TAMARIND TURKEY FOR TASTE BUDS KILLED BY COVID OR CHEMO

AS ANYONE who’s undergone chemo and radiotherapy for cancer will tell you, the treatments obliterate the taste buds.

Just when you need nutrition the most, food suddenly tastes of nothing – making eating a huge chore. And common respiratory infections, including Covid, can have a similar effect.

Following the death of his mother from cancer five years ago, food writer Ryan Riley made it his mission to change all this, with ingenious tweaks to recipes so that even those with the most dulled sense of taste can enjoy them.

This clever twist on a classic turkey comes from his new festive-themed book, A Life Kitchen Christmas.

However, a word of warning: there are two key ingredients here that not everyone will be familiar with: tamarind paste and miso paste.

Don’t be put off. Both are sometimes available in world food sections at local supermarkets – tamarind is often used in Indian, Thai and Vietnamese cooking, while miso is typically Japanese.

We’ve checked, and you also can get both pastes online at Sainsburys, Tesco, Waitrose and amazon.co.uk.

Make sure you get the paste – you can get ready-made sauces that include tamarind and miso, but these will have other ingredients, and you need the concentrated stuff.

Both miso and tamarind are what’s known as umami flavours – the fifth taste after salt, sweet, bitter and sour. Scientists have found that umami receptors on the tongue can withstand far more damage than those that detect other flavours, and activating them can help reawaken other taste receptors too, increasing sweet and salty flavours in dishes.

SERVES 6 Ingredients

⚫ 3.5kg turkey crown

⚫ 150g unsalted butter, softened

⚫ 2 tbsp tamarind paste

⚫ 2 tbsp miso paste

⚫Large bunch fresh sage, or 1 tbsp dried

⚫ Large bunch fresh thyme sprigs, or 1 tbsp dried

⚫ 2 tbsp sunflower oil

⚫ Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

METHOD

Turn the turkey crown upside down and lift the skin away.

In a small bowl, mix butter, tamarind and miso to make smooth, spreadable butter.

Spread it underneath the skin, coating the whole bird. Preheat oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6 and place turkey uncovered in a large, high-sided baking tray. Take half of each herb and place into turkey cavity. Brush skin with oil and season with salt and pepper.

Roast uncovered for 45 minutes, then cover with foil and return to oven for a further 90 minutes, or until cooked through.

To serve, sprinkle remaining herbs on to the cavity.

⚫ A Life Kitchen Christmas, by Ryan Riley, is available at lifekitchen.co.uk, free for a limited period.