How about a Traditional French Christmas Dinner? Part 2
PART 2 - MAIN COURSE
For the main course at Christmas dinner in France, the tradition is to serve poultry. Turkey with chestnuts will be on the table in most homes. Some replace it with capon or poularde (fattened chicken), which is much smaller than turkey or capon. More rarely, a goose (especially in Alsace), guinea fowl or roast duck will be served.
We cats aren’t fussy, but we especially like the turkey since mum met a chef who taught her how to cook it so that it’s extra tender and tasty. It’s a secret, but I’ll share it with you in the recipe below (see Roast Turkey by Mum).
How to choose the best Christmas poultry. How to cook it. Four Christmas poultry recipes that won’t be much trouble.
The best poultry in France comes from Bresse, the name of which alone is synonymous with high quality. And where exactly is Bresse? I’m not very good at geography, so I looked it up on Google. Here’s what I found:
Bresse (rhymes with “bless”) emerged as a distinct chicken breed in the former province of Bresse in eastern France. Somewhere between the Rhone River and the French Alps sits a 60-mile by 25-mile swath of fields and woodlands. Here the breed was formed from a now-forgotten mix of local fowl.
People from Bresse are so proud of their poultry that they claim they are known all over the world. Hmmm. . . I don’t know whether to believe them or not, but it’s true that even we cats like their chickens, whether they’re called capons, turkeys or who knows what else. For us, they are all chickens.
But in the absence of a quality label, how do you recognise quality poultry?
The poultry should be free range and organically reared. The skin should be light yellow, tight and shiny. Its flesh should be firm, and the head feathers should look good.
Roast Turkey by Raymond Blanc
SERVES 8–10 | PREP. TIME 45 min | COOKING TIME 1–2 hours
Ingredients
3/4 fl oz (20 ml) oil
1 × 11 lb (5 kg) good-quality free-range turkey, preferably organically reared, wishbone removed (ask your butcher to remove the wings and neck and chop them into 1 in [2.5 cm] pieces to use in the dish)
1 1/2 oz (40 g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
2 pinches of sea salt flakes
2 pinches of freshly ground white pepper
7 fl oz (200 ml) water
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1-2 tsp ground arrowroot (depending on how thick you like your gravy), dissolved in 1 tbsp cold water
roast potatoes and steamed seasonal vegetables, to serve
Method
Remove the turkey from the fridge and bring to room temperature - this will take at least an hour. When you are ready to cook, preheat the oven to 230C/220C Fan/Gas 8.
Heat the oil in a large, heavy-based roasting tray on the stove top. Add the chopped turkey wings and neck and fry for 8-10 minutes, turning the pieces over every 2-3 minutes, or until evenly browned all over.
Meanwhile, in a small bowl, soften the butter with the back of a dessert spoon, then season with the salt and freshly ground white pepper. Using a pastry brush or your hands, smear the seasoned butter all over the turkey. Add any remaining butter to the roasting tray once the chopped wings and neck have browned.
Place the turkey on top of the wing and neck pieces, then roast in the oven for 30 minutes. Remove the turkey from the oven and baste all over with the cooking juices.
Reduce the oven temperature to 160C/150C Fan/Gas 3.
Pour the water into the roasting tray, then return the turkey to the oven and continue to cook for a further 1 hour, basting the bird with the cooking juices every 20 minutes (do this quickly to prevent the heat escaping from the oven).
At the end of the cooking time, test that the turkey is cooked through by inserting a skewer or roasting fork into the thickest part of its thigh; if the juices run clear, the meat is cooked. Alternatively, use a meat thermometer; if cooked, the temperature should be 65C for 10 minutes, or up to 74C for 2 minutes. If the turkey is not fully cooked, return it to the oven until the juices run clear.
Remove the turkey from the oven and transfer the bird to a large, deep-sided tray, reserving the roasting tray the turkey was cooked in along with the cooking juices. Set the turkey aside to rest for a minimum of 30 minutes and up to 1½ hours. While the turkey is resting, cook your roast potatoes and vegetable dishes.
When you’re almost ready to serve the meal, return the roasting tray used to cook the turkey to the stove top. Bring the cooking juices to the boil over a medium heat, scraping up any burned bits from the bottom of the tray using a wooden spoon.
Collect the juices released by the turkey as it was resting and add them to the gravy. Season, to taste, with salt and freshly ground black pepper, if needed.
