Cooking without Borders, and Beyond

Now that we have had our fill of Thanksgiving food we can proudly look forward to the wonders of Christmas (food) but as we all know, we have leftovers to deal with between now and then. SO I started to look for recipes that help utilize some of those – wonderful – leftovers. Included in this issue is a recipe for turkey ravioli, I also searched the web for the top 10 leftover recipes this is what I found (I wasn’t too excited): Turkey Fingers with cranberry, Turkey cranberry puffed pastry bites, Turkey fried rice, Turkey Mornay, Turkey Pesto casserole, the usual Turkey cranberry sandwiches, - we make Paninis – Turkey and stuffing sandwiches, and tetrazzini. All sound like great ideas, I’m still working on testing some of them but have a few other ideas of my own. We figure that we could take our Tikka Massala and use the turkey instead for the chicken, the ravioli I mentioned is an absolute wonderful recipe and I am looking forward to having a few minutes to make them this year.

After a truly last minute decision to open the shop we have finally done it! We are located at 629 First Street, in downtown Brentwood. There is still some unpacking going on, but some of that is we are still looking for the Holiday items and arranging things in a reasonable fashion. Hope to see your smiling faces sometime thru the season.

Are you doing the cooking at Christmas this year? We have a marinade for that beautiful beef roast, come check it out!

As most of you know the picking season for olives is November thru December. Due to the torrential down pours we had all over the state in early June most of the pollen and blossoms of the trees were washed away. As a result is there expected to be a shortage of olives and oil moving forward thru to our next picking season. We can only hope for rain around the bloom for next year and not during.

This Month’s Tip…Try to accumulate (or keep) a range of pans. It is best to keep good matches for the type of cooking you do. For boiling and steaming – keep a tall pot, for concentrating liquid you need a broad pot, straight sided skillets are best for braising (this can be the same pan you use for concentrating liquids if there are few in your house) and sloped sided pans for sautéing, and a wok for stir frying.

DID YOU KNOW…that Warring introduced the blender in 1936.

Monthly Recipe(s)

Cranberry Turkey Ravioli (with gravy)

½ pound Turkey leftovers dark and light meat

4 Tablespoons of cranberries

4 Tablespoons Romano Cheese, grated

2 Tablespoons breadcrumbs with 1 teaspoon Hometown or Tuscan blends

2 Tablespoons fresh parsley leaves

1 egg

½ teaspoons kosher salt

½ teaspoon ground pepper (or 1 teaspoon Hometown)

1 package store bought wonton wrappers

GRAVY: We double the following – we REALLY like the extra gravy.

6 Tablespoons unsalted butter

2 shallots diced

2 Tablespoons flour

1 cup low sodium/organic chicken broth

4 Tablespoons heavy cream

2 Tablespoons chopped parsley

½ teaspoon flake sea salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper (or 1 teaspoon Hometown) to taste

For Ravioli: Stir together the turkey, cranberry, cheese, bread crumbs, parsley and salt and pepper. Working in batches of 10, place the wontons on a work surface, fill each with 1 teaspoon of mixture. Brush lightly with water around the edge then fold over diagonally to seal. Press out any air bubbles and press edge to seal. MAKE ONLY WHAT YOU WILL EAT at one sitting as the wontons stick together.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil for ravioli.

For Gravy: In a heavy skillet melt the butter over a medium heat, add the shallots a d cook until tender. Stir in the flour and cook for another minute. Gradually add the chicken stock constantly stirring to prevent clumping, add the cream, parsley, and salt and pepper (or Hometown) to taste and cook over low heat until warmed thru – DO NOT BOIL.

Drop the ravioli into the boiling water carefully and cook for 3 to 4 minutes or until warmed thru and a bit al dente. Remove the ravioli with a spider if you have one and add into the gravy, stir to coat. Serve immediately and pour any remaining gravy over the dish. And Enjoy!!Now that we have had our fill of Thanksgiving food we can proudly look forward to the wonders of Christmas (food) but as we all know, we have leftovers to deal with between now and then. SO I started to look for recipes that help utilize some of those – wonderful – leftovers. Included in this issue is a recipe for turkey ravioli, I also searched the web for the top 10 leftover recipes this is what I found (I wasn’t too excited): Turkey Fingers with cranberry, Turkey cranberry puffed pastry bites, Turkey fried rice, Turkey Mornay, Turkey Pesto casserole, the usual Turkey cranberry sandwiches, - we make Paninis – Turkey and stuffing sandwiches, and tetrazzini. All sound like great ideas, I’m still working on testing some of them but have a few other ideas of my own. We figure that we could take our Tikka Massala and use the turkey instead for the chicken, the ravioli I mentioned is an absolute wonderful recipe and I am looking forward to having a few minutes to make them this year.