Y’all seen how much turkeys cost this year? Food costs in 2021 have reportedly risen 4.6%, and much of that goes to meat and poultry and eggs and stuff, and the USDA thinks prices will rise even more this year. Supply chains, man. It’s tough out there, but as we Americans are creatures of habit to an emmer-effing fault, you’re probably wondering what this means about the turkey you plan to eat on the day you forget it’s a terrible idea for your whole family to get together for any reason—holiday or no.
We’re talkin’ Thanksgiving, or T-Day as nobody calls it, which drops this year on Thursday, Nov. 24. Guh. And since we’re talking T-Day and since we love you and since you know we love digging into a recipe for everyone in the class, we thought we’d drop a tip on some turkey tacos that won’t cost as much as some 20-pound abomination. Our best advice going into it, though? Get you that turkey early, son/daughter. Even though this particular recipe is made from ground turkey, we figure folks will be trying different things out this year because, say it with us, this year’s gonna be rouuuuuugh.
Totally Tubular Turkey Tacos
You’ll need:
- -Enough ground turkey for all (lean, baby, but not too lean)
- -Olive oil (canola if you’re nasty)
- -Minced garlic (dice yourself for a fun hand smell!)
- -Most of a chopped onion (you know how much you like)
- -2 cups red chile (make it or buy it before)
- -1 tsp. brown sugar (and not a grain more)
- -Salt and pepper (to taste—it’s your call)
- Oregano (dried is best, and just a little bit because of the chile, which often has oregano)
- Corn tortillas (which, when wrapped around the stuff, makes a taco)
- Your favorite taco cheese—or not ... it’s good without
- Some chopped up lettuce and tomato
The Steps:
1. Get that onion into a skillet or pan on medium heat with the olive oil and stir, baby, stir. Do this until they’re kinda see-through and then add your garlic, oregano, salt and pepper and stir a little more until it’s all together mixed.
2. Pop that turkey in there. Remember, if you went too low-fat, you could wind up with dry meat, so...just know that. Cook it until it looks like it’s cooked, but, like, it’s not jacked up and weird.
3. Stir in that brown sugar.
4. Drop some of that red chile in there, just enough so that when you stir it, the meat and onions and stuff get in on the action, but not enough to drown it. You might need to add a little more, but we’re saving whatever’s left for later finishing touches reasons.
5. Let simmer for roughly 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Pop in some extra pinches of salt and pepper to zero in on the flavor you like.
6. Enjoy it, especially if you’re using some of that leftover chile to go ever harder on the chile front.
Note: If you wanna get for real with the tortillas, you can always bring a bit of canola oil to a simmer-ish heat and, with tongs, dip your corn tortillas in there for a few seconds then let dry. If you want.
Something about a couple T sounds in a row, right?
Also
-Sounds like Los Alamos eatery Fleur de Lys will lose its lease come Dec. 31. In a Facebook post from Nov. 7, the ownership says they’ll look for another space in their own small community while also pouring more attention into their Santa Fe restaurant, Mille.
-Did we already mention ArtWalk Santa Fe is gonna be at CHOMP Food Hall this weekend? Saturday? Did we? We don’t remember, but they will be, and you’ll have access to Ocean Real Sushi, Nath’s Inspired Khmer Cuisine, Bottego del Vino and other foodie options.
-Congrats to chef Mark Kiffin of The Compound for winning Chef of the Year from the New Mexico Restaurant Association’s 2021 Hospitality Awards. SFR’s staff has loved Kiffin since way back (here’s a story from earlier this year). Kiffin slays, and he was up against some pretty stiff competish (that’s short for “competition,” which we’ve done to save time.) Know what? We’ll just go ahead and share the nominees video below, because it’s too many names to type. Congrats to everyone who was considered in the competish (which, again, is short for “competition” and is a time-saving method we’ve devised for use in this newsletter).
We’re hungry just watching.
More Tidbits
-Are yams and sweet potatoes the same thing, asks USA Today? Us personally? We don’t wanna know. But if you’re OK living with the curse of knowledge, follow this link.
-New book Taste Makers from writer Mayukh Sen takes a look at the immigrant ladies shaping food as we know it in America. Christmas is coming, so maybe this’d be a good gift for some foodie bud or buds?
-Calling all vegans and vegetarians! Find here a list of meat-free fast food options for when you just got out of work and are all like, “Jesus, God, don’t make me cook.” Freaking Panda Express is on the list! Who knew?!
-Lastly in food news of the nation this week, it seems restaurants are having a hard time finding to-go containers, cups, straws and the like because of freaking logistics, man. These supply chain issues are no joke, though we’d point out that there are myriad non-plastic options now available. Either way, that’s not always affordable, especially for small places. Dang, we really configured society wrong, huh?
It’s punk.
A Totally Scientific Breakdown of The Fork’s Correspondence
In this week’s print edition of SFR, brand new freelancer Kiley Larsen went vegan at Root 66.
Number of Letters Received
26
*We’re hoping to get more info on weird Thanksgiving foods to share with y’all, too, but we got a couple real gross ones.
Most Helpful Tip of the Week (a barely edited letter from a reader)
“You’d change your mind if you personally met Martha Stewart.”
*Nope. We love her til we die!
Actually Helpful Tip(s)
“The other night we put frozen Alexia fries and potato puffs on a (cookie cooling) rack on a sheet pan and hit the air fryer button on the stove (it self-selected 425 degrees by itself). In 10 minutes, no turning of the potatoes involved, they were done, and maybe better than regular oven frying.”
*Oh. dang!
So long, turkeys!
The Fork