Reduce the heat until the gravy is simmering, then stir in the dissolved arrowroot and cook until the gravy has thickened. Strain the gravy through a fine sieve into a warmed jug. Keep warm.
To serve, bring the turkey to the table and carve into slices. Serve with the roast potatoes and vegetables. Pour over the gravy.
Recipe Tips
Tip 1: As is so often the way when it comes to cooking, buying the best quality ingredients that you can afford is key to making this dish taste spectacular. If you are unable to use a fresh turkey, ensure that your frozen turkey is thoroughly defrosted before you start. Whether you’re using a fresh or frozen bird, allow it to return to room temperature for before cooking.
Tip 2: Resting the turkey is an important process which allows the meat to become tender and succulent as the juices inside the meat become more evenly distributed throughout the bird - so don’t skip this stage!
Tip 3: You may be a little concerned about the cooking time (or lack of it). Believe me, it has been tried, tested and tried again. During the cooking process the turkey will absorb the heat from the oven and this absorbed heat will continue to cook the bird as it rests which can increase the internal temperature by up to 10C, depending on the size of the turkey. It is important to use a good-quality turkey (as specified in the recipe) because they tend to cook faster.
Roast Turkey by Mum (very easy)
SERVES 8–10 | PREP. TIME 15 min | COOKING TIME 2 hours
Ingredients
3/4 fl oz (20 ml) oil
1 × 11 lb (5 kg) good-quality free-range turkey, preferably organically reared
6 carrots
4 leeks
bay leaves, thyme
1 clove of garlic
2 glasses of milk
1/2 glass of white wine
salt and pepper
1 lb (450 g) canned whole chestnuts or vacuum-cooked whole chestnuts
1 tablespoon of butter
Method
In a large pot, prepare a pot-au-feu stock with the carrots, leeks, onion, garlic, thyme and bay leaves.
Add salt and pepper.
Add the two glasses of milk and half a glass of white wine.
Plunge the turkey into the pot-au-feu and let it cook at low heat (90°C) for 1 1/2 hours.
Preheat the oven to 190°C.
Remove the turkey from the stock, drain well and put it in an ovenproof dish.
Brush with oil on all sides and add salt if needed. Place in the hot oven.
Let it cook for 30–40 minutes until golden, basting from time to time with the cooking stock.
To prepare the chestnuts, take them out of their packaging and rinse with cold water. Heat them up in a large pan with butter over a low heat.
Tip: You can accompany this dish with roast potatoes and mushrooms.
What about stuffed poultry, you may ask? The stuffing can be made from various ingredients: sausage meat, minced pork or veal, foie gras (banned in our house), chestnuts, dried fruit, breadcrumbs, fresh cream, mushrooms, etc. A soft and dense stuffing is prepared, with a good balance between dry and liquid products, and it is then stuffed inside the bird. Once stuffed, the legs are brought together and tied (unless the bird is deboned). Mum’s preferred Christmas recipe is stuffed capon. She likes to add grated black truffle to the stuffing.
Capon stuffed with chestnuts and mushrooms, à la truffe (with truffles)
SERVES 6 | PREP. TIME 45 min | COOKING TIME 3 hours
Ingredients
1 capon
1 lb (450 g) chestnuts
1 lb (450 g) cereal bread
2 shallots
1 small black truffle
8.8 oz (250 g) mushrooms
1.7 oz (50 g) of butter
1 bunch of coriander
pepper from the mill
Method
Ask your butcher to debone the bird, keeping the legs and wings so that it can be reshaped when stuffed. Alternatively, do it yourself: cut the skin off the breast, then run a good knife along the fillets to the underside, remove the rib cage to get the thighs, wings and breast flat on each side. (I’ve seen mum do it - it’s not easy!)
2. Preheat the oven to 200°C (gas 6–7). Brown the chopped shallots and chopped mushrooms in a casserole dish with the butter. Add salt and pepper, the chestnuts, coarsely chopped bread and chopped coriander, mix well and leave to cool. Grate the truffle and add to the stuffing. Mix well.
Put the stuffing in the centre of the capon, fold the sides over to give it its shape and place it in a bowl to hold it in place while you sew up the skin with a large needle and kitchen string. Cook the capon in the oven for 1 hour, then turn down the thermostat to 160°C (gas 5–6) and cook for a further 2 hours. Add water to the dish and sprinkle over the bird frequently during cooking.
Recipe tip
You can serve this dish with mashed potatoes and crispy kale. You can stuff the bird without boning it, but boning is very practical for serving.
Part 3: Christmas Desserts (see below)