Nigella Christmas: Food, Family, Friends, Festivities (16 page)

The following, unsparing, schedule is based on a 2.30pm lunch, cooked with the benefit of a double oven. I know not all of you will have two ovens, and this is all perfectly possible, if harder, with one oven. In many ways it’s more of a conjuring trick than a culinary exercise. Once cooked, the turkey can sit for an hour, or longer, out of the oven so long as it is not in a draught; and as it comes out, the oven can be turned up for the potatoes. A hot oven for the spuds is the only crucial factor – or that and the gravy. As I’ve said before, so long as the turkey is cooked, the potatoes are crisp and the gravy piping hot, everything else can be warmish, whatever the health and safety officers say.

No doubt, you would give yourself a less frenetic timetable were you to schedule lunch for later, say 4pm, but old habits die hard, so that’s too late for me. I hear my mother’s voice in my ear talking disdainfully about “Spanish hours”. Besides, if you have a later lunch, you run into the difficulties of having hungry people hanging around the kitchen wanting to be fed beforehand. But the choice is yours. Good luck!

• Peel and cut potatoes, then leave in cold water, as directed (see here).

• Take bacon-wrapped chipolatas out of fridge.

• Take turkey out of brine, sit it on a rack in the sink (or over a tin) and leave to drip, drain and come to room temperature.

• Preheat 1st oven to 200°C/gas mark 6.

• Trim brussels sprouts and leave in a colander.

• Take prepared stuffing out of fridge.

• Put chipolatas in oven.

• Infuse milk for Bread Sauce.

• Measure out ingredients for Chocolate Pudding and set aside.

• Put prepared potatoes in pan on heat to parboil.

• Take chipolatas out of oven and leave wrapped in foil.

• Melt basting liquid for turkey (see here).

• Baste turkey with half the liquid, and put in 1st oven.

• Potatoes should be at parboiling stage, or will be within the next 10 minutes, so keep an eye on them, then drain, dredge and leave in pan.

12 noon

• Baste turkey with remaining liquid.

• Put large pan of water with steamer attachment (for puddings) on to heat.

• Now sit down calmly with a glass of wine, or cup of tea, and look over everything else that needs to be done so you are not panicked by the quick-fire work later.

• Lay the table.

• Put Christmas Pudding (made a few weeks earlier) in bottom part of pan-with-steamer attachment to steam (for 3 hours).

• Prepare Maple-Roast Parsnips, and leave in a tin, preferably a foil throwaway one.

• Put sprout water on and let it to come to the boil. You can leave it with its lid on, with the heat switched off once it boils.

• Preheat 2nd oven (if available) to 250°C/gas mark 9, putting in a roasting tin with goose fat to heat up at the same time (this will be for the potatoes).

• Put potatoes in hot fat in 2nd oven.

• Add prepared bread to infused milk and finish off Bread Sauce.

• Put parsnips in oven on rack below potatoes.

• Check sprout water, bring back up to boil, then cook and drain sprouts.

• Finish off stuffing, by adding eggs etc., put in dish and pop in oven below turkey.

• Baste turkey at the same time.

• Turn potatoes over.

• Check turkey; it should be done. Take out of oven and leave tented with foil.

• Pop foil parcel of chipolatas in oven to reheat.

• Process ingredients for Chocolate Pudding, put in basin, and put basin in steamer above Christmas pud to steam.

• Put Red Cabbage on to reheat.

• Put Butternut Orzotto on to reheat.

• Warm chestnuts in butter, add drained sprouts and toss in pan, leaving with lid on and heat off till lunch.

• Fork through Cranberry Sauce.

• Finish Allspice Gravy.

• Take parsnips out and plate up.

• Check seasoning and heat of bread sauce.

• Take stuffing out of oven.

• Bring everything to the table, leaving potatoes and hot gravy till last.

• LUNCH

• Have a quick nip out to the kitchen, whip up Eggnog Cream and melt ingredients for Chocolate Sauce.

