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Jamie's Cook Ahead Christmas
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#Christmas
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FunTranscript
00:00A year can feel a little bit daunting, but not this year.
00:03We're going to cook ahead of time so it takes all of the kitchen chaos out of the big day.
00:11From what we can do well in advance to how to prep in the days and night before,
00:17we're talking delicious starters, epic desserts, incredible veggies and a genius way to cook the turkey.
00:27You'll be so far ahead, there won't be much left to do on the day and I'm going to be with you every step of the way.
00:35So grab your apron, roll up your sleeves and join me on this journey
00:40and make sure this Christmas is all about great food, great company and no last minute stress.
00:56In early December, we can get stuff done way in advance using the freezer as our best friend.
01:03A perfect cook ahead veggie centrepiece, gravy that's good for everyone, sensational stuffing, festive veg
01:11and a winning Christmas dessert already ahead of time so we can all relax on the big day.
01:18I'm going to kick things off by sharing with you the most delicious gratin.
01:28It's a great recipe because you can do it weeks in advance and I'm going to give you not one,
01:32but two ways of serving it so you've got all bases covered.
01:35This special cook ahead vegetable dish adds the perfect oozy cheesiness to your festive feast.
01:44A stunning combo of sliced potatoes and seasonal veg smothered in a herb infused cheesy garlic sauce.
01:52Frozen ahead of time, it's ready to be a potato and fennel gratin or transformed into a superstar centrepiece pie.
01:59I think learning how to do a delicious gratin is a really good principle recipe.
02:06It's going to start off with some milk and some cream and I'm just going to get a pan on to like a medium heat
02:14and put 300 ml of milk into the pan and 200 ml of lovely double cream.
02:22As that temperature comes up, we can get some herbs in there, a couple of bay leaves, get some rosemary in there,
02:29also a classic Christmas spice, nutmeg.
02:35Grate about half of it into this cream and milk with a pinch of salt and pepper.
02:44And then I'm going to take a couple of garlic cloves and just finely slice it.
02:49So this is going to infuse the milk in the most beautiful, garlicky, herbal, spiced way.
02:57It's going to be fantastic.
03:00So look, beautiful potatoes, 800 grams.
03:03I'm going to peel these and all those layers of sliced up potatoes and veggies with creamy, cheesy, herby gorgeousness.
03:12That for me is absolute heaven.
03:16So now that's come to the boil, let's turn it off.
03:19And that smells absolutely incredible.
03:21So I'll leave that for the moment.
03:23To go with these sliced potatoes, we're going to get some onion and finely slice them again.
03:29Now I'm going to use fennel.
03:31It's really fresh.
03:32It cooks super sweet.
03:34And these stalks you can just finely slice as well.
03:37They'll be utterly delicious.
03:39The best thing about this recipe is you can do it before Christmas.
03:44And once we've made it and cooked it, we can pop it in the freezer, no compromise, right?
03:50So we have this beautiful milk and cream, which is fantastically scented.
03:55Remove the herbs and the bay.
03:58They have done their job.
04:00I want to add some cheese.
04:01I'm going a little bit Italian with some parmesan, but then some great British farmhouse cheeses.
04:08So I've got some fantastic cheddar here, but you can pick the cheeses that you love.
04:13And I want about 100 grams.
04:17I'm just mixing the cheese and the residual heat from the milk and cream will just slowly melt that into a kind of rustic cheese sauce.
04:26That is the basis of our flavour.
04:29So, take a little dish, about kind of like 10 inches wide.
04:34I'm going to get some greaseproof paper, scrumple it up, and I'll give it a little season now with salt and pepper.
04:42So just fan that around like that.
04:45Any old how, frankly.
04:48And another bit, shuffle in, pat it down.
04:52Then we can take our amazing cheese-scented sauce and just pour that over.
04:59Oh, yes.
05:02I love it.
05:04And as it cooks, all the veggies will soften up.
05:07And then the sauce will bubble up in and around everything.
05:11We're going to cook it now, cool it, and put it in the freezer.
05:14When I want it, I can take it out the day before, and then I can turn it into a fantastic side dish.
05:20Or you can turn it into the most amazing showstopper of a pie.
05:24This is about getting things done in advance, but giving you options.
05:28So, one great dish, two ways, giving you loads of choices.
05:32Happy days.
05:32Happy days.
05:38Beautiful.
05:39That goes in the oven for one and a half hours at 180 degrees Celsius, which is 350 Fahrenheit.
05:44While that gratin is cooking, I want to show you how to make homemade pastry.
05:51Now, you can buy short-cost pastry, phyllo pastry, and puff pastry, but the texture is much more optimal when you make it yourself.
05:58It's a very simple recipe.
