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00:00Cooking the Christmas dinner year after year can feel a little bit daunting but not this year.
00:08This year we're gonna cook ahead of time so it will take all of the kitchen chaos out of the
00:14big day. From what we can do well in advance to how to prep in the days and night before.
00:21So far we've used the freezer and we've already got ahead with a delicious stuffing,
00:27seasonal vegan gravy, that's for everyone, beautiful butters to give quick flavour to your
00:34veggies and a gorgeous dessert which can all be made weeks in advance. And trust me it will all
00:40fit in a normal sized freezer, I promise. This time we're getting ahead of the game in the days before
00:46Christmas meaning minimal cooking on the day itself so even us Christmas cooks can enjoy ourselves.
00:52Roll up your sleeves and join me on this journey and make sure this Christmas is all about great
00:59food, great company and no last minute stress.
01:11Now the big day's getting closer I'm gonna walk you through a clever way to cook the turkey
01:16that makes the most out of both the breast and the leg meat. A chicken liver pate that's as impressive
01:22as it is delicious, tips to make the ultimate roast potatoes and a game-changing mega Yorkshire pudding.
01:30As we're all getting ahead together this year I'll show you how to cook and serve it all up on Christmas
01:35day to make all of our festive feasts so much easier allowing us all to enjoy the festive fun.
01:41It's turkey time and this year I think I've got my best turkey recipe yet. After all the years of doing it,
01:51this one is a perfect get-ahead recipe guaranteeing you the most juicy and delicious meat.
01:59To maximise deliciousness and make life easier on Christmas day I'm gonna cook the turkey crown and legs
02:06separately. My stuffed Christmas turkey crown is decorated with smoky bacon, crispy herbs and roasted
02:14with the next level stuffing that we made weeks ahead of time. It'll be served alongside my spice
02:21crispy turkey legs and slow cooked the day before with oozy roasted garlic. I'm prepping both of these as if
02:29it was Christmas eve to show you how we can get ahead of the game and over deliver on epic flavours.
02:40You know it's Christmas time when you see a beautiful whole turkey but if you look actually
02:46at the shape of it it's got different shapes and undulations. It's not the easiest piece of meat to
02:51cook so what I've done I've phoned up my lovely butcher and I've said Gary is it okay for the nation
02:58to come to butchers and ask for you guys to crown a turkey. Remove the legs and the wishbone. He's like
03:05a hundred percent yes. I've got the legs removed right. This method of preparation allows me to really
03:12take care of the breast meat and the legs the brown meat and then we've got the crown here that's going
03:18to cook in a much more even and kind of predictable juicy way. So this for me would never be done
03:26on Christmas day. No way too stressful. I would do this turkey prep on Christmas eve or even the day
03:33before that. So the first job we do is invest in potentially the best gravy on the planet. I've got
03:41the giblets which people always get freaked out by but that's going to guarantee you the most incredible
03:45gravy. So this is the turkey neck. Cut that. That goes in the tray. The livers, heart and that goes in as
03:53well. This is true flavour. Then some celery, just two sticks and just roughly chop that up.
04:06Carrots too, just split them.
04:13Two onions.
04:14A little clementine. Cut it in half. A little bit of sage. Some bay. A bit of rosemary. Happy days.
04:29Okay, so trivet done here. We've got our crown and the butcher has very kindly removed the wishbone.
04:40So we've not only got some more stuff for our trivet but also when you go to carve it later
04:46your knife won't be hitting that wishbone. Now this is not glamorous but we are going to stuff
04:50this bird in style. We have got our stuffing which if you remember we made and we froze.
04:58Let it defrost and this is a perfect get ahead recipe, right? Christmas is all about investing
05:05in that little moment where you're all around the table enjoying something incredible. And look,
05:12once you've stuffed it, it looks quite plump and quite presentable.
05:18This is all very exciting. I'm feeling very festive right now. So when meat roast the fats render.
05:27That means melt. When they melt they gather at the bottom of the tray and then every now and again you
05:32come along and you just kind of take some of that fat and you put it back over the top.
