Serves: 2 – 3
Approx cost: β¬4.20 – β¬7 (depending if you collect chestnuts yourself, use fresh figs etc)
Approx calories (per serving): ~575
Approx preparation and cooking time: 70 mins
[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #0B0B61;”]Hi everyone – I’m on holiday! Yay π This post is coming to you from the snowy wastes North of Sweden. Today I thought I’d tell you a little about the Christmas dinner I had a few days ago. Both my wife and I had been eating so much Christmas food in the run-up to the 24th/25th that, although we wanted something which would make us feel festive, we just didn’t want to do the whole turkey, roast potatoes, 5,000 calorie meal, followed by equally rich desserts. For my wife’s Christmas dinner we had beef tenderloin (and my, is it tender?!), a great big puddle of purΓ©ed potatoes – plenty of butter and cream – and some green beans, accompanied by my signature mushroom sauce. For my Christmas, I didn’t really have any idea, until I happened across a wonderful looking dish by Karen called Turkey Bracciole. It inspired me a lot, and while this dish is far from being the same thing, I ended up with something which I hadn’t done before and which I was really proud of. Served up with asparagus and purΓ©ed sweet potato, this was a fabulous alternative to massive festive meals which just generate huge quantities of leftovers.
I needed to make some major adjustments to the recipe – first off, I’ve never once seen turkey tenderloin for sale before. Indeed, I wasn’t even aware turkeys had tenderloins, so I substituted that for two large turkey escalopes. Secondly, my wife dislikes sun-dried tomatoes with the burning passion of a thousand suns, and I also wanted to try and use chestnuts for in the dish – something which seems very festive to me – so a plan was born. Thank you so much for your post Karen – you really inspired me and one day I even hope I can try your delicious looking original recipe (just need to tell my wife that the red bits are roasted pepper, not sun-dried tomato!)
I have all the bits and pieces I need to take some photos and transfer them to my laptop here so, with luck, I should have some photos for you in my next post – providing I don’t drop my camera in a snow-drift. Have a great wednesday everyone and take care!
Ingredients
- 2 large Turkey escalopes (~400g)
- ~180g Prepared Chestnuts (roasted and shelled, or boiled)
- ~6-8 Button Mushrooms
- ~2 fresh figs, or 3 tbsps of Fig Confit
- Half an Onion
- Handful of Basil leaves
- ~5 rashers of Bacon
- 1 Egg
- 2 tbsps Olive Oil
You’ll also need
A Food Processor
Instructions
- Start off by pre-heating your oven to 170 degrees Celsius. While the oven is heating, roughly chop the onion and place into the Food Processor, along with the chestnuts. Wipe the mushrooms and remove the stalks and add them into the bowl too. If using fresh figs, trim the ends and chuck them in, or spoon in the fig confit. Finally, tear the basil and place in along with the egg (shell removed of course! :D)
- Blend until you have a slightly chunky paste. Obviously you don’t want it too smooth. If there are discernible pieces of mushroom or chestnut inside then this is perfect. Cover a board or work-surface with plastic wrap and lay the turkey escalopes on top. Place another piece of plastic wrap on top and beat using a meat hammer until about 8mm thick. Escalopes are, by definition, quite thin, but having them even thinner will make the rolling easier.
- Once the escalopes have been flattened, lay them out, just slightly overlapping each other, with the join vertical to you. Spoon the filling onto the turkey towards the bottom, making a large horizontal strip all the way from left to right, before gently rolling up. It doesn’t matter if it looks a bit disastrous. I guarantee you it will look nice when it’s cooked. Wrap the bacon all over the turkey, sealing up the ends if you can and the joins especially. Place a baking tray over the turkey and flip the board, turkey and tray upside down, in order to transfer it to the tray with the minimum handling possible. Remove the board and drizzle the 2 tbsps of Olive Oil over the turkey before placing into the oven.
