Goat's Cheese Monte Cristos

When I was at university, my friend Dan made the best late-night post-pub cheese toasties - I've had my own Breville sandwich toaster for several years (the same brand that my parents had when I was a kid, a long time ago) and there is definitely something comforting, if a little greasy, about a toasted cheese sandwich.

I usually add a slice of ham and maybe a smear of mustard to mine, but that's as fancy as it goes. I was looking through a recipe book I have reviewed before called Breakfast for Dinner looking for weekend lunch recipes and came across Monte Cristos - which are effectively cheese toasties but posher.

Apparently this particular recipe originated in the US - it uses turkey and goat's cheese, with hot red pepper jelly for sweetness and spice, though as I didn't have any and didn't want to make it from scratch, I used cranberry jelly instead. You don't need a dedicated sandwich toaster - you make this in a skillet or frying pan, brushing the bread with egg to make an almost eggy-bread texture.

To serve 4, you need:
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/4 tsp salt
8 slices bread
100g spreadable goat's cheese
1/4 cup hot red pepper jelly - I used cranberry jelly
8 slices roast turkey
2 tbsp. butter

Spread 2 tbsp. goat's cheese onto a slice of bread, then 1 tbsp. jelly. Top with a slice of turkey and another piece of bread to make a sandwich.

Whisk the eggs, milk and salt in a jug and brush over the top of the sandwich.

Melt the butter in the frying pan and place the sandwich in the pan, egg side down. Brush the other side of the sandwich with egg mixture. Cook for 3-4 minutes then turn and cook on the other side, then keep warm wrapped in foil while you repeat with the rest of the sandwiches.

Turkey Koftas in Pitta Bread

 

 

Christmas was long enough ago that I think I can face eating turkey again! You could make koftas from any kind of mince but they work really well with turkey and it's a very low fat option compared to red meat.

 

These are very simple to make, and to serve two, you need:

250g turkey mince

1 tsp harissa paste

1 tsp fresh chopped coriander

to serve:

pitta breads

fat free natural yogurt

1 clove garlic, crushed

salad leaves

 

Mix the turkey, harissa and coriander in a bowl and combine well.

 

Form into balls and then either grill or fry in a frying pan sprayed with Fry Light until browned and the meat is cooked through (it's best to cut one in half to check).

To serve, split open a pitta bread. Mix the garlic with the yogurt and spread inside, then add a few rocket or lettuce leaves and the turkey koftas. Enjoy!

Turkey Mince and Potato Wedge Hash

I created this recipe to use up some leftover cooked potato wedges which I didn't want to throw away. I also had some turkey mince in the fridge which needed using up so I decided to make the mince into meatballs. At the last minute I wasn't sure if that would be enough so I cut up a few sausages and threw them into the frying pan as well, along with some onion.

I then added some passata from a carton as well as salt and pepper and a pinch of chilli flakes.

I then added the cooked potato wedges to heat through, and sprinkled some grated cheese on top.

Serve with some salad or green veg.

This was really tasty and a good way to use up leftovers. I think you could also use leftover turkey from your Christmas dinner!

Turkey Wellington

 

 

I had some of my school friends over for a pre-Christmas dinner last weekend which was great fun - we had Christmas crackers containing whistles, that were numbered and sounded at a different pitch, and came with a songsheet so we attempted to play some Christmas carols, which was very funny.

 

I was planning to cook dinner for 9 people - my biggest dinner party ever, but now we have a new house there's a lot more room - but unfortunately one of my friends was ill so she and her husband didn't come.  When I was planning the food though I knew I needed to cook something that would feed a lot of people (aside from one vegan, as I made something different) and wanted to do a turkey as it was Christmas. But I wasn't sure how big a turkey I needed to feed 8 people, and didn't want to faff around with all the side dishes. I also didn't want to cook the exact same thing they would all be eating about ten days later!

