So, my last entry was some time ago, but hey, no time like the ending of the year to think about the future.
Getting ready to visit my mother-in-laws after Christmas, I was getting ready to perform my yearly ritual of cooking up leftover Turkey. Having had a Turkey crown for two, the In Laws, had loads left. I made two curries, a sweet and sour, the base of which was from a jar, I’m slightly ashamed to say, but I added additional spring onion, red peppers and pineapple chunks, soy, garlic and rice wine and the other – was my own work. I had previously used a recipe from Jamie Oliver’s forum for the last few years but after searching high and low, it’s disappeared from the internet! On another foodie’s site, I hear that it was DELETED. Why on earth would it be!? But it was. So I had to freestyle and remember what I’ve made in the previous years, and I have now a full proof recipe which I will keep here and will be readily available as and when! And I hope you like it and can benefit too.
This is very typical of UK Chinese restaurant takeaway curries which normally use chicken as the meat and sometimes a scattering of prawns.
Feeds 4
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp cooking oil (I usually use cold-pressed rapeseed)
- 1 large WHITE onion (milder flavour than brown skinned), peeled & roughly chopped.
- Pinch of crushed, dried chilli (if you like it hotter, of course, add more)
- 1 garlic clove, peeled and finely sliced/crushed
- 2 heaped tsp of medium curry powder
- 1/2 tsp of ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp of ground tumeric
- 1 and a half Star Anise
- Leftover turkey about 1lb, in chunky pieces
- A splash of rice/Shaoxing wine (optional)
- 1 litre of organic chicken stock, hot. (I use a cube)
- 1 tbsp of soy/tamari sauce
- handful of frozen peas
- 2 tbsp of cornflour, mixed with 2 tbsp of water
- 1 x handful of fresh/defrosted prawns (optional)
- Salt to taste.
Method
Fry off the onion, on a medium heat till slightly softened, add garlic and crushed chilli and fry for a further 30 seconds. Add all the spices, and stir vigorously. Splash in the rice wine and allow to burn off. Add cooked turkey and stir. Cook for at least 2 more minutes over medium heat. Then add the stock and soy sauce and bring to a consistent simmer. Then add frozen peas. Then add half of the cornflour mixture until thickened. If not thick enough add small amount of the remainder of the cornflour until desired thickness reached. Taste and add salt if necessary or a little more soy sauce.
If you want to add defrosted or fresh prawns, this is the moment to add as will cook in less than 2 minutes.
If not using leftover turkey or other white meat, cook meat (chicken or beef) first in some oil before adding onion. If going completely veggie, add root veggies at the same time as the onion and allow to cook through in the stock. If using less dense veggies like mange tout, broccoli, add at the same time as the stock and test so that they don’t go too soft.
Serve with Rice if desired.
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