Breadcrumbed Turkey Steak with Pesto Pasta

This is one of my favourite ever dishes, which I could eat all the time. It's a quick and easy meal, and by deep frying the turkey, you not only get a nice even golden colour, but the breadcrumbs are particularly crispy and the meat is melt-in-the-mouth succulent. If you don't have a deep fat fryer, you can use a frying pan with 1cm of oil in the bottom and shallow-fry it - you may need to scrape out any loose breadcrumbs that are left in the bottom of the pan, or else you'll end up with black, burnt breadcrumbs stuck to your turkey. I would also highly recommend using Panko (Japanese breadcrumbs) instead of regular breadcrumbs as they are much crispier and give a nicer, flakier texture. You can get them at many supermarkets now, as well as at Asian supermarkets, and they're well worth it.

This recipe gives you a lot of pasta, so it's ideal if you're catering for several people. If not, then you can either reduce the amount of pasta and pesto, or, alternatively you can cook the full amount and have the pasta cold for a nice lunch. It's also worth noting that if you're only cooking up one or two turkey steaks, you will only need 1 egg.

Ingredients: 500g Dried Pasta Shapes (I like to use Cavatappi) 1 Portion Fresh Pesto Thin Turkey Breast Steaks (as many as required) Flour Salt and Pepper 2 Eggs (Beaten) Panko Breadcrumbs

Method:

1. Add a generous pinch of salt to a saucepan of water and bring it to the boil. Tip in the dried pasta and cook until tender.
2. Drain the pasta and return it to the empty saucepan. Tip in the pesto and mix thoroughly. Place into a large serving bowl and set to one side.
3. Take the turkey steaks and lightly bash them with a tenderising mallet so that they are nice and thin.
4. Take three large plates and line them up. In the first plate sprinkle some plain flour and season with a little salt and pepper. In the second plate, put your two beaten eggs. Finally, in the third put a generous handful of Panko Breadcrumbs.
5. Pick up one of the turkey steaks and dust in the flour. Then dip into the egg and finally into the breadcrumbs. Once coated, immediately place the steak into a deep fat fryer set at 190C and cook until golden brown. Remove from the fryer and put on a plate lined with kitchen roll to soak up any excess oil before placing onto a lined baking tray.
6. Repeat with the remaining steaks, if you run low on flour, egg, or panko, just replenish the plate as necessary. Transfer the baking tray to a low oven to warm through while you reheat the pasta in the microwave. When both are hot, serve and enjoy!

Fresh Pesto

When it comes to fresh herbs, one of my favourite is Basil; I love the gorgeous aroma a fresh bunch gives off and the flavour when it's used in a dish. So naturally, I've always enjoyed Pesto, though until about 18 months ago, I'd never attempted to make my own. I found a decent recipe on the net, and it was really simple to make. After a few small adjustments I managed to perfect the recipe, so here we go.

This recipe makes up a fairly large portion, which is the perfect amount to stir through 500g of dried pasta. If you don't need the whole lot in one go, simply pop it in a sealed jar or pot and keep in the fridge. This is also really nice to use in a home made tear and share loaf, stuffing into a chicken breast, or spreading on a fillet of white fish.

Ingredients: 120g Fresh Basil 50g Pine Nuts 1 Large Clove of Garlic 80g Parmesan Shavings Ground Black Pepper Salt 125ml Olive Oil

Method:

1. Pull the leaves off of the basil. This can be a tedious job, and is the most time consuming of the whole process, but you'll have lovely fragrant fingers afterwards. Put all the leaves into a food processor and lightly pulse to chop it up a bit.
2. Add in the pine nuts, garlic and parmesan shavings (use shavings as it gives a better flavour and a better texture than grated), and blend for a minute.
3. Season with a generous pinch of black pepper and a little salt and mix.
4. With the motor running, add in the oil and process until you have a smooth paste. Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary.

Parmentier Potatoes

I've been brought up on home cooked meals, so I've not always been huge on shop-bought ready meals. However, I always enjoyed buying pre-made parmentier potatoes from the supermarket and I alwys thought them to be more hassle to make than enough, One day, however, one day I decided to bite the bullet and have a go at making my own version. The result was seven kinds of awesome and I've never looked back. Shop bought are nice, but these, for me, are on another level. Subsequently, this has become one of my favourite potato recipes, and I thought I'd share it with you.

Ingredients: 8 Medium Sized Potatoes 4-6 Slices Bacon Butter Olive Oil 20cm Sprig of Fresh Rosemary (Chopped) 1 1/2 Tbsp Chopped Fresh Thyme Salt Pepper Grated Parmesan Cheese

Method:

1. Peel the potatoes, and cut them into 1cm cubes and place in a bowl of water to remove a little of the starch. Chop the Bacon into small chunks.
2. Melt a little butter and oil in a large, deep-sided saucepan and fry the bacon until cooked but not crispy. Remove from the pan and set to one side.
3. Melt some more butter (around about a 5-10 gram chunk) in the same saucepan with a little more oil for about five minutes.
4. Mix in the chopped herbs and season with a little salt (not too much as the butter and bacon will add a certain amount of salt content) and plenty of ground black pepper. Continue to fry the potatoes until they're softened and have begun to brown.
5. Next add in about 2 tablespoons of grated parmesan cheese and return the bacon to the man. Mix thoroughly and remove from the heat.
6. Line a baking tray with some baking parchment and spread the potatoes across the pan in a single layer. Sprinkle with some more parmesan cheese to give an extra crisp.
7. Bake in the oven at about 180C for 20-30 minutes or until nicely browned and crispy. Make sure to shuffle the potatoes on the tray every now and again to ensure that they cook evenly and don't stick to the paper or burn.

Wasabi Potatoes

Back with a quick and simple recipe. Potatoes are awesome. They may be pretty bland on their own but they are so versatile that you can do pretty much anything with them. This recipe is one that came from a passing thought and works really nicely. I tend to use this as an accompaniment to certain Japanese dishes, in particular it goes really nicely with Teriyaki Salmon and Salmon Miso Mayo. There are no specific measurements for this, as it all depends on how many potatoes you want.

Ingredients: Baby New Potatoes Butter Wasabi Chives (Chopped)

Method:

1. Cut your potatoes to the desired size and place in a saucepan. Cover with water and add in a pinch of salt. Put the lid on and boil until nicely tender - you can test this by pricking them with a knife, if there's little to no resistance, they're done. This should take about 20 minutes depending on the size of your spuds.
2. While the potatoes are cooking, take some butter, put it into a bowl and microwave for a few seconds until soft. Now take your wasabi and squirt it onto the butter and mix with a spoon. Add the wasabi to your own taste. From experience, I've found that it takes a large amount to get the flavour, but you don't get much of the spice as the butter dilutes it a bit.
3. When the potatoes are cooked, strain and place them in a bowl. Dot with the wasabi butter - as much as it to your taste, then sprinkle the chopped chives over the top. Mix thoroughly, and serve.