Wednesday, 25 December 2013

From the kitchen | Christmas turkey

This is our first year in the Gingerbread House and we're hosting three Christmas lunches this week. For today's lunch, I ordered a free range 4.6kg turkey from Brookvale Meats (which looks like it might just become my new home-delivery butcher).



On the butcher's recommendation, I took the turkey out for over an hour before cooking, put butter under the skin of the breast, dressed it in oil, salt and pepper, and put it on a bed of onions and carrots partially covered with a mixture of red wine, chicken stock and water.  The turkey took about 2.5 to 3 hours in a 175 degree oven (until it reached 75 degrees between the leg joint and the breast, the last place to cook through).  I basted it every 45 minutes with the juices and after an hour or so put foil over the breast and legs.



I forgot to take a photo of the finished turkey, but this is it about half way through.

 


Delicious!  We served it with a gravy made from the pan juices, roasted potatoes, and tomatoes, cucumber, and capsicum from our kitchen garden.  Grandad and Pam brought cheeses, dips and grapes for appetisers and I shelved more complex dessert plans and served jelly, custard and homemade fruit mince pies (and some blueberry pies for those who don't like fruit mince).


2 comments:

Julie said...

Lovely photographs, Kirsten, and the roast turkey was totally delicious.

Julie said...

Yes, I had seen some of the extra images on Flickr and wondered why you did not post them. I am a big fan of your mince-pies. Shall have to rope you into the concept of Christmas-in-July.