greens (mizuna) with potatoes and ground turkey

 The greens in my garden are going gangbusters and I want a tasty meal with plenty of leftovers made from what I have around.

1. Boil whole potatoes (1.5#) for about 20 minutes.  Cool enough to cube.

2. Brown ground turkey (1/2#), remove from pan.  

3. Add oil to same pan and cook potato cubes until browned.  Remove from pan.

4.  In same pan, lightly saute garlic (2 large cloves or more) a few minutes until aromatic and softened.

5. Add in a bunch of chopped mizuna and lightly saute a couple of minutes to soften a little (let it keep texture).

6.  Add back in the turkey and potatoes (or serve them separately) to heat together. Add pepper.  I also salted it but it needed more something, so next time I would probably instead use oyster sauce and soy sauce. 

Serve with kimchi.  

Sausage or ground beef can substitute in for ground turkey, or can be omitted altogether. 

ground turkey, potatoes, and broccoli

Using up things in my freezer/fridge/cupboard, and I came upon this recipe.  I especially like how it doesn't use a ton of dishes.  And it's tasty and satisfying.

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp oil
• 7 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced & divided
• 4 cups broccolini or broccoli, cut into 2” long pieces
• 1/3 lemon, juice of
• 1/4 tsp salt
• Ground black pepper, to taste
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 lb ground turkey, lean
• 2 tbsp soy sauce (I used Bragg liquid aminos)
• 2 lbs (4-5 cups) baby potatoes, cut into even sizes
• 1 cup water, boiling (or stock)
• 2 green onion sprigs, chopped

Instructions

1. Preheat dutch oven, large deep skillet or heavy bottom stainless steel pot on medium-high heat. Add 1 tbsp oil, 5 garlic cloves and broccolini. Cook for 4 – 5 minutes, stirring every 45 seconds or until garlic and broccolini get a nice char on each side. Add lemon juice, salt and pepper; stir and transfer to a medium bowl. Set aside.
2. Return dutch oven to medium heat and add remaining 1 tbsp of oil. Add remaining 2 garlic cloves and onion; sauté for 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Add ground turkey and cook for 5 more minutes, breaking meat into pieces with a spatula.
3. Add soy sauce, potatoes, water and stir gently to combine. Bring to a boil, cover and cook on low-medium heat for 20 minutes. Check potatoes for readiness and if necessary cook a bit longer. Then add previously cooked broccolini and green onion. Stir gently and serve hot.

tasty turkey pasta

Shortly after I moved here, I saw turkeys on sale for a very good price so I got one.  Served dinner to a friend who'd helped me move, stripped meat and froze it in portions, and made gallons of stock.  Such a win!

So now I'm trying to get through the portion of meat (to justify cooking a chicken I recently bought) and looked up a lot of turkey recipes.  I had turkey tetrazzini on the mind but I don't really eat cheese now and I'm not interested in using canned soups and I wanted to use what I had on hand.

So this came up which I made some changes to and ended up with a very nice turkey pasta dish.  It took longer than I expected but I think it'll be easier and quicker next time (use the right pans, for one thing; cast iron for this was rough because it's so heavy).

Turkey Noodle Casserole

Ingredients

• chopped cooked turkey (I usually freeze in baggies of about 2 cups)
• 6 ounces egg noodles (half of a package)
• 1 T butter
• 8 ounces sliced mushrooms (I used crimini as they were on sale)
• 2 T flour
• 1 c broth/stock
• 1 c milk/half and half (I mixed them)
• 1 c frozen pease
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 2 tsp salt
• 1tsp pepper 
• red pepper flakes to taste
• 2 T breadcrumbs (I used panko)
• 1 t smoked paprika

Directions

Cook noodles, set aside.

In a skillet over medium heat, melt butter.  Add mushrooms and cook for 7-10 minutes.

Add flour, stir vigorously for two minutes. 

Slowly whisk in broth and milk until well-combined (to create a roux).  Bring to a boil to thicken sauce, cook for two minutes.

Add frozen peas, oregano, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes.  Cook for a few minutes; add in turkey and simmer for 10 minutes or until thickened.

Remove from heat, add noodles.  Put into well-greased casserole and put breadcrumbs and paprika on top.

Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes.

turkey carcass soup

Take a turkey carcass, preferably with some meat on it still, and definitely skin and fat, and throw it in a big pot or a crockpot. Cover with (filtered) water and simmer for hours. Season if you like, but I just throw in some bay leaves and dried minced onions.

Turn it off and let it cool a bit, then strain it. Pick the meat off the bones and chop it. Toss the bones, skin, fat, etc. If you want to refrigerate the stock overnight, I've heard you can scrape the fat off the surface then - but truth be told, that hasn't been my experience (this time, it was all gelatinous with a thin white surface that couldn't be separated really).

Put the crockpot back on.

Chop and saute a bit:
*the trinity (onion, celery, pepper)
*carrots
*garlic

Add to the crockpot with the chopped turkey meat.

Add spices (I used all dry and they were fine):
*bay leaves
*basil
*thyme
*marjoram
*rosemary
*black pepper
*oregano
*(salt - though I don't add)

Simmer for a few hours. Add frozen vegetables such as peas and beans for the last hour.

In a separate pan, boil water and cook noodles (I like egg noodles). Add a little olive oil after draining. I like to cook the noodles separate so that they don't turn to mush and soak up all the liquid when stored and reheated.

*****
This turned out really, really, REALLY good - perfect for the cold weather, and for my health.

I used only about half the carcass I came home with and froze the other half. I'm looking forward for more turkey soup later - and I think next time I'll make dumplings instead of using noodles.