If you've read my blog long enough, you would know that I am one who is not fascinated by any festivals. The only one that I get really thrilled is the jolly Christmas! Partly because it comes with really awesome food and it's also the only time I get to eat to eat turkey. It's not that its of much difference compared to chicken but I love the preparation!
Last year was actually the first time I had a hands-on experience on preparing the turkey. My parents were away for holiday and they gave me the responsibility to prepare the Christmas dinner. :P
The turkey price ranges from RM 95 - RM 150 depending on size and has to be defrosted thoroughly before marinating it. The turkey is marinated overnight with minced/blended garlic, black pepper, worcestershire sauce, rosemary, thyme, salt and MSG. Marinating it overnight will also ensure the meat to be tender and moist.
For the stuffing, finely diced onions, fennel, button mushrooms and sausages. Try not to used the local frozen sausages as they tend to be quite soft. I used Vienna sausages where you can get it at Cold Storage for roughly RM 27 - a pack of five.
The diced potatoes and carrots are to be pre-boiled to cook. Let it cook for about 75% only though. You don't want them to be slimy and soft once the turkey is cooked.
Then you also have the streaky bacon. It's pre sauteed so that the caramelized fats of the bacon would add flavors to the stuffing.
Mixed all the above ingredients together with italian herbs, black pepper, salt and MSG.
Before you start cutting the vegetables and what not, remember to soak the bread in the milk first. White bread soak faster but I used wholemeal loaf so it take a while to fully soak. This is added to the stuffing so that the stuffing would be slightly creamy (not the liquid kind of creamy but you get the idea right?) and at the same time won't be all lose and scattered.
Once the bread is soaked thoroughly, mixed it with the other stuffing ingredients. It should look like this before being stuffed into the turkey.
There's actually no "engineering" to stuffing the turkey. Just stuff it till it's full, then stitch it. Remember not to cut away the skin at the upper breast - if you do, then you have nothing to cover your stuffing. I'm sure surgeons or doctors are good at this. Lol.
Rub butter on the turkey skin and arrange rolled streaky bacon the side. Bacon are like magic in cooking. They always add flavors to any cooking especially the fat streaky ones! hehe.
Roasting the turkey takes a long time so if you have guests coming, you should at least have five hours grace. The turkey should also be put on room temperature at least an hour before roasting.
To avoid it from being too dry - as it will be roasted for a couple of hours, glaze the turkey skin with butter and the oil that ooze out from the turkey itself every fifteen minutes or so.
Once the temperature thermometer is all popped up, your turkey is done! Serve it with sides of your choice. :D
If you're not too tired after all the turkey roasting, you can also prepare espagnole sauce to go with the turkey. It's very easy!
Melt about five tablespoon of butter (They say Christmas is when you put on weight :P) with about three tablespoon of flour.
Then add the turkey goodness - stock from the roasting! :P
Stir in a very low heat cause you don't want it to curdle, and you're done!
Serve the espagnole sauce with the roasted turkey. Bon Apetit!
This is actually a post I had been wanting to write for a year. I didn't wanna blog right after I prepare it cause I didn't see the relevance of writing about how to prepare turkey after Christmas. A year has passed and now Christmas is just less than a week away from today, so I hope this post comes in handy.
Feliz Navidad everyone! ;D
Last year was actually the first time I had a hands-on experience on preparing the turkey. My parents were away for holiday and they gave me the responsibility to prepare the Christmas dinner. :P
The turkey price ranges from RM 95 - RM 150 depending on size and has to be defrosted thoroughly before marinating it. The turkey is marinated overnight with minced/blended garlic, black pepper, worcestershire sauce, rosemary, thyme, salt and MSG. Marinating it overnight will also ensure the meat to be tender and moist.
For the stuffing, finely diced onions, fennel, button mushrooms and sausages. Try not to used the local frozen sausages as they tend to be quite soft. I used Vienna sausages where you can get it at Cold Storage for roughly RM 27 - a pack of five.
The diced potatoes and carrots are to be pre-boiled to cook. Let it cook for about 75% only though. You don't want them to be slimy and soft once the turkey is cooked.
Then you also have the streaky bacon. It's pre sauteed so that the caramelized fats of the bacon would add flavors to the stuffing.
Mixed all the above ingredients together with italian herbs, black pepper, salt and MSG.
Before you start cutting the vegetables and what not, remember to soak the bread in the milk first. White bread soak faster but I used wholemeal loaf so it take a while to fully soak. This is added to the stuffing so that the stuffing would be slightly creamy (not the liquid kind of creamy but you get the idea right?) and at the same time won't be all lose and scattered.
Once the bread is soaked thoroughly, mixed it with the other stuffing ingredients. It should look like this before being stuffed into the turkey.
There's actually no "engineering" to stuffing the turkey. Just stuff it till it's full, then stitch it. Remember not to cut away the skin at the upper breast - if you do, then you have nothing to cover your stuffing. I'm sure surgeons or doctors are good at this. Lol.
Rub butter on the turkey skin and arrange rolled streaky bacon the side. Bacon are like magic in cooking. They always add flavors to any cooking especially the fat streaky ones! hehe.
Roasting the turkey takes a long time so if you have guests coming, you should at least have five hours grace. The turkey should also be put on room temperature at least an hour before roasting.
To avoid it from being too dry - as it will be roasted for a couple of hours, glaze the turkey skin with butter and the oil that ooze out from the turkey itself every fifteen minutes or so.
Once the temperature thermometer is all popped up, your turkey is done! Serve it with sides of your choice. :D
If you're not too tired after all the turkey roasting, you can also prepare espagnole sauce to go with the turkey. It's very easy!
Melt about five tablespoon of butter (They say Christmas is when you put on weight :P) with about three tablespoon of flour.
Then add the turkey goodness - stock from the roasting! :P
Stir in a very low heat cause you don't want it to curdle, and you're done!
Serve the espagnole sauce with the roasted turkey. Bon Apetit!
This is actually a post I had been wanting to write for a year. I didn't wanna blog right after I prepare it cause I didn't see the relevance of writing about how to prepare turkey after Christmas. A year has passed and now Christmas is just less than a week away from today, so I hope this post comes in handy.
Feliz Navidad everyone! ;D
8 comments:
Kenapa masa krismas, orang kristian suka masak ayam turki?
Fairus : I can't tell the real story behind it but to me it's more like a tradition. Much like lemang, rendang and ketupat during Hari Raya.
Baby : I prefer chicken though coz turkey is quite lean :P
mel i m going to try this on chicken!
yien : yes it works on chicken also! i tried dy. hahah!
wow, u even make your own turkey stuffing! how impressive. For me i would opt the lazy way out by getting them in cold storage! hahah
Slurps, it looks good though, can i have a bite? :D
August Diners : wow I'm honored to have you here! I read your blog too :P
Sure! here *pass a full roasted turkey* :D
Food safety advise. next time, do not cook stuffing in the bird. It's dangerous because the stuffing, soaked with raw juice of the turkey is not cooked to 180 Deg ( if it did the exterior of the turkey would have been all burnt)
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