Astounding Turkey A La Gordon F Ramsey

Turkey with lemon & sage butter, and cranberry & orange stuffing.


Ingredients

• a bunch sage , leaves and stalks separated (can be found everywhere here dried it's called maramiya in Arabic)
• 400g butter at room temperature
• 4 lemons , zested and then cut in half
• 5kg turkey , buy a good free-range or sustainably raised one
• a good bunch each of rosemary and thyme (zaater) 
• olive oil
• 150g caster sugar
• 300g cranberries (dried would be fine)
• 2 oranges , zested and then cut in half
• 350g breadcrumbs
• 4 cloves , roughly crushed
• ½ tsp cinnamon
  
   
  

First, make sure that your turkey is cleaned and ready. Pull out any feather stubs that have been left in, a pair of tweezers makes this easier. Also, don't forget to check if there is a bag of giblets inside that needs to be taken out. They'll be pretty nasty if you cook them by mistake. Next make the sage and lemon butter: chop through the sage leaves once, leaving them in fairly big pieces. Put these in a bowl with 250g butter, half of the lemon zest and a good bit of seasoning. Mix it all together. Now loosen the skin on the breast and legs by carefully by pushing your fingers between it and the turkey breast, don't go mad here or you'll tear the skin and then it will shrink away from the breast as it cooks. Put the sage butter in a piping bag and push the nozzle under the skin on one side of the breast, squeeze out some butter and then smooth it down. Repeat this on the other side of the breast and under the skin where the legs meet the body.

 

Put a couple of lemon halves and some herbs inside the bird. This not only adds flavour, it will help keep the structure of the bird while it cooks. First season the inside - I know you don't eat the inside of the turkey but seasoning well everywhere is critical for the final flavour. Push 4 lemon halves, the stalks from the sage, and the rosemary and thyme in the bird, rub the breast with olive oil (not butter, it will burn) and then that's it. You can leave it overnight in the fridge - just make sure you take it out a couple of hours before you want to cook it.

You can make the stuffing ahead, or while the bird's cooking, as it will be cooked separately. Start off by heating a frying pan. Add the sugar and 1 tsp salt, and let the sugar start to caramelise, shake the pan to keep the colour even. Once the sugar has melted and turned a golden colour, add a lump of butter and swirl it in, then add the cranberries, remaining lemon zest, orange zest, cloves and cinnamon. It's important to keep this over a high heat so it keeps caramelising - bubble everything together to cook the cranberries but don't turn them to sludge.

Heat the remaining butter in another pan and let it brown slightly; you don't want it to brown too much, just enough to give a good nutty flavour. Add 1 tbsp olive oil if it starts to get too brown. Add the breadcrumbs and stir to fry them a little, then add the juice from half a lemon and half an orange. Tip the mixture into a bowl (keep back a little). Now tip in the cranberry mixture and mix well. Add the remaining breadcrumbs if you need to. Leave to cool until you handle the mixture and then shape it into balls or tip it into a buttered tin. Chill until you need it.

If you're doing roast potatoes, you can parboil them ahead, and you can make the stock for the gravy ahead. On Christmas Day calculate what time you need to put the turkey in (15 minutes to start it off and then 30 minutes per kilo) and turn the oven on to 220C/ fan 200C/gas 7. Drizzle a bit more oil on the turkey and roast it for 15 minutes, turn the oven down to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4, cover with foil and roast for 21/2 hours or until the juices run clear when you pierce the thigh. Take the turkey out and cover with foil and a tea towel and leave to rest while you cook the stuffing and make the gravy. Put the stuffing in the oven, cook for 30 minutes or until it's brown on the outside and heated through. Carve the turkey nicely with a sharp knife.

Make gravy using the giblets. Heat a little oil in a pan and fry them until they are browned all over. Add 600ml water and stir, then add 3 chopped shallots, 2 bay leaves, a few thyme sprigs and 6 black peppercorns. Bring to a boil and skim. Turn down the heat and simmer for an hour. Strain. Pour away the fat from the turkey tin, without losing the turkey juices and put in a tin over a medium heat. Stir in 1 tbsp flour and cook for 2 minutes, then whisk in 100ml red wine (or not) followed by the stock. Simmer for 15 minutes and season.


Only 13 days to Thanksgiving and 44 'til Christmas!