05:36And that guarantees more crispiness, more deliciousness, more colour, more flavour.
05:40Okay, so basting is a good thing. Now we can amplify that basting by using about 250 grams of butter.
05:50It's room temperature and I'm just gonna move this around a little bit.
05:54As you're warming the butter up it will start getting a bit softer.
05:58So what I want to do is create a nice little film of butter around here.
06:02We want to do it because we're getting ahead. So whether it's Christmas Eve or the day before
06:05Christmas Eve that butter is going to protect that skin. Also when you put it in the oven it will
06:12slowly melt and it's that journey of the butter going down and then you basting it that's going to
06:17give you the most incredible succulence. It's quite good fun by the way. Of course all this fat
06:23that's rendering and the butter we're not going to eat it all.
06:32So this space of the breast is quite thick and then the top is quite thin.
06:36Right, so what we need to do is try and balance that kind of imbalance.
06:43I'll take some smoky bacon and I'm just going to put little layers that overlap on this thinner part.
06:50We can slow down the heat penetration of the oven to the tip of the breast so it doesn't overcook it
07:00but also gives incredible flavour. And I think it looks fantastically dramatic.
07:07I'll take some sage. I'll just lay it on this butter. As it roasts it will sizzle the herbs
07:18and this all adds to the most delicious turkey ever. Let's take some rosemary.
07:25I've got some nice thyme over here. Oh, lemon thyme.
07:41It's looking mighty fine. Let's get it onto our trivet. That is really Christmassy.
07:47Just wrap that up just to protect it.
07:58And then let's open this fridge and get our turkey in there.
08:06Big job. Done. Happy days. Right, let's have a clean down and then I'm going to show you how to cook
08:13those incredible turkey legs. This is very exciting partly because it's so utterly simple.
08:26What we're going to do is cook these turkey legs in a way where you get the most divine crispy skin,
08:31where the meat falls off the bone. We've got some flavours here really around Chinese five spice.
08:37Those spices, they're very mulled wine-like. Fennel seeds, cinnamon, cloves, star anise.
08:42So one teaspoon goes over these turkey legs. Then some bay leaves, a bit of cinnamon. We'll take
08:50some garlic, whole bulb, onion, two, whole. Take a nice little chunk of ginger and I'll just give it
08:57a little slap just to break it. There's some star anise. I mean it's already in the five spice to be
09:05honest. So you know just a couple of bits of that. Along with some nice salt and pepper.
09:13Couple of clementines just cut in half. A little drizzle of olive oil.
09:23Give it a nice little rub up. You can do this Christmas Eve and you can do this the day before
09:28Christmas Eve if you want. And once it's cooked we can let it cool down and I can strip everything
09:33off the bone. And then on Christmas Day when the turkey is resting, the turkey crown, you just flash
09:38it back up in the oven to be crispy and hot and delicious and everyone's going to go wild for it.
09:44We're going to cook that now 180 degrees Celsius, 350 Fahrenheit for two hours. Let the oven do all of the work.
09:51It smells amazing. Right let's have a look. Look at the colours. Oh the wafts. That is so Christmassy.
10:07We've created the most amazing crispy skin. So the meat will be falling off the bone like that. Okay.
10:21Got to squeeze that out. Just jamified onion here. Take these garlic bulbs off with a fork.
10:31This creamy garlic is so perfumed and mild. The smells are unbelievable. Push the skins to one side.
10:41We're achieving mega flavour. We've got the beautiful turkey here. Let's just pull the skin off first.
10:50And like even Conker knows that this is good because he's turned up out. He hasn't been interested
10:54all morning but all of a sudden he's so up for it but he can't have it because it's got garlic in it.
10:59So strip that meat off and then if you're making any stock you could put that bone into the stock.
11:04Look at that. Just falling off.
11:09Things like the clementine you know they were really there for a bit of flavour
11:13and a bit of steam but you can see this clementine flesh. That's good. We'll take all that. Thank you
11:18very much. Can you see on the bottom of this tray it almost looks burnt right? That is the most outrageous flavour.
