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00:00We do, do sponsor How to Cook Well at Christmas with Rory O'Connell, too.
00:06The gas part is only part of it.
00:16I love the warm glow of Christmas at home, and there's nowhere else really that I prefer to be.
00:22On the other hand, I've come to London, which I love, for a couple of days of inspiration for my Christmas gifts.
00:27And we're going to a place that should be full of inspiration.
00:31We're going to visit Yotam Natalenghi at his eponymous deli in Notting Hill.
00:36We're sure to find loads and loads of wonderful ideas.
00:47It's wonderful to be here. We're in your store in Notting Hill, and this is where it all started.
00:52And it is the most beautiful shop.
00:55The artwork, the food, obviously. I mean, an Aladdin's cave of complete and utter delights.
01:01It's sort of heaven, really.
01:03Christmas is at our doorstep, and it's like the opportunity to really do that abundance things,
01:08because this is the time of the year where everybody does that.
01:11So it gives us an opportunity to introduce new flavors, new products, new beautiful things,
01:16because people are buying them and enjoying them.
01:18We all know that when we go to a great market, the produce just shouts at you.
01:23You know, it's all there, and you buy it when it has that kind of sense of generosity.
01:27And we realize that's what we want it to do.
01:29Yes, yeah. Yeah, it's amazing.
01:31But the sense of design that runs through everything.
01:33Yeah, we constantly think about, you know, the whole picture.
01:38So it's not just the food is delicious, it looks good, but there's these kind of contrasting colors.
01:44They're like the prime colors, the various.
01:46So we started with the red and the white, and we incorporate more colors.
01:50Obviously, as it gets more Christmassy, we kind of let ourselves go.
01:54Yeah, I know, yeah.
01:54Add the pinks and the reds and the oranges, etc.
01:57But the visuals are very important because people buy with their eyes,
02:01and we're just constantly looking for ways to keep it fresh and beautiful.
02:06Yeah, well, it seems like you have sort of never-ending inspiration.
02:10And the first thing I noticed when I walked in are the almost sort of totemic Ottolenghi meringues.
02:15And, you know, from the very beginning, you know, they were one of the things, weren't they?
02:19Yeah, yeah, yeah.
02:20Part of the story.
02:21It's just a joyful thing.
02:23Because we're now, like, at that kind of Christmassy moment, it feels like Ottolenghi is at its peak.
02:30Because, you know, we do this all year round, but now we get a chance to really, really shine.
02:34Well, you've put a ribbon on many people's lives, really, with your food and the recipes and just the joy that you create.
02:43And thank you from me and from everybody else who loves your food.
02:48Thank you very much.
02:49What a fantastic opportunity to meet Yotam in one of his own shops.
02:56Somebody who I can safely say has changed the way I eat, and I know he's changed the way many, many people around the world eat.
03:03I'm inspired by what he does.
03:05I'm going to go home and cook some meringues, some lemon curd, a little cranberry.
03:09I hope we can get it to look like something that might have come from an Ottolenghi shop.
03:21So the first element of this is cooking the cranberries.
03:25So pop those into a saucepan.
03:27I like to burst the cranberries with the water before you put in the sugar.
03:34Cooking them without the sugar first means the skins are more tender.
03:38So that's just simply a matter of waiting, giving it the odd stir.
03:43So be careful you don't have the heat too high because you don't want the water to evaporate.
03:47And the lid just speeds up the process.
03:55Now let's see what's going on in here.
03:57Ah, yes, lovely.
03:59So have a look to make sure that they've pretty much all burst.
04:02Remove them from the heat and stir in the sugar.
04:05Another day, you could add spices.
04:08Sometimes I might add a cinnamon stick in or some cloves, a little bit of chilli, a bit of ginger.
04:13But because I'm pairing this with lemon curd, I just keep it simple and plain.
04:19And the pure, sweet, sour flavour of the cranberries is what we require.
04:24So we can go ahead and make the lemon curd.
04:26So homemade lemon curd is a really, really glorious thing.
04:30And I'm going to begin by just melting a little bit of butter.
04:33The main thing to remember when you're making lemon curd is that you've got raw eggs.
04:39So you need to cook it nice and slowly.
04:41So my butter is melted there, adding in my castor sugar, my lemon juice, and then my lemon zest.
