Friday, November 11, 2016

Turkey cheese whole grain cake

I was at a grocery store recently and they had a turkey for $7.99 if you bought $25.00 worth of stuff, (easy to do on Kauai). But the problem is you end up with a whole turkey and there it is only Kathy and I.

But a year ago I visited a food truck that was some variant of Mongolian food and bought a patty made of a mix of grain, potato, yogurt, and meat and I really liked it. Maybe, I can do something like that with some of the turkey.

1 cup Costco Organic Ancient Grains (Quinoa, Amaranth, Millet), blended into flour
5 large slices dried shitake mushrooms blended into the flour, (I wanted the turkey breast to taste more like red meat)
1/3 cup milled flax
= Now we have our grain component, time to bring in the liquids

1/4  cup  Costco Mediterranean blend oil
2 eggs
6 cooked smallish red potatoes
1 cup cooked turkey breast
1/2 cup Fage Greek Yogurt

= Spices
Salt to taste
Black pepper to taste
Pinch of red pepper flakes
1 tsp cumin
2 tsp mustard, (I used Gulden's spicy brown)

= Now the hard part. I needed enough water for my Blendtech to mix everything, but that equals too much water to build the cake.  My hope was that if I let it sit a while, the grain component would soak up the water and my backup plan was to add mashed potato if needed, (I did need a handful).

I transferred the mixture into a large mixing bowl and stirred in a cup of grated Cost-U-Less 4 cheese mixture to help the cake hold together.

Cooked for 30 minutes at 350, half way through I put a slice of Provolone cheese in the center of the cake, (it is easy to burn Provolone). Let it cool before messing with it.

= Lessons learned
- This is a great use for leftover turkey breast, I try not to brine because I manage my salt, but then if you cook the turkey to 165 degrees, it usually results in dry meat. By grinding it up with all the other ingredients you don't notice it.
- I think egg white will work just as good as whole egg for an even leaner protein source. If I increase the amount of egg white I can reduce the cheese, but then need another spice.
- The bottom burned a bit. This is partly because the lady that cleans our house keeps moving my rack to the bottom. Next time I will check to position of the rack and will cook at 325. By using a pasteurized egg product, since everything is cooked, there would be no food safety issues.
- The Gulden's made the cake slightly bitter, I need to order mustard seed from Spiceworld anyway, that might be a better plan.
- For some reason, (probably because Kathy had a dish of chickpeas in the fridge), I was wondering about incorporating them into a version. Dried as part of the grain component? Whole, for texture interest? Not sure.
- Not as healthy, but what about lamb or duck and ditch the mustard for mint?