Fusion Confusion

I hope you all had a delicious Thanksgiving. Mine was good except for one thing: left-over turkey. I can handle a couple days of left over turkey, but anything after that is overkill! Every year I tell my mother that we only need a breast and a couple legs which you can now buy separately, (Can you imagine if Mattel sold Barbie that way? “When I get my allowance next week, I’ll have enough saved up to buy Barbie another leg! And then next month, I’ll buy her some hair!” Retail price $19.95. Arms and legs sold separately.) but she doesn’t listen. She want’s the bones and giblets and all that. Can’t say I blame her, but still, I’m thankful that we’ll be having a ham for Christmas. Or a roast. I haven’t decided yet.

There are infinite things to do with left-over turkeys. Pretty much anything goes. Any recipe you have for chicken can easily be used to ‘make room in the fridge’, which is, as Lemony Snicket would say, “a phrase here that means, ‘making the turkey disappear.’ “ So you want recipes to help make your turkey left-overs disappear? Nuh-uh. Not gonna do it. Wouldn’t be prudent at this juncture. Whatever that means. All I know is I have my own 24 pound tom to digest.

So what about this “fusion” cooking I’ve been mentioning? We are a global community. It’s becoming more and more difficult to determine what is ethnic and what is the brainchild of some overzealous chef (Insert Avant Garde joke here…if you have one). Fusion is basically the combination of two cuisines. For example, when I was in Japan, in the city of Sendai, there was a Shakey’s Pizza. They had a pizza with usual Italian flare, but instead of anchovies there was ika. Or what the Italians call calamari. Yup. Squid Pizza. Another one had tuna. Cooked of course. Let’s not get carried away here.

You get the idea. Of course, fusion doesn’t have to be exotic or strange. One of my favorite cuisines is actually an unknown fusion of sorts - Southwestern. There are only two types of Southwestern cuisine: Sonoran and Santa Fe. Sorry Texas. No TexMex here. While it is fusion, I don’t consider it Southwestern. Or palatable for that matter. True Southwestern is Mexican with a Native American influence. In Santa Fe, the influence is on the Navajo, Apache and Pueblo style while with Sonoran, prominent in Arizona, the influence is more on the Mexican side. Both are heaven to me!

Ok so I have been thinking about fusion lately because I’ve had an idea. I know that some chefs like to use wanton wrappers for large tortellini or agnolotti (aka priest caps). So I’m thinking, what if I stuff my wantons with Christmas goodies like pumpkin pie filling, apple pie filling or how about a Crème Brule ? Or…or…or…Camembert with raspberry compote filling! Mmm! They’d work for postickers or shumai to! There’s Chinese bao buns stuffed with your favorite fruit instead of char su pork.

I once did a ravioli with a southwestern style. Instead of semolina, I used blue corn meal. I used chorizo instead of Italian sausage and I spiced up the marinara sauce with Mexican spices like cilantro, cumin, red chilies and lime and I garnished it with fresh diced avocado. Italian is actually one of the easiest foods to infuse! Everything goes with Italian!