Is it possible to turn off the filter answers by popularity function and see the most recent ones instead? If so, how? ?

No that is not Possible you can not turn that Off

You mean in the question-feeds?

Sure, just click "answer", right next to "discover", on top

edit: sorry, you meant answers. The previous answerer is correct. Unfortunately there is no way to make a sorting other than "relevance" your default

Just under the question's report flag icon is the word "Relevance" and a down facing arrow. Use that to sort the answers by Relevance, Rating, Newest, Oldest. You have to change the sort for every question you want to review the answers to, as the default is "Relevance".