Not everyone gathers around the family table for Christmas, for a multitude of reasons. But the absence of your kith and kin should never mean that Christmas is not a truly special meal for the pair of you. In fact, cooking for two on the day is a blessing for keen cooks, as it allows for more experimentation, allows you to get truly creative and to spin interesting variations on the Christmas classics.
Our dinner for two includes a couple of turkey ideas and sauces from Neven Maguire, the gifted young chef of the MacNean Bistro, in Blacklion, Co Cavan. Maguire finds inspiration using the brilliant birds reared by his neighbour, Ken Moffat, whose ducks, geese and turkeys are first rate. For something truly different for Christmas, just try the spicy breadcrumbed turkey breasts and marvel at how well they pair with the salsa and the rich balsamic cream, in a seemingly unlikely alliance.
Our own turkey recipe gives something closer to the conventional bird, but with a lot less hassle than the roasting of the whole turkey. Our ideas for starters and desserts are classics - wild smoked salmon and Christmas pud.
The starter
Irish, wild smoked salmon is one of the simplest and most assured Christmas dinner starters. You can serve it with brown bread, jazz it up with a little horseradish, or enjoy this colourful new idea for tzatziki which will perfectly contrast with the fish.
Vibrantly colourful, it comes from Annie Bell's smashing new Vegetable Book (Michael Joseph, £15). If you want a smart presentation, you can place slices of salmon in two small ramekins, fill with the tzatziki, tuck in the slices of fish, then up-end them on to the centre of the plate, and spoon the tzatziki all around. Or make the most of the clashing colours and serve a great big dollop of it beside some of the best wild fish you can buy.
Beetroot and cucumber tzatziki
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
225 g (8 oz) Greek yoghurt
sea salt
10 cm (4 inch) piece of cucumber
175 g (6 oz) cooked beetroot
1 heaped teaspoon finely-chopped shallot
1 heaped teaspoon finely-chopped dill
half teaspoon finely-chopped mint To serve: extra virgin olive oil and finely-chopped dill
Whisk the olive oil, vinegar and yoghurt together in a bowl and season with salt. Peel the cucumber, quarter lengthwise, remove the seeds, and finely dice the flesh by first slicing the quarters into thin strips. Peel the cooked beetroot and finely dice this too. Add the cucumber, beetroot, shallot and herbs to the tzatziki, cover and chill until required. To serve, first stir it well, then decorate with a swirl of olive oil and a sprinkling of chopped dill.
The turkey
One solution to the enormity of the turkey and the limited appetite of two people is to serve only the breast. The cuts to order here are either the crown roast of turkey, which includes the breast bone, or the single or double fillet, which is just the turkey breast meat and its covering skin.
The big drawback of ordering just these cuts is that you can (quite fairly) expect to pay your butcher almost as much as if you were buying a whole turkey. He, after all, is left with the unpopular leg meat, which is unlikely to sell. Perhaps the best solution is to order a whole turkey and ask your butcher to prepare the crown or fillets separately. The legs (either boned for stuffing and roasting, or whole for casseroling) will freeze well for another occasion, and you also get a turkey carcass for stocks and gravy.
The big advantage of cooking with just the breast meat is that it's perfect for a generous two person Christmas meal. But you must treat it carefully. It requires almost as much cooking as the whole turkey, but is under much greater risk of drying out. Neven Maguire recommends a Christmas treat of rubbing a little truffle butter underneath the skin. Danny O'Toole, renowned Dublin butcher in Terenure and Glasthule, recommends that if you buy the crown, you stuff it, give it a base of tin foil, tie the whole lot up with string and roast breast-side down for 15 minutes per pound (weigh the turkey breast after it has been stuffed).
Another solution, if you have just the breast meat and no bone, is to brine it. This is a technique which you can expect to see a lot of in future Christmas recipes, for brined turkey (or brined pork) has hit the US big time. It works by giving your meat that little extra flavour and moistness and it's a must for this dish of roast stuffed turkey fillet.
