Recipe Ingredient
- Stuffing:
- 60g raisins
- 50ml brandy
- 50g breadcrumbs
- 100ml milk
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil
- 1 onion, finely minced
- 2 small apples, peeled, cored and diced
- 5 chicken livers, chopped roughly
- 1 turkey liver, chopped roughly
- 250g chicken or pork, minced
- 2 slices beef or pork bacon, minced
- 1 egg
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 turkey (4-5kg)
Instructions
- To prepare stuffing: Soak raisins in brandy for 30 minutes; drain and reserve the brandy. Soak the breadcrumbs in milk.
- Heat half the oil in a frying pan and sauté the onion over low heat until translucent. Add diced apples and cook for 5 more minutes; set aside in a mixing bowl.
- Heat remaining oil in a frying pan over high heat. Sear the chopped livers, turning to make sure all sides are browned. Add reserved brandy, bring to boil, tilt pan and flambé (see below). Reduce heat and simmer until liquid is reduced by half. Add to the mixing bowl (with the apple and onion) along with the raisins, breadcrumbs-and-milk mixture, minced meat, bacon and egg. Mix well and season to taste with salt and pepper.
- To prepare turkey: Stuff the turkey with this mixture, sew up and truss (refer to the July-Aug 2006 issue for technique). Brush the turkey with oil and place on a greased roasting pan. Roast in preheated oven at 140ºC for around 3 hours, or until cooked through, brushing every 10 minutes with the pan juices.
- The Flambé Technique: To flambé is to ignite food which has liquor poured over it, leaving the faint flavour of the liquor, There are two ways to flambé a dish:
- The first method is usually used to flambé food (already mixed with liquor) on the stove to imbue it with flavour. Tilt the pan and let the flames from the stove ignite the food.
- The second method is usually used for tableside presentation. First, warm the liquor slightly, but make sure that it is well under the boiling point. Pour the liquor over the food; the pan of food should not be over any heat source, such as a mobile cooktop, at the time. Use iong matches to light the alcohol fumes at the edge of the pan.
- Depending on the amount of liquor used, the flames may be quite high-reaching, so be prepared to avert your face.
- The alcohol vapour usually bums itself out in a few seconds. Shaking the pan vigorously is usually enough to douse the flames, but keep a pot lid handy just in case you need to quickly smother them.