- Cook for about 45 minutes, by which time the meat should be a rich golden brown. You can see in the picture that I had an excess of stuffing so I just arranged it around the outside of the meat. If you have a meat thermometer, the inside of the wrap should be 74 degrees Celsius when it’s done, so obviously, if it’s done sooner than this, of course feel free to remove it earlier.
- Once removed, carefully transfer it to a carving board and cut into slices, like so, arrange with your favourite accompaniments and enjoy! π
ping says
Yum! This looks super! I love chestnuts and having them in here is a great idea! That must have been sooo tasty!
I’ve never seen turkey tenderloin either, neither do we have turkey escalopes, just big humongous whole birds and those frozen drumsticks I found and used for my turducken pies. Wonder where the breasts have gone?
Charles says
Thanks Ping – to be honest I can’t eat chestnuts too much – bad childhood experience :D… though I like them sometimes, and I always associate them with Christmas π Luckily we can buy turkey escalopes all year round – it’s weird how some cuts of meat aren’t available at all in some countries… always makes me wonder what happens to the meat!
Sissi says
Charles, it looks fabulous! A three-starred Michelin restaurant would be perfectly satisfied with your presentation! Stuffing meat has always sounded scary to me: I was worried it would end up messy and not appealing, whatever the taste. Since I started to make the Japanese meat rolls filled with vegetables I became bolder, so one day I might also try your turkey breast! It looks really delicious and very festive with figs and chestnut! Congratulations for this healthy and attractive Christmas dish!
Have a lovely time in Sweden!
Charles says
Thanks so much Sissi – you’re really too kind. Ever since having elk ribs, served in creamed potatoes with watercress and roasted root vegetables, served like this in Stockholm in February I’ve become convinced that this is easily the most simple, and most beautiful way of serving many things. I try to serve everything in a “puddle” of mashed potato these days π Hope you can give it a try and have a great day π
Kelly @ Inspired Edibles says
Charles, this is absolutely gorgeous! I would be delighted to eat this dish any time of year. I love the elements and the presentation – your stuffing worked out so well tucked in to the turkey and how brilliant to add the chestnuts… delish. This is a keeper! Love it. Dreaming of snow covered Northern Sweden…
Charles says
Thanks Kelly – I really didn’t imagine the stuffing would stay so “tidy” inside the turkey… it was a real surprise π
I was able to get out and take some photos today thankfully. I should consider myself lucky… I very much enjoy my lie-ins in bed, and it is already starting to get dark here at 11.30!
Linda says
Mmm…the presentation is gorgeous! And I can tell that each bite must be full of flavor and tenderness! I’m always looking for ways to incorporate chestnuts into my holiday and winter cooking. This is a winning recipe for me!!
Charles says
Thanks so much Linda – it was a very nice alternative to full-on turkey. I really enjoyed the sweet potato mash too… although I do think I prefer regular potatoes. I know another dish with chestnuts too which is rather good… I must try and give it a go sometime.
Eva kitcheninspirations.wordpress.com says
I love the combo of mushrooms and chestnuts, Charles; what a lovely change to the ordinary turkey. We got our first light dusting of snow last night; it’s very picturesque with the sun shining making the snow glisten like diamonds. It’s still not terribly cold here, I don’t envy the temperatures in Sweden.
Charles says
Hi Eva, thanks for your compliment! Regarding Sweden – I have to say, I’m rather disappointed… everyone is saying it’s the warmest winter on record for many, many years. Of course – a warm winter in north Sweden still means usually -X degrees with some snow but it’s not as savage as I was “hoping” for.
kristy says
Charles this looks absolutely restaurant worthy!!! What a fantastic meal. I love the combination of chestnuts, mushrooms and figs. π Delicious and very festive!! And that sweet potato puree…I’m drooling. Just drooling. I hope you’re enjoying your holiday! My kids would be absolutely jealous of the snow…
Charles says
Thanks Kristy π The figs especially were a tasty touch! I think your kids would just end up being annoyed with the snow here now. There’s plenty of it – indeed, everything is covered, but it’s “bad” snow… the stuff that just turns to powder if you try to form it into a snowball or snowman. I wanted to compact it into blocks and build an igloo (yeah, I’m 10 years old at heart :p) but that wasn’t going to happen π
Barb says
I’m drooling as well. I love the sound of this flavour combination. I’ve never served a meal over a sweet potato puree, but I really like the idea. If fact, I may do the same for dinner tonight. Nicely done!