Christmas roast turkey fillet for two
1 large double breast, turkey fillet (boned)
115 g (4 oz) butter
Approximately 225 g280 g (8 oz10 oz) of your favourite stuffing (depending on the size of your bird)
The Brine: 1.2 litres (2 pints) water 1 tablespoon coarse sea salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2 bay leaves
2 star anise
8 crushed black peppercorns Equipment: 46 cm (18") square piece of muslin, and one large roasting tin
Ask your butcher to give you a double turkey fillet - making sure to keep the skin that connects it in one piece with no tears.
Make the brine on Christmas Eve: place all the brining ingredients in a large saucepan and bring to the boil. This will take longer than expected, because salted water comes to the boil much more slowly than unsalted water. When the water reaches boiling point, turn the heat down and simmer for five minutes. Allow to cool overnight.
Just more than three hours before you cook it, place the turkey breast into a large bowl and strain the cold brine over it. Allow to marinate for about three hours in the fridge. Drain the turkey and dry carefully with kitchen paper.
Pre-heat the oven to 325F/190C/Gas 5.
Stuff and prepare the turkey just before cooking:
Melt the butter in a small saucepan over a low heat. Take the pan off the heat and soak the muslin in the melted butter.
Place the muslin on your baking tin or tray and place the turkey meat on top, skin-side down. Season the meat with freshly-ground black pepper (no more salt if you have brined it) and place the stuffing in a mound on top. Carefully pull up the sides of the muslin, to bring the breast around the stuffing. Sew the edges of the muslin together with a trussing needle and kitchen string.
Turn over the turkey, and roast skin-side up for 15 minutes per pound in the pre-heated oven (a large double breast will take just more than an hour to cook).
Allow to sit for about 15 to 20 minutes before carefully cutting down the muslin, first on one side and then sliding out from under the turkey.
Serve the turkey with roast vegetables, including Neven Maguire's tip for roasted sprouts. Cut the sprouts in half, sprinkle over some olive oil and knobs of butter plus some freshly grated root ginger, nutmeg, perhaps some smoked bacon, and finely chopped garlic. Place in the preheated oven and cook until al dente.
Herbed pork and crouton stuffing
55 g (2 oz) good quality white bread, diced
1 onion, finely diced
1 stick celery, finely diced
1 tablespoon olive oil
225 g (8 oz) fatty minced pork (sausage meat)
salt and pepper
3 sage leaves, finely chopped
1 teaspoon parsley, finely chopped
1 teaspoon chives, finely chopped
1 egg, beaten
To prepare the stuffing: place the cubes of bread in a hot oven for about five minutes, until they brown slightly. Saute the onion and celery in the olive oil until soft, but not browned. Cool and add, with the bread cubes, to the remaining ingredients. Cool completely and then mix in the beaten egg.
Whether or not you have a carcass to make gravy, two essential accompaniments to this roast turkey are Neven Maguire's balsamic cream and tomato and avocado salsa.
Balsamic cream
100ml (31/2 fl oz) Balsamic Vinegar
150ml (quarter pint) home-made beef stock
100ml (31/2 fl oz) cream
1 tablespoon tomato puree seasoning
Make a rich beef stock with bones from your butcher. Roast them and then cook with a mirepoix of vegetables, some garlic and red wine. A good, flavourful stock is an essential for this sauce. What you don't use will freeze perfectly.
In a deep saucepan, reduce the balsamic vinegar to a syrup. Add in the remaining ingredients and reduce again to a sauce consistency. Season to taste.
Tomato and avocado salsa
Half a small red pepper
Half an avocado Half a tomato, de-seeded
1 clove garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil or chilli oil
Salt and pepper
Generous handful chopped fresh herbs (use parsley for roast turkey, coriander for spicy turkey)
Squeeze of lemon juice
Chop the garlic finely, dice the pepper and avocado and tomato very carefully. Neatly-cut vegetables make all the difference to the appearance of this dish. Toss together with the herbs, seasoning and oil. Squeeze some lemon juice over it.