11:25So use a little swig of red wine vinegar to clean the bottom of the tray.
11:38Dress the beautiful turkey leg, onions and garlic in those drippings. Look at the shine.
11:45So if you get a nice little serving dish.
11:53Every last bit of this tray goes in. I'm putting the skin on the top so it stays crispy.
12:00I'm now going to clean down. I might lick my finger beforehand. Oh my goodness the flavours
12:09they're outrageous. Take some sage and just put a few herbs on the top
12:14just to kind of make it a little bit fragrant and gorgeous. A bit of rosemary. A bit of oil.
12:26Mix it around and that will do beautiful things.
12:29Oh my goodness. Dressed in all those drippings. The clementine, the spice,
12:44the lovely onion that's almost like kind of French onion soup onion like really nice and that gentle
12:49perfume of the garlic. It's just a thing of joy. I'm just going to cover this now.
12:59Let that cool down then it can go in the fridge. Now when I want to cook that, super simple.
13:05When the crown comes out of the oven on Christmas day and you've got that lovely golden time where
13:09you can cook your potatoes and your stuffing and this. It only needs half an hour. It'll go crispy on the top
13:14and it'll be beautiful and tender underneath.
13:28Come Conker. In your bed. The great roast potato. The cornerstone of Christmas and really something
13:46that my whole family adore along with the whole country. Getting this right is so imperative for
13:52the perfect roast dinner. Let's do this.
13:54I know expectations are high when it comes to roasties. So for extra festive magic,
14:02I've got the best Christmas roast potatoes for you. Using everything that I've learned over many
14:08years of cooking them, I can guarantee these are crisp and fluffy potatoes of perfection.
14:14Prep them Christmas Eve to make your Christmas day feast easy and utterly incredible.
14:19The perfect roast potato starts with the ripe potato. You have flowery potatoes and waxy potatoes.
14:29We want to use the flowery potato. The one that you can get easiest in this country is a Maris Piper
14:35or a King Edward. I peel them and I keep them whole. You can half them, you can quarter them,
14:41but in my opinion, I'd go for a bit of size. Here I've got three kilos of potatoes, but you can times it by
14:47two or three or half it if you want. These have been cooking for 15 minutes. Now 10 minutes in,
14:53I put a bulb of garlic. It's still in its skin. It will scent the water lightly. Please trust me.
14:59So at 15 minutes, we turn the gas off and we'll drain it.
15:05And then we're going to let it just steam for a few minutes.
15:09That steaming is important. We're getting rid of the excess moisture. The spud will be
15:16really absorbent to fats that you're going to roast these in, okay? What I want to do now is a very
15:22scientific thing that's not in the dictionary. It's called chuffing up. Basically, we're going to use
15:26the holes of your colander to create a bit of abrasion, almost like sanding each and every potato.
15:32Can you see how I've kind of destroyed the outside layer of the spud, right? And it's that outside
15:39layer that's going to give you more crunch. I always do this the day before Christmas day. I'd never do
15:46it on Christmas day. There's too much going on. Once you've tossed them in fat, they're not going to
15:51oxidize or discolor, right? They're super stable. You can put them in the fridge. You can even freeze
15:56them if you want. So we've got some choices now. And this is the wonderful world of fats. Lovely
16:03olive oil, always a winner. Then we've got butter. We've got goose fat or duck fat, which you can buy
16:08in jars in supermarkets. You get a bit more sort of savoury notes there. It's a completely different
16:13fat. Then you get things like lard or beef tallow. The meat fats give more of a kind of deeper flavour
16:19and a little bit more of a chew, I think, on the exterior. But also you can blend fats as well, which is what
16:25I'm going to do today. Right, get yourself a nice large roasting tray. I've got olive oil. It's an
16:31amazing carrier of flavours, especially from the garlic and the rosemary. I love a bit of goose or duck fat.
16:40Also, just a few bits of diced butter makes me very, very happy.
16:47I'll put these lovely potatoes on top.