04:52And that's where the real intensity of flavour is going to come from.
04:55So that goes in.
04:57And then adding in my eggs.
05:00So just some beaten eggs like that.
05:01Now, the odd thing about lemon curd is that it often just gets thinner before it starts to get thicker.
05:09So I like to use a whisk like that to start off with.
05:12If you think the heat is getting too high, pull it off the heat.
05:17So keep an eye.
05:19Lemon curd doesn't take into its finished, expected consistency until it gets cold.
05:24Now, pop in my flat-buttoned wooden spoon, but keeping my whisk not too far away.
05:31Backwards and forwards, going right in to the sides of the saucepan, where the sides meet the base.
05:36And it's just a slow process, sort of a little lemony meditation while you're at it.
05:42When I stir, it's leaving a little trail behind it.
05:46Do you need to be nervous when making lemon curd?
05:49Maybe teeny little bit.
05:51But sort of minding it rather than being nervous.
05:53Now, drawing it off the heat.
05:55And if I take a little bit on the back of my spoon like that, and just pull my finger through it, it holds that line.
06:01That will thicken up a little bit more, you know, as it cools.
06:05So we've made our cranberry sauce and let it get cold.
06:09And then you allow your lemon curd to get cold as well.
06:13And I've already potted up a couple of little jars of cranberry.
06:18What I'm going to do now is take some lemon curd that I have already cooled.
06:24And you get these two lovely, jolly, coloured layers.
06:28And the combination of the lemony curd and the slightly sweet and sour cranberry is just delicious.
06:37I also like to do little mini little pots to act as sort of little stocking fillers or little mini presents.
06:44I mean, what's not to like?
06:46Very jolly, very Christmas, but most importantly, delicious.
06:54These meringues could not be easier.
06:58I've got some egg whites, which we'll keep in your fridge, by the way, for a couple of weeks if you want.
07:03I'm using a stand mixer.
07:04If you try to beat these by hand, I'm afraid it will take some of the joy out of Christmas.
07:09So a machine is really a great help here to you.
07:11So the egg whites go in, and then I'm using castor sugar, both going in together.
07:17And then walk away from the machine for about 10 minutes.
07:19Have a cup of tea while you're waiting, because we want this to beat until it is a super stiff peak,
07:25looking like shaving foam for all the world, or really stiffly whipped cream.
07:29OK, that's been beating for the best part of 15 minutes.
07:43So it looks a lovely sort of peak or a point like that.
07:47Now, I'm going to transfer my meringue into a piping bag.
07:52And I've got this fitted with a plain nozzle.
07:56And you want to deal with the meringue immediately.
07:59It's going to be a sticky business.
08:02Then just force it down towards the bottom of the bag.
08:06And I've drawn a circle on the paper in pencil, and that's on the underneath side of the paper,
08:12just to show me exactly what size I want.
08:14So I'm leaving about a centimeter.
08:17I just sort of squeeze the bag and sort of pulse squeeze it like that.
08:21And you get something for all the world that looks like, we'll call it a Christmas tree.
08:25And make sure the meringue is close together so they stick together in the cooking.
08:31And then you'll be able to lift the meringue wreath off the paper and onto your serving plate later on.
08:40So pulse, sort of squeeze like that.
08:42But I'm going to put on little silver draugé.
08:47These lovely little Christmassy, festive-looking little, basically little balls of glazed sugar,
08:53sprinkled on.
08:54You know what?
08:55It's a bit of fun.
08:55This is pretty much the only time of the year that little draugé up here in this house.
09:01Christmas glitter.
09:02And though this is definitely not one of the great traditional Christmas desserts,
09:06as in the trifle, the pudding, the mince pies, it's still wonderful.
09:11Okay, there we go.
09:12And then that goes straight in to our preheated oven.
09:15And then this will take between one and a half hours and two hours to cook.
09:19Okay, here's one I cooked earlier.
09:25You know, you can cook these days ahead if you want to.
09:28There's simply no problem.
09:29So I've got some softly whipped cream.
09:32I'm going to pop in there.
09:34Because meringues do benefit from plenty of cream.
09:37You just don't want it to be dry.
09:40And then some of the lovely lemon and cranberry.
09:43Really sort of refreshing, slightly sweet-sour,
09:47which is often, I find, the flavours that I'm really craving after Christmas.
