Turkey Isn't Just for Thanksgiving: Turkey Stew with Dumplings

Usually on Thanksgiving between 20-25 people come over for dinner. Serving turkey is part of the holiday tradition but there's a practical side as well: one turkey serves a lot of people.

Turkey is a food so rooted in a holiday--think egg nog and New Year's Eve--that most people wouldn't think of using it at other times of the year.

Roast turkey in the summer is a practical solution to serving large amounts of food for backyard parties without an excessive amount of work.

Sweet, moist breast meat, perfect of sandwiches, can also be tossed in salads. Thigh meat is also good in sandwiches with a bit of mayonnaise, thin slices of red onion and arugula leaves. Or, teasing flavor out of the legs and thighs by boiling them in a large pot of water creates delicious turkey stock and several pounds of meat ideal for salads, soups and stews.

Turkey Stew with Dumplings and Vegetables

Yield: 4-6 servings

Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients

4 cups cooked, shredded turkey dark meat

6 cups turkey stock (fat removed)

2 carrots (washed, peeled, ends removed, chopped into thick rounds)

2 sweet potatoes (cooked, skins removed, roughly chopped)

1 medium yellow onion (peeled, ends removed, roughly chopped)

1 ear of corn (kernels removed) or 1 cup of canned or frozen corn

1 celery stalk (washed, ends removed, roughly chopped)

1/2 cup brown or shiitake mushrooms (washed, thinly sliced)

4 garlic cloves (peeled, finely chopped)

1/2 cup Italian parsley (leaves only, finely chopped)

1 small bunch spinach (washed thoroughly, stems removed)

1 cup flour

1 tablespoon sweet butter

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 - 3/4 cup half and half

Olive oil

Sea salt and pepper

Method

In a dutch oven or a frying pan with tall sides, sauté the carrots, garlic, celery, mushrooms, onions, corn, and parsley in olive oil until lightly browned. Season with sea salt and pepper. Add the shredded turkey, cooked sweet potatoes, and turkey stock. Simmer. Drop in the spinach and cook for 10 minutes or until the spinach has wilted. Taste and adjust the seasonings.

To make the dumplings, mix together the flour, baking soda, sugar, season with sea salt and pepper in a bowl. Finely chop the butter, add to the flour and mix well. Slowly pour in the half and half, stirring until the batter has a thick consistency. Using 2 spoons, make dumplings and ease them them into the hot liquid.

Cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Serve with a salad and a baguette.

Variations

Add 2 tablespoons finely chopped scallions or Italian parsley to the dumplings.

Add 2 tablespoons finely chopped roasted red peppers to the dumplings.

Asparagus Stalks Memorial Day Picnics

Burgers, hot dogs, potato salad, cole slaw and fresh fruit salads are Memorial Day classics. I look forward to those favorites but to keep them interesting, it's good to add something new and a little unexpected.

When I was growing up, asparagus was one of the fancy vegetables. Carrots, corn and broccoli were the everyday vegetables. Asparagus was saved for special occasions. These days asparagus is affordable, easy-to-prepare and versatile.

Right now asparagus is plentiful in farmers markets. Nutritious, delicious and loaded with healthy minerals, asparagus can be enjoyed raw or cooked, as a salad or a side dish to add zest to a backyard barbecue or afternoon lunch.

Raw Asparagus Salad

Look for small to medium sized stalks that are firm and without blemish or shrivel-marks.

Serves 4

Ingredients

1/2 pound asparagus, washed, white ends trimmed plus an additional 2" cut off and discarded
1 tablespoon olive oil
Sea salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Slice in half the long way the larger stalks just before serving. Just before serving, toss the asparagus with the seasoned olive oil.

Variations

To add heat, dust with a pinch of cayenne or 1/4 teaspoon pepper flakes.

Sprinkle 2 tablespoons flaky goat cheese over the asparagus.

Finely chop 1 garlic clove and lightly sauté until brown, sprinkle over the asparagus.

Grilled Asparagus

Use any size asparagus you like. 

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 pound asparagus, washed, white ends trimmed plus an additional 2" cut off and discarded

1 tablespoon olive oil

Sea salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Heat the grill on a medium flame.

Toss the asparagus in the seasoned olive oil and place on the grill. 

Tongs will help turn the asparagus on the grill. Be careful to brown but not burn the tender stalks. Serve warm.

Variations

Grill with carrots (sliced or whole baby carrots) and serve as a vegetable course or as a side dish.

To add heat, dust with a pinch of cayenne or an additional 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper.

Steamed or Sautéed Asparagus with Caramelized Garlic, Shallots and Almond Slivers

Use any size asparagus you like. I prefer large or medium sized stalks, cut in half the long way so I can caramelize inside the asparagus.

The dish is as delicious whether you steam or sauté the asparagus. The choice is yours.

Blanched, raw slivered almonds are widely available in supermarkets. From my experience, Trader Joe's has good quality, affordable almonds.

