Sunday, November 25, 2007

Improvised Ground Turkey Soft Tacos with Mole

I threw this together sort of in a hurry tonight - but it came out unusually well. I heated canola oil in a nonstick saute pan - and added half an onion minced, .5 t ground dried cayenne pepper, about the same amount of cumin, and about half that amoutn of cinnamon. After this mixture cooked for a few minutes and the onions became soft, I added about .5 lb. of ground turkey - and a bit more olive oil to keep things sizzling. After the turkey browned, I turned the heat down and added 1 pressed garlic clove, about half a small fresh chili pepper finely diced 2 T of mole sauce from trader joes, ans about 1/4 c water. I stirred, turned the heat down to a a simmer, covered, and let it simmer for about 20 minutes while some black beans and rive from a Vigo bag cooked.

I made salsa as follows: 1 med hot house tomato, the other half of the onion, about a t of cayenne powder, 3/4 t of cumin, juice from 1/4 of a lime, a tiny piece of lime rind cut into very small bits, about a t of tomato paste, about 1.5 of white vinegar, salt, one cube of frozen cilantro from trader joes, some frozen corn I had in the freezer, and a pressed garlic clove. I mixed all of this in a bowl - it tasted OK but was funny looking - so I ran it through a food processor.

I took one avocado and removed the flesh to the bowl of a masher - and added a T of the salsa, plus a bunch of salt, more pressed garlic, and more chili or cayenne powder.

I also throw some pomegranate seeds into the turkey and the salsa - since they were in a bowl nearby. (ok in the salsa - not noticeable in the turkey)

The turkey simmered with the mole sauce was very good. This is worth repeating. The soft tacos - assembled with the turkey, salsa, guac, black beans and rice, and cheddar cheese (grated) and shredded lettuce - (served on a tortilla steamed in the microwave in a plastic zip lock bag with a moist paper towel in it) were very good.