Wild Turkey Carnitas – Paper Chef 34
Nov 7th, 2008 | By Hank | Category: Wild Game | Comments | 11 Comments |
I went over the the Paper Chef site earlier this week and saw that Magnus, last month’s winner, has a new set of ingredients is up: Turkey, winter squash, lentils and Anaheim chiles. Ideas started swirling immediately. I tossed about two chief concepts, one French, one Mexican. But then I realized that the turkey I would be using — a wild bird shot last April in a Napa vineyard — was shot by Holly, and Holly loves Mexican food. So Mexican it would be.
I present as my entry to Paper Chef 34, Wild Turkey Carnitas, with an Anaheim chile sauce and a puree of kabocha squash and red lentils cooked in wild turkey broth.
With the exception of the lentils, all of the required ingredients are American, and chiles, squash and turkey are common ingredients in real Mexican cuisine. How to put them together? I decided from the outset to make carnitas, a method typically used with pork and consists of both braising in a flavorful broth and frying. So I browned a couple wild turkey thighs and legs in homemade lard (gotta love lard, plus, it’s what would be in the real Mexican dish), then braised them with juniper berries, coriander, cumin, black pepper, chiles, cinnamon and bay leaves for two hours.
A domestic turkey would have been done at that point, but not Holly’s bird. So I uncovered the pot and simmered it for another 90 minutes, which did the trick. I shredded the meat and fried it in another tablespoon of lard (yay, lard!) until parts were crispy. To finish, I drizzled a little honey and a little orange juice over the turkey and there you have it.
Can I just say that this was fan-tastic! Meaty, deep, sweet-spicy-salty, and still very, very much turkey. As I am sure you can see, wild turkey is a darker meat than domestic. The spices and browning darkened it a bit more, so it almost looks like barbacoa.
It was a no-brainer to make a simple Anaheim chile sauce. I fire-roasted the Anaheims, peeled and seeded them, then ran them all through a food processor with a little salt and a little olive oil. Done. Delicious. Clean, and just a little spicy. Our Anaheims are stronger this year because we’re in a drought.
As for the side, I knew I wanted to make a squash puree, so choosing red lentils would work well — they are almost the same color. I simmered them together in some homemade wild turkey broth, then buzzed them with a “boat motor” immersion blender.
This dish was a happy accident. I really only put them together to meet the requirements of the challenge, but the starchy earthiness of the lentils adds a huge dimension to the sweet richness of the kabocha squash. If you do this, I suggest two-thirds kabocha to one-third lentils by weight. All you need is a good stock or broth and some salt.
To finish the dish, I wanted to play the orange and green off each other, so I chose chives from the garden for the kabocha-lentil puree, and some zest from the orange I juiced for the carnitas. All in all, I think this worked pretty well. Hope you like it!
If you’re interested, here’s how you make the turkey carnitas. My friend Elise has another recipe for carnitas here.
Mmm, lard.
Wild turkey sounds like it’s a lot tastier than farm-raised.
This looks great and I wish I had been there to eat it Hank!
Damn that looks good. Follow your meal with the persimmon tarte tatin on “Tartelette.” Yum freakin’ yum.
Hank, to be honest, I have not had much exposure to Mexican food but this turkey preparation sounds scrumptious. I particularly like the fact that you used a wild bird. Did Holly wear a Pilgrim hat and use a bluderbuss when she bagged it? LOL
Very impressive. You did an outstanding job with your flavors. I would love to try some.
Wonderful. You put a lot of thought and work into your meal. Very tasty indeed.
Wow, this sounds FABulous!
Hi Hank! I’m a big fan of your blog. I have been having a bit of a turkey debate here in Germany and I figured you would be the guy to ask. One of my German friends maintains that the meat from male and female turkeys is very different, whereas I (an American) maintain that the meat from either bird would be extremely similar. Any insights?
JA: The meat will not taste wildly different, but testosterone does affect meat flavor — this is why meat from a big rutting buck will never be as tasty as that from a nice doe.
Mind you, I have not done a side-by-side taste test, but I bet a tom in mating season will be a bit gnarlier than a hen or a jake. Out of mating season, I bet there is no difference — except the tom may be older and tougher…
Thanks, Hank! You have my quest for a normal Thanksgiving that much easier.
[...] Hank from Hunter Angler Gardener Cook came up with a Wild Turkey Carnitas made of a turkey not shot by him but Holly – a woman that would scare the shit out of me. Read the part of snake shooting on her blog and you will understand what I am talking about. The link you will find in Hank’s entry. [...]