09:53And that should be refreshing, delicious, a Christmas treat for sure.
10:08Okay, I think I'm in the right place.
10:11This innocuous-looking door is a door that anybody who's interested in food
10:16is trying to find right now.
10:18This is the Fat Badger.
10:20And I'm going in.
10:21So, Beth and George, the first thing to say is,
10:38I don't think I'm nearly cool enough for this space.
10:41We've just come up, I think, three flights of stairs.
10:43It's a most unlikely entrance to what's now one of the hippest, coolest restaurants in London.
10:50So, George, if I come to Eater, tell me what happens.
10:52What's the concept?
10:54So we really want it to feel like our home kitchen.
10:56So, I guess our initial inspiration was that feeling or that experience when you go into a restaurant
11:02and you know the head chef and you just go, you just pick for me.
11:06So we don't give you a menu.
11:08The food is basically what we want to cook on that day.
11:11But in general, when you arrive, the waiter will come over and establish whether you have any dietary requirements or preferences.
11:17And after that, it's kind of up to the chef to decide what we want to send to that table on that day.
11:20So it will depend on what we got in that morning, what's in season, and then we kind of make up a menu depending on each table's preferences.
11:27Okay, that sounds slightly terrifying.
11:29But on the other hand, as cooks, incredibly exciting.
11:32So this fabulous mince pie, Beth, tell me about it.
11:35What's in it exactly?
11:36So the mince pie, the pastry is a wholemeal rough puff pastry.
11:40And then the mince meat I made back in October, and we've been feeding it regularly with whiskey over the last month or so.
11:45And we shape it almost like pasta.
11:47So we'll add the pastry and shape it with the mince meat in the middle.
11:51And then it's deep fried, tossed in cinnamon and iron sugar, and we're going to serve it with a brandy cream and candied kumquats.
11:57Yeah, I'm sure this will be the most sought-after mince pie in London this Christmas.
12:05That's, if you can manage to get a reservation, it's one of the coolest, most fabulous rooms I've been in for so long.
12:12And the food you cook is delicious, so I'm basically in heaven.
12:17Oh my goodness, Beth's mince pies with the kumquats, fantastic and really Christmassy.
12:24I mean, the joy of seeing two young, enthusiastic, talented, brilliant cooks who love feeding people wherever they have created that fantastic convivial atmosphere.
12:35It really gives me such pleasure.
12:37It's Christmassy for sure.
12:38However, for something completely different, back to my own kitchen to make some Christmas pickled beetroose.
13:08At any time of the year, pickled beetroot is a really useful thing to have in your fridge.
13:14And it keeps in the fridge for months and months.
13:17Honestly, it will keep for about a year.
13:19For this particular beetroot, I'm adding some little Christmas flavours in just to make it feel more of the season.
13:26With a slice of cold ham, a little bit of the leftover turkey, with some goat's cheese, with spiced beef.
13:33It's an absolutely delicious thing.
13:35So I've boiled my beetroot, and you boil them until they're completely cooked through.
13:40There's two stages to this recipe.
13:42These ones took about an hour to cook.
13:44Larger ones will take about two hours.
13:46It also depends on the time of the year.
13:48But generally, at this time of the year, the beetroot have been in the ground for longer, so they take longer to cook.
13:53How do you test if they're cooked?
13:55You can, of course, put a knife in to make sure it's completely tender.
13:59Or the other time-honoured way of testing if beetroot is cooked is just to pinch the skin like that.
14:06And when the skin comes away easily, you know the beetroot is cooked.
14:10So I have some already cooked and sliced like that, ready to go.
14:15Now, for the pickling liquid, to preserve the beetroot, but also to make it taste delicious.
14:21Very simple and straightforward.
14:22As you'd expect when you're making a pickle, some vinegar.
14:26So I've got some white wine vinegar.
14:28So then our sugar.
14:30So we have our sweet and our sour.
14:32And then some water, just to balance everything out.
14:35And then the spicing here.
14:37Some lovely cinnamon.
14:39And this is a lovely fat cinnamon stick.
14:41So that goes in.
14:43Some star anise with its astonishing sort of exotic flavour.
14:47So a couple of little bits of that.
14:48And here I like to use one clove only.
14:52Because I want it to balance with the cinnamon and the star anise.
14:55I'm going to bring that up to a simmer.
