Curry Turkey Burgers w/ Spinach Slaw

I decided to get creative with this one.  It started one night when I had some ground turkey and little to no plan for dinner.  I started by cooking the turkey in a frying pan, adding this and that…and eventually winding up with something delicious.  That spurred the creative juices and I decided I would do the same thing but make it into a burger this time.  Well, plans are often the start of a great idea, but they aren’t always a step by step walkthrough that leads you to that final success.  When I finally got down to it, I realized I wanted to add a slaw of some sort to dress the burger, and all great burgers need some sort of a sauce so I had to add in a mayo.  This recipe is something that may seem daunting when you first look at it, but it really is pretty simple and the final result will have your family and friends begging for more.  Rage on!  Oh, one more thing, I’m going to deviate from my standard posting style on this one as there are several different steps.  Please feel free to post questions in the comments.
Ingredients for Curry Mayo

1. 1/2 t Yellow Curry Powder
2. 1 1/2 T Mayo
3. 1/2 t Garlic Powder
4. 1/4 t Pepper
5. 1 t Sriracha

Directions:  Whisk all ingredients together and set aside till later.
Ingredients for Spinach Slaw

1. 1 1/2 t White Sugar
2. 1 1/2 t Yellow Curry Powder
3. 3 T White Vinegar
4. 1 1/2 t Olive Oil
5. 2 Cups Spinach, rough chop(this is optional, you can use the full spinach leaf if you prefer)
6. 6 Baby Carrots, julienned(Julienne is a French cooking term for the type of cut, it is a thin stick type cut often referred to as matchstick cuts or shoe string cuts.  Don’t be worried about it being off too much, you just want the carrots to be about 1-1.5 inches long and 1-2 mm thick.)
7. 1/4 cup Fresh Parsley, roughly chopped

Directions:  Whisk the wet ingredients together, chop the spinach, carrots and parsley up, add to the vinaigrette and toss to coat evenly.  Cover and refrigerate at least 20 minutes.


Ingredients for Turkey Burger

1. 1.5 lbs. Ground Turkey(this made 4 patties for me, but can make more if you want them smaller)
2. 1 t Yellow Curry Powder
3. 1 t Garlic Powder
4. 1/2 T Fresh Parsley, rough chop
5. 1 T Sriracha
6. 1 T Garlic Chili Sauce
7. 1 Cup Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
8. 1 Cup Shredded Cheddar Cheese
9. 1 t Salt
10. 1/2 t Pepper

Quick Directions for Turkey Burger

1. Add all ingredients into a bowl.
2. Mix well, but don’t over mix.
3. Form into patties.
4. Grill or cook in frying pan.  5-8 minutes on each side.

Detailed Directions

Place all of the ingredients into a bowl.  It works best if you go in with your hands to mix it up.  You want to get it well mixed but without over doing it.  Too much mixing can cause the burger to fall apart as you cook it.  And that is an easy way to cause a rage.


Patty them up!  I had a few people that didn’t want as big of a burger so I ended up with some lopsided patties…that and I didn’t separate them out as accurately as I thought.  But shhh…it was on purpose!  That is what you always say in your kitchen.


Fry or grill your burger.  If you are using a non stick pan, you shouldn’t need to add anything to the pan, but a little bit of olive oil won’t hurt if your afraid of it sticking.  It took about 8 minutes on each side at medium heat, but this isn’t necessarily going to do it for you.  Temp if your not sure and a temp of 160 will tell you its ready.  Grill should take about the same amount of time.


Build Your Burger

Place the mayo on the top…easy enough.










Put some of that tasty slaw on.  Your choice for the amount here.  And if you really want to get crazy, you can put the mayo and slaw on top and bottom.  Your choice again!







Plop that finished patty on, and enjoy.  If you take the time to make all three components, you will find a most delicious and moist burger has greeted your taste buds.  Enjoy!



