which was Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy or BSE as it is known. It was a terrible time to be a cow for sure, but for an Iowa boy raised on beef it was food hell. I did not want holes in my brain, or at least not any more than I have now so stopped eating beef. Yes, you heard it I stopped eating beef but it was culinary suicide so I came up with this recipe.
Design goals were:
Feel like a steak
Look like a steak
Taste like a steak
Feel like a steak:
It had to be thick and have the muscle fibre of a steak. A little difficult to cut, so you needed a knife. But when it was in your mouth it had to explode with juice and then the chew needs to melt it. Texture is the only difference between a steak and hamburger.
Look like a steak:
Dark with a nice browned outside but a soft and yielding flesh inside. Have a nice cut with a sharp knife.
Taste like a steak:
Deep rich flavour. Juicy and making you want that next bite.
We have the design goals now for a little experimentation, alright a lot. I came up with the meat which was turkey breast steaks (the key is in the name). Costco does a really nice turkey breast steak which is thick and large, it is Costco after all.
Unlike a chicken breast you can see the muscle fibres in a turkey breast so it was going to have the texture. Turkey is a little tougher than chicken so had the feel. The next problem was colour and flavour.
Colour and flavour s is why the “Herb Garden Marinade” was developed, or kind of happened. Not everything I have come up with is by design this one was dumb luck. I went to the herb garden and grabbed a bit of everything.
Chives
Bay leaves
Thyme
Parsley
Rosemary
Marjoram
Sage leaves
Use the kitchen scissors to cut up the chives and then fold the bay leaves up into a package and cut thin shreds from it using the scissors. Clean the stems and bugs out of the rest of the herbs and then scrunch them up into a pile on the cutting board and chop until you have a roughly chopped pile of herbs.
The colour and deep rich flavour was going to be sorted by Mushroom Ketchup.
It stains the turkey meat brown and gives it a deep rich flavour.
Put the chopped herbs into a plastic container and add about ¼ cup each of olive oil, and Mushroom Ketchup and stir with a fork.
In go the turkey breast steaks (this recipe makes 4 Costco style). Put the “tight” fitting lid on the plastic container and give it a good shake and into the fridge over night. When ever you get a beer or something from the fridge give your meat a shake (I am sure there is a joke here somewhere :-). The next day it will look like this.
Heat a grill pan to medium low and cook the turkey for 10 minutes on each side. You just want to just hear it sizzle, just no more.
It does work on the BBQ also on direct heat but again not too hot, otherwise it will burn and not cook through.
Here it plated up with Honey Mustard Slaw and baked beans.
Wow this is great! The flavour is so in your face with all the herbs. If you close one eye and cut the meat it is like a lovely medium steak. Medium steak is not optimal but you need to make sure this is cooked through as you do not want to eat rare turkey.