Little Green Book

• How to guides to roasting turkey or goose
• Spectacular stuffings
• All the trimmings - brussels sprouts with flaked almonds, perfect roast potatoes and carrots roasted with parsnip, celeriac and coriander
• Ideal ways to use your leftovers - the ultimate turkey sandwich and Christmas pudding ice cream

How to Roast a Turkey

Current thinking is not to stuff the bird, so this recipe fills the cavity with aromatics in order to impart flavour into the turkey. Your stuffing can always be baked separately.

For a 5.5 - 7kg turkey

For the cavity stuffing:
1 orange, roughly chopped
1 lemon, roughly chopped
1 onion, quartered
1 bouquet garni - thyme, parsley & bay leaf tied in a bunch
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 230C/450F/Gas 8. Mix together all the ingredients for the cavity stuffing and spoon into the turkey. Rub all over with salt, then place it breast side down in a roasting tin and cover with foil. Put in the pre-heated oven and cook for 60 minutes and then turn the oven down to 190C/375F/Gas 4 and cook for approximately 2 more hours. The rule of thumb is about 30-35 minutes per kilo. About 30 minutes before it should be ready, remove the foil and turn the bird over so the breast skin browns. Test to make sure it is cooked through by inserting a sharp knife - if the juices run clear, it is cooked. Remove from the heat and allow to rest for at least 15 minutes before attempting to carve.

How to Roast a Goose

A favourite from Henrietta Green. How to roast goose - a good alternative to the sometimes dull turkey - to perfection.

Serves 6
1 fresh goose, weighing 4.5-5kg/10-11lb
675g/1½lb eating apples, cored and cut into quarters
2 medium onions, cut into quarters
8 sage leaves, chopped
1 cinnamon stick, crumbled
150ml/¼pint/1 cup dry cider
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Prick the skin of the goose with a fork and rub it all over with salt and pepper. Pull out any loose fat from the cavity. Mix the apples with the onion, sage leaves, cinnamon, cider and some salt and pepper. Leave to stand for about 10 minutes, then stuff the bird with it. Place the goose on a rack, breast-side up, and put in a preheated 200°C/400°F/gas 6 oven. After 15 minutes, turn the goose over so that it lies breast-side down and turn down the oven to 160°C/325°F/gas 3.

Allow 20 minutes per 450g/lb plus an extra 45 minutes when roasting a goose in this way; a 4.5kg/10lb goose will need about 4 hours. Although this method takes longer than breast-side up roasting, it means that you need not baste the bird; but remember to turn it breast-side up for the last 90 minutes to brown it.

If you prefer, you can make a delicious apple and brandy stuffing from 3 large Bramley apples, 1 lemon (juice and zest), a generous handful sultanas, 45ml brandy, 1 chopped goose liver and parsley or sage.  This can be baked in the bird or separately.  

Potato, Onion, Sage & Lemon Stuffing

This Christmas recipe for a potato stuffing comes from for Roast Goose comes from Lindsay Bareham's In Praise of the Potato book. As Lindsay says “This is a substantial yet light and plain stuffing, but with enough punch to stand up to the flavour of a goose or duck. This quantity is enough for a 2kg (4½ lb) bird; for a larger one, either double the quantities or use different stuffings at each end”.

700g (1½ lb) potatoes
2 large onions 25g (1oz) rendered goose fat, duck fat or butter
1 garlic clove
1 tbsp fresh sage leaves, chopped
Grated rind of 1 lemon
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Peel the potatoes and cut them into small chunks. Cook in salted water, drain and roughly mash. Meanwhile peel, halve and slice the onions. Fry them over a medium heat in the goose fat (or duck fat or butter) until soft and brown. Peel and chop the garlic. Mix together the potato, onion, garlic, sage and lemon rind and season generously with salt and pepper. Season the cavity of the bird with salt, spoon in the stuffing and roast as you would normally.

Chestnut & Parsnip Stuffing

This Christmas stuffing recipe is a favourite of Henrietta's and comes from Sainsbury's Christmas Book by Josceline Dimbleby. It is light and aromatic - perfect for both turkey and goose.

Serves 8-10
3 large Bramley apples
20g dried wild mushrooms
50g butter 15ml olive oil
4cm piece ginger, peeled and finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
375g parsnips, peeled and finely chopped
50g dried apricots
450g chestnuts, roughly chopped
50g walnuts, roughly chopped
1 egg, beaten Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Put the mushrooms in a bowl with 150ml hot water and soak for about 2 hours. Melt the butter and oil in a frying pan, add the parsnips and stir for about 10 minutes until soft. Add the ginger and garlic and stir for about a minute. Turn up the heat, and add the apricots and mushrooms with their soaking liquid. Leave to bubble, without stirring, for 2 minutes until almost all the liquid is absorbed, and turn into a mixing bowl. Add the chestnuts and walnuts, stir in egg and season generously. Leave to cool before stuffing the bird.

Braised Red Cabbage

From Vegetables by Sophie Grigson, this is a really good version of the classic braised red cabbage recipe.

