Roasted turkey with pan gravy

Unwrap the turkey without cutting the skin, remove the pop-out thermometer button, and take the neck and giblets out of the cavity.

Rinse it well with cold water and pat it very dry with paper towels, since a dry start is what gives crispy golden skin.

Make a bed in the roasting pan of three celery stalks, peeled carrots, garlic cloves and quartered peeled onions, and season the vegetables with salt and pepper.

Pour about two cups of low sodium chicken broth over the vegetables and add the turkey neck, giblets and heart; this becomes the stock for the gravy.

Set the turkey on top of the vegetables.

Herbed butter: grate three garlic cloves into salted butter, zest then juice a lemon into it, add the juice of an orange, a teaspoon of salt and a tablespoon of dried oregano, and mix.

Loosen the skin gently with a spoon and then by hand to make pockets over the breast and under the thighs, without tearing it.

Put a few tablespoons of the butter under the breast skin on both sides and under the skin of the drumsticks and thighs, and rub the rest all over the top.

Into the cavity put a heaping teaspoon of cumin powder, a teaspoon of salt, a touch of crushed red pepper flakes, 10 to 12 peeled garlic cloves and a bunch of fresh oregano and sage, without overstuffing it so the airflow is not blocked.

Season the top liberally with salt, a little pepper and dried oregano.

Tie the legs together with kitchen twine and tuck the wings underneath the neck area so everything cooks evenly.

Tent parchment paper over the turkey and cover that with aluminum foil, so the foil never touches the food.

Roast covered at 325F for two hours.

Take the foil and parchment off, insert the meat thermometer into the thickest part of the leg or thigh, and baste with the pan juices every 20 minutes until it reads 165F.

Take it out at 165F, remove the thermometer, transfer it to a platter and tent it with parchment or foil.

Rest it a good 30 minutes so the juices redistribute; it stays warm an hour to an hour and a half.

Lift the vegetables out of the pan and strain all the pan juices into a measuring cup, pushing the garlic through the strainer; four cups are needed, topped up with chicken stock if short.

Separate the fat in a gravy separator, or chill the juices and lift the solidified fat off.

Melt four tablespoons of salted butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat, add about a third of a cup of all-purpose flour and cook it until it smells nicely toasted, adding a little of the separated fat if it dries out.

Whisk in two cups of the stock until smooth, then the remaining two cups.

Add about two to three tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice and some freshly cracked pepper, bring it to a boil, then taste before adding any salt.

Cook it to the consistency wanted; longer and hotter thickens it, and chicken stock thins it back down.

Put a ladleful or two of gravy on the cutting board before slicing so the turkey absorbs it, and drizzle more on top.