14:57Stirring it every now and then to make sure the sugar dissolves.
15:02Simmer them for about a minute.
15:04And then pour this directly over your sliced beetroot.
15:07And that's essentially that.
15:12And sometimes when you hear of the word pickle or pickled vegetables in a restaurant or a cafe or if you're out and about, you think, I can't do that.
15:20It's too complicated.
15:22You need a white coat and a degree.
15:24You don't.
15:24I promise you it's this simple.
15:27So then let that cool a little bit or you could pop it into your favourite jam jar or some sort of receptacle that if you want to give it as a gift, it's sort of ready to go.
15:36And your friends and your loved ones will thank you for this.
15:38And they might still be using it from the fridge in six months' time, reminding them of your lovely Christmas gift.
15:44Every hour, on the hour, Mr. Fortnum and Mr. Mason appear on the front of the famous London shop, which, since 1707, has been selling good things at Christmas.
16:02The shop also claims to have invented the tradition of the well-stocked Christmas hamper.
16:06For many people, cheese is as important as Christmas, almost as the turkey or the ham.
16:15And as you'd expect in a wonderful store like this, there's a fabulous selection of cheeses.
16:19Wonderful British cheeses, continental cheeses.
16:22And I'm really thrilled to see some of the lovely Irish cheeses, a match, of course, with the great cheeses of the world.
16:28We're going to make a simple little yogurt cheese called labneh and a lovely crisp, shattering cracker to go with us.
16:36It's lovely to have a little simple biscuit to eat with all the cheese that is, generally speaking, around at Christmas.
16:48And this is perfect.
16:49So it's relatively mildly flavoured.
16:52It's crispy, so you can put cheese on it or spread cheese on it, and they keep for several days.
16:58They also freeze, which makes them very convenient.
17:01And the ingredients are very straightforward.
17:02I've got some plain white flour, cream flour, and some nice, coarse wholemeal flour.
17:09And you mix those two together.
17:11And then we're going to season it, as you'd expect.
17:15So some salt going in.
17:16And then I put a little baking powder in.
17:19So that just gives the biscuits a little rise and makes them somewhat lighter.
17:25So then mix all those around.
17:27And now comes the fat in the form of a little butter.
17:32And I just rub in the butter.
17:34And that's going to prevent the biscuits from being too hard and too sort of bullety.
17:39Then we need to bind these ingredients.
17:42So I'm going to add in just a little cream and then a little water, just to bring everything together.
17:48So around the side of less water to start with, back in with your hands.
17:52You can use a fork here, a wooden spoon, but honestly, your hands are by far the best piece of equipment for this job.
17:59So it just starts to come together.
18:01And you'll see quite quickly, as I'm seeing now, that yes, I do need some more water.
18:07If the biscuit mixture is too dry, they're a nightmare to handle.
18:11And if the biscuit mixture is too soft because you've put in too much water, the biscuits can be tough and hard.
18:18Just keep at it for a moment.
18:20See the way now it's starting to come together.
18:23I think it's going to take just a few more drops of water.
18:26A little bit just in around the edge like that.
18:30And that will probably be sufficient.
18:34So it's a kind of a funny looking little dough, but you like a little sort of brown or wholemeal shortcrust pastry.
18:40And I like to roll these little biscuits, or you might call them crackers, in a bit of wholemeal flour.
18:48Press.
18:49It's pretty good humoured, really.
18:51Now you need to roll these nice and thinly.
18:53Otherwise, they'll just be too thick and, you know, not lovely and delicate.
18:59This is looking like the map of somewhere.
19:01Somewhere I've never been, but it looks a little bit like a coastline around the edges, which is kind of has its own charm, I suppose.
19:10Next, before we cut the crackers, is a fork.
19:15And start at one side and just press like that, right down.
19:20And that will help to crisp up the biscuits also.
19:24Off we go.
19:26Great.
19:28Suddenly feeling much better after all of that.
19:30Now, onto a dry baking sheet.
19:33No parchment paper, no oil, no nothing.
19:36So what I start off doing is cutting the edge bits off, so they've got a kind of a funny cauliflower-eared edge.
19:45Sometimes you can slide them up like that onto a little palette knife.
19:49So you can make them long and skinny.
19:52You can make all manner of possibility.
19:56You'll probably need to do a couple of trays of them.
