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Jamies Cook Ahead Christmas 2025 S01E02

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Fun
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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,
00:39it will all fit in a normal sized freezer, I promise. This time we're getting ahead of the
00:45game in the days before Christmas, meaning minimal cooking on the day itself so even
00:50us Christmas cooks can enjoy ourselves. Roll up your sleeves and join me on this
00:55journey and make sure this Christmas is all about great food, 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
01:51doing it, this one is a perfect get-ahead recipe guaranteeing you the most juicy and delicious meat.
01:59To maximize 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 cook.
02:52So what I've done, I've phoned up my lovely butcher and I've said Gary, is it okay for the nation to come
02:58to butchers and ask for you guys to crown a turkey. Remove the legs and the wishbone. He's like 100% yes.
03:06I've got the legs removed, right? This method of preparation allows me to really take care of the
03:13breast meat and the legs, the brown meat. And then we've got the crown here that's going to cook in a
03:19much more even and kind of predictable juicy way. So this for me would never be done on Christmas Day.
03:27No way. Too stressful. I would do this turkey prep on Christmas Eve or even the day before that.
03:34So the first job we do is invest in potentially the best gravy on the planet. I've got the giblets,
03:41which people always get freaked out by, but that's going to guarantee you the most incredible gravy.
03:46So this is the turkey neck. Cut that. That goes in the tray. The livers,
03:51heart and that goes in as well. This is true flavour. Then some celery, just two sticks and just roughly chop that up.
04:02Carrots, two, just split them. Two onions.
04:19A little clementine, cut it in half. A little bit of sage, some bay, a bit of rosemary. Happy days.
04:29OK, 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
05:06in that little moment where you're all round the table enjoying something incredible. And look,
05:12once you've stuffed it, it looks quite plump and quite presentable. This is all very exciting. I'm
05:20feeling very festive right now. So when meat roast, the fats render. That means melt. When they melt,
05:29they gather at the bottom of the tray. And then every now and again, you come along and you just kind
05:33of take some of that fat and you put it back over the top. And that guarantees more crispiness,
05:37more deliciousness, more colour, more flavour, okay? So basting is a good thing. Now, we can amplify that
05:45basting by using about 250 grams of butter. It's room temperature. And I'm just going to move this
05:53around a little bit. As you're warming the butter up, it will start getting a bit softer. So what I
05:59want to do is create a nice little film of butter around here. We want to do it because we're getting
06:03ahead. So whether it's Christmas Eve or the day before Christmas Eve, that butter
06:07is going to protect that skin. Also, when you put it in the oven, it will slowly melt. And it's that
06:14journey of the butter going down and then you basting it that's going to give you the most incredible
06:19succulents. It's quite good fun by the way. Of course, all this fat that's rendering and the butter,
06:25we're not going to eat it all.
06:26So this space of the breast is quite thick and then the top is quite thin. All right,
06:37so what we need to do is try and balance that kind of imbalance. I'll take some smoky bacon
06:45and I'm just going to put little layers that overlap on this thinner part.
06:52We 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. And 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
08:12and then I'm going to show you how to cook those incredible turkey legs.
08:17This is very exciting, partly because it's so utterly simple. What we're going to do is cook
08:27these turkey legs in a way where you get the most divine crispy skin, where the meat falls off the bone.
08:33We've got some flavours here, really around Chinese five spice. Those spices, they're very mulled wine
08:39like. Fennel seeds, cinnamon, cloves, star anise. So one teaspoon goes over these turkey legs. Then some
08:46bay leaves, bit of cinnamon. We'll take some garlic, whole bulb, onion, two, whole. Take a nice little chunk
08:55with ginger and I'll just give it a little slap just to break it. There's some star anise. I mean,
09:04it's already in the five spice to be honest. So, you know, just a couple of bits of that along with some
09:08nice salt and pepper. A couple 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
09:51the work. It smells amazing. Right, let's have a look. Look at the colours. Oh, the wafts. That is so Christmassy.
10:10We've created the most amazing crispy skin.
10:13So the meat will be falling off the bone like that. Okay.
10:21Just squeeze it out. Just jamified onion here.
10:28Take these garlic bulbs off with a fork. This creamy garlic is so perfumed and mild.
10:36The smells are unbelievable. Push the skins to one side. We're achieving mega flavour.
10:43We'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. No, he hasn't been
10:54interested all morning, but all of a sudden he's so up for it, but he can't have it because it's got
10:57garlic in it. So strip that meat off. And then if you were making any stock, you could put that bone
11:03into the stock. Look at that, just falling off.
