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00:00M&S Food. Proud sponsors of Christmas with Mark Moriarty.
00:06Christmas is magical.
00:09But let's be honest, it can also be a little bit stressful.
00:15So this year, I want to help you take the pressure off while still making it unforgettable.
00:24Okay, it's time for the most important meal of the year.
00:28Now, I get it. A lot of people want to keep it stress-free at this time of year.
00:33But hear me out in this one.
00:34I'm proposing an alternative Christmas menu.
00:37The recipes are still simple, they're still delicious, and they're really easy to put together.
00:42It's going to freshen up your menu and create something that everyone will be talking about.
00:46First up, we're starting with Scallops Pill Pill on toast.
00:50Buttery, garlicky, with a gentle chilli kick.
00:53Then, it's the slowly roasted strip loin of beef.
00:55Complete with a restaurant-quality sauce, beef-dripping roast potatoes, creamy cauliflower and cheese gratin,
01:02and a fresh and punchy sprout and celeriac remoulade.
01:05Much better than turkey.
01:06And finally, we'll end on something warm and soft.
01:10With that all-important cold custard with the perfect, luxurious finish.
01:14Trust me, you're going to want to try some of these.
01:17Now, this year's Christmas starter, I'm going to serve scallops.
01:26This is the perfect time of year and season to get the biggest, juiciest scallops available.
01:30Now, they are a little bit more expensive, but it is Christmas, so I want to treat the family this time.
01:35What I'm going to do is I'm going to remove the roe or the orange part of the scallop.
01:38Now, you can, if you want, just fry them off with that on.
01:41Some people love it.
01:41But I want to go a little bit more restaurant-y with this year's menu, so I'm going to take them off.
01:46Now, once they're all cleaned up, you can do this in advance of Christmas Day.
01:51I'm going to get rid of the roe, and then I just need to wash my hands.
01:55Now, for our scallops, I'm just using a little bit of bread, which I always have left around the house.
02:00So this is sourdough that I would have bought about two or three days ago,
02:04and it's just not quite as good as it was.
02:06We're going to bring it back to life, essentially.
02:07So just take a good thick slice off, cut it in half, and then we're just going to get some olive oil on there
02:15and cook it on our chargrill.
02:17You can use a toaster if you want, but I just think you get a bit more flavour from this
02:21that goes really well with the roast scallops.
02:24So the olive oil, just drizzle on top.
02:27Let it soak into that bread.
02:29So I'm not really straying away from the traditional Christmas starter, smoked salmon on brown bread.
02:34We've just upgraded the ingredients with lovely sourdough and those beautiful scallops.
02:40I'm toasting the bread using a smoking hot griddle pan, so I can get lovely deep char marks.
02:46You actually want that burnt sort of edge.
02:49It gives a really nice flavour to the bread.
02:50So we want the same on the other side, and then we can get cracking with the scallops.
02:54Now, for the scallops, these are done pil-pil style, so very sort of Spanish.
02:59You might have had them on holidays, your prawns and your bubbling sort of garlic and chilli butter.
03:03What I'm going to do is I'm going to use garlic cloves, flat leaf parsley, and one whole red chilli.
03:10And all we're going to do is we're going to slice it up, and as the scallops cook, we'll add it in,
03:14and it will create a sauce around the scallops.
03:24Now, once I have my parsley, my garlic, and my chilli sliced, we just have to cook the scallops.
03:29So we're looking for medium heat.
03:31They only take two or three minutes to cook.
03:33We're going to get them nice and golden brown.
03:35At this point, I go in with a little bit of sea salt, my garlic, and as well as that garlic, in with our chilli.
03:42Have a look at this.
03:43I'm going to flip them over.
03:43There's nothing better than seeing those golden brown, crusty roasted scallops.
03:51And at this point, they're pretty much done.
03:53So I take it off the heat, put it on our wooden board here, and that oil is lovely and flavoured with that garlic and chilli.
04:00Finish it off with some lemon zest and juice, and a flat leaf parsley.
04:05And then it's time to plate up.
04:06That does look very, very good.
04:14I suppose it is traditional.
04:16It's still seafood on bread, but we've upgraded it with prime ingredients.
04:19It's generous.
04:21It's delicious.
04:22And it is Christmas after all.
04:23Okay, I'm going to let you in on a little secret.
04:37I'm not the biggest fan in the world of turkey.
04:40What I do love is some slow roast beef with a glossy sauce and all the trimmings.
04:45And I think I can win you over too.
04:47So the first thing you need is a really high-quality piece of meat.
04:55So this is strip loin.
04:57It's got a beautiful fat cap all along the top and on the sides.
