Today, my mom got to work on her annual holiday treat, the turkey ball. The more fancier name would be the Turkey Croquette. While I was sleeping, Mom got the food processor out and was hard at work grinding up the turkey and the other ingredients. She saved me a few turkey balls to eat after I woke up. I’ll post my review and a picture at the end of this post.
For many years, we had a Christmas party where we made turkey balls with everybody there. Afterwards, we had an opportunity to sample the finished product. My maternal grandmother’s (Gram) aunt started this tradition in the mid 1980’s. At least that is my earliest recollection of when Aunt Lotte started making them.
You may be asking, “What goes into making turkey balls?” According to my mother, there’s no clear cut recipe and they’ve always winged it. She uses ground up turkey and rotisserie chicken, which makes them more moist. To flavor them, she also uses onion and parsley. It’s rolled into something between the size of a golf or tennis ball (my opinion is it’s in the middle). Next, you put it in an egg mixture and roll it through bread crumbs. Finally, you deep fry them.
We don’t have parties anymore, as schedules have conflicted. Nowadays, my mom prepares the turkey balls a few days before Christmas Eve. We sample a few and freeze the rest. Great toppings that we recommend include sour cream and thai chili sauce. When I sampled mine today, I used a garlic ranch dressing and it tasted just as good. So, pick your poison.
Eating that first turkey ball of the holiday season reminded me of Aunt Lotte and those special Christmas Eves I spent there as a kid. She always got my cousins and I the best gifts. One year it was frisbees, and another year it was kites. Also, who can forget the Spirographs? Do they still make those? I was too young to try the punch because it was alcoholic but I snuck a few strawberries in my cup. I wasn’t young enough to wreak a little havoc though with my cousins. I remember my younger teenage self writing a few short stories about those antics.
There’s a special story behind why my aunt made those ground up turkey treats instead of a regular turkey. I won’t tell that on my platform, but I’ll let you think about it as you celebrate your holiday traditions.
Stylish 🍒 