January 24, 2011

Recipe Week!


Well the book with no name is done. It is making the rounds, currently out and about like the veritable waif it truly is.

On top of that MrsRW is on a week-long business trip far far away.

And there's nobody watching me. I can do anything I decide to do. So there's only one thing I can think of doing right now and that would be...

EATING!!!

And tonight I did a take on that healthful alternative to hamburgers we all love to hate despise. The TURKEY BURGER. I can hear you now, oh joy this cretin is actually going to talk about burgers made out of turkey? Well yes I am. Because I am sitting here below 200 lbs for the first time in years and I am determined to achieve that one resolution I made this year; "Get below 200 and stay there."

And I hate turkey burgers. I truly hate them. I can't stand them, in fact. So why am I making them, you may ask. Because I found a recipe that makes them not only very good but potentially sought after. I kid you not.

This is called TURKEY BURGERS WITH CREAMY ROMAINE SLAW. And it looks like that picture up there in the corner. Here's how it works:

You combine
1 lb. of ground turkey (preferably dark meat if you can find it)
1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard
Just under 1 tablespoon of fresh thyme, and
2 little scallions chopped up really good
in a bowl. And you wet your hands and you get in there and patty that mess up into four burgers. Four little turkey quarter-pounders. You season each side with salt and pepper and set them aside.

Now you take
2 big leafs of Romaine lettuce and chiffonade the heck out of them (that means you roll them up like a cigar and cut the "cigar" so that you make little strips like cabbage in a slaw).
1 medium carrot gets the living heck chopped out of it
and you combine the lettuce and carrot in a bowl.

Then you take
2 tablespoons of mayo (I used Light because I want to stay under 200 pounds now)
1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon of pepper
and you whisk this together in a separate bowl.

After that you heat up some olive oil in a big flat skillet and just when it's perfectly hot you put the turkey burgers in there for 6-7 minutes a side.

While this is going on you toss the romaine/carrot mixture with the mayo/wine vinegar mixture to make a creamy slaw.

Toast 4 soft rolls (with seeds on the top like in the picture) and when the turkey burgers are done they go on the bottom slice of the bun. THEN you take your romaine slaw and cover them suckers up with it and smush the top half back on and voila - a turkey burger people will ASK for again.

The trick is in the slaw. But the combination of thyme in the burger and white wine vinegar in the slaw makes it very savory. And the whole thing takes about 20-30 minutes. And, in truth, if it takes you more than 30 minutes you really need to just go out to a restaurant and quit torturing people m'kay?

The picture shows sliced pickles and potato chips but, you know, I want to stay under 200 so I just popped in a baked potato.

Seriously, though, the dreaded turkey burger (which I can't stand) just made it into my rotation. Well, THIS version anyway.

Bone your aperitif... or whatever they say here...

8 comments:

Verdant Earl said...

I don't mind a turkey burger every once in a while. Not the tasteless crap you get at some restaurants/pubs. But a good homemade one, like the one you show here.

I make slaw like that all the time. Except I use apple cider vinegar instead of white vinegar.

I've got a chili burger recipe that works with beef, pork, turkey or chicken if you are interested. All the chili ingredients go in the burger. So delish!

RW said...

Wait til you see what we do tomorrow with Italian sausage and red grapes...

Gino said...

imagining it with cheese and bacon...

RW said...

Gino - I can't see a reason why mustard wouldn't work as there is already some in the burgers. Bacon would never be wrong. Cheese for me is something I can take or leave. Maybe provolone though.

Gino said...

try with a dijon, maybe? not the yellow stuff.

sybil law said...

I've been waiting for this week!
This sounds really good, but I've always loved turkey burgers (homemade). I make meatballs out of turkey that are SO good.
I WILL try this soon!

Brian said...

I've been known to make pork burgers...those are healthier, too, right?

Do turkey burgers hold up on a grill, or do you count on the olive oil in the pan for some flavor?

RW said...

Sybil - let me know how it turns out.

Brian - the flavor is in using ground dark meat (if you can find it), Dijon mustard, thyme and scallions. They held together (physically) very well and they tasted a million times better than the flavorless kinds earl mentioned.