Turkey Meatball Curry

When do you do when you feel as though your life has descended into chaos? OK, so chaos might not be the best term for it, but in the past few weeks I’ve managed to bag myself an exciting new job, quit my old job, become very very very nervous, then very very very excited. While the stress levels are nowhere near those I experienced before my wedding (where I infamously was forced to run laps around the outside of my office a few days before the ceremony in a futile effort to calm the eff down) I do feel a bit like I’m on an emotional rollercoaster at the moment – I turn the corner and my mood dips into trepidation with a side order of anxiety about being up to the task and then rises again into total euphoria about what the future holds. I must say, it’s all getting a bit exhausting.

So, I do what I always do in times of stress. I make meatballs. I’ve spoken before about how meatballs make the perfect comfort food, and (with the possible exception of cake), I’ve yet to find any other bite-sized food stuff which makes me feel so zen. Perhaps that’s why this blog is full of the things. After all, they’re easy to make, even easier to eat and they’re (usually) a better form of stress relief than drinking a large bottle of red booze and kicking a lamppost.

This Turkey Meatball Curry isn’t exactly the kind of thing that you can just whip up after a hard day at work. It involves blending, rolling, resting and rather a lot of simmering. But the end results are totally worth it – warm from the whole cinnamon stick and cardamom pods used in the sauce, slightly spicy and utterly delicious. I made a gigantic pot of this and feasted on it for days – from wrapping up huge messy scoops of it inside hunks of flaky naan bread, or dished over a bowl of steaming white basmati rice with a pile of carrot salad on the side. While you can eat it right away, it tastes even better the day after when all the flavours have settled and mingled together.

TURKEY MEATBALL CURRY (Serves Four)

Curry recipe adapted from BBC Food.

For the meatballs

• 500g turkey mince
• 2 tbsp breadcrumbs
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp ground coriander
• 2 tsps ground cumin
• 1 tbsp garlic paste
• 1 small red chilli, finely chopped
• A small handful coriander leaves, chopped finely

For the curry 

• 1 large onion
• 6 garlic cloves , roughly chopped
• 50g ginger , roughly chopped
• 4 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp fennel seeds
• 2 black cardamom pods
• 2 green cardamom pods
• 5cm cinnamon stick
• 1 tsp chilli flakes
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp caster sugar
• 400g can chopped tomatoes
• 1 pint chicken stock
• A handful of fresh coriander, chopped finely, to garnish

Make It!

Make the turkey meatballs:

• Put the breadcrumbs in the bowl of a food processor, add two tablespoons of water and combine until the mixture turns sandy.  Add the rest of the meatball ingredients, season with salt and pepper, and pulse the food processor until the mixture looks chunky.
• Wet your hands, and fashion your meatballs. This mixture should easily make around 26 teaspoon-sized balls (hurr). If these are too many for you, freeze half to save for later. Allow the meatballs to rest for at least an hour, although the longer you leave them to rest, the better they’ll taste.

Make the curry sauce:

• Roughly chop the onion, transfer to your food processor, and add 3 tablespoons of water. Pulse the onions a few times until they form a chunky paste. (If you don’t own a food processor, coarsely grate the onion with a box grater into a bowl – there’s no need to add any water if you are doing this.) Tip the onions into a small bowl and place to one side.
• Put the chopped garlic and ginger into the same food processor and add 4 tablespoons of water. Blitz until smooth and spoon into another small bowl. (Alternatively, crush the garlic to a paste with the flat end of a knife and finely grate the ginger.)
• Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed pan over a medium heat. Combine the cumin and fennel seeds with the cinnamon and chilli flakes and add to the pan in one go. Swirl everything around for about 30 secs until the spices release a fragrant aroma.
• Add the onion paste.  It will splutter in the beginning, but fry until the water evaporates and the onions turn a lovely dark golden colour – this should take about 7-8 mins. Add the garlic and ginger paste and cook for another 2 minutes, stirring all the time.
• Stir in the garam masala, turmeric, and sugar and continue cooking for 20 seconds before tipping in the chopped tomatoes and the black and green cardamom pods. Continue cooking on a medium heat for about 10 minutes without a lid until the tomatoes reduce and darken.
• Reduce the heat to a low simmer and gently add the meatballs. Cover, and let simmer for 40-45 minutes, turning the meatballs every ten minutes or so. Sprinkle with chopped coriander and serve.

