Recipe: Grilled Turkey with an Orange and Fennel Salad

This particular meal is a tribute to my last roommate Roberta, who just moved back to Campobasso. She always cooked a lot of grilled chicken and turkey.  She had a very healthy style of eating. Usually I am too lazy to get out the grill pan or have other recipes in mind. But for this meal I decided to stop being lazy and I pulled out the grill pan to grill up some turkey. 

Only the white is edible

I decided to also make an orange and fennel salad because we had talked about it one night when she was cutting up some fennel. I don’t have much experience with fennel. I’ve had it a couple of times at Bruschetta’s since they have a beautiful pear and fennel salad. But the majority of the salad isn’t actually fennel. I’ve also had it baked in the oven with cheese and butter (thanks to some of my Florentine roommates back in the days of Florence).

 I, however, had never actually cooked with fennel before so it was really interesting for me as I watched her make a fennel and apple salad. It was simple. Thinly sliced green apple and fennel, salt, pepper and olive oil. She explained to me that her salad is traditionally made in Sicily with oranges but that the green apple worked as well because they have little more bite to them than an ordinary red or yellow apple.

I was fascinated and promptly bought a fennel… and then being me, did nothing with it for over a week. Luckily, fennel holds well in the refrigerator.

A traditional Sicilian Salad

Now for anyone who doesn’t know what fennel is, it is a vegetable, larger than celery but similar in appearance except they are white and much larger at the bulbous root tip. You only eat the white, either raw or cooked.  It is crisp and delicious and tastes a bit like licorice. It tastes more strongly of licorice when cooked. If you don’t like vegetables, but like licorice, I highly recommend it. I normally don’t like licorice candy and that’s why I’ve shied away from fennel for so long. It turns out I like licorice if it’s not candy!

This salad with fennel and oranges is really light and utterly delicious. It’s a little sweet but savory at the same time.  The simplicity and acidity of the salad goes really well with the simple grilled turkey. Or you could easily substitute the turkey breast with chicken breast.

The turkey should cook quite quickly so I would recommend prepping the salad first so you can eat the turkey while still warm.

Grilled Turkey

Sliced turkey breast partially or fully defrosted

Salt and pepper to taste

Red pepper flakes if you like spicy

Olive oil or pam spray

I always coat the grill pan with a little olive oil or nonstick spray so there’s less likelihood of the turkey sticking to the pan (which inevitably leads to easier clean up!).  Use a medium flame and let the grill pan get really hot. In the meantime, sprinkle both sides of the turkey with salt, pepper and red peper flakes. When the pan is hot put your turkey on long ways, so that the length of the turkey gets grill marks. I failed at this the first time, but it still tasted good (just looks a little cooler with beautiful grill marks).

Leave the turkey alone for a few minutes and flip when you have clear grill marks on the one side. This works a lot better if the pan is hot, hot when you add the chicken and not just warm.  If your turkey slices are particularly thick, you can flip again for a crosshatch pattern.

Orange and Fennel Salad (one large serving)

1 whole fennel

1 or 2 whole oranges (I used blood orange for the color)

Salt and pepper to taste

1 tbsp olive oil

Remove any dark spots from you fennel and wash the leaves thoroughly. Remove the branches and very bottom of the plant. Then cut the white into thin slices (if you want them really, really thin, like in restaurants, you can use a grater to slice them, but I prefer them thicker for some crunch to contrast the orange). Put the slices into a bowl and then cut your orange in half.  Slice out the wedges and add to the salad. Dress with salt, pepper and a drizzle of olive oil. Mix and serve.

You can also squeeze some extra orange into the salad for an extra

kick of orange flavor. 

Serve.

I served mine next to the turkey but you can also serve it directly on the turkey since it adds some moisture and flavor to the basic grilled turkey. 

Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice

Let's face it, I could have titled this blog numerous different ways.

• How to Start your Morning Right
• How to Waste a Lot of Time and Make a Giant Mess
• How to Make Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice the Hard Way
• How to Make Orange Juice with the Bare Essentials: Oranges and a mug
• I Hope you Like Pulp
• How to Spend your Morning Laughing

Yes... soo that's my morning in a nutshell.  

I got to work at around 8:15am this lovely Saturday morning... Note when I say lovely, I don't actually mean lovely... I mean Gray... This gray, drizzling, sad kind of Saturday morning... It has been raining non stop in Rome for the last week, so this Saturday morning is no different. 

In any case I got to work and decided I needed a pick me up. 

I wasn't in the mood for coffee but orange juice, now that seemed like a good idea.  

The crate of oranges I bought

Now, normally I would go downstairs to the bar and order myself a nice spremuta, or freshly squeezed orange juice.  However, earlier in the week I bought a case of oranges for €3 for the office. It was a lot of oranges.  I have no idea how much the crate weighed but it was A LOT. Luckily I only had a block to walk with them and the price was SOOO worth it. 

I bought a lot of oranges and even though we've been snacking on them all week, there are still a lot left.  So between having extra oranges, and getting the idea from one of my coworkers yesterday, I decided to make myself a freshly squeezed orange juice in my tea mug.  Laure had started squeezing the juice out of an orange yesterday since she's been sick.  I didn't see how much juice came out of her orange, but it seemed like a good idea.  

So his morning half awake I decided to make myself orange juice.  

I grabbed a bunch of oranges, some napkins, a coffee mug and a knife and I started making myself some orange juice.  

Let me tell you, I made a GIANT mess because I squeezed the oranges by hand.  I cut them in half and slowly and with an attempt at being careful attempted to squeeze each half into my mug that I regularly use for tea.  I struggled to aim. I squirted myself in the eye.  The orange skins split.  It was kind of hilarious.

The yield of one orange lol

It is not easy to squeeze oranges into a mug by hand. I would highly recommend either using a bigger bowl to squeeze your juice into or getting an actual kitchen aid, to help you squeeze out the juice. Either would have prevented the majority of the mess I created. I got juice and pulp all over the table and made a sticky disaster that I had to mop up later on.
Plus, in case you didn't know, the yield of one orange is relatively pitiful.  So I wound up needing five oranges to make a decent glass of orange juice.  

That being said, it was totally worth it.  The oranges were very fresh, so the juice was absolutely delicious.  A little pulpy but amazing.  If you like pulp, try it my way.  I also have to say that it is an utter pain to squeeze five oranges by hand.  It takes a long, long time.  I think I wasted about a half hour. Again, it was a half hour really worth it but it would have gone quicker with actual kitchen aids.  

But that's ok.  

I definitely spent the morning laughing. I was super entertained by the time my lesson started and therefore in a good mood.  Vitamin C and a little exertion make mornings go well!

My Mug of orange juice and the cookie that would've been breakfast:
Lucky for me, my student brought me a pastry instead :)

  

What you need:
5- 6 oranges
a mug... but let's face it, something bigger would be preferable
LOTS of Patience and the ability to laugh at yourself

Bonus if you actually have a kitchen aid for making orange juice!!