Half-Guilt Turkey Cubano

Another oldie but a goodie.

Turkey Cubano made with Toufayan Low-Carb Sandwich Wrap, leftover Pavochon, Pickles, Low-Fat Swiss Cheese, and Hot Vinegar Peppers with a side of Boriqua Slaw. Click on the photo to enlarge.

Every Thanksgiving I look forward to the Turkey Leftover sandwiches — but this year, as we made Pavochon, I decided to raise the Turkey Sandwich to the next level: The Half-Guilt Cubano.

Also Read: Make Your Own Cuban Sandwiches

A legit Sandwich Cubano has to be made with roast pork — but if you’ve got leftover Pavochon, you’ve got the next best thing. Simply get yourself a low-carb sandwich wrap, set down a layer of Pavochon, sliced pickles, low-fat Swiss Cheese, a couple of vinegar hot peppers and you’re ready to go. If you just have regular leftover roast turkey, make some of Daisy’s Wet Adobo and use it as a condiment on the plain turkey. Wrap it up and smash it flat, grab your non-stick frying pan, and coat with a small amount of olive oil. Fry on medium heat for 3 minutes per side until heated through and the wrap gets nice and crispy.

I like these so much I may be making Pavochon full-time.

Thanksgiving at Daisy’s

Here’s one of our best Thanksgivings ever. We’re bumping this post up in case you want some great holiday ideas.

This year, Rachel and I were invited to our friend Daisy’s house for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a time for celebrating family traditions, and like many families, Daisy Martinez’s yearly observance of the holiday is one of integrating her American-ness with her cultural identity, which is Puerto Rican and Latino.

Turkey (“Pavo” in Latin-American Spanish) the iconic American centerpiece of Thanksgiving, has also been integrated into Puerto Rican culture as Pavochon, which was probably created by New York Puerto Rican immigrants (“Newyoriquens“) between 50 and 70 years ago as an affordable substitute for roast pork, or Lechon, for Christmas.

Related: A Jewish Puerto Rican Thanksgiving

Like Lechon, Pavochon is rubbed with a garlic, salt/pepper and oregano wet adobo and marinated for over 24 hours and then roasted. This one was marinated for 48. In the last half a century, Pavochon has since been imported back to Puerto Rico,  is a popular dish eaten throughout the year and is served alongside Lechon in the central Guavate region.

Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below for more.

A Grant Achatz Thanksgiving

PART 1

PART 2

Sous Vide… Turkey. With stuffing that doesn’t suck. By Chef Grant Achatz of Chicago’s Alinea Restaurant with Alinea partner Nick Kokonas.

Giving Thanks to Linux and Open Source

When you think of Thanksgiving, what images come into your mind? If you’re a typical American and have visions of Norman Rockwell paintings engraved into your consciousness like the rest of us, it’s Roast Turkey, mom’s doctored Pepperidge Farm Stuffing (Just say no to Stove-Top!), cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie, naturally. Which ends of course with the usual gut-busting feeling from over eating accompanied by the eventual belt-loosening and football watching on grandma’s couch. Aaaaaaaaaaah.

But this year, I’ve decided to switch gears. I’m going to be doing my turkey Puerto Rican style — Pavochon Ahumada rubbed with garlic adobo and smoked over hardwood for several hours on my Weber Bullet, ditching the stuffing for Arroz con Gandules, and am giving thanks to a different bird — the Penguin, and everyone who made him possible.

Click to read the rest of this article at Linux Magazine.

Wrappin’ Them Turkey Leftovers

If you’re like the average American family, you’ve got a lot of leftover Turkey. There are the obvious ways of getting rid of it — Turkey Tetrazzini (fattening although this Tyler Florence version looks like it has some potential to be improved) Thanksgiving Sandwiches (Turkey with stuffing, cranberry sauce and gravy on a sandwich, delicious and also fattening).

