Christmas turkey
It’s that time of year again that we get all excited and prepared for the Christmas lunch or dinner food fest and of course the turkey is the most important part. Cooking a turkey can be a little intimidating faced with a 5kg bird that needs to be done to perfection. It’s really is not that difficult, just be patient and give yourself plenty of time.
What you need
Preperation
This is a tip that I picked up on Nigellas program that works extremely well to keep the turkey moist and is really no fuss. Take a large bucket of cold water the day before, toss in a quartered onion, a quartered lemon, a few cloves and a few chopped celery sticks, 1 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of salt and a cinnamon stick and a handful of black pepper corns, unwrap your turkey and soak it in the bucket, in the fridge overnight.
Remove from the water, place on a rack to drain off the water and dry the skin thoroughly.
What you need
5kg Turkey
250g melted butter
1 large onion quartered
Salt and pepper
The process
Once the turkey skin is thoroughly dried, place in a roasting pan. Pour over the melted butter and rub it all over the turkey, then season it well with salt and pepper (don’t be shy here) and stuff the oinion quarters into the cavity.
Cover the turkey with tin foil and place in a preheated 200 Celsius oven for 1 and a 1/2 hours. Remove the foil, spoon some of the juices over the breasts, reduce the heat to 180 and roast for a further 1 hour checking to see that the skin is browning nicely and basting with the juices every 20 minutes or so.
For the vegetables, I like to do
1. The perfect roast potatoes of course
2. Green beans that have been lightly steamed (still crunchy) that have been tossed in crisp bacon bits and butter.
3. Cinnamon and syrup roast pumpkin
Cut the pumpkin into 3-4 cm cubes, place in a roating pan, dot bits of butter around the pumpkin, sprinkle with cinnamon and trickle over the maple syrup, roast for about 40 minutes at 180 Celsius under the turkey.
Here is a Christmas glazed gammon recipe , a Christmas cake recipe and of course, perfect roast potatoes.
See all of the Christmas recipe ideas
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Hi Graham
I was faced with the task of cooking a turkey this past christmas and having never eaten turkey before was rather stressed about it. but as always your recipes saved the day.
you would be pleased to know it came out perfect and so tasty. i would have it often now.
thank you
That is fantastic Kay, so glad it worked out and you guys enjoyed. Have a fantastic 2011 G
Hi Graham , i require a good stuffing recipe for a Turkey Roast , what recipes do u have , Thank you
Hi Previn, I have to admit my stuffing comes from Woolies, a premixed stuffing that is excellent. Here are one or two for you to try. There are so many different types but these look really good. Merry Christmas, G
http://www.garvick.com/recipes98m/12-turkey_stuffing.htm
http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/moms_turkey_stuffing/
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/26736/