Christmas turkey - After

Where I’m from, the turkey is just a co-star in the Christmas movie, with the pork being the star of most dishes and products. There’s pork roast, pork on grill and a whole lot of other really delicious pork made products. But I’ll tell you about those later.

Right now I want to share with you a really nice and simple way of roasting a turkey. If you are a long time roast turkey fan (or even a newbie like me), but never had the guts to try it yourself, this post if for you.

First of all, I was always a really fast learner type of guy and from what I noticed, this applies to my cooking skills as well. I’m no Jamie Oliver, that’s for sure, but if I read about (not to mention watch) a new recipe, I can usually make it happen.

With that in mind, I turned to my friend YouTube (as I often do when it comes to new ideas in the kitchen) and found the best and tastiest looking “tutorial” (the geek in me makes me call it this way) for roasting a turkey. Chef John from FoodWishes.com (be sure to check the website, it’s awesome!) does a great job explaining all the steps required to prepare the turkey for roasting. There’s also a really cool video about preparing the perfect turkey gravy.

Ingredients

I didn’t use the exact same ingredients (not that they are hard to find, but I was lazy), but the roast turkey turned out great anyway. Here’s what I used:

  • one 4Kg (about 9 pounds) turkey that I bought at a local supermarket
  • 1 pack of butter
  • fresh basil leaves (instead of fresh sage) and some dry sage
  • parsley (instead of the rosemary)
  • a couple of cloves of garlic and some fresh ginger (I couldn’t find the five spice mixture)
  • carrots and onions, but no celery (some apples might work as well)
  • salt, pepper and some poultry seasoning

How I Did It?

I followed the exact directions of the expert chef, from the really cool tip on folding the wings, to the stuffing and buttering. The only difference is I didn’t have a fancy oven where you could set the temperature and I didn’t have a thermometer. So I had to rely on my senses and my gut feeling.

Christmas turkey - Before

Be sure to use the tin foil in the first half of the cooking, then use some of the juices from the pan to keep the skin moist and prevented it from browning too much.

Check the image of the “convict”, just before taking the heat. :)

The Result

Considering this is my first turkey roasting experience, I think the end result was great. Not only does it look great, but it tastes great too. And my guests agreed with me and congratulated me for a well done turkey.

But don’t take my word for it. Here are a few more “mug shots”:

Christmas turkey - Served

Hope you enjoyed my Christmas turkey roasting story. I wish you a Happy New Year and I’ll see you in 2009 with a lot more cooking experiments. Don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS feed.