Turkey, in both ground and breast forms, has now become a staple in our household. It’s high in protein and relatively low in fat, and can be transformed for use in a number of adaptive dishes. We go through about a whole Turkey breast every week, because I’m now “brown bagging” it for lunch. My typical lunch these days is the Monster Wrap, which ends up working out to only a few dollars per sandwich. If I had to buy the equivalent sandwich in downtown NYC, I’d probably have to pay 3 or 4 times that amount and I wouldn’t have as much control over the quality of ingredients I put into it. I like wraps because you can stuff them full of protein and vegetables, and it takes up relatively little real estate in my laptop bag. Unlike a regular sandwich, getting a little compressed or smushed in the bag doesn’t really affect the quality of the product once its time to eat it either. I don’t have to bring any containers with me — just wrap the sucker in aluminum foil, and I’m good to go.

Toufayan is a NJ-based commercial bakery that supplies much of the wraps for use in delicatessen and catering applications. If you live in the Northern NJ area, you can actually go to the bakery and buy their goods fresh. They make a number of flavors, many of which you can get in your local supermarket. The larger ones they use for food-service size, however, might be difficult to get. In particular, I like the large multigrain wraps since they have more complex carbohydrates in them, so we get them straight from the factory.

Fresh Spinach is a great vegetable to use in wraps. Unless you plan to eat a wrap immediately, you want to avoid high water content vegetables like lettuce because they’ll get your wrap wet and gummy if its going to sit in your bag or briefcase for a few hours. Arugula is a nice vegetable to use as well.

Line wrap with mustard or your favorite spread, such as babaghanoush, ajvar, salsa, or hummus. Place lots of turkey over the bed of spinach. Add tomatoes and sprouts, liberally season with salt and fresh cracked pepper.

Wrap it up!

Eat!

Ch-Ch-Chhhaaaaanges (and Low-Carb Sides for Turkey Day)

I’m sure many of you have been wondering where all the delicious Off The Broiler posts have gone in the last month or so. While I could make a number of excuses about how my new job and my current consulting gig on Wall Street has limited my WordPress and stomach time, the reality is that as of about a month ago, for a number of reasons of a personal nature, I — along with my wife Rachel — underwent major lifestyle changes. I decided that after being obese for 20-something years that I had finally had enough and I was going to do everything I could to eat and live better. This included major changes to my diet as well as starting an exercise regimen, as well as enlisting the services of our new personal trainer and natural bodybuilder Dustin DeMercurio who you will be hearing a lot more about in the future.

I’ve thought about how this was going to impact the blog, and what it was going to do to my reader base, who is used to seeing the likes of overstuffed fatty deli sandwiches, chili dogs, pizza, and any number of things that for the lack of a better description, I can no longer eat, or at least not in quantities exceeding tasting size portions. I seriously thought about shutting Off The Broiler down for good, and perhaps starting a new blog focused on cooking, eating and living healthy. But then I realized that Off The Broiler was my brand, and realized I could still continue to make the content interesting and creative, the food delicious, and of course the pictures appealing. And I am sure many of you are in the same predicament I am in.

So the blog is going to change in a fairly organic way — whatever I am cooking and eating will still strive to be delicious, but we also don’t want to promote an un-healthy lifestyle either – and aside from some backlogged content we have that we are going to be releasing that will fill rainy days and such, we are going to try to keep everything low on the glycemic index, low carb, and stay within the bounds of unsaturated rather than saturated fats. And yes, we still will be going to restaurants — good ones — and will be taking food photos and writing about the meals we eat. But everything is going to be done in moderation, and you should be well aware we’re only going to be tasting starches and desserts and not eating them wholesale. What we’re likely to order will reflect the healthier options on those menus. I’d also like to add that this is going to be the beginning of a very long learning process, and I am anything but an expert on nutrition — while I am currently doing my research, and we are tweaking recipes, this next six months or so should be considered a transitory period. I am learning, maybe you guys will teach me some new stuff, and vice-versa. That’s what this whole blog thing is supposed to be about in the first place.

So, now that I’ve sent all of you into a state of shock, let’s get to the issue at hand — Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays, and probably one where people tend to over-do it the most. I certainly intend on enjoying myself, but there are serious limitations on my favorite Turkey Day foods — I can’t eat much of stuffing, mashed potatoes, or any of the other heavy carbs. If I’m lucky, I’m going to be able to taste a spoonful or two of each. And I need to avoid excess sugar like the plague. Sayonara, Pecan Pie, Cranberry Sauce and Candied Carrots. Turkey? That I can eat as much of as I want.

