Have you been watching BBC TV’s current cooking programme
“The Incredible Spice Men”? I certainly have! It’s been wonderful watching
Cyrus Todiwala OBE DL, the renowned chef at London’s Café Spice Namaste and Tony
Singh, the kilt wearing Chef-Director of Oloroso and Tony’s Table in Edinburgh,
travel round the country doing what they do best: cook. Their mission is simply
to enhance and bring a modern twist to classic British dishes by adding spice.
The recipes have been innovative, look fantastic and are both achievable and
simple, the different landscapes of Britain have been delightful… And then
there is the interaction between Cyrus and Tony; jocular, fun, warm and
genuinely friendly.
I have seen Cyrus give a cooking demonstration before at the
Real Food Festival on London’s South Bank (writeup can be found here: http://snigskitchen.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/real-food-festival-2012-28th-30th-sept.html) So it
will be no surprise that I was delighted when I was invited to Café Spice
Namaste to a British Turkey Masterclass. Cyrus’ love of great British produce
has been evident during the Spice Men series, and his mission for the evening
was to convince us that turkey is for more than just Christmas dinner.
I was sceptical, but happy to put myself in the hands of such
a talented chef and show a little trust. My experiences of dry and bland turkey
at Christmas had put me off using turkey in my home cooking. Cyrus was going to
have an uphill task convincing me that I could make fabulous, spicy, flavourful
meals with turkey!
Snigdha meets Cyrus |
Cyrus prepared a number of ingenious creations combining
spicing, marinading and currying techniques. He showed us how to make several
dishes during the course of the evening, ranging from slow cooked curries, omelettes,
and masalas.
Snigdha meets Mrs Todiwala - the lovely Pervin |
The Khari Gurdun dish demonstrated how the neck of the
turkey can be slow cooked in a casserole or curry sauce base to become tender and
tasty. Because the neck has such well developed muscle, it is seen as being
tough and chewy, meaning it is often discarded. This was an eye-opener for me,
since as we head into Autumn and Winter, I like to change my cooking style to
more comforting braised and slow cooked dishes, and Khari Gurdun is just the
sort of food I crave in the grey cold weather.
Khari Gurdun |
Cyrus made a very quick turkey liver spicy stir fry, a
sort of dry curry. The turkey livers themselves are quite strong flavoured, so
this would be a good dish to serve in small quantity to give a different
texture and mood to an overall meal.
Cyrus demonstrated two types of dish using turkey eggs.
One was a simple omelette with lots of coriander, tomato, spring onion and
spice, the other more substantial type of scrambled egg dish, containing marinaded
strips of turkey.
Here is the simple omelette:
Here is Cyrus making the turkey strip scrambled egg stir
fry:
The finished dish:
We had some minced turkey koftas:
Trio of turkey starters
The three dishes were:
A turkey sheek kavaab omelette roll (turkey minced with
fresh ginger, garlic, chillies and spices formed over a skewer, chargrilled and
served rolled in a turkey egg omelette)
Mini turkey masala pie (diced turkey cooked with chopped
shallots, tomato and spices, filled in mini pastry cases)
Bhuna turkey dosa (rice and lentil pancake filled with
diced turkey cooked in a traditional Bhuna masala)
Turkey chilli fry
Turkey strips, tossed in typical Goan style with sliced
shallot, spring onion, chilli, ginger and garlic with cumin in a light sauce
Potato dosa bhajee
A simple South Indian style potato preparation flavoured
with cracked mustard seeds, white lentils and curry leaves.
Gently spiced but not bland, this would be a wonderful
filling in a masala dosa. It would also be a colourful accompaniment to
sausages if you wanted to serve an Indianised Bangers N Mash!
Leeli Kolmi Ni Curry
Light green curry with fresh coconut and cashew nuts simmered
with sustainably sourced Red Sea king prawns.
Saffron ginger and cardamom crème brulee and fresh fruit
salad cup
Just as the Incredible Spice Men have spiced up British
classics, here Cyrus has spiced up a typically French dessert. Simply
delicious!
The dishes I had were all so tasty, that I left Café Spice
Namaste completely stuffed. Some dishes were ones that I had to have second
helpings of…. Cyrus was only too pleased to let me have some more. Although he
did have the audacity to comment with a cheeky “Madam, your size is somewhat
misleading, it belies your appetite!”