 

I had an idea for a turkey dish that would be a one-pot meal (with some easy side dishes), go quite a long way and also not cost as much as a whole turkey - turkey wellington. I had a look online to see if I could find a recipe and was immediately taken with this turkey, brie and cranberry wellington from BBC Good Food. Mine didn't turn out anywhere near as pretty as the picture and I wasn't convinced by the brie in the middle - rather than melt, it held its shape and took on a bit of a rubbery texture. I wonder if there is another cheese that work better in this, though brie is quite Christmassy. So if you decide to give it a go, let me know what you think! Overall it was a really nice dish, a change from roast turkey but still very Christmassy. You could make this at any time of year and you could also make smaller portions - maybe individual wellingtons- with chicken breasts.

 

I bought a large turkey breast from Ocado and cut a slit in the middle, into which I spooned some cranberry sauce and then an entire wedge of brie. You also need to preheat the oven to 180C.

 

 

 

I used ready-made puff pastry to save time. I did make my own stuffing from sausage meat, adding sage, onion and breadcrumbs. I found it easier to roll out the pastry and spread the stuffing over the centre of the pastry than to put the stuffing onto the turkey breast.

 

I also found it easier to cover the turkey breast with two pieces of puff pastry and join them around the sides by rolling over the edges, rather than trying to wrap it in one huge piece of pastry. I finished the pastry with an egg wash (a beaten egg, brushed over, to help it brown) and then covered with foil as it went into the oven, as I didn't want the pastry to cook too quickly. I followed the packet instructions for the turkey and I think in total it took about three hours to cook.

 

Here it is when it came out of the oven.

The wellington was easy to slice and you can see the cheese and cranberry in the middle. One thick slice was plenty per person; I served this with roast potatoes and a selection of vegetables, and of course gravy. The turkey breast I'd bought had been cured so it fell apart easily; the texture was likened by one of my friends to slow-cooked ham!

 

 

It made a great centrepiece for a pre-Christmas dinner and was suitably festive without being exactly the same as what my friends would be eating on December 25th, so I was really pleased with it.

 

 

 

 

Turkey Meatloaf With Apple and Celery

Christmas dinner is all about the roast turkey and I wouldn't do anything to the turkey other than roast it. However, I'm always looking for ways to use up leftover turkey after Christmas. I made this meatloaf with minced turkey for a Thanksgiving meal with friends and it worked really well as the main course, as it's easy to make in large quantities and you can make it ahead of time. But I think this would also work with finely chopped or even minced turkey if you have a mincer to use up the leftovers after Christmas. Or just make it for a regular meal!

I was inspired by this recipe on All Recipes.com though I made mine slightly differently. Here's what I did.

Serves 6

You need:
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tbsp. oil or Fry Light
1 stick celery, finely chopped
1 apple, finely chopped
2 slices slightly stale bread, turned into breadrumbs - either by hand or in a food processor
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
3 tbsp. milk
large pinch of salt
pinch of dried sage
750g turkey mince

                                  

Preheat the oven to 175C. Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the onion, celery and apple until just starting to brown.

Transfer to a large bowl and add the breadcrumbs, cheese, milk, salt, sage and turkey mince.

Mix well, then press into a loaf tin. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes then slice into six to serve.

The meatloaf was really good and even my boyfriend who has never had meatloaf before, and doesn't like apple or celery, said he liked it. It had quite a soft texture and I think could have used a little more seasoning but otherwise was pretty good. I served it with green salad and sweet potatoes with marshmallow.

My Thanksgiving spread complete with Thanksgiving paper napkins

I'm sending this to Family Foodies, hosted by Vanesther at Bangers and Mash, and on alternate months Louisa at Eat Your Veg as the theme is festive food and you don't get much more festive than turkey!

 

I'm also sending this to Credit Crunch Munch, hosted by Helen at Fuss Free Flavours and Camilla at Fab Food 4 All, as meatloaf is a cheap way to feed a lot of people - you can either use leftovers or mince is generally cheaper than 'better' cuts of meat.

