Turkey strips (lunch for a child)

Yesterday I made stuffed cabbage rolls, which I’ll probably still be eating for another two days. So all I have to do today is reheat them (and of course they just keep tasting better). But I’m spending this weekend with my little girl, who wouldn’t even look at my cabbage rolls. The conversation went something like this:

“Would you like to try a cabbage roll, Ninka?” (A decidedly naïve question, but I had to ask.)

“No.”

“Have you ever tried a cabbage roll? You might like it.”

“I have. At school.” (Ninka’s in reception.) “They were disguuuuuusting.”

Which bears out my theory that the school canteen does a very good job of killing off any early enthusiasm for cabbage rolls by serving them with that awful tomato sauce. It’s not as though I don’t know what Nika likes to eat, is it? So I came prepared. There’s not much to learn, as you’ll gather from our lunchtime conversation:

“Daddy, name something you don’t like that I don’t like either.” (Moderately tricky: you have to think of something you don’t like yourself. Ninka likes practically nothing.)

“I don’t like broad beans.”

“Me neither. Can you think of something else?”

“Stuffed peppers.”

“Great. Now name something you don’t like but I do.” (Seriously tricky question.)

“Ninka, I don’t like Kinder Surprise eggs.”

“Nooooo, it can’t be sweet. Something for lunch.”

“I give up…”

Exactly. Cooking for Ninka does get rather monotonous, because there are all of 5 dishes she likes. One of them is poultry fillets (it doesn’t much matter whether it’s chicken or turkey breast), with cucumber salad (or the sweet grated carrot variation) and mashed potatoes (just plain mash, mind).

These are of course incredibly quick and simple things to make. Basically your standard restaurant lunch (“What do you have for kids?” “Breaded chicken with chips and cucumber salad”), only without the chips, because Ninka, interestingly enough, doesn’t like chips either. Anyone can make this dish easily. This post is just here in case it inspires you to nip to the shops for a turkey fillet instead of picking up a kids’ meal at McDonald’s.

At a glance:

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Serves: one six-year-old daughter

How many calories? Luckily Ninka doesn’t have to count them yet

Ingredients for turkey breast strips:

• 15 decagrams of fresh turkey breast fillet
• 1 hen’s egg
• a pinch of salt
• half a pinch of ground black pepper
• breadcrumbs
• olive oil

Side dishes (mashed potatoes and sweet cucumber salad):

• 1/3 of a long green cucumber
• plain yoghurt
• 2 medium potatoes
• half a tablespoon of butter
• salt
• sugar

The recipe (get cooking, Dad):

To get it all done in time I work in a particular order, of course. It goes something like this.

I start by peeling the potatoes and putting them in salted water (easy on the salt, there are only two potatoes). I put them over a low heat (they’ll be ready in exactly 18 minutes). I wash the turkey and cut it into narrow strips. I put them in a bowl, salt them lightly and add a small amount of pepper (a very small amount, because Ninka will pick up on anything even slightly spicy if there’s more than a tiny bit of it). I get two deep plates ready, crack the egg into one and tip some breadcrumbs into the other. I beat the egg to mix the yolk and white.

I heat the olive oil in a frying pan (enough to cover the bottom to a depth of about 3–4 millimetres). I dip the turkey pieces one by one into the egg, coat them thoroughly and quickly transfer them to the breadcrumbs. A light coating of crumbs, then straight into the hot pan. Repeat with all the pieces. Once all the strips are in the pan, I turn them now and then, checking that they aren’t burning. We want golden breadcrumbs on both sides.

Now there’s time to peel a piece of cucumber and cut it into rounds. I put the sliced cucumber in a little bowl. Into a glass I pour 1.3 small pots of plain yoghurt and add a tablespoon of sugar. I mix it thoroughly, pour it over the cucumber and give it all a good stir.

Once the potatoes are tender, I drain them and add half a tablespoon of butter to the drained potatoes in the pan. I let it melt, then mash the potatoes thoroughly with a spoon. Next I add two tablespoons of the olive oil the turkey strips are just finishing frying in. I mash it all well again. The result is fluffy but light mashed potatoes. And that’s that. Turn off the “flame” under the turkey and serve. Enjoy!