Easy Holiday Recipes

Delicious Holiday Food

Christmas
Thanksgiving

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Item five

Seasoned Roast Turkey

8 lb Very fresh organic turkey
2 oz Fresh herbs; on the stem
4 Cloves garlic; peeled and sliced (optional),
1 tb Freshly ground black pepper
salt
1 Lemon

Feature Box

Remove any visible fat from the turkey cavity. Ease the skin away from the flesh by gradually inserting your fingers between the skin and the breasts. Continue working your way round the bird until the skin is loose around the legs and back. Spread butter over the flesh and then stuff the space with the herbs, arranging the leaves over the surface of the turkey and under the skin. Do the same with the garlic slices, if you are using them. This is all much easier than it sounds. Rub the salt and pepper over the turkey and season inside. Prick the lemon all over with a skewer and put it into the cavity. Cover the bird loosely , but carefully, with foil or plastic film and refrigerate for 24 hours. When you are ready to cook it, bring the turkey back to room temperature and roast in a pre-heated oven at 200C/400F/gas6 for about 3 hours. Note, if you make stock from leftovers and turkey carcass, you can really only use it for soup. Do not try to reduce it to make a sauce as it would be far too salty. However a tasty soup can be produced by cooking rice in the stock, adding a little grated lemon peel, a hint of lemon juice, some leftover cooked turkey and right at the end without letting it boil, an egg yolk, well beaten with a little single cream. You will then have something like
Greek Avglemono soup.
Serve with suggestions:
Salsify - gratin or cream. Jerusalem artichokes - gratin Savoy cabbage shredded and stir-fried with olive oil and sherry or fruit vinegar. Chinese cabbage - shredded and stir-fried. Kale or green cabbage - shredded and stir fried with flake almonds, sultanas and creme fraiche. Chicory salads. Fennel. Kohl rabi. Baked sweet potatoes. Baked pumpkin. Wild rice and wild mushrooms. Chestnuts, small onions and quartered pears, glazed.

Roast Turkey with Chestnuts and Fruit

CHESTNUTS AND FRUIT
2 c Fresh or canned chestnuts;
6 Quince or 3 tart apples
1 sm Lemon
1/4 lb Butter
1 c Apple cider
1 c Hard apple cider or apple
1 c Fresh chicken or turkey
3 tb Applejack or Calvados
Salt
Pepper
12 lb Turkey
1/4 lb Butter
Salt
Pepper

PREPARATION: If using fresh chestnuts, heat oven to 400?F. With a small, sharp knife, cut a slit in each fresh chestnut, spread in a shallow baking pan, and roast for 15 to 20 minutes. Peel off both outer and inner skins while still warm. If they cool and become difficult to peel, reheat. Peel and core quince and cut into 1-inch chunks. Squeeze 1 tablespoon lemon juice over quince and toss. Melt 4 tablespoons of the butter in a large frying pan. Add chestnuts and quince and saut? over low heat until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the ciders and stock, bring to a simmer, and reduce liquid to about 1/2 cup, about 20 minutes. Add applejack or Calvados and season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir in remaining 4 tablespoons of butter. Chestnut and fruit mixture can be made a day ahead.
COOKING AND SERVING: Heat oven to 425?F. Rub the turkey with the butter and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Put turkey on a rack in a roasting pan and roast in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Reduce heat 325?F and cook turkey, basting often, until internal temperature reaches 140?F, about 3 1/2 to 4 hours. (Allow approximately 20 minutes a pound for roasting.) Gently reheat chestnut and fruit mixture. Carve turkey and serve with chestnuts and fruit on the side. NOTES : An updated classic. Here's traditional roast turkey with a variation= on old-fashioned Yankee trimmings. Quince resembles an apple, although it is a bit tarter and requires long, slow cooking to mellow its flavor. Tart apples are an acceptable substitute if quince are unavailable.