Charles says
Thanks Barb! Let me know how it goes if you do! Hope you’re having a good day π
Greg says
This looks absolutely incredible!
Charles says
Cheers Greg – the stuffing especially was pretty darn nice ;)`
Pure Complex says
I hope you’re enjoying your holiday in Sweden. It sounds so much fun. Now onto this amazing Stuffed Turkey Breast… you have definitely made me hungry today lol. I love this dish
Charles says
Thanks Kay π I hope you’ll enjoy the photos when I post them!
Ann says
Hi Charles! This looks fantastic! I’ve made a stuffed turkey breast once and it was delicious – and so elegant! Yours is absolutely lovely! I got a terrific chuckle when you described your wife’s dislike of sun-dried tomatoes…. thanks for a GREAT read and delicious recipe!
Charles says
Thanks Ann – it’s fun stuffing things isn’t it? You can really let your imagination go wild, thinking up different things to put inside π I can’t understand my wife’s sun-dried tomato hatred… I love them so much… they go with everything π (ok, maybe not chocolate cake!)
Nami | Just One Cookbook says
Wah…what a gorgeous meal! I love figs, chestnuts, and mushrooms but I barely use turkey as a choice of meat. This looks fabulous!!! I can’t imagine the taste of the filling – it must be so delicious…. my mouth water thinking about it. Very fancy food, Charles! You are such a good cook!
(it looks like it was me – I just clicked the live version and it worked!)
Charles says
Thanks so much Nami π You definitely should give something like this a try… it’s really fun to experiment with stuffings π
Karen (Back Road Journal) says
Charles, your stuffed turkey sounds delicious. I’m so happy that you took my recipe and used it to create your own. I think that is what recipes are all about…suggestions that get your creative ideas started. I can’t wait to try your recipe. The plating is beautiful with the vibrant orange of the potatoes and the green of the asparagus. I know you must be enjoying your holiday. Have a wonderful New Year.
Charles says
Thanks Karen! I definitely want to try your recipe soon too – I love experimenting with recipes, but sometimes I feel like it can be a bit insulting to the original blogger/writer. It can be like saying “I don’t think your recipe is good enough so I’m just going to change a few things”… I hope you don’t think that’s how I was thinking this time! π
Hyosun Ro says
This stuffed turkey looks so good! Love all the flavors in the filling. I cook turkey breast quite often so I will definitely try this recipe. Hope you are having great time in Sweden. Happy New Year to you and your family!
Charles says
Thanks so much Hyosun! I hope you had a wonderful new year too – let me know if you try this… I’d love to see what sort of things you put inside as the stuffing π
Kiran @ KiranTarun.com says
Have fun holidaying — I am so jealous π
Thats one bowl of delicious!
Charles says
Thanks Kiran! Can’t say I’m looking forward to the day when I have to go home π Still… all good things must come to an end… else how would we appreciate them otherwise?
Marianna says
This looks so tasty! Seems familiar somehow though, I think I had it before, but maybe without mushrooms. Also I think there was white wine in there… Hmhm. But the basic idea was the same! )
Charles says
Undoubtedly – I’d be Liar McLiarson if I claimed to have invented the concept of rolling stuff up with stuff. The beauty lies in the filling and what you decide to use though π
Nada says
This sounds good!
Charles says
Thanks Nada – it certainly was π