Category: Turkey - feeding my ohana

What's Cooking This Week--Jerusalem and Honolulu

10/6/2014

I have been studying my newes cookbook, Jerusalem, all weekend. Beautiful pictures and thoughtful writing on the complexities of Jerusalem--religious, cultural and gastronomic. I'm excited to try some new recipes with the new spice vocabulary--sumac, zhoug, za'atar and labneh. Maybe some of these are close to furikake and sesame!

The spiritual center of pretty much Western Civilization.

Can't wait to see how the week goes, with a few favorites tossed in.

Chop, chop, chop. Love my sharp knives!

Proper Sunday Dinner
Okonomiyaki, with cabbage slaw (so we don't waste the extra cabbage) and shoyu-buttered enoki mushrooms. I made the mushrooms with butter and cooked them til they had almost the texture of pan-fried noodles. Definitely doing that again.

Not-Very-Meatless Monday
Chinese Chicken Salad. It is more important that leftover chicken not go to waste than to be hard and fast on Monday being meatless.

Meatless Tuesday from Jerusalem
Chard with pine nuts and tahini sauce and latkes (potato pancakes). Recipe #1 using sumac, which looks and sounds a lot like shiso. I also bought parsnips for the first time. The nice Safeway man called them "albino carrots." That's pretty accurate.

Leftovers Wednesday
Pillsbury Manapua, using the leftover char siu and green onions from the okonomiyaki. And we'll polish off the rest of the Chinese Chicken Salad too.

Thursday from Jerusalem
Turkey/zucchini burgers/meatballs with sour cream/sumac sauce. Recipe #2 using sumac.

Fish on Friday
Omi's Shoyu Fish and leftover latkes. Thinking that this will be a jumbled plate lunch. The sauce of the shoyu fish mixing with the sour cream/sweet of the latkes reminds me of when teriyaki sauce leaks into the mac salad on a plate lunch. That's my theory with this combo.

Halfway around the world. 13 hours time difference. Full of sometimes uneasy melded culture. Aloha Israel.

Ko'Olina #2--my de-tox. Looks a lot like Tel Aviv.

What's Cooking This Week--Leftovers & Favorites

11/26/2012

It's Monday and none of this is left

I thought I would not be cooking much this week when I looked over the fully stocked fridge on Black Friday.

Silly me. The teenagers were in the house all weekend. It's more like Mother Hubbard Monday in the fridge now. A half-bowl of cranberry sauce, a bit of turkey and mostly skin, roasted vegetables, three mouthfuls of stuffing and a bit of CoolWhip and apple pie are all that's left.

Monday and Tuesday should finish off the rest of the leftovers, and off to the grocery store I go tomorrow. Here's what's cooking this week.

Meatless Monday
Japanese Curry with leftover vegetables. I used the last shallots and half-onion, plus all the leftover parsnips, carrots and even Brussels sprouts for this curry. With the last of the Okinawan sweet potatoes and kabocha on the side. Curry makes everything taste good.

Chinese "Turkey" Salad

Tuesday
Chinese Chicken (Turkey) Salad. This is the perfect use for the "kuzu" (i.e., leftover small bits) of turkey are always at the end of turkey leftovers.

Wednesday
Spaghetti and Meatballs, with Simple Spaghetti Sauce, as requested by the husband. And a simple salad with romaine hearts. A good break from all the heaviness of Thanksgiving food.

Thursday
My Mom's Chicken Katsu, Co-Worker Kale Salad and rice. November is now too cold for my Mom to make the trip for Thanksgiving, so we'll make Mom-food this week instead.

Possibly-Meatless-Friday
Yakisoba. Meatless, or perhaps with just a little bit of pork. This is one of my son's favorite meals.

Eat Well. Be Well.

What's Cooking This Week--America the Beautiful

7/2/2012

Happy Birthday to the USA, and here's what's cooking this week to celebrate the incredible melting pot that is uniquely American.

