Vietnamese turkey rice platter

I have tried this out a few times with different heat and spices. This is the one that I am most fond of. It combines the aromatic spiciness from the ginger with the zingy lime so well, I think. Best of all, it's lower in fat than regular beef mince and it tends to absorb more of the flavour of the sauces than beef, I think.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
500 turkey breast mince
2 tablespoons sugar
1 large white onion, thinly sliced
1 red or orange pepper, diced.
4 cloves garlic, minced
Ginger - grated.
Half a tin of anchovies (Optional)
1 tablespoon tomato puree, dissolved in 1/4 pint of warm chicken stock
1 fresh chilli
Freshly ground black pepper
A handful of thai basil 
Egg (optional)

For the salad

A peeled and sliced cucumber
A handful of lettuce leaves, torn
A couple of ripe tomatoes
Spring onion for garnish


Method

Heat the vegetable oil over moderately high heat in a frying pan. Add the turkey mince and cook, breaking up the large chunks with a spatula but leaving some smaller lumps for extra texture. Sprinkle in the sugar, salt and pepper.  Continue cooking until the meat browns slightly. If it sticks on the bottom of the pan, just drizzle a little water into the pan. Remove the mince to a bowl and put to one side.

Next, fry the onions in vegetable oil with the garlic and peppers and chilli* on a low heat for at least 10 minutes so that they soften and don't burn. Add in the anchovies, if using, and the roughly chopped basil. Pour in the dissolved puree, now leave to reduce. Don't let it stick, so stir occasionally.

While the vegetables are reducing, prepare the rice. This goes best with jasmine rice but I also like to use just sushi rice with it, as it as that lovely sticky finish to it.

After a few minutes reducing, add the mince into the mixture and fold together. Check the sauce to test for seasoning, add salt/pepper if needed.

Serve all the ingredients together, so that the salad leaves, cucumber and tomatoes slightly warm up. Sprinkle chopped spring onions on top.

It's quite popular to finish it off with a fried egg on top, which is especially yummy if you keep the yolk runny.


*Chilli can go in later if you want it a bit hotter.

Moroccan spiced Lamb Shanks

These are both really easy to do and are a nice winter warmer! Can also be done in a slow cooker, just adjust cooking times and temp according to guidelines. 

Moroccan spiced Lamb Shanks

2 lamb shanks, medium sized

2 large onions

3 carrots

3 cloves garlic

1 tin chick peas (or soak your own overnight)

1 tin tomatoes, chopped

1 pint lamb stock (or veg if you don't have lamb stock)

a handul of dried fruit (I used chopped, dried figs)

2 tbsp apricot jam

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp mixed allspice

1 good glug of wine (about a glass and a half I reckon)

Brown the lamb for a good ten minutes in some olive oil, or vegetable oil. Take out of the pan and fry the halved onions, garlic and carrots for 5 minutes, until brown.

Braised red cabbage with apple

Half a red cabbage

2 medium cooking apples

3 tbsp red wine vinegar

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp ground allspice

200 ml water

Fry a red onion in a good helpful of olive oil. Add the finely chopped apple and fry for a further 5 minutes. Add the chopped cabbage, glug of red wine vinegar water, sugar and spices. Cook on a low heat for an hour, or until tender.

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