Butternut Squash Lasagne

Ah, January. The month where it seems everyone has succumbed to the siren calls of diets, detoxing and temperance in a futile bid to wash all of the bad habits out of their systems. Whenever I go online at the moment, I’m met with calls to give up alcohol for an entire month (I’m looking at you here Facebook – you’ll pry my beloved red wine from my cold dead hands) and embrace living on 500 calories a day while whipping up a delicious ‘Winter Salad’ (ingredients: leftover sprouts and crystallised misery). As you may have guessed, I have no truck with this mass display of puritanism. After all, January is the most miserable month of the year – 31 days of darkness, biting cold and abject skintness. Why shouldn’t we all indulge in a little bit of unbridled hedonism? It’s either that or go to the gym.

I would like to think that this Butternut Squash Lasagne goes some way towards mollifying people’s urge for a healthy meal that is comforting and (most importantly) COVERED IN CHEESE. I’ve taken a fairly standard lasagne recipe and subbed the pasta sheets for huge hunks of butternut squash, which – when roasted – becomes wonderfully soft, earthy and sweet. If you’re baulking at the idea of sticking turkey in a bolognese sauce, well, it’s your loss, but it can easily be substituted with lean beef mince.

So, the next time you’re looking forlornly out of your office window wondering if there’s anything you can have for dinner that’s nutritious but doesn’t contain kale, why not treat yourself to a gigantic pile of butternut squash lasagne? It tastes much better than a Weight Watchers Ready Meal and serves as a reminder that healthy eating doesn’t mean depriving yourself of the occasional hunk of melted mozzarella.

Trust me, it tastes better than it looks.

BUTTERNUT SQUASH LASAGNE (Makes four portions)

You will need:

For the Turkey Bolognese

• 200g turkey mince
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 large carrot, diced
• 1 celery stalk, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• ½ tsp rosemary
• ½ tsp oregano
• 1 bay leaf

For the bechamel sauce

• 1 pint of milk
• 2 bay leaves
• pinch freshly grated nutmeg
• 50g unsalted butter
• 50g plain flour

For the lasagne

• 1 large butternut squash, peeled and chopped into large chunks
• 250g ricotta
• 150g mozzarella

Make It!

1. Heat your oven to 200 degrees C/Gas Mark 4.
2. Make your turkey bolognese: Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a medium sized saucepan and brown the turkey mince in batches. Set to one side. Heat another tablespoon of olive oil in the pan, and cook your diced onion, celery, and carrot for around five minutes until they begin to turn soft. Add the tomato paste and diced garlic and gently cook for another 30 seconds. Add the chopped tomatoes, rosemary, oregano and bay leaves, season with salt and pepper, then simmer the sauce for half an hour until it has thickened. You don’t want it to be too thin, as then it will make everything horribly watery.
3. While your bolognese is simmering, make the bechamel sauce: Place the milk in a large non-stick saucepan, add the bay leaves and nutmeg and bring to a gentle simmer. In a separate saucepan melt the butter and add the flour. Beat well and cook for two minutes. Remove the milk from the heat and add a little to the flour mixture. Combine well, and when all the milk has been absorbed, add a little more. Keep doing this until all the milk has been added, whisking continually. By the end, you should have a smooth, lump-free sauce.
4. Assemble your masterp  iece: Spoon a third of the bechamel sauce into the bottom of a casserole dish. Add a layer of butternut squash chunks and a handful of crumbled ricotta. Follow this with a layer of the turkey bolognese sauce. Repeat until all of the ingredients have been used up, and top with chunks of torn mozzarella.
5. Cover the casserole dish with a lid (or some foil) and bake at 200 degrees C/Gas Mark 4 for 30 minutes. Then, remove the lid/foil and bake uncovered for another 30 minutes. The lasagne is done when the cheese has turned brown and bubbly, and the butternut squash is soft.
6. Serve with a green salad and a glass of wine.