11:06Things like the clementine, you know, they were really there for a bit of flavour and a bit of steam,
11:14but you can see this clementine flesh. That's good. We'll take all that. Thank you very much.
11:18Can you see on the bottom of this tray? It almost looks burnt, right? That is the most outrageous flavour.
11:25You 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.
11:44So if you get a nice little serving dish. Every last bit of this tray goes in. I'm putting the skin on
11:58the top so it stays crispy. I'm now going to clean down. I might lick my finger beforehand. Oh my goodness,
12:07the flavours. They're outrageous. Take some sage and just put a few herbs on the top. Just to kind of
12:16make it a little bit fragrant and gorgeous. Bit of rosemary. Bit of oil.
12:26Mix it around and that will do beautiful things.
12:38Oh my goodness. Dressed in all those drippings. The clementine, the spice, the lovely onion that's
12:45almost like kind of French onion soup onion. Like really nice and that gentle perfume of the garlic.
12:52It's just a thing of joy. I'm just going to cover this now. Let that cool down. Then it can go in the fridge.
13:02Now, when I want to cook that, super simple. When the crown comes out of the oven on Christmas
13:07day and you've got that lovely golden time where you can cook your potatoes and your stuffing and this.
13:12It only needs half an hour. It'll go crispy on the top and it'll be beautiful and tender underneath.
13:37Come 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. I know expectations are high when it comes to roasties.
13:59So for extra festive magic, I've got the best Christmas roast potatoes for you.
14:05Using everything that I've learned over many years of cooking them, I can guarantee these are crisp and
14:12fluffy potatoes of perfection. Prep them Christmas Eve to make your Christmas day feast easy and utterly incredible.
14:19The perfect roast potato starts with the right potato. You have floury potatoes and waxy potatoes. We want
14:30to use the floury potato. The one that you can get easiest in this country is a Maris Piper or a King
14:36Edward. I peel them and I keep them whole, right? You can half them, you can quarter them, but in my opinion,
14:42I'd go for a bit of size, okay? Here I've got three kilos of potatoes, but you can times it by two or three
14:47or half it if you want. These have been cooking for 15 minutes. Now 10 minutes in, I put a bulb of garlic.
14:54It's still in its skin. It will scent the water lightly, please trust me. So at 15 minutes, we turn the
15:01gas off and we'll drain it. And then we're going to let it just steam for a few minutes.
15:10That steaming is important. We're getting rid of the excess moisture. The spuds will be really
15:17absorbent to fats that you're going to roast these in, okay? What I want to do now is a very scientific
15:22thing that's not in the dictionary. It's called chuffing up. Basically, we're going to use the holes
15:27of your colander to create a bit of abrasion, almost like sanding each and every potato.
15:34Can you see how I've kind of destroyed the outside layer of the spud, right? And it's that outside layer
15:40that's going to give you more crunch. I always do this the day before Christmas Day. I'd never do it on
15:47Christmas 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 olive oil,
16:03always a winner. Then we've got butter. We've got goose fat or duck fat, which you can buy in jars in
16:09supermarkets. You get a bit more sort of savoury notes there. It's a completely different fat. Then
16:13you get things like lard or beef tallow. The meat fats give more of a kind of deeper flavour and a little
16:19bit more of a chew, I think, on the exterior. But also you can blend fats as well, which is what I'm
16:25going to do today. Right, get yourself a nice large roasting tray. I've got olive oil. It's an amazing
16:31carrier 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.
16:52A little season with salt. You want every part of the potato to be dressed in the beautiful,
16:59glorious fat. With the garlic, the interior is very perfumed and very mild. When you roast these as
17:06well, you'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
17:18days before 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 and it's an important one. So these have had about an hour and 10 minutes.
17:55I've given it a little bit more time. Look at the colour.
18:00Oh, look at the sizzle. Turn these spuds around. So what we have now is a very important little trick
18:08that is subtle but genius. And for that, we're going to use a reliable piece of equipment,
18:15the potato masher. Basically, semi-squash the potato and by default create more surface area on the spud.
18:26They just bust. This is what we want. So the next bit is herbs, right? You can go for thyme,
18:35beautiful sage, things like bay leaf. Then you've got some rosemary here, which I love. I think that's
18:41what I'm going to go for. Take the rosemary off the sprig and then get some oil on it. You're just
18:49going to be able to transmit all this incredible flavour over the perfect roast potato. It now goes into
18:56the oven, same temperature for basically 20 minutes, right? This is where the magic is going to happen.
