Turkey Sopa -or What Do with Rest of the Turkey

Sopa is a spanish word that causes some confusion, because it's used slightly differently in different regions of the spanish-speaking world.
It sounds like soup and doubtless the words come from the same origin.  Sometimes it is used for "soup", but more often it is some kind of starch (bread, tortillas, rice, or pasta), cooked in a broth or liquid.
Hence, "sopa de arroz" is the ubiquitous tomato-y rice pilaf that is served with all "Mexican Plates".
In other parts of Texas you wouldn't call this sopa, you'd call it enchiladas, or some kind of King Ranch Casserole, but I prefer the word Sopa, and I like my sopa to be very simple and minimal.  I exclude a lot of Tex-Mex add-ons, such as other vegetables or lots of herbs and  spices, such as cumin.  There is just way too much cumin being tossed into "Mexican" food, IMO.  Ditto for cilantro.

We always have so much white turkey meat left over, this is  a wonderful way for me to use it up.  So here is how we make ours, and of course you can do this with chicken as well.
I usually use Long Green Chile, but this time of year the long green is too flaco, so I'm using Poblanos.  They are always gorgeous.
I learned at A Little Cup of Mexican Hot Chocolate that if you boil your chiles first, the skin comes off easier when you roast them, so I do that.

Then I spray them with a little oil and put them under the broiler, which is quicker for me than over the flame, but you don't get as much of that wonderful smell in the kitchen!
Into a baggie they go to steam and cool off.

Then I peel and de-seed them, and it really works better using a paper towel and a little sharp knife than under the tap.

Grate the cheese, Monterrey Jack.  I guess this is about 2 cups.

Put 2 cans of Cream of Chicken Soup into the blender with about a cup of milk and 2 poblanos.  Blend that up good.

Assemble your ingredients:

Turkey, Cheese, Chiles, Soup, and of course, Corn Tortillas.  Salt and Pepper.

Layer 1: tortillas
Layer 2: turkey meat
Layer 3: chile strips
Layer 4: cheese
Layer 5: soup
Continue until you have used up your ingredients or filled your dish.  I like to finish up with a big layer of cheese.

Cook for 1 hour at 350°.  Or, you could freeze this and have a wonderful dinner ready for another day.

Of course, you need some beans to go with this meal. To me, this is one of those "comfort" foods that always makes me feel better.  Must be all the carbs!  Or the chile.

Mojito Tilapia; My Dish of Fish

Often I think,  "We should eat more fish."
This is mostly because I think our West Texas rotation of beef, chicken, beef, pork, beef, lamb and beef decidedly needs some variety.  For some reason, nobody around here loves salmon.  Trout is fine when you can get it, but the bones are a hassle.
So what else is available?  Tilapia.
Nutritionally, compared to other fish species, tilapia is not an especially healthy choice because the farm raised tilapia is so high in fat, but it is high in protein, very low in carbs, a good source of vitamins and minerals, has very low sodium and mercury content is nil.  It is mild and un-fishy.  And it's cheap.  And, let's face it, anything home cooked is better than take-out. 

The best thing this particular recipe has going for it?  It's delicious, dead easy and quick.  If you keep frozen tilapia fillets in the freezer you can have this on the table in 15 minutes.  Here's what you will need:
Rice
Butter
Limes
Fresh mint leaves
Tilapia fillets





Step 1:  Start your rice.  I think you need some good brown rice to go with this dish.

2. Chop up the fresh mint leaves.

3. Put the tilapia fillets in some warm water to thaw.
4. Cut some nice juicy limes and get out your lime squeezer. You'll need about 1 for each fillet.
5. Put a couple of  pats of salted butter in a skillet.  I like to use carbon steel because of the way it browns.

6. Heat the butter until it's starting to brown.
7. Put a paper towel-dried fillet in the butter and cook for 2 minutes.

 8. Turn it over and grate some lime zest over the fish.

9.  Squeeze some lime over it, too. 

10.  Cook another 2 minutes and check to make sure it's flakey and cooked through.
11. Put it on a plate of hot rice, spoon any juice/butter in the pan on it, and sprinkle mint leaves over it.
12. Nice with a glass of crisp white wine.

 Yes.  We should definitely eat more fish.

Different from my mother's, still good and cheap!

My Mother used to make salmon patties.  They were actually pretty good; I think it was a recipe from the Bisquick box.  Basically salmon pancakes.  We ate them with catsup, but I think Mom didn't know about tartar sauce, being from New Zealand.  But I don't know, the subject never came up.  I think finally Dad put his foot down about the salmon patties.

Anyway, this is my version.  Here I have three different kinds of salmon; red, pink, and coho.  For a million dollars I couldn't tell you much about the difference in the three, but the red is, well, red.   The other two were about the same beigey pink.  I found these three in my pantry, and I'm pretty sure I picked them up sometime this year, thinking "I could make salmon patties!"  Just open the cans and drain well.

 

This is the bread that I toasted and gave a spin into crumbs.  I put another couple of slices in there after I took this shot, realizing it wasn't enough.  I was going to be feeding 4 men.

     

Here are the things that went together with the salmon.  Celery, onion, soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, pickle relish and bread crumbs. Amounts don't really matter, except you should have about half the amount of salmon in  bread crumbs.  If you don't have bread crumbs, use crackers.  If you don't have either, use oatmeal  Yes, uncooked oatmeal.  Or Bisquick.

Oh, and EGGS.  Don't forget eggs to hold it all together. That's better.

Now, take a pair of plastic gloves and mash, squish and mix.   Make sure it's all  "married" as they say on the cooking shows.  Silly!

Then  make patties and fry over medium heat.  I serve them with tartar sauce and lemon.  Don't know how to make tartar sauce?  Just mix mayo, worcestershire, lemon juice and pickle relish.  That's it.  I think the whole batch cost less than $10.00.  A very healthy meal, don't you think?