Warm duck breast salad with pomegranate
You can serve the slivers of duck on top of any salad leaves, or even just raw baby spinach, but the strong-tasting chicories, rocket and mustards work best.
Serves 6 as a starter
1 tbs fennel seeds
zest of 2 oranges2 tbs
Hoisin or plum sauce
pinch sea salt
3 fat duck breasts
6 small handfuls of mixed salad leaves
2 small pomegranates or 1 large pomegranate
For the dressing:
2 dsp sesame oil
1 dsp honey
2 tsp hoisin or plum sauce
juice of ½ lemon
splash of sherry
Mix the fennel seeds, orange zest, hoisin or plum sauce and salt. Make a criss-cross pattern with a serrated knife on the duck skin and rub the mixture into the cuts and all over the duck breast. Leave to marinate for about half an hour.
Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas 4. For perfectly cooked duck breasts, which are crisp on the outside and pink and juicy on the inside, fry the breasts, skin-side down, in a dry pan on a medium heat until nearly all the fat is rendered - melted from beneath the skin - and the skin has turned golden brown. This will take about 10 minutes. Pour off the excess fat at least once and save it. It's delicious for cooking roast potatoes.
Transfer the breasts, in the same pan if you can, to the preheated oven for 8 minutes. Remove them from the oven, wrap them loosely on a plate in aluminium foil and leave to rest for at least 10 minutes. This is vital: it allows the flesh to relax and makes it deliciously tender.
While the duck is resting, arrange the salad leaves on plates and mix the ingredients for the dressing. Slice the breasts thinly and add them to the salad just before you eat. Drizzle the dressing over the top. To remove the seeds from the pomegranates, slice the fruit in half and over a container bash the skin with the back of a wooden spoon. Scatter the seeds over the salad.
Roast turkey
To get ahead, make your giblet stock for the gravy in advance (keep in the fridge or freeze it). When ordering your turkey, allow approximately 350g oven-ready weight (once drawn and trussed) per person. Roasting times (including the first 30 minutes): 3.5-4.5kg - 3-3½ hours; 4.5-6.4kg - 3½-4 hours;
6.4-8.2kg - 4-4½ hours;
8.2-9.1kg - 4½-5 hours.
Try using two contrasting stuffings with the turkey - one in the body cavity and one in the neck end; or if you prefer, stuff the neck end only and fill the body cavity with a knob of butter, some quartered onions and some rough-cut lemons.
Allow 350g turkey per person
turkey
1 tbs plain flour
softened butter
salt and black pepper
streaky bacon, to cover the turkey breast and thighs
After stuffing, weigh the bird in order to calculate the cooking time. Put a tablespoon of flour in a roasting tray and sit the turkey on top. Rub the bird all over with softened butter, season with salt and pepper and cover the breast and thighs with streaky bacon to protect the flesh while it is roasting.
Preheat the oven to 220°C/gas 7 and roast for 30 minutes. Reduce the heat to 180°C/gas 4 for a small turkey (up to 5.5kg) or to 160°C/gas 2-3 for turkeys over 5.5kg.
Remove the foil for the last 30 minutes to brown the bacon. Test to see if the bird is cooked by inserting a skewer into the thickest part of the thigh. If the juices run clear, the turkey is ready. Remove it from the oven, cover with foil and allow to rest for half an hour before carving.
If you've had turkey, you'll have turkey bones, which will make plenty of stock for soups. Turkey makes a strong stock, so you don't need to roast the bones to intensify the flavour before boiling.
turkey carcass
1 onion, unpeeled and quartered
2 carrots, scrubbed
2 celery sticks
parsley stalks
2 bay leaves
10 peppercorns
Break the carcass a little so that you can put it in a large saucepan with the vegetables. Cover with cold water and bring to the boil. Skim the surface and simmer for 2-3 hours. Strain, and if you want a stronger flavour, reduce by boiling in an open saucepan. You can freeze this.
You can use fresh, vacuum-packed or tinned chestnuts. This can be made in advance and frozen.
To stuff a medium-sized bird
450g fresh, vacuum-packed or tinned chestnuts
milk (optional)
2 onions, chopped
50g butter
150g streaky bacon, chopped
the turkey liver, chopped (optional)
2 tbs crushed juniper berries
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 x 200g tin of unsweetened chestnut purée
100g fresh breadcrumbs
freshly grated nutmeg
zest of 1 lemon
1 large egg, beaten
salt and black pepper
bunch of parsley, chopped
If you are using fresh chestnuts, make a slit on the flat side of each chestnut and put under a hot grill until the outer shell peels easily. Put the chestnuts into a saucepan and cover with milk or water and simmer for 40 minutes. Cool and peel off the skins. Roughly chop the chestnuts. Sweat the onion in the butter and add the chopped bacon and liver (if using). Cook for 2-3 minutes, add the juniper berries and garlic, and cook for a further minute or two. Mix the chestnut purée with the breadcrumbs, nutmeg and lemon zest, and add the onion mixture and beaten egg. Season well and, when cool, add the parsley and roughly chopped chestnuts.