To deceive the eye, the shallot and garlic clove should be sliced to resemble the almond slivers. The surprising sweet-savory/soft-crunch contrast adds to the fun of the dish.

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 pound asparagus, washed, white ends trimmed plus an additional 2" cut off and discarded

1/4 cup blanched, raw almond slivers

1 large shallot, washed, peeled, root end removed, thin sliced

1 large garlic clove, washed, peeled, root end removed, thin sliced

1 tablespoon olive oil

Sea salt and black pepper to taste

Directions

Heat a large frying pan with the olive oil, seasoned with sea salt and black pepper. Add the asparagus, cooking in batches if necessary. Don't crowd them in the pan so they cook evenly. Use tongs to turn them frequently to brown and avoid burning.

Remove the cooked stalks to a plate lined with a paper towel.

In the same pan, cook the shallot, garlic and almonds until lightly browned. Add a touch of olive oil if needed. Season with black pepper.

Either add the cooked asparagus back into the pan with the almond mixture and toss well or plate the asparagus and top the stalks with the almond mixture.

Serve warm.

Two Restaurants for Mother's Day: Michael's in Santa Monica and Maison Giraud in Pacific Palisades

Mother's Day is a special time to appreciate our mothers and the mothers of our children. A leisurely meal in a pleasant surrounding is the perfect way to celebrate the women who are so central to our lives.

Brunch is the preferred meal for Mother's Day, when a sunny late morning adds to the celebration.

Michael's Restaurant (1147 Third Street, Santa Monica, CA 90403; 310/451-0843), located on Third Street in Santa Monica, half a block north of Wilshire, has an elegant dining room with the relaxed feeling of a private home. Surrounding diners at the rear of the restaurant, a lush patio garden obliterates all traces of the busy city a few feet away.

By staying focused on farmers market fresh, seasonal ingredients, owner/chef Michael McCarty has pulled off a magic trick, staying contemporary and innovative even as the culinary landscape changed. When the restaurant opened, market fresh produce was a rallying cry for a few talented chefs. Nowadays, just about every restaurant says it buys locally and seasonally.

The difference then as now is that fresh ingredients are a good beginning but to be something special, they must be prepared by a talented chef with a great palate.

For the West Side, Michael's is a member of a small group of upscale restaurants. On the spring menu, starters are priced from $18 for a half dozen raw oysters to $22 for the Maine lobster gnocchi with mains ranging from $34 for the Jidori half-chicken to $44 for the rack of lamb and New York steak.

But Happy Hour at Michael's is a bargain and it begins early (Monday-Friday 5:00pm; Saturday 6:0pm). Michael keeps Happy Hour happy until closing. With flavors inspired by the larger menu, the snacks are as varied as an crostini with duck confit or with burrata, arugula and Parmigiano-Reggiano, truffle-thyme fries, Andouille sausage with beer caramelized onions, piquillo pepper and avocado salad and an upscale riff on Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles in the Jidori wings with maple syrup and chile salt (addictive!).

For Mother's Day, Michael's has a Sunday brunch from 11:30am-2:00pm. The prix fix menu for adults ($65.00/person) and for children under ten ($30.00/person) has four to five choices per course in a three course brunch. The dishes are elegant (oysters with blood orange mignonette, petit prime filet with English peas, Shimeji mushrooms and white corn) and familiar (Eggs Benedict, Cobb salad, blueberry pancakes with chicken sausage or smoked bacon). Dessert is sensible (strawberry-oatmeal crisp with creme fraiche ice cream) or complex and rich (dark chocolate cake with vanilla bean ice cream, chocolate ganache and raspberries).

If you want to toast mom, Michael's has an excellent wine cellar, including wines McCarty grows and bottles at his Malibu home, and a selection of delicious cocktails (a blood orange mimosa, Stoli bloody bull, "smoke love" with single malt scotch and smoked mescal, the "dark side of the moon," a wicked mixture of gin, vermouth, orange juice, lime orange oil simple and Creme de Violette! and a "frozen white lady," a sweet, ice cold, lemony confection of a drink).

Up the hill from Santa Monica, Maison Giraud (1032 Swarthmore Avenue, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272; 310/459-7561) is an outpost of French cuisine in suburban Pacific Palisades. Paired down and minimalist, the dining room is elegantly efficiently. Outside on the covered patio, diners enjoy eating at sidewalk tables, shaded by trees.

Alain Giraud wants the restaurant to be a relaxed gathering place for everyone wanting a good meal in a quiet setting. Like McCarty, Giraud is a habitué of farmers markets, looking for the freshest, best tasting, seasonal products he can find.

In the bakery he shows his deft hand with buttery, effervescent croissants, brioche, Danish, and other sweet and crisp pastries. 

For Mother's Day, Giraud will serve brunch from 10:30am-2:30pm featuring the usual menu with a selection of omelets, custardy scrambled eggs, French toast, Nicoise salad, grilled salmon, quiche and Eggs Benedict. For Mother's Day, he has added a green asparagus salad with citrus vinaigrette, roasted halibut and spring vegetables and for dessert, a strawberry and pistachio confection.

