Curried Turkey with Upma

Now that we've all eaten the obligatory plate of Thanksgiving Round 2 - it's time to find another way to eat the rest of that 20 pound turkey you bought. 

You should eat this on the leftover stuffing, with the leftover cranberry sauce. But in case you ran out of stuffing to eat the curried turkey on, I'll post the recipe for upma later. It's the Indian version of stuffing (and a sort of lumptastic cream of wheat). You could also eat this on rice. Or use leftover rotisserie chicken instead of turkey. Whatever you've got around.

When Mr. S and I finished with the curried turkey, I let him taste it first. He said, and I quote, "Well, I guess we're going out for hamburgers." I felt my heart drop to the floor. I had really hoped that this would work! He loves Indian food, and this recipe is even based off of my anniversary present to him - Indian cooking classes at I Heart Curry. (If you live in the Bay Area, you should definitely take a class or two from her!) I wanted it to be perfect!

He looked at my terrified face and smiled. Then he shoved a spoonful of it in my mouth. Divine! We'd done it!

Leftovers never tasted so good. 

Then we added the leftover cranberry sauce.

I can't wait until the turkeys go on super sale. We're buying as many as our freezer can fit!

Start with onions. And a bit of oil. Saute until softened. 

Add in some ginger-garlic paste.*

Saute for a minute or so. Stir in salt and turmeric. 

Add cayenne, black pepper, cumin, and some crushed fennel seeds. Saute for a few more minutes. Add a 1/2 c water or so when it gets all stuck to the bottom of the pan. 

Transfer mix to blender and blitz until smooth. 

In that same skillet, add cinnamon, bay leaf and cloves. And a touch of oil. Saute for a second or two, until you can smell the spices. 

Add in the blended spice mixture. 

Then add the ground cashews mixed with a bit of milk. Let simmer for a few minutes. 

Chop up the leftover turkey into healthy chunks.

Add in the turkey, mix and let cook for a few minutes. 

Serve with leftover cranberry sauce, over leftover stuffing. 

Or upma (photo below) if you already ate all the stuffing!

Curried Turkey
Serves 2-3 (add more turkey to feed more!)
Adapted from a recipe from I Heart Curry

1/2 onion, finely diced
1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste*
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp crushed fennel seed
1/3 c. cashews, blitzed into super fine pieces
1/3 c. milk
1 inch piece of cinnamon, broken into around 3 pieces 
1 bay leaf
3 cloves
around 1 1/2 c. of cubed turkey (or more, depending on how many you're feeding)
water
oil
cilantro or green onions for garnish

In a large skillet, saute the onion in a bit of oil until softened. Add in ginger-garlic paste. Cook for about a minute. Stir in salt and turmeric. Then add cayenne, cumin, and crushed fennel. Cook for another minute, then add the 1/3 c. water. Transfer the a blender and blitz until smooth. 

In that same pan, heat up a bit of oil with the cinnamon, cloves, and bay leaf. After a few seconds, add in the blitzed mixture. Mix the cashews with the milk. Gently stir into the saute pan. Let cook for a few minutes.

Add in the cubed turkey. Cook for a few minutes. 

Garnish with cilantro or green onion. Serve with cranberry sauce and stuffing!

If you're all out of stuffing, try rice. Or Upma - recipe posted later.

* Ginger-garlic paste is just a paste of ginger and garlic. I wanted to make a bunch, so I used one large ginger hand and 2 heads (the whole head) of garlic. Blitzed them in a food processor until smooth. Then added 2 tsp of salt. Keeps for a month or so, or more if frozen. There are a million recipes out there if you google.