How to cook a Christmas turkey – and why you shouldn’t start at 2am
If you want to make the ultimate Christmas turkey, don’t start cooking it at 2am – at least, that’s the advice from professional chef Oliver Marlowe.
“Every single year, my dad will wake up at two in the morning, panicked that the grid will go down,” he says.
“It’s in rural Suffolk, the grid hasn’t gone down that I can ever remember, so why he is going on about this, I don’t know.
“So he turns the oven on and starts cooking the turkey at 2 o’clock in the morning, and at about five minutes past two I go downstairs and turn it off, and turn it back on around 8am.”
“When you are cooking turkey, it always takes less time than you think it does,” he added – good news amid a Christmas hit by soaring energy bills.
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When it comes to actually cooking the turkey, Oliver’s number one piece of advice? Don’t.
“I tend to go down the chicken route,” he says. “It’s less expensive, it’s much better quality meat for absolute certainty.
“It takes much less time to cook.”
However, if you absolutely must, he recommends brining the turkey (submerging it in a solution of salt and water) for 24 hours beforehand, and letting it rest for at least half the time you’ve cooked it for.
“If you are going to down the turkey route, it just means it cooks in much less time and you get seasoning all the way through the meat, and it won’t go as dry,” he says.
“Even if you do my dad’s beautiful 48-hour turkey, that would be more resilient if brined beforehand.”
Christmas pudding ice cream: How to use leftovers
Oliver began is chef career aged 13, after watching a bust up between a chef and his sous chef at a Malaysian restaurant in Suffolk.
“It was my first day working as a kitchen porter, I just wanted to earn some extra money,” he says.
“Suddenly there was a huge fight in the kitchen and the sous chef walked out. I was instantly promoted and have never looked back.”
A glut of food on Christmas day can lead to an expanse of leftovers and his advice on the way to use this up is varied – from pasta to pies.
One thing that has gone down a storm in his own restaurant, Ganymede, is Christmas pudding ice cream.
“It’s actually delicious, rather than your standard Christmas puddings or cakes, which aren’t particularly good, in my opinion.”
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For best results, his recipe is to either make your own vanilla ice cream or use a really good shop bought one. Let it defrost a little, then fold through chunks of Christmas pudding until evenly distributed.
“Pop the mix back in the freezer and leave to set again,” he says.
“Once set, top with clementine zest and a good measure of your favourite Christmas booze.”
Two pro-Palestinian demonstrators have thrown red powder on Tower Bridge – just moments before leading runners in the London Marathon went past.
The protesters were arrested on suspicion of causing a public nuisance and remain in custody, said the Metropolitan Police.
A video shared by Youth Demand, which is calling for a trade embargo on Israel, shows two people jumping over a barrier that separates spectators from the race course.
The pair, wearing t-shirts that say “Youth Demand: Stop Arming Israel”, are then seen standing in the middle of the road on the bridge.
Pic: LNP
They throw red powder in the air as an official marathon car goes past displaying the race time.
A motorbike with a cameraman on board continues along the route, while a second motorbike stops and one of the riders gets off and pushes the pair out of the way, just before the men’s elite runners pass.
Several police officers then jump over the barrier and detain the pair, the footage shows.
There appeared to be no impact on the marathon.
More than 56,000 participants were expected to take part in the 26.2-mile race through the capital.
Sabastian Sawe of Kenya won the men’s elite race in a time of two hours, two minutes and 27 seconds, while Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa shattered the women’s-only world record in two hours, 15 minutes and 50 seconds.
Assefa beat the previous best of two hours, 16 minutes and 16 seconds set last year in London by Kenyan Peres Jepchirchir.
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Pic: LNP
The Metropolitan Police said in a statement: “At around 10.38am, two protesters from Youth Demand jumped over barriers at Tower Bridge and threw red paint on to the road.
“Marathon event staff intervened to remove the protesters from the path of the men’s elite race which was able to pass unobstructed.”
The force added that they were “quickly supported by police officers who arrested the protesters on suspicion of causing a public nuisance”.
The Met said the paint “appeared to be chalk-based” and was not expected to “present a hazard to runners yet to pass this point”.
Counter-terrorism police are investigating after an incident involving a crossbow and a firearm left two women injured in Leeds.
Police were called to Otley Road at 2.47pm on Saturday to reports of a “serious incident involving a man seen with weapons”, West Yorkshire Police said.
Officers arrived at the scene to find two women injured – and a 38-year-old man with a self-inflicted injury. All three were taken to hospital, with the man held under arrest, but their injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.
“Two weapons have been recovered from the scene, which were a crossbow and a firearm,” Counter Terrorism Policing North East said in a statement.
The incident happened on the ‘Otley Run’ pub crawl, with one venue saying it was closed for the evening due to “unforeseen circumstances”.
Officers guard one of the crime scenes
Officers inside the cordon in Leeds
Counter Terrorism Policing’s statement added: “Due to the circumstances surrounding the incident, Counter Terrorism Policing North East have taken responsibility for leading the investigation with the support of West Yorkshire Police.
“Extensive enquiries continue to establish the full circumstances and explore any potential motivation.”
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper described it as a “serious violent incident” and said she was being kept updated by police.
“Thank you to the police and emergency services for their swift response,” she said. “My thoughts are with the victims and all those affected by this attack.”
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