SPICED AND SUPERJUICY ROAST TURKEY WITH ALLSPICE GRAVY

I know I have done an awful lot of jumping up and down and shouting about my way of making sure your turkey is going to be surefire-succulent, but I don’t think I can rest until I have converted every last person. This is feasible: you have only to try this method to be utterly convinced. It’s not egomania that motivates me here: indeed, I take no credit for an age-old tenderizing technique; brining is a discovery not an invention. My evangelical zeal is more a combination of altruism, control-freakery (if I’m honest) and enthusiastic faith. But then, these factors are probably behind all kinds of evangelism – and cookery books.

But I don’t wish to be lacking in compassion for those who don’t choose this path. I can offer another way of making sure a turkey doesn’t end up stringy and dry, namely my Sausagemeat-Bosomed Turkey (click here for photo). It is simple, consisting of a minor, but amply satisfying, procedure. You take your turkey and, using your fingers, wiggle some space between the skin and breast of the bird, being careful not to tear the skin. (Mind you, turkey skin is so tough, you’d probably need talons to rupture it.) Into this space you’ve made, squeeze good sausagemeat, or the contents of your favourite butcher’s sausages (900g of either should be enough for a 5.5kg/12lb turkey), pushing, pressing and coaxing so that it covers the whole breast. Then from on top of the skin, mould it a little with your hand so that the breast is voluptuously but smoothly bulging. Secure the flaps of skin over the cavity with a metal skewer so that the sausagemeat doesn’t escape during cooking. The skin really crisps up as this turkey roasts, and the sausagemeat, which drips down into the breast as it cooks, keeps the meat from drying out. To ensure the turkey doesn’t brown too rapidly, cover it loosely with a sheet of buttered foil until halfway through the cooking time. You could then dispense with the chipolatas (or stuffing if you can live without it), so this is a good way of cutting down on dishes to prepare, without making huge sacrifices.

But still, my Christmas turkey is the brined one. For not only does it tenderize and add subtle spiciness, but it makes carving the turkey incredibly much easier.

And I mean to say: how hard is it to fill a pan or large plastic bin or bucket with water and spices and lower a turkey into it? At this time of year, it’s fine just to leave it in a cold place. I sit mine by an open window in the kitchen. It means everyone freezes, but who am I going to put first – my turkey or my family? Out in the garden if you’re lucky enough to have one would also be fine, though the pan must be securely covered: if I’ve got a bucket or bin out in the open, I cover it twice with foil and then put my son’s skateboard on top to prevent foxy foraging.

As I’ve said before, though you might find it hard to believe sight unseen, a raw turkey covered in brine – with its oranges, cinnamon sticks, and scattering of spices – looks so beautiful as it steeps that I can never help lifting the lid for quick, blissfully reassuring peeks.

I give a turkey this size, without stuffing, 2½ hours’ cooking. You have read correctly: as long as it goes into the oven at room temperature, that is enough time, along with 20–40 minutes’ standing time, tented in foil, once it’s out of the oven. See the chart below for a slightly more structured guide. But remember that ovens vary enormously, so check by piercing the flesh between leg and body with a small sharp knife: when the juices run clear, the turkey’s cooked. Or, if you want to be really scientific, put a meat thermometer in, and when it reads 65–71°C, you know it’s cooked. Don’t worry: the note below will explain everything fully.

Serves 10–16 as part of the Christmas feast, or 8–10 if not

approx. 6 litres water

1 large orange or 2 smaller, quartered

1 × 250g packet Maldon salt or 125g table salt

3 × 15ml tablespoons black peppercorns

1 bouquet garni

1 cinnamon stick

1 × 15ml tablespoon caraway seeds

4 cloves

2 × 15ml tablespoons allspice berries

4 star anise

2 × 15ml tablespoons white mustard seeds

200g caster sugar

2 onions (unpeeled), quartered

1 × 6cm piece ginger (unpeeled), cut into 6 slices

4 × 15ml tablespoons maple syrup

4 × 15ml tablespoons runny honey

stalks from medium bunch of parsley (optional, if you have some parsley hanging around)

1 × 5.5kg/12lb turkey

FOR THE BASTING GLAZE:

75g goose fat or butter

3 × 15ml tablespoons maple syrup

• 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 honey.