16:49A little season with salt. You want every part of the potato to be dressed in the beautiful, glorious fat.
17:01With the garlic, the interior is very perfumed and very mild. When you roast these as well,
17:06you're going to get the most amazing kind of caramelised garlic. Black pepper, very, very nice.
17:12So at this stage, I would let them cool down, cover them. You can put them in the fridge one or two days
17:18before Christmas Day. Now on Christmas Day, the turkey's been cooked and I've taken it out of the
17:22oven and I'm letting it rest. And once it's resting, then I've got the golden two hours to do all of
17:29those lovely jobs. Roast potatoes being one of them. These will go in the oven, 180 degrees Celsius,
17:35which is 350 Fahrenheit. Give that an hour and then I have the last stage of perfection for the
17:41ultimate roast potato. So these have had about an hour and 10 minutes. I've given it a little bit
17:56more time. Look at the colour. Oh, look at the sizzle. Turn these spuds around. So what we have now is a very
18:07important little trick that is subtle, but genius. And for that, we're going to use a reliable piece
18:14of equipment, the potato masher. Basically, semi squash the potato and by default create more surface
18:23area on the spud. They just bust. This is what we want. So the next bit is herbs, right? You can go
18:34for thyme, beautiful sage, things like bay leaf. Then you've got some rosemary here, which I love.
18:40I think that's what I'm going to go for. Take the rosemary off the sprig and then get some oil on it.
18:49You're just going to be able to transmit all this incredible flavour over the perfect roast potato.
18:55It now goes into the oven, same temperature for basically 20 minutes, right? This is where the magic is
19:03going to happen. Smells beautiful. So I get a little spritzer with some vinegar, right? The most
19:14underrated ingredient in the kitchen. Just go in towards the end and just do a little waft of white
19:19wine vinegar and close the door and it evaporates immediately. But that little bit of vinegar just
19:24creates this little kind of seasoning on the outside of the potato that just hits that point. And now it's
19:31done. And look at that. Give them a nice little toss. Look at that crispy skin, the smell, the garlic,
19:47the rosemary. It's that getting ahead of the game that allows you to follow those simple but important
19:52little stages. The crunchiness.
20:08Inside those little bits of garlic will just be like the sweetest, most delicate perfume, caramelised garlic.
20:15Let's have a little try. Look at that. Fluffy interior, crispy exterior. It's a hard job.
20:27But someone's got to do it. Oh my goodness. What a total joy. Go forth and make this the best
20:44Christmas roast potato ever.
20:57I'm going to give you a batter recipe. The biggest, most crazy Yorkshire puddings that are going to blow
21:03your mind. And some people, yep, some people out there love Yorkshire puddings on Christmas day.
21:08I have to show you this recipe. And what could be a better Christmas present for the ones that you love
21:14than a stonkingly good giant Yorkshire pudding. I've got a sensational and simple get-ahead batter
21:21that you can make on Christmas Eve ready to knock up an epic Yorkshire pudding in minutes for your
21:27Christmas dinner. This batch is enough to make another one on Boxing Day or some breakfast pancakes.
21:34Because when you're this far ahead, impressive things are possible. So in a bowl, I want to get 300 millilitres
21:41of beautiful whole milk. Then in with eight eggs. Free range.
21:49A nice pinch of salt and whisk up those eggs and milk. We're going to go in with 300 grams of plain flour.
22:10Give it a nice little mix up. Put the elbow grease in. Make it silky smooth. Look at that.
