Turkey and Black Treacle

This recipe has been brewing for some time. And the launch of Food or Foe has given me the impetus to at last take it off the back-burner and place it on the front hob on full heat. And what a surprise!

Here at Food or Foe, we aim to create new dishes, new flavours, and new combinations. This recipe does just that.

 “Turkey fried in black treacle, served on a bed of fried sweet potato and garnished with a Sharon fruit sauce”.

Turkey with Black Treacle, fried Sweet Potato, and a Sharon fruit sauce.

At first, it reads like any other recipe, but then you glance back to the beginning – ‘black treacle’? I hear you utter it with such disgust and shock. You’re thinking more desserts and cakes. However, let me console you and your quivering taste buds. The dark sweetness of the black treacle has a lot of the qualities of a barbecue sauce, and, as you would expect, it glazes itself very well giving the turkey a real aesthetic appeal. The fruitiness of the Sharon fruit sauce provides a great alternative to cranberry sauce. In fact, it gave a distinctive summer feel to the dish – very uplifting. The form of the sauce was disappointing, however. I would probably recommend anyone else attempting this recipe to make a jelly out of the Sharon fruit. As it was, it was a bit too pulp-like.

Nonetheless, you might think that the sweetness of the dish might be overwhelming, but the variation in the type of sweetness – from the sugary treacle to the sharp and fruity sauce – balanced each other. The sweet potato, with red onion, chillies and sweet red peppers, complemented the sweetness very well too. Without it, I think, the dish would have easily become one-sided.

I would strongly recommend people using black treacle more when cooking meat. I think it lends itself very well as a replacement for a barbecue sauce, as well for Thai and Chinese cuisine.

The Recipe:

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Serves 2

For the Sharon Fruit Sauce:

6 small Sharon Fruit

100g caster sugar

½ an orange (for juice and zest)

For the Turkey:

1 Turkey breast

6 tbsp Black Treacle

2 small Red Chillies

For the Sweet Potato:

3 Sweet Potatoes

½ Red Onion

1 Red Chilli

1 Sweet Pepper

1. Cut the Sharon fruit into small pieces and place into a saucepan. Add one mug full of water and the sugar. Leave to simmer for 20 minutes.
2. Remove the pan from the heat and blend the Sharon fruit mixture in a blending machine. Add the zest and juice of the orange as well, and mix.
3. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.
4. While waiting, time for some preparation. Peel and grate 3 sweet potatoes. Finely slice the red onion, chillies and the pepper. Combine all three ingredients in a bowl and season with salt and pepper.
5. Now for the Turkey. Add some olive oil to a frying pan on medium heat. Finely slice 1 small Red Chilli, and add to the pan with the black treacle. Let the treacle loosen up a bit, and then add the turkey breast. Make sure the breast gets covered by the treacle. Fry for 10 minutes.
6. Then place the turkey breast in an ovenproof dish, cover with foil, and place in the oven. Cook for 15 minutes.
7. In a clean frying pan, add the red onion, pepper and chillies. Fry until they start to brown. Then add the sweet potato and cook for 10 minutes on a medium heat.
8. Remove the turkey from the oven, and allow it to rest for 5 minutes.
9. Serve with the Sharon fruit sauce.
10. Enjoy!

© Jordan Taylor and Food or Foe, 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Jordan Taylor and Food or Foe with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.