Category — Turkey Recipes

Happy Mother’s Day!  In honor of Mother’s Day I’ll be blogging a recipe my Mom inspired!  I’ve mentioned before that I grew up with a (wonderful) Mom who really didn’t do a lot of cooking.  Honestly, I could count on one hand the number of special dishes that my Mom made while I was a kid.  We did eat out a lot, and she was great at opening cans and boxes and the like, but we didn’t have a lot of “home-cooking,” per se.  Not to worry, though, my Mom was really great at other stuff that didn’t include cooking.  Still there are a couple of things I do remember my Mom making.  Today’s recipe is inspired by the hamburgers my Mom made when I was growing up.

When my Mom made these she called them “Surprise Burgers” and she stuffed mushrooms and cheese in the center.  Dad and I both would scarf them down. Obviously, I loved mushrooms even when I was kid. I’ve also seen them referred to as “inside out burgers” in a similar recipe.  Personally, I just call them burgers and put whatever suits me on that day in the middle.

It’s not rocket science, really.  Hamburgers are pretty basic, but what makes them miraculous is when you add the goodies on top.  Now, with this version of a burger, you just put a small amount of whatever you want on top of the burger inside the burger before you cook it.  Cool!

When my Mom made burgers they often swelled up in the middle when she cooked them, and I’ve found that the method you use to put these together actually does matter.  Shaping these properly will help prevent “golf-ball” shaped burgers.  And, Mom?  I’m sorry Dad and I teased you about your hamburgers being golf-ball burgers.  I was such a little shit.  Don’t worry, I’m getting all that sass back in triplicate now.

Also key to this recipe, remember that you can’t put too much stuff in the middle.  Now, I know, you’re thinking “The more the better!  I love bleu cheese, I want to have it oozing out and I don’t really mind a giant sized burger, it will be so goooood when I bite into all that heavenly flavor.”  But.  A little goes a long way for flavor, and you can always pile more of the goodies on top if you feel like there just isn’t quite enough.  The problem with putting too much in the middle is two-fold.  First, it becomes difficult to cook the burgers evenly because they are too fat in the center, or just not a uniform size and shape.  Secondly, they tend to pop open and everything will fall out.  Popping open sort of defeats the entire purpose of an inside-out burger, wouldn’t you agree?  So.  Right.  Just put a little bit of the yummy stuff inside.

And, a random thought . . . here where I live now, in Michigan, people often call either ground beef or hamburgers (the sandwich) “hamburg”. Isn’t that funny? I mean, I thought it was funny. I don’t know why I thought I’d mention that. I guess it’s just one of those things that makes me go “hmm” . . . well, anyhow.

So, here are some of the ideas for the centers of your surprise burgers:

Bleu cheese, or another type of crumbled or shredded cheese
Pickle Relish
Chopped Mushrooms
Crumbled Bacon
Sauteed Onions
Chopped or Roasted Garlic
Bell Peppers
Diced Tomatoes

O.k., I could go on with this endlessly. As you can see, the possibilities are limitless.

Here’s how these work:

Surprise Stuffed Inside Out Burgers

1 1/2 pound ground beef, turkey, or venison (or a blend)
1/4 to 1/2 cup crumbled bacon (if desired)
1/2 to 3/4 cup of assorted “insides”, (such as cheese and veggies) chopped, crumbled, or diced fine
Small butter or cottage cheese tub lid
Parchment or Wax Paper
6 Hamburger Buns and Hamburger toppings

I start out by placing my crumbled bacon directly in the ground meat. I like bacon in or on my burger, and mixing it in with the ground meat allows me to put more stuff in the middle.  Bonus!

Mix ground meat and crumbled bacon (to taste) until the bacon is evenly distributed.

Using clean hands, make twelve 2 ounce balls of hamburger.  I use scales to make my hamburger balls exactly even, but you can eyeball it by dividing into twelve equal portions, if you don’t have scales.  But, if you’re a bit of a control freak like me, feel free to use the scales.

Place one hamburger ball on a piece of parchment (or wax) paper and flatten it slightly with your palm.  Place another piece of parchment paper over the meat and place the plastic lid over the top of the paper.  Push down on the lid with the palm of your hand.  Squish the meat out to the edges of the lid and try not to let it seep out the sides.

Carefully peel the paper off the hamburger.

Place 1 1/2 tablespoons to 2 tablespoons of filling in the center of the burger.

Place another hamburger ball over the top of the filling, replace the lid, and push down again.

Use your hand to gently “meld” the sides of the two patties together.