22:19Beautiful. And I think to make the best Yorkshire pudding recipe, there's a couple of things that
22:26make it perfect. Make it the day before. So this is a perfect get-ahead recipe. And also add 100
22:31millilitres of cold water. So I had a really good Yorkshire pudding recipe for many years. But then I did
22:41a little experiment with a university and we found out it was the extra water that made the batter just grow,
22:48grow, grow. And for all of you out there that might not have Yorkshire puddings at Christmas,
22:53you might just change your mind. So I'm going to split this batter in half. I've got half
22:59for this lovely Yorkshire pudding and half for my beautiful pancakes. The oven is preheated to 200
23:07degrees Celsius, which is 400 Fahrenheit. In there, I've got a big tray and I filled it with about that much,
23:13just under a centimetre of oil of your choice. It could be beef tallow, it could be a vegetable oil,
23:18whatever makes you happy. Right. I've got my batter in a jug. Now you don't want to rush it,
23:22but I don't want to lose temperature in the oven. So the reaction that you get between the water in
23:28the batter and the eggs, of course, with the oil in the tray is an important one. So as we're doing
23:34just one tray, this is really, really easy. Much easier than the individual ones. Straight in,
23:42closed door. Don't open it again. You're not going to believe how big that will get. So on Christmas
23:49morning, before the turkey goes in the oven, 25 minutes, cook this incredible Yorkshire pudding.
23:55Take it out, let it cool down. Crack on with the day as you do. And when the turkey's out and the
23:59potatoes out and everything's going really well, you put the Yorkshire pudding back in the oven
24:03for five minutes to reheat and it will be bliss. It will be perfect.
24:17Right. The oven is almost full to the rafters with something quite big.
24:25Yep.
24:30That is just fresh in from planet Mars.
24:37It's coming out.
24:40Yorkshire pudding on Christmas day? I reckon it's a good idea. And people can go in there
24:47and tear it apart and have that with their roast potatoes and their gravy. Come on,
24:51Yorkshire pudding and gravy. Give it a go. And whether you go pancakes or Yorkshire pudding,
24:58or both, it's Christmas, guys. And we're ahead of the game here, so you can choose.
25:12It's a good idea.
25:22It's a good idea.
25:22It's a good idea.
25:26Silky smooth, gorgeous pate with lovely hot bread and pickles is one of my favourite things. People
25:32seem to absolutely love it and it's quick, easy and really impressive.
25:37This is a great little present to yourself this year. My get ahead silky chicken liver pate
25:43is flavoured with nutmeg, brandy and garlic and topped with beautiful herb butter.
25:49You can make this on Christmas Eve or even a few days before,
25:53as it'll happily sit in the fridge for up to a week.
25:57This is the perfect decadent Christmas starter that transforms simple ingredients into something
26:02really special.
26:06Homemade pate is surprisingly simple. Let's firstly have a look at these beautiful chicken livers.
26:12Got them from the butcher, so that's a kilo ready and raring to go.
26:16The first job I do is clarify butter. It just means splitting butter.
26:21Simply put a pack, 250 grams, into a pan, put it on a tiny little heat like this
26:27and just let that slowly slowly melt. The whey will go to the bottom, the lovely clear fat will go to the top.
26:33I will skim that off and I will use that later in this recipe.
26:37Okay, take some onions, peel them and then I'll cut it in half and just slice it up.
26:43Pretty much any old how, it doesn't matter. And then do the same with the garlic.
26:56Two onions, two garlic, super simple. So heat on, a little bit of oil in there.
27:04I'll begin the seasoning with salt and pepper, but also very Christmassy, nutmeg.
27:13So half a nutmeg goes in, then I'm going to get some herb. You could go marjoram, oregano,
27:20even rosemary, even sage, but I'm going to go thyme. Pick it off the stalk, get those lovely natural oils going.
27:29At the moment, I'm on a medium-high heat. Turn it up to full whack and I want to get the chicken livers in here.
27:47You'll see the livers change colour. A couple of minutes of stirring around is great and then
27:52we're going to add to the cooking and the flavour by flaming it. You don't have to flame it actually,
27:57but we're going to use some alcohol. Now it could be port, it could be sherry. I'm using brandy because
28:01it's Christmas time. So go in with 150 millilitres, just take a match.
28:11We're cooking away the alcohol, but it's that flavour of the barrel and the brandy.
28:17That cooking from two sides is just an amazing thing.
28:22With the butter, you can see it's all melted. I'll turn the heat off now.
28:26This is done. All right, I definitely don't want to overcook the chicken livers. Turn the heat off.
