The classic Christmas
There is beauty in tradition and what better time to relive happy memories than having a classic Christmas feast? For your festive table of six, we have Christmas turkey roulade, the perfect roast veggies and Christmas pudding. Wash it down with a pomegranate sparkler.
Turkey roulade
|
1 turkey (4-5kg) 5 sprigs fresh thyme 2tbs sea salt 1tbs freshly ground black pepper |
1 per cent of meat weight meat glue (optional) 100g soft unsalted butter 1tsp sage (optional) |
Start by taking skin off from turkey, beginning from back and then just pulling it slowly, making gentle cuts underneath it. You should get one big whole piece of skin. Keep it in the fridge until needed.
Take the breast off the bone. Cut through, length wise, keeping it in one piece. Beat with meat hammer until very thin. Take the leg off the bone. Retain bones for gravy.
Spread a layer of cling film on the kitchen table. Lay out the breast, season with salt and pepper, meat glue powder and a few thyme leaves. Put the boneless leg meat on top. Season well with salt and pepper and put sage, thyme and meat glue on top. Roll in reserved skin and then tightly in cling film and cook for three hours and 45 minutes at 66°C in a pot of simmering water.
Once the turkey is ready, take it out of the cling film, and sear in a very hot pan until golden brown all over. Let it rest for at least 10 minutes before carving.
(Meat glue is available at supermarkets, such as Waitrose).
For gravy
|
1kg carrots 600g red onions 300g celery sticks 5 sprigs of fresh thyme Parsley stalks 5 peppercorns 2 bay leaves |
4 litres vegetable stock 150ml vegetable oil 25g unsalted butter 25g all-purpose flour 20g sea salt 10g freshly crushed black pepper Turkey bones |
Roast bones in the oven at 215°C for 45 minutes or until golden brown, turning occasionally. Get your mirepoix (carrots, red onions, celery, thyme, bay leaves, peppercorns) ready by peeling the vegetables and cutting into 2x2x2 cm cubes.
Heat a pot until hot. Add oil and the mirepoix. Sear the vegetables until golden brown. Add water and reduce to syrupy consistency. Add roasted turkey bones and enough vegetable stock just to cover the bones. Bring to a boil and then simmer for two hours, removing any fat or foam that forms on top. Add little bit of stock as it evaporates. Strain through a fine sieve.
In a new pot, melt the butter, add flour and cook on medium heat until it gets to a sand-like texture. Add strained turkey stock in small batches to reach desired gravy consistency. Cook for one and a half hours on medium heat stirring occasionally, making sure that it doesn’t burn.
Season to taste and cook for another 20 minutes. Strain through fine sieve, serve immediately.
For roast potatoes
|
2kg Maris Piper white potatoes 5 sprigs fresh rosemary 150g goose/duck fat |
1tbs salt 1tsp freshly ground black pepper 50g all-purpose flour |
Peel potatoes and cut them into large chunks. Cook in salted water until just tender (if potatoes show no resistance when pierced, they are ready).
Strain potatoes and shake so they become fluffy. Cool. Coat them in the fat, sprinkle with chopped rosemary and fold into flour seasoned with salt and white pepper. Roast them in the oven at 200°c for around 15 minutes, turning them from time to time so that they are nicely browned on all sides.
For roast vegetables
|
1kg carrots 1kg parsnips 1kg Brussels sprouts 1 ½ tbs salt |
1tsp freshly ground black pepper 50g unsalted butter 50g chopped parsley leaves (reserve stalks for gravy. See Gravy ingredients) |
In boiling salted water blanch peeled parsnips, carrots and then Brussels sprouts until just tender (use knife to check them).
Heat a non-stick pan, add butter and blanched vegetables and sear until browned. Season to taste and finish with chopped parsley.
For cranberry sauce
|
1kg fresh cranberries 4tbs sugar |
50ml water Salt and pepper to taste |
Cook 2/3 of fresh cranberries with sugar and water on medium heat for five minutes or until sugar dissolves. Add the rest of cranberries and cook for another 15 minutes or until cranberries burst and become soft. Adjust seasoning using salt, pepper and sugar.
For bread sauce
|
700ml milk 1 loaf white bread 1 white onion 4 cloves 1 bay leaf |
Few sprigs of fresh thyme 5 black peppercorns Whole nutmeg Salt and pepper to taste |
Remove crust from bread and blitz in a food processor to make bread crumbs.
Peel the onion, stud it with cloves. Bring milk to a boil with onion, bay leaves, peppercorns and thyme, then reduce heat. Cook for around 10 minutes to allow the flavours to infuse. Season and strain.
Put the strained milk in a new pot, bring to boil and add breadcrumbs in small batches until you achieve desired consistency. Note that sauce will thicken once cooled. If it is too thick, add more milk. Season with salt and freshly grated nutmeg. Serve immediately.