06:00Half fat to flour.
06:01So, we've got 500 grams of plain flour, and then half the amount in weight of butter.
06:09So, 250 grams.
06:11Get a nice pinch of salt, then rub the flour into the butter.
06:16Almost into like little cornflake pieces.
06:20What I love about these get-ahead recipes is this idea that we can build up an arsenal of deliciousness
06:29in our fridge and freezers to make Christmas Day the easiest one ever.
06:35Now, the exciting thing about making your own pastry is you can flavor it.
06:39And I want to use walnuts.
06:41I've just got 50 grams here.
06:43If you grate them, you create a walnut flour.
06:47And then I'm going to take one lovely egg.
06:52Give it a little whisk up.
06:54Now, I'm not over-mixing it or kneading it because I want it to remain short.
07:01Short means crumbly, like that.
07:03And you might need just a little splash of water.
07:09Just kind of almost hug it together.
07:13And cut this in half and press it out into two, sort of, two-centimetre discs.
07:20They'll defrost much, much quicker.
07:22Grab some greaseproof paper.
07:28So, wrap it up for Christmas.
07:30Literally for Christmas.
07:32So, there you go.
07:34Homemade pastry, ready and raring to go.
07:37This can simply go in the freezer until you need it.
07:42So, this has been cooking for an hour and a half.
07:53Just carefully take the lid off.
07:55It'll be steamy, so watch out.
07:58Look at that.
07:58Oh, goodness gracious.
08:00Let this cool down.
08:03I'll put the tinfoil back on top.
08:05We can put it in the freezer.
08:06One week, two weeks, even months.
08:08Okay?
08:09No compromise.
08:10Then, when you want it, the day before, we take it out of the freezer.
08:14Okay?
08:14And we can turn it out.
08:15Now, if you want it as a gratin, you simply take that frozen gratin back into this dish.
08:21Bit of cheese on top.
08:22And then, the next day, into the oven.
08:24180, 40 minutes.
08:26Golden, blipping, perfection.
08:28Fantastic.
08:28Or, we can use it for the most amazingly insane vegetarian pie.
08:35So, if we've made this and frozen it a few weeks before Christmas, I'm going to show you
08:40what to do on Christmas Eve to turn this delicious side dish into a show-stopping centerpiece.
08:48Whenever you want to use it, just get it out the day before and put it in the fridge.
08:52So, I want to get our pastry.
08:54I did it into two pieces, remember?
08:56Once that's defrosted, take the greaseproof paper, like that.
09:01We put the pastry on top.
09:02Some more greaseproof paper.
09:04So, the double greaseproof paper method guarantees you have no cracking or breaking.
09:11That is what we like at Christmas.
09:14So, this is looking really good.
09:19Cut it into a little circle like that.
09:22Put a little bit of flour on there.
09:23Now, go over with our gratin.
09:29Take this greaseproof off.
09:31I want about an inch around the outside.
09:35This is the base.
09:37Very flipping, exciting.
09:40Then we'll go back to our pastry.
09:41And I'll do exactly the same.
09:45But this time, of course, we've got to go over the top and down the sides.
09:49So, we need it to be slightly bigger.
09:51So, a little flour here.
09:54Rolling pin.
09:56And then I'm going to get that pastry and roll it up over the rolling pin.
10:01Super simple, right?
10:02Put the pastry to one side.
10:04I'm going to get myself two eggs, two bowls, egg whites into one.
10:11What we can do is use the yolks for the outside to create the most incredible golden egg wash that will make it look so, so special.
10:22Then here with the whites, I can use to really stick the pastry to the pastry so we don't waste anything.
10:33Then we simply take the pastry and we just casually roll it over like that.
10:40Then we press it on the top, gently, and down onto the pastry.
10:46It's really easy.
10:48And we'll trim it off.
10:50It's roughly an inch away from the pie.
10:56And then let me show you how we can do the edges here.
11:00I'm going to take my thumb and forefinger and use my finger to push it in between.
11:04And then we go to the next one.
11:07So we're sealing it and we're giving it a nice Christmassy flourish.
11:13Use the egg yolks on the top.
11:16Like that.
11:19And give it a nice little coat.
11:21What you can do is take a little knife, get down on your knees, just go from the centre and using just the weight of the knife, don't push it down at all.
11:31Just score it down in a little curve.
11:36Because as that cooks, that little score is going to just open up and part slightly.
11:43Just get your knife in now, in a little crisscross.
11:46That lets the steam out.
11:48And look at that.
11:49That is a beautiful pie.
11:50That is a centrepiece.
11:51And what I do now is just get it carefully onto a tray.
11:56So in theory, if you're doing the whole get ahead thing, we would put that in the fridge nice and safe.
