Our Christmas Turk

I know it is a bit late, but I'm sure you can still make Turkey even though it is already 2011 and way past Christmas.  Turkey is definitely not tradition in South Africa, seeing that Chrismas is in the middle of summer, but luckily this year we had a cool Christmas day and the "Turk" (as my father in law affectionately refers to the turkey) went down well! I tried my hand at making roast turkey for the second time in my life, and I must say, I was pleasantly surprized at the result.  By chance I watched a Gordon Ramsay program a week or two ago and followed his recipe and tips.  I've always liked his recipes - simple and elegant.  I've made minor adjustments to the original version - firstly omitting the garlic, for reasons already mentioned before and secondly not adding the walnuts to the gravy, because I thought that might be too out of the ordinary for some of my family members!  Someone commented on the website that something must have went wrong with their Turkey this Christmas. They did all that was asked, but the turkey reminded them of jerkey more than the mouth watering meat they heard about, but I must disagree strongly.  I found the recipe very easy and the turkey really mouth watering.  (Unfortunately my usual photographer was still enjoying his bike ride when the Turkey was still in one piece and I could only get a picture of the Turk after carving it into portions.)

1 turkey (our's was around 3 kg)

salt and pepper

2 onions, halved

1/2 a lemon, plus

juice and zest of another1 lemon

one handful of Italian parsley

250g butter, at room temperature

1 tablespoon olive oil

250g streaky bacon

3 ripe tomatoes, chopped

340ml cider

250ml chicken stock

250ml cream (My addtion!)

3 fresh rosemary stalks

Wash and trim the turkey and dry with kitchen towel.  Season well with salt and pepper and place the onion and lemon half into the cavity.  Blend the soften butter with the olive oil, lemon zest and juice and chopped pasley.  (I added a drizzle of honey as well). 

Now loosen the skin from the breast, making sure you keep the skin whole.  Also loosen the skin on the thighs and legs.  Push spoonfuls of the flavoured butter underneath the skin and then work it from the outside to completely cover the meat.  Rub any left over butter over the outside of the turkey.

Place the turkey, breast side up, in a roasting tray and roast in a preheated oven at 220 degrees for 15 minutes until nicely browned.  Remove from the oven, baste with the pan juices and then cover the bird neatly with the streaky bacon.  Baste again.  Lower the oven temperature to 180 degrees and return the meat to the oven.  Roast for another 1h and 30 minutes. (The basic rule is 30 minutes per kg).  Remove from the oven and remove the turkey and let it rest.  This is Gordon's golden rule - it should rest as long as it was in the oven!  The hot gravy will restore the heat of the cooled meat.  Also, make sure you preheat the serving platter.  Keep al the pan juices for the gravy.

Now for the gravy:

Pour the chicken stock into the roasting tray and loosen all the lovely bits sticking to the pan.  Transfer all to a saucepan.  Remove the onion, lemon and bacon from the turkey and chop it all and then add to the saucepan.  (I used only the flesh of the lemon and about a quarter of the skin).  Also add the tomato and cider.  Lastly, remove the wingtips and also add to the sauce.  Bring to the boil and boil for 10 minutes while squashing all the bits with a potato masher.  Remove from the heat and strain through a sieve.  Return to a clean saucepan, add the cream and rosemary and bring to the boil again to reduce it to a saucy consistency.  Remove the rosemary before serving. 

Carve the turkey into portions and slice the breasts into neat slices.  Place onto a warmed serving platter and drizzle with some of the hot gravy.