Giveaway - Seasonal Box including Free Range Bronze Turkey

 The very kind people from Knorr are once again giving away (to one lucky reader) a fantastic Christmas Seasonal Food Box supplied by Forman and Field. Imagine winning a Free Range Bronze Turkey, and other lovely gourmet food along with Knorr Chicken Gravy Pots to make delicious fuss-free gravy.

You can finish the dinner off with a luxury mince pie and a glass of dessert wine! 

The Christmas Seasonal Box will contain the following:

Free Range Turkey from Seldom Seen Farm 4.5-5.5kg
Longman's Farm Butter 250g
Emmett's Mild Cure Back Bacon 250g
Forman and Field Christmas Stuffing 500g
A Selection of Fresh Herbs
1 Orange
12 Luxury Mince Pies
Chapel Down Nectar Dessert Wine 50cl
2 Knorr Chicken Gravy Pots

Christmas Turkey Curry - Easy Boxing Day Meal

With loads of leftover turkey from Christmas - what to do on Boxing day?  
Make a nice curry of course!

Nothing tricky, just a quick dinner ready in less than 30 minutes that looks good and tastes good too.  You can of course make this at any time during the year with leftover chicken from the Sunday roast.

How to Carve a Turkey - Colman's Masterclass Video

One of the best things about Christmas dinner (or any roast dinner for that matter) is the gravy.
I recently reviewed Colman's instant gravy paste and it certainly got the thumbs up from me!  To serve up professional looking plates of food on Christmas day, be sure to know how to carve your turkey!

 It's one of those jobs everyone wants to have a go at, but not many people actually know how it ought to be done.

 Colman's have come up with a Turkey Carving Masterclass Video, which is really worth watching.

Colman’s top 10 tips for carving the perfect Christmas turkey:

Once you’ve carefully prepared your turkey, leave it to stand for 20 minutes before you carve.

Put the turkey on a solid, clean chopping board and make sure you have a sharp carving knife and meat fork

Cut the kitchen twine off the legs and discard – try not to get your Christmas bests dirty as the twine can often spring off when cut!

Remove each leg by cutting through the joint where the leg attaches to the body.

Separate the drumstick and thigh by cutting each leg through the joint (wiggle the leg to locate the joint).

Don’t rush to remove the wings just yet - this will make the turkey very unstable for the rest of the caving – the wings act as stabilisers!

Run your fingers along the thigh and shred the meat from the bone – look out for the ultimate turkey gem – the Oyster, this is usually the butchers favourite

Using a knife and your fingers, loosen and remove the wishbone (this makes it easier to cut off the breast meat), and to make your wishes come true this Christmas pull the wishbone with your friends and family!

Carve the breasts across the grain. Cut only what you think you’ll need for the initial round of servings, leaving the rest of the meat on the carcass. The meat loses moisture once it’s sliced.

Christmas Cooking Ideas and Recipes for a Perfect Christmas

With Christmas just 2 weeks away, it's about time we all got a grip of what we're doing about the food!  Here are just a few ideas of nice things to serve before, with and after your Christmas dinner.

Starting with the Starter! 
How about Feta, Pistachios and Leaves Dressed in Honey and Balsamic?  
Now this is too easy to do and can be put together in next to no time.

If you’re having Turkey, what size do you need?

Based on about 500g per person:

 6-8 people: 4kg turkey
8-10 people: 5kg turkey
10-12 people: 6kg turkey
If you’re getting a big one – do you have room in your oven?  The tray you’re thinking of cooking it in may not fit your oven - yes that happened to me last year so it’s worth checking that now!  
I always aim to have too much turkey for sandwiches later on in the evening.  If you have way too much left, you can always make a curry on Boxing Day or even freeze some.  

The website ‘I Love British Turkey’ has defrosting times, cooking times and how to carve your turkey so that’s worth having a look at. 

I always like to have a nice bit of pork loin or gammon too.  Last year I baked cured pork loin with Madeira and Honey Glaze.

    The Vegetables: 

Flavoured butters can be made in advance as they will keep for a couple of months in the freezer.  I particularly like Jamie Oliver’s flavoured butter with Crispy Bacon, Chestnut and Sage.

    Or you might fancy Jamie’s Thyme, Cumin and Orange Butter to add to carrots.  Now that’s really nice! 

  Dessert:

Not everyone likes Christmas pudding, so if you fancy something different, what about a nice DarkChocolate and Orange Cheesecake with Grand Marnier?

What about these Tiny Toblerone Cheesecakes?

   Or Toblerone Snowballs 

 Served with a Liqueur Coffee perhaps?

I hope this post has given you a few ideas.

 

Wishing Everyone a Very Merry Christmas

And All the Best for 2012! 

 

Leftover Christmas Turkey Curry - MPW Recipe for Knorr

Marco Pierre White has come up with a lovely mild curry recipe using up any leftover Turkey you might have this Christmas.  This exclusive new recipe by Marco won't be available on the Knorr website until December, but I can share it with you now!

 Don't forget Marco has a great range of other recipes over at the Knorr Recipe page on their site. 

 Personally, I'm not a huge fan of fruity curries, but this one was actually really very nice indeed and all the fruit in it has to be good for you!  It's really easy to make and of course you can use leftover chicken if you wish.

Print Marco's Recipe courtesy of Marco Pierre White for Knorr

As of 1st December you will be able to watch Marco making this recipe and get top tips on cooking over at the Knorr website.

I was very kindly sent a truly amazing Seasonal Box from Forman and Field courtesy of Knorr.  Containing not only a Free Range Kelly Bronze Turkey but loads more Fantastic Christmas food!

A BIG thank you to Knorr, Jen and Neil for the fantastic seasonal boxes I've been sent over the past months and the great day we spent with Marco Pierre White.  And of course to Forman and Field for supplying such great food! 

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