Relleno Negro Black Turkey Stew Food

RELLENO NEGRO (BLACK TURKEY STEW)

Steps:

• For the recado negro paste: Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
• In a skillet over high heat, char the arbol chiles until black on all sides, about 5 minutes.
• Meanwhile, heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat and saute the garlic and onions until translucent. Add the tomatoes and season with salt and pepper. Continue cooking for 5 minutes. Set aside.
• In a blender, blend the charred chiles with the coarse salt, cumin, allspice, cloves, garlic and oregano. Add a little water and blend until a paste forms. Remove from the blender and pour into the pot of boiling water. Add the tomato mixture and the turkey. Let simmer until the turkey is fall-off-the-bone tender, about 2 hours.
• For the "boot": Mix the meat with the garlic, onions and tomatoes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add the cooked egg whites, raw egg and epazote. Form a large meatball with the cooked egg yolks in the middle. Wrap and bind in cheesecloth. Add to the broth during the last hour of cooking the turkey.
• Remove the "boot" and unwrap the cheesecloth. Cut into slices. Remove the turkey, and carve. Serve one slice of the "boot" with a few pieces of turkey and spoon over some of the recado negro paste. Eat with tortillas.

CILANTRO-LIME LEFTOVER TURKEY STEW

Steps:

• This recipe takes two days to make, not continuous work mind you, but short periods of intense activity, separated by many hours of slothful relaxation. There are two main phases, the first is to make the meaty Turkey broth base, the second, to make the complete stew.
• PHASE - I.
• Secure a large crock pot or conventional pot of at least six quarts capacity. If you do not have one, procure one from a neighbor. A handgun may be helpful if they are not very cooperative (sorry - I forgot to add that to the ingredients list - my bad).
• Take the Turkey carcass and violently rip it limb-from-limb until it fits into your pot. If you are timid, find another more "PC" recipe, you pretender!.
• Fill the pot with ordinary water to cover the Turkey. I typically use five to six quarts. No fancy froo-froo water from places like France is needed. If you think you need it anyway, then get the hell out of Dodge and find another recipe!
• Slice the carrot into less than 1/8" slices and put into the pot. Strain the garlic cloves finely and put in pot. Add 1 Tbsp of the dried Celery leaves. Put the pot on the stovetop on low heat for 3 to 4 hours, or until the meat simply falls off the bone. DO NOT boil, just use slow heat with a few bubbles rising. Boiling will kill the flavor. A large crockpot can also be used.
• After truning off the heat, let the pot cool down for an hour, and then place it into the fridge overnight. I do this so the fat in the broth will rise to the top and harden, so it can be easily removed in the morning. Leaving the fat in this stew will inflate your waistline -- as if the beer you drink isn't doing enough!
• PHASE - II.
• The next morning, get the pot from the fridge and skim off the fat from the top with a large spoon. Then you will have to get your hands dirty. If you have recently changed the oil in your bike, you better scrub up but good. Clean hands are a must. Separate the meat from the bones by hand. I set up two large bowls, one for bones and gristle, the other for cleaned Turkey meat. Remove the meat and bones from the pot and separate into the two bowls until there is only broth left in the pot. Put the remnants of the skin, the carrot slices, and anything that looks funny to you in the bone bowl.
• Toss what is in the bone bowl into the trash or out the window if you have no trash can. Next go through the meat bowl and cut up any large chunks of meat with a knife. I like to chop it in the direction of the muscle fibers so you leave long shreds of meat. That makes things interesting in the bowl when eating, unlike the factory-made stuff you get in cans. For six quarts of soup use about 1-1/2 quarts of shredded Turkey. If you have more meat than that, set it aside and use it for burrito filling. If you use more meat it becomes too thick.
• Place the pot of broth on the stove and start to heat it slowly. Put the burner on medium heat to start, no hurry now. Toss in the turkey from the meat bowl, open the cans of sweet corn, drain them of water, and put the corn into the pot. Then open the can of tomatoes and put it all into the pot without draining.
• Slice the onions and peppers into strips, less than 1/4 inch wide and at least 1-1/2 inches long. Do not finely chop, unless you want to make a bland uninteresting chowder. Brown the onions and peppers in a large pan in oil. Hey! Don't use a lot of oil, this is a low fat recipe. Turn the sliced veggies so they don't burn, yet get a bit brown on the edges. Then dump them into the pot.
• Next add the rest of the dried Celery leaves, the Ancho Chili Powder, the Coriander, and Cayenne. Stir well.
• Then wait for the pot to start bubbling. NOT BOILING -- just slowly bubbling. While you are waiting for this, squeeze the juice from the Limes into a bowl. Then thoroughly wash about 2/3 of the bunch of Cilantro and strip the leaves from the stems with a knife. The remaining 1/3 bunch will be used later as garnish when serving.
• When the pot starts to bubble, turn the heat down to low and add 3/4 of the Lime Juice and the Cilantro leaves. DO NOT BOIL. If your pot is not full to six quarts capacity, now is the time to add more water. This recipe is for six quarts of stew. Now add salt to taste. I usually end up adding about 1+ level Tbsp, but you might like it different.
• Cover the pot and let it very slowly bubble for 1 to 1-1/2 hours. If it bubbles vigorously, turn the heat down even more. Stir it up about every ten minutes or so so it all gets well mixed together. Then about 10 minutes before the end add the remaining Lime juice. This is the time to taste it to see if you need more salt, lime or other ingredients to taste. After you take the pot off the heat, let it sit about 30 minutes to let the flavors blend and develop more. With this stew, the longer you wait, the better it gets.
• Serve it up in large bowls. I like to add a few tbsp of salsa verde and a large dollop of sour cream in the middle of each bowl. Don't stir it in, just plunk it into the bowl. This adds a bit of temperature and flavor contrast to the stew. Then garnish with the rest of the Cilantro.
• And hey, there is not need to eat it right away! This stew is even better after you cool it in the fridge for a day and reheat. If you don't have hungry guests that need to eat right away, set it aside, and go for a ride instead. It will be even better the next day.

