REVISED! Seven Jewel Turkey Salad from the Woven Hose Cafe
Jun 07 '00 (Updated Jun 15 '00)
When I originally posted this, I omitted an ingredient in the dressing! Hence this very minor revision.
Back in 1986, I worked for 3 months in One Kendall Square, a mixed-use building that at that time was a struggling example of urban redevelopment in East Cambridge. Formerly a woven hose (think fire hoses) factory complex, the cluster of buildings now housed several small software companies, a few restaurants, and a few retail stores. Where the excellent Blue Room now resides was a frequent hang-out for my development team, The Woven Hose Cafe. We spent many a long afternoon in the cafe, sipping their excellent coffee, eating their awesome scones and other pastries, and working through design bugs and installation glitches and what-have-you. Practically anytime we needed to have an afternoon meeting, we met in the Cafe. Ah, those were the days!
Sadly, we moved to a larger, spiffier facility only a few months after I joined the company, and we all mourned the loss of the exceptional lunch and snack options. Hands down, the entire development team's favorite was the Seven Jewel Turkey Salad, a curried turkey salad with crunchy "jewels" added as garnish, that was served on a bed of lettuce and with some excellent chewy rolls.
Fast-forward four years, and my boss has decided it's time to move on; I hosted his going-away party. In a fit of inspiration, I thought, "That salad wasn't all that complicated, and I bet he'd really get a kick out of having it one more time." With a bit of fiddling, I was able to reproduce this little gem that we had enjoyed so often, downstairs at the Woven Hose.
Herewith, the very recipe... the ingredient list seems long, but it really goes together quickly, and it's amazingly delicious. A note on the measurements: I never really measure anything except the curry powder, the rest is more or less "to taste", especially with respect to the "jewels". I usually omit the green onion, as we're not big on onion in my family. By all means, if you like one thing more than another, mix up the proportions!
Ingredients
2 lbs of cooked turkey breast, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
for the dressing
1 C mayonnaise (or 1 1/4 C non-fat plain yogurt, allowed to drain for a while to remove some of the liquid and reduce its volume to 1C)
2 tsp good quality curry powder (I use Spice Islands)
2 T honey
2-3 T lime juice (orange juice is an acceptable substitute)
The following ingredient was originally omitted!
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (do not substitute fresh grated ginger)
Seven "Jewels"
1/2 each red, yellow, orange pepper, 1/8 inch dice (makes about 1 C)
1/4 C each regular and golden raisins
1/4 C unsalted cashews
3 green onions, washed and sliced into 1/8 inch pieces, including whites
leaf lettuce, for serving
Assembly
Combine the ingredients for the dressing in a small bowl, let sit for 5 minutes (refrigerated) then taste and adjust the seasonings if need be. If you use yogurt, you'll have a tarter dressing, and it may require less lime juice and/or more honey. If you like a strong curry flavor, you can add more, but be careful as the curry flavor does develop over time, and it can kind of sneak up on you.
Once you are satisfied with the dressing, gently add the turkey, and stir to coat.
Combine all the "jewels" together in another bowl.
To Serve:
Arrange lettuce leaves on individual plates or shallow bowls, and mound the dressed turkey in the center. Sprinkle liberally with the jewels. To eat, stir the jewels in and enjoy! Extra jewels can be passed at the table. A good French bread or any chewy, simply flavored bread is a good accompaniment to this dish. The crispy, chewy, crunchy textures of the jewels marry perfectly with the firmness of the turkey, and the bite of the curry, with the sweet-sour hints from the lime and honey, make this dish simply perfect.
In the unlikely even you have leftovers, store the jewels separately from the turkey as they will get too mushy. You might consider also keeping the jewels separate, as the taste of the green onions will overpower the other flavors quickly, and the cashews will get soggy.
6 to 8 servings
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
QuietI
|
|
Member: Joan Hedman
Location: Chandler, AZ
Reviews written: 89
Trusted by: 70 members
About Me:
Busy. Life. You know.
|
|
|
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.