Taco Salad

When you want some great Tex-Mex food but you don't want all the calories of a tortilla, just put all the insides together on your plate in salad form!


Taco Salad
nutrition facts, serves four

Excellent Ingredients:

1 pound ground turkey, extra lean
1/2 t olive oil
1 T chili powder
1 t cumin
1 1/2 C Salsa 
1 1/2 C black beans, canned
6 C lettuce, torn
15 cherry tomatoes, cut in half
1/2 C onion, chopped
1 avocado, diced
1 lime, juiced
Optional: Cheese, sweet red pepper, jalapenos, serranos, Hatch chilis, more Salsa, or Tabasco

What to do:

Drain and rinse the black beans. Prepare the lettuce, tomatoes, and onion. Dice the avocado and squish the lime over the pieces.  Prep the optional ingredients of your choice.

Put the olive oil in a large skillet or pan. Heat over medium heat until the oil shimmers. Add the turkey, stir and cook until the turkey is fully cooked. Drain any excess oil and broth from the turkey.

Return pan with turkey to the stove and stir in the chili powder and cumin. Saute about a minute - do you notice a change in the fragrance of the seasonings? Delicious.

Add the salsa - do not pre-measure the salsa and dump it all in at once. Add a little at a time until you get to the point where the turkey is well sauced but not excessively so. You want to be able to push the meat to one side and not have rivers of juice running all over. If that happens you may want to add a tablespoon of tomato paste to thicken it up a bit. Allow to simmer on low while you start the salad.

Divide the lettuce among four dinner plates. If it looks skimpy on the lettuce, feel free to add more. Lettuce has so few calories you should eat as much as you want.

After the meat has simmered 10 minutes, divide the mixture on top of the lettuce, mounding it in the center of the plate. Leave plenty of lettuce around the edge, this is where you will put most of the other ingredients.

Divide the tomatoes, onion, and avocado around the mounds of meat. If you are using peppers, arrange them over the entire plate, including the meat mountain. Top with cheese, but remember there's a lot of fat and calories in there so be very mindful as to the amount. If your day has room for a little cheese, you can use either Monterrey Jack or Sharp Cheddar... or a mix. If you love Queso Fresco, cut a few chunks and spread them around. 

If you would like to eat the salad with chips, arrange them in a pattern on the lettuce or stick one in the meat as if it were a sail on a boat.

Talking Turkey Stock

At some point, many of us will be faced with the sight of a turkey carcass, all that remains of a delightful meal. Lots of people pitch it, but hey, economy is a very good and mindful thing. Besides it's a cinch to make a great tasting stock that will serve as a delicious starter for the soup you planned to make with all the lovely bits of turkey meat you removed from the carcass after dinner.

This is a pretty basic stock method that also works great for chicken.

Start with a very large pot that has a lid. Place the left over bones in the pot (leave on the pieces meat and some of the skin - not JUST the bones, ok?). You may want to break it into a few larger pieces so it fits better. If you still have it, you can also add the neck. I never add the livers. I have no reason for this except that once I read a cookery book by the Great Julia Child and she said "no livers." Therefore, no livers will be added to your stock.

Totally Stuffed

Lots of people complain about stuffing cooked inside the turkey for holidays, but I love it! All you need is a good basic recipe and you can mess around and change it up year after year. The main trick to inside the birdie stuffing is to not get it too wet because the bird will baste the stuffing as it all cooks, well, that and not stuffing the stuffing in too tightly. If you get wet stuffing, those are the reasons why. As with all recipes, you are in charge. That means you can change the liquids, fats, veggies, breads, and seasonings to suite you.

I don't really cut such perfect cubes.

We love cornbread and sausage stuffing. So, I'm going to give you directions for that here. I do hope that nobody just measures the seasonings and pops it into the bird. For stuffing and a lot of other recipes it is critical to use your nose. Mix and sniff. My way may not be your favorite way seasoning wise, besides, I've given you options. Use your nose and choose your favorite(s).

Here's what I use to make basic Cornbread Stuffing:

One 16 oz packet of Jimmy Dean's Sage Sausage

2 T butter if needed...oh, just go ahead and use it, it's tasty there

1 medium sized onion, chopped

3 stalks of celery, chopped

Cooking the Big Bird

Here's how I do my Thanksgiving turkey. I buy a fresh organic free range turkey. They are more expensive. They are also, in my opinion, more than worth the price. I order it at the butcher counter in my regular grocery store and ask that it be ready for pick up the day before Thanksgiving. One nice thing about this is that I don't have a humongous thawing bird sitting in my fridge for days. Just has to sit there overnight.

Basic Big Bird Cookery 

Ingredients:

preheat the oven to 325 F

one big ole fresh oganical free range 16-20 pounds of turkey prepped in the way described below
at least 6 slices of thick applewood smoked bacon cut into chunks
the stuffing of your choice freshly prepared and still warm
softened butter
2 cups chicken stock
a t or so each of fresh cracked black pepper, thyme, and dried parsley
you may use salt to season but don't tell me about it, it's not good for my blood pressure.

Lots of Directions with Warnings and Reasons:

Turkey & Black Bean Sanchos

Sanchos are a combo of a burrito and a taco. You can use Pace or Paul Newman's medium taco sauce for good flavor or make up your own! Try a bit of the new chipotle Tabasco sauce as the final added heat before rolling. That sauce is finding its way into a lot of my food. All amounts need to be adjusted to taste, this is a fairly mild starter recipe, so don't be afraid!

slice some of these for an extra kick!

Sanchos My Way
Nutrition facts

Ingredients to prepare and measure before commencing to cook:

1 pound lean ground turkey
1/2 t olive oil
2 t chili powder
1 t cumin
1 1/2 C Salsa
1 1/2 C black beans, canned
8 large whole wheat tortillas
2 C lettuce, torn
2 tomatoes, chopped
1/2 C onion, chopped
Optional: Cheese, jalapenos, more Salsa, or Tabasco

What to do after you have everything ready to go:

In a medium pan, brown the ground turkey in the olive oil. If you used the lean turkey, you may or may not have to drain. If there's more than a couple tablespoons of fat in the pan, drain. Add the chili powder and cumin and stir to incorporate it with the meat. I use about twice this amount as I like more flavor. If you are not used to Tex-Mex flavors, start with the amounts listed above. You can always add more later. Add about 1 C of the salsa and stir it up well. If it looks too dry, add more salsa. Simmer about 10-12 minutes. You'll need to stir a lot because the mixture will be thick. If it is too runny, you'll just have a mess when you put it inside a tortilla. Taste and adjust the seasonings.

Once the meat is simmering, place the drained and rinsed can of black beans in a small pan and add about 1/2 C of salsa. Simmer. You can add more seasonings if you like - pepper, chili powder, cumin, garlic are all great additions.

Put the chopped lettuce, tomatoes, and onion on a pretty plate or in individual bowls.

Let everyone make their own Sanchos at the table. Those that don't calorie count can add cheese, but it really is not necessary for a good flavor. Those that like it spicy can add Tabasco or salsa. Or you could set out slices of jalapeno. A good variation here is to skip the black beans and heat up some frijoles mixed with salsa. Both ways with beans are great inside a tortilla with the turkey.

Serve with a 2006 Clos de Dougent Grand Cru. :D