Cleansing turkey salad with cucumber and ginger — a Honey & Co recipe

A recipe for the tail-end of the festive season if, like us, you find yourself with a fridge full of leftover turkey and a craving for light, zesty, punchy flavours after all the brown buttery offerings of Christmas.

Inspiration comes from one of our neighbours, the inimitable Master Wei Xian. It is one of the best restaurants in London; we never fail to be impressed by the consistently dazzling food. It is famed for its hand-pulled noodles and dumplings, but our meal usually consists of three cold starters and one main; the main may change but the starters are always the same.

There’s the smacked spicy cucumber, cloud ear fungus with coriander, and boneless chicken in ginger sauce. The first is an act of fine balance between the hot chilli and cool, crunchy cucumber; the second, a delicious tug of war between the earthy, slippery mushrooms and citrusy, grassy coriander; and the third . . . well, we could attempt a description, but not as gracefully as Tim Hayward would, so we’ll leave that to him.

We do not claim that this is a truthful representation of Master Wei’s recipe. We use what we always have in the kitchen for delicious results: seaweed is not in the original (and can be omitted) but we like what it brings to the party.

You can poach chicken for this — and you’ll be well rewarded — but give this simple treatment to any leftover turkey or chicken and give it a new lease of life as a light, refreshing meal or an easy starter.

Delicious as this dish is, one that inspired it. For this we will risk encroaching on Tim’s turf again and give you the address: 13 Cosmo Place, London WC1N 3AP.

Drink with a cold, fresh Riesling, something that tingles the tongue, try Charles Smith Kung Fu Girl for a refreshing take on the classic.

Turkey salad

Serves four

1. With a sharp knife slice the turkey into thick pieces, then lay the pieces down and shred them the other way, into thick batons and press into a large bowl in a dome shape to form the top outer layer.

2. Soak the seaweed in boiling water for 5 minutes then strain and place in the turkey dome. Thinly slice the spring onions and add those on top of the seaweed.

3. Cut the seeded cucumber into half moons and fill the bowl with them.

4. Place a deep-rimmed plate or shallow pasta bowl on the filled bowl and press down.

5. Mix all the oils together, then add the grated fresh ginger and stir well.

6. Flip the bowl and plate so that the turkey dome comes out on to the bottom plate. Pour the oil mixture all around the rim, sprinkle the roasted sesame and salt over the top and dig in.

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