Cook these in a pan or on the grill.  I like to make these on my electric grill, because it does not require turning the burgers.  If you do not use an electric grill, cook these until half done, flip them over and let them finish.  Do not repeatedly flip, flip, flip because they will fall apart.

Serve on buns with your favorite condiments.

These burgers go wonderfully with Maple Chipolte Grilled Corn on the Cob or Roadhouse Home Fries.

On Easter this year we had turkey and ham. Lucky us! Of course, this is way too much food for 7 adults and 4 picky kids, but that didn’t stop me from roasting an 18 pound bird. Can you say “leftovers?” Well, that’s not such a bad thing, I suppose.

As soon as we started cleaning up, I plopped the turkey carcass in a huge pot of boiling water and I added a pared carrot, some onions (with skins), celery, thyme, and peppercorns. I let that cook for several hours and made one heck of a stock. I cannot tell you how much better this tastes than anything you’ll buy at the store. It’s a little work, and you gotta have a big ol’ stock pot, and someplace to store the stock when you’re done… but if you have the option you really need to make some. No need for me to tell you how to do it, since these directions are very well done.

Since I have all this stock and leftover turkey to use up, I decided to dig out an old recipe I have titled “Chicken and Noodles.” Now, these noodles remind me a lot of dumplings, but they are cut like noodles - and call them whatever you want, they are beyond tasty. These are a little work, maybe a 6 on a scale of 1 to 10, but completely worth the effort.

There are a lot of pictures here, so as you won’t be intimidated by the dough; mixing it, rolling it out, flipping it, and cutting it. I promise you can do it!!

If you don’t have a pastry board or a large cutting board, you can use your kitchen counter. Just make sure it’s super clean and sprinkle flour directly on the counter. You also can make these without a rolling pin. A large cup or glass works; again, just sprinkle it with flour.

If you mix up the dough and it’s not sticky and is super easy to roll out - and you’re thinking “Cool! I didn’t even need to add that much flour to roll this out!” that’s great, but you need to add extra flour anyhow. Sprinkle the flour on like it tells you to in the directions. The flour is what thickens the stock, so you need at least an extra half of a cup added through sprinkling it over the dough or turkey.

Chicken and Noodles

14 cups chicken or turkey stock (that works out to about eight 14.5 ounce cans of stock)
1 1/2 pounds of shredded chicken or turkey
6 egg whites
1 egg yolk
3-4 cups flour, divided
3 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup milk

In a large stock pot bring stock to a boil.

While stock is coming to a boil, mix 3 cups of flour, egg whites, egg yolk, salt, and milk.

Add flour (if needed) until you get firm ball.

Place dough ball on a floured pastry board. Flatten the ball and flip the circle over. Flour the dough, flatten, and flip it over again. Keep flipping dough until it is fairly thin. When the dough has been flipped several times you can roll out the dough with a rolling pin until you have the thickness you desire (I recommend 1/8-inch).

Generously sprinkle the dough with flour and roll it up like a newspaper roll.

Cut the roll, in strips, to thickness desired (I like about 1/4 inch).

Unroll the strips, and cut them into shorter pieces, if desired.

Place the noodles in a bowl and add another sprinkle of flour. Try to use at least a total of 1/2 cup of flour when rolling out the noodles.

Carefully add noodles to the boiling stock and stir gently to seperate the noodles.  (Yes, I did say to be careful because I burnt the you-know-what out of my fingers doing this).

Add the shredded meat and stir to mix.  If you need to add a little more flour you can sprinkle over the meat, like I have done here.

Return to a boil, then lower heat to a simmer and stir often.  Season with salt and black pepper. 

See my new baby sized pepper grinder?  I thought it was so cool looking, I just had to have it.  Turns out, baby sized pepper grinders look great, but don’t work great.  Well, at least I was able to warn you.  I guess that’s the silver lining, right?

Simmer for an hour, or longer if desired.  Stock will thicken as it cooks.  I like to serve mine over mashed potatoes!  Now, quit licking your screen and go make your own!