Christmas pudding
|
50g blanched almonds 200g box candied peel 1kg plain flour 100g soft fresh white breadcrumbs 1kg raisins |
100g light muscavado sugar 250g cold butter (unsalted) 2 large Bramley cooking apples 3 large eggs 1 whole nutmeg (you will use three quarters of it) |
Get everything prepared. Chop the almonds coarsely. Peel, core and chop the apples. Chop candied peel. (You can chop the almonds and apples in a food processor, but the peel must be done by hand.) Grate three quarters of the nutmeg.
Mix all the ingredients for the pudding, except the butter, in a large bowl.
Grate a quarter of the butter into a bowl, then mix everything together. Repeat until all the butter is grated, then mix for 3-4 minutes — the mixture will subside slightly after each stir.
Generously butter two 1.2 litre baking dishes and put a disc of greaseproof paper or baking parchment on the bottom of each. Pack in the pudding mixture. Cover with a double layer of greaseproof paper, leaving a half centimetre edge to fold outside the pan, in order to allow expansion, then tie with string (keep the paper in place with a rubber band while tying). Trim off excess paper.
Now stand each bowl on a large sheet of foil and bring the edges up over the top, then put another sheet of foil over the top and bring it down underneath to make a double package (this makes the dishes watertight). Tie with more string, and make a handle for easy lifting in and out of the pan.
Boil or oven-steam the puddings for eight hours, topping up with water as necessary. Remove from the pans and leave to cool overnight. When cold, discard the wrappings and re-wrap with fresh greaseproof paper, foil and string. Store in a cool, dry place until Christmas.
On Christmas Day, boil or oven-steam for an hour. Unwrap and serve.
Pomegranate sparkler (6 servings)
|
500ml pomegranate juice 250ml cranberry juice 250ml orange juice |
1 litre sparkling white grape juice 1 pomegranate 1 orange |
Pour the pomegranate, cranberry and orange juices into a jug filled with ice and stir.
Fill a glass with ice and half fill with juice mix. Top up with sparkling grape juice and stir gently. Garnish with one tsp of pomegranate seeds and a twist of orange. For a less sweet option use half sparkling grape juice and half sparkling mineral water.
The hipster Christmas
Don’t want to play by the book but still want a slice of Christmas fun? This is the menu for you.
We are serving honey-roasted duck with hand-cut chips and homemade red cabbage, chocolate cherry trifle and mulled ice tea. Good for a party of four.
Honey-roasted duck
|
1 organic duck (3-4kg) Local honey Sea salt to taste |
Freshly ground pepper Brine to soak the duck |
For the brine
|
3.6 litre water 400ml orange juice Peel of two oranges 5 cloves of garlic 350g demerara sugar 700g sea salt 3 ½ tbs curing salt |
4 star anise 3 bay leaf Sprigs of fresh thyme 5 coriander seeds 10 black peppercorns 5 cloves |
Put all the brine ingredients into a large pan, bring to boil and let it simmer for two minutes to allow the flavours to infuse. Chill the brine mix before adding the duck – ensure the duck is completely covered by the brine mix.
Keep in the fridge for two and a half hours to allow the brine to penetrate and moisten the bird. In case the duck is left longer in brine, after taking it out, soak in ice cold water for 15 minutes for every extra hour.
Drain the brined duck, place it on a trivet over a roasting tray and coat the bird in local honey, seasoned with salt and black pepper.
Roast the duck for 15 minutes breast up then turn over. Drain the excess fat and coat the duck with the juices from the roasting dish. Cook for another 15 minutes.
Baste again and cook the duck for an hour. Then coat again and turn and cook for a further 20 minutes or until golden brown and the skin is crispy.
Braised Red Cabbage
|
1.5kg red cabbage 300g white onions 100g oranges 100g light brown sugar 50g redcurrant jelly 25g butter 5 cloves |
3 star anise 20g cinnamon 300ml red vinegar 50ml white vinegar Salt and pepper 270ml vegetable oil 1tbs sea salt |
Quarter the red cabbage, remove hard stems and slice thinly. Put all of the ingredients into a pot and bring to boil on medium heat. Reduce heat and simmer. Cover with a lid and cook for one and a half hours until tender, stirring regularly. Once cooked adjust seasoning and fold in a teaspoon of redcurrant jelly to glaze.
Hand-cut chips
|
3kg peeled Maris Piper potatoes 270ml vegetable oil |
1tbs sea salt |
Cut potatoes into 2x2x10cm chips. Blanch in salt water until soft. Leave uncovered in the fridge for one and a half hours to dry out.
Fry on low heat for five minutes.
Leave in fridge again for another one and a half hours.
Finally fry on high heat for four to five minutes or until golden brown.
Remove from the fryer and drain. Sprinkle sea salt.