05:00That's going to keep the meat really moist inside when we cook it.
05:03The fat is hard to tap as well.
05:05There's a bit of firmness in it.
05:07That shows you that it's been dry-aged, and that fat is going to be full of flavour.
05:10And lastly, you can see the marbling through that meat.
05:12That's going to melt out as it cooks and give us that beautiful beef flavour.
05:15Now, while it's very, very good as it is, I am going to marinate it very, very quickly.
05:21For the marinade, I'm using six or seven cloves of garlic,
05:24a good handful of thyme, olive oil, and some black pepper.
05:28Just blend it together into a loose paste.
05:30Then pour the marinade all over the strip loin and use your hands to rub it in.
05:35We're going to put the beef in on the fat side down in a cold pan.
05:39And why we want to do that is we're going to do what we call rendering the beef.
05:43So what we do is we cook it really gently over a low heat with our marinade,
05:47and we melt that fat cap down.
05:50That fat's still going to be used.
05:51We're going to add it to our roast potatoes.
05:53We're also going to use it when we make our sauce.
05:55And then we just put it on a medium heat.
05:57Quickly wash the hands.
06:01So while this is now melting down, I'm going to season it with salt.
06:05And we're using the salt to create that crust on the outside.
06:10So as the fat starts to melt out of the beef,
06:14what we do is we just drain off any excess.
06:16And I'll keep all that rendered beef fat with the beautiful herbs through it.
06:19We can use that for lots of things, including the roast potatoes, in a bit.
06:23Okay, so it takes about ten minutes,
06:25and the skin has gone really crispy and golden brown on top.
06:28So what I do is I turn the heat up at this point,
06:31and we're going to flip it over and brown it on all sides.
06:34So all we're doing at this point is we're sealing it,
06:37getting it smoking hot, caramelized on the outside as quickly as possible.
06:41And the smell in the room when you start doing this is phenomenal.
06:46Much better than turkey.
06:48So now at this point,
06:50let's get a baking tray with a wire rack in there.
06:53I'm going to put my beef in there with the fat side facing up.
06:57I'll get rid of all my excess fat in here.
07:01Any of those blackened thyme and garlic bits you can leave behind.
07:06Then back to our beef.
07:08We're going to cook this in a really low oven at 120 degrees.
07:11And it's going to take about an hour and a half for a piece of meat this size
07:15to cook medium the whole way through.
07:17But this is the trick from the restaurant kitchen.
07:20Do yourself a favour and just buy yourself one of these meat thermometers.
07:23I can tell you all sorts of times and feelings,
07:25but the only way to truly tell where your meat is at
07:27is with the temperature in the middle.
07:29So I stick the probe into the thickest part of the meat,
07:32push it down through the skin.
07:34So that currently is at 21 degrees Celsius.
07:37And I want to bring it up to 46 degrees.
07:40It doesn't matter what meat you're cooking this Christmas,
07:42this will give you perfect results every time.
07:45Now as a chef, this is the question I get asked the most.
07:58How do you make that restaurant quality sauce?
08:01I'm going to show you how.
08:02So this is the same pan we cooked the beef off.
08:04I've just taken some of the little black roasted thyme bits out
08:07because they can be quite bitter.
08:08What we're going to do is we're going to caramelise some off-cuts of beef
08:11and some veg, and this is going to be the basis of flavour
08:14for our restaurant quality jus.
08:16A little bit fancier and packed full of flavour.
08:19Now I have some diced stewing beef,
08:21and I want to get as much colour as possible on it.
08:24While that browns off in the pan,
08:25I need to dice up a carrot and two onions.
08:28Turn the beef, and as it starts to colour on the other side,
08:32get in with the veg.
08:33At this point, I add a few knobs of butter
08:35just to help it along until everything is golden brown.
08:38And once it's done its job, I want to strain off any excess oil.
08:43So there's a few more steps to this
08:45in making your traditional gravy,
08:46but these are the details that make restaurant-quality sauce.
08:50Our dry veg and beef can go back into our pan.
08:54Now we keep the heat nice and high.
08:57So now we're going to add a generous quantity of red wine
08:59and let it reduce by half.
09:02That is the sound you want to hear.
09:03While the red wine is reducing,
09:08get in there with your wooden spoon
09:10and scrape any of those crispy bits from the base of the pan,
09:13including the caramelised pieces of beef.
09:16That's all beautiful flavour, which adds to our finished sauce.
09:20Once that's reduced down by half,
09:22I'm adding some rich beef stock.
09:24And I'm going in with about two litres of it.
09:27And the better the quality of the stock,
09:29the better the flavour of the sauce will be.
