Christmas Roasts recipe from turkey and gammon

Preparing ahead for your Christmas lunch and dinner, try this super juicy roast turkey recipe.

Ingredients

The Brine

2 litres water
1 cup (250 g) coarse salt
1 1/4 cups (250 g) brown sugar
6 bay leaves
5 cm piece of fresh ginger, unpeeled and sliced
a handful of fresh thyme
1 T (15 ml) black peppercorns
1 cinnamon stick
4 cloves
4 whole star anise
2 oranges, cut into 1/4’s
1 bag (2 kg) ice

TURKEY
1 medium (+- 2,5 kg) turkey, without giblets, can still be half frozen
2 oranges
a handful of fresh thyme
Ina Paarman’s Chicken Spice
olive oil

FOR ROASTING
1 brined turkey (see above)
2 onions, roughly chopped
1 x 25 g Ina Paarman’s Liquid Chicken Stock
2 cups (500 ml) warm water
1 cup (250 ml) white wine

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Method

The Brine

In a saucepan bring the water to the boil and add ingredients as listed but not the ice. Squeeze the juice from the orange quarters into the brine, add the orange skins. Boil for 3 minutes to extract flavour from herbs and spices. Pour into a plastic bucket and leave to cool a little. Add a bag of ice. Stir.

Put the turkey into the brine, start with the breast down and turn it later.
No need to refrigerate if you don’t have space. To keep everything cold, cover with a lid or clean wet towel and leave in a cool spot for 6-8 hours, 12 hours if the turkey was fully frozen. We used an Addis 9 litre container, which has a lid.

Adjust the oven rack to one shelf below the middle position. Preheat the oven to 200C.
Remove turkey from the brine and dry with paper towels.

Halve and prick the oranges all over with a fork and insert them, together with some thyme, inside the bird. Tie the legs together with string.

Season the outside of the bird very lightly with Chicken Spice and rub all over with olive or canola oil.

Place the turkey in the roasting pan on a platform of chopped onion and the oranges, from the brine. Place in the oven, uncovered, for 20 minutes until the skin of the bird is lightly browned., Turn the heat right down to 160C and remove the pan from the oven.

Dissolve the Liquid Chicken Stock in the water. Add to the pan, together with the wine. Drizzle more oil over the breast until well oiled.

Wet one large sheet of baking or greaseproof paper, oil it very well, place oiled side down on the bird and tuck it in under the rim of the pan to ‘seal in’ the turkey.

Cook, covered like this, for +- 2 hours. Transfer turkey to a carving board, tent loosely with foil.

Gravy

1-2 T (15-30 ml) Ina Paarman’s Gravy Powder

Strain out all the solids. Pour the stock back into the roasting pan.
Put the roasting pan on the stove plate. Mix Brown Gravy Powder with 2 T (30 ml) of water and stir into the stock. Boil until thickened. Taste, if too strong, add a little more water, if too weak boil fast to reduce and concentrate the flavour. Add a dash of lemon juice or vinegar. Serve this delicious brown gravy on the side in a sauceboat.

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