Finally the long awaited day is here, 25th December 2015! This day of every year has been my special aunt Mary's special day ~ the day she was welcomed into this world with her other two brothers (set of triplets). We've always celebrated her birthday in a remarkable manner and to commemorate today for her, I chose to surprise her with a drooling roasted turkey. Even as the year is speedily coming to an end, it is another opportunity of uniting with family and friends as we patiently await for the upcoming year.
There is no other better way of relaxing with loved ones than with some really delicious meals, drinks and snacks to catch up with many past happenings. Even though the year started on an unpleasant note for my family but I am happy that we pulled through our challenges through God's grace. In fact, today is simply wonderful, not just for me but apparently for everyone and my projection is that the weekend will equally be splendid.
Roasting a turkey is pretty easy however it involves some couple of steps and prep works that took quite some hours to get finalized. But don't be scared, its nothing overly strenuous and the final outcome was totally worth it.
Here is a quick video on how to roast a turkey!!!
So today consisted of my aunt and I in the kitchen, cooking up assorted dishes for the entire family as well as for friends. We managed to put together some assorted dishes for everyone to feast on and I am happy we did. Well, the turkey recipe I tried out this year turned out pretty nice and got 5/5 ratings from everyone who had a bite from it. Interestingly, the turkey roasted out so well without any catastrophe!
For this recipe, all you need to do is to roast the turkey amidst a collection of flavourful spices, aromatic herbs and nutritive vegetables that equally make up a perfect side dish, so in this case you don't even need to bother yourself about preparing any sort of side dish but this is totally up to you to decide.
One interesting trick about roasting a turkey which I equally want to share with you is the essence of placing sets of roundly folded aluminium foil on the base of an oven pan before placing the turkey on them. The folded foils help the hot air to circulate all over the turkey while roasting thereby making the turkey to cook evenly and quite faster.
Even though I have an oven rack but I don't like using it at this point because I wouldn't want the rack to render some marked lines across the turkey skin during roasting and this suggests why I prefer this method.
Getting the foil to be folded in a round shape is not a tedious task at all and only requires taking a large quantity of aluminium foil, molding it then folding it in a round shape. Afterwards place the folded foils in a greased oven pan, lubricate the folded foils with oil before placing the turkey above the foils. Such an easy way of evenly roasting your turkey to perfection.
Let me just quickly reiterate that the combination of ingredients and flavors coupled with the roasting method made this roasted turkey to be overly delicious, tempting and very satisfying ~ ~ ~ it couldn't have tasted any better or the recipe been any simpler.
It is just amazing how the colourful mixture of warm aromatic spices covered the turkey which is stuffed with a good selection of sweet and nutritious veggies such as swede, Brussels sprouts, onions, parsnips, carrots, spring onion and potatoes, seasoned with part of the remaining seasoning mixture as is on the turkey. Intermittent drizzling of the turkey with the turkey juice from the roasting pan made this dish a complete one.
But you need quite a bit of veggies (carrots, swede, parsnips and potatoes) to peel and cut up but that's basically about it. Interestingly, you can cut the vegetables ahead of time if you think you might run out of time the day you are ready to do the turkey roasting. But honestly, I prefer cutting up my veggies same day I am roasting the turkey. Just do whatever you deem fit for you. I believe that the whole vegetables along with some fresh rosemary, spices, lemon and seasoning mixture are a perfect pair to stuff the turkey with. The stuffing is just a brilliant combination and a delectable one indeed!
One thing I won't forget to mention is that opening the oven door and dragging out the roasted turkey, filled my nose and breath with wonderful smells of a deliciously cooked turkey which wouldn't have gotten any better than it turned out to be. Tantalizing, Yummilicious, Simple, Flavourful, Aromatic and Delightful indeed!!!
Among the list of other menu includes; salads, fried rice, ugba and okporoko, grilled croaker fish, moi moi, jollof rice and fried plantain which are all delicious dishes. They are always dishes for great celebration and in order to accommodate a bit of food allergies, all the dishes were made without peanuts and they were widely feasted upon. For dessert, I equally made a vanilla cake that was packed with flavour and taste, which summed up the entire meal.
So let me just cut the whole story short and hope that you too enjoy your day with some really delicious dishes. I encourage you to give this roasted chicken recipe a try and no doubt you will enjoy every bit of it.
Ciao from Blessing :D
Ingredients:
- 1 whole turkey, frozen, thawed or fresh
- 1 teaspoon chopped rosemary
- 1 ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons paprika
- 4 teaspoons soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons Schwartz classic BBQ seasoning
- 1 teaspoon Tropical Sun All Purpose Seasoning
- 3 teaspoons maple syrup
- 1 lemon, juiced
- ½ swede, peeled and cut
- 1 lemon, cut
- 2 green spring onions
- 1 onion, thickly cut
- 2 potatoes, peeled and cut
- 10 sprouted Brussels sprouts
- 4 parsnips, peeled and cut
- 2 carrots, peeled and cut
- 4 chicken stock cubes
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 fresh chili pepper
- 4 teaspoons vegetable oil
- 10 parsley leaves
- 2 tomatoes
Instructions:
- Wash the turkey with water and pat with a kitchen paper towel to dry excess water (set aside)
- Add the soy sauce, paprika, cinnamon, BBQ seasoning, all purpose seasoning, rosemary, ginger, maple syrup, lemon juice, chicken stock cubes, salt, butter, chili pepper and vegetable oil in a blender then blend until smooth.
- Place the turkey with the breast side facing up in a greased oven pan.
- Rub 3/4 of the seasoning mixture both inside and outside of the turkey.
- Add the onions, spring onions, potatoes, swede, sprouted Brussels, parsnips, carrots and parsley leaves in the remaining seasoning mixture then use this to stuff the turkey.
- Cover the turkey and refrigerate overnight.
- Loosely cover the turkey with aluminium foil then place in a preheated oven of 180 to 200 oC.
- Roast for two hours then remove the aluminium foil from the entire turkey.
- Roast turkey for another two to three hours or until the internal temperature reaches 180°F but remember to cover the turkey breast and drumsticks with small pieces of aluminium foil to prevent these parts from easily getting burnt.
- While the turkey is roasting, baste the juices in the pan all over the turkey at intervals.
- Once the turkey is properly roasted, remove from the oven and allow to cool down before carving and garnishing with vegetables.
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