Going cold turkey ... in style

• Be creative and mousse that turkey

By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Food Editor

Russell Siu's smoked turkey quesadilla is an attractive option — smoke turkey on the stovetop and scatter over tortilla wedges with your preferred cheese, salsa, herbs. Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser Wine and Turkey Benefit appetizer- and wine-tasting with music, hosted by Rotary Club of Honolulu Sunrise, to benefit Polio Plus, Rotary International's polio eradication program. 6 to 8:30 p.m. Nov. 22 at 3660 on the Rise Tickets: $50 for food and wine tasting; $15 additional for saké tasting Purchase tickets: Fujioka's Wine Merchants, 2919 Kapi'olani Blvd. (back of Market City Shopping Center), or call 832-0140

Okay, Mrs. K, let me explain it: We have the toykey so we can have the toykey leftovers.

Russell Siu of 3660 on the Rise and Kaka'ako Kitchen knows that. The prize-winning chef recalls looking forward to the jook — thick, Cantonese-style rice soup — that would inevitably follow the Thanksgiving turkey in his family home. "We always knew if we had turkey or ham, next day we're going to have jook. My mother, my father, my grandfather, they would take all the meat off the bones, chop up the meat. The bones and rice make the soup, the meat goes in after. Nobody gets the wing tip, the flat tip — that gets saved for the jook," he recalled.

Next week, Siu is preparing an almost-all-turkey appetizer menu for a Rotary Club fund-raiser at 3660 that will pair ideas for leftover turkey with wines that complement the creations. (There will be some vegetarian selections for those who don't do bird.)

There won't be a single turkey sandwich in sight, although Siu considered it. His idea, however, was a good notch or two above the mayo-and-lettuce treatment; he was thinking of smoked turkey finger sandwiches with curry and chutney.

Siu's menu, and the techniques he and his chefs will use to create it, offer intriguing ideas. The concept of an all-turkey menu was a considerable challenge, he said, because he didn't want to every dish to taste the same. So he focused on ways to change the flavor or texture of the turkey, transforming it into something very different from the base ingredient of roasted meat.

And here's a thought: If you really like leftovers, but really don't like wrestling with a gigantic bird, take the planned leftover approach and buy two birds. Roast a smaller turkey (a 12-pounder will serve 8 people or thereabouts, with bones and a little meat left over) with all the trimmings. As soon as you remove this from the oven, put the second one in to roast while you eat, do the dishes and sit around falling asleep. The second one can be very plainly seasoned — with just salt and pepper and perhaps a halved lemon, an onion and some parsley in the cavity. This approach gives you ample leftovers for every possible sandwich, soup, a la king, pie or casserole idea.

Or try these ideas from chef Siu.

Chinese-style turkey soup

The classic island idea for leftover turkey is, as Siu pointed out, jook, a soup made by cooking rice in broth until it's so soft that it forms a very slightly textured gruel. Siu said the use of turkey and other meats and garnishes in jook is distinctly Cantonese; in much of the rest of China, jook is a very plain gruel of rice and water or broth.

The Siu family approach to jook is to wash the rice, toss it with a little peanut oil, just to glaze it, then immerse it in water to cover in a soup pot for a half-hour or so. Scrape the meat from the turkey bones and set aside; you can crack the larger bones if you like. Place the bones in the soup pot with the rice; cover with several inches of water and cook until the rice has literally dissolved. Remove the bones; add the meat and simmer briefly; flavor the jook with salt and pepper to taste and serve hot. Garnish as desired with won ton chips and shredded lettuce, preserved cucumber, 1,000-year eggs, red dates, preserved bean curd or a slick of sesame oil. Pass soy sauce at the table.

Smooth as silk

A turkey mousse takes advantage of the delicate flavor and moist texture of the breast meat. We've adapted a recipe for you in this section, but Siu makes his by feel, using only the whitest meat, picked over to remove any bone or cartilage and thinly sliced or hand-shredded. Process this until smooth and add a little cream, a little cream cheese for body and some chopped cold butter for richness and smoothness. Taste and add seasonings as desired, salt and white pepper. To vary the recipe, fresh-chopped herbs, lemon juice, truffles, mushrooms, and minced parsley all can be added, as desired. Make a brunoise of carrots, red onion, zucchini and yellow squash: Peel the carrots, dice the vegetables very fine and cook slowly over low heat in a little butter (do not allow to brown). Add the brunoise to the creamed turkey last, for color and texture, and process briefly, just enough to incorporate.

