Category: Poultry

Leftover Turkey Wraps

After the Thanksgiving or Christmas turkey dinner is over and family or friends have gone home, Jerri and I attack the turkey carcass. We slice off as much meat as we can , dismember the skeleton and put the bones in a soup kettle. We add enough water to cover the bones and simmer them for two hours or so.

We package the white and dark meat in meal-sized portions sealed in freezer bags. At least one bag consists of small pieces of mixed dark and light meat that we will use in Turkey Wild Rice Soup or Turkey Tetrazzini. The larger pieces usually end up in more elegant dishes like Jerri’s Turkey A la King or Turkey Curry.

Here is a simple way to use up some of those smaller mixed pieces of leftover turkey. Don’t let the two jalapeño peppers frighten you. Mixed with the other ingredients, they add a bright flavor without torturing your tastebuds.

INGREDIENTS:

2 T vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups leftover turkey
2 medium jalapeños
1/2 cup chopped green or red bell pepper
3 green onions
1 small yellow squash (about 1 cup chopped)
1/2 Roma tomato (1/4 to 1/3 cup chopped)
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/4 tsp. Mexican seasoning
1/4 tsp. chili powder?1/3 tsp. salt
2 T salsa
3/4 cup grated Monterey Jack cheese
4 burrito-size flour tortillas
Sour cream and salsa for serving

PROCEDURE:

Start by preparing the meat and vegetables. Cut the turkey into small bite-sized pieces and put them into a medium-size bowl. Wash the peppers, onions, squash and tomato. Cut the stems off the jalapeños and slice them lengthwise into quarters. Remove the seeds and white membranes, slice each quarter lengthwise in half and chop the jalapeños into an eighth inch dice. Put them into the bowl with the turkey.

Remove the seeds and white membrane from the bell pepper and chop about a half cup of pepper into a quarter-inch dice. Remove the root ends from the onions and chop them into eighth-inch rounds. Remove the stem and blossom ends from the squash, slice it lengthwise into quarters, then chop it crosswise into eighth to quarter-inch pieces. Put these vegetables into the bowl with the turkey and jalapeños.

Remove the stem scar from the tomato and chop a half of a Roma tomato into a quarter to half-inch dice. Set the chopped tomato aside in a small bowl.

Grate the cheese and have it ready to add to the meat and vegetables just before serving.

To make the filling for your wraps, warm the oil in a non-stick pan over medium heat. Add the turkey and all the vegetables except the tomato. Stir to mix everything together. If it seems dry, you can add a tiny bit more oil. Stir in the cumin, Mexican seasoning, chili powder, salt and salsa and cook over medium heat for three or four minutes. Stir in the tomatoes and cook for a minute to release their juice. Stir in the cheese and cook briefly until it has melted.

Warm four tortillas while the filling is cooking. To make the wraps, spread a thin layer of sour cream to within a half-inch of the edge on each tortilla. Spoon about a a half cup of filling starting about a third of the way up from the bottom edge across the center and ending about an inch from the top edge. Top with a tablespoon or two of salsa, fold the bottom edge up and each of the sides over to make a convenient pocket with the top open to tempt the diner.

Serve with a green salad and beer for a good light dinner or lunch.

NOTES: One simple way to adjust the spiciness of these wraps is by your choice of salsa. We prefer medium salsas, but mild or hot will work just fine if that is your preference.

If you like quesadillas, tacos or burritos, you might want to make your own batch of Mexican seasoning. It is a blend of spices that saves a lot of time. Instead of measuring a quarter teaspoon each of oregano, garlic powder, red pepper , cumin, etc, you simply stir a teaspoon or two of Mexican seasoning into your tacomeat, perhaps with an extra teaspoon of chili powder, some salt and tomato paste.

You can find Mexican seasoning in most supermarkets, of course, but you can make enough to spice up a lot of dishes in a few minutes. Here’s how to make it.

INGREDIENTS:

1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. onion powder
1?2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1?2 tsp. dried oregano
2 tsp. paprika
1 1?2 tsp. ground cumin
1?2 tsp. sea salt
1?2 tsp. black pepper
1 pinch ground cinnamon
1 pinch ground cloves

PROCEDURE:

Grind the pepper flakes and oregano in a mortar. Add the salt and black pepper and grind more to mix well. Add the other ingredients and grind briefly to mix everything together. Store in a tight container in a cool place out of direct sunlight.

Chicken Stroganoff

Although there were twenty or thirty bottles and cans of dried herbs and spices in my mother’s kitchen cabinet, I can remember only four that she grew herself One was mint, which she tended in a flower bed near the house. As I recall, she used it only to make mint jelly, though I may be wrong about that.

On one side of the garden were several chive plants, which grew in the same row with the winter onions. Because of her I still love cottage cheese flavored with chopped chives. Mom also used chives in soups and roasts, and she added them to lettuce, tomato and cucumber salads.

She planted two or three parsley plants, which provided important flavors to soups, meats and other vegetables like boiled and buttered new red potatoes. The fourth herb was dill. On the same day we planted the hills of cucumbers, we planted a long row of dill seeds. Dill was of course the primary flavoring ingredient in her dill pickle recipes, and she used it occasionally in other dishes.

Although dill is grown and used in countries as far apart as India and Iceland, I have always associated it with northern European cooking. I even think of dill pickles primarily as a way German and Slavic housewives preserved the cucumbers they grew in the short summers of the northern hemisphere. However, dill may have actually been brought to northern Europe by Roman soldiers and settlers. Archeologists and food historians have found evidence of dill being cultivated in Celtic Britain after the Roman invasion.

Since dill was thought to have medicinal properties it was added to wines and other foods to cure diseases or give people more energy and strength. Roman gladiators are said to have rubbed their bodies with fresh dill to give them more strength and it was added to wine as an aphrodisiac.

However, I like dill for the subtle flavor it adds to many of my favorite foods including pickles, potato salad, cabbage rolls, poached salmon, fish soup and this recipe for chicken stroganoff derived from the Use It All Cookbook by Jane Marsh Dieckmann.

INGREDIENTS:

1 medium onion (about 3 inches in diameter)
3 T butter/margarine
1/2 lb. mushrooms
1 T flour
1/2 salt
2 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. basil, crumbled
1/4 tsp. thyme, crumbled
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup dairy sour cream
1/4 cup Swiss cheese
2 cups diced cooked chicken
2 tsp. lemon juice
2 T chopped fresh dill
8 oz. noodles

PROCEDURE:

Clean and chop the onion into a quarter-inch dice. Clean and thinly slice the mushrooms. Chop the chicken into a half-inch dice. Grate the cheese and wash and chop the dill. Start heating water to cook the noodles.

Melt the butter over medium heat in a large saucepan or Dutch oven and sauté the onion until it just begins to turn gold. Add the mushrooms and cook for three or four minutes, stirring constantly. Blend in the flour, salt, paprika, basil and thyme and cook for two minutes. Lower the heat and gradually stir in the chicken broth and wine. Cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture bubbles and thickens.

Reduce the heat to very low, cover, simmer for five minutes and remove the pan from the heat. Blend in the sour cream and cheese. Add the chicken, lemon juice, and dill. Heat thoroughly over low heat, but do not boil.

Serve over hot cooked noodles with a cucumber and tomato salad and good bread.

NOTES: You can substitute leftover turkey for the chicken. I use rounded tablespoons of dill. Sauvignon blanc or chardonnay wines are both good choices for the recipe and to serve at the table. This recipe makes four generous servings.