Turmeric Turkey Gyro style wraps w/ cilantro lemon “tzatziki”, basmati rice, &smashed avocado
I’ve been wanting Persian/ Greek/ or middle eastern food. But getting my sister to go to the middle valley after she gets off of work is the last thing shes been feeling like doing and I haven’t felt like having lunch by myself lately so I just let it slide. Today while thinking about the things i could possibly do with a fridge full of food that I need to get rid of because I have already confirmed 30 people for my sisters baby shower on February 20th and am going to need lots of space. As you know if you’ve seen some of my older holiday entries. I love feeding a lot of people in a family style setting or even not in a family style setting. The idea of making lots of anything makes my blood race its one of those things I miss the most about the restaurant 30 tickets in and 20 different pastas on the fire 30 other dishes made waiting ready to follow, a perfectly executed line of tickets. That is crunch time and only to proceed to make 200 more dishes the rest of the night. That rush is one of the most brilliant things that someone who wants to be a chef must experience in their life. I loved spinning around the kitchen calling out orders, yelling, throwing things, all those fun things that aren’t normally acceptable in home kitchens. They are in a “professional” kitchens. We were just kids making food, living a dream that sometimes turned into a nightmare.
Anyway sorry I get a little nostalgia every once in a while and then I realize I love it, would love to cook in a another restaurant probably some day then i remember working for close to minimum wage, never seeing my family, not being recognized, always working holidays, never seeing my friends, not taking care of myself and i remember why I’m taking a break but there’s something so magical and freeing about home cooking. I don’t have to be confined to the dishes I would working in a restaurant, I love tired and true food as much as anyone does but the things that give me the most pleasure regarding food are finding the new things that can be incorporated into every day diets that share a common welfare with the people you share them with. Seeing a hot plate of food light up someones face is the best feeling, when you put out 150 dishes of the same things it starts to get monotonous. Four years of making the same Tortellacci de zucca I’ve had enough of that. I’ll teach you guys one day.
I always fight to learn more and more so this recipe here kind pushes my boundaries a little. Sounds weird tastes good.
Okay so i looked in the fridge and this is pretty much where i got going. I have always a lot of Mexican spices and herbs in my kitchen. I am in California and i am part Mexican so that makes sense to me. But as i mentioned earlier i wanted something kind of eastern-esk but also i have to disguise the food a little because my brother in law is a bit picky
Tonight I made Turmeric Turkey Gyro style flour tortilla wraps with cilantro, green onion, lemon “tzatziki”, basmati rice, and smashed avocado
Okay that’s a mouth full… and literally it is. Its kinda fusion I guess? Middle eastern Mexican burrito thing with turkey. But its so wonderful that i just wanted to write about it so i can remember what i made. So its pretty much ground turkey( i never buy ground turkey so this was perfect to use for it but chicken or beef or lamb i think would be nice too) made with the spices you would see in gyro meat and Kubideh which is an Iranian ground meat dish that i love that has lots of turmeric to make it yellow and delicious, the turkey is also seasoned with garlic, and onions, cilantro, green onion, rosemary, dill, and Marjoram which to me kinda has a tea-ish flavor. I love spices so much so i kinda just put the lot in and it came out pretty good. Here’s what i remember of it all.
Basmati Rice
Put two tablespoons of butter and two good pinches of salt in the bottom of a small pot.
Using whatever kind of measuring device you’d like put rice in at a ratio or 1 cup of rice to 1 and 1/2 cups of water.
But 1st was the rice out a couple of times to get the extra starches out and then toast the rice a little in the butter coat all the grains stirring a bit then add in the water
Bring it up to a nice boil
Pop a top on it cook rice on low for 20 minutes leave lid on for about 5 minutes then fork up
Turmeric Turkey Seasoned Meat
about 1 1/2 # of ground turkey just one of those packs you get at your market like jenni-o or whatever that is.
1/2 medium/large onion minced
2 cloves of garlic
1 small hand full of cilantro chopped fine
2 green onions chopped to the white
2-3 good pinches of salt
1/2 cup of matzo meal or you could use bread crumb (i used unsalted if you use salted adjust seasoning)
1 egg
one shake of dried Marjoram
two shakes of dill
one shake of dried rosemary
three shakes of black pepper
three/four shakes of Turmeric
2 tablespoons of olive oil
Preheat oven 375 about 20 minutes before you finish making the last sauce
place in bottom of pot oil and add onions, garlic, green onion, and cilantro sweat till onions are translucent about 5-7 minutes. then add spices into the mixture so that there’s enough turmeric that the onions turn a nice yellow color, taste and check for salt and the reminiscent flavor of the spices its supposed to be subtle not over powering. If the onions are too your liking salt wise if using unsalted matzo a little over salted if using salted bread crumb a little under salted. turn off and set aside to cool make sure veggies cool completely before you proceed so the egg doesn’t get scrambled
when that’s cooled add ground turkey, matzo, and egg and mix everything together form into balls which will be smashed into patties
If you have a grill pan I’d use one of those which is what i used or a grill outside is nice too or a pot with some oil in it make sure you spray it with some kinda non stick spray if using a grill or grill pan because there isn’t much fat in turkey.
Grill about 4-5 minutes on each smashed patty side and then take off and place in a baking dish. cover with foil and set aside
Cilantro, green onion, lemon “tzatzik”
I really liked this, My brother in law would go no where near yogurt unless its frozen with strawberry and gram cracker. Especially if it had herbs in it! So i disguised some herbs in the sour cream spread it on the bottom and he had no idea. Plus I didn’t have plain yogurt you can sub yogart it would be really good but then i’d say cut back on the lemon and red wine vinegar put a little in and taste and then add more
a little goes a long way with this sauce
about 1/2 a head of cilantro finely minced
1 green onion only green cut
1/2 a lemon zested and juiced
1 teaspoon of red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
salt
pepper
3 large spoon fulls of sour cream
put it together and adjust for salt and pepper mix it up
Smashed avocado
2 avocados
1/2 lemon squeezed
salt
pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
mash avocados
and mix everything in set it aside
so now you have all the components except I wanted shredded lettuce and some tomato also
Your going to heat up your meat by placing it in the oven for about 5-7 minutes to make sure the turkey is all the way warm and cooked through but not dry.
Oh also for the tortillas you should use your gas stove and heat them directly on the fire. that blurt flame flavor of the tortilla is perfect with this.
So what i did was i took two tortillas per sandwich cause its like a pita
spread the avocado on on then put the other tortilla on top
then put down some of the tzatzik
add a couple spoons of rice so it sticks and spread it out
then a couple pieces of the turkey on top
lettuce and just a little more tzatzik and avocado if you’d like then i topped with tomato for color
a little bit of salt and pepper on the tomato
and here you go
A sophisticated fun burrito type gyro or if you wanted to cut out the tortilla all together this is perfect over the rice with the condiments 🙂
I could only eat half my brother in law and sister had smaller seconds
Even if you get nothing from this but the courage to try something different sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t but you’ll never know until you… do it!
If your looking for the most authentic of foods maybe this isn’t one to try but if one day you happen to have some left over things try it out. I really liked it
Also I really like the idea of this without the turkey and with seasoned grilled eggplant , zucchini, or bell peppers. yum
Lots of variations can be made have fun!
Cheers
Unrivaledkitch