A long time ago and not so far away, Steven and I supped at the home of our friends who are mad gardeners. The wife, an excellent cook as well, served us boneless turkey breast stuffed with kale and mushrooms. It was delicious, and I never forgot it.
An oldie but goodie!
So when the kale craze hit a couple of years ago, I remembered Lisa divulged the recipe was from “The Victory Garden Cookbook” by Marian Morash. I figured I would venture to make it when I was feeling virtuous in the kitchen. You know, someday.
This week, I finally got my hands on a 3-pound boneless breast of turkey ($6.99 per pound) at Whole Paycheck Foods. Now, I’m sure the upscale organic food retailer has them all the time, but I felt like I really scored that day.
My 3-pound boneless turkey breast from Whole Foods
“The Victory Garden Cookbook,” first published in 1982, can be purchased on Amazon.com, but it isn’t available for download on iTunes, iBooks or whatever iName Apple has slapped on its ebook store. Gah!
The only thing left to do, or so I thought, was to go old school. I went to the library.
My own town library “didn’t own the book anymore,” I was told. But if I wanted to drive to Hingham, the helpful librarian said, it is on the shelf there –641.65 MOR. It’s comforting to know the Dewey Decimal System, circa 1876, is still kickin’, isn’t it?
“I got this book as a wedding present,” the Hingham Iibrarian told me as she scanned the label on the book then inserted an old fashion “Date Due” card in a pocket inside. “What are you making?”
I told her, there was some ooohing and aaaahing, and then off I went, book under my arm, to shop for ingredients at the Fruit Center Marketplace and then hit the kitchen…
Marian’s recipe, which I discovered about 5 minutes ago was on Google Books (?) , feeds 6 to 8 people. It also calls for a 4- to 6-pound boneless turkey breast that is much larger than the one I bought – even with some therapeutic pounding with a mallet.
I tweaked the measurements for the stuffing for my half breast but I still had lots left over. (I added more eggs, some shredded low fat cheese and herbs, topped it with Panko breadcrumbs and I called it a casserole. Viola!)
In this recipe, there’s a lot of sautéing, chopping and, my personal favorite, squeezing the water out of the kale even after a five speedy turns in the salad spinner.
Speaking of kale, I didn’t use the super curly variety. I grabbed Lacinato Kale – or Tuscan Kale — only because it looked better than the curly stuff that is ever-so-popular amongst the Hingham yummy mummys for their kale chips.
“Ooooh, they’re soooo much better than potato chips,” I’ve been told.
To borrow a line from Will Ferrell in that classic Christimas flick, “Elf”: “You sit on a throne of lies.”
I want to heave blame on that skinny ass celebrity foodie Gwyneth “Goop” Paltrow for this kale chip craziness, but a friend told me that hatin’ on Gwynnie “is like giving her electrolytes.” So why bother?
But, I digress…
The recipe didn’t call for it, but I added ½ cup of carrots, cut in a small dice, to the stuffing since it desperately needed some color.
Now, the rolling of the turkey breast with the stuffing was not an easy task. However, if I had a whole butterflied breast, like Marian, it would have been much, much easier.
I managed the stuff , tuck ‘n’ roll but had to use wooden skewers to keep the breast somewhat closed. I tied it with kitchen twine, tossed the skewers, and then added four strips of applewood-smoked bacon to the top of the turkey.
According to the recipe, the rolled breast is then wrapped in buttered foil and baked at 425 degrees for 40 minutes. After that, the foil comes off and it bakes at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. However, after a quick poke with the thermometer, my turkey breast needed to cook for an additional 45 minutes.
The turkey was tasty – just as I remembered. And there were plenty of pan juices to keep the meat moist. The next time, I will omit the proscuitto in the stuffing and add bits of cooked bacon instead. I think it would boost the flavor inside the roll. Or perhaps skip the bacon and add chopped garlic to the stuffing.
Hey, the recipe is over 30 years old, it’s time for a good tweak.
I served the kale-stuffed breast with garlicy mashed potatoes and a bit of my extra stuffing kale “casserole” on the side.
‘Victory’ dish? It tasted much better than it looks!
Another dinner Victory!
Tags: cookbooks, cooking, Gwyneth Paltrow, kale, TheVictoryGarden, turkey