My First Turkey Attempt!

Turkey Crown with Citrus Herb Butter

This was my very first attempt at cooking a turkey and it was fun making it!

We could finally get the car out and drove to Tesco for food shopping hence decided to have a turkey meal on a 'post-boxing-day' day.

After browsing through quite a few different recipes from delicious.magazines website, I decided to use the method of two different recipes to cook my turkey.

Ingredients for turkey meal

We bought a 2.3kg Bernard Matthews turkey crown from Tesco and defrosted it overnight (at least 6-7 hours).

The turkey crown was placed on a board and I used my hand to lift up the skin so that I can spread my herb  butter in between.

Thyme, Rosemary and zest of one orange was mixed into softened unsalted butter to make the herb butter.

Herb butter ready to be rubbed onto the turkey crown.

Herb butter rubbed evenly under the skin of the turkey crown.

 Turkey crown was transferred onto a roasting tin and seasoned with salt and pepper. One table spoon of sunflower oil was rubbed evenly onto the turkey and it is now ready to be roasted.

The turkey covered with kitchen foil before putting into the oven.

Turkey roasted in the pre-heated oven at 190 degree C for one and a half hour. The nice aroma of citrus and herbs filled the entire kitchen as the turkey was roasting in the oven.








Runny honey was brushed onto the chipolatas then streaky bacon was wrapped around the chipolatas. The prepared chipolatas were placed on a oven-proof dish then put into the fridge ready for roasting later.

Chipolata (very thin sausage) wrapped in streaky bacon

 I used King Edwards potatoes for my roast potatoes as they produce roast potatoes which are crunchy on the outside and fluffy on the inside - perfect roast potatoes!

King Edwards Potatoes

 The potatoes were peeled then cut into evenly-sized pieces. The potatoes were boiled and drained then tossed in the corlander to roughen the sides.

Boiling potatoes

 After roasting for 1 and 1/2 hours, the turkey was removed from the oven and uncovered. I then used the juice from the roast turkey to baste the turkey. The boiled potatoes were then added around the turkey and put into the oven to roast at 200 degree C for 30 minutes.
 

Turkey and potatoes

 After 30 minutes, the turkey crown was transferred from the tin onto a board then covered with foil and left to rest for around 30 minutes.

Roat Turkey crown

 The bacon wrapped chipolatas were added into the roasting tin together with the potatoes then roasted for a further 30 minutes. I then boiled some frozen mixed vegetable and made chicken gravy to go with the turkey.

The turkey meal is ready! HHHmmm...... the nice aroma from the herbs and the roasted potatoes is just irresistable!

Turkey ready for carving

Roast potatoes and Yorkshire puddings

Turkey meal

Chipolatas wrapped in streaky bacon

My plate of turkey meal

With gravy

The turkey meat was infused with flavours from the herbed butter with a citrusy twist to it. Turkey meat, as usual, was a little bit dry but the gravy made up for it (I added a little lemon juice and thyme to liven up the gravy). The Yorkshire pudding was nice and crunchy while the roasted potatoes were well seasoned and fluffy with some crunch to it.

Oh...and I almost forgotten to mention the apple and fig chutney we bought to accompany the turkey slices. Yummy!

Of course, every christmas meal must end with a nice dessert. We had an Italian must-have christmas pudding - Panettone. 

With chocolate chips

Aerial view

Served with honeycomb ice cream

The 'luxury' panettone from Tesco, was rather nice. Light texture as a good panettone should be. I particularly liked the chocolate chips added into the panettone.