12:00You could do it Christmas Eve or even the day before that.
12:03But I want to cook it for you now so you know what you're going to get.
12:06Simply put it at the bottom of the oven so you get a nice crispy bum.
12:09And we cook it for one hour at 180 degrees Celsius, which is 350 Fahrenheit.
12:13Come on.
12:22Look at that.
12:25I love the scores.
12:27I love the cracks where the juices are just spilling out.
12:31Let's get a nice little slice.
12:33That is like opening up a beautiful little edible Christmas present perfectly cooked pastry
12:43Right let's have a try
12:46We're waiting too far
12:55That is delicious
12:59I mean double carb
13:01We're a flouncing of fennel
13:04And beautiful oozy creamy cheesy
13:07Gorgeousness the nutmeg hit is just phenomenal
13:11That is so so delicious
13:13That in the middle of the table with all the Christmas trimmings
13:17It's going to be amazing
13:18Two recipes in one
13:20Give yourself options
13:21Happy blooming Christmas
13:31Behind every great roast dinner is an incredible gravy and I want to show you a fantastic get-ahead gravy that is not only going to please the meat eaters but the veggies and the vegans and the gluten-free. Yes, I've got you covered.
13:58This Christmas gravy is an absolute game changer. With a dried mushroom and herb stock, blackberry jam and festive port. It's rich, comforting and really is good for everyone. Perfect to get all wrapped up well ahead of Christmas.
14:16Now for meat eaters, like having gravy made out of stock and bones and all the kind of meat drippings and stuff like that, that is easy big flavour achieved but if we wind back to veggie and vegan world you need a few bits of technique and ingredients to make it utterly undeniably delicious.
14:33And I've written this recipe so we can actually look after everyone.
14:37We're starting with two onions. Just roughly chop those. Nice big pan on a medium heat.
14:43In here we go with some olive oil. We're going to go in with our onions and we'll start to fry these off.
14:50Then I've got some lovely carrots here. The carrots have had a nice little wash. Don't peel them. There's a lot of flavour in the skin.
14:57And we'll simply just split these in half and then roughly chop these as well.
15:05So onions in, carrots in. Now instead of just kind of putting liquid on there and boiling straight away, what I want to do is invest time into concentrating and caramelising all the natural sugars in the onion and the carrots.
15:19That's going to give us colour. We want gravy to be dark and it's going to give us massive flavour. Season a little bit with salt and pepper.
15:28Now celery is fantastic. It's fragrant and we're just going to roughly chop that up.
15:35And as that fries away I want to start thinking about a nice beautiful stock. I'm going to use dried mushrooms.
15:43Now look at these. Dried mushrooms are amazing. You can get them from the supermarkets and when you dry mushrooms it's really hearty flavours that you're going to get from this.
15:54And just a small amount will make all the difference. Put in here like a litre, litre and a half of boiling water.
16:01We're going to rehydrate the mushrooms and they'll start giving off incredible colour.
16:08So what else can we do? Things like rosemary. You can put that also into this lovely homemade stock.
16:15We're going to go in with some bay leaves and some lovely thyme as well. It's all flavour.
16:22I'll add now your typical veggie stock cube into here. Now there's all kinds of different yeast extracts that you can get.
16:29This is a fantastic way to give your veggie vegan gravy more colour, more depth of flavour and a nice base of seasoning.
16:37So let that infuse. Now let's have a little look at the pan. It's getting dark now. Don't be afraid of that.
16:43Add fresh herbs to this as well. So some rosemary goes in. Bay leaf. We take a little bit of thyme.
16:52Now I'm going to use a couple of nice teaspoons of blackcurrant or blackberry jam.
16:58This sweetness balances your beautiful gravy. So I'm going to stir that in with a nice lug of port.
17:06The jam and the port makes this an amazing Christmas gravy. And then a little tomato puree.
17:14So a couple of tablespoons. And then two tablespoons of gluten free flour.
17:21And of course, if no one coming to your party is gluten free, just use regular plain flour.
17:27And then just a couple of tablespoons of vinegar will transform this. Like you have to trust me.
17:33We want your taste buds to be firing on all cylinders like bass, mid and treble, right? Surround sound flavours.
17:43Now this goes in. Let it sizzle up. It's all good. So bring that to the boil and let that simmer for about ten minutes.
17:50It smells incredible. Pull out the herbs. Like the rosemary. They have done their job.
18:06So we can get rid of those. And ladle this into this liquidiser. The colour looks phenomenal.
18:13We're going to put this on top like that. We don't want any mishaps.
18:18And we'll start on the lowest setting. Super, super low. Slowly, slowly.