 

 

Sweet Chilli Turkey Burgers

These sweet chilli turkey burgers are low fat and really zingy, they make a lovely change from a beefburger and are very easy to make.

Allow about 100-120g turkey mince per person. Mix the mince in a bowl with some chopped red onion, chopped spring onion, 1/2 tsp oregano per person and 1 tsp sweet chilli sauce per person. Combine well and shape into patties with your hands.

Place on a foil lined tray and cook in the oven for 20 minutes or until cooked through.

Serve with rocket, and tomato if desired, in a crusty bread roll or burger bun.

I'm sending this to the Spice Trail Beach Barbecue Challenge, hosted by Vanesther at Bangers and Mash.

Secret Ingredient Noodle Stir Fry (after Kung Fu Panda)

This month's Food 'n' Flix is - for a change - a film I'd already seen: Kung Fu Panda. Chosen by Heather at Girlichef, it's a Dreamworks animation with an A-list cast (Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu) providing the voices for a panda called Po who wants to become a kung fu master, and the friends and rivals who help and hinder him along the way. I like it because it has a cute tubby panda doing high kicks but it's also one of those films with a strong message.

Po is an adopted child and his father is a goose who runs a Chinese restaurant (or indeed, a restaurant, as the film is set in China). His speciality is Secret Ingredient Noodle Soup and it is only when Po is training to become a kung fu master that his father deems him worthy of learning the secret ingredient - which turns out to be nothing. The message is that if you believe something is special, it is - which helps Po believe in himself and defeat the baddie.

So when it came to making a dish to best represent this film I knew I had to make a "secret ingredient" noodle dish - but somehow wanted the secret ingredient to be both something and nothing. I hit upon an idea after attending a cookery session with TV chef Phil Vickery and the British Turkey Association. Phil explained a technique called "velveting", which he did to the turkey before cooking it in a stir fry. Velveting is a Chinese technique originally so it also worked really well as the "secret ingredient" for this recipe. Chop your turkey or chicken breast (turkey is less expensive and low in fat, people!) and coat it in a mixture of egg white and cornflour (about 1 tbsp cornflour and one egg white) and leave for up to 30 minutes. This helps keep the poultry moist and gives it a soft, velvety texture.

  

To make this dish I velveted the turkey and stir fried it, then chopped some onion and spring onion and fried those (after removing the turkey from the pan).

I then  added a selection of vegetables to my stir fry, including broccoli, carrot, bean sprouts and alfafa sprouts and some prawns. Serve with noodles.

Finally I added the turkey back to the pan and some sweet chilli sauce.

I'm sending this to Food 'n' Flix, hosted by Heather at Girlichef.

Phil Talks Turkey - British Turkey evening with Phil Vickery

 

 When do you eat turkey? Just at Christmas, and maybe Easter? Or any time throughout the year? Would you automatically reach for the chicken breasts in the supermarket rather than looking at the turkey breast steaks?

I think I'm somewhere between the two - I often buy turkey instead of chicken, and turkey mince instead of beef, but I do cook with chicken a lot more than I do with turkey. Luckily, as my boyfriend is a big fan of chicken, I think we eat poultry more than red meat.

I was very pleased to be invited to a cookery demonstration and dinner with TV chef Phil Vickery by the British Turkey Association. I got to meet an interesting selection of bloggers and food writers, including a couple of people whose blogs I follow like Corinna at Searching for Spice and Fiona at London Unattached, as well as the food editors for Sainsbury's magazine and Grazia's website, among many others. I was also seated at dinner next to Paul Kelly - he's head of the British Turkey Association and I'm sure many of you have heard of Kelly Bronze turkeys- he's *that* Kelly. He was a very interesting and entertaining dinner companion!

Before we had dinner, we were treated to a cookery demonstration at the Westminster Kingsway college, which is known for its catering school, so they had a great little demonstration kitchen. Phil Vickery has been on Ready, Steady, Cook hundreds of times, and now appears as the chef on This Morning. He came across as down to earth and friendly, and clearly passionate about British turkey. He made several recipes using British turkey, all of which taking only a few minutes, showcasing the different flavours you can combine with turkey. Turkey is very low fat and high in protein, and cheaper than chicken, so it really is a great option for dinner time.

