Turkey Burgers

After having this blog for about a year, one thing is clear. Everyone can cook. In fact, everyone can cook fabulous food, every night, even with full time jobs and a gym habit. Cooking fresh, creative dishes does not have to take a ton of time or talent. It just takes some vision, a willingness to try new techniques, some basic kitchen equipment and basic knowledge about which ingredients work together. This comes with a little experience. Even a beta like me can throw something together.

We've been on a diet. Hard to believe, such bacon lovers, I know. It really started as a financial decision, as we spend an insane amount of money eating out. This used to be justified by it being our hobby, if we could afford to do it, why not?- but then we realized what we could do if we just stopped. Hmmm...travel, anyone?

I really like eating out. The excitement of trying a new place and discovering something amazing. The comfort of old favorites. The lazy conversation without having to do dishes. Courses of amazing food cooked just for you and brought table side while someone else makes the drinks. Not having to clean the house. I also love to eat in for many of the same reasons, and since AC is a fabulous cook, it really shouldn't be very hard.

After about two weeks of eating in every night except once on the weekends, it is starting to pay off, in our bank accounts, and- you guessed it- on the scale. About five pounds just disappeared, despite the fact that my gym-going hasn't been consistent. I think I'll stick to this.

One thing I really like to order in restaurants is a turkey burger. Hey, they have come a long way from the "I wish I was ground beef" burger alternative to a dish all their own. Whitey's, Republic and Busters all have really good turkey burgers. The key is to get (and keep) it moist and flavorful. A dry turkey burger simply sucks. In fact, I stopped eating them after I had a bad experience.

Since the diet started, I've been craving turkey burgers. I've tried to make them before- see the bit about being dry- it was like a desert. Haven't tried since. AC doesn't really care for them, but he does know me. He bought some ground turkey and decided to conquer the task. I was skeptical. First, because he bought the 95% lean turkey. Before now I thought my failure had to do with buying too-lean turkey. Next, he didn't plan on a sauce. I have found that turkey burgers are best with a nice garlicky aioli. Finally, I doubted because he doesn't know the turkey burger like I do. I prepared for a dry disaster. Once again, I was completely wrong.

The biggest surprise: he put Mint Apple JELLY on the bread- this was his solution to the sauce doubt. I truly thought he was crazy. It was fabulous. I think it worked because he put chile peppers in the turkey, so the heat balanced the sweet perfectly. We needed some vegetable matter, so AC made snap peas. They were the perfect accompaniment. The key for the peas is something AC usually does not do well- keep it simple! Just quickly sauteed in water with olive oil and salt. Mmmmmmm...


Turkey Burgers

Makes four burgers, from start to finish, took about 40 minutes.

1 Lb 95/5 ground turkey
Salt and black pepper to taste. Recommend being a little heavy handed with the salt.
1 Tsp Basil
1 Tsp Rosemary
2 Tbsp St.Germain Elder Flower liqueur
1/2 cup Panko flakes
2 Eggs
1 Minced chile
1 Tbsp chopped scallion
1 Tbsp finely chopped sun dried tomato
4 oz Feta cheese, sliced into four pieces. 
Serve on toasted English muffin with apple mint jelly spread lightly on one side.

Mix the above ingredients together (except the feta) in a large bowl. Mixing with your hands will get the best result. Add more Panko if the mixture is too moist (ie: pooling liquid, you want it to be very moist). Form into four patties. 

Place the patties into a frying pan over medium high heat. Cover the pan and let cook for 3 minutes. Flip the patties and put feta cheese on top of each patty. Cover again and cook for 3-4 minutes.

Toast four English muffins while the burgers are cooking. Lightly spread the mint apple jelly on one half.

Place the burgers on the muffin and eat.

EASY, Perfect Snap Peas

Heat a frying pan on high, add peas and cover with enough water to lightly coat the pan. Boil off the water. Kill the heat, coat with olive oil and salt, let sit for 5 minutes in the pan.

Penang crusted salmon and green beans (another glorious leftover)

I still had leftover Penang red curry paste and coconut milk from the previous day's dinner.  I intended to use them up if I could.  It's not that I am spendthrift or hyper focused on not wasting food.  It's because I am actually pretty lazy when it comes to preparing meals.  Too many meals require too many steps.  I try to skip unnecessary food prep when I can.  And in this case; I (the AlphaLazyChef) could.

