Richard Corrigan offers an alternative to the traditional Christmas turkey dinner.

Ingredients

For the Risotto:

  • 250 g pearl barley
  • 500 ml red wine
  • 1 onion (finely chopped)
  • 2 colves of garlic (finely chopped)
  • olive oil
  • heated turkey stock

To finish:

  • 1 celeriac (chopped into cubes)
  • oil
  • chopped tarragon
  • flat leafed parsley
  • for the stuffed turkey legs:
  • 2 deboned turkey legs
  • 2 onions (finely chopped)
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 50 g unsalted butter
  • 300 g breadcrumbs
  • 300 g good sausage meat
  • handful of sage (chopped)
  • couple of sprigs of thyme
  • 6 dried dates (chopped)
  • 12 slices pancetta

Method

To make the Risotto:

  1. Heat some oil in a flat based pan. Sweat off the onion and garlic. Add the red wine and allow reduce by half.
  2. Add in the pearl barley. Ladle in some stock enough to cover the pearl barley and allow it to come to a rolling boil.
  3. Cook for about 15-20 minutes until the pearl barley is cooked. Adjust the seasoning to taste.

To finish:

  1. Heat some oil and pan fry the cubed celeriac until cooked through and golden brown.
  2. Add some chopped tarragon and flat leafed parsley.

To make the Stuffed Turkey Legs:

  1. Melt the butter, sweat the onions and garlic. Add the breadcrumbs, sausage meat, herbs and dates together. Mix really well with your hands.
  2. To prepare the turkey legs - place the deboned turkey legs between two sheet of cling film and flatten them out with a meat hammer or the bottom of saucepan.
  3. Double over two sheets of tin foil and butter between the two layers and butter the piece facing you also.
  4. Place 6 slices of pancetta on the buttered tinfoil and put the flattened out turkey leg on the pancetta.
  5. Put stuffing down the centre of the flattened out leg and roll the turkey leg in the tin foil. Secure both ends of the tinfoil.
  6. Once the turkey leg is wrapped in tin foil, tie it with string and place in the fridge until ready to cook.

To cook:

  1. Place the wrapped turkey legs in a heated frying pan and cook for 10 minutes turning occasionally.
  2. Place in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees for 45 minutes. Allow 15 minutes resting time before slicing over the risotto.

Optional:

Shave some parmesan cheese over the pearl barley and roasted celeriac risotto to serve.