Turkey does tortilla (Hamburgesas de pavo)

Crumbs made from corn tortillas bring a south of the border flair to these little cosas.

As per the picture at right, I just cut them up and then processed them for a few minutes to break them down. Then I use them just like dried bread crumbs (although I don't dry them).

1.25 lbs light and dark combined ground turkey
1/4 cup corn tortilla crumbs
1/4 cup milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
salt and pepper to taste

Don't 'spec' I need to tell you how to cook them.

There's no "V" in lasagna (oh, yeah?)

Maybe two weeks ago I warned the blogosphere (that includes you) of Jenn's impending use of the "V" word at her place, jennsfoodjourney. If you click on that link right now you may still catch her recipe, chicken queso pasta. Her casual, unremarkable, confident inclusion of not only Velveeta, but Ro-tel, should be a model of the "just lay it out there" school of recipe sharing. No headlines, no hype for the Official Cheese of the 50's, just matter-of-fact presentation. That's what I meant to do here, except now I'm blowing the whole thing out of proportion. Okay, what I've done is to make a big tray of lasagna with a hefty layer of Velveeta in a middle layer and served it to my spouse, and a lady of a certain age who just got back from the hospital following a minor heart attack and an angioplasty. Our fourth was her son who had bused his way down from Pittsburgh to DC to be with her for a few days. Bottom line: everyone had seconds. No one asked any embarrassing questions about ingredients. I will go to my grave with it as my secret since I know none of you are blabbermouths.

If you are wondering when I am going to get around to the recipe, well, I'm not really going to. You all have your lasagna designs, handed down from grandma to ma to y'all. In short, I used a pound of ground turkey, a 28 oz can of whole romas, a 14 oz can of tomato sauce, garlic, salt and pepper, and four cheeses: ricotta, mozzarella, parmesan, and the hero of the day, Velveeta. Oh, and I used real, grownup noodles, not those wimpy no-boil things. (Go ahead, make my day, tell me I'm an idiot.)

Wok-smoked turkey sausage

A few years ago I saw Jacques Pepin make turkey sausage on an episode of “Emeril Live”. I think my favorite thing about it is the pistachios. This was truly an experiment to smoke the sausage instead of simmer it. Couldn’t think of any reason in the world why it wouldn’t work. With the benefit of my electronic temp probe it was easy to monitor the cooking.

Wok-smoked turkey sausage
1 lb. ground turkey (mixed white and dark meat is essential)
¼ cup fresh sage leaves,.chopped fine
¼ cup shelled pistachios
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
½ tsp smoked paprika

Put everything into a large bowl and mix it thoroughly with your hands. Put it in the fridge to let the ingredients blend their flavors together. This can be an hour or two or a day. Jacques advocated storing it in the fridge for 3 days before cooking. I don’t have that much patience. Roll up a 1” ball and microwave it for 20 seconds to check for seasonings.

Form the sausage into a log and wrap it tightly with plastic. Then refrigerate.

After a day or two or three, remove the plastic. Wrap the sausage it in one layer of cheesecloth so that it will hold its shape.

Soak a large handful of woods chips in water for 30 minutes. Line your wok with 2 pieces of foil. Turn the heat to medium high (6 on my 1-10 dial). Place the turkey on a small piece of foil in a steamer basket and insert a temperature probe. Smoke the sausage for about 45 minutes, then transfer it to the 350 oven and bake until the temp 170 is reached. My electronic temp probe makes monitoring this quite easy.

Now, for those who ain’t gonna smoke this stuff, put your sausage log in a 1 gallon freezer bag and squeeze out all the air you can. Bring a large pot of water to boil, reduce to a simmer and put the bag into it. You may need to weigh it down with something to keep it submerged. Keep at a very, very slow simmer for one hour. Take it out of the water bath. Leave it undisturbed in the freezer bag and it will re-absorb some of the exuded liquid.

Now, what are you going to do with it? Beats me! It’s good for sliders, with eggs, with most anything.

Turkey loaf

This picture is a little misleading. It's actually a mini-meatloaf. The disposable aluminum pan is 5.5" x 3" and 2" deep. The recipe below makes 2 of them. Each is enough to feed Peter and me twice!




Here is a device I can't live without: an electronic temperature probe. The tip goes into the meatloaf and broadcasts the temperature to the light gray unit which I usually take to the other side of the house where Peter and I watch "Jeopardy" or "Millionaire" before dinner (with cocktails I might add).

On Nov. 24, 2009 I posted my "best meatloaf you will never make," and this is a variation of that theme.



One thing I will do differently next time is to uncover the pans sooner and/or slide them under the broiler to get the bacon crisper.

Turkey loaf
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 large onion, finely chopped
1/3 green bell pepper, finely chopped

Heat the oil in a saute pan and cook the onion and pepper just until softened, 4 minutes or so. Set aside to cool.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees - oven rack at middle level

In a large bowl combine:
1 lb. ground turkey
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 lightly beaten egg
1/8 cup bread crumbs which have been soaked in milk
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp liquid smoke (optional)
2 tbsp sage pesto (we just happened to have had this - an alternative is too saute some fresh sage with your onion and pepper)
generous pinches of salt and pepper
the cooled onion and pepper

Mix well. Put a teaspoon of the mixture in a small bowl and microwave 15-20 seconds. Taste for seasonings. Adjust accordingly.

Put the mixture into 2 disposable aluminum loaf pans. Top each with 2 half slices of bacon. Place the pans on a baking sheet with 1" sides. Pour in:

1/2" boiling water

Loosely lay a sheet of foil over the pans. Bake to an internal temperature of 170 degrees, removing the foil after about 10 minutes.