Low Fat Turkey Burritos

BASIC RECIPE:

Dice 1/2 onion

dice 5-6 cloves of garlic

1-1 1/4 lbs. lean ground turkey

1 Tbl. cocoa powder <-- (secret ingredient)

2-3 Tbl. chili powder

2 15 oz. cans of small red beans, rinsed

1 32 oz can of dice tomato with the juice

1-2 Tbl flour

Saute the diced onions and garlics with the meat until cooked, then drain off the grease. Add cocoa powder, chili powder, beans, and tomatoes, cook until done. Drain off a bit of the juice and blend with flour until smooth, add back to the chili. Warm burrito-size flour tortillas (maybe whole wheat?) & wrap chili mixture in tortilla with yogurt and hot sauce, serve. Leftovers keep well in the fridge and microwave or heat in skillet later.

Another burrito recipe: Get lean ground beef and diced onion and saute until done while liberally adding ground coriander. Wrap and serve.

And another: Take your tortilla and spread garlic hummus, fat-free refried beans, salsa fresca, and Sriracha hot sauce and microwave until hot. Works on corn tortillas as well as the flour ones.

Whole Wheat with Kalamata, Pine Nuts, Rosemary and Roasted Garlic

Well here it is going into the oven. I reviewed the bread recipe from Tassajara Bread Book. To make the sponge I used 3 cups warm water, 1 1/2 tablespoons dry yeast, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 4 cups ww flour, and let it rise for 15 minutes, then came back in with the rest of the ingredients, and added 2-3 cups organic unbleached white until it was about right, then let it try to double again but got tired of waiting so into the oven it went. The idea is to serve this hot with olive oil and balsamic vinegar; try to avoid using butter - actually don't have any right now anyway.

Pizza with Onion, Shallot, & Garlic Sauce

Dice the fresh onions (I use Vidalia, Walla Walla, Oso Sweet or other), fresh shallots, and fresh garlic and saute in olive oil until edges turn brown. Start with the onions, as you dice the shallots very fine, add them, then thin slice the garlic cloves. Add brown sugar or other natural sweetener to aid the browning process. Properly formulated, this makes a sticky sauce to spread over pizza about half an inch thick. Saute some sliced mushrooms and maybe some cooked quartered artichoke hearts. Pictured are Kalamata olive and chopped asparagus.

My advice - don't skip on the shallots or garlic. Dice the shallots until "grits" size - they have a bit too much fiber. At minimum use mushrooms and olives in my opinion. Make sure all ingredients are cooked before putting them on the pizza. I use the nice pizza oven stone and the wooden pizza "peel" so I have to work quickly.

The pizza bread is really much more water than bread normally has. It would be very sticky if not kept coated in flour. If the water and flour ratio is right you can work a little whole wheat into the recipe no problem.

Artisan Whole Wheat Boule

3 cups organic whole wheat flour 

3 cups unbleached organic white flour (or 2-4 cups actually) 

3 cups of warm water

3 teaspoons of yeast

2 tsp brown sugar

Put a stopper in kitchen sink. Fill the pottery (works best as the clay body retains more heat than glass or metal) bread bowl with hot water, fill sink with hot water, dump hot water out of bread bowl into sink, replace with 3 cups of warm (98.6 degrees F., or body temperature) water. Melt brown sugar then yeast in water and whisk in 3 cups of flour. Let it set and rise for about 15 minutes. Then remove bowl from sink and add flour while mixing with strong wodden spoon. The exact amount of flour varies BECAUSE flour in not a uniform product. There are many types of flour and all of them are sold under the same label, in this case, "organic whole wheat" and "unbleached organic white". You add flour while stirring until mixture is no longer sticky and comes away nicely from the side of the bowl. The next step is to knead, and too sticky will not knead well, so you have to use your judgement. If you add too much flour, the bread will not rise well. Transfer the dough to the floured counter top and knead 100 times (approx) or until the gluten makes the dough very buoyant and responsive. In the mean time you have filled the sink with fresh hot water and place the mixing bowl back in it. Flour the outside of dough well and put it back into the floured bowl to rise. Preheat oven to 350. Dough should double in size. Place the round dough on a sheet and into the oven for 45-50 minutes.

Variations: knead in raisins, cinnamon, walnuts, brown sugar. Or try fresh chopped garlic grits, fresh diced rosemary and pitted kalamata olives. The latter can be dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar rather than buttered when done.

Mushrooms sauteed in butter, garlic, and de-glazed with white wine