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Roast Turkey With Port Wine
 
This is a typical Christmas dinner from Alentejo; you may use this recipe for your Thanksgiving turkey. Be careful to leave your bird in salt water with lemon and orange slices for 1 or 2 days before roasting it; if I have a frozen bird I defrost it in that water.
 
1 bird
salt
lemon
Port Wine - 20 years Old Tawny
White wine from Douro Valley
Olive oil and butter
Sliced onions
Presunto slices 
For the chestnut / greens stuffing:
Cooked chestnuts
Bitter greens (like broccoli di rape, but you may use swiss chard or spinach if you don't like bitter greens)
Olive oil
1 tbs minced garlic
 
Rub your bird with salt and sprinkle with lemon juice and Port Wine inside and out. Drizzle with olive oil an put a few butter pats on it. Prik a lemon with a fork and stuff it in the body cavity if you are not stuffing the bird. Put the bird in a roasting pan with the sliced onions; you may add some quartered potatoes and roast them together. Let it roast at 350º, basting sprinkling frequently with white wine and Port Wine; you will use up to a bottle white wine and half bottle Port in the process!
 

 

 

Stuffing

 

 

 

Cook the greens, drain and chop. Put in a baking tray together with chopped chestnuts, garlic, and a bit olive oil. Stuff the bird or season and add some fat from the roast. Bake until hot and golden. 
 
Rice Pilaf
 
1 onion
olive oil
1 cup rice
2 cups water
salt and bayleaf
 
Finely mince the onion and sauté in the olive oil until it turns golden. Add the water, bayleaf and salt and simmer, covered, for ten minutes. Add the rice, cover and cook on low heat about 15 minutes. Turn off the heat, wrap the pan in a cloth and let it rest a further 30 minutes. Loosen the grains with a fork before serving.