Pineapple Turkey Green Curry with a Hint of Mint

Dispirited is certainly the word to describe how I feel at this time of year when it comes to turkey leftover recipes. Seeing the monotonous ideas of ‘turkey coronation’ and ‘turkey burgers’ dominate the food sections of our newspapers, it gave me inspiration to invent something new - something for those of us who are tired of seeing the same recipes repeated every year. It was coincidental to notice a pineapple sitting on my mother’s windowsill when January is in fact their time of glory. So I thought why not dulcify a curry with some fragrant colourful tangy pineapple? To add to this, I’ll throw in a little mint to give it a refreshing cool aftertaste. Basically, if you yearn for something more on the exotic side than just dull turkey sandwiches, then this is sure to revitalize your inert taste buds.

Serves 4

2 tbsp vegetable oil

½ tsp. mustard seeds

6 green cardamom pods, slightly crushed

½ tsp. cinnamon

1 onion finely chopped

½ lime zest

Thumb sized piece of ginger, peeled and quartered

3 tbsp. basil

3 tbsp. coriander

2 large garlic cloves, peeled

400ml coconut milk

4 green chillies, finely sliced

Salt

100ml water

10 curry leaves

1 tsp. black pepper

1 tsp. garam masala

500g cooked turkey, cut into medium chunks

4-5 handfuls pineapple, cut into chunks

1 handful mint leaves

1. Heat the oil in a pan, add the mustard seeds, cardamom pods, and cinnamon and fry for 20 seconds. Add half of the chopped onion and fry for 4-5 minutes until soft.

2. For the time being, place the rest of the onion, the ginger, garlic, lime zest, basil, coriander and 100ml of the coconut milk into a food processor and blend until smooth.

3. Add this paste to the pan along with ¾ of the green chillies and season with salt. Cook over a low heat for 8-10 minutes, giving it the occasional stir.

4. Add the remaining coconut milk, the curry leaves, black pepper, garam masala, turkey and pineapple and leave to cook for 3-5 minutes until the turkey and pineapple are warmed up.

5. Serve with rice. Sprinkle over the remaining chilli and mint leaves.

African Sausage Stew

For a long time I was trying to think up something a bit more original to do with sausages, giving that there isn’t a huge variety of recipes around for this cheap ingredient. So I came up with a stew that uses sweet potatoes (often part of West African cuisine). Besides sausages forming part of North African cooking, the spices and raisins are also a flavour of this region. Hence, I give you “African Sausage Stew”.

Serves 2

1 1/2 tbsp. olive oil

4 sausages

½ onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, crushed

1 tsp. balsamic vinegar

300ml chicken/pork/vegetable stock

1 red chilli, deseeded and sliced

1 green pepper, deseeded and sliced

1 medium sweet potato, peeled and chopped into 1cm cubes

1 tbsp. tomato puree

A handful of raisins

2 tsp. turmeric

1 tsp. mixed spice

1. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan. When very hot, fry the sausages until browned. Remove to a plate.

2. Add the onions to the saucepan and gently fry for 5 minutes or until soft. Add the garlic and fry for another minute.

3. Add the turmeric, mixed spice, balsamic vinegar and tomato puree. Quickly stir together. Then add the chilli, peppers, raisins, sweet potato and sausages. Cover with enough stock.

4. Bring to the boil and simmer for approximately 10 minutes, until the potatoes are cooked. If the stew is too runny for your preferences, you can add a thickening agent such as corn flour. Then serve with some side vegetables if you like!