Need Christmas Dinner Advice? Ask Here...

saltyjack silverblade

There was a recipe for ferrero rocher cheesecake put up early in the thread. Finished making it earlier and it looks incredible. Haven't tried it properly yet but did have a bit from the side. It was gorgeous! I suspect there are half a million calories in every slice! Thanks for the recipe. Have a great Xmas dinner all!

homemadecider

We chucked our ham into the slow cooker with a bottle of Crabbies ginger beer, some orange zest and cloves. It smells great!

Gotya

Any help??

I soaked my ham last night in water but i removed the string (frist time ever cooking) that was around it. It is slightly starting to fall apart already and i didn't even start to boil it yet?
Is there anything i can do, or is it fcukd?

RasTa

Gotya wrote: »

Any help??

I soaked my ham last night in water but i removed the string (frist time ever cooking) that was around it. It is slightly starting to fall apart already and i didn't even start to boil it yet?
Is there anything i can do, or is it fcukd?

Tie it back up if you want but it's fine, might split but no problem.

I'm after finishing my cake and ham, well glazing tomorrow.

I did get some ready to roll icing but after tasting it, decided I wasn't adding it to my cake as it tasted like something that wasn't food.

Stheno

Have the ham now soaking overnight in coke, looking forward to a day filled with food and just a peaceful time

huskerdu

Hope everyones cooking, eating and socialising plans are going well.

My goose is in the oven, the roast spuds have just gone in,
THe gravy made from goose giblets is a bit green looking, but tastes lovely,

Enjoy your day

MurdyWurdy

My dinner was delicious, if I do say so myself.

I did the Nevin Maguire buttermilk brine turkey crown and it was lovely soft and moist meat. Would definitely do it again!

Da Shins Kelly

Quick question!

I'm in the process of making a nut roast for the first time ever. I'm just wondering what it should look like before I put it in the oven? It still seems a bit soft or liquid-y to me, even though it's been sitting there for about 15-20 minutes now? Should it have absorbed the stock more at this stage? Will it dry up and harden a bit in the oven, or should I add more breadcrumbs or something?

Thanks!

Faith

I made pretty much the whole dinner today, and it was a roaring success!

Prawn cocktail with huge Irish prawns to start

Poached turkey crown (good call, the beer revolu! My turkey hating mother even liked it!), mashed potatoes, potatoes roasted in goose fat, roast carrots and parsnips, stuffing balls, Brussels sprouts cooked with bacon, cranberry jelly and gravy. All perfectly cooked and timed, if I do say so myself.

For dessert, we had my mums Christmas pudding and brandy butter, and my pavlova (which was gorgeously crispy and chewy despite the overcooking!) which had tonnes of whipped cream and raspberries on it. I'm SO full now, but already thinking about how to fit more food in tonight!

The Hill Billy

@Da Shins Kelly - Maybe check with the guys in the Vegan & Vegetarian forum. I wouldn't know what a nut roast even looked like.

Faith

I seem to remember having Nut roast once before and it was very solid, like a meatloaf level of solidity.

Da Shins Kelly

Faith wrote: »

I seem to remember having Nut roast once before and it was very solid, like a meatloaf level of solidity.

Yeah, I'm just wondering how hard it should be before it goes in the oven. I'm assuming it'll harden up more while it's cooking away in the oven.

dee_mc

Yummy Christmas dinner, and a manageable amount of leftovers for sandwiches and tomorrow's turkey and ham puff pastry pie for lunch!
Still too full for lemon meringue pie made at half one this morning, interested to see how it's turned out as I realised after it went in the oven that I never put the butter in the lemon curd! Oops!
Hope ye're all happy and full after the culinary highlight of the year

Gloomtastic!

Turkey bag said cook for virtually 5 hours. Took it out of the oven after 3.5 hours. Rested for a good few hours still the white meat was dry and crumbly.

However brown meat, ham, sausage meat and all the different veg were perfect, finished off by Jamie's best ever gravy.

One of the tastiest Christmas dinners ever! Well done us!

Stheno

Delighted with how dinner turned out, OH and his kids loved it (after four hours of cooking I couldn't stand the sight of food!)

We ended up with:

Roast goose (always forget how little breast meat there is on goose, must get a bigger one next time)
Roast turkey basted with goose fat, very juicy according to the savages
Slow cooked ham in coke, finished off with a honey, mustard and brown sugar glaze (went down a treat)
Roast carrots
Roast potatoes in goose fat
Stir fried brussel sprouts with bacon

Did a turkey gravy, a cider gravy, a ham glaze gravy, and homemade cranberry sauce

The Hill Billy

My spiced beef was amazing! (Many thanks to Des Byrne's Butchers)
Tucked into that, plus smoked salmon & melon with Parma ham in my Mum's this morning, with a few G&Ts.

Dinner at home was super. I didn't do some of the veg - red cabbage & beets - as there was already plenty of others on the go. That was 4 hours ago. Still chilling & haven't even had dessert yet.

Lovely day. Very relaxing.

Hope you are all having a great day.

tHB

BaZmO*

I just had curry chips.

Loire

Turkey could have been in a magazine . Ham could have been in another magazine (for dogs :eek:). Sat from 2pm - 5:30pm and only ate about a 1/3 of the produce. Whiskeys on the go now as the childers are in dream land.

