Dried Fruit Crusted Turkey a.k.a. Spiedo di Taccinella in Crosta di Frutta Secca

It's turkey season so I thought I'd re-cycle a recipe that I posted several years ago following a trip to Umbria. To say that the menus during that particular cooking school vacation were 'pork heavy' is a bit of an understatement. I’m not complaining...I had some really great prosciutto (day after day after day). However, when Flavio, our chef/teacher, indicated that turkey was on the menu, we all pretty much wept tears of joy.   

  

Ingredients:

-  1 pound turkey breast (or pork, or chicken, or veal)

-  ½ cup breadcrumbs

-  ¼ cup almonds

-  ¼ cup hazelnuts

-  2 tablespoons raisins or dried cranberries

-  ¼ cup dried apricots

-  2 tablespoons sesame seeds (toasted)

-  2 tablespoons olive oil

-  3 tablespoons fresh marjoram (use much less if the marjoram is dried)

-  5 fresh basil leaves

-  Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Remove the skin and bone from the turkey breast and cut the meat into 4 cm. cubes. Chop all of the dried fruit, nuts and seeds together in a blender with the olive oil, herbs and salt and pepper. Mix everything with the breadcrumbs. Toss the turkey in olive oil, and then coat the meat in the breadcrumb mixture. Bake in a hot oven (400 degrees F) for about 30 minutes.  You can place the meat on skewers prior to baking if that appeals to you as a serving option.

Turkey Casserole with Spicy Corn Bread Topping

It seems to me that those who don't like turkey leftovers are probably the fruitcake haters. For those of you who kept the leftovers in your freezer just waiting for the right recipe to show-up, my sister Sylvia designed this recipe for you. 

Leftover lovers unite! Sorry, what I mean to say is, lovers of leftovers unite!

 

Ingredients: 

• 3 Tbsp butter
• 2 large apples, peeled, cored and chopped
• 2 onions chopped
• 2 ribs of celery, chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 red pepper, finely diced
• 1 cup frozen peas (use what you have for vegetables – green beans, corn)
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 cups sodium-reduced chicken broth or turkey broth
• 1/2 cup cream
• 4 cups  chopped cooked turkey
• 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1/4 tsp  freshly ground pepper
• Generous dash Worcestershire sauce

Cornbread Topping:

• 1 cup spelt  flour
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 1 cup shredded old Cheddar cheese
• 4 green onions, thinly sliced
• 1 Tbsp  granulated sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ½ - 1 tsp crushed hot peppers in oil or chili pepper paste (to taste)
• 1 cup (250 ml) milk
• 1 egg
• ¼ cup canola or sunflower oil
• 1/4 tsp (1 ml) salt
• 1 pinch pepper

In a Dutch oven, or large frying pan, melt the butter over medium heat. Cook the onions, carrots and celery, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables begin to soften, 5-6 minutes. Add the peas and pepper and cook for about 5 more minutes. Add the flour and cook for another minute. Stir in 1 L of broth - cook while stirring for 5 minutes until thickened. Stir in the Dijon,  Worcestershire  and pepper; continue to cook on low heat, stirring occasionally until sauce is thick  - about 10 minutes. Stir in the diced apples, cooked turkey and cream and mix well. Pour into a 12-cup (3 L) casserole dish. You are now ready to make the topping.

In a bowl, stir together the flour, cornmeal, cheese, green onions, sugar and baking powder. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the milk, egg, oil, chili pepper, salt and pepper; stir into the dry cornmeal mixture until just mixed. Spoon the cornmeal dough over the casserole in 8 large spoonfuls to make a dumpling-like topping.

Bake in a 375ºF (190ºC) oven for 30-35 minutes until the casserole is lightly golden and bubbling. Serve with a green salad, and cranberry sauce or chili sauce. (I told you we like condiments in our family).

Canadian Thanksgiving...aka: the holiday that utilizes every pot and pan in your kitchen

Since we are rapidly closing in on Thanksgiving, it's time to talk turkey. Why? Because if you're planning on serving turkey and it's currently frozen, you need to carefully consider when you are planning on roasting it. Thawing always takes about 3 days longer than you think it will take. I can’t tell you the number of times that it has been necessary to bring in heavy equipment to pry apart still-frozen turkey legs so that the giblets can be removed by numb hands and the cavity jammed full of stuffing. As a rule of thumb, it takes 24 hours in the refrigerator to thaw every 5 pounds of turkey. In other words, a 20 pound frozen turkey will take 4 days to defrost. There are other ways of thawing turkey but they're probably not as safe as having the thing take up most of the room in your fridge. You can, of course, avoid all of the headaches of defrosting by simply buying a fresh turkey.

Most families have developed their own unique techniques for stuffing and roasting turkey. For example, my grandmother (who liked large fowl) was known to once cook a turkey with the oven door half open. That’s what happens when you buy a 30 pound turkey….you roast one end of the turkey at a time. On the bright side, it's a good way to heat the house on a brisk fall day. Because of these family turkey traditions, I am going to avoid the topic of roasting the bird over the next week; instead, I’ll provide some recipes for side dishes to accompany the turkey.

Turkey Pie

I had some chunks of leftover turkey in the freezer and decided to combine it with a few vegetables to make a meat pie. This was particularly easy to do since I used a pre-made frozen pie crust. If you have cooked chicken available, then use the same technique to make a chicken pie. You can add diced onion if you wish, and substitute corn for the parsnip if you don't like parsnip. Use any vegetable combination that makes sense.

Ingredients:
- enough pie crust to make a double-crust pie (frozen from the grocery store or homemade)
- 1 potato, diced
- 2 carrots, diced
- 1 parsnip, diced
- 1 cup of frozen peas
- 2 cups of cooked turkey or chicken, cut into bite-sized chunks
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 1 cup of milk
- salt and pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Peel and dice the potato, carrots and parsnip and place them in a saucepan of salted water on the stove to boil. Cook until the vegetables are tender but not mushy, (perhaps 10 minutes). Melt the butter in a second small saucepan, then add the flour and stir together for a minute to 'cook' the flour; be sure not to brown the mixture. Add the milk and continue to stir on a medium heat until the milk has thickened. (You have just made a 'white sauce'). Add salt and pepper to taste. Drain the vegetables and mix them together with the white sauce, the frozen peas and the cooked chunks of chicken or turkey. Fill the bottom pastry crust with this mixture, then cover with the top crust. Cut several slits in the top crust to let the steam escape while baking. Since the filling is already cooked, the pie will be ready to come out of the oven as soon as the crust is baked and nicely browned.

I would serve this with a green salad; you might also want to accompany this meat pie with a condiment such as cranberry sauce or mango chutney.