28:34So these livers had about four minutes cooking and a minute's flaming and we've got some choices.
28:40So a pate can be coarse or it can be smooth. You can make it coarse by chopping by hand,
28:45but I quite like the elegance of taking a liquidiser and this will just guarantee you the most amazing,
28:52silky smooth pate that you can just put on toast or bread and it is just sensational.
29:05Then I'm going to add this pack of butter through this pate.
29:08This pate is so indulgent that you don't need gallons of it.
29:25Delicious. Very, very good. I'll give it some salt and pepper. What I'm also going to do is just add a
29:30little bit of water just to loosen it up a little bit and we'll give it one last little whizz up.
29:38And then we're good to go. I like the idea of putting it in something that can go on the table
29:43or be given as a gift. So I'm going to split it between two. We'll just sort of three quarters fill
29:48that up. The smell is amazing. We'll cover it with the clarified butter and we'll make it super beautiful.
29:59Let that cool down.
30:03So if you angle this pan, you'll see how the clarified butter has floated and the milky way
30:10has sunk to the bottom. Get yourself a little pan
30:12and you get a nice bit of pour. We'll just skim off the lovely clear golden fat. And there we go.
30:22We've clarified butter. This way here, you could make scones with that. You can make bread with that.
30:29So it doesn't have to be a waste product. Put the butter onto a gas now because I want to get some
30:35herbs crispy so I can decorate this pate and make it incredible. Sage is there. I'll take some little
30:42tips of rosemary and then I'll take some thyme. I'll count to 10 and then I'll switch it off.
30:59And then we can lay these beautiful herbs in and around the top of our pate.
31:05And then I'll take some of that clarified butter.
31:18All I would do there, just like a little teaspoon of pink peppercorns and they feel really Christmassy.
31:27Beautiful.
31:29And then we can get it in the fridge. That butter will set hard and will help preserve this. You can do this
31:35one, two, three days in advance, a week in advance. This is a perfect get ahead recipe for you to own
31:41this Christmas.
31:47The clarified butter has set. That with hot toast is going to be a thing of joy.
31:53We've got a nice mixed salad here with fruit, veg, herbs, all kinds of salad leaves. That's an amazing
32:00little starter.
32:04I think it would be only right to have a little try. Two or three cheeky little cornichons.
32:12Just slowly just melt through that clarified butter. Scoop it out. Look at that.
32:21The texture is like silk. We have the lovely hot bread.
32:46Cornichon chaser.
32:58It, for me, is a perfect Christmas starter. The hot bread, the melting clarified butter,
33:03the crispy sage, elements of spice in there. It really is a fantastic get-ahead recipe.
33:11Something delicious and something that you made. Happy days.
33:26This Christmas I've been showing you what we can do to prep incredible recipes in advance.
33:42Filling the fridge and freezer with all the elements of a spectacular festive feast,
33:47from an impressive centerpiece veg pie and an incredible vegetarian stuffing,
33:52to next level gravy. Flavoured butter for our veggies and an arctic roll that Santa will be proud of.
33:59We'll take everything out of the freezer on Christmas Eve,
34:02and I'll walk you through what we do Christmas morning to bring it all together with hardly any cooking.
34:08So you've really done all of the hard work. You've invested in this incredible feast.
34:19The only thing I want you to think about is timings. So for the Oliver household,
34:23we're going to have lunch at one o'clock. I want to rest this for two hours. So that takes us to 12, 11 o'clock.
34:30Let's talk about cooking this beautiful bird. Now this high welfare turkey is around three kilos.
34:37Okay, so it's going to need about two hours in the oven. So that will take us to 9am.
34:42And then I don't just want to take this turkey from the fridge, cold, to the oven, hot, right?
34:46It won't cook beautifully. So take the turkey out of the fridge, I'd say two hours before you want to cook it.
34:52So that turkey will come out of the fridge at 7am. So really just write a little kind of note of your timings.
34:58But to be honest, we've done most of the jobs already, right? Because we've got ahead of the game.
35:02Now all I'm going to do now is season the turkey, this lovely buttery part.
