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Mar-A-Lago Turkey Burgers for Real People

When I saw that this recipe calls for 4 pounds of ground turkey meat, only yields 8 burgers, and only serves 6, I knew something was awry. That's a lot of damn burger. No wonder we're all getting fat! I don't care if it is a turkey burger, it's still a half a pound of meat, and it's all about portions, people. Oprah will be the first one to tell us that. When she raved about this turkey burger, I had it in the back of my head for quite some time to make them, and I'm so glad I finally did.

First, I've retooled the recipe to actually work for real people servings. My recipe yields 5 burgers, which should do just fine for a regular dinner for 3-5 people. Double my recipe, and you'll have moist, delicious turkey burgers for 10 at your next summer grillout. The recipe at oprah's site calls for too much meat, plain and simple.

The second important tweak I made was to puree the sauteed ingredients to make the burger more palatable to kids. The last thing that Daughter needs to see are fruits and vegetable chunks tucked into her burger. She has a palate that even the executive chef at Mar-a-Lago would have a hard time pleasing.

Oprah did get it right when she said this may be the best turkey burger she's ever had. It's a damn fine burger, and very easy to make.

Mar-A-Lago Turkey Burgers For Real People

1/8 cup finely sliced green onions

1/3 cup finely chopped celery

2 Granny Smith apples, peeled and diced

2 tablespoons olive oil or grapeseed oil for sauteeing

1 pack of ground turkey breast (which is usually 1.25 lbs)

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon fresh black pepper

1 teaspoon of tabasco sauce

Juice of half a lemon

1/2 teaspoon of lemon zest

1/4 cup Major Grey's Chutney, remove the raisins or puree the chutney if you like

Saute the green onions, celery, and apples in the grapeseed oil until soft, about 8 minutes. Let cool. Pour sauteed ingredients into the mini-food processor and puree so that the major chunks are gone.

Put the ground turkey into a large mixing bowl. Add the pureed items, salt, pepper, tabasco, lemon juice and zest, and Major Grey's chutney. Mix and form into evenly shaped burgers with an indentation in the middle to prevent the burgers from getting puffy when grilled. Refrigerate for up to two hours.

Before grilling, season turkey burgers with additional salt and pepper as desired. Grill each side for 5-6 minutes or until meat is thoroughly cooked. Let sit for 5 minutes. Serve on GF buns, add cheese, whatever your pleasure.

Thanks to Jeff O'Neill for this original recipe, so delicious and ready to be tweaked for a smaller family.

Hearty Tomato and Pasta Soup

Make a pot of this, feed the people for days. Adapted from Giada's recipe to be gluten-free and less soupy/more stewy. Eat it. Preferably with a Croque Monsieur.

Hearty Tomato and Pasta Soup
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 carrots, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 (26-ounce) jar marinara sauce (I use Classico b/c it's easy to get)
1 box of chicken broth
1 (15-ounce) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 cup GF pasta (Tinkyada is the bestest!)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Parmesan for serving

Warm the olive oil in a large soup pot over medium-high heat. Add the carrots, onion, and garlic and sweat them until soft, about 3-5 minutes. Add the jar of marinara sauce, chicken broth, cannellini beans, red pepper flakes, pasta, salt and pepper. Simmer for 30 minutes to thicken into a heartier soup. Ladle into bowls and serve with fresh grated parmesan.

Croque Monsieur

Making a GF replacement for the world's second most decadent sandwich (the first is of course the Monte Cristo) was surprisingly easy. GF roux and GF bread. If you have a loaf of GF bread on hand and your trusty GF baking mix in the pantry, Croque Monsieurs are easy to do. For bread, I'm really liking the pre-made loaf that you can find in the little GF Freezer section at Whole Foods. It costs $7 for the loaf, but I make it last for the entire month, and it reminds me of my favorite bread growing up, that super thin Pepperidge Farm sandwich bread that my mother never bought because it was too expensive. I had a boss lady in my early 20's who kept a loaf of that perfect Pepperidge Farm bread on hand, and I would make a fresh tomato and aged cheddar sandwich every day at work. Since I ran all of her errands, I made sure she was never short on bread, cheese, or tomatoes.

While in France, I marveled at the variety of Croque Monsieur and Madame sandwiches. I loved how every bistro and brasserie had their own house version, just like our gastropubs and bars pride themselves on their own house burgers. The variations on the Croque Monsieur are endless, and my recipe is based on Ina Garten's perfect Croque Monsieur boilerplate, which I then cut in half, tweaked, and made GF. Great part is that I made sandwiches for Husband and Daughter on regular sourdough bread while keeping mine GF without any trouble. This is the ultimate comfort food.

Croque Monsieur

1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons GF baking flour/mix
1 cup hot milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Pinch nutmeg
2 1/2 cups grated Gruyere
1/2 cup grated Parmesan (do not halve this ingredient--love the Parm!)
8-10 slices of sandwich bread (depends on the size of your bread)
Dijon mustard
1 pack of prosciutto, speck, VA ham, westphalian ham, whatever suits you (I used Speck, my favorite)

Preheat oven to 400.

Heat milk in little saucepan, but turn off heat before milk gets foamy.

In separate saucepan, melt the butter over low heat and add the flour, stirring with a wooden spoon for 2 minutes to make a roux. Slowly add in the hot milk, whisking constantly until the sauce is thickened. Remove from heat and whisk in the salt, pepper, nutmeg, 1/2 a cup of the Gruyere, and the Parmesan. Mix the cheese sauce well and set aside.

Toast the bread slices in the oven for 5 minutes on a baking sheet. Turn over the slices and toast in the oven for another 2-3 minutes, or as preferred.

Lightly spread half the toasted bread slices with the mustard and add a slice of ham to each. Top with half of the remaining Gruyere. Top with the other slice of toasted bread and slather the tops of the sandwiches with the cheese sauce. Sprinkle the reamining Gruyere on top and bake the sandwiches for 5 minutes. Turn on the broiler and broild the sandwiches for 3-5 minutes, until the top of the sandwich is bubbly and lightly browned.

Frankly, I didn't make it to the last broiler step because the Croque Monsieurs looked so good, we just needed to start eating them.

Food.com Beta Site

Just signed up for the new food.com website, which is supposed to aggregate recipes from all the biggie food websites.

Thanks, TechCrunch!

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/01/online-recipe-search-engine-foodcom-is-the-kayakcom-for-recipes/