18:27Then we can increase that speed.
18:35So that's it. I'll push this through the core sieve.
18:39Just look at that blipping away. Beautiful.
18:42Right. Let's have a little try. This is your opportunity to check the seasoning.
18:47Big, bold, delicious, elegant. That is an epic gravy. That is probably, in my opinion, one of the best veggie vegan gravies I've ever had, right?
19:00And I like that consistency. The colour's amazing. We have now got epic gravy done, right? Weeks before Christmas. The stress has gone. We're never going to run out.
19:09But also, on Christmas Day when you're resting the turkey, right? We just take that fat off the tray with all the sticky bits in the bottom.
19:16And we put that in there. Simmer it away. And you're going to get the best turkey gravy as well. This is a win-win scenario.
19:22So, you can put it in Tupperware. You can put it in these little bags. But it's just a brilliant thing that gives you choices.
19:28And that's going to free up time and hopefully make this the best Christmas ever.
19:32If you can make a really good stuffing at Christmas, people seem to go wild for it.
19:46And I've got an amazing recipe that you can do well ahead of the game, which means you can devote more time to flavours and textures.
19:52We can make it up, get it in the freezer, and then before Christmas Day, we can defrost it. This is going to be good.
19:59My festive get-ahead stuffing is brilliantly veggie, packed with scrumptious squash, herbs, spices, fruit and nuts.
20:07Prep and freeze in advance as the perfect little present to yourself this Christmas.
20:12So, there's many, many ways you can do a stuffing. And obviously, the history of stuffing was all about stretching the meat further.
20:19We're going to make this vegetarian. I want to introduce a few new flavours that I think are really Christmassy and really delicious.
20:26So, at the base of this is a butternut squash. So, get the tip of the knife, put it in nice and safely here, and then just bring it down like that.
20:34Then pick it up, move it around. The tip is still in. We're going to go down. It's nice and easy, okay?
20:41Remove the seeds. You don't have to remove the peel because it's really delicate, really thin and sweet and nutty.
20:49Go down the length of the squash again, nice and carefully. Some nice red onions.
20:55And then cut them into quarters. Add a little bit of sea salt. We want some pepper.
21:02And also best friends with squash, by the way, is ground coriander. So, a teaspoon and a nice little pinch of cinnamon in there as well.
21:14And then a classic spice that's often underloved, nutmeg.
21:20Half a nutmeg goes in. And then just a little olive oil. So, get your hands in there. Toss it all up.
21:32So, this goes in the oven for about 40 minutes at 190 degrees Celsius, which is 350 Fahrenheit.
21:37And this will be the base of the best stuffing ever.
21:47So, the squash is nearly done, and I've got some lovely sage here.
21:50And I want to show you a little tip that will transform this herb into something very special.
21:55Just a little olive oil and just massage it. And then if I sprinkle this over the squash, just for 5-10 minutes in the oven, they will go crispy crisp.
22:04So, if you have a little look at this, you can see it's already shrunk.
22:09And that shrinking is concentration of flavour. Let's sprinkle this over the top, right?
22:14And putting that back in the oven now, for 5-10 minutes, these will go really crisp.
22:23So, a typical stuffing would often have, nearly always, bread. Right, breadcrumbs.
22:29500 grams I've got there. Remove the crust first.
22:34And traditionally, you would always make stuffing with stale bread.
22:37So, what I'm going to do is rehydrate it with milk.
22:42And we're just going to pour some milk in.
22:45Let's say a couple of hundred mils.
22:47And it will just soften it up.
22:50Squeeze it out.
22:52So, this excess milk here, we can just lose that.
22:56So, look, you can see now, this is light and spongy.
23:01Let me just touch my hands.
23:04Now, currently, this stuffing is vegetarian.
23:07If I swap the milk for water, which is still very traditional, it will be vegan.
23:12And if you wanted to, you could take a little batch of this beautiful stuffing and mix it with some sausage meat and have a meat version as well.
23:20They're all incredible.
23:22So, look.
23:23Oh, the colours and the smells.
23:27And you can see how crisp this has gone.
23:33Unbelievable.
23:35Amazing flavour.
23:36So, now what we can do is bejewel this beautiful stuffing.
23:42I've got some cranberries.
23:43A nice little handful.
23:45Sweet and sour.
23:47Secondly, like a little handful of pistachios.
23:50And just cut through some of these.
23:54I'm going to use some of these vat-packed chestnuts.
23:59That is the flavour of Christmas.
24:01Come on.
24:02So, we can leave some whole.
24:03Some halved, like that.
24:05And then some, we can literally break up like a little powder.
24:10And sprinkle that on top.
24:12Now, in with the bread.
24:15I use the back of the spoon to kind of squash it.
