Confessions of a City Slicker

Here are the recipes for the sauces.

Traditional Turkey Gravy

• 1/4 cup dripping collected from the baking tray
• 1 1/2 cups boiling water
• 2 tbs brandy
• 1/2 chicken cube (crushed)
• 3/4 cups cranberry sauce
• Salt & pepper to taste

In a saucepan combine turkey dripping and boiling water and whisk till smooth over a slow fire.  Stir in brandy, chicken cube and cranberry sauce.  Add salt & pepper until taste is to your liking.  Use plain flour to thicken the sauce.

Spicy Turkey Sauce

• 2 big onions blended to a paste
• 2 bulbs of garlic blended to a paste
• 1/2 cup dripping collected from the baking tray
• 1 tbs chilli sauce
• 1 can cranberry sauce
• 1 can apple sauce
• 1/2 cup brandy

Fry the onion & garlic paste with the turkey dripping over a slow fire until fragrant.  Add chilli sauce, cranberry sauce & apple sauce.  Whisk till smooth.  Pour in brandy and set on fire.  Let it burn until the brandy burns out.

Brown Sauce

This one is a no brainer.  Brown sauces can be found in powder form in any of the larger supermarkets.  Just combine 2 tbs with boiling water until you get the desired thickness.  Add salt & pepper to taste.  I added a little rosemary and 1 tbs butter for extra fragrance.

Traditionally, brown sauce is made by boiling the tendons of beef for at least 24 hours.  This involves a lot of work and major hotels nowadays prefer to buy the powder forms to make life easier for them.

Cranberry Sauce

Can be found in a can.  So far, I have found 2 variations - jelly form and another one with the actual cranberry fruit.  For the purpose of making a sauce, the jelly form is preferred.  Just scoop out from the can and mash it up.

I like to spread out the preparations of roasting my turkey over a one-week period.  That way, there will not be too much work that need to be done come roasting day.

This year, I got my turkey from the frozen food supplier recommended by The5XMom.

The turkey is from Ronsard, so I guess it’s a French turkey. If I remember correctly, their birds are all organically bred without the use of hormones.

The price of turkey this year has doubled…Fu-yoh!  Sure am glad I didn’t buy from the supermarkets.  They charge so much more per kg compared to the frozen food supplier.

Monday-Tuesday

Brought the bird home and defrost in the fridge.

Wednesday

Cleaned the bird thoroughly including a full body scrub.  Ooh, can’t believe how smooth my hands feel after that.

Next, comes the aroma therapy massage (marinate lah) with Auntie Sue’s traditional English recipe:-

• 3 tbs brandy
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 3 tbs soy sauce
• 2 tbs sugar

Mix all the above together and slather the bird completely with it.

Once done, insert the stuffing that can be found at any of the major supermarkets like Giant or Cold Storage.

Sew up the hole with toothpicks and cover the entire bird with cling wrap before returning to the fridge to let the bird absorb the marinate.

Thursday-Friday

Marinading.  The bird should be marinated for at least 2 hours, if you don’t have that much time to prepare it.

Saturday (Roasting day)

Take the bird out of the fridge to sit for a few hours.  Once the bird is at room temperature, pop it into the oven and roast for 2 hours.

Here’s the bird fresh out of the oven.  Nice brown color, huh?

Ta-dah!  The finished product - the turkey with 4 types of sauces.  This is the first time I decorated my turkey, believe it or not.  Not bad, huh?  Got the idea from a picture I saw online.  Nothing fancy there, just potatoes, baby tomatoes and parsley.

The sauces are:

1. Traditional turkey gravy (in the Japanese bowl)
2. Spicy sauce with brandy (the big bowl)
3. Brown sauce (in the middle)
4. Cranberry sauce (far right)

I’ll post the recipe for the sauces in the next post.

A little tidbit of info from this ex restaurant manager I know: turkeys can be frozen for up to 6 years  and still be fresh when cooked.  Over here, we’ll be lucky if we can get a turkey that has only been frozen for 1 year.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!!!!