FOOD: Roast turkey with mustard mayonnaise, bacon and sage.
I ask myself: Why has it come to this point? Why is it that once a year, people are expected to cook a turkey, hoping that this meat they avoid the rest of the time will not be dry when they go to serve the extended family.
It is considered, among my peers, that turkey would be one of the more challenging meats to cook. Such a large bird doesn’t have a lot of natural fat to protect it and very little marbling or intermuscular fat.
The challenge I come back to each year is to maintain an evenly moist finish. Like a chicken, the fillets always roast quicker than the legs. If you are roasting a whole bird, you should remove the legs when the fillets are ready and finish them separately.
In this recipe, I try something festive without the struggle of wrestling a whole bird, usually too large for the oven. I’ve taken a fillet, wrapped it in streaky bacon to make up for a lack of fat, and roasted it gently to maintain moisture and flavour.
As a further precaution against dry turkey, I smother this with a mayonnaise made with some of the pan juices. So, really, there is no excuse.
I also like that it is served a little cooler than a big old roast turkey. Having grown up with Christmas turkey, I like that it is traditional without being slavishly so.
This recipe is designed for a hot Christmas Day, which is not unusual in this country. Sitting down to a hot roast turkey, stuffing and gravy on a 32-degree day does not always work for me.
This is the most foolproof way I have found of cooking a turkey for Christmas. I would quite happily use the same recipe to cook chicken fillets throughout
• the year.