Roast Turkey - Christmas

Christmas Eve:

1) Pre heat the oven to 180°C.
2) Always go for a free range bird and preferably one that has lived in the woods. The night before cooking, remove the wings and parsons nose from the turkey and place in a roasting tray along with the giblets and roast for half an hour.
3) Once roasted place the wings, parsons nose and giblets into a saucepan along with 1.5 litres of water, cover and simmer for several hours (this is the base stock for your final gravy).
4) Place the rest of the turkey into a bucket of brine. (salted water - 30g salt per litre of water)
5) Prepare your sausages by wrapping each one in a rasher of bacon and place in a sealed container and store in the fridge.
6) Roughly chop the chestnuts.
7) Mix the sausage meat in a bowl with a large chopped onion some sage and garlic and season well with salt and pepper, add in the chopped chestnuts and mix, cover and place in the fridge.

On Christmas morning:

8) Preheat the oven to 180°C.
9) Remove the turkey from the brine and rinse off, stuff the neck of the bird with the sausage meat stuffing mix keeping any excess for roasting separately.
10) Lightly butter the turkey and season. Place on a roasting tray and put into the oven and roast for the time given on the instructions, you can also use a meat thermometer to check of the bird is nearly ready (follow the instructions that come with it).
11) 30 minutes before the bird is ready, place a roasting dish in the oven with the goose fat to heat up.
12) Peel and boil the potatoes for 10 minutes or until just giving to a fork, drain into a colander and leave for the steam to disappear.
13) Remove the turkey when ready and set aside on a large plate to rest, covered loosely with tin foil. Keep all of the juices in the roasting tray.
14) Turn the oven up to 220 degrees
15) Once ready remove the goose fat tray and place the potatoes and quartered parsnips into it and baste everything, place back in the oven and pour yourself a glass of wine. The potatoes/parsnips should take around 45 minutes but keep an eye on them and re-baste as necessary.
16) 20 minutes after the potatoes go in place the sausages wrapped in bacon into the oven on a baking tray along with any excess stuffing mix.
For the gravy,
17) Take the roasting tray and place on the hob over a medium heat, add three tablespoons of flour and whisk into the juices and any fat, next add the pre-made turkey stock and keep whisking until thickened.
18) Now pour the gravy into a big enough saucepan and simmer gently for 10 minutes or so and then season to taste, your gravy is now ready and can be reheated when needed.
19) Just before the potatoes are ready, peel and steam the sprouts for 4 minutes and set aside to cool a little.
20) Once cooled cut the sprouts into quarters and sauté in butter for 2 - 3 mins (if people don't like sprouts you can use broccoli).
21) Cut the carrots into matchstick batons and steam, once ready (still a bit firm) butter them up.
22) To serve, carve the turkey, remove the potatoes and parsnips from the oven and serve with the remaining veg and sausages in blankets, in serving dishes. Don’t forget the stuffing in the turkey!
23) Enjoy and Merry Christmas.