Turkey with Cornbread stuffing

1/4 lb Butter
1 Turkey,fresh (12-16#)
1/2 lb Salt pork,thinly sliced
CORN BREAD STUFFING
2 pk Corn bread mix (10 oz)
1/2 c Celery,chopped
1 Onion,medium,minced
1/2 c Butter
2 Egg yolks
Salt
Pepper
TURKEY STOCK
Turkey giblets+neck & wings
3 c Water
1/2 Onion,small,sliced
1/2 Garlic clove
1/2 Bay leaf
1/8 ts Basil,crumbled
1/8 ts Rosemary,crumbled
1/8 ts Thyme,crumbled
1/8 ts Salt
TURKEY GIBLET GRAVY
1/4 c Pan drippings
1/4 c Flour
1 c Water
2 c Turkey stock
Turkey giblets,cooked,choped
Salt
Pepper

1. Preheat oven to 425F. 2. Cut butter into very thin slices; place in freezer to harden while you prepare bird. 3. Wash turkey inside and out. Remove and reserve neck, giblets and wing tips. Pat dry with paper toweling. Starting at the breast, separate the skin from the meat by working your fingers between them. Slice your hand under skin as far as you can go and gently free the skin on both sides of the breast. Loosen it around the upper part of the legs, stopping about halfway down the legs. Insert slices of the cold butter, first under the leg skin, then under the breast skin. Reshape the loosened skin on the bird by patting it gently back in place. It will sag a bit but dont let that upset you; it will cook back in place. Wrap bird loosely in waxed paper and refrigerate while preparing stuffing. 4. Fill cavity of turkey loosely with stuffing. (Place any remaining stuffing in a shallow baking dish and place in oven about 30 minutes before bird is roasted. Bake until firm and lightly browned.) Fasten neck skin of turkey to body with skewer. Push legs under band of skin at tail or tie to tail. Place slices of salt pork over breast and fasten with wooden picks. Place turkey on its side on rack in shallow open roasting pan. 5. Cook for 15 minutes, then turn bird on other side and roast for 15 minutes longer. 6. Lower temperature to 325F. and continue to roast turkey, turning the bird from side to side and basting often with the drippings from pan, for about 3-1/2 to 4 hours, or until juices run yellow - no
longer pink -when thigh is pierced with a fork. Roast turkey breast side up for the last 15 minutes of cooking time. (Remove and discard salt pork when crisp and most of fat has been rendered. If fat in pan bgins to burn, add a few tablespoons of water.) Transfer turkey to serving platter and let rest 30 minutes before carving. Reserve all drippings in pan for gravy.
*** CORN BREAD STUFFING
1. Prepare corn bread, following label directions, or use your own favorite recipe. Cool. Crumble enough to make 7 cups and transfer to a large mixing bowl. 2. Saute celery and onion in butter in a large skillet until soft. Spoon
vegetables and butter over corn bread crumbs. 3. Beat egg yolks in a medium-sized bowl; stir in stock and pour mixture over corn bread. Stir lightly to blend.
Season with salt and pepper to taste. Makes approximately 3 quarts, or 12 cups.
*** TURKEY STOCK 1. Combine giblets, neck, and wing tips with water in a large saucepan; add remaining ingredients. Bring to boil, then lower heat and simmer for about 15 minutes, or until liver is tender. Remove liver and
continue to simmer mixture for about 1 hour, or until remaining giblets are tender. Strain mixture; remove and chop giblets and liver for gravy. Reserve stock.
*** TURKEY GIBLET GRAVY 1. Pour off all turkey fat from roasting pan into a glass measuring cup. Measure and return 1/4 cup to pan. Sprinkle flour into fat; cook and stir 2 or 3 minutes over low heat. Add water and 2 cups of the reserved turkey stock. Cook, stirring and scraping up browned bits in pan with wooden spoon, until gravy thickens and bubbles 2 minutes. Strain gravy into saucepan; add chopped giblets and reserved liver. Taste; season with salt and pepper if needed

Christmas Candy

1 pound (468 gms) white chocolate
1 cup small pretzels, broken into small pieces
1 cup pecans, chopped

Melt the chocolate. Stir the pretzels and pecans into chocolate and drop by teaspoon onto waxed paper. Handy edible gift suggestion.