Festive Food: Coronation Turkey

Turkey and Christmas - every year families munch their way through a massive quantity of turkey on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, and there always seems to be more of it than we know what to do with. Finding different ways to use up this most festive of meats can be a challenge, but now we bring you a sandwich filling using up some of the leftover turkey. The nicest thing about this is that you can either use it now or freeze the cooked turkey, then defrost and make it into Coronation Turkey at a later date, e.g. for sandwiches for work or the kids, etc...

Our recipe is loosely based on the old-favourite Coronation Chicken recipe devised in 1953 for the Queen's coronation feast, but is simpler to make and exceptionally tasty! Are you ready to give it a go? Read on...

CORONATION TURKEY

400g-450g of cooked turkey meat, cut into small-ish pieces
4 spring onions, finely sliced
150g dried cranberries (we get ours from ALDI)
Cup of cranberry juice (own brand carton juice is fine)
2 tablespoons mango chutney (we get ours from ALDI but it's widely available in most supermarkets)
4 tablespoons mayonnaise (we use Hellman's as it's mustard free but any mayo will work)
1 tablespoon of Tikka curry powder (we use Tesco's as it's the nicest we've found)

Soak the cranberries in the juice in a covered bowl overnight. Drain off the remaining juice the following day - the juice isn't needed for this recipe.

In a large bowl mix together the mayo, the chutney and the curry powder, add the turkey, the spring onions and the drained cranberries. Mix well until everything is coated with the mayo mix. Add a bit more mayo if your meat isn't completely coated. Leave to stand in a covered bowl in the fridge for a couple of hours before using to allow the curry flavour to develop.

Use for sandwich filling or with a salad. Serves 4-6 depending on portion size.

Channa Aloo - Oooh yum! (V)

We like curries, so when I spotted a recipe on a blog for Channa Aloo, a Caribbean curry from Trinidad that I'd not tried before, it proved very tempting. It also looked simple to make, with store cupboard ingredients, and the photo looked so tasty.  Last night, whilst hubby was working and son was sleeping I set to and tried it out... this was the result. A seriously tasty and very filling vegetarian curry.

I have to admit to making a couple of changes to the recipe, mainly to use up some veggies in the fridge, but also to add a wee bit more flavour at the end.  The recipe blog's author (at RecipeTinEats) said she had found the recipe on another site: Immaculate Bites, an African-Caribbean food blog and had herself made a few changes, so this is a double-tweaked version!

Regardless of that, it is still jolly good! So why not give it a try?

INGREDIENTS

3 tbsp cooking oil (I used olive oil for everything) into the cooking pan to start with

Base

1 large onion, diced (brown, white, yellow)
2 large garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp curry powder (I used tikka masala curry powder but you can use any you prefer)
1 tsp allspice powder
1 tsp nutmeg powder
1½ tsp smoked paprika
2 tsp dried thyme leaves
1 tsp cumin powder
¾ tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp ground black pepper

Curry

3 medium potatoes, cut into 1.2cm / ½" cubes
2  cans of chickpeas, drained
1  can chopped tomatoes
2 cups vegetable stock (I made mine with one green OXO and 1 vegetable stockcube in 2 cups boiling water)
1 leek, finely sliced (green & white parts)
3 mini sweetcorns, sliced thinly
1 dsp mango chutney
2 tbsp fresh flat parsley, finely chopped (plus more for garnish)
Salt to taste

Method

Heat the oil in a large pan or very deep skillet over medium high heat.

Add the Base ingredients and cook for 3 minutes until the onion is translucent.

Add the potatoes and cook for a further 3 minutes. If the spices start to stick to the bottom of the pot, add a splash of water.

Add the chickpeas, tomatoes, leek, sweetcorn and vegetable stock. Bring to simmer then turn down the heat to medium and simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until the potatoes are cooked and the sauce has thickened. The potatoes should still look firm but be soft on the inside.

Add the mango chutney and stir in to mix well.

Adjust salt to taste, add parsley and mix through the rest.

Serve with rice.

Amount

This made enough for 4-5 people as a main course, but if you serve it as one of a number of dishes at (e.g.) a curry night then it would easily serve 8-10.

Notes

If you prefer a less spicy curry then reduce the amount of curry powder you use.
Channa = chickpea
Aloo = potato

Vegetarian