Besides dining at the restaurant, Mother's Day can also be celebrated at home by ordering from the bakery and the take-out menu.

Three Days and a Dozen Meals in Kyoto, Japan

Writing about the trip I took to Kyoto meant going through hundreds of photographs.





With only a few days in Kyoto, we covered a lot of ground and ate a lot of meals.















Looking at those photographs, I get really hungry, wishing I could be back in Kyoto on a leisurely trip, enjoying food that is exquisitely prepared, delicious and beautiful.










Until that return trip, I'll have to make due with the photographs.

Pork Belly and Vegetable Pasta

I wrote a recipe for Zester Daily about my latest, favorite dish, a pasta with pork belly meat, flavored by Vietnamese style pickled vegetables.

I love pork belly but not pork belly fat. 

The recipe is my attempt to split the difference. 

I let the fat tenderize and season the meat. 

The only part of the fat I put into the pasta is the thin crackling layer, that luscious bubbling, crispy top layer. 

The cracklings are ground up and sprinkled on the pasta to give a sweet crunch to the tender, moist meat.

The pickled vegetables add to the pork's deep rich flavors. Included in the pickling are pieces of ginger which brings a subtle heat to bear on the dish.

Eating Our Way Through Tokyo and Kyoto

With only a few days in Tokyo and Kyoto, to take a snapshot of the food scene takes eating at half a dozen restaurants each day.

Starting early, we visited Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market to see the fresh catch of day being sold in the warren of stalls. While we were there, we ate at the dozens and dozens of food stalls that rim the outside and inside of the market. 

Our first stop at 8:00 a.m. was Ryu Sushi where we had a sashimi plate and a sushi sampler. The fish was what you would hope for--eating at a restaurant so close to the fish market--fresh, clean tasting and delicious. For me, there was a huge eye-opener: mackerel.  

The few times I have eaten mackerel in Los Angeles, it tasted fishy and oily. At Ryu Sushi the mackerel sashimi was mild tasting, sweet and buttery. Mark Bittman always writes about how much he likes mackerel. Now I understand why.

In our short time at Tsukiji we ate sashimi, sushi, tamago, pork ramen and soba with shrimp tempura. 

From the Tsukiji market we had lunch at the Grand Hyatt Tokyo, Hard to believe, we were still hungry.  We enjoyed a delicious multi course lunch before we visited the Meiji Shrine and had a leisurely walk in the rain around the Yoyogi, the magnificent, forested park surrounding the temple. 

For a small donation, a member of the Shrine's staff will hand write your prayer that will be transcribed on a piece of wood and hung on the wall surrounding the tree at the entrance of the temple.

Dinner was back at the Park Hyatt Tokyo but this time at the New York Grill with its fabulous view of Tokyo. The steaks were delicious. Japanese beef is outstanding.

In the morning, some of us had American style breakfasts with eggs and pastries. I had a Japanese breakfast at the Park Hyatt. There were so many dishes, I would have happily stayed longer but we had a schedule to keep so off we went to Tokyo Station to get on the bullet train to Kyoto.

Kyoto has a friendly competition with its much larger rival, Tokyo. From a visitor's point of view, it is definitely an easier way to experience Japanese culture. Smaller, less crowded  and easier to navigate--traffic in Tokyo is a mash-up of rush hour mid-town Manhattan, Seattle and the 10 freeway in West Los Angeles. Going anywhere in Tokyo takes forever.  In Kyoto, you get where you want to without hassle.

Kyoto also is a great city to use to cool out and relax. The thousands of temples in the city offer locals and visitors the chance to enjoy nature and quiet contemplation. 

We had a Shojin vegan meal at a Zen temple at the Golden Pavilion and, at Ryoanji Temple, we enjoyed the plum blossoms, a sure sign that spring has begun. 

The Zen spirit is evident at Ryoanji as you walk around the lake, you'll notice that damaged trees are not cut down. They are lovingly supported with bamboo poles and tied carefully with rope to prevent further damage.

In my next post, I'll talk more where we stayed in Kyoto--the Hyatt Regency Kyoto--the temples we visited and put up more photographs from the Lantern Festival, the elegant French-Japanese fusion restaurant Misogigawa and our sake sampling at the izakaya bar, Ichi in the entertainment district.

Lost and Found in Tokyo

Staying at the Lost in Translation Park Hyatt Tokyo, a beautifully sleek and elegant hotel. Last night I had  dinner at restaurant Kozue in the hotel. 

The tasting menu had 28 "things" to taste that covered raw, grilled and simmered. 

The beef was amazingly delicate and melt-in-the-mouth tender. 

The soups had clear broths.

Salt pickled vegetables were simple and clean tasting.

Soba with duck broth and leeks, delicious.

The trip is crazy-short. Only one day in Tokyo, then a bullet train trip to Kyoto. Two days there, then back to Tokyo to return to LA.

Nutty and such great fun.

Here are some photographs from last night's dinner.

More to come.