09:31A little trick as well for people at home.
09:34At this point, I'm just going to add
09:36a little teaspoon of corn flour.
09:40So what that's going to do is, as it reduces down,
09:42it's going to help thicken our sauce slightly
09:44so we get that beautiful velvety texture
09:46that you'll know from the restaurant.
09:48So that just goes in.
09:51And as the sauce cooks away, that will melt in
09:53and it will improve our texture at the end.
09:55So once the stock and all the mix comes to the boil,
10:00turn it right down to a simmer.
10:02We're going to let it tick away for about an hour,
10:04extract all the flavour from our veg and beef,
10:07and then it'll be ready to reduce.
10:08M&S Food, proud sponsor is of Christmas with Mark Moriarty.
10:25M&S Food, proud sponsor is of Christmas with Mark Moriarty.
10:29Now, no Christmas dinner will be complete
10:39without perfect roast potatoes.
10:41To make them that, they need three key things.
10:44Rooster potatoes, salty water,
10:46and because we're cooking beef this Christmas,
10:48beef dripping as the fat.
10:51Season the water generously with salt
10:53and simmer the potatoes for ten minutes
10:55until they're just soft.
10:56At this point, strain the potatoes
10:59and place them on a wire rack to dry.
11:02Now, a lot of traditional recipes
11:03will ask for you to heat the fat up in the oven
11:06and then get the potatoes in there,
11:07but it can be quite dangerous at times,
11:09so I skip that step.
11:11I'm going to go straight in here
11:12with the cold beef dripping.
11:13I'm going to add the potatoes on top,
11:15but I'm going to cook them at a higher temperature.
11:17That higher temperature is going to mean
11:18that no matter what,
11:19we're going to have crispy roast potatoes.
11:22And then I also have a little bit of this beef dripping,
11:25which is what we rendered out of the strip line
11:27at the very beginning.
11:29Once that's in,
11:30just carefully get your potatoes in on top
11:32and then it's ready for the oven.
11:35I roast these for about an hour
11:36at 220 degrees Celsius,
11:38turning every ten minutes or so
11:39so they get crispy and golden brown
11:41on all sides.
11:43Now for our next side dish,
11:44this is pure comfort food
11:46and another one of the classics,
11:48cheesy cauliflower gratin.
11:50Again, it's easy,
11:51it can be made in advance
11:52and all you're doing
11:53is putting it in the oven on the big day.
11:55First up,
11:56we need to peel our cauliflower
11:57and cut it into the right size.
12:01Now we need to break the cauliflower down
12:02into thumb-sized pieces.
12:04That way,
12:05we can mix them with our cheese sauce
12:07and put it into the oven raw
12:08and it'll cook and be perfectly soft
12:11the whole way through.
12:13Now for the sauce,
12:15so this is a really simple sauce.
12:17It's basically your traditional white sauce.
12:19So we're going to add butter and flour to a pan.
12:22We're going to spit it with some milk
12:23until it thickens
12:24and then we're going to season it
12:25with lots of grated cheese
12:26and lots of flavour.
12:29So we're looking for roughly
12:30equal quantities of butter to flour
12:32and then we just need to cook that out
12:35over a high heat.
12:39So once the flour and the butter's in there,
12:41we are going to heat it up
12:44and get our whisk in there
12:46and just cook it out for about a minute,
12:50cook out that flour.
12:52So we're going in
12:52with about 300 ml of milk.
12:54The flour will react with the liquid.
12:57It'll start to thicken
12:58and it'll give us a pasty texture to the sauce.
13:01So you could add some cheddar cheese
13:02or some parmesan in here at this point,
13:04but the real winner for me is comté cheese.
13:07Got a serious depth of flavour,
13:09serious seasoning
13:10and it goes beautifully with cauliflower.
13:12Now you can see there's a lot of cheese in here,
13:14but as I always say,
13:16if you want big flavours,
13:17you need to use big quantities.
13:22Mix that through
13:23and the residual heat will melt the cheese.
13:26Season with salt,
13:27add some lemon zest and juice
13:28and a heaped teaspoon of Dijon mustard.
13:35Get the cauliflower coated in that sauce
13:37and then stack it high in an ovenproof dish.
13:40I'm just topping it with a few panko breadcrumbs
13:42for extra colour and texture.
13:44You can have it prepared a day,
13:47even two days in advance.
13:49All you have to do is take it out of the fridge before
13:50and let it come to room temperature
13:51and then it's ready for the oven.
13:53This is a recipe you can scale up or down
13:55depending on how many people you're feeding,
13:56but you'll be surprised.
13:58This amount will feed about six people
13:59because it's really rich.
