Turkey White – Turkey Brown

Start with the breast scallops. Dredge in flour mixed with a moderate amount of salt and white pepper.(Black pepper visually mars the pristine sauce.) Working in batches, saute in hot butter til just barely done. They will cook further in the sauce, and you don't want them to brown much at all.

Drain on paper towels as you go. Once you've got them all sauted, layer them in the first baking dish. Here's where your experience and good judgement come in. You're going to make a sauce of reduced heavy cream and lemon juice. So start with about twice as much cream as you'd need to cover the turkey scallops in the baking dish, and reduce it down by half in a sauce pan. Youwant a thick, velvety texture.

Add 2 teaspoons of fresh lemon juice for each cup of reduced cream. Season with salt and white pepper.

Pour over the turkey scallops, using a spoon to lift up and jiggle the pieces so the sauce goes around and under every piece.Next dredge the dark meat cubes in flour seasoned with salt and black pepper.

Saute these in butter in batches as well, drain andplace in the second bakingdish.In the remaining butter saute the mushrooms and the bacon, scraping up any browned bits in the pan. When they look ready, repeat the mental calculations for how much sauce you'll need. Equal parts turkey stock and red wine, enough so that when reduced by half you've got enough to cover the dark meat cubes.

Add the frozen pearl onions and the fresh herbs in the last couple of minutes of cooking down the sauce. If the sauce looks too thin, thicken it a bit with some flour or cornstarch.You're going for hearty but be sure to stop short of gloppy.

Mix the sauce in and around the dark meat.Unfold the thawed puff pastry on a floured surface.

Roll out the rectangles so they're just an inch larger than the baking dishes.

Brush the egg wash around the top edges of the baking dishes, place the pastry over the tops and crimp closed. Make it look neatand even.If your puff pastry skills are more advanced, you could hold some backwhen you roll it out and make some decorative elaborations of your own design.Plain and pretty is just fine though.

Cut some organizedvents in the top of the pastry to allow steam to escape, and give the entire top a good going over with the egg wash.Into a preheated375 degree oven they go. Plan on at least 45 minutes to an hour if you're plowing through this at one go, whilethe meat and sauceare still warm. If you've done some of the work in advance and refrigerated it,you'll need to account for that timing-wise. You know it's done when the pastry is puffed and brown all over and the saucesare starting to bubble up in thevents or from little breaches in the sides. And now the moment we've all been waiting for. Present the identical dishes on your table or buffet. Delve into the firstand you're rewarded with elegant slices of turkey scallopini luxuriating in lemony cream sauce. Then help yourself to its apparent twin. But wait! This one is an earthystew of tender chunks of dark meat studdedwith the goodness of mushroom, bacon, onion.