24:18So, this is done now.
24:21Right?
24:22You can put it in the fridge for like two or three days.
24:23Easy peasy.
24:24Or get it in the freezer like weeks before if you want to be super in advance.
24:28It's a great job done and dusted.
24:30So, what I would do if it was frozen is just take it out on Christmas Eve.
24:33Let it defrost.
24:34And then, once that's defrosted, I like to do two things with the stuffing.
24:38The first thing is I take a third and I'll stuff that into the turkey.
24:42And that way, it'll absorb all the cooking juices.
24:44It'll be soft and gorgeous.
24:45But then, I take the other two thirds and I love to put it into a bowl or a tin.
24:51And then, that way, we can roast it in here and get crispy edges.
24:54A completely different experience.
24:56And I promise you, people will be screaming about your stuffing.
24:59So, this is non-stick.
25:02So, I just like to double make sure it's non-stick by rubbing it with some olive oil.
25:06Then, I'm going to take two thirds of this lovely mix and pop it in here.
25:11Think of it almost like the most delicious, Christmassy, edible sandcastle.
25:17This goes into the oven at 180 degrees Celsius, which is 350 Fahrenheit, for about an hour until golden, crisp and delicious.
25:26Look at that!
25:36Come on!
25:38So, simply get your mould and then hope for a turnout that works.
25:45I'm feeling good about it.
25:47Look at the sage as well.
25:50That is exactly what I wanted.
25:54Get in there.
25:55Look at that.
25:56Crispy on the outside.
25:57Soft in the middle.
25:58And, obviously, I've just cooked this to show you.
26:00But I have to taste as well to give you my professional opinion.
26:12Mmm.
26:13It's really soft and light on the inside.
26:17On the outside, it's crunchy.
26:21And those little kind of bejeweling of lovely cranberries and the lovely pistachios and the chestnuts.
26:28It's absolutely blooming delicious.
26:30That's another really important job done and dusted.
26:33So, it's going to make your Christmas a little bit easier this year.
26:36Love it.
26:37Flavoured butters, I think, are an amazing principle that will serve you and your family really, really well.
27:02And, especially at Christmas, this is like a little bank, a little library of flavours in the form of butter that can go into so many dishes, leftovers, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and beyond.
27:15My flavoured butters are the easiest way to get ahead with big flavour this Christmas.
27:21I'm making one with fresh parsley, watercress and hot horse reddish to go with a gorgeous platter of greens.
27:27And, a mouth-tingling Prosecco orange and cumin butter that's perfect with carrots.
27:33Super simple and done in advance to add big flavour to veggies on Christmas Day.
27:40So, in here, pestle and mortar.
27:42Get some lovely parsley stalks and all.
27:45I've also got some watercress.
27:47It's nice and mustardy and beautiful.
27:49So, just pound it up.
27:51A little seasoning of salt helps create a little bit of abrasion.
27:56Just give it a bash for 20 seconds hardcore.
27:58And, look at it.
28:01It's green, rustic.
28:03Now, this is a fresh horseradish.
28:06You just give it a little peel and then you can grate it.
28:09And, of course, it's hot and spicy.
28:11You can buy the jarred stuff, creamed or not.
28:14It doesn't matter.
28:15So, we've got parsley, watercress and horseradish.
28:19Nice.
28:20And then, something that works really, really well with this is lemon.
28:24We'll use the zest because it's our best friend and the juice.
28:28So, make up your own combos.
28:30Look, there's no real right or wrong.
28:32And, a little bit of lemon juice goes in here.
28:35Salt and pepper to season it.
28:38And then, we'll go in with a pack of butter.
28:43Now, if you think about having three or four of these in your freezer at Christmas time,
28:47then you can dedicate one combo to Brussels sprouts.
28:50And then, one combo to some lovely carrots.
28:53And, for me, when you look at the Christmas table,
28:56when each thing has got its own single-mindedness and unique flavour profile,
29:01that is when you've got a feast of all feasts.
29:04Now, I want to show you how to store this flavoured butter.
29:08Let me just wash my hands.
29:10Cut two sheets of greaseproof into quarters, like this.
29:16Get this butter divided into four.
29:21Put this on top, like that, and press it down.
29:24Because it's nice and thin when it's frozen,
29:27it's going to be a nice little envelope.
29:29And, I can just put it over a plate of something,
29:31and it just goes, ah, and melts straight away.
29:34And, each one of these little envelopes is like a little love letter
29:38to a piece of fish or a little bit of greens.
29:41And, that's the way I look at it.
29:42So, in the freezer we go.
29:44Let me show you, because I've got one that I made earlier.
29:47If I just peel this off, what we have is a lovely little disc.
