as is tradition, each year i prepare the christmas turkey – whom we now fondly call “pabs.”
having done this so often, some parts of the preparation are done almost automatically. like we take the neck, the giblets, and the, um, bottom, and boil them to make stock for the gravy. as for the turkey itself, the most important thing for me is to get into the space between the skin and meat and insert a good number of garlic slivers in there – then rub the outside with rock salt and freshly/roughly ground pepper.
what i like to play with around sometimes is the stuffing – the basics for the base are always there of course: garlic, onion, carrots, celery – but this time around i added apples, chestnuts and mushrooms. i also pre-roasted the onion over coal to remove any strong “onioniness” and to bring out more sweet and smokey. these are my stuffing ingredients:
in the pan i put a little bread and a little knorr cube (a little cheating maybe hehe) just to act as a binder. not too much, it isn’t really a bread stuffing, but an aid in the scooping out and serving of the stuffing later on
another thing i did this year was to baste the turkey with the gravy – not the stock, not the drippings – but the actual gravy. not too much, just a couple of coats, but i do believe it did a lot to retain moisture in the bird and enhance flavor
so after 3 hours in the oven, here’s pabs
beside the turkey is mashed potato – and here’s something i recommend. roast some garlic over coal (or even in a oven will do) then mash it. cook it in a little milk and a little cream – season with salt and pepper then mix that into your potato as you mash. remember, roasted garlic. enjoy!