Indo-Thai Ground Turkey

One of my many memories of my maternal grandma involve the kitchen and watching her cook very yummy delicious signature dishes. Today I am about to share one such dish of hers…with an adaptation of my own. She used to make this with ground beef but I have preferred using ground turkey instead.

Now because of our family’s exposure to both the Indian and the Thai cuisines, most of our family recipes are a mix between the two and it is often hard to attribute one specific ethnic classification to a dish. And that is the case with this ground meat dish as well.

If you had read one of my previous posts 5 Steps to Making Curry you will note that this recipe follows those same basic 5 steps.

1. Start by heating some oil in a thick bottomed pan. More oil the better!
2. Keeping the pan on medium-heat, add aromatics: lots of diced onions and couple of tablespoons of Ginger-Garlic Paste and let them cook a little. At the minimum wait for the onions to become translucent.
3. Now for the spices, add just a sprinkle of Indian red chili powder, a teaspoon of turmeric powder (I think my grandma added turmeric to just about every dish) and a good generous couple of tablespoons of Thai Red Curry Paste (this is the main spice for this dish). You can find this paste in just about any Asian grocery store or the Asian section of any supermarket.
4. For this fourth step, after the spices have cooked a little, I actually add some tomato paste…about 4 ounces. Not too much…just a little to give it some tomato flavor. This dish does not need much liquid base.
5. Finally, I add about 2 pounds of ground turkey and stir it well to distribute the flavors well into the meat and to break up the meat. Cover the pan and let the meat cook well. Stir as needed. If there is too much liquid, open the lid and cook on high heat for a few minutes to let it evaporate a little. Keep stirring.

And there you have it. The Indo-Thai Ground Turkey dish is ready for your enjoyment. You may garnish with some chopped cilantro.

In our family we usually eat this dish with some Thai sweet rice and steamed cabbage. It makes for some very yummy cabbage rolls! You can pair with any rice or bread and veggies of your choice. Go ahead, give it a try. You will not be disappointed.