19:59These, apart from being delicious at home, are a fantastic gift.
20:02A little wheel or a piece of Irish cheese or a beautiful cheese from anywhere in the world.
20:07And a little box of your homemade crackers.
20:10I mean, if that's not saying happy Christmas, I don't know what is.
20:13It's a moderately hot oven, sort of 150 in temperature, so not too hot.
20:19I'll keep at those and we'll cook them onto the lovely and brown and crisp.
20:22I'll keep cutting, cooking.
20:25Wonderful.
20:31My wholemeal biscuits are out of the oven, looking lovely and sort of super crisp.
20:36So if I crack one like that, lovely little sort of shatter on them.
20:41Very savoury, very simple.
20:43Perfect accompaniment for a perfect piece of cheese.
20:47I'm going to make a little simple, what's sometimes called yoghurt cheese or dripped yoghurt,
20:52or many of you will know as labneh.
20:54So all you have to do is buy the best quality, I would say myself,
20:59ideally in my case, full-fat yoghurt, a lovely thick Greek-style yoghurt.
21:03You can see there's still a little of the cream there on the surface of it.
21:07And that goes into your muslin-lined sieve.
21:13Now, you could have started this yesterday and let it drip overnight.
21:18The longer you drip it, the firmer the little simple yoghurt cheese that you end up with is going to be.
21:24It's as simple as that.
21:25So you could literally just leave your yoghurt in your muslin, in your sieve, dripping.
21:32And quite soon, you'll start to see the whey dripping out of that.
21:37So here's one that I started earlier.
21:40This has been dripping, I suppose, for about eight hours at this stage.
21:43And look how much whey has come out.
21:45I sometimes add that to a jug of lemonade, which may seem like a strange thing to do.
21:50A jug of homemade lemonade, that is.
21:52And it's got a lovely, slightly acid-y, lemony, refreshing flavour.
21:56And you end up with this beautiful little ball of cheese.
21:59And you have, within a few hours, become a cheesemaker.
22:03Just sort of a very pleasing shape at this stage.
22:07I almost sometimes don't want to do anything to it,
22:09because I think it just looks so lovely and simple in its way.
22:12Today, I'm going to make it a little bit more savoury by adding a little pinch of salt.
22:17You could add a little pinch of chilli if you want to.
22:19Some people will like a little bit of yeast.
22:22And then some chopped parsley.
22:24There could be thyme, or it could be marjoram.
22:27It depends what you have in your garden or what's available.
22:29And already it's starting to look, so dare I say it, rather Christmassy,
22:32with the red of the chilli and the green of the parsley.
22:35And then what could also be optional is a little crushed garlic.
22:39But you can imagine how the crushed garlic is going to be lovely in there.
22:43And then a little drizzle of olive oil.
22:46This is so simple.
22:48And if you make the labneh, make sure everybody knows you made it,
22:50that it didn't just come from a tub from somewhere else.
22:55And that's it.
22:55That could go into a little bowl.
22:57It's as simple as that.
22:57I like to, again, because this is for a gift, put it into a little container.
23:02It doesn't have to be a fancy jam jar.
23:04But this is these little ones with their tightly sealing lids are lovely.
23:10They sort of become part of the gift as well.
23:13And then what I like to do is to just run a little slick of olive oil over the top.
23:18Apart from the fact that it looks lovely, it also just helps to preserve the flavours.
23:24And that can be a happy Christmas for you and yours.
23:26We've been to London where we've seen wonderful things
23:35and where we had a lovely, warm welcome everywhere we went.
23:38But at the end of the day, Christmas is for many people about being at home.
23:42And we came home and made lots of little things
23:45which are easy to make in your own kitchen.
23:47So we have our little cranberries with lemon curd,
23:50our lovely little cheese biscuits.
23:52I do love our retro box and, of course, our Christmas pickled beetroot.
23:57Making an edible gift for your friends or your loved ones at Christmas,
24:01as far as I'm concerned,
24:02is a huge expression of the way you feel about them.
24:06And I hope that when you present somebody with a gift from your own kitchen,
24:10that more than anything,
24:11it says that you are wishing them a really, really happy Christmas.
24:14We do, do sponsor How to Cook Well at Christmas with Rory O'Connell too.
24:37The gas part is only part of it.
24:39The gas part K
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