The Perfect Christmas Turkey

Last year I attended a cooking masterclass hosted by the legendary chef Marco Pierre White and Lean on Turkey (Bernard Matthews). There was only around 6 of us there and we sat around an island watching the master at work, asking questions and picking up tips on how to cook with turkey.

I was thrilled to be asked to attend another masterclass with the great man, this time at one of his restaurants within Stamford Bridge, the home if Chelsea Football Club. This time the masterclass was based around cooking the Christmas turkey, with Marco sharing some of his tips and tricks of the trade.

After a brief introduction and glass of wine we went into the kitchen to watch the preparation of turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and gravy, the essentials to a great Christmas dinner. Here are a few of the tips and advice I picked up along the way.

• Marco advised getting a turkey crown or a whole turkey and cutting the wings, legs & carcass into small pieces to use for the gravy. If you don't fancy preparing the turkey yourself you could buy a crown and then ask the butcher for a carcass and offcuts or buy some drumsticks and wings.
• Remove the wishbone for easier carving

• To stuff the crown he used Paxo stuffing (we were all a little surprised by that revelation) along with sausagemeat and softened onions. The stuffing mix was made up with a third less water than the instructions on the pack to allow for the extra juices from the bird.

• Stuff the neck end of the bird and under the skin of the turkey thighs and brush well with melted butter and season lightly.

• Roast the turkey in a preheated 180 C oven. The crown will take around 1.5 hours and the thighs around 55 minutes (depending on the size) and it was suggested that a meat probe is used to check the temperature of the meat by inserting into the thickest part. Once the temperature reaches 66 C for the breast & 72 C for the thighs the turkey will be cooked to perfection and be lovely and juicy and not at all dry.

• To carve the turkey crown firstly remove the stuffing and then slice the turkey with long strokes of a very sharp, good quality carving knife.

To make the gravy

• Add the chopped turkey carcass, legs & wings to a large roasting pan along with butter, onion & garlic and roast for around an hour to an hour and a half. 
• Add water and some bouillon and bring to the boil & cook to release all the flavours.
• Strain through a sieve to catch all the tasty juices. Allow to rest slightly and remove some of the fast that has come to the surface.
• Add the juices to a saucepan and bring to the boil, thickening as required with a little cornflour mixed with water.

Cranberry Sauce

• Homemade cranberry sauce is so easy to make and so much nicer than store bought. My Mum always makes her own and Marco showed us how easy it is.

• Use 500g fresh or frozen cranberries, 250g sugar, 100ml of Port and 100ml of orange juice. Bring to the boil and simmer until the juices have evaporated and you are left with a slightly watery jam consistency.

Most of all be confident and don't be afraid of the turkey - a dry turkey is not the fault of the bird but due to being over cooked so if you invest in a meat probe it will result in a much tastier bird and no complaints on Christmas Day!




You can find lots more turkey tips and info on the lean on turkey website.

My expenses were paid to enable me to attend the masterclass & I received a giftcard towards the cost of my turkey along with a meat probe

Turkey Milanaise a la Marco Pierre White

Or should that be Milanese? I've googled it and come up with both spellings so I'm not too sure, maybe I should've asked the man himself. 


I've cooked a lot with turkey recently but none of it was a patch on the turkey that I tasted last week at the Marco Pierre White cooking Masterclass. I've discovered that it's all down to the length of cooking time and seasonings that you use, for example Mr PW told us that he uses a meat probe when he cooks meat to ensure that it's cooked to perfection, turkey breast to 66 degrees C and thigh to 72 degrees C. It's all too easy to overcook turkey as we want to make sure it's cooked but then often overcook it to be on the safe side, resulting in a dry bird. I've now bought myself a meat probe to make sure that when I cook roast turkey in the future it's going to be as good as the one I tasted last week.


Back to the Milanaise now, which was very quick to prepare and cook. By the time Sam had scootered down to the local chippy and back with a potato accompaniment, the Milanaise was ready to serve.

"Keep it simple, the more you put into food the more you take away" - Marco Pierre White

Turkey Milanaise

Serves 2-3


2 slices of stale white bread (or fresh bread left out for a while)
2 Turkey breast steaks
1 egg, beaten
plain flour
Olive oil for frying (or clarified butter if you have it)

• Whizz the bread up in a food processor until you have fine crumbs
• Bash the steaks between clingfilm or baking paper until approx 5mm thick
• Coat the steaks fully in flour, then the egg and into the breadcrumbs, press them down onto the turkey
• Heat the oil in a large skillet, frying pan
• Fry the steaks in the oil until lightly browned on one side, and then flip over and brown the other side
• Serve immediately with a squeeze of lemon over

Marco served with a simple salad of cherry tomatoes with rocket and parsley, lightly dressed in Extra Virgin olive oil, lemon juice and a pinch of rock salt.

This dish is such great value as 2 steaks would feed 2 large or 3 smaller appetites. I bought my steaks in Asda where they are in the 3 for £10 deal. Each pack contains 4 steaks, making each turkey portion only 83p.

That was a large dinner plate so this piece could quite easily be cut in half for smaller appetites.

My day with Marco Pierre White

I recently won a competition with BritMums that included a cooking Masterclass with Marco Pierre White as part of the prize, and today was the day for the Masterclass. I needed to be in South London for 10.45 and not wanting to make a bad impression & arrive late I left the house before 7am to catch a train to London. I arrived well in advance & stopped for a coffee at a nice little cafe in Wandsworth where I met a fellow prize winner, Mel from Chef Mel's Kitchen. We then met up with Sammie from One Blue One Pink as we arrived at the venue.
Unfortunately two of the winners couldn't make it so we were joined by BritMums lovely founders Jen & Susannah, along with the other winner, Helen from Fuss Free Flavours.
I was extremely nervous when I arrived but once introduced to the Lean On Turkey team from Bernard Matthews I felt more at ease, and then once Marco started chatting the nerves faded completely. He was such a nice man, making lots of eye contact when talking, and involving everyone in the conversations, not at all like I expected him to be.
In total Marco cooked us five dishes, all with Turkey in and each and every one of them so much more flavourful than anything that I've made. He showed us that so much can be done with turkey, and in a very short space of time.
My favourite of the dishes has to be the Waldorf Salad, which was so nice and fresh and not at all like a Waldorf Salad that you would expect. The Milanaise followed a close second, although all the dishes were pretty amazing. I will definitely be trying them all out soon and will of course blog about them here. I believe there will be more photos and videos (eek) on the Lean On Turkey website soon, and possibly BritMums too, along with recipes, but for the time being here's a few pics of the delicious dishes and photos of the rest of the day.

 

 

I was not asked to write about this but I wanted to as I had such an enjoyable day.