TBK Gives- the preparations for the Christmas lunch part 4

          The Christmas decorations outside Robinson's mall last week

You know it's nearly Christmas when the Malls put their Christmas decorations up! Here in Palawan in spite of Christmas officially starting on 1.9.22 they waited until 1.11.22 to decorate the Malls. 

I was buying some Lamb in Puerto Deli; I saw they had a frozen Turkey so I decided to buy it to check it would fit in my oven. It was one of the few dishes on our Christmas lunch menu that I had not practiced making.

            Our Christmas menu- the highlighted dishes are the ones I tried

I have been busy working on a new project recently, a new online recipe book which will start on 15.1.23. As part of my research for that I have been going through my recipe scrapbooks. When I worked in Bahrain the local paper used to print a daily recipe and I cut many out and stuck them in scrapbooks. Some of the supermarkets (Jawad and Allosra) also produced recipe cards with recipes from Bahrain's "Celebrity Chef's" and gave them to their customers. Again, I collected many and stuck them in my scrapbooks, along with seasonal cookery magazines and the like. I must have collected over one thousand recipes in my 12 years there and so I have selected 30 of my favourites to start the online Recipe book. We will publish 6 recipes a month, so 72 in the year. In addition to my 30 recipes, we will have another 36 from our "guest chefs". So far, I have 25 recipes done and sent to our graphic artist, Chester, to work on while I am away on another project, Chester's 2023 Calendar, next week! 

I was delighted to find two Christmas recipes in the scrapbooks- one for turkey and one for mince pies, both on our Christmas menu. So, I set about preparing the Turkey. I defrosted the frozen bird and made a Rosemary butter (I did not have any Thyme!) and sliced up an orange. Then I placed the butter and orange under the skin of the Turkey. Once the oven was at the right temperature, I placed the Turkey on a baking tray and happily it just fitted in the oven. After 30 minutes I basted it with the juices and covered it with foil. The smell was amazing. 

Later I was chatting to my American neighbour, Benny, outside as Joven washed the car and Genesis played with Chester in the sun. I had forgotten Americans cook Turkey for Thanksgiving in November while the British have it for Christmas in December, and Filipinos rarely eat Turkey. He kindly lent me his temperature probe (as the turkey is so big it browns on the outside and is still uncooked inside, especially if it is not defrosted properly, causing food poisoning. Benny also suggested spraying some orange juice over the bird to keep it moist. Eventually, after our team effort the Turkey was ready, and I made the delicious gravy in the recipe with red wine instead of port. Joven and I ate the Turkey for Lunch (his first time), and we gave some to Benny as a Thanksgiving gift. Later Joven and I had turkey sandwiches for Merienda and I cooked the bones to make a turkey stock (for the Gravy at Christmas). Another Pinoy friend came around in the evening and also had Turkey for the first time. 

                                My Turkey with Orange

The verdict of the international tasting Panel (American, Brit and 2 Pinoys) was "Wow, that was so moist, dude", "Amazing", and two "Saraps" from the first timers! That is good enough for me. By the end of the day, with the help of the cats eating the meat off the bones, and Chester (Turkey is on my list of acceptable food for dogs) the Turkey had all gone. Back in the UK, where my mum cooked Turkey every Christmas day, we would have been eating Turkey salad and other Turkey dishes for day!

I will cook the Mince pies when I get back from Alimanguan as I have to buy the ingredients so that just leaves Fried Chicken which one of my guests asked for. Luckily, when I dropped Joven off at Jollibee after work yesterday he introduced me to someone who can help me out...

                 Jollibee in his festive hat points me to the fried chicken!

                       Thanks to Joven for the photo!