Baked Turkey Meatballs

Like most right thinking people, I love meatballs. Indeed, I could happily sit in front of the TV and eat an entire bowl of the things as a tasty snack (although, I’m sure that my cholesterol levels wouldn’t like me too much if I did). Back in the days where I used to spend my Saturday nights wearing inappropriate heels and drinking far too many £2.50 double whisky and cokes, I’d regularly round off my night by getting a Meatball Marinara sandwich from all night Subway at the bottom of my road. I doubt there were any natural ingredients in the things at all, but I’d take great delight in drunkenly attempting to eat one with a knife and fork before inevitably passing out with globs of red sauce splatted down my dress.

I’m convinced that my Mum makes the best meatballs in the world, but sadly, I’ve never been able to replicate her amazing specimens in my own kitchen. Indeed, the last time I attempted to do so, I was left with a huge pan of what can only be described as ‘meat paste’. I still ate it, but I wouldn’t want to repeat the experience any time soon. So, because my Mother refuses to set up her own meatball-delivery-service, I have been forced to develop my own foolproof recipe.

This inspiration for these specimens came from the always brilliant Smitten Kitchen, and her recipe for Baked Chicken Meatballs. I replaced the chicken with turkey mince (mainly because I had a portion taking up space at the back of my freezer), used some dried breadcrumbs in place of the italian bread, and added a few extra herbs. And then, I baked them. If you’re used to cooking your meatballs by just dunking them raw into a pot of sauce, then prepare to have your mind blown. These are small, juicy rounds of pure deliciousness  – and the perfect thing to make if you’ve never been able to master the fine art of the meatball before.

I put mine in a sauce made with tomatoes, garlic, chillies and a huge whack of smoked paprika, but I imagine that they’d go equally as well with a creamy, lemon-spiked sauce, or eaten whole in a huge unwieldy sandwich. But however you choose to eat them, I suggest you make them the next time a meatball craving hits. They’re definitely the best use I’ve found for turkey since Christmas Dinner.

BAKED TURKEY MEATBALLS (makes roughly 15 meatballs)

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

You will need:

• 250g turkey mince
• 3 slices of bacon finely chopped
• 3 tbsp dried breadcrumbs
• 80ml milk
• 1 small garlic clove, minced
• 1 small onion, diced
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste, divided
• 1 teaspoon of dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon of dried rosemary
• 1 teaspoon of dried thyme

Make It!

1. Preheat oven to 200°C/Gas Mark 7. Add the milk to the breadcrumbs in a small bowl until it’s all soaked in and becomes a big carby paste.
2. Cook the bacon in a tablespoon of olive oil until the fat has rendered down, then add the onion, and garlic along with 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Once the onion and garlic have softened, take the pan off the heat and leave to cool slightly.
3. Lightly beat egg in a large bowl, then combine with the turkey mince, 1 tablespoon of tomato paste, the bacon mixture, breadcrumb paste, oregano, rosemary and thyme.  Take tablespoons of the mix and roll them into meatballs until all of the mixture has been used up, and arrange them in a medium sized roasting tin.
4. Stir together remaining tablespoons of tomato paste and oil and brush over meatballs with a pastry brush or (if you’re not got one and have been forced to improvise with leftover DIY supplies, a wee paintbrush you’ve decided to use instead of a pastry brush). The tomato puree/oil doesn’t really combine together well, but just smoosh the mix onto  each meatball until fully covered. Once you’ve done this, bake them in the oven for around 20-25 minutes until they’re just done.
5. Once they’re cooked, you can add them to spaghetti sauce, stick them in sandwiches, or just eat big handfuls of them as a tasty snack.