In closing, I would just like to say that this burger was something I found far exceeding my expectations.  Everything can be made ahead of time, so you can really shine at a bbq when you show up with this gem.  Remember, our kitchen is nothing less than an experiment in flavor.  We can’t perfect without trial and error.  Rage on.

Scalloped Corn

Scalloped corn.  Easy to make.  Easy to eat.  And best of all?  Everyone will think you slaved away for hours making it.  Rage on.

Ingredients

1. 4 T Butter
2. 4 oz. Cream Cheese
3. 1 Can of Creamed Corn
4. 2 Cups of Frozen Corn
5. 2 1/2 Cups of Oyster Crackers, Crushed
6. 1/2 t of Salt and Pepper

Quick Directions

1. Melt 3 T of butter and 4 oz. of cream cheese together on medium low heat until blended.  Stir constantly.
2. Crush 2 cups of oyster crackers up, doesn’t have to be fully crushed.
3. Combine all ingredients together except for 1 T of butter and 1/2 cup of oyster crackers.
4. Melt final tablespoon of butter and mix with the remaining oyster crackers.
5. Sprinkle the butter and oyster cracker mixture over the top.
6. Bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes or until crackers are golden brown on top.

Detailed Directions


This dish takes about 5-10 minutes to prepare.  The baking time is the only  thing keeping it from being a super fast dish.  Start by melting 3 tablespoons of the butter with the cream cheese.  Use medium low heat and stir constantly until it becomes creamy.


It will look like this when its ready.





Next crush 2 cups of the crackers up, add the salt and pepper and cream cheese butter mixture.  Mix it up!  If you want to save time, you can go ahead and add the corn in now and mix everything at once, but I prefer to mix the crackers with the cream cheese first.


Add the creamed corn and the frozen corn and mix everything together.  If you wish too, you can omit the frozen corn and instead add another can of creamed corn.  I like the added texture that the frozen corn adds though and in my opinion it is a welcome addition.


Next melt the remaining tablespoon of butter and mix with that final 1/2 cup of oyster crackers.  Sprinkle it over the top and the hard work is done.  Place it in a baking pan and toss it in the oven that is already preheated to 350 and go grab a glass of water or your favorite beverage to relax.


It will bake for about 45-60 minutes.  As an added benefit, the crackers on top will turn a nice golden brown to let you know its ready.  Enjoy!  And as always…rage on!

Additions and Other things

• This is the base recipe for scalloped corn that I use.  It is very easy to double and put into a larger pan.  I used a 3 quart pot, but that was slightly larger than I really needed.
• You can add things like crumpled bacon or diced up jalapeños if you like things spicy.  Even adding some cheese turns out pretty good.
• As I’ve mentioned, this is a super easy recipe to make.  But that doesn’t take anything away from the flavor.  Take it to your next family gathering and bask in the praises!

Seasoned Oven Fries

Potatoes are one of my favorite foods.  Of course they can be cooked in so many different ways and the best aren’t the most healthy.  This is a healthier alternative to a fried potato.  It takes a little more time than putting them in the deep fryer but the results are worth it.  Rage on!

Ingredients

1. 4 Potatoes(russet is what I used but any potato would work)
2. 1/2 T Pepper
3. 1/2 T Sea Salt(I used grey sea salt but regular works fine)
4. 1 T Smoked Seasoning Salt or regular Seasoning Salt
5. 1/s T Paprika
6. Olive Oil

Quick Directions

1. Cut potatoes into thin strips, keeping them as close to same size as possible.  Can leave skins on or peel off.
2. Soak in a bowl of water for 30 minutes to an hour.
3. Drain and rinse well, pat dry with towel.
4. Mix seasonings together.
5. Drizzle olive oil over potatoes and toss with seasoning.
6. Spread out on a baking sheet and place in oven pre-heated to 425.
7. Every twenty minutes, flip the potatoes.
8. Cook for about 45 minutes to an hour or until as crispy as you want them.
9. Enjoy!

