FLOWER POT KITCHEN: BEST EVER THANKSGIVING TURKEY

27 Oct 2018

BEST EVER THANKSGIVING TURKEY

Guaranteed

Fool proof perfect juicy moist succulent Thanksgiving Turkey every time. This simple method guarantees your turkey will be the star of the table and relieves that pressure of cooking the perfect family Thanksgiving dinner for everyone. Since I learnt this method I have never had a dry turkey since and beleive me I have cooked the odd couple in my youth!

TO COOK THE PERFECT TURKEY

To start you need a beautiful slow raised old fashioned breed turkey, this year I ordered a Organic COPAS Hen turkey, a bronze free range out door living, rain forest diet feed, loved turkey that was raised to full maturity and game hung (with innards) for two weeks. This turkey was magnificent, the size and shape of the bird echoed it's rooting lifestyle.

I follow the simple minutes per pound cooking rule, which for a turkey is 15 minutes per lb as a guide line but I do use a thermometer to test the temperature of the bird and I remove the turkey from the oven as soon as the centre reaches 64 / 65 degrees C, 148 / 149 F. Then the most important part is to rest the turkey for at least 1 hour covered in foil and a towel for insulation keeping the bird warm. This cooking method has always given me the most juicy moist succulent roasted turkey ever. As soon as my turkey reaches 64 degrees out she comes and this ensures the turkey stops cooking at 65 degrees.

Preparing The Turkey

Herby butter stuffing. This is to go under the skin of the turkey, with the back of a dessert spoon facing up, slide the spoon between the skin and the breast meat gently all over creating a pocket between the breast and skin, stuff lots of seasoned butter in to the pockets you’ve made this gives extra moisture to the meat while cooking. Rub a generous amount of the herb butter all over the turkey skin too.

TO ME THIS IS TURKEY COOKING LAW

This method results in a perfect cooked turkey every time.

15 minutes per lb

Probe temp max 65 degrees C / 149 F

OVEN TEMPERATURE

Pre-heat to 220 degrees

Place your Turkey un-covered into the oven and immediately turn the temperature down to170 degrees / 338 F. Cook for 30 minutes, by then your turkey skin will be browned all over, baste the turkey all over several time with the juices from the bottom of the roasting pan, then cover well with tin foil and leave to cook. Half way through baste again. Some recipes reverse the cooking temperature method by cooking at 170 degrees C then for the last 30 minutes cranking the heat up to 220 degrees to brown off the bird. I don’t do this as I feel it toughens the meat, the turkey has cooked relaxed nice and slow then by increasing the heat it’s like if you sat on a hot grill, tense!

Once cooked I then give my turkey a extra baste and sometimes using my Cajun injector, inject the cooking juices into the breasts. Now wrap up the turkey in generous amounts of foil and cover with a couple of tea towels and leave to rest for at least 30 minutes. Your ready to serve.

Drain off the cooking juices into a jug and now we can finish off the gravy.

THE MOST AWESOME GRAVY

1 knob of butter

1 dash of olive oil

1 onion chopped

2 carrots chopped

2 sticks celery chopped

Turkey giblets

2 bay leaves

10 black peppercorns

200ml dry white wine

2 ltrs water

In a large pan melt the butter and olive oil together, soften the onion, carrot and celery then add the giblets, bay and peppercorns and cook for 10 minutes then add the wine and reduce by half. Add 2 litres of water and simmer for an hour or so until the stock has reduced by half. You should be left with approx 1000ml. This is your base for the most awesome gravy.

I do this stage on Christmas Eve so on the day all I have to do is add some seasoned flour to my turkey pan, let it melt into the fat, you can always add a little more fat if needed, cook out for a minute or so and then add your stock and whisk to a smooth gravy, taste and season well.

GET AHEAD GRAVY

This is something you can do the day before and keep in the fridge ready to go on the day.

12 chicken wings

2 carrots rough chopped

1 onion quartered

3 sprigs thyme

1 bulb garlic halved

Glug olive oil

2 ltrs water

Pre heat your oven to 200 degrees C 392 F, place all the ingredients in a deep roasting tin and roast in the oven for 30-40 minutes until the skin on the wings is crispy. Add 2 ltrs of water to the roasting tin and cook for a further 10 minutes so that the water can de-glaze all the lovely caramelised bits on the bottom of the roasting tin and infuse from the roasted chicken skin. Remove the tin from the oven and then using a potato masher crush all the wings, garlic, onions and carrots in to the water creating the most wonderful flavours.

Drain in to a large bowl through a sieve and push all that wonderful liquid through the sieve. That is your fabulous base gravy made for the big day, just add this to your roasting pan cooking juices on the day and following the gravy making tips above.

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LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.