Turkey Burgers

When approached by the Brookline Tab of WickedLocal.com for Thanksgiving leftover ideas, I wanted to figure out my proportions for turkey burgers. For this sort of thing I have a tendency to not use measurements, so I had to figure it out. Make as much as you'd like, but I used the 1 cup standard for ratio purposes. Y0u can also use chicken.

1 cup crumbled roasted turkey
2 tablespoons ricotta
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons dijon mustard
2 tablespoons breadcrumbs
Salt and pepper to taste

To process the turkey, add as much turkey as you need to use up to your food processor. Pulse the blade until the turkey is sufficiently processed. You don’t want it to be turkey paste — just enough so that the turkey is crumbled. If you don’t have a food processor, mince by hand. This is how it should look:

Once crumbled, add in remaining ingredients. Since the meat is precooked, feel free to taste test! Turkey burgers should be cooked just enough to make it a cohesive patty. Here is my meat with all my ingredients:

You can either broil in the oven or cook in a saucepan on the stovetop. Either way, flip the patty halfway (stove will take around 3 minutes per side, broiler around 7) and make sure to use non-stick cooking spray on your baking sheet or saucepan. Garnish how you please!

Patties can always be frozen if you don’t plan to eat them within a few days.

Coffee Cake

I looove coffee cake. Too bad I dropped this one after only a few pieces were consumed. Oh well, probably better off without the calories. From the Holiday Baking edition of the Cooks Illustrated Magazine, page 13. Don't be tempted to substitute all purpose flour for cake flour, or it will be too dry. If you don't have buttermilk handy, you can use an equal amount of plain, low fat yogurt.

Crumb Topping
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) melted unsalted butter
1 and 3/4 cup cake flour

Cake
1 and 1/4 cake flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened and cut into 6 pieces
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1/3 cup buttermilk

Topping:
Whisk sugars, cinnamon, salt and melted butter in a medium bowl. Add flour and stir until mixed. Set aside to cool to room temperature.

Cake:
Preheat oven to 325. Line an 8 inch square baking pan with parchment paper or aluminum foil and spray with non stick cooking spray. If you are confused, look at the picture below. This is because of the topping - you're not going to be able to turn it over to get it out of the pan, so this allows you to just lift it out.

In a standing mixer, mix flour, sugar, baking soda and salt on low speed to combine. Add the butter one piece at a time and continue beating until the mixture resembles moist crumbles, or when it looks like this:


Add egg, yolk, vanilla and buttermilk. Beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Scrap down sides if necessary and beat a little more.

Transfer mixture to baking pan and cover with the crumb topping. Bake until crumbs are golden, and test with a knife/skewer in the center of the cake to make sure it is done. The final product, still in the pan:

Now all you have to do to get out of the pan is to lift the sides of the paper! I would keep the paper under it though...coffee cake can be messy to cut!!

Ode to Trader Joes

I just had a give a quick shout out to Trader Joes for their incredible deal on baking chocolate. Look at this baby!! 17 ounces of chocolate for $3.90!! That is less than 23 cents per ounces. When you buy something like Ghirardelli, you're paying around 80 cents - $1 per ounce. Get ready for some fudge posted here pretty soon!!!

Thanksgiving Preview

We're spending Thanksgiving at Aunt Laura & Uncle Toms house in Weston. The good news is that we all get to help cook! I haven't made this yet, so I will have to update with pictures later. But I thought that I would post my recipes now in case anyone needs some help in what to make for their Thanksgiving dinners :-)

First up - stuffing. I hosted one Thanksgiving back in 2006 and this was the recipe for stuffing that I used and it was delicious. I am bringing this stuffing on thursday out to Weston, and will post a picture later. We don't cook the stuffing in the bird to make the bird gluten free friendly. But, here you go. 

Bread Stuffing with Sage & Thyme

Cooks Illustrated

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter

1 large white onion, chopped

4 ribs celery, diced (around 1.5 cups)

1/2 teaspoon dried sage

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram

1/2 cup minced fresh parsley

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

12 cps dried 1/2 inch bread cubes - using either french load, potato or challah bread

2 cups chicken stock (can use low sodium canned broth)

3 eggs, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon table salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat butter in a large skillet over medium heat until fully melted. Pour off 2 tablespoons and reserve. Add onion and celery and saute until translucent, around 8 minutes. Stir in sage, thyme, marjoram, parsley, black pepper and cook for another minute. Transfer mixture to large bowl and add bread cubes, chicken stock, eggs & salt and toss to distribute ingredients evenly. Turn mixture into buttered 13x9 inch baking dish and drizzle with reserved butter. Cover tightly with foil and bake for around 25 minutes. Remove foil and bake until crust is golden brown - another 15-20 minutes. Serve warm. 

