In trying to keep things interesting, I’ve been trying think of other ways to use turkey mince and turkey leftovers.
On Friday, I woke up really fancying meatloaf (are the infamous, overdue Prednisolone munchies finally kicking in after 6 weeks?!). I had a go with this a few weeks ago, but didn’t take pictures. Meatloaf is kind of the ultimate in American comfort food. Lots of people in North America grew up on it. I was never really fussy about it growing up, but for some reason during this “flare”, I’ve been really fancying it. It might just be the ketchup as I can’t have chips at the moment. Not that I eat a lot of chips anyway. In my view, chips are really just a conduit for ketchup. (You can tell I wasn't born British.).
I adapted the “mini meatloaf” recipe from the recipes I have from Cooking for One or Two, which I have mentioned a few other times in this blog. It’s kind of the ideal size for one person with enough leftovers for another meal, or for two people as long as neither of you is a huge eater.
The version from the recipe involves onions and celery, which are both out on low-residue, so I used onion powder and more carrot instead. This is how I made it -
250g ground turkey thigh
4 tbsp of shredded carrot (I used the fine side of my grater)
2 tsp (ish) of onion powder
3 tbsp (ish) of bread crumbs
Dash of salt and pepper
2 tbsp of ketchup
Preheat oven to 180C. I sprayed a bit of non-stick cooking spray (olive oil) in a mini loaf pan and shaped the mixture into the pan. I mixed the first five ingredients plus 1tbsp of ketchup by hand in a bowl. I brushed the rest of the ketchup over the top.
To keep it moist (as turkey is much drier than beef), I put a pan of water underneath to create steam. I cooked it for 35-40 minutes. That really helped this batch, it was much moister than the last one I made! It was yummy! I made a jacket potato to go with it.
As my boyfriend brought me a bunch of HUGE jacket potatoes last week, I’ve been trying to use them up before they sprout. So I decided to experiment with making cottage pie with turkey mince. This was considerably more challenging for me.
You see, I make a mean beef cottage pie. A really mean one. Cooked in porter (God, I miss beer!). One so mean, that you go to a pub and have theirs and say to yourself “My homemade one is way better than this!”. But beef still isn’t going down to well. And I haven’t been able to drink alcohol since July, and opening a bottle of beer to cook with and not being able to exercise cooks’ privilege of drinking whatever doesn’t go in the recipe while cooking it . . . . .
Anyway, back to turkey cottage pie. As cottage pie is pretty much just mince and veg cooked in some form of gravy with mashed potato on top, I figured I could figure something out.
Most of the websites I found that had recipes for turkey cottage pie didn’t look particularly appetising. So I just improvised, replacing what would normally be the beer portion (porter is too heavy for poultry. Wainwrights or a nice bitter would have been nice with turkey, but I digress) with more stock.
250g turkey thigh mince
1 tbsp of onion powder
1 carrots, finely chopped
1 tbsp of flour
½ thyme
1 cup of chicken stock
Salt and pepper
About 1 tsp of tomato puree
Mashed potatoes (made with a bit of dairy/soya free margarine, but no milk)
I cooked the turkey in a frying pan with the onion powder until no longer pink.
I added the carrots and let them cook for about 5 minutes, then
mixed in the flour and thyme, giving in a good stir. Then I added the
chicken stock, brought it to a boil, then reduced the heat and let it
simmer for about 25 minutes until the gravy thickened. I added salt and
pepper and the tomato puree at the end, which I mixed in well.
In the meantime, I peeled and chopped one of the HUGE potatoes (one was more than enough!) and cooked that in boiling water until soft. I drained them, then mashed them with a bit of sunflower oil margarine.
When the meat was done, I transferred it to a casserole dish and topped
it with the mashed potatoes. Then I put it under the grill for about 15
minutes until the mashed started to brown. Voila, turkey mince cottage
pie.
It was nice enough, but it was missing something. (Beer)
On Friday, I woke up really fancying meatloaf (are the infamous, overdue Prednisolone munchies finally kicking in after 6 weeks?!). I had a go with this a few weeks ago, but didn’t take pictures. Meatloaf is kind of the ultimate in American comfort food. Lots of people in North America grew up on it. I was never really fussy about it growing up, but for some reason during this “flare”, I’ve been really fancying it. It might just be the ketchup as I can’t have chips at the moment. Not that I eat a lot of chips anyway. In my view, chips are really just a conduit for ketchup. (You can tell I wasn't born British.).
I adapted the “mini meatloaf” recipe from the recipes I have from Cooking for One or Two, which I have mentioned a few other times in this blog. It’s kind of the ideal size for one person with enough leftovers for another meal, or for two people as long as neither of you is a huge eater.
The version from the recipe involves onions and celery, which are both out on low-residue, so I used onion powder and more carrot instead. This is how I made it -
250g ground turkey thigh
4 tbsp of shredded carrot (I used the fine side of my grater)
2 tsp (ish) of onion powder
3 tbsp (ish) of bread crumbs
Dash of salt and pepper
2 tbsp of ketchup
Preheat oven to 180C. I sprayed a bit of non-stick cooking spray (olive oil) in a mini loaf pan and shaped the mixture into the pan. I mixed the first five ingredients plus 1tbsp of ketchup by hand in a bowl. I brushed the rest of the ketchup over the top.
To keep it moist (as turkey is much drier than beef), I put a pan of water underneath to create steam. I cooked it for 35-40 minutes. That really helped this batch, it was much moister than the last one I made! It was yummy! I made a jacket potato to go with it.
 |
| Mini Meatloaf! |
As my boyfriend brought me a bunch of HUGE jacket potatoes last week, I’ve been trying to use them up before they sprout. So I decided to experiment with making cottage pie with turkey mince. This was considerably more challenging for me.
You see, I make a mean beef cottage pie. A really mean one. Cooked in porter (God, I miss beer!). One so mean, that you go to a pub and have theirs and say to yourself “My homemade one is way better than this!”. But beef still isn’t going down to well. And I haven’t been able to drink alcohol since July, and opening a bottle of beer to cook with and not being able to exercise cooks’ privilege of drinking whatever doesn’t go in the recipe while cooking it . . . . .
 |
| You have no idea how much I miss beer! |
Most of the websites I found that had recipes for turkey cottage pie didn’t look particularly appetising. So I just improvised, replacing what would normally be the beer portion (porter is too heavy for poultry. Wainwrights or a nice bitter would have been nice with turkey, but I digress) with more stock.
250g turkey thigh mince
1 tbsp of onion powder
1 carrots, finely chopped
1 tbsp of flour
½ thyme
1 cup of chicken stock
Salt and pepper
About 1 tsp of tomato puree
Mashed potatoes (made with a bit of dairy/soya free margarine, but no milk)
I cooked the turkey in a frying pan with the onion powder until no longer pink.
In the meantime, I peeled and chopped one of the HUGE potatoes (one was more than enough!) and cooked that in boiling water until soft. I drained them, then mashed them with a bit of sunflower oil margarine.
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