Hello Friends!

Thanks for your patience, everyone – we had a couple weekends where we had obligations other than cooking and doing restaurant reviews… but we’ll have a few posts going up over the next week or so.

We’re going to continue our journey through the amazing cookbook Jerusalem by London chefs Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi.  Last time we did a delicious vegetable dish – Mr. Ottolenghi’s specialty – but now we look at how they tackle meat dishes.  The cookbook tackles all sorts of meat – chicken, beef and lamb mostly (not pork, for obvious reasons).  But we’ll start with a meat that is very difficult to really make delicious – turkey.

We all see those packages of ground turkey in the stores, but we’ve all also had very sad ground turkey dishes, haven’t we?  Tasteless turkey burgers, dry turkey meatloaf, dense turkey meatballs.  Because ground turkey doesn’t have much fat – and, let’s be honest, much flavor – it takes some creativity to make it juicy and flavorful.  Turns out the solutions to the fat/flavor deficits are (1) vegetables and (2) herbs.  And lots of them.  Later I’ll post Jerusalem’s revolutionary take on the beef meatball in a later post.  Here, we’ll look at the use of zucchini.

Zucchini (a/k/a courgettes, summer squash) are funny vegetables and, frankly, not one of my favorites.  I find it often tasteless, starchy and bitter.  Then I discovered WHITE zucchini (a/k/a courgettes blanches – peut-etre).  Revelation.  More tender, less bitter – almost sweet.  They do tend to be smaller and thicker, but now I use white zucchini in all recipes that call for the regular, dark green ones.

The trick with these “burgers” – really, flat meatballs – is that they are quite delicate and fall apart if not treated gently.  I strongly recommend using a non-stick skillet – using a regular pan turns these into turkey-zucchini sloppy joes.  I recommend trying to keep these the same thickness throughout, even at the edges.  And you must make the delicious sauce that goes with it – I think if the Halal Guys have shown us anything, is that truly extraordinary Middle-Eastern food requires some variety of WHITE SAUCE.

Let’s cook!

Ingredients:

The Burgers/Meatballs:

• 1 pound ground turkey (regular, not all breast meat)
• 1 large zucchini or two small white zucchini, grated (not too finely)
• 1 egg
• 3 green onions, thinly sliced
• 2 cloves crushed garlic
• 2 tablespoons chopped mint
• 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

The White Sauce:

• ½ cup sour cream (low fat is fine) – OK to omit if you don’t have
• 2/3 cup Greek yogurt (low fat or fat-free is fine)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• 1 clove crushed garlic
• 1 ½ tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon sumac (or 1 teaspoon sweet paprika)
• ½ teaspoon salt
• A couple turns of black pepper

Instructions:

1. Make the burgers by combining all the ingredients and mixing by hand. The burgers should be pretty small and not too thin – try to make them even widths all the way to the edges. [See photo].  Put a paper towel on top of them while you do other steps – moisture is the enemy of a good burger.
2. Make the sauce by combining all the ingredients.
3. Preheat the over to 425 degrees. Get out a baking sheet and put parchment or waxed paper on it.
4. Pour 5-6 tablespoons of oil (canola or vegetable – NOT olive oil) in a NON-STICK skillet and put over medium-high heat.
5. Fry the burgers (about 2 minutes each side) in small batches. Get them nice and brown on both sides (see photo below).  When done, put on the parchment paper.
6. When you’re done frying them, your oven should be ready so put the burgers in the over and bake them for 7 minutes.
7. Remove and serve with the sauce and a salad of your choice.

A few handy tips:

• As noted, moisture is the enemy of getting a nice brown crust, so feel free to use paper towels to dry the burgers before you GENTLY put them into the oil.
• Do not overcrowd the burgers. You need room to flip them with your spatula, and overcrowding also cools down the oil so you don’t get a nice crust.
• Sumac is a really lovely spice – tart and herbal – but feel free to omit and put some paprika or another mild herb of your choice. Cumin or coriander would be nice.  I think a little red pepper on top makes it look pretty.
• Zest your lemon before you juice it. Seems obvious, but I forget all the time.
• Use fresh herbs. I like to chop some of the rest and put it in the salad.
• I usually make about 14-16 burgers with this amount.  Here is what they look like before cooking: