Soak the cranberries in port and grated ginger for at least an hour

Put the chestnuts on to boil for half an hour or so, leave them to cool and then peel them (I did this the evening before and once peeled, put them in the fridge)

If you are going to make stock, put the turkey bones (or neck and giblets) into a large pan with some celery sticks, a leek, a couple of onions, 2 carrots, some bayleaves, generous pinch of salt, a large piece of peeled ginger and water (should almost cover ingredients). Covered and simmered for a couple of hours. This provided heaps of stock, some of which I put into the freezer for future soups, and some of which I put in the fridge for Christmas Day gravy.

Chop the onion, celery and garlic as small as poss. Chop the walnuts and chestnuts and grate the bread. Wash and chop the herbs and get the meat out of the sausages.

Sauté the onions and garlic in a little oil for about five minutes.

Add the sausage meat and stir

Add the port and cranberries and leave to simmer for 10 minutes. (I had an opened bottle of cava in the fridge so couldn't resist adding a slosh of that too)

Add the nuts and breadcrumbs, stir well and simmer another 5-10 minutes until the liquid has been absorbed

Add the herbs, stir well, cover and leave covered for 5 minutes more.

Taste and add salt and black pepper accordingly. Put in an airtight container and store in the fridge if it is for future use. Or just start stuffing if you are doing the whole marathon in one go.

This is what the stock looked like after 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 250º. Stuff your turkey (or bird of choice). I used string to tie ours but this isn't strictly necessary and I wouldn't have done so if it hadn't been deboned.

Put the turkey in the oven, I put it in like this, with the baking sheet underneath to catch all the juices. After the first 30 minutes, put the heat down to 180º and then cooking time will be proportional to the size of your turkey - roughly 30 minutes per kg.

To check that the turkey is done, stick a prong just above the leg. If the juices that come out are clear, it is fully cooked.

Leave the turkey to rest for half an hour before carving

While it is resting, heat the stock up and carefully pour the juices into the pan to make the gravy. Get your veg ready

And put your par-boiled potatoes and parsnips in the baking sheet. Add salt and pepper and put in a very hot oven (25º) for half an hour so they crisp up nicely.

Serve the carved turkey on large warmed plates so that family and friends can serve themselves. Enjoy and Happy Christmas!!!