Christmas Preparation - Catherine Fulvio Catherine Fulvio of Ballynocken House and Cookery School in Wicklow joins Sean in studio with some festive tips.
Preparing the Turkey: Create a work plan and stick to the times - giving yourself some "me time" as well. If you’re going for a traditional dinner then sometimes the turkey can be dry – try the following: You can always brine the Turkey which will give you a nice moist meat.
Brine is 10% salt water in a saucepan fill up with water, add 2 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp black pepper corns, orange peel, bay leaves and thyme and leave the turkey in there for 12 to 24hrs. Rub butter under the skin or even stuff the breast, this bastes the bird and allows extra flavour.
A rough guide for serving:
2 to 2.5kg for 4-6 people
3kg for 6-7 people
3.5kg for 7-8 people
4 to 4.5kg for 8-10 people
5.5kg for 10-12 people
6 to 6.5kg for 12-15people
Calculate the weight and cooking time:
Generally this is 25-30 minutes per kg plus an extra 30 minutes. Safefood.eu has a calculator and you can just enter the weight and it gives you the cooking time. If the turkey is too large for your oven, don’t panic. Just cut the legs off and it will fit.
How to cook the turkey:
Add a little oil to the roasting pan, place the turkey in, breast side up.
Brush a little butter over the bird. This is now ready for basting.
· Use a Fresh Turkey as opposed to frozen wherever possible
· Fill the cavity with a lemon or orange, bays or thyme and even a little stock.
· Don’t tie legs too tight as this will prolong the cooking time.
· Sit the bird on a trivet of veg – such as carrots, celery and onion.
This creates a wonderful base for making gravy.
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· Retain the cooking juices from the roasting tin and use it to make your gravy.
· Start the cooking process with the turkey down on its breast.
· Always allow meat to rest before carving.
Getting the gravy right:
After removing the turkey, remove some of the fats using a gravy separator.
Place your roasting tin that has the leftover juices on the heat.
Add 120ml white wine into the pan and bring to the boil.
This will help deglaze the pan.
You can add some flour if you want it thicker.
Turn the heat down slightly and continue to stir adding some stock.
Continue to whisk and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Carving the Turkey:
Make sure your knife is very sharp. Get yourself a steel and use it regularly.
Hold the turkey secure with a large fork.
Cut the skin between the thigh and the breast.
Bend the thigh outwards, cut through the hip joint, removing whole leg.
Separate the thigh from the drumstick.
Cut towards wing, cut through the wing joint.
Hold the fork against the side of the breast.
Slice evenly starting at the neck cavity.
Lift the slices off with the fork and knife.
Cooking a Goose or Duck:
There isn’t as much meat on the goose as you might expect.
Trim the fat pads from the opening of the cavity.
Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C/gas 6.
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Place onions and orange halves into the cavity.
Prick the bird all over with a sharp knife.
Rub with your preferred flavouring like 5 spice, lime or lemon zest and cumin.
Roasting times are 20 mins per kg for medium rare and 32 minutes for well done plus rest time.
Drizzle the honey on after it has roasted.
Now onto the Duck... preheat the oven to 120°C/fan 100°C. Prick the skin all over, rub with salt.
Place breast side down on a rack and cook for 3 hours. This will render out the fat. Prick it from time to time.
Baste with maple syrup or honey and add your favourite spices.
Turn the oven heat up to 180°C/fan 160°C/gas 4 and roast for 30 minutes and rest for 15. When the duck is cooked – the legs feel loose.
Preparing the Ham:
4kg raw smoked ham on the bone, soaked overnight
1 onion, peeled and halved
2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
2 celery stalks, roughly chopped
3 bay leaves
8 spice cloves
10 black peppercorns
1 cinnamon stick
700ml cider
2 litres water (you may need more)
To prepare the ham, weigh the ham before you begin to cook. The cooking time for ham is 20 minutes for every 500g.
Place the onion, carrots, celery, bay leaves, cloves, peppercorns, cinnamon stick and add the cider and enough cold water to cover the ham. Bring to the boil and simmer according to the calculated cooking time.
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Keep topping up the water level and scoop the foam off the top.
Remove the ham from the liquid (keep the liquid for making soup).
Preheat the oven to 190°C/fan 170°C/gas 5. Lift the ham onto a large roasting pan. Cut away the skin leaving a thin even layer of fat.
