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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast

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Speaker 1: from News Talks at B caught.

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Speaker 2: It to ten on News Talks hed V. Time to

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Speaker 2: catch up with our cook, Nikki Wicks for one of

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Speaker 2: her most important segments of the whole year. Good morning, Nikki,

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Speaker 2: Good morning.

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Speaker 3: It sort of is, isn't it It is? This is key.

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Speaker 3: This is you know, we don't get this right.

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Speaker 2: So are you just to be totally clear, are you

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Speaker 2: a turkey person? Because I realize that not everyone is.

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Speaker 3: I am a turkey person, and I'm one of about

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Speaker 3: two hundred thousand households in New Zealand at Christmas time

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Speaker 3: who are turkey people? What I'd have to say is

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Speaker 3: we often start off our Christmas menu discussions in our

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Speaker 3: family with oh, let's not do the turkey, and they

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Speaker 3: all that we always end up back at the turkey.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, are you a I'm a massive turkey person. I

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Speaker 2: am reckon. Turkey is a Well. The thing with your

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Speaker 2: turkey is that a really good turkey is almost impossible

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Speaker 2: to beat. But a bad turkey is not great. You know,

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Speaker 2: it's rough, it's pretty rough to just look. Especially it's dry.

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Speaker 2: The moisture, I feel like the moisture and turkey. Sorry,

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Speaker 2: I feel really strongly that the moisture in turkey is

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Speaker 2: like it's maybe more critical than almost any other meat

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Speaker 2: except fish. You know, like if it's dry, it's.

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Speaker 3: Just it's almost impossible. You end up chewing on this

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Speaker 3: kind of cud, don't you that never had to go anywhere?

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Speaker 2: You know it is turkey. I like it.

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Speaker 3: Or you've started something there, I love it. I'm with you.

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Speaker 3: So if you can get it right. There's no flavor

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Speaker 3: like turkey. There was no flavor. I just this this week,

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Speaker 3: I made some little turkey pies for our local indoor

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Speaker 3: bowling club because it was their Christmas dinner and I

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Speaker 3: always cater for it, just for fun. And what I

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Speaker 3: did was I went to a place where you could

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Speaker 3: buy just the turkey wings, and I bought packets of

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Speaker 3: turkey wings and they were the best. I'd already bought

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Speaker 3: my big turkey. Now rather thought, gosh, these would be good,

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Speaker 3: and it's only twelve with these indoor bowlers, so I

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Speaker 3: just wanted a short small amount. Braised them and then

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Speaker 3: took the cover off and roasted them, got some color

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Speaker 3: on them and stripped them off. Oh, because the turkey

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Speaker 3: wings are fantastic, They're full of fat, they're you know,

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Speaker 3: they're great, and they were really good. So if you're

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Speaker 3: having a slightly smaller Christmas gathering this year, I would

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Speaker 3: recommend it.

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Speaker 2: Don't do the whole bird. Yeah, don't do the whole bird.

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Speaker 3: But anyway, here's what to do if you have got

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Speaker 3: the whole bird, as I have and as your family

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Speaker 3: will have, how to keep the damn thing from drying out.

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Speaker 3: This is my top tip. This is the first of

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Speaker 3: my top tips. I stuffed stuff under the skin of

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Speaker 3: the breast, okay, because that's the bit that dries out.

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Speaker 3: The legs, the thighs, that's all fine, but they take

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Speaker 3: a lot longer to So this is the trick. Who

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Speaker 3: butter Maybe put some chopped spinach in there, because spinach

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Speaker 3: raw spinach, it has lots of water in it, which

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Speaker 3: is great, and then melds into that breast point. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: of course, Yeah, sausage some people go for. Some people

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Speaker 3: laid bacon over the top. Mum used to do a

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Speaker 3: little bit of butter pape over the top. So things

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Speaker 3: like that. Stuff something under the breast or over top

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Speaker 3: of it and that'll keep it. Consider cooking it in

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Speaker 3: a large oven bag. I did this once for a

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Speaker 3: cooking a food shoot many years ago for this weekly.

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Speaker 3: The whole thing was so tender that it all collapsed.

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Speaker 3: It was terrible to shoot. We had to sort of

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Speaker 3: put it together like we were all papedic surgeons.

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Speaker 2: Here's the thing, this is what we do in the

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Speaker 2: tame household. And when I say, well, of course, it's

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Speaker 2: my beloved mum, No, she's absolutely swears by using a

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Speaker 2: large oven bag and it's so moist as a result.

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Speaker 3: Nothing bad can happen in that bag. So do that.

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Speaker 3: I think that's good. Also, when you bring the two

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Speaker 3: key out to rest it, rest it on its breast,

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Speaker 3: so flip it up. We often we often have it

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Speaker 3: breast up because that's the way was of course to

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Speaker 3: rest it, and all the juices run into the white meat,

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Speaker 3: which is fantastic.

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Speaker 2: The second point, so just flip it round so it's.

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Speaker 3: So it's got back up top breast down, and then

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Speaker 3: when you can serve it, you can turn it up.

