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Christmas Roast Turkey

There are many ways to prepare Christmas Turkey, but I have chosen one of the really tasty but simple recipes. Roasting time varies depending on the size of the turkey - from 1.5 to 3 hours. In Croatia mid sized turkeys are most common - meaning up to 3 kilograms. The usual accompaniment to the Christmas turkey dish is “mlinci”.

Ingredients
1 whole turkey
1 onion
1 lemon
120g bacon
10 cloves
Pepper
Salt
100ml oil
300g butter
200ml white wine
Juice of half a lemon
1 tbsp “Vegeta” (Croatian brand of seasoning - alternatively, a mix of salt & seasoned herbs can be used)

First, wash the turkey and dry with paper towels. Season the outside of the turkey with salt & pepper and rub the turkey cavity well with the Vegeta. Peel the onion and put together with the cloves. Wash the lemon well and pierce it with a fork in a few places. Place the onion along with the lemon in the cavity of the turkey.
Cover the turkey with the bacon strips and truss it. Place the turkey in a suitable size roasting tin and pour over the mixture of warm oil and butter. Place in the oven and roast slowly at 190° C. After half an hour, pour over the wine and lemon juice mixture. Later on keep basting the turkey in its own juices. During the cooking, a little warm stock or water can be added. Towards the end of cooking, remove the bacon strips and let the turkey brown for a little while. When it is ready, remove the onion and lemon and carve the turkey into appropriate slices, pouring the roasting juices over the meat.

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Mlinci

Ingredients (Serves 10)
800g flour
1 egg
50g butter
20g salt
Water

Put all the flour on a worktop or board and mould the flour to create a nest/bowl. Add to the nest the egg, salt and some water and knead the mixture into a soft dough. Ensure that the dough is smoothly and evenly kneaded. Then divide up the dough into small balls. Roll out the balls thinly and place on a baking tray and then into the oven at a very low heat. Bake until they are dry on both sides and slightly brown. Then take them out and allow them to cool. Cut them into medium sized squares/strips and pour over boiling salty water. After a few minutes when they are softened, take them out of the water, being careful not to let them get too soggy and wet. Place the softened mlinci into the dish, in which the turkey was cooked and mix with the fat. Stir.
If there is no roasting fat, other fat/lard can be used however it will not be as tasty.

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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Your Happy Chef, Mladen Marusic
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Walnut Loaf
Every meal ends with a good dessert. Croatians bake really tasty and traditional country cakes. One of the most well known is “Orahnjaca”.

Ingredients (Serves 10)
For the pastry:
450g flour
70g sugar
3 eggs
70g butter
2g salt
A little grated lemon peel
300ml milk
20g yeast
30ml cooking rum

For the filling:
400g ground walnuts
50g butter
100g sugar
100g raisins
200ml milk
1 egg for coating the pastry
A little grated lemon peel
30ml cooking rum
50g icing sugar for dusting

Preparation for the pastry
Mix a third of the lukewarm milk with a third of the flour and stir in the yeast and a tablespoon of sugar. Mix it all together well and then leave the dough to rise twofold. Add to the remaining lukewarm milk, the grated lemon peel, sugar, rum, butter and salt. The milk must be lukewarm. When the yeast mixture has risen, add the rest of the flour and milk and 3 egg yolks. When the dough mix is smooth, add the beaten and thickened egg whites from the 3 eggs. After adding the egg whites, mix the dough and mould it into a dough ball. Place the dough ball into a bowl dusted with flour, cover with a cloth and leave it in a warm place until the dough expands to double its size. The dough must be medium consistency, just a little softer than bread dough.

Preparation of the filling
Once the pastry has been prepared, the second part is to prepare the filling. To make the filling, take the ground walnuts and place in a bowl, adding the sugar, grated lemon peel, rum and raisins. Pour hot milk onto the mixture and cook for 3 minutes until the right thickness is achieved. The milk must be poured carefully and gradually onto the mixture to avoid making it too thin and runny. Then leave to allow the mixture to cool down.
When the pastry mix has doubled in size, place it on a work board and with a rolling pin roll it out flat until it is about 1 cm thick (make sure that the board is dusted with flour so that pastry does not stick while rolling). Then smear the ground walnut filling onto the pastry and then roll the pastry into a roulade or strudel log shape. When placing the cake on the baking tray ensure that the tray is smeared thickly with butter. Leave it to settle on the tray and expand. Once the cake has expanded, brush it with beaten egg mix and place it in the oven at a medium temperature at about 180° C. Bake for between 45 to 60 minutes. The heat must be moderate so that it does not burn on the outside or stay raw on the inside. When the cake is cooked (to check this pierce with a skewer and if the skewer comes out dry & un-sticky, it is ready) take it delicately out of the tray and leave to cool down completely. When the cake has cooled, dust the top with icing sugar, cut into slices and serve.
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Mladen will be conducting Croatian cuisine classes in Croatia as part of the Croatian Language School’s immersion courses.
Please see here for more details.
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