29:51And, they melt really, really quickly.
29:54Right, classic combo.
29:56We're going to go orange and cumin.
29:59And, that, with veggies, particularly carrots, is absolutely amazing.
30:03So, in a pestle and mortar again, I'll go in with some salt, some pepper, some thyme.
30:09You could use any woody herb, but I think thyme and carrots is really, really nice.
30:13So, I'm just going to pick off the leaves like that.
30:16We'll get into a pan here.
30:18Just like a couple of teaspoons of cumin seeds, and just toast it up.
30:23By toasting it, you'll just reawaken those natural oils and the flavours,
30:27and it'll just make a massive difference.
30:30A couple of little bashes, and we're done.
30:38Back to our little zester.
30:40Orange, cumin, thyme, and garlic.
30:43An amazing combination.
30:45So, again, using that pestle and mortar, or it could be a food processor,
30:50or a lot of chopping and scrunching.
30:52So, I'm going to go in now with two cloves of garlic.
30:55And we've got the toasted cumin there.
31:01Just kind of crack them.
31:03Oh, the smells.
31:05And then in with the butter.
31:12Let me show you a different format to store this flavoured butter.
31:18Right, just get a bit of greaseproof.
31:20Like that.
31:21And get the butter in there like that.
31:23And then roll it up.
31:24Twist up the ends like a Christmas cracker.
31:27Get it nice and tight.
31:28And then if you put that in the freezer for like five minutes, it will firm up a bit.
31:32Then you can slice it into little pre-portioned discs.
31:35And then later on, weeks, months later, take a little disc,
31:38and put that on something delicious to make it extra, extra special.
31:42Right, let's get this in the freezer.
31:44So, if you've got ahead and frozen your butters a few weeks before Christmas,
31:48I'm going to show you exactly what to do on Christmas Day
31:52to give your veggies a big hit of festive flavour.
31:56I'm going to give you two recipes to celebrate these gorgeous butters this Christmas.
32:01The first recipe I just love.
32:03Because it's a little bit bonkers.
32:05It's a little bit eccentric.
32:06It's very Christmas.
32:08So, it's carrots in the bag.
32:10Simply get a wide piece of tinfoil.
32:13On the bottom, I'll have two pieces.
32:16Like that.
32:17And then grab a little plate.
32:20Press the tinfoil down into the shape of the plate.
32:24Then I've got some lovely carrots here.
32:26Look at these.
32:27These have been washed.
32:29Cut them into little angled pieces like this.
32:33Cooking in the bag is primarily about steaming.
32:37Right?
32:38The moisture goes to the top of the bag and then evaporates down again
32:40and goes to the bottom and boils up again.
32:42You're just kind of basting whatever you're cooking in that bag with that flavour.
32:46So, it's clever.
32:47Let's get our beautiful butter out of the freezer.
32:51And a little bottle of something nice.
32:53Because it's Christmas time!
32:55So, in this recipe, you've got that incredible marriage and combination of butter.
33:01And then liquid, which is in the form of some nice bubbles, right?
33:05Because it's Christmas time.
33:06But it could be white wine.
33:08It could even be red wine.
33:09It could be cider.
33:10It could be orange juice.
33:11It could be water.
33:12Merry Christmas.
33:15So, look.
33:16Just put a little splodge of the good stuff in there.
33:20And I'll have a little splodge of stuff in there as well.
33:26If you want to put some herb in, time tips, I'll take a bit of that.
33:31So, two pieces of tin foil in the bottom just to keep it nice and solid.
33:34One piece on the top.
33:36If you egg wash the side of this little envelope when you seal it, no steam will get out.
33:43And all of that flavour and that liquid will stay in that little foil envelope.
33:48And then it will puff up like something crazy out of a cartoon.
33:53So, just put that over the carrots like that.
33:56Fold it up and pinch.
33:57And you can see, this is quite a robust thing now.
33:59This can go in the fridge.
34:00You can do it the day before Christmas, two days before Christmas.
34:03And then on the big day, you can do this on the hob, which is really convenient.
34:07And as this starts puffing up a little bit, and you'll hear the tin foil just going kink, kink, kink, kink, kink.
34:12Then turn it down to medium.
34:14Give it about 20 minutes and you'll have the most delicious carrots ever.
34:19Right.
34:20Let me show you how to take simple, humble greens and make them spectacular.
34:24At Christmas time, oven space and hob space is at a premium.
34:28So, when you can't go out, you go up.
34:30So, what we're going to do is have boiling and steaming.
34:33So, Brussels sprouts go in.
34:36And then when it comes to your layers, what I love about this is you just get another little steamer insert and you can add another veg, right?