My mom is making cranberry chutney, and I'm planning to bring a round of brie to spread the chutney over for an appetizer. This chutney is awesome, especially for this purpose. It is good to make it a few days in advance so the flavors can gel together.While I'm not making it this time, here is the recipe:

Cranberry Chutney

3 oranges, peeled and chopped

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup raisins

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

4 cups fresh cranberries

1 cup chopped apple

1/2 cup orange juice

1 tablespoon vinegar

This is very easy. Put all ingredients (except for walnuts) in a large saucepan and bring to a simmer. Let cook until all of the cranberries are popped. Add the walnuts at the end (off heat), and you're done!

I am going to be making a green bean dish. I haven't decided on one for sure yet, but will probably be making the one below. I made it for my 2006 Thanksgiving and it was good (I don't really like green beans, but relatively speaking good). I don't really get green bean casserole, mostly because I get annoyed when I am encouraged to bog down veggies with cream and cheese. This is a simple and healthy way to spice up your green intake on turkey day. 

Green Beans with Tomatoes

Cooks Illustrated

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 small onion, diced

2 small cloves garlic, minced

1 cup canned chopped tomatoes

1 pound green beans, stem ends snapped off (I also cut the beans in half)

2 tablespoons fresh parsley leaves, minced

1/4 teaspoon salt

Pepper to taste

Heat oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add onion and cook until softened (around 5 minutes). Add garlic and continue cooking for another minute. Add tomatoes and simmer for another 5 minutes. Add green beans, salt and pepper and stir. Cover the pan and let cook, stirring occasionally until beans are tender but still offer some resistance, about 20 minutes. Stir in parsley and serve. 

Apple Galette

Aka apple pizza. A galette is a free form pie, and can take many shapes. Most traditional galettes have the crust folded high over the topping (like a volcano). However, I find this a pain to eat. So I shape mine like a pizza, and cut into pizza slices! This particular galette is good for people who really like crust...such as myself. My favorite part of pie is the crust. People like Doug aren't such huge fans since he isn't a crust person. No worries....more for me.

1 recipe pie crust (again, using recipe from Leslie of Helen's Kitchen)
4-5 granny smith apples, peeled and thinly sliced
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cup into little pieces
1/2 cup apricot preserve
1 tablespoon water
Lemon juice

As you cut your apples and transfer batches of slices to a bowl, squeeze lemon juice over them. This will prevent the apples from browning. If you microwave the lemon for 10 seconds, it will release more juice.

Roll out your pie dough and transfer to a baking sheet. Fold over edges, like a pizza crust. Arrange your apple slices (using picture below if you need some visual assistance) in overlapping concentric circles. Brush the crust with milk or water. Sprinkle sugar over the whole thing. Sprinkle the butter pieces over the apple portion of your galette. Bake at 400 degrees for around 40 minutes. Keep an eye on it, and if your crust is browning too quickly then make a little ring out of aluminum foil and lay over the crust.

While it is cooking, bring apricot preserve and water to a boil in a saucepan. Take off heat and strain out the large chunks. Once the galette is out of the oven, brush your glaze over the whole thing for a nice shiny finish.

Baked Buffalo Wings

I reeeallly like buffalo wings. Who doesn't? People who associate them with high calorie greasy bar food. Well, good news - they don't have to be bad for you. If you bake them and are sparing with the dressing (or find a good low calorie dressing, like fat free ranch) then they're pretty low in calories. How I make them is below.

2 lbs of chicken wings (around 20), I get them from Whole Foods
2 packets McCormick Original Buffalo Wing Seasoning
Franks Original Red Hot
1 egg

So, we all know chicken isn't bad for you. The Franks Red Hot has ZERO calories per serving (unless you get mild, I once heard that the mild sauces are diluted with butter because the sauce is naturally spicy...but I can't confirm) and the seasoning has 150 calories a packet. Not bad, especially since you only end up using 1.5 packets. Also, use less if you're not too into the spice. I loooove spice, and these wings were so spicy it made our noses run. Just how I like it :-)

Dilute the egg with a little water and mix. Dip each wing in egg, then drudge in seasoning. Line the wings up in a baking dish and once all are drudged in seasoning, bake at 450 degrees for around 45 minutes. When out of the oven, sprinkle some Red Hot over them. Now take a whole bunch of paper towels to the table and enjoy!

