Once a month I get a delivery of fresh, organic produce from Auntie Em's Kitchen. I love going to the FM myself, but I look forward to these deliveries because they're always full of surprises and things I wouldn't ordinarily choose for myself. Yesterday my delivery contained some gorgeous collard greens and some beautiful yellow fingerling potatoes. I pulled them to go with our dinner last night.
Turkey Burgers, Collard Greens, Oven Fries
Turkey Burgers
About 1lb. ground turkey
1 carrot, grated
fresh thyme OR fresh chives, chopped finely
1 very small shallot, minced finely
1 clove garlic, minced finely
1 tablespoon Bragg's liquid aminos
salt and pepper
Mix all the ingredients together with your hands until everything is evenly distributed. Make into patties that look slightly too large for the buns you intend to use-- the patties will shrink when you cook them. Heat a bit of oil in a skillet. When the skillet is hot, toss a couple of patties in and cook on the first side for 4 minutes or so, until they're browned, then flip and cook on the other side until they're cooked through. How long this takes depends on how hot your skillet is and how thick your patties are, so just use a thermometer to check (180 degrees means they're cooked), or discreetly cut into the middle to make sure it's not pink. If you want to put cheese on your burger just slice it and put it on the browned side while the other side is cooking, or put the patties under the broiler after they're browned until the cheese melts. You might want to leave them slightly undercooked if you're going to put them in the broiler, otherwise they'll dry out.
This recipe is very adaptable. Last night, instead of the shallot and garlic, I used 2 stalks of green garlic chopped finely and it worked beautifully. And I learned the hard way not to use the large side of the box grater to grate the carrot; you don't want the carrot pieces to be too big because that will make it hard to form the patties. Also, a whole carrot may be too much carrot for you. Sometimes I just get lazy and grate half the carrot and then eat the rest. As for the herbs, the type and amount is totally up to you. I really love thyme with turkey, but as the weather warms up thyme just doesn't seem appropriate. Chives are nice with the other alliums in this recipe, but I am not a fan of soft, green herbs with harder winter herbs, which is why I don't recommend using them together.
A tip about ground turkey: Do NOT get fat free or 99% fat free! Turkey breast is quite lean, and a lot of the fat cooks out. If you get meat that's too near fat-free you won't enjoy it at all because it will taste like cardboard.
Collard Greens
This part is so easy it's barely a recipe, and it works for all kinds of leafy greens.
1 bunch collard greens
Roughly chop the collards and put them in a big bowl of cold water. Swish them around a bit, change the water, then lift them out of the bowl and put them into a big pot with a lid. There will be enough water on the leaves to steam them in the pot. Put the heat on low and cover the pot; cook until the greens are wilted. Dress them with a little olive oil or butter if you like, but when greens are in season they have plenty of flavor on their own and are so good for you. If there are fats and oils in other parts of your meal, plain cooked greens are a nice counterpoint.
Oven fries
10 fingerling potatoes
Preheat oven to 425. Cut the potatoes lengthwise into quarters. Toss them with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Generously grease a baking sheet with olive oil, spread the potatoes in a layer, and bake for about 20 minutes, or until the potatoes begin to look crisp and are very soft inside.
