Recipe - Herbed Seasoned Roast Turkey

8 pound Very fresh organic turkey
2 ounce Fresh herbs; on the stem
4 Cloves garlic; peeled and
thinly
; cut or sliced up (optional),
; up to 5
1 tablespoon Freshly ground black pepper
and sea
; salt
1 Lemon

Remove any visible fat from the turkey cavity. Ease the skin away from the
flesh by gradually inserting your fingers between the skin and the breasts.
Continue working your way round the bird until the skin is loose around the
legs and back. Spread butter over the flesh and then stuff the space with
the herbs, arranging the leaves over the surface of the turkey and under
the skin. Do the same with the garlic slices, if you are using them. This
is all much easier than it sounds.

Rub the salt and pepper over the turkey and season inside. Prick the lemon
all over with a skewer and put it into the cavity. Cover the bird loosely ,
but carefully, with foil or plastic film and refrigerate for 24 hours. When
you are ready to cook it, bring the turkey back to room temperature and
roast in a preheated oven at 200C/400F/gas6 for about 3 hours.

Note, if you make stock from leftovers and turkey carcass, you can really
only use it for soup. Do not try to reduce it to make a sauce as it would
be far too salty. However a tasty soup can be produced by cooking rice in
the stock, adding a little grated lemon peel, a hint of lemon juice, some
leftover cooked turkey and right at the end without letting it boil, an egg
yolk, well beaten with a little single cream. You will then have something
like Greek Avglemono soup.

The following vegetables are delicious with this or any of the main courses
demonstrated on Francis Bissell's Westcountry Christmas.

Salsify gratin or cream.

Jerusalem artichokes gratin

Savoy cabbage shredded and stirfried with olive oil and sherry or fruit
vinegar.

Chinese cabbage shredded and stirfried.

Kale or green cabbage shredded and stir fried with flake almonds,
sultanas and creme fraiche.

Chicory salads.

Fennel.

Kohl rabi.

Baked sweet potatoes.

Baked pumpkin.

Wild rice and wild mushrooms.

Chestnuts, small onions and quartered pears, glazed.

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