34:43Like a cabbage leaf, just kind of have fun with it.
34:46Whatever your family loves.
34:47And then if you wanted to add some peas, you absolutely can.
34:51And then with five minutes to go before you want to eat your Christmas dinner.
34:55Kettle boiled, Brussels come up to the boil.
34:58Then we go on with our steamer.
35:01All very chill, all very nice.
35:04They'll literally only need like four, five minutes max.
35:07And then it's butter time.
35:16So, we can take our fantastic frozen get ahead butter and I'll lay that on the top here.
35:23Lid back on top.
35:25And that butter is just going to over the peas, broccoli, chard, through the holes, onto the lovely cabbages.
35:33And the last bits going through the holes will go onto the Brussels down the bottom.
35:37Happy days.
35:39So, let's get a nice little platter.
35:46We can lay out the different veggies, the lovely peas.
35:51Caballonera and kale.
35:54And then with the last empty steamer, we can use that as a colander.
35:58And if you need any liquid for your gravy, you can use that.
36:04And look at that.
36:06A lovely little platter of quickly cooked greens.
36:09Let's have a little try.
36:12Delicious.
36:13Horseradish, watercress.
36:15It's an amazing combination.
36:17Let's do the carrots, come on.
36:19Look at that.
36:20It is brilliant.
36:21Get our platter.
36:24It's hot, so use a pair of tongs just to pick it up.
36:27Imagine that going to the Christmas table.
36:29The turkey platter.
36:30The gravy seaming away.
36:31You've got the veg.
36:32But then at the table, all confident.
36:37And that is the coolest thing ever.
36:39I think this is the quickest, easiest way to big flavour on Christmas Day.
36:53I've got a delicious festive dessert that is the perfect get-ahead recipe.
37:06This is my Christmas Arctic Roll.
37:08It's a fantastic principal recipe for any time of the year.
37:12But I want to show you how you can make it incredibly Christmassy.
37:16My get-ahead chocolate Arctic Roll is the perfect combination of festive flavours.
37:22And the best bit, it can all be done well in advance.
37:25With a clementine flavoured no-churn ice cream and cranberries wrapped in a decadent chocolate sponge.
37:32This is the ultimate treat to add a bit of sparkle to your Christmas table.
37:38It is so, so simple.
37:40First up, let's choose the flavour.
37:42Clementines.
37:43The flavour of Christmas.
37:45Remove just the beautiful orange zest.
37:48This is full of flavour.
37:50So, get a pan on the heat.
37:52By squeezing this juice into the pan.
37:55Right, we'll reduce it down.
37:57And it will give this beautiful ice cream the most amazing flavour.
38:01I'm going to use five nice juicy clementines.
38:05Now, in the bowl here, we're going to go in with 600 millilitres of double cream.
38:10And start to whisk it up.
38:12Get the air into it.
38:14You want it to be soft peaks, which is thickened and definitely not thick.
38:19Don't over whisk it.
38:22So that is how I want it.
38:23Nice and soft, nice and delicate.
38:26So, into here, I'm going to get a tin of condensed milk.
38:30This is normally about sort of 400 grams.
38:32So think of this almost like your basic vanilla ice cream.
38:36We've got the syrup here.
38:37You can see the juice has gone down by a quarter.
38:42If you want to cool it down quickly, literally just get the pan and I just hold it into a little bowl of cold water.
38:50This is Christmas intensified.
38:52Then we back it up with the zest.
38:56And then we just fold it through.
39:01And put it into a little tray like this.
39:03Flatten it out a little bit.
39:05That tiny little bit of zest left over.
39:08Beautiful.
39:09And you can do this a week, two weeks, three weeks in advance.
39:14But I want to show you how you can turn this into an epic classic Christmas dessert.
39:19Whack that in the freezer for three or four hours and then it will be ready and raring to go.
39:23Right, let me show you how to make the simplest chocolate sponge.
39:30Get yourself three lovely large organic eggs into our mixer.
39:35And in with a hundred grams of golden caster sugar.
39:40I think that is looking pretty good.
39:52So the way to tell if it's ready is you can see that it's like almost tripled in volume.
39:59Then I'm going to take 75 grams of plain flour.
40:03Put it through a sieve.
40:05And I'm going to flavour it with cocoa powder.
40:0925 grams.
40:11Pretty much a heaped tablespoon.
40:13And then we're just going to fold it through.
40:20So what I've got here is a typical baking tray.
40:23This is 38 centimetres by 25.
40:26I've rubbed it with butter, bit of greaseproof paper.
40:29And then in we go with our lovely chocolate sponge.
40:33Get it to those corners.
40:37So this goes in the oven for just ten minutes at 180 degrees Celsius.