TURKEY STEW

Steps:

• Dissolve the bouillon in the hot water to make a broth; set aside.
• Place the turkey meat, turkey bone, all the vegetables, flour, both rices, spices and chicken broth in a large kettle or Dutch oven
• Add as much of the 4 cups water as you prefer for desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper.
• Simmer over low heat for 30 to 45 minutes, or until the carrots and celery are tender and the turkey meat is heated through.
• Remove the turkey bone before serving stew.
• NOTE - you can easily use pasta in place of the rice. Just omit both the white and wild rices, and add about 1 cup uncooked egg noodles (or other pasta).
• TIP - I like to use a combination of white and dark meat when making this turkey stew, as I think it produces a much tastier stew. But you could easily use only white or only dark meat, to suit your taste buds.
• TIP - if you're watching your sodium intake, you can easily omit the chicken buillon cube in hot water and replace it with 1 cup of low-sodium canned chicken broth. For our health, we should consider this option but we are die-hard fans of this recipe and haven't been able to bring ourselves to do that -- at least not yet!

LEFTOVER TURKEY STEW

Steps:

• In small Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium-high heat.
• Saute onions until soft, about 4 minutes.
• Add carrots, celery and rutabaga. Cover tightly and cook over medium-high heat ~10 minutes.
• Add the stock and bay leaf. Cover and cook the stew for 10 minutes.
• Add the apple and sweet potato, thyme and sage. Cover and simmer until the vegetables are done ~15 minutes.
• Once the veggies are soft, take about half out and blend them with a hand mixer with one more cup of chicken broth. Stir back into veggie mix, add turkey, cranberries, 1/2 cup half-and-half, and heat through.
• Serve with cooked noodles or rice.

SINGAPORE TURKEY STEW

Steps:

• In a large bowl, mix ground turkey, five spice, chili flakes and salt; shape mixture into 1-inch balls; pour flour onto a large plate and roll balls in flour to coat lightly.
• Pour oil into a 4-5 qt nonstick pan over medium-high heat; add meatballs in a single layer; cook, turning often, until lightly browned all over and barely pink in the center, about 5-7 minutes; using a slotted spoon, transfer to a plate.
• Add garlic and ginger to pan and stir until fragrant, about 30 seconds; add coconut milk, broth and meatballs; bring to a simmer.
• Adjust heat to maintain a simmer, cover and cook until meatballs are no longer pink in the center, about 5 minutes.
• Stir in bok choy, baby corn, tomatoes, water chestnuts, green onions, and lime juice and cook, stirring often, until bok choy leaves are wilted and stems are barely tender to bite, about 5 minutes.
• Sprinkle with cilantro and serve from the pan.