The 2018 Christmas Dinner thread!!

shortcircuitie wrote: »

OK, this is the first year I am doing the entire thing myself. I have some points I could do with help on the following points:

-Can anyone suggest a tasty seafood canapé that isn't smoked salmon.
-What is the difference that brining makes to a turkey compared to un-brined?
-I have seen the famous Neven recipe for a brined turkey crown. Is there any reason not to brine the entire bird, if you so wish
- Does brining not make the meat salty?

Prawn cocktail with bilinis?

The brining is something to do with osmosis I believe. The buttermilk is being absorbed into the turkey flesh and the acid in the buttermilk is tenderising the meat. It also takes on the citrus flavour from the oranges. It doesn’t get salty at all.

You probably could do the whole bird but the leg is tougher meat so takes a different amount of time to cook than the breast. Plus the leg is full of really tough sinews so by boning and rolling it you get to remove them.

Good luck with the meal. Prepare/cook as much as you can beforehand - Ham, Turkey legs, stuffing (balls), gravy, starter etc. Just leave the turkey crown and the veg to Christmas Day. Again, prepare all the veg the day before - sprouts, for example, take ages to prep so you don’t want to do that on the day.

If you have any questions, just ask!

ms34 wrote: »

this is a good thread. I have my first attempt at Christmas dinner this year. 4 adults and 2 kids who most likely won't eat a Christmas dinner. All the veg, roasties and ham I've no problem with but stuffing and turkey I've never done either. I think a full Turkey will be too much for the 4 of us and I'm leaning towards boned and rolled but I haven't a clue about what size to buy or the best way to cook it. Any tips or advise would be greatly appreciated.

Well done on taking on the task. Doing the Christmas Dinner is akin to having kids in the maturity stakes in my opinion.

You could go out to a supermarket and buy a prepared turkey crown and just follow the instructions or you could do something yourself which is pretty fail-proof and much more impressive.

Go to your local butcher and order one or two turkey legs. Ask them to bone and sinew them (that's the hard bit done for you) and to leave the skin on. Should cost you about €20 for two legs. It will be enough for two dinners.

One thing you will need is a very large pot for poaching the leg(s). A salmon poacher would be perfect.

I can't find the video anymore on YouTube that I first followed. Here's a Gordon Ramsey video that uses Chicken legs but it follows the same idea but yours is going to be at least four times larger.



For your stuffing (for one leg, double up if doing two):

One large onion, finely chopped
Good knob of Butter
Good handful of fresh herbs - sage, parsley, thyme - chopped
2 coffee mugs of Breadcrumbs
1 beaten egg
1 Tablespoon of ground fennel seeds (you'll have to grind them yourself)
1 Tablespoon of parmesan cheese - finely grated
500g of sausagemeat (or pack of sausages)
Salt & Pepper
1 packet of smoked streaky bacon

In a large pan melt the butter on a medium heat. Add the chopped onion and fry until soft - 5/6 minutes. Add the chopped herbs and fry for a minute to release the flavours.

In a large mixing bowl, add the ingredients from the pan. Add breadcrumbs, egg, fennel seeds and parmesan. Season (watch the salt as the sausagemeat may be salty in itself). Mix all together and then add the sausagemeat. Using clean hands, mix everything together.

Put a slice of streaky bacon on your cleaned workbench and using the back of a sharp knife, stretch the slice till it's thinner and longer. Do this with all the slices then make a sheet of streaky bacon with each slice overlapping it's neighbour.

Place the boned turkey leg, skin side down, on top of the bacon. Add the stuffing mix and then lift the the bacon slices and turkey over itself to form a roll.

Get a long sheet of aluminium foil. Place your rolled leg on top and wrap the foil around it tightly.Twist the ends to tighten it further (like a christmas cracker). Place in the fridge for 30 minutes or so.

In your large pot, fill with chicken stock and some chopped onion and herbs, whole peppercorns and bay leaves. Bring it to the boil and add your turkey leg. When it comes back to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for 90 minutes. Remove from stock and allow to cool. When cool, put in fridge.

You can do all the above a few days before Christmas Day and leave it in the fridge - the longer you leave it, the better the flavour. You can freeze the second leg and keep for a nice sunday roast in January.

On the day, remove from the fridge about 45 minutes before you fry it to get it to room temperature. Remove foil and fry in olive oil/butter mix until browned all over - about 30 minutes.

Turkey and stuffing in one! (Although you will have to do bread stuffing as well but that's easy).