Score the layer of fat in a diamond pattern and spread some of the glaze over the top.
Insert the cloves and roast in the oven for 30 to 35 minutes until golden. Keep an eye on the ham and spread more glaze after 10 minutes of roasting.
Roast for 20 minutes until caramelized and golden.
Easy Glazes:
4 tbsp orange marmalade
3 tbsp maple syrup
Whiskey
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 lemon, zest only
1 tsp ground ginger
4 tbsp soft dark brown sugar
3 tbsp honey
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp ginger zest of an orange
Sweet Pineapple Ginger Glaze
200ml sweet pineapple juice
3 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp ginger
Cherry, Lime, Chilli Glaze
200ml cherry syrup
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4 tbsp brown sugar
1 lime, juice and zest
1 red chilli, chopped
Veg Prep:
Blanch your sprouts the day before and then have them ready in cold water so you can fry them with the following:
Pancetta, pinenuts and rosemary
Anchovy chive butter
Feta cheese and sliced red onions
Shallots, hazelnuts and bluecheese
Or
Saute with red lentils, cumin and cream
Saute with kale, cream and hazelnuts
Catering for Vegans: Try a kale, lentil and parsnip bake or individual nut roasts with cranberry sauce. Sweet potato and shallot filo wreath with a maple orange cranberry sauce.
Maple candied nuts on top of a sticky toffee pudding. Vegan mince pies or even pudding using pears, raisins, sultanas, sour cherries, chia seeds, nuts, olive oil and spelt flour.
It’s also important to support local, be it the turkey or buying fresh local Irish vegetables – parsnips, purple sprout broccoli, sprouts are all so good at the moment. Our potatoes are the best in the world!
The Perfect Roast Potato:
Parboil and then freeze them, take then out the night before to thaw and then you can roast them on the day.
Roast potatoes are a firm favourite with all of us but there are so many more dishes that we can create with our very humble spud. There are a good few varieties that are grown to choose from which work best with different dishes so don’t always just stick with the first batch of potatoes you see. Get to know the varieties like Roosters which are a great general potatoes for steaming, baking and boiling or Pinks for crispy chips and baked potatoes or Queens for roasted potatoes and many more varieties.
Duck fat is very good to roast them in, adding a little polenta onto them as well for a crunch.
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Steam them, shake them and then add them into the hot fat or oil and roast them for about 25 to 30 minutes until crispy. Season with salt.
Stuffing Recipe:
This is a very simple and quick stuffing.
100g hazelnuts, toasted, roughly chopped, 200g fresh breadcrumbs.
6 chopped apricot halves 1 tsp chopped sage, 3 tbsp butter.
5 tbsp stock, salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/ gas4. Mix everything together and place in a buttered small roasting tin. Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes until cooked and golden.
Another stuffing recipe:
Cranberry and Lemon Stuffing
Rapeseed oil
1 finely chopped onion
2 crushed garlic cloves
180g fresh brown breadcrumbs
Zest and juice of 1 orange
4 tbsp dried cranberries, soaked in whiskey
1 tsp chopped sage
1 tsp chopped thyme
1 tbsp chopped parsley
Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/ gas 4. Heat a large saucepan with some oil over a low heat and saute the onion for 5 minutes until softened but not browned. Add the garlic and cook for one minute. Mix in all the other ingredients, stuff in the neck cavity OR place in a buttered small roasting tin. Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes until cooked and golden.
Cranberry sauce:
Make days ahead or even freeze.
Cranberry Sauce
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Makes about 300ml
200g fresh cranberries, washed
100g light brown sugar
120ml red wine
1 orange, zest and juice
2cm fresh ginger, grated
1 star anise
1 stick of cinnamon
½ tsp five spice powder
Place the cranberries and plums into a medium saucepan and add the sugar, wine, orange zest and juice, stir well and then add the ginger, star anise, cinnamon stick and five spice powder. Bring to the boil and gently simmer for about 12 to 15 minutes, stirring from time to time. Remove from the heat and leave to cool completely. Remove the star anise and cinnamon stick when cool. If you feel that it is slightly too thick, add 2 tbsp water before cooling.
Christmas Pudding Cheats:
800g Christmas mincemeat, zest of 1 orange or clementine, 40g glace cherries, halved, 120g self raising flour, 40g fresh breadcrumbs, ½ tsp ground cinnamon, ½ tsp mixed spice, a good pinch of nutmeg, 2 eggs, beaten and 4 tbsp whiskey. Mix together and pour into a buttered 2 pint (about 1 litre) pudding bowl and steam for 2½hours.
