This is a perfect poultry recipe to cook for Christmas dinner!
You can also cook this recipe with ducks, but I prefer to make it with turkey because it is more traditional and a low level of saturated fat, more healthy J
You can also cook turkey / duck in orange sauce using the same method (see my personal cooking hints and tips in the end of this recipe)
Ok, here is what I consider one of the best Christmas roast recipe:
Roast Turkey (or Duck) With Cherry Sauce
Roast Turkey (or Duck) With Cherry Sauce
This roasted turkey recipe Serves 6/8 persons
Ingredients:
- 3 x size 15 (1.5 kg) turkeys, rinsed, necks and wing tips removed
- 2 brown onions, skin on and roughly chopped
- 2 carrots, washed and roughly chopped
- 2 celery sticks, washed and roughly chopped
- zest of 1 orange
- 1 teaspoon butter
- 250 ml white wine (chardonnay)
- 250 ml reduced brown turkey stock (optional, see my hints and tips)
- 500 g fresh cherries, pitted, crushed and chopped roughly
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons cornflour mixed with 1 tablespoon cold water
You will need :
- cook’s knife
- weight
- spoon and liquid measures
- large stock pot
- saucepan
- large roasting tray
Method:
1. There are two ways to begin this dish. One is to place the turkeys on the chopped vegetables, season with salt and pepper and roast in the oven at 180°c for 1½ hours. My method is to place the turkeys in a pot with the necks and wing tips, cover with water and bring to the boil, then simmer for 30 minutes (this removes fat and impurities, and is the beginning of a turkey stock). Then i transfer the turkey to the tray of vegetables and brown in the oven at 200°c for 45 minutes. Choose the method that best suits you, either way I tend to do this job the day before I serve the final dish.
2. Sauté the orange zest in the butter, add the wine and reduce by half. Add the stock and reduce by one-quarter.
3. Add the cherries with any juices, season with salt and pepper and thicken with the corn flour paste.
Method cont. :
4. If the turkey is pre-roasted, then it gives you the chance to remove most of the bones. To do this, cut the turkeys in half lengthways; remove the breast bones and thigh bones, leaving only the wing bones and the drumstick bones intact. (These excess bones then go into the stock.)
5. Reheat the turkey in the oven at 200ºC for 10 minutes. Slice and serve coated with the sauce. Serve with asparagus and baked potato in cream.
My personal cooking hints and tips:
* For the stock : the best way to make use of the water the turkeys have simmered in is to continue to simmer it while roasting the turkeys.
When the turkeys have cooked, remove them from the tray of vegetables and continue to roast the vegetables until brown all over, then add these to the stock to add colour. When the turkeys have cooled, remove the bones as mentioned in the method, add the bones to the stock, continue to simmer for 2–3 hours, then strain the stock.
Place the strained stock back on the heat and simmer until reduced to 1 litre. It is important that from the beginning, any fat and impurities that float to the top are removed with a ladle; this is done to avoid making the stock cloudy and soapy tasting.
* For turkey in orange sauce : use the same method but replace the cherries in the sauce with the juice of 6 oranges and the zest of 3 oranges. The wine and turkey stock stay the same, as does thickening with cornflour.
* When thickening with cornflour, remember to add small amounts at a time, bringing the sauce back to the boil between each addition until the right consistency is reached.
For Further Reading,
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment