RTM Breakfasts for Cold Weather

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  And as the chill winter wind approaches, we need a hearty meal to start our engines.  Good thing Reading Terminal Market has such a wealth of high quality, reasonably priced breakfast options to keep us going til spring!

Molly Malloy's Blueberry French Toast

Beck's Cajun Cafe Breakfast Po'boy

Down Home Diner's Scapple and Scrambled Eggs

Dutch Eating Place's Blueberry Pancakes

Feeling healthy?  Tootsie's steel cut oatmeal will start your day off right!

Can't decide?  Tootsie's Breakfast Bar has plenty of options!

So no excuses. If you don't have time to sit down and enjoy a leisurely meal, there are plenty of speedy takeout, grab and go options. Cold and flu season is upon us and we need all our strength to stay healthy. Your mother was right. You need a good breakfast!

Turkey Pot Pie with Flaky Pastry

Jamie Oliver has never steered us wrong. 

A friend recommended Jamie's turkey and sweet leek pie. 

While we had no leeks in the house, we did have plenty of turkey knocking around :) 

My kids prefer flaky or puff pastry to conventional pastry so we nipped out and grabbed some from the freezer cupboard at our local supermarket.

This was easy as pie -- and no-one felt they were shortchanged eating Thanksgiving leftovers!

Meanwhile, another neighbor sent in this photo of her sister's work of art.  This turkey cake is made entirely out of cake.  Look closely; the details are unbelievable.

"Cake boss" watch your back.

Turkey Leftovers: Beyond the Basic

Creative ways to use turkey leftovers is our timely topic today.  Sure, everyone likes the old standbys, soup, and sandwiches, but with these recipes, you really won't feel like you're eating leftovers....

Turkey Jambalaya--don't let the long ingredient list scare you off; this is a very simple recipe and a time tested crowd pleaser!
 
 serves 8-10

2 cups rice
5 cups chicken or turkey stock
1 lb smoked sausage, cut in 1/2 inch slices
1 lb ham, cubed
4 cups cooked turkey
1/2 stick butter
1 cup chopped onion
3/4 cup chopped bell pepper
1/4 cup chopped parsley
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 6 oz can tomato paste
2 tsp Beck's Devil Dust, or your favorite Cajun spice blend
1 large bay leaf
1/4 tsp thyme
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
Hot sauce to taste

Cook rice in broth.  Meanwhile, in large Dutch oven, melt butter and saute ham, sausage, turkey, onion, pepper, garlic and parsley.  Cook about 10 minutes, stirring frequently.  Add remaining ingredients except rice, mix and cook several more minutes.  Add cooked rice, stir thoroughly, and cook over low heat 15 more minutes, stirring frequently.

Our friend Chef Wally McIlhenny came up with this tasty trio:

Turkey Quesadilla:  fill a tortilla with turkey, bleu cheese, roasted poblano pepper and apples.  Cook  in a skillet on low heat til tortilla is lightly browned, filling is hot and cheese melts.  If you are making a large number, put them on a cookie sheet and heat in the oven at 350 until filling is heated and cheese melts, about 10 minutes.

Saffron, Leek and Turkey Risotto.  This is an excellent version of the dish.   To use the leftover turkey, add 1 1/2 cups of cooked turkey toward the end of cooking with the last ladle of broth.  Finish as directed.

White Bean, Spinach and Turkey Chili.  We liked this recipe, too, but we'd add a bag of fresh (or a defrosted pkg of frozen) spinach to the pot.

Hmmmm.   We might cook an extra turkey just to have enough leftovers for these dishes.

Nah.  By Saturday, we'll all be craving......what?  You tell us!

Jack Gives Back

Chef Jack McDavid is known for launching the farm to table movement in Philadelphia and creating the Down Home Diner,  which offers top quality southern food at an affordable price.  He is also famous for his trademark overalls and "Save the Farm" cap.  But did you know he is also famous for charitable works?

Jack says, "Thanksgiving is a time to be grateful for what we have, and part of that is remembering those that don't have.  My momma always taught me to give back and help others, even when we didn't have much.  Well, that's a lesson I've learned and I try to pass on."

Clearly Jack learned the lesson well; this Thanksgiving, he'll be providing dinner for the residents of St. John's Hospice, a shelter for homeless men in Center City.

The menu will be identical to the one Jack serves at his family's table later that day.

Pumpkin Soup
Salad
Roast Turkey
Smoked Country Ham
Gravy
Dressing
Mashed Potatoes
Sweet Potatoes
String Beans in Garlic with Sauteed Almonds
Pumpkin Pie
Apple Cranberry Crisp

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!

Oyster Stuffing by Reading Terminal Market Chef Stormy Lundy

We promised you Stormy's oyster stuffing recipe, and we are girls who keep our promises, so here it is in all its glory....