Vietnamese Chicken Sandwiches

Monday
Vietnamese chicken sandwiches, using a new recipe for Vietnamese-style grilled chicken, namasu, shredded carrots, mayo and sriracha on green onion slab bread. With leftover Hawaii Homestyle Mac Salad, this variation had diced green peppers. I hope to post the grilled chicken and another grilled pork recipe later this week.

Tuesday
Spicy Turkey Burgers and sweet potato fries with peach/ginger catsup from a recipe I got from another client who also happens to be my egg supplier.

Wednesday
Annual 4th of July potluck. A smaller affair than last year. The menu is still TBD, but there will be Spam Musubi for sure.

Thursday
Cornmeal Fish with fresh Tropical Fruit Salsa and Guacamole. Or leftovers from the 4th. Hmm, probably leftovers from the 4th.

Friday
Edamame Rice with fresh tofu and ponzu sauce. Cool and light for the end of the week.

From California to the New York Island, this land was made for you and me.

Eat Well. Be Well.

What's Cooking This Week--Back on My Own

5/21/2012

Hakone Garden, Saratoga

After two weeks of dine-out lunches and meandering about the San Francisco Bay area, Mom returned home to Hawaii. We sent her home with a suitcase full of Trader Joe's omiyage and a list of Korean tofu houses in Honolulu.

Now, it's back on my own. Mom's not one for spicy food, so we're adding a little more pep. Here's what I am cooking this week.

Monday
Orange Salsa Pork Chops, Okinawan Sweet Potatoes, rice, and curry-roasted cauliflower.

Tuesday
Shoyu Fish sandwiches and Spicy Asian Coleslaw. I bought purple cabbage because it was on sale. Pretty and lots of kick!

Wednesday
Lemon Arugula Pasta. With a nod to my stylish friend SZ, this is vegetarian but definitely not vegan.

Thursday
Spinach salad and Simply Ono Roasted Potatoes. Some recipes can be easily converted to vegetarian. Spinach salad is not one of them. Bacon is a requirement.

Straw, blue, rasp and blackberries!

Friday
Tacos--No Mix, and my own Guacamole

Afternoon snacks for the ravenous teenagers
Berries are in peak season. Drizzled with yogurt and granola. I've also bought fresh tamales from Whole Foods, tortillas with shredded cheese and salsa, Kee Wah Bakery croissants and pork curry puffs, and yes, two bags of potato chips.

After all, they are teenagers.

Eat Well. Be Well.

Look Before You Cook

3/31/2012

This week's dinners started out smoothly. I was very excited to have a local source for eggs, so it was ham and egg cups with fresh farm eggs on Monday and a new salad on Tuesday.

Ham and egg cups

New fruit and vegetable salad

In particular, fruit and vegetable salad salad was a hit. The combination of nashi/oranges and a lime dressing make for a very clean and zippy salad. Click here for the recipe.

After that, not so much.

Wednesday's Chicken curry should have been a no-brainer. Chicken, vegetables and either an S&B or Vermont brand curry block. However, sometime before 6:00 pm, definitely before the chicken and vegetables are already cooking in the pot, one should make sure that there is a block of curry in one's house. I missed that step.

At 6:15 pm, ad-hoc chicken soup developed after adding a container each of vegetable and chicken broth, some spices and orzo. By 6:45 pm, it became orzo-risotto. By the end of the night, it would go into a pyrex dish, destined to become a chicken/orzo bake.

Lessons Learned:
1) A block of Japanese curry really is essential for making Japanese curry.
2) Make sure you have it before you start cooking.
3) If you need something to absorb A LOT of liquid, orzo is a very good option.

Guy Fieri made Thursday's turkey/brie puff pastry tarts sound so deceptively simple. I added a few more items and the flavors are definitely all there--turkey, apples, cranberries, a dollop of mustard and brie--in a puff pastry. However, a few construction and quantity issues need to be worked out. They weren't bad and there were no leftovers but that's because teeny-tiny tarts are a a tad insubstantial for two teenagers and two hungry adults.

Lessons Learned:
1) TV is not real life, especially Food Network TV and Hawaii 5-0.
2) Some brie does not melt, even after 30 minutes at 400 degrees. At all. Best to find a soft version.
3) "Tart" no matter how much the yield, shouldn't be the main course of dinner.

