Lately I’ve been wondering how many of us, since last Christmas, have taken the time and gone through the labour intensive work of preparing another whole turkey dinner with all the trimmings. Remember when we stuffed ourselves just like the carefully picked bird, enjoying it to the last bite and still ended up with a whole lot of turkey? Here we go again! Leftovers! And we reused them any way imaginable. I’m sure we’ve tried everything possible.
In our house, preparing a whole turkey is not very practical, since there are only the two of us, even the smallest bird we can get proves too be to big. Now don’t get me wrong, I do like leftovers, at least once, maybe twice, according to our dogs, Nikki and Lilly and the two neighbour dogs Millie and Daisy, who are often part of our household, there would be no argument from them about cooking a big turkey. Leftovers? What leftovers? Trust me, it’s not tough being a pet in a chef’s house.
Now, if I have a craving for turkey, and don’t feel like spending most of the day in the kitchen but still want to come up with a dynamite dish, I pick up turkey scallopine.
I roll them up with prosciutto ham and tiger prawns, and serve them over pasta with a tangy lemon-butter sauce. From start to finish, dinner is ready in less than an hour. If I can do it, so can you. So why don’t we get our kitchen aprons on and get started.
This recipe will serve two main courses or four appetizers.
1 package turkey breast scallopine (usually contains 4-5 slices)
4 slices thinly sliced prosciutto ham
8 medium sized tiger prawns butterflied
Flour for dusting
Black pepper finely ground
2 Tbls light olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
3/4 cup low sodium chicken stock
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 Tbls unsalted butter
On a cutting board lay out the turkey slices. Grind some fresh black pepper on them. Place one prosciutto slice on top of each slice then place two butterflied prawns on the widest part of the scallopine. Fold both sides in a bit then roll them up. Secure with a toothpick. Dust with some flour and shake off excess.
Heat a non-stick frying pan and add oil. Sear the scallopine on all sides until golden brown. Remove meat. Discard oil. Deglaze the pan by adding wine, scraping up any brown bits on the bottom of the pan. Add chicken stock and lemon juice on medium high heat. Reduce the liquid for 3-4 minutes. Return the scallopine to the pan and simmer turning occasionally for another 5 minutes. Towards the end, on low heat, add the butter in pieces to emulsify the sauce.
Remove scallopine from sauce. Remove toothpick and cut at an angle. Place some cooked pasta (linguine or fetuccine works well with this) into a deep pasta bowl and arrange scallopine over it. Spoon sauce over it. Garnish with steamed asparagus and snap peas. Serve freshly grated grana padano or parmesan reggiano on the side.
A buttery chardonnay would go well with this dish. But, how about something a little different? I have two white wine suggestions and both are from Spain. First, a crisp juicy and creamy textured Rueda by Telmo Rodriguez, or from Northwestern Spain, an Albarino, famed for its affinity with seafood, by Burgans.
~bon appetite
Wolfgang
