Take-to-work Wraps, Part I

Last July, I made an Emeril LaGasse recipe for Caribbean Pulled Pork that made so much pork I had to do something with it. I mean, it was delicious, but it was a LOT of pork for one person. What I ended up doing with most of it was folding it into wraps, freezing them and taking them to work to heat up in the microwave. And they were good.

Lots of people know that wraps are a very good way of dealing with leftovers and of "mass-producing" relatively inexpensive meals to take to work. Most of us have microwaves at work. Although there are also wraps that would be good cold, and when summer comes, I will make some. Chicken and avocado, with lettuce and honey mustard dressing, comes to mind. Yum.

Just the other day, though, a friend who is a better cook than I am (by a power of ten, at least) mentioned that she was trying to come up with ideas for meals, actually, breakfasts, to take to work and heat in the microwave. She mentioned frittatas, but was open to suggestion. I thought of wraps, mostly because I've never tried freezing and microwaving a frittata. Besides, she said she was going to try frittatas, so, if there's any hope of it working, she can do it and tell me about it.

But it made me think of those wraps. I can buy all kinds of "wrap" wrappings at my local store. Whole wheat flour tortillas, which aren't bad. All kinds of pita pockets, which aren't technically wraps because you stuff them instead of wrapping, but, really, same deal. And then these wonderful long oval wraps that come in whole wheat, multigrain, Italian flavored, yada-yada-yada. I like the whole wheat and multigrain because they not only taste good, they make me feel virtuous.

So on my trip to the grocery store, I had a plan: Potatoes, onions, sausage, cheese, maybe another veg (hey! onion is a veg), wraps. Oh, and to re-stock my supply of plastic wrap and aluminum foil, because I definitely believe in double-wrapping things for the freezer.

But my store had ground turkey on sale. Two for one. And I realized that I have never, ever, cooked with ground turkey. Well, had to do it. I mean, I already knew a pork product would work. Where's the adventure there?

I baked three potatoes, chopped up two small onions and "sweated" them -- not sauteed, they didn't brown -- and then: The turkey.

I seasoned it with salt and freshly ground pepper, of course, and added some dried minced garlic, cayenne pepper, Italian seasoning (mostly oregano, by what my nose tells me) and savory. I feared the turkey would be bland, so I used a fairly heavy hand compared with what I would put on ground beef.

Some olive oil in the cast iron skillet and then, the turkey. I was stunned at how, well, mushy the consistency was. Nothing at all like ground beef. It really was ready to turn into a paste. But as it sauteed, it did break up nice and crumbly, although it didn't brown the way ground beef would, and it threw off an awful lot of moisture. I obviously will need to experiment further, and I invite comments from people who have worked with this ingredient before. I cooked it until there was no pink left and no puddles of moisture in the pan. Then I tasted it, and it did taste pretty darn good, so my seasoning was on the mark.

The reason there is no picture is that everything is now cooling in the fridge. The one thing I do know about constructing wraps is that it is a lot easier to do with chilled fillings. You don't burn yourself, and the wraps don't get soggy. Also, the potatoes will be really easy to skin and dice after they have chilled overnight. And don't tell me you don't do that. If you don't, think about it next time you need to make a batch of potato salad.

I am also thinking that tomorrow I may run back to the store for some mushrooms to add to the wraps. Or I may pick some of my spinach and arugula. Certainly anyone could add any ingredient that they liked. An obvious one would be bell pepper, but I'm not a huge fan.

So ... tune in tomorrow. If I am lucky, there will be something worth taking a picture of.