Tradition on the table: Maggie Beer's Christmas recipes

Roast turkey with prune and orange stuffing and Cumberland sauce

I'd never bothered with turkey, always feeling it was a dry bird. Because goose was our first choice for Christmas, I'd never actually cooked a turkey until Colin started breeding them for the Christmas market. Of course, these were free-ranged and fed a corn diet, so I changed my mind. For the stuffing, I used the Seville oranges in verjuice syrup we make for the Farmshop; its wonderful bittersweet edge, combined with the prunes and rosemary, are a great match for turkey. You could use marmalade mixed with grated orange zest instead, or a cumquat stuffing. The Cumberland sauce is a good substitute for making gravy. I first came across this recipe in the Game Conservancy Cookbook, when Colin and I visited Britain for his Churchill Fellowship to study game-bird breeding - the start of this whole journey of ours. I've tickled it a bit by adding horseradish and it's great served hot or cold.

TURKEY

1 x 6.6 kg free-range, corn-fed turkey

1 tsp plain flour

50g unsalted butter

PRUNE AND ORANGE STUFFING

⅔ cup (160ml) extra-virgin olive oil

2 large onions, roughly chopped

2 tbsp finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

1 tbsp finely chopped rosemary

3 tbsp finely chopped lemon thyme

4 cups (280g) loosely packed coarse fresh white breadcrumbs

200g pitted prunes, cut in half

1 x 360g jar Maggie Beer Seville oranges in spiced verjuice syrup (from maggiebeer.com.au), finely chopped

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

CUMBERLAND SAUCE

Finely grated zest of 2 oranges, plus 100ml juice

Finely grated zest of 2 lemons, plus ⅓ cup (80ml) juice

⅓ cup (140g) redcurrant jelly

1 heaped tsp Dijon mustard

½ tsp ground ginger

½ cup (125ml) port

½ cup (115g) horseradish cream (available in jars from specialty food stores)

1. To make the Cumberland sauce, place the orange and lemon zest and juice, redcurrant jelly, mustard, ginger and port in a saucepan. Bring to a simmer over a medium-high heat, stirring to combine, then cook for 20 minutes or until it thickens a little. Leave to cool completely, then stir in the horseradish cream. Cover with plastic film and refrigerate until needed. Store in a sterilised jar in the fridge for up to one week. (Makes about 1¼ cups (310ml).)

2. Preheat the oven to 140C fan-forced (160C conventional).

3. To make the stuffing, heat the olive oil in a heavy-based, non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 20 minutes or until dark golden and slightly browned around the edges. Set aside. Combine the parsley, rosemary, thyme, breadcrumbs, prunes, orange and onion in a bowl, then season with 3 teaspoons salt and pepper to taste. Fill the turkey cavity with the stuffing mixture. Fold the wings under the body and then truss it well with kitchen string.

4. Place the flour in an extra-large oven bag and shake to distribute the flour throughout the bag. Slide the turkey into the bag to coat it with flour. Tie the end of the bag well with kitchen string and slip it into another oven bag, then seal this too. Place the turkey in a baking dish or roasting pan, then roast for 2½ hours or until golden and cooked through.

5. Remove the turkey from the oven. Cut a corner off the oven bag, then carefully pour all the juices and fat into the tallest, thinnest jug you have (so you have the smallest surface area) to accelerate the fat setting. Place the jug in the fridge to chill, so that the fat will separate from the juice. Place the piping-hot turkey, breast-side down, in the dish or pan. Leave the turkey to rest for up to 1 hour, with the torn oven bag or a sheet of foil loosely covering it. It will retain its heat in this time.

6. If the turkey is not golden brown, remove it from the oven bag and place it on a baking tray, breast-side up. Increase the oven temperature to 180C fan-forced (200C conventional), then return the turkey to the oven for 10 minutes or until golden all over.

