Nothing tastes more like Christmas dinner than our Mum's stuffed roast turkey. It's got this golden caramel coloured skin, morish zesty breadcrumb stuffing and served triumphantly atop a bed of roasted leeks - tastes like Christmas on a plate for me.
FOR THE TURKEY
Ingredients 6 leeks trimmed and quartered lengthways 2 boned turkey breasts (or turkey) about 2kg each skin on from Bendele Farm 2 tbsp olive oil 1 cup of verjuice 1 cup of Hagen’s house-made chicken stock 125ml dry white wine
LEMON AND PISTACHIO STUFFING
Ingredients 160gm fresh rye breadcrumbs 150gm soft butter 2 eggs, lightly beaten 1/2 cup coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley 60gm dried cranberries 50gm pistachios, coarsely chopped 8 cloves of garlic, roasted for 15mins at 200c then peeled and coarsely chopped 1/4 cup finely grated lemon rind 2 tbsp lemon juice
For the lemon and pistachio stuffing combine ingredients in a bowl and using your hand mix to combine. Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Preheat oven 220c Place leeks in the base of a roasting pan large enough to hold the turkey and season to taste. Get one of our butchers to stuff the turkey for you. Place turkey on leeks skin side up. Brush with olive oil and season to taste, the add verjuice and chicken stock to roasting pan. Cover tightly with greased foil and roast at 220c for 30mins, then turn the temp down to 180c and allow about 20mins per 500g meat for cooking time, basting regularly. Remove the foil when you have about 40mins left to, so the skin can brown. It’s cooked when juices run clear when pierced with a skewer. Remove turkey from oven and cover loosely with foil and stand in a warm place for 15mins. Strain pan juices into a saucepan, add the wine and simmer over medium to high heat for 15minutes or until reduced by two thirds. Thickly slice turkey and arrange on a platter drizzled with pan juices and leeks.
Enjoy! from Sue Hagen
Ready to order a Christmas turkey?
We've got a couple of different options if stuffing is your jam:
1. They can order them stuffed with our stuffing
2. They can order them boneless and buy the stuffing separately
3. They can buy them and bring in their own stuffing and have it stuffed by the butchers
4. They can buy the without stuffing and just stuff their own with their own stuffing.