Tea Leaves

Turkey Cutlets with Lemon and Capers

Here's a simple recipe for turkey. I think it's good because I made it once for a friend who doesn't like turkey, and he ate a pound of it. To this day his wife makes the recipe with chicken and calls it "Pete Su" chicken. I think I got the original version out of one of the Frugal Gourmet cookbooks. These days, thinking myself more sophisticated, I tend to look down on those books a bit, but that's just my own elitist arrogance. This recipe was surely one of the high points of the series.

Collect the following:

1. Turkey breast cutlets, sliced thin. You can have the store do this for you, since it's hard to carve raw turkey breast unless you are a real man, as opposed to me.

2. 2 eggs, beaten and mixed with tepid water.

3. Flour.

4. Bread-crumbs mixed with salt and pepper (and cayenne if you want).

5. Olive oil.

6. 1/2 lemon.

7. White wine, capers, butter, garlic if you want.

Put the flour on one plate and the bread-crumbs on another plate with the egg mixture in the middle. Take each piece of turkey and go flour, egg, bread-crumbs to bread it. Put them on a third plate.

Heat the oil in a pan and fry the breaded turkey pieces for 3 or 4 minutes per side or until they are done. They should get nice and brown on each side. Put the cooked turkey in a warm oven.

Deglaze the pan with some white wine. Then squeeze the juice from 1/2 of the lemon into the pan. Throw in 2 spoonfuls of capers, salt, pepper and garlic if you have it. Mix it around. Reduce a bit. Then add a cold piece of butter and melt it in.

Serve the turkey with the sauce on top. Goes well with sautéed spinach or other greens and the bread, rice or pasta of your choice.

Sorry, no Halo 2 in this recipe.