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Speaker 3: But once while it's resting, do that. People also talk

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Speaker 3: about brining. I've never had much successful it, mostly because

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Speaker 3: turkeys are large birds to wrangle, and so you've got

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Speaker 3: to essentially put them in a really large container to

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Speaker 3: brine it whole, and then that container needs to go

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Speaker 3: into a large fridge. Well, hello, unless you've got a

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Speaker 3: chill it for me. So those other tips will keep

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Speaker 3: it from drying out. Stuffing Jack, you've got your bread

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Speaker 3: crumb based one with herbs and onions, et cetera in there.

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Speaker 3: What I want to tell people is make sure that

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Speaker 3: you soak the crumbs in milk for a start off.

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Speaker 3: Because bread crumbs either fresh. You always be using fresh

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Speaker 3: bread crumbs. But what they do is, if you think

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Speaker 3: about it, they want to shloop up juices, which is good,

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Speaker 3: but it can make it dry out as well because

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Speaker 3: it's slooping up juices from your turkey. So soak those

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Speaker 3: bread crumbs that you're going to use for your stuffing

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Speaker 3: in some milk first. You just need to just cover

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Speaker 3: them milk and they'll and then they'll swell up and

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Speaker 3: they'll be nice and moist. You can use sausage or

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Speaker 3: other ground meat is really great. You could use rice

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Speaker 3: and mushrooms that kind of ChIL eat so and corn bread.

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Speaker 3: I have had that before. I've done that before, but

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Speaker 3: I've had to buy the corn make the corn bread first,

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Speaker 3: and that's a pain, but that's quite nice. And then

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Speaker 3: I also consider a punch of kind of sweetness like

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Speaker 3: a currant or some cranberries or maybe some chopped up

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Speaker 3: apple and that stuffing, which is great gravy. I mean,

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Speaker 3: you want to when you are rosy bird, you want

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Speaker 3: to make sure that you put some chopped onions in there.

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Speaker 3: Turkey cooks for a long time, so you can just

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Speaker 3: have or quarter the onions because they're going to give

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Speaker 3: you some really great flavor with some with some of

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Speaker 3: those scrapings from the pan. That is the only drawback

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Speaker 3: of using a bag jack. And I don't know what

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Speaker 3: your mum does, but you don't get any of those.

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Speaker 3: You get lots of juice in the bag, which you

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Speaker 3: can use for the gravy, but you don't get any

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Speaker 3: of those gnarly kind of caramelized bits the roasting dish. True,

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Speaker 3: so you know, so that's the only drawback you can

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Speaker 3: get around that.

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Speaker 2: True.

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Speaker 3: I use cord of cover of plain flour and the

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Speaker 3: roasting dish. I mixed that to a bit of a

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Speaker 3: paste with all those pans scrapings. Always add a splash

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Speaker 3: of wine or bubbles, because it just tastes good. It's

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Speaker 3: a sort of mysterious flavor. Even if you've got people

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Speaker 3: who are non non alcohol drinkers, you've got to just

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Speaker 3: that off. It's fine, you know, it cooks off. All

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Speaker 3: the alcohol cooks off in about a minute. Then add

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Speaker 3: some stock or some veggie water from them new potatoes

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Speaker 3: and the peas or something, or even some plain water

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Speaker 3: and some seasoning, and then you want to really cook

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Speaker 3: that out well for sort of five to six to

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Speaker 3: you know, get a nice dark lumfrey gravy leftovers. That's

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Speaker 3: what I love about a turkey make a pie because

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Speaker 3: suddenly that breast meat is surrounded by beautiful kind of

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Speaker 3: white white sauce or not quite a white sauce, but

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Speaker 3: you know that well wine saw the gravy, you know,

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Speaker 3: kind of just beef up the gravy a bit. I

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Speaker 3: also love frying the turkey meat in a pan jack

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Speaker 3: until with a bit of a drizzle of pomegranate molasses,

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Speaker 3: so it was slightly crispy at the you know, in

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Speaker 3: the edges, and then scattered that, you know, over some

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Speaker 3: little baby spinach leaves or what what's wrong with just

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Speaker 3: a white, soft, white roll stuffed with warm the role. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: with lettuce, warmsh turkey and some leftover gravy. There is

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Speaker 3: nothing like it.

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Speaker 2: Can I just add to that a little bit of

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Speaker 2: cranberry sauce and maybe a sliver of brie and.

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Speaker 3: From Christ of course you're going to bree and the

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Speaker 3: cranberry's so good.

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Speaker 2: Oh man, I'm celibating.

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Speaker 3: I don't mean, I mean, how excited are we?

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Speaker 2: Yeah?

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Speaker 3: You know you can have your hands. I glazed your

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Speaker 3: ham on Instagram?

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Speaker 2: Of course.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. I should wear my dogs more often than those

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Speaker 3: videos through the roof. And you can have all your

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Speaker 3: fancy other stuff we'll have. We'll be having non traditional

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Speaker 3: stuff on our table too, but I think you've got

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Speaker 3: to have something a little bit.

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Speaker 2: I totally agree. Look, we're going to put all of

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Speaker 2: those tips for nailing your Christmas turkey up on the

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Speaker 2: news talks Zbig website. Thank you so much for everything

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Speaker 2: this year, Niki, and we will catch you again in

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty five. NICKI wix cook there right now, it

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Speaker 2: is seven minus to ten. You a Jack Tame on

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Speaker 2: Newstalk's 'db.

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Speaker 1: For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live

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Speaker 1: to Newstalks. I'd be from nine am Saturday, or follow

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