EPISODE FOUR

Location - Westlakes

Recipe - Butterflied Red Brick Turkey with Herb Butter, Honey Beans and Macadamia

We were asked once, “what is the craziest thing you could think to cook on an Aussie Park Barbie?”. Denis said a roast chicken, Phil said, hold my beer! It’s Christmas, so we decided to attempt a huge turkey! It was hilarious.

A huge thanks to Ollie who came and made some beautiful images.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 Large Free Range South Australian Turkey dressed.

• 1 lemon

• Half a stick of butter

• Salt Pepper

• 1 cup Macadamia or nut of preference, almond pistachio etc.

• 2 shallots

• ½ cup or a decent couple tablespoons honey, find local raw if you can

• 500grams of fresh Long beans tipped and tailed

• 1 garlic

• Extra Virgin Olive oil

• Salt and freshly ground pepper

• 200g streaky bacon

• 1 bunch tarragon, parsley, time and sage chopped

• Spring onion

• Your favoruite Cranberry sauce, I have chosen Beerenberg’s Cranberry but you can always make your own see recipe for that one.

• 1 or 2 Red House Bricks

INSTRUCTIONS

Double banger barbies are great for the extra space and giving you some room for prep!

Grab your turkey, your local butcher should be able to help you out here. These birds get big!! Our turkey was just under 4kgs so that will feed close to 12-14 people so be sure to pick a bird that suits you.

I went for the whole, dressed turkey, plucked guttered etc. Make sure you remove the giblets and any other innards that remain. 

We are butterflying our turkey, this will make it cook quicker and this will give our bird a skin! Grab a sharp knife and we are going to cut the backbone out of our turkey, this is going to open our bird right up to get nice and flat on our park barbie hot plate. 

Dry your turkey, Paper towel all over, we want absorb any of the moist residue remaining on the turkey. 

Seasoning time, Before we season lets put all our ingredients that well need together in some small dishes. Always be mindful about cross contamination when it comes to raw poultry and handling food. 

Well start by finely dicing up your shallots, the finer the better a really nice mince. Salt, pepper. Next your herbs, chop these up. Grab whatever you have handy. Some herbs can be a bit full on, rosemary takes over so less is more. Mint can take a backseat on this one too! Zest of half a lemon or orange whatever you have. We are going to make a compound butter, great way to use herbs this is going to be the flavour for our turkey. Half a stick of butter, turkey is a pretty lean healthy protein not a lot of fat so we are bringing the fat. Fat is flavour. 

Next very gentle put your hands between the turkey and its skin we want to open this up and great and space for our compound butter. We are going to lather up the turkey! This is going to keep it moist and get that flavour all the way through, rub this mix all over. The inside. Once rubbed and buttered up flip your turkey we are going to rub some olive oil and salt all over the skin. This will get a nice crispy skin on our Turkey.

Once your Barbie is nice and hot. Time to get the bird on. 

Skin side down. Bring in the bricks. That’s right your common aussie red house brick, your turkeys worst nightmare your secret park barbie weapon. The most unconventional cooking item I think we have used yet. Alfoil your brick. And put on top, this is going to put weight and pressure on your turkey get as much surface area down as possible cook it quicker and get an awesome sear! 

No need for fancy kitchen weights here, maybe just give you brick or paver a quick run over with the hose. Red bricks so I’m told are the fastest.

Once the turkey is looking good take the bring of and lets give it a flip! We are aiming at a finished temp of 75-80 degrees so if in doubt grab a thermometer. 

While the turkey is doing its thing, time to sort out our beans. Top and tail your long beans. 

In a bowl, olive oil, lemon zest, spring onion, salt and pepper. Get these on the barbie. In the bowl safe the dishes lets add two tablespoons of honey, and a splash of gin. We’ll use just a splash to break down the honey and dissolve it. Keep a bit of gin aside to deglaze the beans. Once the beans are looking cooked. Pull those aside and give them a quick toss in the bowl with the remaining gin/ honey and oil/ salt pepper.

Im going to make a small ring of alfoil to stop my macadamias rolling all over the place, lets chuck those on the barbie and get some heat through your nuts! Once they are warmed and taken on some colour well pull those out and give them a run over with the knife a rough chop!

Your turkey at this point should be looking and smelling great. Quick check with your thermometer and if its at 71 at the thickest part we are good.

Place your beans on your serving dish. Break down the rest of your butterflied turkey, wings, legs etc. 

Serve with your favourite cranberry sauce, if not make your own check recipe here;

You just cooked an incredible dish on a local Aussie Park Barbie!!