Chocolate cherry trifle (serves 4)
100g chocolate brownies, semi-dried
400g chocolate custard (can use store-bought also)
200g creme Chantilly (whipped cream with vanilla essence and sugar to taste)
80g cherries in syrup (reserve four for garnish)
40g chocolate shavings
For chocolate custard
|
130g 70 per cent chocolate 315ml milk 315ml cream |
8 egg yolks 100g sugar 5tbs cocoa powder |
In a saucepan warm the milk and cream. Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and cocoa in a large bowl. Pour the warm milk and cream into the bowl whisking it into the yolks and sugar mix. Stir in the melted chocolate, scraping the sides well with a rubber spatula to get all of it in and pour the custard back into the rinsed saucepan. Cook over medium heat until the custard thickens, stirring all the time. Make sure it doesn’t boil, as it will split and curdle.
The custard will get darker as it cooks and the flecks of chocolate will melt once the custard has thickened. (It continues to thicken as it cools and also when it’s chilling in the refrigerator.) Once it is ready, pour into a bowl to cool and cover the top of the custard with cling wrap to prevent a skin from forming.
To assemble the trifle, crumble the chocolate brownie and put in the bottom of four cups. Put a few cherries in each cup and two spoonfuls of custard (after setting, if made at home). Sprinkle a few chocolate shavings. Repeat. Layer with custard to ensure you get a smooth top. Then add the rest of chocolate. Spoon creme Chantilly on top of each until all is used. Garnish with chocolate shavings and a cherry. Keep in fridge for at least two hours before serving.
Mulled iced tea (serves 4-6)
2 litres cold brewed tea
750ml sugar syrup (750ml water and 750g sugar)
6 cinnamon sticks
1 orange
For the tea, steep about two and a half tablespoons of black tea leaves in a large jug of room temperature mineral water for an hour. Stir thoroughly. Then place the mixture in the fridge for another three hours. Make sure to check the strength of the tea as some teas will become bitter if left to steep for too long.
For the sugar syrup, simmer water. Do not let it boil. Stir in the sugar little by little, dissolving it completely before adding more. The mixture should not boil. Once all the sugar is dissolved, remove from heat and cool.
Pour the cold tea mixture and 500ml of sugar syrup into a jug with ice and stir.
Char cinnamon sticks over an open flame. When cooled add them to the mix with 6-8 slices of orange. Serve the remaining sugar syrup on the side to allow guests to sweeten to taste.
Serving suggestion: Serve in kilner jar with charred cinnamon sticks and orange slices.
Christmas for two
For those who don’t want a Christmas blow-out and would prefer something intimate, this menu is easy to prep and make, and easy on the pocket too. On the menu — one-pot chicken, Christmas Eton mess and ginger lemonade.
One-pot chicken
|
1 whole chicken (about 1.3kg, brined) 1kg carrots 1kg potatoes 7 sprigs of fresh thyme 8 garlic cloves, peeled |
4 medium-sized shallots/red onions 5tbs oil 1 ½ tbs salt 1tbs freshly ground black pepper |
For the brine
|
1 litre water 2 peeled garlic cloves 5tbs demerara sugar 75g salt |
1 bay leaf Sprigs of fresh thyme Coriander seeds Black peppercorns |
Brining the chicken will help it stay moist as salt will tie water molecules to it. Sugar will help the chicken achieve a beautiful golden brown caramelised finish. To brine, put all the ingredients into a pan and bring it to the boil. Allow to simmer for two minutes. Chill the liquid and once cold add the chicken, making sure the bird is completely soaked in the brine. Store in the fridge for two hours. In case the chicken is left in the brine for longer, soak it in ice cold water – 15 minutes for every extra hour – before roasting.
Peel the vegetables and blanch them separately, leaving them a little undercooked. Mix vegetables with a oil and thyme, season well and lay on roasting tray.
Put the brined chicken on top of vegetables on a trivet and roast for 45 minutes, turning it once after 20 minutes and second time after another 15 minutes.
Christmas Eton mess
100g creme Chantilly
10g meringue pieces
40g Christmas pudding, crumbled
30g cranberry coulis
Whisk the creme Chantilly until set. Combine all of the above ingredients together in a chilled bowl, leaving some of the pudding mix, coulis and meringue aside for garnish. Spoon onto plate. Garnish then finish with cranberry coulis.
Ginger lemonade (4-6 servings)
60ml ginger juice (200g ginger and 200ml water)
600ml lemon juice (1.5kg lemon)
200ml sugar syrup (200g sugar and 200ml water)
250ml sparkling water
For the ginger juice, peel and roughly chop ginger and add to blender with enough water to cover the pieces. Blend until mixture is a smooth paste. Pass the paste through a strainer. Chill.
For the lemon juice, squeeze lemons through a strainer. Chill.
Once made, pour lemon juice, ginger juice and sugar syrup into a jug over ice and stir. Pour approximately 175ml of the mixture into individual glasses and top up with sparkling water.
