Tag Good food

More Than One Way to Slice a Jalapeño

Intentergy 2 Comments

What do you do when your buddy Timmy gives you four 5-gallon buckets of jalapeños? You get creative with jalapeño.

Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Hubby took Timmy up on the offer to pick some peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, and squash from his massive garden late this past summer. I was excited about the fresh produce and eager to give at least one new recipe a try. Little did I know I would soon be up to my eyeballs in stems, seeds, and researching ways to preserve the plentiful peppers.

Each day I spent 2 hours slicing and seeding peppers by hand for the first two or three days. These carefully crafted slices went into pickled jalapeños. Of course, I wore gloves to protect my skin from the spicy juices but my hands and wrists started to get a little worn out by Day 3. I pulled out my little Pampered Chef food processor and started blending away at the buckets of peppers, but didn’t make much headway because of the blender’s small capacity. Plus, I had moved on to trying a second new recipe. This time I was attempting to make jalapeño relish, and we weren’t too sure if we would like it or use it much. (*We did like it. ** We used it a lot.)

Hubby asked why I didn’t have a bigger blender. I told him because Santa hadn’t brought it yet. Well, Santa came in August with a fancyshmancy, BIG blender. It was going to be perfect for peppers, zucchini, slaw, all the things…. but it was really BIG. The jalapenos were plentiful but petite. This is when we really had to shake things up with how we sliced our peppers.

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Turkey 30 Ways – Part #2 (From the Farmer’s Table)

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Here is the 2nd installation of “Turkey 30 Ways.” These are all turkey recipes that my family enjoys and I hope you will too!

11th Way: Sweet Hawaiian Crockpot Turkey

Ingredients: 2 lb. turkey breast chunks, 1 Tblsp olive oil, 1 cup pineapple juice, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/3 cup soy sauce

Steps:

  1. Mix pineapple juice, brown sugar, and soy sauce in a bowl.
  2. Heat olive oil in a skillet. Lightly brown turkey in skillet before adding to crockpot.
  3. Place turkey in crockpot and cover with pineapple juice mixture.
  4. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Serve with warmed rice.

***If the dish looks too soupy, fry turkey and sauce in skillet until sauce is at a light boil. Boil until it thickens.

12th Way: Crock Pot Sweet and Sour Turkey

Ingredients:
For the turkey: 2 lbs. turkey breast cut into chunks, sea salt and black pepper to taste, 1/2 cup cornstarch, 2 large eggs beaten, 1/4 cup olive oil

For the sauce: 1/2 cup brown sugar packed, 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar, 1/4 cup ketchup, 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/2 cup water, 1 tsp garlic minced

Steps:

  1. In a large bowl, whisk sauce ingredients until well blended.
  2. In a separate bowl, season turkey with salt and pepper. Add cornstarch and eggs. Mix until turkey is coated with egg and cornstarch batter.
  3. Heat olive oil in large skillet and cook turkey until it is golden brown, usually 4-5 minutes.
  4. Put turkey in crockpot and cover with the sauce. Stir evenly until turkey is coated.
  5. Cook 3 hours on high or 6 hours on low. Serve over warm rice or noodles.

13th Way: Cashew Turkey Stir-fry

Ingredients: 1 lb. turkey breast sliced into thin strips, 1 clove garlic minced, 1/2 lb. sliced mushrooms, 1 medium green pepper sliced, 1 cup carrots thinly sliced, 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1 tsp. granulated sugar, 1 Tblsp cornstarch, 1 cup chicken broth, 4 Tblsp vegetable oil, 3 scallions sliced, hot cooked rice, 3/4 cup cashew nuts

Steps:

  1. In small bowl, mix soy sauce, sugar, cornstarch, and chicken broth. Set aside.
  2. Heat oil in large skillet. Cook turkey in oil until done.
  3. Add garlic, green peppers, mushrooms, carrots, and scallions and cook for 2 minutes. Stir frequently to keep from uneven cooking.
  4. Lower heat and stir in sauce. Cook until sauce thickens.
  5. Serve over hot cooked rice. Sprinkle with cashew nuts.