35:07We can put some salt on that and pepper as well. I'm so excited to cook this.
35:14In the oven at 180 degrees Celsius, which is 350 Fahrenheit, and that's going to be beautiful.
35:21I will go back to it every now and again and give it a nice basting. So that's taking the fat and
35:25putting it over the top. About halfway through the cooking, I'll take that bacon off the top of the
35:29breast and it'll come off in one piece. And I'll just let that lovely pale skin get nice and golden
35:34again. But that's going to be amazing. And to be honest, I haven't got much to do now. Happy days.
35:47We're around two hours. Oh, it smells heavenly. You can see the bacon has come off here. Always good to use
35:54a probe. You go into the thickest part of the turkey and then turn it on. Now you want to have it at least
36:0065 degrees Celsius for at least 10 minutes. So that is currently 66. Okay. This temperature will keep
36:08on going up as it rests. Carry on giving it a little base. Two hours of resting. It won't be cold.
36:16Temperature goes up internally over the next hour and then eventually it will start going down again.
36:22And that's what's going to give you a beautifully elegant juicy piece of turkey that isn't overcooked.
36:27It is another level of flavour and texture. It's worth it. Straight over to a lovely platter.
36:35Love that. One last little baste of juices.
36:42And I would just leave it like that. Happy days. So here in the pan, we've had the butter and the bacon
36:49and also the turkey. So that fat is now three fats and it's phenomenal. And we'll put it in a jam jar.
36:57Like you can keep that in the fridge for weeks. And if you have any leftover potatoes and veggies,
37:05like if you start frying it with a little wodge of that flavour, next level. So in this tray is the
37:12potential for the most amazing gravy. But I'm going to do that in a minute. Let me just look at this turkey
37:18here. Right, 71 degrees now. So you can see that temperature is continuing to go up, up, up. What
37:24we are in now is the golden hours. When this turkey is resting, the oven is free. When that's free,
37:32then we can effortlessly get on to those beautiful get ahead recipes that are in the fridge.
37:37So we have that incredible gratin that was turned into a centerpiece pie. Come on. We have the most amazing
37:47potatoes. I reckon an hour and a half to get absolutely gorgeous. Then we've got the stuffing here.
37:53I'd give that a good hour. Then for the pie, an hour as well. And then the beautiful turkey legs,
37:58about half an hour is all you need. We're just going to stagger that in, but it's all done. It's all chilled.
38:04It's all good. So first up, let's go in with the spuds right in the top of the oven.
38:13Okay, gravy time. We're going to get the gases on. We've got this incredible flavour in here from our
38:21amazing vegan gravy. The most delicious thing ever. Now for meat eaters, you can put that same gravy
38:28into that tray with all the drippings and all the leftover bits and pieces,
38:31and you will make the most epic meat turkey gravy, right? So this is something that can look after
38:36everyone. So look, we're frying off these flavours. What I'm going to do is break this frying by adding
38:43some water to the tray. So add about a pint and a half, two pints. Put it on a high heat. Bring it to the boil.
38:54Then we'll turn it down to a simmer. Once you've established how many veggie or vegans you've got
38:58at your party, you can put some of that lovely gravy to one side. So you've got options. And if not,
39:04then we pour it in here. This is going to be phenomenal. Let that simmer for like an hour.
39:12The more you simmer it, of course, the more flavour you're going to get from the giblets and the neck
39:15and all the veggies that are going to break up. I'm going to take some of these resting juices and this
39:22is all yours to have in your gravy. So very, very nice indeed. Smells amazing. I've done my beautiful
39:32Yorkshire pudding already and that only needs a five minute flash in the oven to be nice and hot.
39:36So we really are in a very good place. Right. High down the bottom. Stuffing in. Great. There's a few
39:55things we can start thinking about, like getting a kettle on to go on our Brussels sprouts and all
39:59those lovely greens. This gravy is now ready to be sieved into a pan. I use, by the way, a coarse sieve.
40:06So that's what I want. Not too fine. And then simply just pour this beautiful. Oh, this smells so good.