Serves 6

1 large red cabbage
2 large onions, halved and sliced
2 eating apples, cored and roughly chopped
100ml (3½ fl oz) red wine (or port)
4 tbsp caster sugar
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
4 cloves
2 cinnamon sticks
1 blade of mace
40g (1½ oz) unsalted or lightly salted butter
Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 150C/300F/gas 2. Quarter the red cabbage, then core and slice finely. Mix in a capacious casserole dish with all the remaining ingredients except the butter. Dot the butter over the top. If the casserole is flameproof, bring up to the boil on top of the hob - not absolutely necessary but it does give the cabbage a beginner's boost, thereby marginally abbreviating a lengthy cooking time.

Transfer the cabbage, covered, to the oven (or just put it straight in from cold) and leave to cook down gently for 3-3½ hours. Stir after about an hour, and then again every 40 minutes or so. The cabbage will eventually cook down to a sublime melting tenderness, having absorbed most of the liquid. Taste and adjust the seasoning and either serve at once or reheat thoroughly when the next meal comes along.

Brussels Sprouts with Flaked Almonds

A favourite recipe from Henrietta Green - a twist on the traditional - but rather dull - boiled Brussels sprouts.

Serves 4
400g (1lb) Brussels sprouts
50g (2oz) butter
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Grated zest of 1 orange
100g (4oz) flaked almonds
Salt

Cook the sprouts in boiling salted water for about 5 minutes, depending on their size. Do not, whatever you do, cook them for too long, otherwise you'll be left with soggy, tasteless sprouts. Test to see if they are cooked by inserting a sharp knife or skewer into one of the sprouts: it should go in easily while the sprout is still firm. Heat the butter in a pan with the olive oil, add the orange zest and flaked almonds, stirring frequently, until they are a golden colour. Watch them as they will catch and burn very quickly. Remove the heat, strain the sprouts and put in a serving bowl and pour over the flavoured butter. Season and serve as quickly as you can.

Perfect Roast Potatoes

Serves 4-6
675g (1½ lb) potatoes, peeled and quartered
2 tbsp flour
3 tbsp goose fat
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper 

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. In a saucepan over medium heat, boil the potatoes in lightly salted water for about five minutes or until just parboiled, that is to say just slightly soft. Drain them and leave to cool slightly. Sift the flour into a paper bag and add a generous pinch of salt and pepper. Put the potatoes into the bag a few at a time and give it a good shake so the potatoes are well coated in the seasoned flour.

Put them in a roasting dish large enough to spread them out in a single layer, dot over 2 tbsp of the fat, then give the pan a good shake. Roast on the top shelf of the preheated oven for a minimum of two hours, turning the potatoes now and again so that they cook evenly. Baste them with the remaining fat if they look in danger of drying up.

Carrots roasted with Parsnip, Celeriac and Coriander

The Ultimate Turkey Club Sandwich

A great way for using up leftovers when curling up in front of the telly to watch the Christmas movie. Add or subtract ingredients at will - include a slice of stuffing or leave out the tomatoes - it depends on what takes your fancy and lurks in the fridge.

Serves 2

4 rashers of unsmoked middle bacon
2 spring onions, chopped
2-3 slices of roast turkey, white or brown meat
2 ripe tomatoes
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 ripe avocado
6 slices of sourdough, toasted
Small bunch flat leaf parsley
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the mayonnaise:
1 medium egg
1 tbsp French mustard
200ml sunflower oil
100ml extra virgin olive oil
Juice of 1/2 lemon
50g Stilton
1 tbsp creme fraiche

Method
Fry or grill the bacon until crisp, remove from the pan and keep warm. To make the mayonnaise, put the whole egg in the food processor with a tablespoon of French mustard. Whiz and slowly pour the sunflower oil into the machine until it is incorporated. Then add the olive oil, lemon juice, stilton and creme fraiche and season to taste. Cut the tomatoes into thin slices and sprinkle with balsamic vinegar. Peel and slice the avocado.

To assemble the club sandwiches, spread the mayonnaise on one side of two slices of the bread then using a pair of scissors, snip over some parsley. Put the bacon rashers and spring onions with the avocado on top, snip over some more parsley and season. Finally spread the remaining slices of bread on one side with the mayonnaise and lay on top.

Christmas Pudding Ice Cream

Here is a quick, simple method to make your own Christmas-pudding ice cream and use up some of those leftovers, perhaps to serve on New Year's Eve. As I imagine the last thing anybody wants to do over the holidays is start from scratch and make ice cream, use a bought-in tub instead. Choose a good quality plain vanilla that is not too sweet.

Serves 3-4
About 575ml (1pt) vanilla ice cream
About 140-170g (5-6oz) leftover
Christmas pudding 20ml (1 generous tbsp) marmalade
15ml (1tbsp) Cointreau 15-30ml (1-2tbsp) brandy

Remove the ice cream from the freezer and allow it to soften slightly. Spoon or tip the pudding into a food processor and whizz for a few seconds. Scrape the pudding away from the sides of the bowl. Add the ice cream, marmalade, Cointreau and brandy. Whizz again. Transfer the mixture to a suitable container and freeze. Remove the ice cream from the freezer a few minutes before serving.