Chiayi Turkey Rice

Ingredients

• 600g turkey breast, in one piece
• 2 litres water
• 4 slices ginger
• 2 spring onions
• 2 tbsp rice wine
• 1 tsp salt
• 6 shallots, thinly sliced
• 100ml lard or neutral oil
• 3 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp ground white pepper
• 800g steamed rice, to serve
• 80g pickled daikon, sliced
• 200g pak choi, halved

Before you cook

• Take the turkey breast out of the fridge thirty minutes ahead so it loses its chill.
• Thinly slice the shallots into even rings.
• Trim the spring onions and slice the ginger.
• Halve the pak choi lengthways and wash it.

Steps

1. Bring the water to the boil in a deep pan with the ginger, spring onions, rice wine and salt.
2. Lower the turkey breast into the pan and bring the water back to a bare simmer.
3. Poach for ten minutes, then turn off the heat completely.
4. Cover the pan and leave the turkey in the hot water for forty minutes to finish cooking gently.
5. Lift the turkey out onto a board and keep 300ml of the poaching broth.
6. Pull the meat apart along the grain into rough shreds using two forks or your fingers.
7. Heat the lard in a small pan over medium-low heat.
8. Add the sliced shallots and fry for eight minutes, stirring, until they are evenly golden.
9. Strain the shallots out of the fat and drain them on kitchen paper.
10. Return three tablespoons of the shallot fat to the pan and set it over medium heat.
11. Pour in the reserved broth, the soy sauce, sugar and white pepper, standing back as it spits.
12. Simmer the sauce for five minutes until it reduces by a third and turns glossy.
13. Blanch the pak choi in boiling water for ninety seconds and drain it.
14. Pile the shredded turkey over four bowls of hot rice.
15. Spoon the hot sauce over the meat and scatter the crisp shallots on top.
16. Serve with the pak choi and pickled daikon on the side.