Detailed Directions

Start by washing your potatoes and cutting them into thin strips.  You can remove the skins if you like but its not needed.  Also, make sure you keep your knife cuts even!  The closer to the same size the better as it will allow the fries to be finished at the same time.


Once you have them cut up, toss them into a bowl of water and let them soak 30-60 minutes.  This helps pull some of the starch out of the potatoes and leads to a crispier end product.

After they have sat drain the water and rinse them well.  We don’t want to have that starchy water left behind after doing all that work to pull it out of the potatoes!  After the bath, take a towel or paper towel and pat them dry.  Just do your best here.

 Mix all those delicious seasonings together.  This is a pretty straight forward step.









Then drizzle your potatoes with the olive oil.  It doesn’t take a lot.  I just threw them into a bowl and drizzled the oil over the top.  Once I had that step out of the way, I poured the seasonings on top and then tossed together.




Doing it in a bowl makes mixing easier.  Just toss and turn the potatoes until everything is adequately coated.




Place everything on a baking pan.  Try to get them spread evenly without too much overlap.  As you can see, I should have used a bigger pan or two so that they didn’t overlap as much.  It still worked fine though!  Place it in the oven at 425.


Once they have cooked for about 20 minutes, pull them out of the oven and flip them.  Do this about every 15-20 minutes and keep cooking them until they have gotten as crispy as you want them to be.  Once you have achieved what your looking for, they are ready to eat.  Put them on a plate and eat them as is or add some ketchup or whatever your favorite dipping sauce is.  Rage on!





Other Things

• The cut you choose doesn’t not have to be the same strips as I used.  Really any sort of shape works as long as they are not too thick and all roughly the same size.
• Potato choice really does not matter.  Golden Yukon's or reds would work just as great.  Really whatever your favorite is…use it.
• If you do less potatoes, cut back only slightly in the seasonings.  With more, increase slightly.  You only need to worry when you are getting into the realm of doubling the amount of potatoes that you increase the seasonings.  It is not an exact science, some people would have you believe otherwise…but they are wrong.  Rage on!

Sherry Chicken

A quick and easy meal can be hard to come up with on the spot.  Luckily, with more time spent in the kitchen it can become easier.  This recipe is something easy to do with only a few hands on moments.  It also has a lot of techniques you can use with other foods.  Rage on.
Ingredients

1. Chicken Breast, boneless and skinless (I used 3 but you can adjust this for however many you need to feed)
2. 1 C Cooking Sherry (you can use any red wine in place of sherry and it doesn’t have to be cooking sherry either)
3. 1 C Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
4. Cavender’s All Purpose Greek Seasoning
5. 2 T Butter
6. 1/2 lb. Baby Carrots
7. 1/3 package of Spaghetti Noodles
8. Olive Oil
9. Salt and Pepper

Quick Directions

1. Season the chicken breasts with the Greek seasoning and salt and pepper.  Make sure all sides are well covered.
2. In a stainless steel frying pan, pour in olive oil to coat the pan and turn on to medium high heat.
3. Sear both sides of chicken, to a nice golden brown.
4. Place pan in an oven heated to 350.  Cook for 10-15 mins or until chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165.
5. Cover chicken with mozzarella and place back in the oven until it is melted.
6. Remove chicken from pan, place back on medium high heat and add sherry to deglaze pan.
7. Let simmer till it is reduced by half, then add 1 T of butter and continue to cook until sauce thickens up.
8. While chicken is in oven, bring two pots filled with water to a boil.  Add noodles in one, and carrots in the other.  Cook noodles till al dente and carrots until they are fork tender.  Drain water and finish them with 1/2 T of butter each.  The butter is optional.
9. Plate the food and enjoy!

Detailed Directions

First step in any great dish is having all of the ingredients ready before you begin.  Now we are ready to begin!  Start by rubbing Cavender’s Greek Seasoning and salt and pepper on both sides of the chicken.  Cover it generously, don’t be shy.