• Remove any string or trussing from the turkey, shake it free, remove the giblets, if not already done, and put them in the fridge (or straightaway set about making the stock for the gravy), 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) a good hour before it has to go into the oven. Preheat said oven to 200°C/gas mark 6.

• 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, or use a meat thermometer. Then 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.

MAKE AHEAD TIP:

Leave the turkey submerged in the brine, securely covered, in a very cold place for up to 2 days.

HOW LONG TO COOK YOUR TURKEY FOR

The cooking times here always seem shockingly short to other people, but the truth is we’ve all been overcooking turkeys for years, and then complaining about how dull and sawdusty they are. If your turkey starts at room temperature, and is untrussed and without stuffing, and your oven thermostat is working correctly, these cooking times hold.

I’ve given instructions on how to check your turkey is cooked through, but so long as you use my brining method, if you want to ignore me and give your poor old bird longer, you can rest assured that a turkey so prepared is not going to taste dry, even if it is untrustingly overcooked. I beg you, though, for the sake of succulence, to have the courage of my convictions.

A turkey is generally held to be cooked through when a meat thermometer, inserted into its thickest part, reaches 71°C, though some cooks recommend 75°C. However, Paul Kelly of KellyBronze Turkeys says his birds are cooked through at 65°C and this is what his turkey thermometer indicates. Any such free range turkey also cooks faster than a very lean, more mass-produced bird, since the free range turkeys have more marbling and this conducts the heat faster. The timings here are for free range birds, put in the oven at room temperature rather than fridge-cold. If you have stuffed the bird, add the weight of the stuffing to the weight of the bird to calculate the total weight and cooking time; if you choose to stuff the cavity, do so loosely and add a further ½ hour.

TURKEY COOKING TIMES

Weight of bird

Cooking time

2.25kg/5lb

1½ hours

3.5kg/8lb

1¾ hours

4.5kg/10lb

2 hours

5.5kg/12lb

2½ hours

6.75kg/15lb

2¾ hours

7.5kg/17lb

3 hours

9kg/20lb

3½ hours

11.5kg/25lb

4½ hours

ALLSPICE GRAVY

Generally speaking, the best gravies are made by deglazing a joint’s cooking juices in the roasting tin, but, with a brined bird, the liquid it gives off is just too salty; you can’t use more than 2–3 tablespoonfuls. You could, of course, simply drain off the excess, but given the stress of Christmas Day, making the gravy in a saucepan is a better route: you avoid the smoking you can get from a roasting tin on the hob; and you can make it all ahead – the stovetop will be quite busy enough as it is.

giblets from turkey (not including liver)

1 litre water

1 × 15ml tablespoon allspice berries

½ teaspoon black peppercorns

3 bay leaves

1 × 4cm stick cinnamon

1 stick celery, halved

2 carrots, peeled and halved

1 onion (unpeeled), halved

1 × 15ml tablespoon Maldon salt or ½ tablespoon table salt

juice of 1 clementine/satsuma (approx. 60ml), plus pulp from fruit

2 × 15ml tablespoons plain flour

2 × 15ml tablespoons honey

• Put all the ingredients, except the flour and honey, into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Cover with a lid and simmer gently for 2 hours.

• Strain the gravy stock through a sieve (or just pour, holding back the bits) into a large measuring jug: this should give you approx. 1 litre. All this can be done well ahead (and see tips).

• On the Day itself, whisk the flour in a saucepan with 2 tablespoons of the salty juices from the turkey roasting tin, then put the saucepan on the heat and slowly whisk in the rest of the stock and the honey.

• Let the gravy bubble away, stirring every now and again with a wooden spoon, until it thickens a little and the floury taste disappears.