So, we bought some turkey tenderloins at the grocery store earlier this week. I’d never seen them before- you get two big tenderloins in the package. Well, after opening it, more like 1 big one and one medium size one. I wasn’t really sure what to do with them so I Googled turkey tenderloin recipe and clicked on a few of the results.
I came across one for roasting with potatoes and it made a sauce. And it had mango chutney in the ingredient list. We happen to have a jar of this and Chris loves all things mango- chutney and salsa especially. Seriously, if you want chips and salsa at our house, be prepared for mango.
The orignial recipe is from a show called Quick Fix Meals with Robin Miller on the Food Network. I’ve never seen it but Robin’s picture is a little wide-eyed for my tastes. Now the recipe, entitled Roasted Turkey with Potatoes and Tarragon Broth seemed pretty simple and I was looking for something that I could make in the oven with our russets. I knew from the start that I’d be making some changes as I intended to have baked potatoes (why? because we bought a tub of sour cream for having with tacos and I don’t want to waste it; I also had made some chive butter from our herb collection and wanted some of that too) instead of the new potatoes in the recipe.
And I didn’t have fresh tarragon so I used dried. I also substituted vegetable broth for chicken and rice wine vinegar for apple cider. Its all about what’s in the pantry. But, I followed the measurements as called for. Except, when I read the directions, it didn’t mention the mango chutney. The ingredient list said 4 tablespoons chutney but where did it go? I figured it must be part of the broth so I mixed in it. And poured the broth over the turkey and popped the pan in the oven. About 20 minutes in I decided the broth was poaching the poultry so I siphoned most of it off in to a saucepan. I cooked that broth on the stovetop and added 2 tablespoons of butter to help it thicken up a bit.
After the turkey was done (40 minutes being too long, by the way), I sliced one tenderloin and poured some of the slightly thickened broth/sauce over it. Served with a yummy baked potato and sauteed snap peas.
I admit, the tarragon and chutney flavors were a bit of a twist but not bad. Now Chris, he loved the sauce- on his baked potato! In fact, he wants me to make mango chutney mashed potatoes with the remainder.
The turkey needed a stronger flavoring or perhaps time in a marinade before roasting. Or gravy. Gravy can fix so many sins.
Now that dinner is over and I am still perplexed by the recipe’s mango chutney contradiction, I went back to the web and looked at the recipe again. And then I looked at the link to the episode of Robin’s show. I’ve never seen Robin’s show; I probably won’t since she kind of scares me in that picture on her website. Really intense. But from the website, I glean that she makes one dish that can be used over the course of several days. In this episode, she uses one turkey tenderloin with 1/2 the potatoes and broth for dinner. She then takes the other 1/2 of the potatoes and broth to make vichyssoise. In case you are wondering, that is a soup made of leeks, onions, potatoes, cream and chicken broth. Pureed and served cold.
No mango chutney. And honestly, that would just be weird. I can only presume the listing in the ingredients is a typo.
It all turned out fine for us in the end. I have to believe that I have enough cooking common sense to recognize if something was horribly wrong or could go horribly wrong. I probably won’t make this again but if the broth works well with mashed potatoes, it could be interesting.
Good Food Hunting 