Pot Roast

My dad is a very good cook, and there are some things I always associate with him - dishes he perfected over time that were so delicious. A perfect example is pot roast. He gave me lots of options, depending on what I was looking for in my pot roast. This is how I made it:

Ingredients:
1 three lb chuck roast, tied
Few tablespoons all purpose flour
2 yellow onions
3 cloves garlic
1 turnip
3 carrots
1 package diced portobello mushrooms (1 pint...could also use button mushrooms)
1 bottle of medium bodied fruity red wine (avoid using really something heavy on the oak flavor)
1 can of tomato sauce (just pureed tomato, different from marinara/pasta sauce), 29 ounces
1 can tomato paste - 6 ounces
1 fresh herb bouquet (parsley, thyme, oregano & rosemary - took a few springs of each, tied together)
1 package french onion soup mix

Roll your tied chuck roast in flour. Heat olive oil in a dutch oven (or large heavy bottomed saucepan with lid) over medium heat and brown roast on all sides - this will take around 20 minutes total. Leave on each side for a few minutes. Remove roast from pot, set aside.

Saute onions (add more olive oil if necessary) until wilted. Add crushed garlic and cook for another minute ish. Add mushrooms, carrots and turnip (all chopped). Cook for several minutes, then add roast back to pan. Add wine, tomato sauce, tomato paste, herbs and onion soup mix.

Cover the pot and reduce heat to simmer. Leave for 2-3 hours, however long it takes to easily stick a fork through the meat. Make sure to turn your roast half way through if it isn't totally submerged in the liquid.

Remove roast and set aside again. Cover with foil. Take out the herb bouquet and turn heat up and let sauce reduce to desired thickness. Slice meat, serve with mashed potatoes (recipe posted separately) and ladle sauce with veggies over the whole thing.

This is the roast, all ready to eat, out of the pot:


This is the sauce, after it has reached the desired consistency:


This recipe makes plenty of sauce, so ladle generously over your meat and potatoes!

Mashed Potatoes

I made mashed potatoes to serve with my pot roast, but I decided to start posting recipes separately, even if I make them together. My go to cooking gurus (Cooks Illustrated) usually recommend using Yukon Gold potatoes when making mashed potatoes, but I prefer regular old white potatoes...also known as Idaho or Russet. Recipe below (I made this up, no reference here!).

4 potatoes
2/3 cup whole milk
1/3 cup half and half
4 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
2-3 minced/pressed garlic cloves
salt and pepper to taste

A method I learned from Cooks Illustrated is to cook the potatoes in their skins, and peel later. Some think this is a pain as you're peeling when hot, but I've never had trouble preventing burning and I think it is easier than peeling the raw potatoes. The skin comes off much quicker. So, I cooked my potatoes in water in a covered pot over medium-high heat for around 25 minutes. You'll know when the potatoes are done when you can easily stick a fork all the way through. Drain water out of the pot and peel the hot potatoes. I do this by using two forks so I don't actually have to touch them.

Once peeled, return to pot and mash with 4 tablespoon butter (which will melt by itself, just add solid butter to pot), milk and half and half. The measurements are approximations, I just add little by little until desired consistency. Add garlic, salt, pepper and a little cheese. Stir, and serve!

Cupcakes for Lauren

I had a vision - pink cupcakes. Pink equals raspberries, and raspberries belong with chocolate. So, I turn to the Cake Bible for raspberry frosting, and Cooks Illustrated for the chocolate cupcakes.

You should always let the cake cool completely before frosting, and I find it is way easier to frost a cake when the frosting is freshly made. Just so you know.

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes, Cooksillustrated.com:

1 stick unsalted butter
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate
1/2 cup dutch processed cocoa
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sour cream

1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position; heat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard-sized muffin pan (cups have 1/2-cup capacity) with baking-cup liners.

2. Combine butter, chocolate, and cocoa in medium heatproof bowl. Set bowl over saucepan containing barely simmering water; heat mixture until butter and chocolate are melted and whisk until smooth and combined. Set aside to cool until just warm to the touch.

3. Whisk flour, baking soda, and baking powder in small bowl to combine.

4. Whisk eggs in second medium bowl to combine; add sugar, vanilla, and salt and whisk until fully incorporated. Add cooled chocolate mixture and whisk until combined. Sift about one-third of flour mixture over chocolate mixture and whisk until combined; whisk in sour cream until combined, then sift remaining flour mixture over and whisk until batter is homogenous and thick.

5. Divide batter evenly among muffin pan cups. Bake until skewer inserted into center of cupcakes comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes.

Frosting: from the Cake Bible, Neoclassic Buttercream with Raspberry Flavoring

6 large egg yolks
¾ cup sugar
½ cup corn syrup
2 cups unsalted butter, softened (really, really soft...butter can stay out of the fridge for a long time. Keep it out all day)
2 to 4 Tablespoons liqueur or eau-de-vie of your choice

Have ready a greased 1 cup heatproof glass measure near the range.

In a bowl beat the yolks with an electric mixer until light in color - this will take several minutes. Meanwhile, combine the sugar and corn syrup in a small saucepan (preferably with a nonstick lining) and heat, stirring constantly, until the sugar dissolves and the syrup comes to a rolling boil. (The entire surface will be covered with large bubbles.) Immediately transfer the syrup to the glass measure to stop the cooking.

