The accidental turkey
Print This Post
Filed under My recipes; Poultry; Budget, cream, duck & turkey, Superb soups
The week after typhoon Ondoy hit the country and people were panic-buying and hoarding, I found myself staring at supermarket shelves devoid of meat and vegetables (you can read the long version, if you like). What there was plenty of were turkeys. Lots of turkeys. And they were on sale.
And I wrote then: At P200 per kilo that’s cheaper than beef and premium pork cuts. I got a whole 5 kilogram turkey — that should last us for three days or more, I will just need to get creative and come up with several different dishes using the same bird.
So, I did.
I roasted the turkey, stuffing the cavity with lemongrass and pandan leaves, and I roasted the bird in a pan lined with ingredients for smoking — tea, cinnamon sticks, black peppercorns, Szechuan peppercorns, bay leaves… That was the first dish and it turned out great.
But what I really intend to share is how I made the turkey last for more than three days by cooking the meat in many different ways including a soup, a dish with creamy gravy, quesadillas… I wasn’t able to document all but here are the recipes for the soup and the dish with creamy gravy.
Turkey and cabbage soup
Serves 4.
Ingredients:
4 generous slices of turkey meat (from the breast), each about half an inch thick
a bunch of turkey bones (if you have ham bones, throw them in too)
a small head of white cabbage, shredded
a carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
an onion, sliced
salt
freshly ground pepper
Place the bones in a pot. Add enough water to cover, about six to eight cups. Add the garlic and onion. Bring to the boil, lower the heat and simmer for at least 30 minutes.
Remove the bones (if you have more than enough for the soup, save some of the broth for the gravy in the next recipe). Season the broth with salt and pepper. Add the shredded cabbage and chopped carrot to the broth. Simmer for another 15 minutes.
Add the turkey breast, taking care not to break the slices. Continue simmering until they turkey slices are heated through.
To serve, place a slice of turkey in each bowl. Top with the vegetables and pour in the broth. Garnish with more freshly ground pepper. Serve hot.
Turkey “steaks” with creamy mushroom gravy
Serves 4.
Ingredients:
8 slices of turkey meat (used breast meat), about 1/4 inch thick
1/3 c. of butter
2 tbsps. of flour
1 can of mushrooms (I used straw mushrooms), drained
1 to 1-1/2 c. of turkey broth or mushroom water or a mixture of the two
salt
freshly ground pepper
1/2 c. of cream
Heat two tablespoonfuls of butter in a frying pan. Quickly pan-fry the turkey slices just until lightly browned. Arrange the browned turkey on a serving platter.
Cook the mushrooms in the remaining butter just until heated through. Scatter the mushrooms on top of the turkey.
Add the remaining butter to the pan. Dump the flour all at once, stirring to prevent lumps from forming. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about five minutes or until the mixture is golden brown.
Pour in the broth (or mushroom water) in a thin stream, stirring as you pour. Cook the gravy until smooth and thickened (use more or less liquid for the consistency that you prefer). Season with salt and pepper. Turn off the heat. Pour in the cream. Stir the gravy once so that trails of cream remain distinct.
Pour the gravy over the turkey and mushrooms. Serve at once.
ShareYou might like these too...
Comments
11 Responses to “The accidental turkey”If you want your own pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!
View the archive
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Feb | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
| 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |||
Conversations
- winnie on 'Old town mountain coffee': FYI – Laya restaurant in Grand Heights Subd. – in front...
- Gay on 'Drunken pork with mango salsa': Ang sarap naman! This gives me a perfect excuse to buy black...
- Jin Kazama on 'Carbonara, the (almost) traditional way': Hi, ma’am. Aside from Academia Italia Cucina...
- Jackie Rillera on 'About Pinoy Cook': Hi Connie, I am so loving your site. Since I moved to Canada in 2001,...
- lucy on 'Buttered pork and vegetables': hi connie! all i can say is.. this is really good. i made it...
Stay updated!
hi ms. connie! this is timely. just had thanksgiving dinner 2 nights ago.
i’ve done quite a few things with our leftover as well. i did something like your “steak” with gravy. also made turkey sandwiches for my husband’s “baon” and i stir-fried some of the odd slices.
i will try to make the soup (if my mother-in-law has not yet thrown the bones away).
thanks for the idea!
You might want to try paksiw na turkey and turkey fried rice too. And turkey sotanghon soup or turkey pie.
hi Ms. Connie,
I would really like to try the “Turkey steaks with creamy mushroom gravy” =) they sure look tasty and yummy.
By the way where did you get your turkey? I live in Bulacan so I’m guessing that the malls there don’t have a turkey sale or even turkey for that matter =)
Cherry Supermarket, Marcos Highway, Antipolo.
wow, you have handy tool for trussing the turkey
The wire keeping the legs together? It came with the turkey.
hi Ms. Connie,
Thanks for the reply, you rock
Hi tita Connie,
This is awesome. Thanksgiving is coming up and you just gave me good ideas for the leftover meat. One can only have too many turkey and cranberry sandwiches! Two years ago, I used the “sinigang mix” as a rub for the turkey. I also injected it with lemon juice, and put lemons in the cavity before baking it. That’s the most popular fowl in our family (so far).
I think your blog is wonderful, it’s a great way for me to keep in touch with my roots. My mom passed away last year and she didn’t write down her recipes. Though I was her Sous chef, I’ve had to keep guessing the proportions since she never measured anything. But I found your lengua recipe and it tasted just like my mom’s!
Thank you so much and I bid you and your family good health!
PS – can you give Carla my email addy? I miss her…we were friends in SPCP (my maiden name is gaza). But I’m in North Cali now and I can’t find her on FB. Thanks again!!!
Who’s Carla?
your daughter? Carla Mumar? Or do I have the wrong Connie??
I don’t know any Carla Mumar.