TURKEY VEGETABLE TRAY RECIPES

Steps:

• 1. PREP – if you want to get ahead, do all this prep on Christmas Eve, ready for the big day. Either way, get your turkey out of the fridge 1 to 2 hours in advance, depending on its size, so it can come up to room temperature.
  2. Check the main cavity for the bag of giblets, and if they’re in there, remove them and tip into your roasting tray. The added flavour for your gravy later will be incredible – trust me.
  3. Warm the butter in your hands then rub and massage it all over the bird, getting into all the nooks and crannies, then sprinkle from a height with sea salt and black pepper.
  4. Halve the clementine and place in the main cavity with the fresh herbs – you don’t want to pack it full as you want to allow hot air to circulate.
  5. Use a handful (200g) of Gennaro's pork & onion stuffing to fill the neck cavity, but don’t stuff it in too tightly, then pull the skin back over it and tuck it under the bird. You’ll get a good contrast between the soft, juicy stuffing here and the crispier stuff you can bake off in a dish.
  6. Roughly chop the veg – there’s no need to peel them – and chuck into the tray with the giblets to make your trivet, then sit the turkey on top and cover the tray with tin foil.
  7. Remember now to wash your hands, plus any kitchen kit the raw turkey has touched, before moving on.
  8. COOK – Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4.
  9. As a guide, you want to cook a higher-welfare bird for 25 to 30 minutes per kilo, and a standard bird for 35 to 40 minutes per kilo. If you’ve got a 6kg bird, like I had here, do it for 2 hours 42 minutes – this sounds very precise, but I find that 27 minutes per kilo for a higher-welfare bird is the sweet spot.
  10. Remove the tin foil about 45 minutes before the end of cooking, to allow the turkey to get nice and golden.
  11. To check it’s cooked, the simplest way is to stick a knife into the thickest part of the thigh – if the juices run clear, it’s done. If you’re worried, you could also use a meat thermometer. You want to reach an internal temperature of 65ºC for a top-quality bird, such as Paul Kelly’s turkeys, or 70ºC for a supermarket higher-welfare or standard bird.
  12. Use heavy duty tongs to lift up your bird so all the juices run from the cavity into the tray, then transfer the turkey to a platter, cover it with a double layer of tin foil and a clean tea towel, and leave to rest for up to 2 hours while you crack on with everything else.
  13. See how to finish your gravy by checking out my Christmas day gravy recipe.
  14. CARVE – Choose from the two methods below, or watch the How to carve a turkey video on Food Tube.
  15. Remove the wing, slice the skin beside the leg, then pull out and chop the legs off. You can either slice or pull this brown meat – it’s so tasty. Keep it warm while you move on to the breast meat. Use the full length of the knife in a nice smooth action to slice through the breast meat, transferring it to a platter as you go.
  16. Remove the leg as above, then feel where the backbone is and cut with the length of your knife all the way down beside it until you hit the carcass. You can then lift the whole breast off the bone. Remove to a board and slice.

Steps:

• 1. In my books, the perfect bird is 6.5kg– 8kg in weight because that’s a good size to handle, feeds about 10 to 14 people and has better flavour than bigger birds. If you’re buying from a small producer, like the lovely turkey I used from my mate Paul Kelly, you’ll often find these birds come with their own cooking instructions. Really good-quality birds do cook in a shorter time so follow the instructions if it has them.
  2. This year I’m using a flavoured butter to give a bit of extra love to my turkey, and this is a job you can do the day before. Get your turkey and use a spoon to work your way between the skin and the meat. Start at the side of the cavity just above the leg and work gently up towards the breastbone and towards the back so you create a large cavity. Pick up half of your butter and push it into the cavity you’ve created. Use your hands to push it through the skin right to the back so it coats the breast meat as evenly as possible. Do the same on the other side then rub any leftover butter all over the outside of the bird to use it up. If you’ve got any herb stalks left over, put them in the cavity of the turkey for added flavour as it cooks. Cover the turkey in cling film and keep in the fridge until you need it.
  3. Take your turkey out of the fridge a few hours before you are ready to put it in the oven so it has time to come up to room temperature. That flavoured butter will already be under the skin so you’ll only need a few tweaks to finish it off. Halve the clementines and pop them in the cavity with a few more sprigs of fresh herbs like rosemary, bay and thyme. The fruit will steam and flavour the birds in a really lovely way. Take the fresh rosemary, pull off the leaves at the bottom then spear that through the loose skin around the cavity to hold it together and keep it from shrinking back as the turkey cooks.
  4. Open up the neck cavity and pack as much stuffing as possible in there, then carefully pull the skin back over the cavity, tuck it under the bird and pop it in the roasting tray. If you’ve already made your gravy like I’ve done, you won’t need a vegetable trivet, if not, do that now by roughly chopping the carrots, onions and celery sticks. Preheat your oven to full whack, get the turkey in the roasting tray and cover with foil. As soon as it goes in the oven, immediately turn the heat down to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4.
  5. As a rough guide, you want to cook the turkey for about 35 to 40 minutes per kilogram, so a 7kg turkey will want about 4 to 4½ hours in the oven. But there are so many variables such as the sort of oven you have and the quality of your bird. Check on your turkey every 30 minutes or so and keep it from drying out by basting it with the lovely juices from the bottom of the pan. After 3½ hours, remove the foil so the skin gets golden and crispy. If you are at all worried just stick a meat thermometer in the thickest part of the breast. When the internal temperature has reached 65ºC for a good quality bird, and about 82ºC for a cheaper bird, it’s ready to come out.
  6. Carefully put a metal skewer in the cavity and use it to lift the bird and angle it over the roasting tray so all of the juices from the cavity run out. Move the turkey to a platter then cover it with a double layer of tinfoil and 2 tea towels to keep it warm while it rests for at least 1 hour, preferably 2 hours for bigger birds.