Tuesday 18 December 2012

Turkey and chickpea pilaf

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There are some things in life you need to do once. Roasting a turkey is definitely one of them :)
And that's exactly what we did. 

I have never cooked a whole chicken (poussin exempted), leave alone a 5kg turkey. So when Asda asked if I would like to review a Turkey from their Butchers selection, I was a bit sceptical, but the husband was 100 percent confident he could handle it and so I said yes, why not! I decided to give him full responsibility of handling and cooking the turkey and I must say he did a really good job.
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We did some research and decided to do a turkey roast- Indian style and boy are we glad we did so. Most of the turkey roasts I've had are bland, but doing an Indian prep took care of that. The marinade was a basic chilli powder, lime juice, salt, pepper, ginger-garlic paste one and Ro made sure he got the marinade under the skin all throughout the turkey. He also put some onions, lemon wedges, bay leaves, garlic pods and carrots into the cavity for the flavours to catch on. He then nicely doused olive oil over the bird and rubbed it in, followed by seasoning generously with salt and pepper. The cooking method we followed was from here and we managed to get a golden, crispy roast turkey, but the last 10 minutes of cooking on high heat somehow burnt it a wee bit, but no complaints there as we loved the flavours.

We were only a few of us for lunch when we did the roast turkey and so had tonnes left over. After packing off some to friends and relatives, the remaining batch was divided into two. One went into the freezer for future use, and I made this turkey and chickpea pilaf with the remaining. This is a very quick lunch preparation if you have all the ingredients at home and can actually be a one pot meal if you are not obsessed with precooking the onions before hand. Either ways, we loved it. I am hooked on to cooking rice in the microwave now and cant think of doing it any other way. Try this easy peacy pilaf with your left over Chritstmas turkey, and you wont be disappointed..seriously!!!

Recipe adapted from here
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> Olive oil- 2 tbsp
Onion- 1 small, finely chopped
Garlic- 1 tbsp, finely chopped
Ginger- 1 tbsp, finely chopped
Green chilli- 1, slit
Curry paste- 1 heaped tbsp (I used Sharwoods korma paste)
Chickpeas- 150gms (from a 400gm can. Drain and use 150 gms)
Turkey- 150 gms, shredded
Basmati rice- 1 cup, washed and soaked in cold water for 15 minutes
Stock*- 2 1/4 cups (I used chicken stock, feel free to use vegetable stock as well) 
Lime juice- from half a line
Coriander leaves- to garnish
Salt- to taste
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Heat the oil in a large frying pan and saute the onions till they turn light brown.
Add the garlic, ginger and green chilli and continue frying for 2 to 3 minutes till their raw smell disappears.
Add the curry paste and cook for a further 1 minute.
In goes the chickpeas and shredded turkey. Saute till all the masala gets coated well.
Drain the rice and add to the pan, fry for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring continuously. 
Add salt (remember, the stock will have enough salt, so add accordingly), give a final stir and transfer the mix into a microwave safe bowl.
Pour in the stock and lemon juice, give a stir and place in the microwave.
Cook on high (700W) for 15 minutes.
Once done, check if all the water has been absorbed and then cover and leave aside for 10 minutes.
Fluff well using a fork and garnish with coriander leaves just before serving.
Make a meal of it with a side of yoghurt, pickle and poppadoms.
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Notes: Replace the turkey with shredded chicken
I use a stock cube. I dilute it in the required amount of boiling water and use that.
If you don't have curry paste, then use a meat masala or curry powder in its place.

With thanks to Asda for the turkey and gift voucher.

19 comments:

Vidya Chandrahas said...

Very interesting...looks delicious and inviting.

Suja Manoj said...

Yummy pilaf,love the recipe,will surely try this Christmas

Priya Suresh said...

Even am scared to cook with whole turkey,my hubby is pestering to make a turkey roast for our christmas dinner.

Pilaf sounds wonderful and definitely inviting. Wonderful dish to finish the leftover cooked turkey.

Saraswathi Ganeshan said...

Woow this looks absolutely delicious.. First time here and love your space..Happy to follow you..

Manju @ Manjus Eating Delights said...

Loved the Indianised Turkey Roast, my kinda style :-)

Pilaf is a neat idea with leftovers...Good job!

turmericnspice said...

Amazing job Ro ! I think he is close to starting his own blog! i love the spices and herbs that you used for marination. Nicely done

Deepthi KR said...

looks fantastic
Good Food Recipes-Christmas Food Fair

Poornima Nair said...

That turkey looks fabulous Nisha, using our spices is so much better. Nothing better than a tawa pulav to use up leftovers, looks delicious!

Indu said...

A 5 kg turkey?? Gulp...
I love the dark colour on the turkey...
And you seem to have msatered the art of cooking rice in microwave...It looks perfect...

indugetscooking

Hamaree Rasoi said...

Pilaf looks delicious.Love to try it out once.
deepa

Vineetha Sush said...

So u had fun with Turkey...ur hubby looks so passionate about the carving :) At least u r making the left over into yummy things..5-6 yrs ago me and sush bought our first turkey and we hated it.lit was so bland and I didn't like the taste of the bird, now I feel we should have tried it Indian way and it wouldn't have gone to bin !!

divya said...

Looks yum...love it...

FLAVZCORNER said...

Great idea to use the left over turkey in Pilaf. I use the shredded left over turkey to make spicy spring/egg rolls.

Anonymous said...

can you believe I never roasted a full chicken yet! You did a fantastic job with that turkey my friend and looks like plan B was not really required :)

Unknown said...

the turkey looks really good. I am not a big turkey person either, because of its bland taste. however, the indian spiced turkey sounds really good. I loved the pilaf here- curry, chickpeas and turkey with rice sounds like a great leftover meal for me.

Bharathy said...

Some posts are too good for just a comment!!

and

"Ammazingly classy" is understated!!

Bharathy said...

I see the name Chinmayie where you place comments in my space. I thought and still presume your name is nisha!

I get confused with you and chinmayie bhat of lovefoodeat at times! :)

Bharathy said...

It happens everytime! in fact, your name shows chinmayie in all the posts you've commented! until the the thumbprint cookies, kothuparatha, diwali treats,...... for the past one year ...from.. rice wine...son's fav pizza etc!!
wonder how!!

I remember earlier it was open book. Whatever, I am a fan of your blog! the pastel colours of the template, the pics and the recipes are extra ordinary and gives me the feeling of inhaling morning fresh air! seriously!

Anonymous said...

Love the idea of Indian-ising turkey!