Cornish Food Market

Traditional Roast Turkey with Chestnut Stuffing

Method

1. Remove a fresh or defrosted turkey from the fridge about an hour before preparing it.
2. Rinse the turkey under cold water then pat dry
3. Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4.
4. Prepare the stuffing. Melt the butter for the stuffing in a frying pan and gently fry the onion, garlic and celery until soft but not browned. Remove from the heat and mix in the lemon zest, chestnuts, parsley, thyme and breadcrumbs, followed by the eggs. Season to taste and leave to cool. 5. Loosen the turkey's skin with your hands and pack the cold stuffing into the neck end, pushing it up between the flesh and the skin towards the breast. Don't pack it too tightly or it will burst as it cooks. Secure the neck flap under the turkey's back with cocktail sticks. Don't place any stuffing into the bird's cavity as stuffing placed here may not reach a sufficiently high temperature to destroy harmful bacteria.
6.Calculate the cooking time, allowing 25 minutes per 500g (including
stuffing).
7. Line a bread tin with buttered foil and press in excess stuffing. Put in the oven about 30 minutes before you're ready to serve.
9. Put two generous sheets of foil across a roasting tray
10. Lay the turkey on its back on the foil and rub with lemon juice. Season and rub all over with the butter and sprinkle with the fresh thyme. Make sure the thigh bones and breast are well covered. Cover the breast and legs with the bacon.
11. Roll each chipolata in a slice of bacon, tucking in a sage leaf in each parcel. Place in the roasting tray with the turkey.
12.Loosely shape the foil into a baggy parcel so that the bird has lots of space around its breast. Crimp together the foil edges to seal it in. 13. Place turkey in the oven to roast. About 30 minutes before it should be completely cooked, remove the bird from the oven. Transfer the bacon and the chipolatas to a serving dish and keep warm. Baste the turkey and return to

Ingredients

For the turkey:

1 Turkey
Fresh thyme, finely chopped
Unsalted butter, softened
The juice of ½ a lemon
500g unsmoked thin streaky bacon rashers, rinds removed (about 375g to cover the turkey and 125g for the chipolatas) 1x pack of 12 Chipolatas
12 fresh sage leaves
Salt and freshly milled pepper

For the chestnut stuffing:

115g unsalted butter
3 medium onions, diced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
6 sticks celery, trimmed and finely diced
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
400g cooked, peeled chestnuts, roughly chopped