40:42Which is 350 Fahrenheit.
40:44Nice and gently.
40:51The sponge has had just under ten minutes.
40:56I've got a damp clean cloth here which I'll lay out.
40:59And then I'll get some greaseproof paper.
41:04And then I want a little bit of golden cast sugar just to sprinkle on top.
41:08This just gives the sponge a little finish.
41:11Super old school.
41:12Love it.
41:13Okay.
41:14Let's get our sponge.
41:16And I'm just going to turn it out super confident.
41:19One, two, three.
41:20And then while it's warm, just start getting that bit of greaseproof paper.
41:29It's very satisfying.
41:31What I'm going to do is fold over the greaseproof paper and start to loosely fold it up.
41:37By rolling this up while the sponge is still warm, it's flexible.
41:43If I let that flat sponge cool down and then I went to roll it up, it would most likely crack multiple times.
41:49Which isn't as cool.
41:50So let that cool down, let the ice cream freeze and when that's ready to go then I'll show you how to put this all together.
41:56The ice cream has just frozen beautifully and then whenever I want to use it, I just place it in the fridge for like 15-20 minutes and it's scoopable pretty quick.
42:18Here is the sponge part which has cooled down and I'll just unfold this.
42:25I'm going to take this beautiful cranberry sauce and I'll give it a nice thick layer.
42:34Then I've got some chocolate orange here.
42:37Take a little wadge and then break it up over the top like that.
42:42But do whatever chocolate you like.
42:44Right, push this to one side.
42:45Then we've got our beautiful no churn ice cream.
42:49So this is a fun bit.
42:51I'm going to take a bit of the greaseproof paper and I'm going to take this ice cream.
43:01Then I'm going to grab the greaseproof.
43:04Don't worry about it getting messy.
43:06Roll it up and use your hands just to push it into a kind of cigar shape.
43:11Squeeze the sides and we can just roll that like that.
43:15Don't worry about the mess.
43:16Get your sponge and then basically we can unravel it.
43:20Just put it on like that.
43:24Then we roll it up as tight as possible.
43:27Then get yourself some foil.
43:30Roll it up and really put pressure on it as you do it.
43:33Then you can go to the outside like a Christmas cracker and squeeze it and roll it up.
43:40And then you get that fantastic shape.
43:43So that now goes in the freezer.
43:45You can do this a week before, two weeks before.
43:47It is the most brilliant get ahead dessert.
43:50Whack it in there and then you're ready and rocking.
43:52So if we've made this and frozen it a few weeks before Christmas.
43:57I'm going to show you exactly what to do on Christmas Day.
44:00To serve up this deliciously decadent get ahead dessert.
44:05So once it's frozen up it's really robust.
44:08And when you're ready and raring to go.
44:10Unwrap it like a Christmas present.
44:13Actually this is a nice Christmas present.
44:15Now I quite like the idea of giving it a dusting of cocoa powder.
44:22Right just to give it that nice finish.
44:24After like a couple of minutes out of the freezer.
44:28And you can slice through.
44:32Hallelujah, hallelujah.
44:35It's just beautiful.
44:37Go for another one.
44:39Look at it.
44:41Guys.
44:42Retro.
44:45Arctic roll.
44:50Merry Christmas.
44:52Honestly.
44:54Santa's going to be so proud of you.
44:56To start kind of like taking holly and all that kind of melarchs.
45:00Come on let's make it look nice.
45:02I want something for the top.
45:04Take a little bar of chocolate.
45:06Right and we're just going to slowly but surely drag this towards you.
45:13And that's what you get.
45:15Put it on the top.
45:17Let me show you on the white chocolate.
45:21Let's get Rudolph in on the act.
45:24You can take little sparklers.
45:28Come on.
45:30Merry Christmas.
45:32And if I just try a little bit here.
45:41Oh come on.
45:43The sourness of the cranberry with that beautiful clementine ice cream is a thing of joy and wrapped in that chocolate sponge is just so good.
45:54That is what it's all about.
45:56This really could be the best Christmas ever.
46:01Next time I'll show you how we can get ahead in the days before Christmas.
46:05With a stunning starter.
46:07The most incredible way to cook turkey.
46:10And a batter for an epic Yorkshire pudding.
46:13All done and dusted ahead of time.
46:15Merry Christmas everyone.
46:16Merry Christmas everyone.
46:23Well that's being served up next Monday night at 8 or right now.
46:26If you just can't wait and have a few quid in your pocket, stream the whole series on Channel 4 Plus.
46:31Go on, call it an early Christmas present to yourself.
46:34Next tonight, minute by minute, a brand new troubling case comes under investigation in 24 hours in police custody.
46:39We'll see you next time.
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