Friday's dinner was postponed so we can eat the orzo before it threatens further expansion.

Eat Well. Be Well.

Asian-style Brined Turkey--Update from Christmas

1/6/2012

Cilantro, cinnamon, green onion, cider and shoyu brine

This brine reminded me of "potion" I made as a kid when playing out in the yard. Pick some weeds, sticks, twigs, dirt and add water.

It's from the November 2011Bon Appetit turkey recipe and we tried it for our annual Christmas potluck last month. Click here for the original recipe (from Bon Appetit).

If I make this again, I will definitely consider an apple cider to apple juice swap. Besides about $4, what exactly is the difference?

Pasteurization. Apple cider is a perishable liquid that is not pasteurized or homogenized. Apple juices takes that apple cider, filters out all the solids, and then pasteurizes it. They say it affects the taste, and for drinking this is important. I'm just not convinced that using cider in brine makes it that much tastier.

The skin browns beautifully.

The turkey was a beautiful color as advertised, but in my head, I had "Chinese roast duck" flavor, which this definitely did not have. There was just a hint of anise and apple.

The biggest issue was that there was no liquid to make any kind of meaningful sauce with. An apple/shoyu/anise sauce, even a light one would have been a great complement to the turkey.

I'll keep the Bon Appetit page bookmarked, but it won't be going into the Greenhouse just yet. I may try it again with a chicken, using apple juice and seeing if I can get any kind of sauce/gravy going.
Any other suggestions are most welcome!

Eat Well. Be Well.

What's Cooking This Week--Merry Christmas to All!

12/20/2011

Mele Kalikimaka!

This past weekend, we hosted our annual Christmas potluck. And yes, with respect and appreciation for other religions and cultures, it is still Christmas in this household.

The main meats this year were Crock Pot Kalua Pig and a new Asian-style brined turkey (more on that later this week), for which our guests were guinea pigs. We also attempted a miso-mustard sauce for green beans that we wisely tasted before subjecting out guests to it. Miso and mustard were just not meant to be friends, so it was a quick fix with a Shoyu-Sesame sauce instead.

What can you do with leftover Kalua pig and turkey? Here's what's cooking this week.

Kalua Pig-Kim Chee Fried Rice

Monday
My Daddy's Killer Fried Rice using kalua pig and kim chee. Any salted pork product makes a mean fried rice. Pairing kim chee, which gives a little more crunch and zing to the overall texture, and kalua pig, which is very soft and almost sweet, is winning.

Tuesday
Turkey Satay Pillsbury Manapua. This is a grand experiment. I'm tossing the leftover turkey, shredded carrots and probably chard with Chicken Satay sauce and then using the construction techniques of Pillsbury Manapua.

Pistachi-zu Tofu

Wednesday
Hot Chicken Salad, using turkey. I love this recipe and don't make it often enough because the majority of the household is not crazy about olives. However, the influential minority that cooks dinner loves olives, so it's on the menu this week.

Thursday
Pistachi-zu Tofu. Something light before Christmas.

Friday
Amici's Pizza and Hockey Night. I've been craving Amici's Boston and Milano pizzas for a good month now and have also saved up for it.

I'll be posting the Asian brined turkey later this week as well as potluck items for Christmas eve and Christmas Day. 'Til then...Eat Well.Be Well.

Leftovers Rule! Turkey Shepherd's Pie

12/1/2011

Shepherd's Pie is ideal for leftovers roulette, and when you use the Thanksgiving leftovers instead of the more traditional ground beef or lamb and canned peas and carrots, it's that much better. I found a skeleton recipe from PGEW (Poor Girl Eats Well) for our post-Thanksgiving Shepherd's Pie. This is a knock-it-together kind of dinner, so here's what I used:

1 onion, chopped
The rest of the leftover baby carrots (about half a bag), chopped
4 stalks of celery, also chopped
1/2 carton of leftover chicken broth (vegetable would work also)
A few handfuls of eftover turkey, chopped
About 1 cup of the leftover Make-ahead Mushroom (+ Onion) Gravy
Thyme
Marjoram
Poultry seasoning
The rest of the mashed potatoes, maybe 3 potatoes worth
Milk
Grated sharp cheddar cheese

Chop vegetables and turkey so that they are all approximately the same size. Toss the onions into a large pan with the rest of the chicken broth and cook over medium heat. Add carrots and celery. Add chopped turkey, thyme, marjoram and poultry seasoning to taste. Toss in the rest of the gravy and stir. Let the mixture reduce slightly, but it shouldn't be dry. Pour into a 9 x 13 pan.

I then microwaved the mashed potatoes. Add milk to re-hydrate. NOTE: This may not be necessary, but our mashies got a little overcooked the first time, so some help was needed. Toss in a little bit of grated cheese.

Spread mashed potatoes over the turkey/vegetable mix. Lightly sprinkle grated cheese over the potatoes. Bake at 350 degrees until cheese is melted and mixture is bubbly and the edges are turning brown.

Turned out well, emptied out 3 Tupperwares, and the kids had seconds and requested it for lunch the next day, so this is a good sign.

Eat Well. Be Well.

Thanksgiving New Recipe Report Card #1--New Turkey Technique

11/28/2010

We tried a few new things this year--most notably, salting the turkey instead of tried-and-true brining. A little gutsy to experiment with the main course, and thank goodness it worked out!

Salted turkey = Unanimous thumbs up
After a few years of self-brining, last year, we did pre-brined (it was a busy time), fresh turkey, and felt that the meat was tasty, but a little bit mushy.

This year, we did again opted a fresh turkey, and salted the skin instead of brining. As you can see, it was very popular. Tasty, juicy and with a whisper of lemon/herb. The most promising sign was that my relatives took home lots of turkey and sadly for us, very few leftovers. Click here for the recipe.

Why I Love Thanksgiving

11/14/2010

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. We've had it at our home for at least 10 years now, ever since my San Francisco cousin's oven "broke" a week before Thanksgiving, many moons ago. We have anywhere from 20-30 people--my cousins and their kids, my cousins' cousins, my Aunty and Uncle, my Mom and sometimes my niece or other Hawaii relative, our friend's Terry's parents, our friend Brian's dad, sister and Aunty, and sometimes, my college-aged nephew's friends and various visiting friends.

Everyone is welcome and everyone is like family. Like a proper Hawaii house, we've never run out of food. Here's what we'll be eating:

Turkey & fresh cranberry sauce--paradoxically, we love Spam, but wouldn't dream of eating canned cranberry "sauce"
Cornbread stuff with dried fruits--using my LA-Aunty's SoCal Buddhist Cornbread
Candied yams in all their buttery, marshmallow-ey finest--made by my Davis Aunty
Baked yams--also made by my Davis Aunty, for those of us who are supposed to eat better
Some kind of cooked vegetable--maybe Brussels sprouts, green beans or broccoli
Mashed potatoes & gravy, lots of gravy
Pumpkin pies (2)--"Full Fat" and Non-fat, made by my cousin
Pecan pies (2)---because one just isn't enough

By now you're thinking, "Big deal. Everyone makes that." Here's what else we'll be eating:
Fresh sashimi--because it's not a proper occasion without it
Portuguese sausage stuffing
Either Chinese chicken or won bok coleslaw
White rice, inari sushi (made by my Aunty) AND spam musubi

Chinese noodles, char siu bao and assorted dim sum, brought by the above-mentioned SF cousins (see below)

And for snacks:
Raw veggies and some kind of dip
Some sort of cheese and crackers
Spam musubi
Guacamole
Hummus and/or tapenade
Arare (Japanese rice crackers) and Maui onion flavored macadamia nuts

Everyone brings their 'specialty', and the variety (thinkThanksgiving Plus) is
what I love about Thanksgiving and my ohana. So where-ever you are--enjoy
the Thanksgiving Holidays with your Ohana. And tell me what you are eating!

Eat well. Be well.