SERVE 8-10
- 1 x 5–6kg turkey, prepared as described below
- A little vegetable oil
FOR THE STUFFING
- 1 small onion, chopped
- Leaves from a few sprigs of thyme
- 20g butter, plus extra for the excess stuffing
- 200g sausage meat
- 90g dried apricots, chopped
- 150g vacuum-packed chestnuts, chopped
- The liver from the turkey, cleaned and chopped
- 90g fresh white breadcrumbs
FOR THE GRAVY
- The bones and neck from the turkey, roughly chopped
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 carrots, chopped
- 1 stick of celery, chopped
- 200ml dry white wine
- 1 garlic clove, roughly chopped
- A few sprigs of thyme
- A sprig of rosemary
- 1 bay leaf
- 10 peppercorns
- 50g plain flour
- 1 tsp tomato purée
- 1–1.5 ltr chicken stock
- First make the stuffing. Gently cook the onion and thyme in the butter until soft. Transfer to a bowl and leave to cool for a few minutes. Add the sausage meat, apricots, chestnuts, turkey liver and breadcrumbs. Mix well, making sure the sausage meat is evenly incorporated, and season with salt and pepper.
- Lay the turkey legs, skin side down, on a work surface and put a layer of stuffing down the centre of each one. (You will probably only need about half the stuffing, so put the rest into a small ovenproof dish, dot with butter and cover with foil. Bake for about half an hour, in the oven with the turkey.) Roll up each leg around the stuffing – not too tightly. Tie with string about four or five times to secure the stuffing. Wrap each leg in greaseproof paper and then in foil, twisting the ends so it keeps it shape. The legs can be prepared well in advance – the day before is fine.
- When you are ready to cook the turkey, heat the oven to 220C/gas mark 7. Put the turkey bones and neck and the chopped vegetables and garlic for the gravy into a large, heavy-based roasting tin and place the turkey crown on top. Season it well with salt and pepper and drizzle with a little vegetable oil.
- Cook for 30 minutes, then turn the oven down to 180C/gas mark 4 and add the wrapped turkey legs to the tin. Cook for 45–60 minutes, stirring the vegetables and basting the turkey every so often; if the vegetables become too dark, spoon them out of the tin.
- To test if the turkey is done, insert a roasting fork or a skewer into the thickest part of the breast, leave for 30 seconds, then pull it out and touch the tip; if it is hot the turkey is done. The turkey will probably take 1.5 hours in total, but test it after 1.25 hours. Bear in mind that the turkey will continue cooking as it rests (if you have a cooking probe, it should read 68C at the core when you remove it from the oven and should increase to 72C while the bird is resting). Unwrap the legs and transfer with the turkey crown to a serving plate, cover lightly with foil and leave to rest in a warm place for a good half hour before carving.
- While the bird is resting, make the gravy. Drain off any fat from the roasting tin. Put the tin on the hob over a low heat, add the white wine, herbs and peppercorns and cook, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pan, until the wine has reduced by at least half. Stir in the flour and tomato purée. Gradually pour in the chicken stock and bring to the boil, stirring constantly. Simmer for 20–30 minutes, until the gravy has concentrated in flavour and thickened. Strain through a fine sieve and keep covered and warm until required.
- To serve the turkey, remove the breasts from the bone; this will make carving much easier and more accurate. Slice the legs and serve the breast and legs with the gravy and all the trimmings.
Fortnum & Mason: Christmas & Other Winter Feasts by Tom Parker Bowles, published by Fourth Estate
How to ask your butcher to prepare a turkey:
Order a good free-range bird and ask your butcher to prepare you a turkey crown, by removing the wishbone and taking the legs and wings off. Ask them to bone the legs and remove the sinews, but keep all the bones for the gravy. At home, you simply wrap the legs around the stuffing, tie them with kitchen string, then wrap each one in greaseproof paper and foil. This keeps them a nice shape and they stay moist during cooking.