Lake trout with potato risotto
After spectacular culinary journeys across the world’s oceans, Lukas Nagl has found his home port...
Roast turkey with clementines and thyme
Big feasts call for big birds, and we don't get any bigger than the turkey. This way you can prepare it perfectly for the party.
Preparation time: 25 minutes
Cooking time: 12 hours
Preparation time: 25 minutes preparation time + min. Marinate for 7 hours + 3 ½ hours roasting + resting time You will need: a large roasting tray with a grid, a piece of kitchen string
Ingredients for the dry rub
| Ingredients (9 servings) | ||
|---|---|---|
| 10 | twig(s) | Thyme |
| 6 | twig(s) | Sage |
| 4 | twig(s) | Rosemary |
| 4 | cloves | Chopped garlic cloves, large |
| 1/2 | teaspoon(s) | Black pepper, coarsely ground |
| 120 | g | Fine sea salt |
| 2 | tablespoon(s) | Light brown sugar |
Ingredients For the turkey
| Ingredients (9 servings) | ||
|---|---|---|
| 6-7 | kg | Turkey + giblets and neck |
| 1 | bunch | Thyme (30 g) |
| 2 | piece(s) | Organic clementines or mandarins |
| 150 | g | Butter, room temperature |
| 2 | piece(s) | Onions, peeled and halved |
| 2 | piece(s) | Carrots, washed and cut into 3 pieces |
| 2 | piece(s) | Celery sticks, roughly chopped |
| 1 | bulb | Garlic, cloves separated, unpeeled |
| 1 | twig(s) | Fresh bay leaves |
Ingredients For the sauce
| Ingredients (9 servings) | ||
|---|---|---|
| 100 | ml | Port or wine |
| 2 | tablespoon(s) | Quince or cranberry jelly |
- For the dry rub, chop the herbs and process with garlic and pepper in a food processor to a coarse paste. Add the salt and sugar and chop for about 30 seconds until everything is well mixed.
- Rub the turkey inside and out with the mixture and refrigerate for at least 7 hours, maximum 2 days.
- Remove from the fridge 1 hour before roasting. Preheat the oven to 220 °C.
- Rinse the turkey under cold water, pat dry and place breast side up in a large roasting tin.
- Prepare the flavoured butter. Pick 3 to 4 sprigs of thyme and grate the zest from the clementines. Mix the butter with the zest, thyme, salt and pepper.
- Cut the clementines in half and place in the belly of the turkey with the remaining thyme.
- To butter the turkey under the skin, use a spatula to carefully lift an opening between the skin and the meat. Start at the side of the cavity directly above the leg and work carefully upwards towards the sternum and back to create a large cavity. Take the butter in your hand and press it into the cavity. Use your hands to push the skin up to the back so that it covers the breast meat as evenly as possible. Proceed in the same way with the other side.
- Tie the legs together with kitchen twine and place the turkey breast-side up on a rack in a roasting tray. Add the giblets, root vegetables and bay leaves. Pour 1 to 2 cups of water into the bowl.
- Roast the turkey for 30 minutes, then reduce to 170 °C and roast for a further 2 ½ to 3 hours, basting with the gravy every 30 minutes. Turn the roasting pan halfway through the roasting time and add water if necessary so that there is always some liquid in the roasting pan. Use aluminum foil if the skin browns too quickly.
- Prick the thickest part of the thigh with a knife - when the juices run clear, the bird is cooked. Remove from the tube and lift with large tongs so that all the juices run out of the cavity into the bowl, then place on a platter or large chopping board, cover with foil and a kitchen towel and leave to rest for at least 30 minutes before carving. Skim off the fat from the skin and keep for later use. The remaining contents of the roasting pan make a nice sauce: add about 100 millilitres of port or wine, a few tablespoons of quince or cranberry jelly and a dash of water and bring to the boil, scraping any brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Strain through a sieve, squeezing the vegetables and giblets well to extract the maximum flavour.
- To carve, remove the wings, cut the skin next to the drumsticks, then pull out the drumsticks and cut them at the joint. Cut the brown meat into slices, leave the lower legs whole and keep warm. Carve the breast meat with the full length of the knife in a nice, even movement and drape decoratively on a platter.
- Serve with the sauce and classic side dishes such as cranberries, roast potatoes, cabbage sprouts with parmesan or roasted carrots with clementines (see p. 72).