Without the pictures:

Chicken and Noodles

14 cups chicken or turkey stock  (that works out to about eight 14.5 ounce cans of stock)
1 1/2 pounds of shredded chicken or turkey
6  egg whites
1  egg yolk
3-4 cups flour, divided
3 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup milk

In a large stock pot bring stock to a boil.
While stock is coming to a boil, mix 3 cups of flour, egg whites, egg yolk, salt, and milk. 
Add flour (if needed) until you get firm ball.
Place dough ball on a floured pastry board. Flatten the ball flip the circle over.  Flour the dough, flatten, and flip it over again.  Keep flipping dough until it is fairly thin.  When the dough has been flipped several times you can roll out the dough with a rolling pin until you have the thickness you desire (I recommend 1/8-inch).
Generously sprinkle the dough with flour and roll it up like a newspaper roll.
Cut the roll, in strips, to thickness desired (I like about 1/4 inch).
Unroll the strips, and cut them into shorter pieces, if desired.
Place the noodles in a bowl and add another sprinkle of flour.  Try to use at least a total of 1/2 cup of flour when rolling out the noodles.
Carefully add noodles to the boiling stock and stir gently to seperate the noodles.
Add the shredded meat and stir to mix.
Return to a boil, then lower heat to a simmer and stir often.  Season with salt and pepper.
Simmer for an hour, or longer if desired.  Stock will thicken as it cooks.

Today is another snow day here, which means that I really shouldn’t be sitting here right now chatting with you all.  But, the girls are down the hall (after I told them like 8 times I needed them to go play down the hall for a bit and turn off the t.v.).  So, I have a precious little time to tell you about what I made yesterday.

Low Fat Turkey Ravioli in Mushroom Sauce

Remember how I said I was getting back to cooking light?  Well, finally, I did.  It was really hard to believe that these were made from lean turkey and clocked in at about 350 calories and around 8 grams of fat in a serving.   Hubby was ecstatic!

There was a recipe in my January/February edition of Everyday Food that caught my eye called “goat-cheese “ravioli” with parsley sauce”.  I started to turn the page without a second thought because a) Hubby doesn’t like cheese.  I know, how can you not like cheese? AND b) I’ve made ravioli from scratch and am very happy with the recipe I use.  But then, I wondered why is the “ravioli” in quotes like that?  And I saw it - they were using wonton wrappers for the pasta.  I know now that this isn’t that new of an idea, but it was new to me (at that moment) and, quite frankly, I got a little excited about the project.  Later that day, I noticed on the back of the wonton wrapper package (that was in the fridge just waiting for something I hadn’t yet decided) a ravioli recipe!  And THEN, that night Alton Brown was talking about wontons on his show.  Well, it was like it was a trifecta - obviously it was meant to be. 

I will say this, these ravioli aren’t as good as homemade pasta.  But, they are good, and they are way better than the frozen variety they sell in the grocery.  Plus, you can put anything you want inside - which meant I could use them for my cooking light resolution.

I got a little frustrated because I couldn’t find any suitable italian turkey sausage at the market.  So I did what anyone who is faced such a dilema must do; I made my own.  I decided on a mushroom sauce, but I think these would be fantastic with maranara sauce, too.  Well, enough already . . . here’s the recipe.

Low Fat Turkey Ravioli in Mushroom Sauce

Turkey Sausage Filling
16-20 oz. of lean ground turkey
1 1/2 teaspoons salt 
3 1/2 teaspoons paprika 
2/3 teaspoon garlic powder 
1/2  teaspoon fennel seeds 
1 teaspoon pepper 
1/2  teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 cup parmesean cheese, grated or finely chopped
1 egg

32 Wonton Wrappers

Mushroom Sauce
1  onion, sliced 
1 lb mushrooms, chopped 
2 tablespoons olive oil 
3 cloves garlic, crushed 
2 tablespoons flour 
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock 
1/2 cup white wine 
3 tablespoons italian parsley, coarsly chopped
1 teaspoon basil 
1/2 - 1 tsp of salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Mix all sausage ingredients together until well incorportaed.

Keep extra wonton wrappers covered with a damp paper towel while you are working.

Working with two or three wrappers at a time, fill each wonton wrapper with 1 tsp of sausage filling. 

Use a fingertip, dipped in plain water, to trace around three edges of the wrapper.  Fold the wrapper in half, using your fingers to remove as much air as possible and pressing the wrapper together to seal firmly.

Trim the long edges of wrapper, if you wish.

Place ravioli on a parchment covered (or lightly greased) cookie sheet. 

Keep ravioli covered with a damp towel and refrigerate until ready to cook.  You can also place the cookie sheet in the freezer (without the towel).  Once the ravioli are frozen you can move them to a plastic bag to store for later use.

Heat oil in a large pan over med-high heat(I used my wok).

Add onion, mushrooms, and garlic.

Add broth, wine basil, parsley, salt, and pepper.

Stir in flour and mix well.

Bring the mixture to a boil, gently add the ravioli (so they will not break open), and cook until tender - about 10 to 15 minutes.

Oh, one other little thing.  Last week I made macaroni and cheese, and due to a camera problem I didn’t get the picture up.  I have added the picture now and just wanted to let you know that you can check it out in the original post.