40:15Oh my goodness. This is a thing of joy.
40:23Every last bit of gravy that you squeeze out of this is worth it. Put that back on the heat to keep warm.
40:32Beautiful turkey legs. Let's get those carrots on. 20 minutes. If you remember, that wine will start to
40:43boil. The butter will melt and it will puff up this bag. So it's nice dramatic cooking. Our gravy here
40:51is boiling nicely so we can take that off now. I've cut the Brussels sprouts in half. So if we go in here
41:01with boiling water from the kettle, season that with some salt. As soon as it's boiled, we're going to do
41:09literally like four or five minutes of steaming on here. We've got the broccoli, we've got the chard,
41:13the peas. So that's ready to go. Think it's time to carve this turkey. Let's move it to the board.
41:23So there's two ways you can carve this turkey that I think you'll love. First way is get the fork in.
41:28We'll do long strokes with our carving knife. Look at the juiciness. Try and carve it as thin as you can.
41:39Don't stress about it. Right, the second way to carve a turkey. Run your knife down that center spine.
41:46Just kind of use that knife to remove the whole breast from the turkey. Right.
41:52What we can do now is start slicing. It's very easy because it's off the carcass. I actually like
42:04doing a bit of both. A bit of theatre on the traditional carve and then a little bit of efficiency.
42:23Right, we can do a nice little pile here of the stuffing and this stuffing will be outrageously
42:29tasty. The nice little wings here.
42:34We've got even this crispy bit of bacon that has kind of done a lot. It's been battered,
42:38but it's still crispy and delicious and gorgeous. I'm not going to throw that away.
42:42We'd all go mad. Let's start getting stuff out the oven. Come on, it's Christmas!
42:48We've got spuds. So good.
43:01We've got the stuffing ready to be turned out. I'll do that in a second. And then that beautiful pie.
43:08Come on. Look at that. Our veggies will now go on for a quick four to five minutes steam.
43:14And now back in with the Yorkshire pudding. It only needs like five minutes max.
43:21So veggies, if you remember, we had that incredible flavoured butter, the lovely green one.
43:28So what we can do is very simply put this on top. It will start cascading down through the holes.
43:35It's going to be properly tasty. Let's have a look at the carrots.
43:40The smell. Then let's get these beautiful spuds. Let's let them tumble. Tumble down. Come on.
43:53Beautiful roast potatoes. It's starting to look quite impressive, right? Take this beautiful stuffing
44:02and turn it out. Come on. We've got our gorgeous gravy. It's so silky and comforting. That is an epic gravy.
44:15So peas, charred, that lovely flavoured butter. Simple and delicious.
44:28Yorkshire pudding. The sheer size of this just makes me outrageously happy.
44:38Let's go for it. Look at that. Come on, let's go for the turkey.
44:59Let's go for stuffing. Crispy. You've got it.
45:06Yorkshire pudding. Controversial for some, but not for others.
45:19Hot gravy. My wife gets so excited about gravy. She has a spoon at the table. Wrong but right.
45:31Let's go for some of that amazing turkey.
45:36Mmm. Delicious. Beautifully seasoned.
45:46What we've done here with the legs is just cook it so it falls off the bone.
45:53Let's go for a carrot.
45:58Mmm. Just that little pinch of cumin with the clementine. Really, really good.
46:04The whole kind of principle of getting ahead really works. In those weeks that you build up
46:13towards the big day, shipping away at those jobs and investing into the fridge and freezer. Like,
46:18you know, you can pick one or two of these ideas or do the whole lot. It doesn't matter. But it's the
46:22spirit of getting ahead that I promise will look after you and your family and friends and this could, this could be the best Christmas ever.
46:30Well, I'd much rather tuck into Jamie's festive feast than be invited to try Ralph Fiennes' unnerving menu.
46:43Film 4's got a risky restaurant reservation next. Here, Fred and co are ditching the restaurant to
46:48soak up some sun at the brand new First Dates Beach Club. Temperatures are rising poolside next.
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