Turkey can be delicious or plain awful, depending on how you cook it and what flavours you use with it. For instance, I worked out years ago that stuffing tastes better if you roast it outside the bird, rather than stuffing it into its cavity.

Many chefs tend to fuss and bother too much with these big birds. If you keep it simple then serving roast turkey is a walk in the park and it is always a popular treat during the festive season.

Left over turkey also has multiple uses ? in a salad, soup or as a sandwich filling, so it works out quite economical.

For flavouring place a selection of whole, fresh vegetables into the Turkey?s cavity and add a few sprigs of parsley, rosemary, some mixed herbs, salt and pepper and a good dollop of brandy or sherry.

Then I wrap the entire bird in buttered greaseproof paper, whack it into the office, and voila, two hours later you have a golden brown, juicy tasty bird ready for carving.

Remember, like all birds, Turkey loses a lot of its flavour and goes dry if you overcook it, so make a careful note of the bird?s weight before you roast it, because there is a fail-proof formula ? oven preheated to 180 deg C and then roasting the bird for 30 minutes for every kilogramme it weighs.

Then you remove the turkey from the oven and allow it to rest for 30 minutes before carving and serving.

Ingredients

1 Turkey, wingtips cut off (and if you are buying a fresh bird from a butcher ask him to remove the wishbone for you so that you can carve the breast meat into perfect slices)

Cavity ingredients

1 tablespoon of mixed herbs

A sprig or rosemary and a couple of parsley sprigs

1 whole onion, peeled and quartered

1 apple, halved, not peeled

? lemon, not peeled

2 sticks of celery, chopped coarsely

2 carrots, peeled and coarsely chopped

1 tot of brandy or sherry

For the coating

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon coarse salt

2 tablespoons flour

1 tablespoon chicken or vegetable stock powder

? cup melted butter

1 tot of brandy

Large sheet of greaseproof paper (make quite sure it is greaseproof, not wax paper)

Rub the brandy lightly all over the bird

Mix all the other coating ingredients but not the butter together and rub it over the outside of the turkey

Shove all the cavity ingredients into the inside of the bird

Paint the greaseproof paper liberally with the melted butter and wrap it around the bird

Place the turkey on a roasting stand and place it inside a roasting pan

Pour 600ml boiling water into the bottom of the roasting rack and put the bird in the oven

Pour yourself a glass of wine, turn on the music and when the bird?s time is up, take it out of the oven and set aside to rest

Stuffing

For the stuffing you can mix your own or take a short cut by using one of the many packaged stuffing mixes.

Mix the stuffing according to the instructions on the packet, divided into four separate balls and place it around the turkey about an hour before the end of the bird?s roasting time.

Mike from Wine Concepts recommends Constantia Uitsig Constantia White 2008 ? Constantia ? R134.50

The Constantia White is a lovely blend of Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc. It is a complex, layered wine with perfect balance between old world complexity and elegance, and new world fruitiness and structure.

To order this, contact Wine Concepts.