7. Once the fat has set, scoop it from the jug and discard. Place the juices in a small saucepan, then bring to the boil over a high heat and simmer for 10 minutes or until reduced by half. Strain and keep warm until ready to serve.

8. Serve the turkey and stuffing with the pan juices and Cumberland sauce.

Serves 12-16 as part of a buffet.

Peach and berry jelly trifle

I have loved trifle since I was a child. Was it being allowed to eat down to the bottom of the bowl where I'd find the sherry-soaked cake, or was it the jelly and fruit? Whatever it was, I've never tired of eating trifle.

This version is a bit fancy, I grant you, but it's easily within the province of the home cook. And though it was designed to use leftovers, it's a dessert I'd pull out for special occasions, too. I like to set this down in the centre of my table so everyone can help themselves - a much more connected way to eat. However, you could always deconstruct the large trifle and make individual serves in parfait glasses.

You will need to make the jelly the day before you assemble the trifle to allow time for it to set, then refrigerate the trifle overnight so the flavours can meld.

40g unsalted butter

6 yellow peaches, cut in half, pitted

1 tbsp soft brown sugar

12 sponge finger (savoiardi) biscuits

½ cup (125ml) dry sherry (I use Oloroso)

500g raspberries or blackberries (depending on the juice used for the jelly)

Pouring cream, to serve (optional)

BERRY JELLY

1½ cups (375ml) unsweetened raspberry or blackberry juice (available from delicatessens)

60g castor sugar

3½ x 2g gold-strength gelatine leaves

2 cups (500ml) cold water

SABAYON

4 free-range egg yolks

¼⁄ cup (55g) castor sugar

Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

2½⁄ tbsp dry sherry (I use Oloroso)

200ml thickened cream

1. To make the jelly, place the juice and castor sugar in a heavy-based saucepan, then slowly bring to the boil over low heat, stirring frequently to dissolve the sugar. Set aside to cool slightly. Meanwhile, put the gelatine leaves into a bowl with the cold water, then leave to soften for 5 minutes. Squeeze the excess water out of the gelatine leaves and drop them into the just-warm juice mixture, then stir well until the gelatine has dissolved. Pour into a 2 cup (500 ml)-capacity shallow dish (about 18cm x 12cm) and refrigerate overnight to set. Cut into bite-sized cubes just before assembling the trifle.

2. Preheat the oven to 220C fan-forced (240C conventional).

3. Place the butter in a baking dish and heat in the oven until it has melted and is sizzling. Add the peaches, cut-side up, and sprinkle with the brown sugar, then bake for 10 minutes or until cooked through (the cooking time will depend on the ripeness of the peaches). Set aside until cool enough to handle, then carefully peel off and discard the skins and slice the flesh.

4. To make the sabayon, combine the egg yolks, castor sugar and lemon zest in a heatproof bowl that fits snugly over a pan of simmering water, taking care that the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water. Using hand-held electric beaters, whisk the mixture until thick and almost tripled in volume - when the beaters are lifted the mixture should hold a ribbon over the surface. Continuing to whisk, add a tablespoonful of the sherry at a time, whisking after each addition until the mixture is thick. Cover closely with plastic film and chill in the fridge. Whisk the cream until soft peaks form, then gently fold through the egg yolk mixture.

5. Lay the sponge fingers in the base of a 4 litre-capacity glass serving bowl. Spoon over the sherry, then spread with half of the sabayon. Add the peach slices, then top with the jelly. Top the final layer with the remaining sabayon and finish with the berries. Cover loosely with plastic film and refrigerate overnight for the flavours to meld.

6. Spoon the trifle into bowls, then serve with cream alongside, if liked.

Serves 8-10

Extract from the book Maggie's Christmas by Maggie Beer with photography by Earl Carter, published by Lantern, rrp $49.99

CORRECTION: The original version of this story listed an incorrect size for the corn-fed turkey. The correct size has now been supplied by the book's publisher and changed in the online version of the recipe.