Pour a small amount of syrup over the yolks with the mixer turned off. Immediately beat at high speed for 5 seconds. Wait until batter cools - you don't want the eggs to get so hot that they scramble or something. Stop the mixer and add a larger amount of syrup. Beat at high speed for 5 seconds. Continue with the remaining syrup. For the last addition, use a rubber scraper to remove the syrup clinging to the glass measure. Continue beating until completely cool.

Gradually beat in the butter and, flavoring.

Raspberry flavoring:

Suspend 24 ounces of frozen, unsweetened raspberries over a strainer and let sit for several hours to collect juice. I used the help of a lamp:

A lamp makes the process much, much quicker. Press the rest of the juice out with the back of a spoon - you should have around 1.5-2 cups by the end. Take 1 cup raspberry juice, reduce over medium heat until down to around a 1/4 cup. Mix back with the unreduced juice with 2 teaspoons of lemon juice and add to frosting to taste. I added around 1/2 a cup. You don't want to add so much that the consistency of the frosting will change.

Then, frost your cupcakes! My finished product, all ready to go:

Perfect Pumpkin Pie

As I'm full into the fall spirit, I wanted to make a pumpkin pie. So I did! It was delicious, and not too sweet. I like being able to taste the pumpkin! It annoys me when people dump tons of spices into the tasty pumpkin. I decided on the recipe from The Pie and Pastry Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum, Scribner 1998, page 198.

Again, I used the pie crust recipe that I learned in one of the classes I took with Leslie of Helen's Kitchen. I don't feel right sharing the recipe, but there are lots of good pie crust recipes out there! The good ones are surprisingly simple. I will say that the one of the tricks is that you have to keep the butter super cold, and don't process the dough too much. You should be able to see slivers of cold butter in your dough when you're done. When these slivers melts in the oven, it creates the flakiness. Yuum.

With my disclaimer out of the way, on to the pie!

1 pie crust recipe, rolled 1/4 inch thick

Drape over 9 inch glass pie pan, folding the overhanging crust under to make the walls of the pie crust thicker than the bottom.

4 (2-inch) gingersnaps
1/4 pecan halves

1 (15 ounce) can of unsweetened pumpkin puree (no added spices - the only ingredient should be pumpkin)
3/4 cup of light brown sugar, packed (author makes a note not to substitute dark brown sugar - will mask the flavor of the pumpkin)
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1.5 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 liquid cup milk
2/3 liquid cup heavy cream (make sure to read the ingredients of the cream, and if there is more than the one ingredient of cream, don't buy it and check a different brand)
3 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Process the gingersnaps and pecans in a food processor until finely ground. Sprinkle over uncooked pie dough (in the pie pan) and press into dough with the back of a spoon.

In a medium saucepan, stir the pumpkin, spices, brown sugar and salt together and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Turn down heat to low and let cook for another 5 minutes (stirring constantly the whole time).

Scrape mixture into food processor and process for 1 minute. With the motor on, add milk and heavy cream. Add eggs one at a time, process for 5 seconds after each egg. With the 3rd egg, add the vanilla.

Pour mixture into unbaked pie shell and place on a cookie sheet as close to the bottom of the oven as you can. Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until knife comes out mostly clean. Keep an eye on your pie and if the edges of the pie crust are getting too brown, cover with a ring of aluminum foil (just the outside, the center of the pie should be exposed).

I had some extra pie crust, so I rolled it out and cut out shapes (a leaf and a few pumpkins, to be exact) to put on top of my pie. I was a little overly excited to feed Doug some pie (after it cooled, of course) and I completely forgot to take a picture before I cut into it. Oh well, here is the pie - minus 1 slice!

Nutella Cupcakes

What are Nutella cupcakes? These:


Don't they look delicious? They are. I sometimes call them muffins, because the frosting (the Nutella) is on the inside. These are therefore really easy cupcakes to ship, so they were appropriate to send to NYC for oldest sister's bday. They were originally found by middle sister, Meredith.

Recipe:

1.5 sticks butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups sifted all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt (omit if using salted butter)
2 tsp baking powder
Nutella, approx. 1/3 cup

Preheat oven to 325F. Grease the muffin tin cups with some butter.

Cream together butter and sugar until light using hand held mixer, 2 minutes. Add in eggs one at a time, until fully incorporated. Add vanilla. Stir in flour, salt and baking powder until batter is uniform and no flour remains.

Fill each muffin cup about 3/4 full. The batter will be thick. Top each cake with a dollop (a teaspoon or two) of Nutella. Swirl Nutella in with a toothpick.

Bake cupcakes for about 20 minutes. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
Makes 12 cupcakes.


Not only easy to ship, but delicious!