Siu rolls this mixture up in a sausage of plastic wrap and then foil, and refrigerates it until it is firm. Slice and serve with a fresh cranberry-orange chutney and crackers or crostini.

That touch of smokiness

This is perhaps Siu's most interesting idea. To give the turkey a different taste dimension, he'll quickly smoke it on the stovetop. This works well for the more moist, dark meat. He improvises a smoker from a wok: Place wood chips (available wherever barbecue or cooking equipment is sold) on the bottom of a heavy, well-seasoned wok; place on hot burner and cover; allow chips to heat up and begin to smoke. Spray a cooling rack or grate with nonstick spray. Place hunks or thick slices of meat on the rack; turn off heat under the wok; place the meat in the wok over smoking chips; cover and allow to cold-smoke 10-12 minutes.

Siu will use kiawe wood and plans to turn the boned turkey meat into a cheesy, spicy quesadilla — cheese, turkey and salsa layered between flour tortillas, grilled and sliced into serving portions.

Another smoky idea for turkey is to make a quick, oven version of kalua turkey. He lines a pan with ti leaves; lays down the unsmoked turkey meat; sprinkles Liquid Smoke and Hawaiian salt very lightly over the meat; drizzles the whole with chicken or turkey stock, covers it with more ti leaves and foil and bakes it at 300 degrees for an hour (check halfway through to be sure meat isn't drying out). Sauté this with onion and cabbage for a kalua turkey and cabbage entree to serve with hot rice.

Be creative and mousse that turkey

This recipe blends ideas from chef Russell Siu of 3660 on the Rise with one from iVillage.com's Recipe Finder. If you're afraid your mousse won't set sufficiently to be sliced, use the gelatin. But some prefer the creamier texture of a mousse without gelatin; if it doesn't set, you can always pile it in a bowl or crock and call it a spread!

Turkey Mousse with Cranberry Chutney

For the chutney:

• 1 large orange
• 1 package fresh cranberries
• 1 small, sweet onion, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 teaspoons fresh ginger, peeled and minced
• 1/2 teaspoon EACH ground cloves and allspice

For the mousse:

• 1 small red onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 carrot, finely peeled and chopped
• 1 small zucchini, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 small yellow squash, peeled and finely chopped
• Butter
• 1/2 pound cooked turkey, sliced or shredded
• 1/2 pound cream cheese
• 1 cup sour cream (or cream and butter, see note below)
• Salt
• Pepper
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 envelope unflavored gelatin

Make chutney: Using a vegetable peeler, remove 2-inch strips of peel from orange and cut strips into fine julienne. Break the orange into segments, seed and roughly chop. Combine orange zest and orange meat with cranberries, onions, sugars, vinegar, ginger and spices. Stir and bring to a boil. Reduce heat; taste and correct seasonings and simmer, stirring frequently, until thickened, 45-55 minutes. Chill; keeps three weeks if covered and refrigerated.

Make mousse: Prepare the brunoise (broon-waz) — In a saute pan over low heat, slowly cook the vegetables in just enough butter to prevent sticking; vegetables should be cooked but retain some texture. Place the turkey in a food processor and add cream cheese, cut into chunks, and sour cream; process until chunky. (Instead of sour cream, you may use chunks of cold butter and a drizzle of cream; you'll have to experiment with consistency. You're looking for something dense enough to hold together, like a dough.) Add the brunoise and process just to incorporate.

At this point, you can dissolve the gelatin in the lemon juice and stir into mousse. Or dispense with this step if you think the texture is right.

Spread a rectangle of foil on a flat surface; line with plastic wrap. Pipe or spoon a thick line of mousse onto the rectangle; fold ends of plastic wrap over, followed by foil; roll up and twist ends to form a thick, firm sausage. Refrigerate; gently unwrap, slice and serve.