I love challenges. I love trying out things. That’s why I took it upon myself to roast a turkey. I tell you, a turkey looks intimidating. Man…it takes 2-3 days just to thaw that giant bird in the refrigerator. Can you imagine that?
So, I had taken out my turkey from the freezer today and put it at the bottom shelf. Twelve hours have passed and not a single condensation shows on the surface. Lucky thing is I won’t need it till Christmas day which is many days away.
I bought my turkey early. Several days ago, I grabbed one 4.5KG bird which is a decent size for my oven. When I was at the supermarket today, many people were lamenting about not being able to find a smaller bird. Most of the turkeys are whooping 8-9 KGs. All the smaller ones had been sold out.
I had gotten the recipes for a complete Christmas meal from Auntie Suzanne. She is 80 years old, very modern, stylish and a fun church and choir member. Sweet Auntie Suzanne had written out all the step-by-step of making the turkey, roast potatoes, vegetables, salads, soup, prawns and even some special mayonnaise sauce.
So, I am very confident that I will produce good results after Auntie Suzanne’s hard work of teaching me how to roast a turkey. I had invited all my sisters and brother plus sisters-in-law to have a dinner at my home on Sunday, i.e. Christmas Day. None of them are Christians so I am looking forward to serve them a Christmas dinner with all the trimmings.
My turkey will probably be seasoned with only salt, pepper and XO (brandy). Yeah! Lots of XO! That’s all is needed.
I found one very detailed and yet easy recipe for roasting turkey from Simply Recipe. If you are interested in roasting a turkey, do check out this site. At this point in time, I wouldn’t dare to put up a recipe for roasting turkey. I do not know if mine is going to turn out a disaster or the beginning of a family tradition.
Ever roast a turkey before? Any story to share? Auntie Suzanne told me it takes 2-3 hours of roasting at 200 deg. celcius. The turkey has a pop-up timer. The thing will pop-up when it is cooked. I hope the whole animal did not explode! LOL!
The Simply Recipe site has recommended cooking the stuffing separately. (I bought a mushroom stuffing.) And roast the turkey breast side down. I am going to do that too.
You may also want to check out this site, Cooking for Engineers. It is complete with graphics. Plenty of tips there too.
So, good luck to me and my turkey. Woohoo! Christmas is coming!
Good luck with your turkey!
Wuhooo
Good luck kak lilian ye. It is not that scary once you get a hang of it. And yes, at least a couple of hours to cook. Me and some buddies penah beli just the turkey breast to cook in the oven (pemalas punya pasal). Too lazy to make any special rub, we just mix room temp butter with some curry powder, salt and some good olive oil. Rub all over the turkey breast. Turned out just fine hehehe…
remember to put bacon slices on top of the turkey so it’s nice and juicy! Don’t forget the cranberry sauce too.
Merry Xmas and waiting to see that roast turkey on Msia Best!
I think as I know, I never tried turkey before.. wish that I could try it one day..
Hi, I love your blog – in fact, I’ve been lurking around for ages now. =)
Anyway, I’ve done turkey a few times. I prefer cooking the stuffing separately. I put herby butter on the breasts (once above, and another time right under the skin) and put a lattice of bacon on top – that helped with the problem of dry chicken breasts and negated the need for basting regularly. I much prefer putting the butter under the skin because then the skin will go crispy. I cover the turkey with aluminium foil and then uncover it for the last half hour to get the crispiness. Then stand the bird for about 20 minutes under an aluminium tent before carving it.
My food magazines tell me to roast 40 minutes for every kg of bird at 190C. I cannot for the life of me remember whether that’s with or without the stuffing inside the bird.
But anyway, I guess your pop up timer will let you know when to take it out.
Good luck! Merry Christmas and Happy feasting! Keep up with your blogging – I love it =)
If your turkey is breast side down how is the timer going to pop up? since its on the breast it will pop down isn’t it? from the back is it? or iit pop hit the tin and make a sound pang!! like that and you know its cooked? Or instead it will push itself inside and you eat turkey with timer inside muahahaha!!
Aah now I see, Sorry Lilian, I went to the cooking for engineer’s site and saw that the turkey is actually breast side down on a rack… oooh! baru saya tahu… still… upside down how to see the thing pop-up.. or down as the case may be?