 

Phil explained a technique I wasn't familiar with, called velveting - it's popular in Chinese cookery. You coat the turkey in a mixture of egg white and cornflour or arrowroot and a little oil, and leave for up to a day in the fridge. Phil says it really changes the texture of the turkey, and prevents it from becoming dry. If you are worried about turkey being dry (perhaps because that's how you've had it at Christmas) then this is the ideal solution! Having said that, there's no reason for turkey to be dry, and Paul Kelly explained to me that people are so nervous about cooking a big turkey at Christmas that they cook it for far longer than the need to. Phil Vickery said he intends to try velveting his entire turkey this Christmas!

Phil's recipes included a sweet and sour turkey dish, where he combined lime zest and juice and sugar with chopped pineapple and mango, and chopped mint to serve. He made another dish with stir-fried strips of turkey with turmeric, cardamom and garlic for added flavour, and paprika sprinkled on top - he said you should never cook paprika and only add it at the end. He also made a 'surf and turf' dish with prawns and turkey, a combination I would never have thought of trying which was delicious. My favourite was probably the last dish where sugar was allowed to caramelize in the pan, then chopped fresh chilli and white wine vinegar was added to make a barbecue-style sauce. We got to try each dish (see pictures) as Phil made it and the evening was great fun.

 I also learnt quite a few new things about turkey thanks to the British Turkey Association, so I thought I would share some of those things with you here.

Six things you probably didn't know about turkey:

- Turkeys are originally from Mexico, and are believed to have been first brought to England in 1526.
- In Britain, turkey replaced peacock as the bird of choice for a roast dinner; turkey at that time was seen as more exotic. Edward VII made eating turkey at Christmas fashionable.
- In 1930, it took a week's wage to buy a turkey, now the average cost is less than 2 hours wages
- Originally black feather bronze turkeys were more popular, but the marks left after plucking the black feathers was deemed unsightly and the white turkey then became popular
- The country that eats the most turkey per capita is not the UK (where about 10 million are eaten at Christmas) or the US (where 60 million are eaten at Thanksgiving) but.... Israel.
- Ever wondered about the white and dark meat on a turkey? The dark meat comes from the legs; as these are the muscles that do the most work, they have higher levels of haemoglobin in the blood (which is needed to store oxygen), which is what makes the meat darker.

Thanks to Phil Vickery and the British Turkey Association for inviting me to the event. I will definitely cook more with turkey from now on - look out for some recipes on my blog!

Turkey, bacon and cheese escalopes

I often struggle to think of things to cook when my boyfriend comes over for dinner, as he is extremely fussy and has fairly simple tastes - he doesn't like sauces, or strong flavours, and generally prefers to eat things like pizza or burger and chips - but he's not doing that in my house! (Well, not all the time, anyway). So one thing I like to do is my own homemade version of something that he already eats out of a packet, so I know he will like it, but that my version will be healthier - and also that it is made with love :-)

So one night recently I hit upon the idea of turkey escalopes filled with bacon and cheese. I started off by cooking some bacon: in retrospect, I should have made this healthier by using my George Foreman grill.

Then I set out three bowls, containing flour, an egg (beaten after this photo) and Paxo breadcrumbs

Lay a turkey escalope out flat and place a piece of bacon then a thick slice of mozzarella cheese on top

Carefully holding the cheese and bacon onto the turkey, dip each side in the flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs. Place on a baking tray: they don't look half bad!

Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo after they had been cooked but the escalopes basically look the same as above, only darker and crispier. When you cut into them you get a great combination of turkey, cheese and bacon. My boyfriend really liked these and asked me to make them again so I think I can put them down as a success!

I am sending this to This Week's Cravings Link Party at Mom's Crazy Cooking, where this time you can enter absolutely anything at all!