Weekend Cookbook Challenge #5: Cinco de Mayo and Turkos
This time around, the Weekend Cookbook Challenge is Celebrating Cinco de Mayo, a holiday that in the US is becoming a sort of St. Patrick's Day with tequila instead of green beer. (Sadly, I wasn't aware of what it actually meant until I read the article about it on Wikipedia.) We did not have tequila, although coincidentally we seemed to be eating Mexican-inspired cuisine for several days after the fifth. Add in my cooking for WCC, and I joked to the Beloved that we seemed to be celebrating todo de Mayo instead of just the fifth.
The Challenge was to prepare something Mexican-inspired, and I found what sounded like the perfect thing while flipping through The Whole Foods Market Cookbook by Steve Petusevsky et al.: Olé Turkey Tacos. What really intrigued me was the use of unsweetened cocoa in the seasonings, sort of like the sauce mole. That, and it sounded like something the Beloved would eat (unlike, say, the Chilies Rellenos Casserole from the same book -- the Beloved has very mild tastes). So for the first time, I actually wasn't alone in eating my WCC concoctions.
On learning that the dish was made with ground turkey, the Beloved dubbed them "Turkos." Which sounds vaguely like a poultry-flavored breakfast cereal, but Turkos they became.
Turkos (Olé Turkey Tacos)
- 1/8 cup canola or olive oil
- 1 pound ground turkey
- 1/2 small onion, chopped
- 1/2 green pepper and 1/2 red pepper, chopped (I subbed a whole red pepper)
- 1 clove garlic, minced (I used garlic powder ... when I buy garlic, it ends up wasted)
- 1 T chili powder
- 1 tsp dried oregano, or 1 T fresh (I went with dried, which I'd bought for something else and have yet to use up)
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1T unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 15-oz can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
- 8 oz tomato sauce (ETA: I thought I'd used more, but there's a second 8-oz can sitting on my shelf, so I guess I didn't. Hm.)
Take a large saucepan, heat the oil, then add the turkey and sauté until cooked through. (Ground turkey when partially cooked? Looks like braaains.) Add all the other ingredients EXCEPT the tomato sauce and kidney beans, and cook for three minutes longer. Then add the beans and sauce, and simmer for 20 minutes or until you have something of a "fillinglike consistency."
I admit, I took a taste off the utensil I was using shortly after adding the beans and sauce, and my heart sank. I kept telling the Beloved, "I hope it's good." I have more diverse tastes than he does, so I figured if I didn't like it, he wouldn't ...
But in the end, nestled in a flour tortilla with some cheese, salsa and shredded lettuce? Quite tasty.
I know part of the point of the recipe was to use turkey to make the recipe healthier ... but I think next time, I'll either make it with beef or do a half-and-half beef-turkey mix. It did seem a little bland. (It might have been a bit better had I used the dark-and-white-meat ground turkey instead of just the white meat variety -- Jenny-O offers both.)
Not the most authentic dish, perhaps, but Wikipedia says that a popular use for mole is in mole poblano de guajolote, or turkey prepared with mole poblano, so I didn't feel so bad. As for the cocoa? I couldn't quite pick its flavor note out from the spices. Perhaps next time I'll make half a batch with and half without, and compare.
Check off another cookbook as "used." (I do plan to use it again, though. There are a lot of recipes in there that look good to me ...) And check off another Cinco de Mayo. Hope it was festive, for whatever reason you celebrated.