Picadillo Calazones

All of my recipes are intended to utilize what I have on hand.  Feel free to substitute ingredients for what you have and what you like.  I promise, my feelings won't be hurt.  This recipe started because after having my girlfriends over to watch porn "True Blood" and eat turkey burgers I realized I had way to much meat mixture leftover.

To prepare these cross-cultural calazones (HA!  my spell check tried to turn "calazones" into "lazybones".  Apparently calazones are too multicultural for Google) you need to prepare a few things:

First--Pizza Dough

You could absolutely buy this ready made, but if you have a few hours to let it rise, it is incredibly cheap to make yourself.

ingredients:
1 tsp yeast
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup lukewarm water
2 cups flour
splash of oil (I like olive for this)

directions:

In the bottom of your mixer or in a bowl combine sugar, yeast and lukewarm water.  Let it sit or proof for a few minutes.  Then add your flour and salt, and mix with the mixer or by hand for a few more minutes.  Lift the dough out of the bowl for a moment and add a dizzle of oil to the bottom of the bowl.  Add the dough and turn in the oil to coat.  Congratulations!  you've made pizza dough.  Cover with plastic wrap or a clean towel.  Let it rise until about double in size, maybe 2 hours.   The dough can also rise in the fridge overnight and just remove about an hour before using.

Notice the bubbles on top of the dough, that means it ready. While the dough rises or whenever you like, make the meat mixture.




Second--Turkey mixture

Ingredients:
20 oz package of ground turkey

1/8 cup of prepared bbq sauce (you won't really taste it, it just does good things in there)

Heaping teaspoon grill seasoning

2 tablespoons chives (or parsley would work I just have an abundance of chives in my garden)

¼ cup grated onion

Directions:  combine all the above ingredients just as you would to make hamburgers (which is what I did and how these left overs came to be).  

Third--Picadillo Calazones

Remaining ingredients:

6-8 cloves of roasted garlic or 2-3 cloves fresh garlic, diced

browning turkey

1/4 cup finely diced onion

1 tbsp oil

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp chile powder 

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 loose cup of shredded cheese ( I used cheddar and mozzarella)   

Directions:

Saute garlic and onion in the oil for a minute or 2, over med-high heat, until starting to turn translucent.  Add the meat mixture to brown.  When your turkey is cooked through, drain the fat and add the tomato paste, smoked paprika, chile powder, and oregano.  Allow these ingredients to toast and cook and fully incorporate with the meat mixture, 2 minutes or so.  

3 balls of pizza dough

   

Now we are ready to assemble these beauties.  

Divide your pizza dough into 2 Whoa-you-really-are-hungry portions, 3 still-really-big portions, or 4 normal person sized portions.    You can see what I went with. 

 

filled calazone

Roll each ball out into a disk about 1/4-1/8 inch thick.  Add a healthy, heaping scoop of the meat mixture and a slightly smaller, yet still super yummy handful of cheese to one side of each disk.  Leave about 1/2 inch edge to allow room to fold.  To fold, fold over empty side like you are making a quesadilla.  Pinch and turn the edges to seal, so all the good stuff doesn't run out as you bake.  Fork a few steam holes in the top.  Repeat with each calazone.

folded and ready for the oven

Ahh, look, Daddy, Mama and Baby Bear!  Add a touch of oil to the bottom of your cookie sheet just so they don't stick.  Place into a preheated 425 degree oven and bake for around 20 minutes.  They should go in looking like this

 And come out looking like this.  Yummy.  And because dinner can't just be all meat pies, I made a salad.  My garden lettuce is going crazy, so my salad is a simple lettuce, with cucumber and tomatoes from the farmer's market.