CHRISTMAS DINNER……. TURKEY THE NIGELLA WAY

Picture this! It’s Christmas Eve and we are spending Christmas with our dear friends Sally & John Plummer and their beautiful daughters, Lizzie and Helen.

After the drive from London to Chesterfield we arrived at their house. A few glasses later and The conversation turned to the cooking of the turkey and out of the jabber of suggestions someone shouted “Lets do it the Nigella way brine it!”

Not being the kind of folk to be thwarted by such minor detail we improvised “Some of this I think!” “Yes great, how about a hand full of these things?”

A large bucket was soon full of water, a large turkey and a unappetizing myriad of spices, fruit and veg. Into the garage it went for the overnight brine.

INGREDIENTS

1 Turkey

approx 6 litres water

1 large orange or 2 smaller (quartered)

250 grams salt (or 125g table salt)

3 tablespoons black peppercorns

1 bouquet garni

1 cinnamon stick

1 tablespoon caraway seeds

4 cloves

2 tablespoons allspice berries

4 star anise

2 tablespoons white mustard seeds

200 grams sugar

2 onions (unpeeled and quartered)

1 x 6 cm piece of fresh root ginger (unpeeled and cut into 6 slices)

4 tablespoons maple syrup

4 tablespoons runny honey

stalks from 1 bunch fresh parsley

for the basting glaze

75 grams goose fat (or butter)

3 tablespoons maple syrup

METHOD

Put the water into your largest cooking pot or a bucket or plastic bin. Squeeze the juice from the orange quarters into the water before you chuck the husks in, then add all the other ingredients, stirring to combine the salt, sugar, syrup and runny honey.

Remove any string or trussing from the turkey,  then add the bird to the liquid, topping up with more water if it is not completely submerged.

Keep covered in a cold place, even outside overnight or for up to a day or two before you cook it, remembering to take it out of its liquid (and wipe it dry with kitchen paper) 1-2 hours before it has to go into the oven.

Preheat the oven to 200°C

Melt the goose fat (or butter) and maple syrup together slowly over a low heat. Paint the turkey with the glaze before roasting in the oven, and baste periodically throughout the cooking time.

Roast for 2½ hours. When you think it’s ready, pierce the turkey with the point of a sharp knife where the body meets the leg, and if the juices run clear, it’s cooked; if still pink, cook it for longer until they run clear.

You can also use an instant-read thermometer to check if the turkey is cooked – this will be at 74º

Take the turkey out of the oven, and let it sit, tented with foil, for 20–40 minutes or even longer if you like, as I do.

Turkey cooking times tend to seem quite short if you are used to the “standard” formula for calculating cooking times for poultry. However we have all been overcooking turkeys for years and complaining how dry and sawdust they are.

The table below gives Nigella’s suggested timings for a free range Turkey.