One of the treats we sampled was a trio of “turkey tikkas”
– marinaded and grilled cubes of turkey. Cyrus was kind enough to allow me to
share the recipe of one of them with you.
You will want to try this recipe, it was moist, flavourful
and delightful. It is simple and nothing about it is difficult – you just have
to remember to marinade the turkey overnight.
Cyrus Todiwala’s Turkey Tikka
Ingredients
800g British turkey breast
¼ tsp Turmeric Powder
Salt & Pepper to taste (white pepper powder is best)
150g Plain yoghurt
40g Ginger
4-5 cloves Garlic
½ tsp Cumin Powder
½ tsp Coriander Powder
½ tsp Red Chilli Powder
2 tbsp Lime Juice
½ tsp Garam Masala Powder
2 tbsp Sunflower Oil
Knob of Butter for basting
Method
- Cut the turkey breast into “Tikka’s” or cubes large enough to be skewered roughly 1 ½” X 1 ½”.
- Rub salt, pepper and turmeric into the meat and set aside in the refrigerator.
- In a blender add all the other ingredients and half the yoghurt and blend to a smooth paste.
- When all the spices are mixed in well, remove to a bowl and whisk in the remaining yoghurt.
- Check here for spice levels to suit your requirements. Add more chilli only if you so desire.
- Mix in the turkey well.
- The marinated turkey is best set aside overnight in the refrigerator or at least four to five hours.
- The cooking process now can be two fold. The tikka can either be chargrilled on the barbecue or under the grill and finished in the oven.
- Either way it needs to be basted for that juicy appearance.
- Under the grill if wishing to cook right through ensure that the grill is not too high and that the meat is on a wire mesh with a drip tray below.
- Only if there is no option use a very hot oven at around 190 to 200 degrees C
- The Tikka’s will cook well in approximately in eight to ten minutes. Turn them once over if you like for an all-round colour.
I would like to thank
Café Spice Namaste and British Turkey for inviting me to the British Turkey
Masterclass with Cyrus Todiwala.
Oh wow, love The incredible spice men, and you are so privileged to have met Cyrus. Nice Tikka
ReplyDeleteDear Janice,
DeleteIt is amazing who you get to meet as a blogger every now and then. I do count myself as very fortunate that I've been able to meet so many food heroes.
Hope you liked the post. The tikka tastes superb, so I do hope you will give it a go. Let me know how you get on!
Thanks for reading and for commenting! I really appreciate it!
lots of love
Snigdha
Sounds like a great day, love the turkey recipe
ReplyDeletehttp://www.foodielaura.com/
Dear Laura,
DeleteThank you very much! I am delighted that you like the turkey recipe! If you give it a go, please do let me know how you get on!
Thanks for the address of your own food blog. I will enjoy having a look at it in my spare time!
Many thanks!
Very best wishes
Snigdha (Snig of Snig's Kitchen)
Great post! Really captured the evening. And great pics too. I'm definitely cooking the turkey tikka soon.
ReplyDeleteAnnie x
Dear Annie
DeleteIt was a pleasure to meet you at the Turkey Masterclass.
I really enjoyed your writeup. How kind of you to give a mention to all the people you met!
The Turkey Tikka was lovely - and the recipe is simple and do-able. What a shame that Autumn has arrived, as it was crying out to be cooked on the BBQ! :(
Thanks for reading and for taking the time to comment.
very best wishes
Snigdha (Snig of Snig's Kitchen)
The food looks absolutely divine! Did you get to try the omelette? I wonder if the eggs taste very different? Also, if you track the number of clicks on to your blog, I'll confess that about 5 of them will be from me today. I first opened it at 9.15am and then a few more times throughout the day but have only just had a chance to read it!
ReplyDeleteDear Anjali
DeleteGlad you liked the look of the food, although obviously, very little for a vegetarian!
I don't eat much egg, I have always disliked it (I am told it is because I am partially allergic). So whilst I tried the omelette and thought it was nice in small amount, I couldn't compare to regular eggs.
The turkey eggs are larger and had very white shells. I hear that you can buy them in Waitrose.
I'm delighted that you WANTED to check this 5 times in a day! Your support is appreciated!
Thanks for reading and for taking the time to comment, Anjali!
with love
Snigdha