These Turkey Burgers over a Brown Rice and Whole Wheat Couscous Bake were a dry run for Thanksgiving.

So lets get right to the chase — stuffing replacement. Any way you try to get around it, if you don’t have some kind of carb or grain, then you are going to feel utterly deprived on Turkey Day — I don’t care what kind of diet or restrictions you are on. So if you are going to have carbs, well, then make it COMPLEX carbs. Stuff with a lot of fiber content and that is considerably lower on the glycemic index than the traditional options. And oh yeah, it has to taste good.

Thanksgiving Brown and Wild Rice Dressing

1C Diced Onion

1C Diced Celery

1C Sliced Mushrooms

4C of cooked Lundberg Farms Wild Rice Blend (available at Whole Foods, Wild Oats and Amazon.com )

2C cooked Whole Wheat Couscous (available at Whole Foods) or Quinoa

Chopped Fresh Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, Thyme

Salt and Fresh Ground Pepper

Saute vegetables in 1Tbsp olive oil or Smart Balance Butter Substitute spread. Add herbs, salt and pepper, then remove from heat. Gently combine with cooked rice and couscous. If rice and couscous are warm, serve immediately. This can be made ahead for reheating later — if you like crispy edges a la Stove Top dressing, bake in casserole dish for 20 minutes. Also can be used to stuff a turkey.

This Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Bacon and Apples was lifted directly from Martha Stewart, with modifications.

To go along with your ersatz Stove Top, you’ll want to have some vegetables. Obviously, mashed potatoes inundated with butter is not the ideal side if you are looking to lose weight. Glazed and Candied carrots and yams are also not ideal unless you completely suspend the idea of glazing them with sugar sauces and instead cook them plainly or with herbs, garlic and olive oil. Green vegetables, particularly ones that are high in Alpha Lipoic acid such as cruciforms like Broccoli and Brussels Sprouts, are beneficial to the metabolic process and if prepared properly, actually taste really good.

I don’t typically regard Martha Stewart as a huge font of knowledge for all things healthy, but in this case, her Brussels Sprouts recipe is a real winner if you make a few minor changes — for starters, we’re going to switch out the regular bacon for Turkey Bacon to give us that smoky taste. We’re in the middle of evaluating a number of these, but we can say that we like Trader Joe’s brand so far and should be fairly easy for you to get. We’re also going to roast the sprouts instead of saute them.

If using frozen Brussels sprouts, 2-1 lb bags of the petite kind are best. If you are using fresh, you may need more than 2 lbs, because you’ll have to trim the stem, outer leaves and may lose some if they are bad inside. Cut large sprouts in half or quarters, leave small ones whole.

If you have to use dried thyme, as opposed to fresh thyme sprigs, add about 1 tsp with the apple & vinegar.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Turkey Bacon and Apple

4oz Turkey Bacon

2Lb Brussels Sprouts

10 Thyme Sprigs

1 Granny Smith Apple

2tsp Cider Vinegar

Salt and Pepper to taste

Heat your oven to 400 F. Dice or cut turkey bacon into strips. Spread out bacon on a half-sheet pan or roasting pan and cook in oven for 10-15 minutes, until mostly cooked and it has rendered fat. Remove cooked bacon and set aside. Drizzle whatever rendered fat there is over the sprouts. If there’s a lot of rendered fat, you don’t have to use all of it, but I seriously doubt that’s gonna happen with Turkey Bacon. You might want to drizzle a little bit of olive oil over the sprouts as well so they caramelize nicely.

Add the sprouts to the pan and roast for 15 minutes. Remove pan from oven and carefully using a spatula, turn and mix the sprouts so that they roast evenly. Return to the oven for another 15 minutes.

While the sprouts are in the oven, peel and dice your apple. Mix with cider vinegar (and dried thyme if you are using that instead of fresh sprigs) and set aside.

After the sprouts have roasted for about 30 minutes, add the cooked bacon and diced apple, stir to combine, and return to the oven for 10 more minutes. Add fresh ground pepper to taste, be careful with adding salt as the bacon adds a lot of saltiness. Best served immediately.