Serve with brandy butter or a custard.
Other Christmas Desserts:
Chocolate ginger tart
Chocolate mousse with pomegranate seed topping
Pavlova with baileys cream, toasted hazelnuts and candied cranberries
Pear and cranberry individual crumbles and a vanilla cream
Mocha cheesecake
Berry orange chocolate trifle
Vanilla Wreath cake with rum buttercream and berries on the top
Vanilla Pannacotta with warm orange Christmas fruits
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What about the mince pies?
For the quick fruit mince, which makes about 220g.
110g butter, 110g soft dark brown sugar, 100g raisins 80g sultanas, ½ tsp cinnamon, 50g mixed fruit peel
Place all the ingredients into a large saucepan and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes, until softened. Cool and use OR spoon into sterilised jars and keep refrigerated until needed.
A lot can be done ahead of time:
Closer to the day you can prepare almost everything in advance to help take the stress out of the day leaving you time to relax and enjoy the moment.
· Brandy butter – keeps very well in the fridge.
· Dressings can be made 3-4 days in advance.
· The salad leaves can be prepared up to 2 days ahead.
· Christmas Eve: remove soup from freezer if having a soup course.
· Soak your ham for up to 24hours before cooking. I usually cook mine on Christmas Eve.
So have it soaking all day. When putting on to boil throw in cloves, black peppercorns, a couple of bay leaves, an orange studded with cloves or an apple cut in half.
Prepare the veg ahead – roasted potatoes can be started the day before. Parboil the potatoes and keep in the fridge. Scrape the potatoes, dust with seasoned flour and roast in goose fat. Or if you prefer simply peel and leave in cold water in the fridge overnight.
The Brussel Sprouts can be washed and topped and tailed on Christmas Eve and left wrapped in a damp tea-towel waiting to be cooked in the water from the ham which is also cooked on Christmas Eve and then reheated by glazing and baking on Christmas Day.
· Prepare desserts like trifle, chocolate and raspberry mousse, semifreddo.
· Freeze berries so that you can decorate with them.
Know what garnishes you are going to use.
Suggested plan for serving Christmas dinner at 3pm:
Preheat the oven for the turkey to 190°C/Fan 170°C/Gas 5. 10:50 Prepare the turkey. Place the turkey, skin-side up, on a clean board.
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Ease the skin from the meat with your fingers beginning from the neck end without breaking the skin. Using your fingers gently pack some herb or flavoured butter (this can be made a week ahead) under the skin. Fill the cavity with a lemon sliced in half, some bay leaves, sprigs of thyme, half an onion.
11:00 Next calculate the weight and cooking time – weigh and calculate the roasting time for the turkey, generally this is 25-30 minutes per kg plus an extra 30 minutes.
Add a little oil to the roasting pan, place the turkey in, breast side up.
Brush a little butter over the bird. This is now ready for basting.
11:10 Place the turkey into the oven.
11:40 Turn the oven down to 180°C/Fan 160°C/gas 4. Baste the turkey with the glaze.
12:05 Baste the turkey again. Steam your potatoes until just done - you can peel them and leave in water the day before.
12:10 Start preparing the canapés for drinks – cover and set aside. Get the glasses ready on a tray for the prosecco.
12:30 Baste the turkey then take time to have a cuppa and put your feet up!
1.15 Place the potatoes and or roasted vegetables into the roasting pan and turn the oven back up to 190°C/Fan170°C/gas 5.
1:30 Baste the turkey, turn the oven back to 180°C/Fan 160°C/gas 4.
1:45 Assemble the starter, present on the serving platter – place in fridge. Have all the components ready the day before and keep it simple. If you are serving a soup – heat this, having defrosted it the day before.
2:10 Begin steaming / stir frying / cooking for eg. the Brussels sprouts or beans.
2:20 Check the turkey that it is properly cooked . Remove from the oven and place on a platter to "rest" and keep warm covered with foil. Retain the juices for the gravy.
2:30 Place the Christmas pudding on to steam.
2:40 Check the potatoes, add the garnishes, herbs and rock salt and transfer to your serving bowl and keep warm.
2:55 Garnish the vegetables. Transfer all the platters to the table and Merry Christmas!
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NOTES:
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