Bay leaf

whole head of garlic

Stir & dissolve all. Put turkey in water over night. When ready to cook, take out turkey and rinse salt off before you cook it.

Happy Monday! I make traditional cranberry sauce every year. If you are still using the can, STOP IT. I've always just made the recipe on the bag, but this year let's all try a new recipe I found. It just sounds so good. If you're not up for experimenting then just make the recipe on the package, it's very good, and 200 times better than the can, I always add a little more sugar because I don't like it real tart. but you go with what you like. You won't be sorry. Anybody want to try this new recipe and then I'd love to hear comments about it. COOK ON............

Cranberry Sauce with Ginger & Apricots

It wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without cranberry sauce! Acclaimed baker and cookbook author Dorie Greenspan spikes hers with ginger and dried apricots.

2 bags (12 oz. each) fresh cranberries

1 cup orange juice

1 cup apricot jam

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp ginger

1/4 lb. dried apricots, finely diced

Stir all the ingredients together in a large, heavy pot and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and cook, stirring, until the berries pop and the sauce starts to thicken—it will thicken much more as it cools—about 8 minutes. Cool to room temperature, cover, and chill.

Serves 20. Per 1/4 cup: 100 calories, 27g carbs, 1g protein, no cholesterol, and no fat.

Chestnut Dressing

I posted Susie's chestnut dressing a couple of days ago, but it didn't get posted, so here it is again. A wonderful dressing and perfect for the holidays. COOK ON..........

Nana's Chestnut Stuffing

2 lb chestnuts (I boil them, then cut them in 1/4's to get out the meat)
1 cup bread crumbs (I use Progresso Italian)
1/4 cup melted butter
1 1/2 cups 1/2 and 1/2

Grind the chestnuts and mix in other ingredients. Add more half and half
as needed. Stuffs a 20 lb turkey.