Cooking Adventures: Turkey breast stuffed with feta and macadamias and served with rice

Yesterday, I cooked dinner for my parents, just because I felt like it. Living on my own means I don't get the chance to cook properly near as often as I'd like, so every few weeks I invite my parents over for dinner on a Saturday or Sunday, and make a proper meal.

Most times this means lasagne, as I like to freeze the leftovers for quick weekday meals. But since my freezer is currently full to the brim, I thought I'd try something different, something I made once a few years ago.

I'm not usually big on poultry, but I like it once in a while, especially if it is stuffed with some kind of delicious filling. When I was in Australia over Christmas a few years ago, the friend I stayed with made us turkey stuffed with macadamias and cranberries. I tried making this myself when I got back and it's a very delicious roast for a crowd.

Another recipe that I got from a cookbook by Australian cricketer Matthew Hayden also fills poultry with macadamias, but this stuffing is less sweet with feta, onions and bacon instead of the cranberries. It's also a recipe for 4 rather than a crowd, so this is what I chose to make yesterday.



The original recipe calls for chicken breasts to be sliced open int long rectangles, but since the butcher at our market had thin steaks/escalopes of turkey breast right next to the chicken, I went for those instead. They seemed to stay a little juicier than chicken, so I think I will stick with this variation in the future, even though making them into parcels was still rather fiddly.

I also forgot to add the herbs in the recipe (somehow having pots of herbs outside instead of buying them as needed increases the risk of forgetting them), but it still tasted very good.

As side, I made some plain basmati rice, and served it with pesto and herb butter, as there is no real sauce from the turkey. It would probably be quite easy to make one, but the rice with the herby dressing was plenty enough for us.

Macadamia and feta stuffed turkey with rice

• 4 turkey breast escalopes/steaks
• 50g sesame seeds
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2-3 rashers of bacon
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed or finely chopped
• 200g feta, chopped or crumbled
• 50g macadamias, finely chopped
• 2 teaspoons fresh thyme, chopped (optional, since I forgot and it still tasted very nice)
• 2 teaspoons fresh rosemary, chopped (optional)
• salt and pepper

For the rice

• 200ml rice
• 400ml boiling water
• salt
• olive oil

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F and grease a roasting tin with a little olive oil.

Fry the sesame seeds in a dry frying pan over medium heat until golden and fragrant, then transfer to a bowl or plate to cool. Mix with the macadamias, feta and herbs and add a small grinding of pepper.

Heat one tablespoon of olive oil in the frying pan and gently cook the onions, garlic and bacon until lightly browned. Cool. Season with a pinch of sea salt and mix with the macadamias and feta mix to form a paste.

Fill the turkey steaks with about a quarter of the mix each, roling them up into parcels and securing with skewers or toothpicks. (This can be a bit fiddly)

Brush with the remaining olive oil and place in the roasting tin. Bake for about 30-40 minutes until cooked through.

For the rice, measure the volume of rice you want (I used 200ml for 3 people), and fry gently in a little bit of olive oil or butter for a minute or two. Top up with double the volume (in my case 400ml) boiling water, add salt to taste (I used about half a teaspoon), cover with a tight lid and simmer on a low heat for about 20 minutes. Turn off as soon as all the water has been soaked into the rice, and leave to sit with the lid still on until the turkey is ready. Fluff up before serving.