Neven Maguire's spiced turkey supremes
This is a wonderful alternative to roasting the big bird. No hassle. No leftovers. Just a delicious dinner.
2 breasts of turkey
115 g (4 oz) white breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 tablespoon chilli powder
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
flour for dusting
1 egg, beaten
vegetable oil for deep frying
Slice the breasts thinly, place in an envelope of greaseproof paper and beat with a rolling pin until equally flattened. Mix together the breadcrumbs, spices, seeds and parsley. Dip the turkey into the flour, egg and finally breadcrumbs. Reserve in the fridge.
When you are ready to serve the turkey, deep fry in hot oil (250300 F) until crisp. Serve with the salsa and balsamic cream.
Christmas pudding with calvados butter
Nowadays there are loads of home-made Christmas puddings for sale, so the dinner for two has an easy and obvious conclusion. To make the dish your own, however, serve with this super recipe for calvados butter which comes from Anne Gernon, of the wonderful Brocka-on-the-Water restaurant, in Tipperary. The secret, says Anne, is that it is hand beaten - "the wooden spoon doesn't torture it like a processor". This is feasible when you're just cooking for two.
115g (quarter lb) butter
dash of calvados
1 dessertspoon caster sugar
Leave the butter out of the fridge for a few hours to soften it. Then add the calvados and sugar and beat with a wooden spoon until the ingredients are well combined. Keep the calvados butter in the fridge if you're not using it straight away. This can be made in advance.
Address Book
Special Christmas menu: The MacNean Bistro is serving salad of spicy turkey, confit of Thornhill goose and parfait of plum pudding with roast bananas, between Thursday and Sunday, until December 20th. Blacklion, Co Cavan tel: 072 53022.
Smoked Salmon: Brandon Cove, Kilquane, Ballydavid, Co Kerry tel: 066 55183 - delicious smoked salmon which is excellent value for money. Dunn's of Dublin, 95 Manor Street, Dublin 7 tel: 01 6773156 fax: 01 6773562 - fine range of smoked fish including wild salmon. Frank Hederman, Belvelley, Cobh, Co Cork tel: 021 811089 - amazing smoked salmon, available by post and at the Temple Bar Market, Dublin. The Lisdoonvarna Smoke- house, Lisdoonvarna, Co Clare tel: 065 74084 - Peter Curtin's smoked eel, mackerel and salmon are all available by post. Ummera Smoked Products, Ummera House, Timoleague, Co Cork tel: 023 46187 - for brilliant salmon, expensive and worth every penny. Terrific delivery service. Woodcock Smokery, Gort Brea, Castletownshend, Co Cork tel: 028 36232 - Sally Barnes's smoked salmon is among the best you can buy.
The Bird: Danny O'Toole, Terenure, Dublin 6W tel: 01 490 5457, and 1b Glasthule Road, Sandycove, Co Dublin tel: 01 2841125. John Downey, Terenure, Dublin 6W tel: 01 490 9239 Caviston's, Glasthule, Co Dublin tel: 01 2809120. C.R. Tormey and Sons, Oliver Plunkett Street, Mullingar, Co Westmeath tel: 044 42246; Mullingar Shopping Centre: 044 45433, Bridge Street, Tullamore, Co Offaly tel: 0506 21426; Galway Shopping Centre, Headford Road, Galway, Co Galway tel: 091 64067. Eamonn and James McGeough, Oughterard, Co Galway tel: 091 82351. Sean Loughnane, Foster Court, Galway, Co Galway tel: 091 564437. David Burns, Abbey Street, Bangor, Co Down tel: 08 01247 270073. George McCartney, Moira, Co Down tel: 08 01846 611422.