Use this to stuff the neck end of the turkey. You need to include the stuffing weight in your overall cooking time.
Braised red cabbage with blackberries
The sweetness of the blackberries is fabulous in contrast to the sharpness of the cabbage. You can buy frozen blackberries at Christmas.
Serves 6-8
50g butter
splash of olive oil
500g shallots, chopped
1 large red cabbage, finely shredded
75ml red wine
125ml balsamic vinegar
75ml white wine vinegar
500g cooking apples, peeled and cut into thickish slices
6 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
4 heaped tbs soft brown sugar
500g blackberries
Melt the butter in a large pan, add the olive oil and shallots and sweat for a few minutes over a low heat. Add the red cabbage, red wine, vinegars, apples, cloves and the cinnamon stick, and simmer, covered, for 45 minutes. Remove the lid and add the sugar, and cook for a further 20 minutes at least, until there is very little excess liquid and the cabbage is soft and glossy. Stir in the blackberries and simmer gently for 2-3 minutes.
Roast carrots with butter and toasted cumin
Serves 6-8
900g carrots, peeled and whole
olive oil for roasting
2tbs cumin seeds
large knob of butter
salt and black pepper
Roast the carrots whole - with a little olive oil drizzled over them - in a low oven at 160°C/gas 3 for a good hour. Either leave the roasted carrots whole or slice them into chunky ovals. Then toast the cumin seeds for a couple of minutes in a dry frying pan to bring out the flavour. Add a large chunk of butter, add the carrots to the pan and toss with the cumin seeds. Season and serve immediately.
Rosemary saddleback potatoes
These potatoes are half roasted, half baked, If you are roasting your turkey in the same oven, then put the potatoes on the top shelf, and while the bird is resting, turn the heat up to the temperature specified below for the remainder of the cooking time.
Serves 6-8
750g potatoes (waxy ones are good for this, as they hold together
better as they cook)
6 tbs extra virgin olive oil
leaves from 5 rosemary sprigs
salt and black pepper
Preheat the oven to 190°C/gas 5. Peel the potatoes, or keep the skins on if you prefer. Cut them into slices just under 5mm thick, stopping just before the bottom of the potato, so that each potato still remains in one piece but the slices fan out rather like the leaves of a book.
Put them on to an oiled baking tray and scatter the rosemary over them, pushing the leaves right down into the slices. Douse with olive oil - the flavours of the herbs and oil soak right into the potatoes, so it's really worth using extra virgin olive oil - and season with salt and pepper.
Put them in the preheated oven and roast for about 1-1½ hours until they're golden brown.
Ham glazed with honey and cloves
You can have this warm and then cold for lunch for several days afterwards. Serve with Cumberland sauce, salted baked potatoes and celeriac remoulade.
Serves 10-12
4.5kg boned gammon
bay leaves
4 tbs Dijon mustard
4 tbs demerara or soft brown sugar
cloves
200ml cider, or orange or apple juice
Soak the boned gammon overnight in cold water. Preheat the oven to 170°C/gas 3½.
Drain and wrap the joint with a couple of bay leaves in a loose, sealed parcel of aluminium foil and place in a large roasting tin with a little water in the bottom. Roast for 30 minutes per 450g in the oven, removing it from the oven 20 minutes before the end of the cooking time.
Increase the oven temperature to 200°C/gas 6. Take the foil off the gammon and with a very sharp knife strip off the rind, leaving an even layer of fat on the joint. Score the fat in a criss-cross pattern.
Mix the mustard with the sugar and spread it over the fat with a palette knife. Push a clove into the middle of each diamond shape. Return the gammon to the tin, fat-side uppermost. Pour over the cider or juice and put the gammon back into the oven for about 20 minutes, basting at least a couple of times, until the glaze has caramelised.
• Sarah Raven's Complete Christmas is published by Bloomsbury, £25. To order a copy for £23 with free UK p&p go to observer.co.uk/bookshop or call 0870 836 0885. For details of her Christmas courses at Perch Hill Farm, go to perchhill.com;
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