Setting up the kitchen one morning, one of the lovely bar staff popped through the kitchen for a morning fag on the rooftop to collect her thoughts and mentally prepare her day. On her way back through she looked at me with a slightly panicked look before asking “got any tips on cooking Christmas dinner?”. Its that time of year where people have invited friends and family over for lots of festive fun before the reality of the expectation and workload bitch slaps them into an overwhelming state of worry or panic. But it doesn’t have to be that way, by relaxing, breathing and working fairly organised it can go smoothly, and who knows, you might even enjoy it.
Confession time. I can not claim that this year or any for the last few years to cooking Christmas dinner, I am very lucky that my father in law gets a thrill out of creating the year long climatic roast that is Christmas lunch. He is a man that gets great pleasure out of cooking and for that reason I don’t have to par take.
BUT, I am a chef who has cooked more roast dinners than you’ve had school dinners and with a roast beef dinner being the majority shareholder in wedding choices and the fact I worked catering hundreds upon hundreds of weddings means I should be able to provide a few tips to make the day go better.
This isnt your Jamie or Gordon step by step recipe guide, its more of an overview and a observation of patterns, a few points will be key to avoiding stressful situations of oven management.
The night before, clean your kitchen before you begin. A messy kitchen will produce a messy mind, it clears your mind so grab the antibac. Next get on some Christmas music, or any music that gets you in a happy mood. Now most importantly, an I cant stress this enough ……pour yourself a large drink.
now do you feel better about this?, you bet your sweet ass.
To keep your turkey moister than my lady in Tom Hardys’ house, brining the bird is a good option. This means soaking it overnight in a solution of salt, sugar, aromatic herbs and spices. Nigella has a great recipe regarding this, its not essential but it is something that will elevate the turkey and keep it a better quality over the few days after.
next is vegetable prep, first grab your potatoes, peel, wash and cut ready for roast potatoes. Use a decent potato like king Edwards or maris pipers. cover with water in a bowl in the fridge (it will remove some starch), give the same treatment to parsnips and swede also carrots.
Next have a sip of wine, and its time for the sprouts, peel off the outer leaves and put a small criss cross on the bottom. Whilst prepping your sprouts put a pan of salted water on. Use a bit more salt than you usually do this is for two reasons, first it will add flavour to your veg, most people under season compared to professionals and secondly the salt will help keep the colour. Wait until your water is boiling, and I mean a proper boil, not a few little bubbles around the edge, when its boiling drop the sprouts, cook until desired softness. some people like them soft but you don’t want to be friends with those people. cook till the raw bite has gone and its cooked through. Keep tasting to check as its the best way to get them exactly how you want. then cool them down by getting them into cold water as fast as possible. This is called blanching. it allows you to cook you veg so its just a simple reheat on the day and cuts down cooking hob space and saves time.
repeat with green cabbage and carrots if you plan on doing boiled carrots.
If your doing red cabbage get it cooked and out the way just for a reheat.
The next day is show time, get yourself a glass of fizz, orange juice in it if early, festive music, wipe off your turkey and cook it so it comes out an hour before you want to sit down for lunch. As a general guide, in an oven preheated to 180C (350F, gas mark 4): allow 45 minutes per kilogram, plus 20 minutes, for a turkey under 4.5kg. allow 40 minutes per kilogram for a turkey that’s between 4.5kg and 6.5kg. allow 35 minutes per kilogram for a turkey of more than 6.5kg. cover with foil for 3/4 of cooking time then take foil off to get nice and golden for last 1/4.
Now par boil you potatoes, into salted boiling water boil them till the edges go soft, strain, give them a jiggle. Do the same with parsnips, (you don’t need long)
Now an hour and a half before kick off, add a tray of oil in with the turkey (separate shelf) this is for cooking your roasties. Add a few smashed garlic cloves (don’t peel) and some thyme or rosemary. Fuck it it’s Christmas do both if you fancy. Now pour yourself a glass of that nice white wine you brought for Christmas as that will get your palette started for the turkey later. So with an hour to go, bring out the turkey and meat probe the thickest parts. You want it around 75c. If you don’t have a probe put in a thin knife then put the side of the blade to your lip. If it’s hot you’ll know. So turkey out on to a plate, on the side and cover loosely with foil, it’ll carry on cooking a little but the fibres will relax making it more juicy and tender. This is resting the bird. Pour the cooking juices into a jug. If your doing swede and carrot mash turn it on about now.
An hour to go and the star of the show is done, now remember that hot oil in the oven, time to add your potatoes that have soft edges, season well and move them around in the oil till coated, bang them in oven and turn up to 190c. Put a big pan of salted water on to boil. It’s all calm and you’ve got at least 20 mins so have a top up, you’ve earned it.
30/40 mins to go, whack some honey on the parsnips, little bit of thyme, season and slam them in oven, give them spuds a turn or two. In with the pigs in blankets and stuffing. So the roast section is all working. Time to concentrate on the vegetables. Just keep an eye on the roasts and if getting too dark just turn the oven down a bit. If the swede and carrot is soft, strain it off whack an unhealthy amount of butter in there, mash it up, season to taste, happy days, cover and put to the side of hobs.
Now gravy! This is a biggy, take the fat off the juices from earlier, take your tin you roasted the turkey in and put it on a low heat, splash some white wine in and top yourself up whilst your pouring, this should loosen all those bits on the bottom, that my friend is flavour country. Pour in to the juices, now with your roast tin empty add the fat and then couple of tablespoons of plain flour to make a roux, cook for couple of minutes then bit by bit slowly add the juices whisking it in and viola gravy baby. If you add to much in one go it won’t be as smooth.
A quicker way is take the fat off the juices and heat the juices (add stock if needed) to the boil and add cornflour slurry (cornflour and water) that will thicken it, it just doesn’t have the same depth of flavour.
So by my guessing you have about 10/15 mins left till kick off, remember the Big pan of boiling water, start using it to reheat the vegetables you blanched last night. Within minutes it will be warmed through, a nice touch is to have a pan of melted butter to toss them though after heating them. So heat a vegetable, toss in butter put in bowl and cover with foil to keep warm last few minutes. Microwave the red cabbage hot if using and around now everything in the oven should look golden and sexy.
So MEAT, ROAST,VEGETABLES it’s kind of that basic and less daunting to group the elements together as opposed to thinking of every little detail. Now everything should be hot, everything should be cooked, turn everything off, get someone to run it to the table. Have a table bitch as it will stop you running back and forth, once it’s all out BREATHE, sip of wine and relax into it and enjoy.
Happy eating.
FOOD ANARCHY 