14:01Now, while that's cooking away and the potatoes are on the go,
14:12we're going to come back to our restaurant quality sauce.
14:15You can see it's simmered down nicely.
14:17So what's happened is all the beef and veg that we've roasted off,
14:21all the flavour from that has been extracted into the liquid.
14:24So it's essentially done its job.
14:26The beef is soft to touch.
14:28So what I'm going to do is I'm going to strain off all that.
14:31Now, once all the veg and meat is out of that,
14:34what we do is we put this on full blast of heat.
14:39So right up.
14:40What's going to happen is we're going to reduce it.
14:42So what happens is the water and the liquid will evaporate,
14:44the flavour will concentrate
14:46and you'll end up with that restaurant quality sauce.
14:49But to finish it off, what we're going to do
14:51is we're going to take the last of our rendered beef fat from earlier
14:53and we're just going to add a few little teaspoons of that fat in there,
15:00a little grind of black pepper
15:02and just a touch of salt.
15:05And the difference that's going to make
15:07to the beef flavour of the sauce should be phenomenal.
15:11Oh, and it just brings it alive.
15:17It's that little finishing move that turns good food into great food.
15:21That is our restaurant quality beef shoot.
15:23I can make that a day or two in advance,
15:25have it in the fridge ready to go
15:26and all you have to do is warm it up on the big day.
15:31So a lot of this year's dishes are quite rich.
15:34So to finish off, I'm going to make a salad using Brussels sprouts.
15:36They're not everyone's cup of tea, but try this.
15:38We're going to make a remoulade with celeriac.
15:41There's capers in there, there's lemon, there's mustard.
15:43It's quite vibrant and it'll cut through the richness of all the dishes.
15:51Peel the celeriac and cut it into pieces and grate it up.
15:55We want this to be quite fine.
15:59Then finely shred the Brussels sprouts with a knife.
16:02Get them into a bowl with the grated celeriac.
16:05Finely chop some fresh dill and parsley.
16:06Take a few tablespoons of capers and roughly chop them.
16:10We want to keep a bit of texture here.
16:13Go in with the zest and juice of a lemon.
16:15Season with salt and pepper.
16:17And then add in some whole grain mustard.
16:21And to finish off,
16:22two good tablespoons of pre-made mayonnaise.
16:26Mix it together and it's ready to serve up.
16:28So then the taste test.
16:37It's delicious.
16:39Particularly with the capers,
16:40the dill and that whole grain mustard.
16:42Packs a punch is going to cut through all that richness.
16:45That's ready to go.
16:46I think it's time to do a quick clean down
16:47and then start thinking about bringing this together.
16:48Look at that.
17:15Caramelized on the outside with that beautiful rendered fat.
17:18And medium from edge to edge thanks to our meat thermometer.
17:21Now that is a Christmas dinner.
17:36After all that rich and savoury food,
17:38I like to finish with a dessert that's a little bit lighter.
17:41It still has the traditional Christmas flavours
17:43and it's still delicious.
17:45Now, like most desserts, it is an exact science.
17:54So what we're going to do here
17:55is we're going to weigh it out to the gram.
17:58So the first thing I'm going to go in with,
17:59340 grams of soft butter.
18:02Then into our butter,
18:03220 grams of caster sugar.
18:05Next, 100 grams of golden syrup,
18:112 tablespoons of coarse marmalade
18:13and the zest of an orange and zest of a lemon.
18:19Now what I do is whisk it up
18:20until it's pale and golden in colour.
18:22Once that's combined,
18:29go in with 340 grams of self-raising flour
18:32and 6 eggs
18:34and gently whisk that together.
18:39Then I add the mixture to some Darryol moulds,
18:41which I've just lined with some softened butter.
18:43So I get them about three quarters full,
18:47give them a quick tap just so it levels out
18:50and then line them all up.
19:00Now for my custard,
19:02first thing I need to do is separate my eggs.
19:05I need four egg yolks.
19:07Basically what happens here
19:09is the egg yolks cook out in the warm cream
19:13and as they do that,
19:14they thicken
19:15and that's what gives us
19:16the beautiful rich texture to our custard.
19:19Then on top of our egg yolks,
19:2160 grams of cast sugar.
19:24Then because it's Christmas,
19:26we're going to treat ourselves.
19:28We're going to use fresh vanilla pods
19:29to scent this custard.
19:32And the first thing we need to do
19:33is take the seeds out.
19:35So I just press it down
19:37using my knife,
19:38run it through the middle of the pod
19:41and in there you'll find the hidden seeds.
19:44I turn my knife,
19:46scrape away from me,
19:48pulling all the seeds
19:49from the inside of the pod.
