Mini stuffed turkey roast with bacon

It’s Christmas again, and that usually means picking up a turkey crown and an Aberdeen Angus roasting joint ready for Christmas dinner. However, this year, we’ve decided to let Hotel Algorfa do the cooking instead, so we can concentrate on looking festive and having fun with our friends and neighbours.

On Sunday, we decided to have a mini roast with a fillet of turkey, and as it’s so close to Christmas, I decided to make it a bit special. Have you ever come across these turkey fillets? Lidl sell them, and they come in a pack of two for between €4 and €5. They’re called ‘solomio de pavo’ in Spanish, and each one has plenty of meat for two people, so it makes for a tasty, economical meal. It’s also pretty healthy, despite the bacon wrapping, and if you’re eating alone, or don’t want to be eating turkey well into 2023, it’s worth considering as the centre piece for your Christmas dinner.

That said, it’s so quick and easy to prepare, you can serve up this particular touch of luxury any time you like. It’s good served cold, too, so you could cook both pieces to give you cold meat for Boxing Day. Or freeze the second piece for another time. Here’s how to cook this tasty mini turkey roast with bacon.

1. Make up a small amount of stuffing, either from a mix, or from scratch. I used two heaped tablespoons of stuffing mix to produce the amount here, which was just right for stuffing one turkey fillet.
2. Open out the turkey fillet with a sharp knife, starting from the thick side and cutting towards the tapered part. Don’t cut all the way through, or it will get messy!
3. Spoon the stuffing mix into the turkey fillet. If you’re making your own stuffing, make sure it’s not too chunky. You don’t want it all escaping during the cooking.
4. Season the meat with freshly ground pepper, then use about 4 slices from a pack of finely sliced streaky bacon to wrap around the stuffed turkey fillet, making a neat parcel. No need to add salt, as you’re using bacon.
5. Take 6 cocktail sticks and push them through the fillet at intervals to hold everything together. Place on a baking tray. No need for added oil or fat – the fat from the bacon will baste the turkey as it cooks.
6. Cook at 180 degrees for 35 – 40 minutes. I use a halogen oven, so my mini roast was ready in 35 minutes. It may take longer in a conventional oven. You can also place small chunks of parsnip or par boiled potatoes around the turkey to roast with it. You may need to coat them in a small amount of olive oil first, but I found the fat from the bacon was sufficient to brown parsnips in the halogen oven.

That’s it! Your turkey mini roast is ready to serve however you prefer. Some of the stuffing will ooze through and mingle with the bacon, giving the whole dish a fantastic flavour. Cooked this way, turkey isn’t in the least boring! I served ours with roast parsnips, boiled new potatoes, green beans, cauliflower and carrots, with Yorkshire puddings and gravy. It was fabulous, and I will definitely cook this again. It tasted like I’d slaved for hours in the kitchen, yet I put it all together in less than 10 minutes!