19:05It smells beautiful. So I get a little spritzer with some vinegar, right? The most underrated ingredient
19:15in the kitchen. Just go in towards the end and just do a little waft of white wine vinegar and close the
19:21door and it evaporates immediately. But that little bit of vinegar just creates this little kind of
19:26seasoning on the outside of the potato that just hits that point. And now it's done.
19:35And look at that. Give them a nice little toss.
19:44Look at that crispy skin, the smell, the garlic, the rosemary. It's that getting ahead of the game
19:49that allows you to follow those simple but important little stages.
20:04The crunchiness.
20:08Inside those little bits of garlic will just be like the sweetest,
20:12most delicate perfumed caramelised garlic.
20:19Let's have a little try.
20:22Look at that. Fluffy interior, crispy exterior. It's a hard job.
20:30But someone's got to do it. Oh my goodness.
20:33What a total joy. Go forth and make this the best Christmas roast potato ever.
20:46I'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.
21:10And what could be a better Christmas present for the ones that you love than a stonkingly good,
21:16giant Yorkshire pudding? I've got a sensational and simple get-ahead batter that you can make on
21:22Christmas Eve, ready to knock up an epic Yorkshire pudding in minutes for your Christmas dinner.
21:28This batch is enough to make another one on Boxing Day or some breakfast pancakes. Because when you're
21:34this far ahead, impressive things are possible.
21:38So in a bowl, I want to get 300 millilitres of beautiful whole milk.
21:44Then in with eight eggs. Free range.
21:59A nice pinch of salt. And whisk up those eggs and milk.
22:06We're going to go in with 300 grams of plain flour.
22:14Give it a nice little mix up. Put the elbow grease in. Make it silky smooth. Look at that.
22:19Beautiful.
22:21And I think to make the best Yorkshire pudding recipe, there's a couple of things that make it perfect.
22:26Make it the day before. So this is a perfect get-ahead recipe. And also add 100 millilitres
22:33of cold water. So I had a really good Yorkshire pudding recipe for many years.
22:40But then I did a little experiment with a university and we found out it was the extra water that made
22:46the batter just grow, grow, grow. And for all of you out there that might not have Yorkshire
22:51puddings at Christmas, you might just change your mind. So I'm going to split this batter in half.
22:58I've got half for this lovely Yorkshire pudding and half for my beautiful pancakes. The oven is preheated
23:06to 200 degrees Celsius, which is 400 Fahrenheit. In there I've got a big tray and I filled it with
23:12about that much, just under a centimetre of oil of your choice. It could be beef tallow,
23:16it could be a vegetable oil, whatever makes you happy. Right. I've got my batter in a jug. Now you
23:22don't want to rush it, but I don't want to lose temperature in the oven. So the reaction that you
23:27get between the water in the batter and the eggs, of course, with the oil in the tray is an important
23:33one. So as we're doing just one tray, this is really, really easy. Much easier than the individual
23:39ones. Straight in, close door. Don't open it again. You're not going to believe how big that will get.
23:47So, on Christmas morning, before the turkey goes in the oven, 25 minutes, cook this incredible
23:54Yorkshire pudding. Take it out, let it cool down. Crack on with the day as you do. And when the
23:59turkey's out and the potatoes out and everything's going really well, you put the Yorkshire pudding
24:03back in the oven for 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.
24:24Yep.
24:30That is just fresh in from planet Mars.
24:37It's coming out. Yorkshire pudding on Christmas Day? I reckon it's a good idea. And people can go in
24:46there and 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 or both,
24:59it's Christmas, guys. And we're ahead of the game here, so you can choose.
25:12It's a good idea.
25:26Silky smooth, gorgeous pate with lovely hot bread and pickles. It's one of my favourite things. People seem
25:32to absolutely love it and it's quick, easy and really impressive.
25:37This is a great little present to yourself this year.
25:40My Get Ahead Silky Chicken Liver Pate is flavoured with nutmeg, brandy and garlic and
25:46topped with beautiful herb butter.
25:50You can make this on Christmas Eve or even a few days before as it will happily sit in
25:55the fridge for up to a week.
25:57This is the perfect decadent Christmas starter that transforms simple ingredients into
26:02something really special.
26:07Homemade pate is surprisingly simple.
26:09Let'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.
26:17The first job I do is clarify butter.
26:20It just means splitting butter.
