Grilled Turkey

While growing up in India, we hardly ever came across turkey meat.  The staple poultry available was chicken.  Then one day my dad brought home 4 weird looking birds that resembled hens, but were huge and very noisy.  We called them "go-kak" since that was the sound they made.  We fed them and looked after them for some days and then one day they were gone. We never found out what happened to them until some years later my dad told us that he had them slaughtered and we all enjoyed the meat. I was always under the impression that it was a turkey.  After coming to Belgium and seeing the turkey here, I realize that that was a guinea fowl.

Turkey meat, to me, is a nice mixture of the benefits of not eating red meat but at the same time having the meatiness of red meat - if that makes sense.  I use turkey for barbecues, for curries and for roasts and it always tastes good.  And whatever remains, can be used the next day for turkey sandwiches with some salad which taste equally good.

Preparation Time:  2 hours 30 mins

Serves 4

Ingredients:

500 gms Turkey pieces

200 gms yoghurt, thick

Handful of coriander leaves

10-12 mint leaves

Yoghurt Marinade

4 green chillies

10 cloves garlic

1” piece ginger

2 tbsp olive oil

Salt to taste

Method:

Turkey in yoghurt marinade

Make slits in the turkey pieces.  Coarsely grind coriander, mint leaves, ginger, garlic and green chillies.  Mix this paste with the yoghurt in a bowl.  Add salt and oil and mix well.  Marinate the turkey pieces in this mixture for two hours.  Pre heat the oven and grill the turkey at 160 degrees C, turning the pieces at regular intervals till the turkey is tender.  Serve hot.

Tip:  I have used chicken as well for the above recipe and it turns out equally good.  Grilling time is lesser with chicken than turkey.