Oysters - in every shape and form are readily available from both of the seafood vendors at Reading Terminal Market

Stormy’s Oyster Stuffing:

• A loaf of day old bread unsliced from The Market bakery or Metropolitan bakery
• 16oz Jar of Oysters, available from the seafood merchants at the Market; keep the liquor for use in the stuffing mixture itself.
• 6-8 leaves of fresh sage
• Few sprigs of fresh thyme – strip the thyme off the woody stem
• 1x medium sized Spanish onion
• 3x medium sized carrots
• 2 sticks of celery
• 1 cup of raisins
• 8oz of butter
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Cut the bread into small, evenly sized cubes
2. Finely dice the onion, celery and carrot
3. Add butter to fry pan and sauté the onion, celery and carrot, once softened add bread and fry all the mixture until the bread begins to turn brown
4. Dice sage finely and strip the thyme leaves from the woody stem – it’s easiest to run your thumb and finger up and down the length of the stem. Discard the stem itself.
5. Add herbs and salt and pepper to mixture in fry pan, stir for 2 minutes then remove from heat. Leave to cool.
6. Add oysters and their liquor to the mixture and stir gently. Stuff the cavity of the turkey with mixture. (Refrigerate turkey if you are not planning to cook immediately.)

Your turkey from the Market’s own poultry merchants - Godshalls, Haltermans, Fair Food, Smuckers and Giunta's all stock turkey at this time of year - is now ready to go!

Follow cooking instructions recommended by the USDA. 

Full details available from this useful website.  Use a thermometer to check that stuffing has cooked all the way through.  Stuffing temp should reach a minimum of 165.

Stormy's Thanksgiving: Holiday tips from Reading Terminal Market's Chef

Today’s guest cook, Stormy Lundy, is by day Director of Special Events of Reading Terminal Market’s Catering Company.

And Stormy is a gal who knows how to throw a stunning party – she regularly orchestrates out-of-hours events at the Market for anywhere up to 2,500 guests.



The Market is a super-cool venue after hours...












Stormy argues that the same principles apply to creating a great party whether that be for 25 or for upwards of 2,500 partygoers…


...some things never change.


One of her key tips is to do with food consumption.

If like us, you tend to over-cater (for fear of being caught short and running out of food), best to heed Stormy’s advice if you want to get the quantities right! 

Two important questions to consider:

What’s the ratio of Men to Women at your event? Guess what? No surprises; Men eat more than Women -especially in a buffet situation. Stormy suggests allowing 1.5 servings per head for a male guest to every 1 serving for your female guests.

Is there a game on TV? If there’s a game on, then expect people to eat even more.

As Men cluster around the TV to watch their fave team over the Thanksgiving weekend, so they tend to pile their plates up with food.

“It’s the psychology of food,” explains Stormy. “There’s a funny thing going on. Men tend to look across and check out what other guys have on their plate. If one person says “these ribs are delicious”, then you tend to get a run on the ribs suddenly.

"In our family – I had 5 brothers & Dad - there was always a fight over the turkey legs; it was a big deal who got the legs!”

Stormy is herself an adventurous cook who loves to push the envelope at Thanksgiving.

Her typical menu features a turkey with oyster stuffing, sweet potatoes bolstered with a dash of Drambuie and turkey gravy enlivened by a cup of Old City Coffee from the Market.

Look for Stormy's much coveted recipe for oyster stuffing in our next post......

Rick Nichols Does Brussels Sprouts

Rick and baby Brussels Sprouts, little green gems.

Rick Nichols, food writer extraordinaire, was good enough to share his version of Marc Vetri's famous Brussels Sprouts.  We had the good fortune to encounter Mr. Nichols at Kauffman's Lancaster County Produce in Reading Terminal Market this week where we chatted with him about Brussels Sprouts.

"People think they hate Brussels Sprouts because they associate them withe oversized, sulphurous orbs that you find in supermarkets.  But Baby Brussels Sprouts are wonderful, " says Rick.  He went on to describe his method of cooking them, which is a slightly simplified version of the Vetri version detailed in the link above.

Nichols-Vetri Sherry-charred Baby Brussels Sprouts

serves 4 as a side dish

20 Baby Brussels Sprouts, trimmed and cut in half
1 clove garlic, sliced
1 tablespoon butter
1 to 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
2 to 3 tablespoons sherry vinegar, divided
Salt and pepper to taste

In large skillet, heat oil and butter.  Add garlic and saute briefly, long enough to allow flavor to blend.  Remove garlic from pan and discard.  Add Sprouts, face down, and char them over high heat until dark brown, about 5 minutes.   Remove from heat and season with 2 TBSP sherry vinegar, salt and pepper.  Return to heat, allow flavors to blend, and add remaining vinegar, heat through.  Serve hot immediately or at room temp up to six hours later.

We're adding this to our Thanksgiving menus.  Thanks, Rick!