Turkey

I love coming across something I have never cooked before. The other day, I was at the Butcher's shop and they had turkey thighs on special. I bought a pair of them and brought them home. I have of course cooked thighs before, but they are generally attached to the rest of the bird.

I figured I knew what paired well with turkey, so I would adapt that into my dish. So, Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you...

Braised turkey thighs with cranberries and yams.

This was very simple to make- I hope you will give it a try!
Olive oil
turkey thighs
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/2 onion diced
1 yam, peeled and cut into 2cm cubes.
4 strips of bacon- roughly chopped.
some red wine.


Heat oven to 375

Heat a few T's of olive oil in a pan.

While the oil is heating, rinse your thighs and pat then dry with a paper towel. ( I mean the turkey, If youre headed for the shower right now, you may have misunderstood).

Sear both sides of the thighs. I know this is a method usually employed for osso buco. roasts, and other meats without skin. but I find that browning the skin a bit at the beginning really works well, so please indulge me.

Remove the thighs from the pan (I usually put them in the overturned lid of my pan. so I can just tip them in afterwards) and add the bacon and onions. Cook for about 5 minutes and then add the yams. Cook for 5 more minutes.

Add your red wine to deglaze, and then toss in those cranberries. Put the turkey thighs back into the pan, and put on the lid.

Put it in the oven and let cook for about 1.5 hours.

Take out and enjoy!



Not an hour and a half is a long time to wait for some people between prep and eating, especially with the heavenly smells emanating from the oven.

So I whipped up some of these beauties. I am basically trying to copt the wontons I used to Love at Azia on Nicollet Ave,

Cranberry cream cheese wontons.

1/2 cup cream cheese, softened.
2t thinly sliced green onions.
1/4 cup dried cranberries
wonton wrappers (find them in the produce section. or make your own, whatevs. I don't care)
water
oil

Put the cranberries in a bowl and cover them with boiling water- wait 5 minutes
Drain the cranberries and chop them
Mix with the cream cheese and onions.

put 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of the cream cheese mixture into a wonton wrapper, just off center. Wet your finger with the water to moisten the edge of the wonton wrapper, and fold into a large triangle. Fold the points in across so they overlap.

There are lots of ways to fold wontons , This is just one. Find a way that you like, and do that if you want. I think that this is the best way to fold cheese wontons, but not meat wontons. We'll go there some other time.

Heat your oil in a wok. To find out if the oil is hot enough, put the handle end of a wooden spoon into the oil. If there are bubbles, then your oil is hot enough.

Fry them in batches. let drain on a cooling rack- NOT on paper towels.

These will not last long




Alternately. Omit the onions, and add a dash of cinnamon for a christmassy cocktail party treat!

Happy cooking!