All in Good Food

Ok call me crazy but last week I was craving oatmeal raisin walnut cookies and banana nut bread at the same time. So I decided to combine the two into one recipe. For this recipe I went to my tried and true Oatmeal Cookie Jiffy Mix. As you may know from my other oatmeal cookie recipe this mix lends itself to a variety of experimental cookies. You will get roughly 18-20 cookies out of this recipe.

Ingredients:

1 box Oatmeal Cookie Jiffy Mix
1 egg
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 very ripe medium banana mashed to a baby food consistency
1/4 cup chopped walnuts (can increase if desired)

The other day I was feeling a little inspired and wanted to try out some new recipes. I have to admit I’m not good at recipe writing because I cook from feel most of the time. Yeah I know that is not good if the dish comes out tasty because how can I duplicate it if I don’t have it written down. Well most of the time I do take pictures of every step and try to write everything down immediately after. Well for this recipe I forgot to write everything down and I did not take a photo of every step. So here is my attempt at remembering what I did.

When I do cook by recipe I like recipes that have very few ingredients because I believe there is less chance for mistakes then. I believe it is important for someone who is cooking a recipe for the first time to get it as accurate as possible to have a baseline to go from when you attempt to tweak it to suit your own tastes. So when I create something I usually keep the original recipe down to only a few ingredients with room for expansion.

The other day I was looking for something different. Recently I have been trying to stay away from a lot of fried foods in an attempt to take off a few pounds but I began craving something fried. However instead of going out to a fast food place I decided to make something at home. That way I can control the ingredients that will go into it.

I went into my pantry and found that I had some zucchini that I bought for another project. I didn’t want it to go bad so I decided to experiment with some dishes. The first one I made I won’t mention now because it came out less than stellar. Then I decided to add some to some ground turkey along with some shredded cheese I had and it was on. Here is the result of my labor.

Ingredients
1 lb ground turkey
1/2 cup finely shredded zucchini
1/2 cup shredded cheese
1 1/2 cup of panko breadcrumbs
1 1/2 cups of vegetable oil

Seasonings
Salt
Pepper
1/2 teaspoon seasoning salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (optional)

Batter
1 Egg
8 teaspoons cold water
4 tablspoons of flour

Note that all of the seasoning is approximated because I very rarely measure except when I am baking. I will update this post the next time I make this dish with true measurements (I hope ;~)).

Directions

1. Combine ground turkey, shredded zucchini and shredded cheese then season to taste. Mix well

2. Take about 1 teaspoon full of the mix and create small patties. Place them on a plate and cover them with wax paper and place in the refrigerator to chill and firm up for about 30 minutes. The firming not absolutely necessary but I find it makes the patties easier to handle when putting into the batter and panko bread crumbs.

Note I used the following method to create my patties for this recipe. (see photo below)

Wax paper roll method:

· Tear off a piece of wax paper about 12 inches long.
· Take mixture from the bowl and form it into a rough sausage shape.
· Place on the wax paper about 5 inches from the end.
· Place the end of the wax paper over the turkey roll leaving a short edge you will use to hold on to.
· With a cutting board place it against the roll on top of the wax paper and pull to form a tight even roll.
· Then roll up in the remainder of the wax paper, twist the ends closed and stick it in your freezer to chill and firm up for about 20 minutes.
· Once chilled remove wax paper and place on a cutting board. With a very sharp knife cut off even slices about 1/2 inch thick.

3. Once the patties are chilled make the batter and in another bowl put the panko bread crumbs for breading the patties.

4. Combine the egg, cold water and flour in a bowl and mix well. Also this is the time to turn on your skillet to heat the oil. Note I did not give a temperature amount for the oil because I know that every cook surface is different. I place mine to medium heat and that worked for me. Please experiment with one patty to check to see if you temperature is right.

5. Dip the patty into the batter covering it and then place it in a bowl filled with the panko bread crumbs.

6. Cover the patties with the bread crumbs and set them aside on wax paper the set.

7. Place no more than 3 patties in at a time so as there is not a significant drop in the temperature of the oil.