***I like to add my cashews before plating. Having a little extra sauce on the cashews is extra yummy.

14th Way: Apricot Turkey

Ingredients: 2 lb. turkey breast sliced 1 – 2 inches thick, 1 – 10 oz. jar of apricot preserves, 1 bottle Russian dressing, 1 package instant Onion Soup Mix, 1/4 cup flour

Steps:

  1. Coat turkey breast with flour and place in 9×13 baking dish.
  2. Mix preserves, dressing, and Onion Soup Mix in a small bowl.
  3. Pour preserve mixture over turkey breasts.
  4. Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees for 45-55 minutes.
  5. Serve alone or over warm rice.
Continue reading “Turkey 30 Ways – Part #2 (From the Farmer’s Table)” →

Turkey 30 Ways – Part #1 (From the Farmer’s Table)

Intentergy 4 Comments

Living on a turkey farm, we eat a lot of turkey and have gotten pretty creative with preparations of our favorite protein. People often ask for my recipes (especially other turkey farming families), so I decided to share my top 30 ways for preparing turkey.

30 recipes in one post is a bit too much (even for me) to digest. I plan to share these recipes in a series starting off with the simplest and most tried-and-true forms.

Now some of these recipes may not be mind-blowingly, new ideas, but they are ways that my family enjoys turkey. Most are easy recipes that do not require unusual ingredients or too much prep time.

1st Way: Fried Turkey Breast

Ingredients: 1 lb. sliced or cubed turkey breast,  2 tsp. salt, 2 tsp. black pepper, 1/4 cup flour, 2 cups vegetable oil

Steps:
1. Season sliced or cubed turkey with salt and pepper.
2. Toss turkey in flour until fully coated.
3. Heat vegetable oil in non-stick pan 350° F.
4. Place coated turkey into hot oil, flip every 2-3 minutes until completely brown or until juices run clear from meat. Avoid over-cooking or turkey will be dry.

2nd Way: Grilled Turkey Breast

Ingredients: turkey breast sliced 1/2″ to 1″ in thickness, marinade or desired seasoning

Steps:
1. Set uncooked turkey in marinade overnight (if possible). If overnight isn’t an option, allow turkey to marinade or be seasoned for as long as possible before placing on the grill.
2. Heat grill to 350-400° F. Lightly grease grill surface and add marinated/seasoned turkey.
3. Close lid and cook 8 minutes, or until bottoms are browned with sear marks.
4. Rotate turkey and close lid
5. Reduce heat to medium and cook 7-10 minutes more, or until internal temperature reaches 165° F.

*Our favorite marinades are Italian dressing or Lawry’s Hawaiian marinade.

3rd Way: Turkey Ka-bobs

Ingredients: turkey breast cubed 1″ to 1 1/2″ squares, marinade or seasoning, skewers (metal or wooden), mushrooms, baby tomatoes, diced bell peppers, pineapple chunks, onion slices, pretty much any vegetable or meat that you like on a ka-bob.

Steps:
1. Set uncooked turkey in marinade overnight (if possible). If overnight isn’t an option, allow turkey to marinade or be seasoned for as long as possible before placing on the grill.
2. Assemble ka-bobs by alternately adding turkey and vegetables or other marinated meats (beef, lamb, shrimp, etc.) to the skewers *If using wooden skewers, soak skewers in water for an hour before adding meat and veggies.*
3. Heat grill to 350-400° F. Lightly grease grill surface and add ka-bobs.
4. Rotate ka-bobs every 2-3 minutes and close lid.
5. Cook for 6-10 minutes until turkey is cooked through
***Adding additional meats will impact the cooking time***

Continue reading “Turkey 30 Ways – Part #1 (From the Farmer’s Table)” →