So it’s finally Christmas Eve, and I’ve managed to sit down for a few minutes with a cup of coffee and a chance to update my blog. This year I ordered our Free Range Turkey from the local farm shop and it looks lovely… The husband did his duty and went and picked it up yesterday.
It came with a really well written and informative leaflet from www.totallytraditionalturkey.com. The turkey was nicely presented in a box, wrapped in cooking parchment paper and as you can see finished with a couple of sprigs of rosemary.
This afternoon I’ll be enjoying a cosy afternoon in the kitchen cooking sausage rolls, preparing vegetables and getting the turkey ready for the morning. I’m going to remove the legs and then fillet the bones out and then stuff the meat where the bone was with sausage meat and sage. I then wrap this with tin foil and let it set in the fridge over night. You can then cook these legs separately, and because the leg always takes the longest to cook it helps you avoid over cooking the rest of the bird.
To help me while I work and to get into the Christmas spirit I’ll be turning into the annual Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols live from the chapel of King’s College, Cambridge at 15:00 on Radio 4.
I hope your Christmas preparations are going well, try not to worry too much and make sure you enjoy it.
Tags: turkey
Posted by admin on Oct 25, 2009 in
News and Comment It’s been a busy few days and I’m sorry I haven’t had a chance to blog as much as I would have liked, I will try and do better this coming week. I know we’ve seen several Christmas trees and Christmas decorations around over the last few weeks but has anyone found a shop playing Christmas carols over their PA systems yet? I’ll be interested to hear reports of the first store playing Christmas carols.
On a different subject you may have noticed several stories in the press this week about their being a shortage of quality turkeys for Christmas this year. I have no idea if this is right but if you’re planning to have turkey for Christmas this year it may be a good idea to get your order in early.
Just in time for Christmas our sponsors, the prestigious I Adore Your Gifts and Jewellery on-line boutique have added a new range of Jewellery Rolls from the small British designer Lua. They are offering these starting at just £9.99 including free delivery, so will be well worth a look. If I get time later this week, I’ll post some pictures of these new Lua gift ideas.
I’ll be writing the November Christmas Planning guide over the next couple of days and hope to have this on-line later this week.
Tags: Jewellery Rolls, Lua, turkey
Posted by admin on Sep 7, 2009 in
News and Comment The British Turkey Federation are gearing up to start their Christmas marketing campaign at the start of December and they expect to promote British grown turkey to over 35 million households. They report that during Christmas 2008 UK households consumed approximately 10 million turkeys, 25 million Christmas puddings, 250 million pints of beer and 35 million bottles of wine.
For people who are unsure about how long they need to cook a turkey they have launched a new text service. Just text “Turkey” followed by the weight of your bird (in kilos) to 64446 and you will get an instant reply stating the cooking time and how many people it will feed. This service is available 24 hours a day. For example, to get the cooking time for a 5.5Kg turkey, text turkey 5.5 to 64446. (Texts will be charged at your standard network rate.)
For many the problem with turkey (and roast chicken) is that they only get one meal off the bird, this is wasteful and an expensive way to eat. I like to buy a good quality British organic, preferably free range turkey. Yes this is expensive but you can feed 6 to 8 people for at least 3 or 4 meals off it which makes it good value for money. For example I always take the legs off the turkey, stuff them with sausage meat and cook them on their own, this gives you lots of very tasty meat and makes the bird go a long way; and also makes cooking the rest of the bird simpler. I also highly recommend Jamie Olivers Turkey and Leak Pie which the whole family now look forward to between Boxing Day and New Year.
I’m looking forward to sharing my Roast Turkey recipe with you in the coming weeks.
Tags: turkey