Time to throw it all together:  This will take only 10 minutes to prep and another 18 minutes to enjoy a glass of wine while it cooks.

Prepped and ready to cook.

Ingredients (Note: many are the same from the ravioli dish)

Fish
2 Salmon filets about 1/3 lb each

Crust
1 Tbsp of Penang curry paste
1 Thai chile pepper
2/3 cup fresh cilantro (yes, you can use the stems)
1/4 cup coconut milk
1 small shallot (about 1 tablespoon) diced
1/2 cup Panko flakes (you can use matzo meal, bread crumbs or crushed water crackers)
1/4 lime

Beans

2 handfuls of green beans

1 shallot sliced and

Dark sweet soy sauce

Galangal powder

Five Spice powder

Black pepper

Puree or mulch 'crust' ingredients in a food processor except the Panko flakes and the 1/4 lime. Remove and place in bowl, mix in 1/2 cup Panko flakes. Spread mixture over the top of two salmon fillets. On the same cookie sheet, place one sliced shallot on top of a couple handfuls of green beans, drizzled approx 1 Tbsp soy sauce, and a light dusting of black pepper, galangal and five spice. Finally, drizzled approx 1 tsp of garlic olive oil.

Bake at 375 degrees for 18 minutes assuming you let the fish come to room temperature first. While baking drink your glass of wine or beer or milk, or run around the block to get some exercise. Now that's multitasking.

The salmon should be slightly translucent inside. Not cooked to death and dry. Drizzle juice from the 1/4 lime onto the fish. Plate, serve, eat, score points with your Beta and bask in the warmth of a good lazy meal.

Penang Scallops & Mango with WHAT??? Cheese Ravioli? No Joke

Sometimes odd things just go together right. And when you start breaking down the individual components and compare them it all becomes clear.  Penang red curry with scallops, got that.  Scallops with cheese ravioli, sure. Curry and mango, like the beach and ocean. Mango and ravioli, the sweet ricotta cheese plays friendly with the sweet champagne mango. Penang curry with ravioli a riffing off curried noodles. See the connections. Oh, by the way I also added black beans for good measure.  Now your lesson is to connect the dots between Mexican and Asian food.

Now how to make it. It's so easy. You ain't gonna learn technique with this post. However, if you don't know how to cube a Mango let us know and I will post that technique.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 Tablespoon of Penang curry paste (make your own or use store bought - Maesri is a good brand)
1 small shallot diced
1/2 lime
1 Thai chile pepper minced
1 cup diced fresh cilantro
1 half can of coconut milk about 7-9 oz.

1/2 red pepper sliced thin
1/3 cup if black beans (not rinsed but only strained. Because I used left overs from a Mexican dish the beans had a cumin based spice flavor)
1/4 smaller bay scallops
1 Champagne mango diced into small cubes
Store bought cheese ravioli (I used Pasta Prima brand)
Peanut oil


Da Sauce
Use a 1 qt sauce pan.  Coat with oil and bring to medium.  Saute the shallot and chile until the shallot is translucent. Add Penang curry paste and saute for 1 minute more.  Add the coconut milk and stir - then add the bell pepper.  Bring it up to a low boil - don't break the sauce. It can cook for 15 minutes or so, or until you are done frying the ravioli.  If it gets a little too thick add a bit more coconut milk or some water.

Scallops
Squeeze half the lime juice from the half of lime onto the scallops. Or the juice of 1/4 of a lime.  Which ever is easier for you to imagine. Do this anytime you have 30 seconds to think about it. 

Fried Ravioli
Boil the ravioli per the manufacturers instructions. I add about 1 tablespoon of salt and equivalent oil to the water too. While that is cooking heat a oiled large skillet to medium high.  Once the ravioli is cooked drain and pat them dry. Fry them on both sides until they are lightly golden. It takes about 2-3 minutes a side.

Back to da sauce
Just before you fry the ravioli, drop the mango and cilantro into the curry sauce. Stir. Bring up the heat a little bit to return it to a very low boil.

Back to the ravioli
Plate the ravioli once golden brown

Back to the sauce
Drop in the scallops and black beans.  Cook for 1-2 minutes more depending on the size of the scallops. Nickle sized scallops at room temperature take 1 minute to cook. Do Not Overcook The Scallops Unless You Like Eating Pencil Erasers.

Final plating
Once cooked through ladle the sauce onto the ravioli and squeeze on the remaining lime juice.

Eat and wonder how the hell this worked out so well.