26:22Simply put a pack, 250 grams, into a pan, put it on a tiny little heat like this and just
26:28let that slowly, slowly melt.
26:30The whey will go to the bottom.
26:31The 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.
26:47Pretty much any old how, it doesn't matter.
26:51And then do the same with the garlic, two onions, two garlic, super simple.
27:01So heat on, a little bit of oil in there.
27:05I'll begin the seasoning with salt and pepper, but also very Christmassy, nutmeg.
27:12So half a nutmeg goes in, then I'm going to get some herb.
27:18You could go marjoram, oregano, even rosemary, even sage, but I'm going to go thyme.
27:23Pick it off the stalk, get those lovely natural oils going.
27:32At the moment I'm on a medium high heat.
27:34Turn it up to full whack and I want to get the chicken livers in here.
27:45You'll see the livers change colour, a couple of minutes of stirring around is great.
27:52And then we're going to add to the cooking and the flavour by flaming it.
27:55You don't have to flame it actually, but we're going to use some alcohol.
27:58Now it could be port, it could be sherry, I'm using brandy because it's Christmas time.
28:03So 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, that
28:17cooking from two sides is just an amazing thing.
28:22With the butter, you can see it's all melted.
28:24I'll turn the heat off now.
28:26This is done.
28:27Right, I definitely don't want to overcook the chicken livers.
28:31Turn the heat off.
28:33So these livers had about four minutes cooking and a minute's flaming.
28:39And we've got some choices.
28:40So a pate can be coarse or it can be smooth.
28:44You can make it coarse by chopping by hand, but I quite like the elegance of taking a liquidiser
28:49and this will just guarantee you the most amazing, silky smooth pate that you can just
28:54put on toast or bread and it is just sensational.
29:05Then I'm going to add this pack of butter through this pate.
29:11This pate is so indulgent that you don't need gallons of it.
29:17Delicious, very, very good.
29:26I'll give it some salt and pepper.
29:28What I'm also going to do is just add a little bit of water just to loosen it up a little
29:32bit and we'll give it one last little whizz up.
29:35And then we're good to go.
29:40I like the idea of putting it in something that can go on the table or be given as a gift.
29:44So I'm going to split it between two, we'll just sort of three quarters fill that up.
29:51The smell is amazing.
29:53We'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
30:09whey has sunk to the bottom.
30:11Get yourself a little pan and you get a nice bit of pour.
30:17We'll just skim off the lovely clear golden fat and there we go, we've clarified butter.
30:26This whey here, you could make scones with that, you could make bread with that, so it
30:29doesn't have to be a waste product.
30:32Put the butter onto a gas now because I want to get some herbs crispy so I can decorate this
30:37pate and make it incredible.
30:40Sage is there.
30:41I'll take some little tips of rosemary and then I'll take some thyme.
30:47I'll count to ten and then I'll switch it off.
31:00And then we can lay these beautiful herbs in and around the top of our pate.
31:10And then I'll take some of that clarified butter.
31:19All I would do there, just like a little teaspoon of pink peppercorns and they feel really Christmassy.
31:25Beautiful.
31:30And then we can get it in the fridge.
31:31That butter will set hard and will help preserve this.
31:34You can do this one, two, three days in advance, a week in advance.
31:37This is a perfect get-ahead recipe for you to own this Christmas.
31:43The 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.
31:59That's an amazing little starter.
32:04I think it would be only right to have a little try.
32:08Two or three cheeky little cornichons.
32:13Just slowly just melt through that clarified butter.
32:18Scoop it out.
32:23Okay, let's get in there.
32:42The texture is like silk with the lovely hot bread.
32:52Cornish on chaser.
32:58It for me is a perfect Christmas starter.
33:01The hot bread, the melting clarified butter, the crispy sage, elements of spice in there.
33:08It really is a fantastic get-ahead recipe.
33:11Something delicious and something that you made.
33:14Happy days.
33:22This 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 centrepiece veg pie, and an incredible vegetarian stuffing, to next level
33:53gravy.
33:54Flavoured butter for our veggies, and an arctic roll that Santa will be proud of.
33:58We'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
34:07any cooking.
34:14So you've really done all of the hard work.
34:17You've invested in this incredible feast.
34:19The only thing I want you to think about is timings.
34:22So for the Oliver household, we're going to have lunch at one o'clock.
34:26I want to rest this for two hours.
34:28So that takes us to 12, 11 o'clock.
34:31Let's talk about cooking this beautiful bird.
34:33Now this high welfare turkey is around three kilos.
