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Every cookbook and celebrity chef seems to have a different take on how to roast turkey.

Locally we have substantially good turkey from quite a few conscientious poultry farmers including the famous Copas Turkey Farm at Cookham in Buckinghamshire. I was invited by Tom and Brenda Copas to a pre-Christmas turkey lunch at the farmhouse recently. Forget the TV chefs, forget the cookbooks, this is how Brenda Copas cooks her turkey.

Find a suitably sized roasting tin. Remove the bird from the fridge two hours before you’re going to roast it – so it doesn’t hit the oven fridge cold. Remove the giblets and preheat the oven to 230°C.

Place the bird breasts down in the roasting tin and cover in foil. Tightly crimp the foil around the tray. Place the turkey in the pre-heated oven and roast it for ½ hour at this very hot 230°C temperature. After ½ hour reduce the temperature to 190°C. Roast your bird for ½ hour per kg (so a 4kg bird takes 2 hours). In summary the total cooking time including that first very hot half hour is ½ hour per kg.

On the last ½ hour, remove the roasting tray from the oven, remove the foil, then, using a couple of carving forks, turn the bird over – so breasts up. Pop it back into the oven so the final ½ hour bronzes up the breasts.

Most importantly, once cooked, leave the bird to rest for 45 minutes before carving.

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• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp caraway seeds
• 2 small red onions, peeled & very finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled & crushed
• 200g semi-dried stoned cherries
• 175g thick-cut marmalade
• 100ml dry white wine
• 200ml water
• 75ml cider vinegar
• 1tbsp chopped fresh root ginger
• Salt & freshly ground pepper
• 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

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MethodÌýÌý

Heat the olive oil in a large pan, add the spices & cook for a few seconds to release their aromas. Do not allow to burn. Add all the remaining ingredients except the extra virgin olive oil. Stir well, bring to the boil & gently simmer until thick & pulpy. This will probably take about 25-30 minutes or so.

Stir in the extra virgin olive oil, then season again with salt & pepper, & cool. Place in a small bowl or large jar, seal well with clingfilm or a lid, & keep in the fridge (for a week or so).

Ingredients

• Butter for greasing
• 5Ìýeggs
• 140g light muscovado sugar
• 100g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 25g cocoa powder
• caster sugar for dusting

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For the filling

• Zest of 2 oranges
• 100g mixed dried fruit
• 100ml Grand Marnier
• 200ml double cream
• 1 tsp ground cinnamonÌýÌý

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For the frosting

• 300g dark chocolate
• 150ml double cream
• Icing sugar for dusting

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Method

Heat oven to 180°C. Butter and line the base and sides of a 30 x 35cm shallow baking tin with baking parchment.

Separate the eggs, putting them into two large mixing bowls. Add 2 tablespoons of water and the sugar to the egg yolks. Using an electric whisk, whisk the sugar and yolks for about 5 minutes or until the mixture is light in colour and thick enough to leave a trail when the whisk blades are lifted. Sift in the cocoa and flour then fold in lightly using the whisk blades or a large metal spoon.

Using a clean whisk, beat the egg whites until stiff. Gently fold into the cake mixture in batches preserving as much of the air as possible.

Pour the mixture evenly over the prepared tin and carefully spread to the edges. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the cake feels firm to the touch. Put a large sheet of baking parchment on a work surface and sprinkle with caster sugar. Turn the cake out onto the parchment and peel off the lining paper. Cover with a clean tea towel and leave to cool completely. Trim a little cake from the edges, then score along the edge of one of the long sides of the cake and roll up from there, using the paper to help you, rolling the paper inside the cake.

To make the filling, marinade the dried fruit in the Grand Marnier overnight. Whip the cream to firm peaks with the cinnamon then evenly fold In the Grand Marnier marinated dried fruits and the orange zest.

Carefully unroll the cake, spread with the whipped cream filling – to within a centimetre of the edges. Roll up the cake again using the paper to help you, then set on a board.

Make a chocolate frosting to drizzle over the cake; bring the cream to a simmer, remove from the heat, break 200g of the dark chocolate and add to the cream, stir until it is melted and smooth. Leave to cool slightly, then drizzle over the cake. Allow the chocolate frosting to further set. Using a vegetable peeler, shave the remaining chocolate over the cake. Finally, heavily dust with icing sugar shaken through a sieve.