19:51Make sure you get
19:51every single black seed from that
19:53and then we just scrape it
19:55into our egg yolks.
19:57Once the seeds are in
19:58on top of our egg yolks
19:59and our sugar,
20:01hold on to our pods.
20:03It's going to infuse the cream,
20:04making sure we get
20:05every last piece of flavour out of these.
20:11So for four egg yolks,
20:13I'm warming up 250 ml of cream.
20:17So it's hot enough to dissolve the sugar
20:18when we mix it together.
20:20Mix the egg yolks
20:21with the sugar and vanilla.
20:23Pour the warm cream
20:24into the egg yolk mixture
20:25and mix it until
20:26all the sugar has dissolved.
20:29Get that back into the pot
20:30and cook it on a medium heat
20:31for a few minutes,
20:32stirring constantly.
20:33It should thicken enough
20:34to coat the back of the spoon.
20:36Then it's ready to cool.
20:38Get the mix into a glass bowl,
20:40cover it with parchment paper
20:41to prevent it forming a skin
20:42and place it in the fridge.
20:45The secret to this recipe
20:46is everything is prepared
20:48for the big day.
20:49It's as simple
20:49as taking a basic home steamer,
20:52throwing them in.
20:54You can use both layers if you want.
20:56And then lid goes on,
20:5830 minute timer,
20:59they'll be cooked the whole way through.
21:00And what steaming does
21:02is it's going to make them
21:02soft from edge to edge.
21:04It's a traditional recipe
21:05with classic Christmas flavours added
21:07and it is absolutely delicious.
21:13Have a look at that.
21:15Steam has done its job.
21:17They've risen up
21:17above the level of the mould.
21:20And then just to make sure
21:21they're cooked through,
21:22I just get a skewer
21:24or tongs,
21:26press it down,
21:27count to three
21:27and it comes away cleanly.
21:29So I know the sponge
21:30has cooked the whole way through.
21:32So what I'll do at that point
21:33is carefully
21:35take out my moulds
21:37and I'm just going to let them
21:38rest there for two or three minutes
21:40just so they come down a little bit.
21:42So our custard
21:43has been chilling in the fridge
21:45so it's nice and cold
21:47and when it cools down
21:49it gets even thicker
21:50and even more luxurious.
21:52So all that's left to do
21:54is plate up
21:55and the best thing
21:56about this dessert
21:57is really cold,
22:00rich custard
22:00and really warm pudding.
22:03I get a sharp knife
22:04just trim the top off
22:06just to make it
22:08a little bit chefy
22:09and then using my hands
22:11just give it
22:12a little bit of a shake
22:13just to release it
22:15and there we have
22:17our beautiful
22:18steamed pudding.
22:20Soft from edge to edge
22:21a little bit of steam
22:22coming up on top
22:23ready to serve.
22:25Look at that.
22:27All that's left to do
22:28with this one
22:28is taste it.
22:33This is really simple cooking
22:34but it should be
22:35absolutely delicious.
22:36I love the steamed pudding.
22:47You don't see them
22:48around that often anymore
22:49but they are
22:51classic cookery
22:52done properly.
22:53Soft sponge
22:54the whole way through
22:55marmalade, citrus
22:57all those Christmas flavours
22:58and that homemade
22:59vanilla custard
23:00just brings us
23:01to the next level.
23:02Delicious.
23:03So I've got my good shirt on
23:09the hard work is done
23:11and this looks
23:12pretty good to me.
23:13We kick things off
23:15with that scallops
23:15pil-pil on toast
23:16followed by the
23:17slowly roasted
23:18strip loin of beef
23:19with rich restaurant
23:20style jus
23:21beef dripping
23:22roast potatoes
23:22creamy cauliflower
23:23and cheese gratin
23:24and that fresh
23:25and punchy
23:26spriten celeriac
23:27remoulade
23:27and to finish
23:28a steamed marmalade pudding
23:29with that all important
23:30cold custard.
23:32I hope you
23:33take a little bit
23:33of inspiration
23:34from today
23:34even if you
23:35only use a cup
23:36of the ideas
23:36in your own menu.
23:38Best of luck
23:38with cooking
23:39on the big day
23:39and have a very
23:40merry Christmas.
23:42For all the recipes
23:43from tonight's show
23:44visit rt.ie
23:45forward slash food.
24:03locally sourced ingredients
24:17to make your Christmas
24:18magical.
24:19M&S food.
24:20Proud sponsors
24:21of Christmas
24:22with Mark Moriarty.
24:23and we'll see you next time.
24:25We'll see you next time.
24:26We'll see you next time.
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