Turkey Dhansak

Americas fowl, Can effect frugal eating, Health and body grow

When the five of us were growing up in Hong Kong, my first brother and I used to get drumsticks of the home reared festival chicken as a pre-dinner nibble. As the number of siblings grew with the addition of two sisters and another brother, the game is not as straight forward anymore, with more kids and still one chicken, constraint by parental impartiality, this called on my Mother’s skill in chopping and plating of the chicken to make sure we are all gratified by our pre-dinner meaty nibble.

She’d strategically position the various cuts, such as, some of the skinned and deboned breast meat for Grand Mother. And then things changed for me, being the eldest, I was systematically reassigned different chicken cuts from drumsticks to wing knuckle and ended on two wing tips. At one stage I was eyeing up the chicken head and neck, but, they were spoken for by the parents. Mum’s favourite is the neck and the oyster pieces! Dad did muttered under his breath occasionally with humour and sarcasm, commenting that, it is a shame that a chicken only have two legs, whilst all 5 of us were encircling the chopping board.

Family home in Hong Kong

Just imagine, my first turkey drumstick after 1 week in UK, glistening with golden roasted allure in the hot serving counter of Woolworth, and so big! For a 14 year old, it felt like holding my own World Cup Trophy and I didn’t have to share it with my siblings. I had never seen a drumstick so big!

I have been, for the past 10 years, trying to normalise the eating of turkey outside of the Christmas period for the family, by combining turkey meat with classic dishes instead of pork or chicken. Fresh turkey, when off Christmas season, is a very good value meat with great health benefits that have high-quality protein, B vitamins, selenium, zinc, and phosphorus. It may support various aspects of health, including muscle growth and maintenance, due to its rich supply of nutrients. A whole leg of turkey from the supermarket Morrisons is roughly 50% cheaper per kilo when compared with a whole Free Ranged Chicken.

For this post, I am doing a simplified version of a Dhansak with turkey leg meat based on the traditional Pasi Dhansak recipe, as much as possible keeping the delicious and intended medley of sweet, tart and savoury flavours of the final dish.

Garam Masala is one the key spice combination for the Dhansak recipe, the website below gives good information on the ingredients and making of Garam Masala spice, you can reduce down the constituents to suit what’s available in the cupboard. I generally make a batch of about 250g total weight. Of course, Garam Masala is widely available at South Asian supermarkets and are of good quality.

https://www.indianhealthyrecipes.com/punjabi-garam-masala-powder-recipe/

Dhansak is a Parsi (Indian Zoroastrian) ‘curry’ dish known for its unique blend of sweet, sour, and spicy flavors. It's traditionally made with lentils, vegetables and meat (often lamb or chicken), and is flavoured with a variety of spices, including cumin, fenugreek, and ginger.

For the sweetness of the dish I use coconut milk and palm sugar and the added creamy final sauce. The tartness comes from the use of tamarind or lemon juice. I prefer using tamarind, however, a good substitute can be made from two lightly stewed down Granny Smith apples and 20 - 30g of brown sugar. The savoury flavour from the gently stewing down of the turkey meat.

In brief, the paired down ingredients are 100g of moong dal, 100ml of cooking oil, 50g of salted butter, 30g of Garam Masala, 15g of Turmeric powder, 2 sticks of 35mm long cinnamon, 4 whole dried Kashmiri Chilli, 3 Indian bay leaf, 1 tin of coconut milk and 20g of raw palm sugar, 100g of tamarind water/paste, 30-45g of salt and chopped 5 cloves of garlic. For this recipe I replaced Ghee with cooking oil and butter, to replicate the buttery and floral vibe of the Ghee. I always tell the Girls, it is important to use alternatives that are available in the cupboards, as many of cooking aspirations can be easily halted on the ground of lacking in specified ingredients, learn to be more adaptable and understand the nuance of a dish.

The turkey leg is about 1.6kg from Morrison’s Supermarket, I pull off the skin, then bone out the drumstick by first a long cut top along the bone main bone, then carefully slice out the hard sinew from knuckle up separating the sinew from the flesh. For the first timers boning turkey leg, it does take a bit of patience, but it is well worth recovering as much of the meat as possible. The thigh piece is a lot easier with the single bone and soft sinew, I keep the sinew on the meat as it will stew down soft and add collagen to the dish. After boning out I recovered about 1.3kg of meat and 0.3kg of sinew, skin and bones, roughly chopped, for making the base stock.

To make the base stock, just add the bones, sinew and skin to a small 1 litre pot with about 500ml of cold water, bring to quick boil then turn the heat down to medium to low to a gentle bubble, the stock will be ready from 1 to 1.5 hour of simmer, take the stock pot off heat and allow to cool down and clarify.

I cut the meat to about 25 - 35mm cubes and marinade with 30g of salt, 15g of Garam Massala and 15ml of red wine vinegar, mixed and leave in fridge for 1 -2 hours, of course more than 12 hours or overnight is much better. Still 1-2 hour will do, if time is a restricting factor.

To initiate the cooking process, I cook the Dal first, separately until soft and opened, this way the chance of dal sticky pot bottom is significantly reduced, but not eliminated, so, remember to stir occasionally! I start a 150mm pot with 30ml of cooking oil and 20g of salted butter, heat to just bubbling to bring out the buttery flavour, then add a large pinch of curry leaves to sizzle for a minute without burning. Then add a chopped medium white onion to sweat down until soft. Add the washed and rinsed Moong Dal to the pot and pour in the turkey base stock, bring to soft boil and gentle simmer for 30 - 45minutes or until the dal is soft and absorbed most of the stock.

In the smaller pot in photo below is the cooked dal tender, mildly seasoned and ready to add to the large pot about 30 minutes before serving. In the larger 4-5 litre capacity pot, warm the rest of the oil and butter to mild heat, the onions and aromats are then gently sautéed until onion is translucent and soft. Then add the Garam Masala and Turmeric to the pot, warm the spices lightly for 5 minutes without burning.

Add the marinated Turkey meat in the pot and stir round a little to evenly distribute the onion and spices onto the meat, let simmer for 10 minutes, then add the coconut milk, palm sugar tamarind water/paste, quick stir the contents and turn up the heat to bring the cooking temperature to just before boiling for 10 minutes, another quick stir, then turn the heat down to simmer (5 - 6 intermittent bubbles is about right).

With the pot partially covered and cooked for 1.5 hours or until the turkey is at the desired tenderness. Add in the cooked dal and chopped garlic and mix well and allow to gently cooked to soft bubbling again. Once the dal is added the pot bottom will need to be stirred with a wooden or rubber spatula frequently to prevent the dal from sticking to pot bottom, simmer for another 15 minutes and take the pot off the heat and allow to rest for 15 minutes before serving.

During the resting stage I take out the cinnamon sticks, bay leaves and chillies, season to taste, a few squeeze of lemon can be added to emphasize the sour note of the dish. As shown above toasted almond flake and fresh parsley is added as garnish and textural contract from the almond. This time we had the turkey dhansak with basmati rice and sautéed garden peas (with onions, garlic and garam masala).