Great!  Now add it to that pan that’s already heated up to medium high with olive oil coating it.  You don’t need a lot, just enough to cover the pan nicely.  And make sure your using a stainless steel pan, as those non-stick ones won’t work for this technique.

Sear the chicken.  We aren’t looking to cook the chicken through in this step, just looking for nice color.  This really helps with the final product and each side should only take a couple of minutes.  Once the  color has been achieved, place it in the oven.I use stainless frying pans that can be placed in the oven, if yours can’t handle the oven, you can place the chicken onto a baking pan instead.  This won’t really hurt anything, but will change the sauce that is created in the final steps.
Cook the chicken to an internal temperature of 165.  The chicken will cook for about 10-15 minutes.  You want to get as close to that number as possible, but going over a few degrees like I did won’t ruin the chicken at all.  Make sure to use a thermometer if your not comfortable with cooking raw chicken.  It is an important tool in the kitchen!

Alright, so our chicken is done.  Cover it with  the shredded Mozzarella and put it back in the oven for a few more minutes.  Don’t worry about some of the cheese falling onto the pan, it will be a great addition to our sauce.

Melted and a bit of browning is what we are looking for here.  And once its achieved, remove the pan from the oven and take those tasty chickens out of the pan.  Prepare for the fun!

And now the best part of the dish begins.  If your pan looks like mine, don’t be scared about all of the drippings and cheese stuck to the pan.  This process is called deglaze and there are a lot of different ways to approach it but they all follow some simple steps.  For tonight's recipe we aren’t going to get as fancy and cause any rage as some would ask you too.

Add that cup of sherry or your red wine of choice and let it simmer away on medium or medium high heat.  Use a spoon and scrape the bottom while this is going on.  The drippings should be unsticking themselves but a little help won’t be a hindrance and will get the sauce mixed together better.  Once about half of the liquid is gone, add in your 1 T of butter, I prefer to use cold butter here.

Once you have the consistency we are looking for(which is a nice thickness that will stick to the back of your spoon but still will drip slowly off) it’s ready!  Oh, and by now you might be asking why I haven’t talked about the carrots and the pasta.  Don’t worry, I’ll go over that at the end.  Plate the dish, eat, enjoy, rage!!!

Information worth knowing(and details about those carrots and pasta)

• The pasta was cooked to al dente(which is defined as cooked so as to not be too soft, firm to the bite) I then drained the water and put 1/2 T of butter in, let it melt and cover the pasta.  You can leave the butter out if you like, or you could take it up a notch with some salt and pepper, but remember the pepper will be noticeable and change the look.
• The carrots were cooked till fork tender.  In other words, until you could puncture them easily with a fork.  I also finished them with 1/2 T of butter.  But again, just like the pasta you can leave this out or step it up with some salt and pepper.
• Almost any vegetable can be cooked like the carrots.  Just simply get a pot of water boiling, add the vegetable and let it go till the vegetable is tender.  I also prefer to add a small amount of salt to  any water I’m going to boil for pasta or vegetables.  This is most key for pasta because when it is cooking is the only time you can actually get some seasoning such as salt into the pasta.
• The deglazing is another thing you can  use for multiple dishes.  Generally you want to use white wines with chicken and fish, and red wines with beef and other dark meats.  However, today I broke the rules.  You can do whatever the heck you want in the kitchen as long as you like the final product.  And those times when you tried something that failed?  Just blame it on some bad advice or recipe that you actually didn’t ever follow!  The deglaze can be accomplished many ways as I mentioned earlier.  One main thing usually used in the deglazing is to add some chicken or beef stock.  I simply didn’t have chicken stock on hand and decided it was not needed.  The sauce worked fine without it.  One final note about deglazing...you must use a stainless steel pan.  You want the drippings to stick to the pan.  It simply won't work with a non-stick pan.  Trying it would be a large amount of rage.