34:37Okay, so it's going to need about two hours in the oven.
34:40So 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.
34:46Right?
34:47It won't cook beautifully.
34:48So take the turkey out of the fridge, I'd say two hours before you want to cook it.
34:53So that turkey will come out of the fridge at 7am.
34:55So 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?
35:01Because we've got ahead of the game.
35:03Now all I'm going to do now is season the turkey.
35:06This lovely buttery part, we can put some salt on that and pepper as well.
35:11I'm so excited to cook this.
35:15In 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.
35:24So that's taking the fat and putting it over the top.
35:27About halfway through the cooking, I'll take that bacon off the top of the breast and it
35:30will come off in one piece.
35:32And I'll just let that lovely pale skin get nice and golden again.
35:35But that's going to be amazing.
35:36And to be honest, I haven't got much to do now.
35:39Happy days.
35:40We're around two hours.
35:49Oh, it smells heavenly.
35:51You can see the bacon has come off here.
35:53Always good to use a probe.
35:55You go into the thickest part of the turkey and then turn it on.
35:59Now you want to have it at least 65 degrees Celsius for at least 10 minutes.
36:04So that is currently 66, okay?
36:07This temperature will keep on going up as it rests.
36:12Carry on giving it a little base.
36:14Two hours of resting.
36:15It won't be cold.
36:17Temperature goes up internally over the next hour and then eventually it will start going
36:21down again.
36:22And that's what's going to give you a beautifully, elegant, juicy piece of turkey that isn't
36:26overcooked.
36:27It is another level of flavor and texture.
36:30It's worth it.
36:32Straight over to a lovely platter.
36:35Love that.
36:36One last little baste of juices.
36:43And I would just leave it like that.
36:45Happy days.
36:46So here in the pan, we've had the butter and the bacon and also the turkey.
36:51So that fat is now three fats and it's phenomenal.
36:56We'll put it in a jam jar, like you can keep that in the fridge for weeks.
37:01And if you have any leftover potatoes and veggies, like if you start frying it with a little
37:07wodge of that flavor, next level.
37:10So in this tray is the potential for the most amazing gravy, but I'm going to do that in
37:16a minute.
37:17Let me just look at this turkey here, like 71 degrees now.
37:20So you can see that temperature is continuing to go up, up, up.
37:25What we are in now is the golden hours.
37:27When this turkey is resting, the oven is free.
37:31When that's free, then we can effortlessly get on to those beautiful get ahead recipes
37:36that are in the fridge.
37:38So we have that incredible gratin that was turned into a centerpiece pie.
37:43Come on!
37:45We have the most amazing potatoes.
37:49I reckon an hour and a half to get absolutely gorgeous.
37:52Then we've got the stuffing here, I'd give that a good hour.
37:55Then for the pie, an hour as well.
37:57And then the beautiful turkey legs, about half an hour is all you need.
38:00We're just going to stagger that in, but it's all done, it's all chilled, it's all good.
38:05So first up, let's go in with the spuds, right in the top of the oven.
38:13Okay, gravy time.
38:16We're going to get the gases on.
38:17We've got this incredible flavour in here from our amazing vegan gravy, the most delicious
38:23thing ever.
38:24Now, for meat eaters, you can put that same gravy into that tray with all the drippings
38:29and all the leftover bits and pieces, and you will make the most epic meat turkey gravy,
38:34right?
38:35So this is something that can look after everyone.
38:37So look, we're frying off these flavours.
38:40What I'm going to do is break this frying by adding some water to the tray.
38:47So add about a pint and a half, two pints.
38:51Put it on a high heat.
38:53Bring it to the boil.
38:54Then we'll turn it down to a simmer.
38:56Once you've established how many veggie or vegans you've got at your party, you can
38:59put some of that lovely gravy to one side, so you've got options.
39:03And if not, then we pour it in here.
39:06This is going to be phenomenal.
39:09Let 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
39:15and the neck and all the veggies that are going to break up.
39:19I'm going to take some of these resting juices, and this is all yours to have in your gravy.
39:25So very, very nice indeed.
39:28Smells amazing.
39:31I've done my beautiful Yorkshire pudding already, and that only needs a five-minute
39:35flash in the oven to be nice and hot.
39:37So we really are in a very good place.
39:43Right, high down the bottom, stuffing in, great.
39:54There's a few things we can start thinking about, like getting a kettle on to go on our
39:58Brussels sprouts and all those lovely greens.
