Instructions

This might sound strange for a name, but an old school friend of mine Erica D’Abreau had once invited us over to her house for dinner and we got served these amazingly tasty escalope’s, very nice and crisp fried. You could also make some great bar snacks/starter size portions by cutting the turkey fillet into long strips – Cyrus Todiwala

Cut the turkey breast into four equal sized pieces.

If you have a thick plastic bag, then cut two sides off very carefully so that you cut clean and open the bag like a flap.

Place a piece of turkey with the cut side facing upwards, fold over the other half of plastic, and using the steak hammer or a flat heavy object, beat down on the meat turning gradually each time when you bat it to flatten as roundly as is possible.

The plastic acts as a means of not just holding the meat together but also to flatten smoothly.

Do this until you have a large flattened escalope or thin sheet approx. a couple of millimetres in width.

Repeat the process until you have all the pieces done.

Place the ginger, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, mustard paste, lime juice, salt, chilli and coriander powders in a small blender and puree finely.

If you cannot do that crush the ginger and garlic as finely as you can in a mortar and mix the remaining ingredients in making as smooth a paste as is possible.

Smear the paste liberally on all the pieces and arranging them well on a plate, cover and place in the refrigerator for at least two hours. A few hours more is better.

To prepare you will need three flat trays or large plates. Beat the eggs in a large soup plate or shallow flat salad bowl until the egg white breaks up well and rest it until the froth settles, sieve the flour into another flat plate and the breadcrumbs in another or on the kitchen top surface.

Taking each escalope one at a time, remove or scrape with your fingers any excess marinade, then dust in flour first making sire it is well covered, shake off excess flour, dip in the liquefied egg, let the egg drain off and then into the bread crumbs ad press down well on each side until the crumbs are well and truly coated. Shake off excess and place on a clean dry plate.

Once all four are complete, make sure all are well coated and if any are not dab some egg with your finger-tips and crumb the blank spots. At this stage you can also pile the escalope’s one on top of each other evenly and trim off the ragged edges to make them similar shaped. If you do this then you might need to crumb them again where the open or exposed meat is. But they do look better when served.

Take approx. half an inch or ten mm of oil in a large enough frying pan, heat and shallow fry each escalope until golden on both sides.

Drain well on a kitchen towel and keep placing in a warm oven until you finish all four.

Serve with any sauce, or mayonnaise based dip of your choice, some well- fried potato chunks and, a nice salad. If you feel like a bit of spoiling yourself, melt some good butter and add a little squeeze of lime juice, and spoon this over the escalope’s when serving.

© Cyrus Todiwala