I couldn't get my hands on breasts, so...

So I had to settle for the whole bird.

It was Popo's birthday last Sunday, which coincided with Grandparent's Day and a few days after Thanksgiving. While Singaporeans generally do not celebrate the american holiday, I (being educated in the US) use it as the period to roast some turkey for all to savour.

This year, I decided to contribute Tandoori Turkey. Honestly, I did not follow any recipe coz my principle in cooking is always to adopt the Go-for-It and Experiment with edible stuff. "What goes in Edible, should come out Edible." It was that simple. I've previously roasted turkey breasts in past years, but somehow I couldn't find breasts this time round. I then settled for the whole 12kg worth of turkey.

For the purpose of notekeeping, here's my recipe (of course everything's based on perceived amounts coz I tend to use... commonsense):

Tandoori Turkey
Sharwood's Tandoori spice powder (1 bottle) bought from Jason's at Tanglin Mall;
Plain Yoghurt (1 tub);
some olive oil;
pinch of salt;
fresh lime;
whole turkey

1. Make sure the turkey is fully defrosted. I immersed the frozen turkey in a basin of water overnight.

2. Take out the gizzards and chopped neck from the cavities (read: ass portion and neck portion) of the turkey. Keep gizzards for stuffing, and neck for soup.

3. The turkey I bought (Norbest brand) had a thermometer that'll pop out from the breast portion when the bird's cooked. It's a red button. Make sure you don't remove the thermometer!

4. Prepare the tandoori paste: Mix half the bottle of Sharwood spice powder with a quarter tub of yoghurt, some olive oil and pinch of salt. Squeeze a fresh lime into the paste. The paste will look pale orange in colour.

5. Spread the paste all over the bird. Oh yes, do it over a roasting pan so everything gets messy within the pan and not all over the kitchen!

Turkey Stuffing
Barley pearls (about one third of a small bag). Soak overnight in water.
Gizzards
Boiled chestnuts (broken into bits)
raisins (small box)
some dried cranberries
shiitake mushrooms
cinammon bark
star anise
black pepper seeds

1. Boil the soaked barley pearls for about 10 minutes.

2. Drain the barley, then transfer it to a wok and lightly stir fry with the chopped gizzards, chestnuts, cut mushrooms, raisins, cranberries, cinammon bark, star anise seeds and black pepper seeds.

3. Let it cool.

Into the oven!

1. Pre-heat the oven at about 175 degrees celsius

2. When the stuffing's cooler, stuff the stuffing into the ass. Yes, use a long spoon or a chopstick. Alot of stuffing can be stuffed into that crevice. Make sure it's compact but doesn't spill out. You may need to sew the crevice up using some turkey skin and thread (or satay stick).

3. Once done, loosely cover the stuffed bird with an aluminium foil with the shiny side facing inwards (heat reflects off shiny surface back towards the hot bird; simple physics)

4. Roast the turkey! Check on it after 2 hours. Take it out again and spread more tandoori paste on the half-baked bird. Yum yum....

5. My turkey was done in almost 4 hours. Check the thermometer. If it's popped out, it's done.

For the record, everyone loved the turkey. :)