40:00This gravy is now ready to be sieved into a pan.
40:04I use, by the way, a core sieve.
40:07So that's what I want.
40:08Not too fine.
40:10And then simply just pour this beautiful, oh this smells so good.
40:15Oh my goodness.
40:17This is a thing of joy.
40:23Every last bit of gravy that you squeeze out of this is worth it.
40:29Put that back on the heat to keep warm.
40:35Beautiful turkey legs.
40:37Let's get those carrots on.
40:3920 minutes.
40:40If you remember, that wine will start to boil, the butter will melt, and it will puff up this
40:47bag.
40:48So it's nice, dramatic cooking.
40:50Our gravy here is boiling nicely, so we can take that off now.
40:55I've cut the Brussels sprouts in half.
41:00So if we go in here with boiling water from the kettle, season that with some salt.
41:06As soon as it's boiled, we're going to do literally like four or five minutes of steaming
41:11on here.
41:12We've got the broccoli, we've got the chard, the peas, so that's ready to go.
41:16Think it's time to carve this turkey.
41:20Let's move it to the board.
41:23So there's two ways you can carve this turkey that I think you'll love.
41:27First way is get the fork in.
41:30We'll do long strokes with our carving knife.
41:34Look at the juiciness.
41:37Try and carve it as thin as you can.
41:39Don't stress about it.
41:41Right, the second way to carve a turkey.
41:43Run your knife down that center spine.
41:46Just kind of use that knife to remove the whole breast from the turkey.
41:56What we can do now is start slicing.
42:01It's very easy because it's off the carcass.
42:03I actually like doing a bit of both.
42:06A bit of theatre on the traditional carve and then a little bit of efficiency.
42:12like we can do a nice little pile here of the stuffing and this stuffing will be outrageously
42:29tasty.
42:30The nice little wings here.
42:34We've got even this crispy bit of bacon that has kind of done a lot.
42:37It's been battered but it's still crispy and delicious and gorgeous and I'm not going to
42:41throw that away.
42:42We'd all go mad.
42:45Let's start getting stuff out of the oven.
42:47Come on!
42:48It's Christmas!
42:49We've got the stuffing ready to be turned out, I'll do that in a second.
43:05And then that beautiful pie, come on, look at that.
43:10Our veggies will now go on for a quick four to five minutes steam and now back in with
43:16the Yorkshire pudding.
43:17It only needs like five minutes, max.
43:21So veggies, if you remember, we had that incredible flavoured butter, the lovely green one.
43:29So what we can do is very simply put this on top, it will start cascading down through
43:35the holes.
43:36It's going to be properly tasty.
43:39Let's have a look at the carrots.
43:41Oh, the smell!
43:47Then, let's get these beautiful spuds.
43:50Let's let them tumble.
43:52Tumble down, come on, beautiful roast potatoes.
43:56It's starting to look quite impressive, right?
44:01Take this beautiful stuffing and turn it out.
44:06Come on!
44:08We've got our gorgeous gravy.
44:11It's so silky and comforting.
44:13That is an epic gravy.
44:16So, peas, charred, that lovely flavoured butter, simple and delicious.
44:29Yorkshire pudding.
44:31The sheer size of this just makes me outrageously happy.
44:42Let's go for it.
44:45Look at that.
44:46Look at that.
44:47Look at that.
44:52Come on, let's go for the turkey.
44:59Let's go for stuffing.
45:04Crispy.
45:05You've got it.
45:08Yorkshire pudding.
45:09Controversial for some, but not for others.
45:13Hot gravy.
45:20My wife gets so excited for gravy, she has a spoon at the table.
45:26Wrong but right.
45:31Let's go for some of that amazing turkey.
45:40Mmm.
45:41Delicious.
45:42Beautifully seasoned.
45:43What we've done here with the legs is just cook it so it falls off the bone.
45:53Let's go for a carrot.
45:55Mmm.
45:56Mmm.
45:57Mmm.
45:58Mmm.
45:59Just that little pinch of cumin.
46:02with the clementine really, really good.
46:07The whole kind of principle of getting ahead really works.
46:11in those weeks that you build up towards the big day, shipping away at those jobs and investing
46:16into the fridge and freezer.
46:18Like, you know, you can pick one or two of these ideas or do the whole lot, it doesn't
46:21matter.
46:22But it's the spirit of getting ahead that I promise will look after you and your family
46:26and friends and this could, this could be the best Christmas ever.
46:30in the best Christmas ever.
46:32in the best Christmas ever.
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