Merry Christmas to all and best wishes for 2014.

Cheers
Loire.

The Hill Billy

BaZmO* wrote: »

I just had curry chips.

I'm rustling up some turkey & pickled onion sandwiches right now if you want to pop over.

BaZmO*

The Hill Billy wrote: »

I'm rustling up some turkey & pickled onion sandwiches right now if you want to pop over.

Maybe later.

the beer revolu

Faith wrote: »

Poached turkey crown (good call, the beer revolu! My turkey hating mother even liked it!),

So glad it worked out for you.
At this stage, I wonder how I ever managed to get everything done with a big turkey taking up so much oven space and time!
I'd say I've poached the turkey about 4 times now - I'll never roast again!

Deise Musashi

O also have to thank The Beer Revolution!

I poached and grilled a chicken as a trial run, very moist meat and crispy skin, winning!
I did brine my Turkey, but the legs are in the freezer and will be prepped and stuffed as you showed in the clips posted earlier.

I also used your idea of wrapping the stuffing in ham and I roasted in a silicone bread tin, slices of stuffing were delicious.

Cheers for the ideas lad, look forward to doing it all again next year, here's to you and yours (raises glass of Dungarvan Oatmeal Stout)

9st n 09

9st n 09 wrote: »

Great thread, can't believe I've missed it till now!!!!!

My question is on my roasties. Was watching one of Jamie Olivers many many Christmas programmes, and one of his suggestion was on Christmas Eve you could parboil the potatoes, carrots and parsnips, roll them around in the fat and then cool then, pop them into the fridge and then put them straight into the oven on Christmas day. Has anyone ever done it like this? I normally do it all on Christmas day, but as I'll be doing the stuffing and ham on Christmas Eve it would be no bother to parboil the veg at the same time leaving 1 less job to do the next day?

Thanks a mill,

T

Tip for next year (and possibly every Sunday Roast) this worked out a treat, will def be doing it next year. Had a lovely Christmas, helped by most of the prep being done the day before so leaving loads of time for the important things, spending time with those who matter.

catho_monster

I am a total lurker here, but (one of my many) new years resolutions is to contribute more because I genuinely get so much outta here, so here's my first step. I just wanted to say thank you so much for all your contributions to this thread. We ended up with the best Christmas dinner we've ever had - and this thread had a huge part to play in that - not only in providing recipes, but inspiration.

Our Christmas dinner prep started in early December - for one main reason - I've not been well the last while and I knew full well that I couldn't pull a Christmas dinner out of the bag in one/two days so I'd need to get as far ahead of the curve as humanly possible. Funnily enough, not being so well means I am watching a near-on-obsessive amount of food tv programmes so between the TV and Boards, ideas were plenty.

So, first off, I made gravy. Inspired by Smitten Kitchen's slow cooker Perfect Chicken Stock and Minder's Turkey Stock post, in early December I threw a Tesco Value turkey leg in a slow cooker with some onions, carrots, celery etc and wine (for the hell of it), left it there forever and eventually strained it. Then, as I was planning on more of reduced-to-make-thick-gravy rather than a flour-thickened gravy - and inspired by one of my favorites in that category from Gordon Ramsay's 3-Star Chef recipe book - I threw in half a bottle of madeira and let it reduce by half. Then I froze it - ready to reduce more on the day to syruppy goodness.

Second job: cranberry sauce. I've never in my life frozen cranberry sauce, but I'd taken an idea that because I was making it so far in advance I'd better, so I did. I'd also been watching Guy Fieri make Thanksgiving dinner and he made a fiery cranberry sauce with chipolte that sounded intriguing, so I decided I'd make that. As soon as I read the reviews on the Food Network site I knew it'd never be a home-run, so I bought enough cranberries to make normal cranberry sauce too. Good job too. Made it, tasted it, decided it would be gorgeous with sausages and into the freezer with it for some emergency dinner. Then made normal cranberry sauce and into the freezer with it too in portions.

I was going to make macaroons for desert. With the logic that they're better made a couple of days ahead. So I could make them Monday and they'd be awesome by Wednesday. I've got the macaroon shell down, but not the filling yet, I've still not got the perfect filling. I was searching online, trying to find a recipe that looked like I could trust it. All the while, at the back of my head, I kept thinking, "I must remember to make chocolate sorbet, I feel like some chocolate sorbet, make some time to make chocolate sorbet". Until one of the days, I realised, we should just have chocolate sorbet for Christmas desert! Doable way in advance, no macaroon palaver, and really light. Perfect. Then thegreatiam posted about Heston's popping candy shortbread base to go with sorbet and my Christmas desert was complete! Next year I think I'll try an ol' Chocolate hob-nob base - something that will provide more texture and won't just melt into the sorbet - but the concept is defo a winner and a keeper

Next up: BaZmo*'s stuffing balls. Made two batches: one big, one small and into the freezer with them.

Final in advance prep: roasters. Was tooing and frooing about this one. (a)We usually do Nigella's method of parboling, bashing, then coating in semolina, then roasting in hot fat, but one of our mates pointed us in Heston's direction of using Maris Piper, rinsing for 5 mins to get rid of the starch, boiling till almost falling apart etc. I did a bit more research - specifically into his roasters and triple cooked chips and saw that merging the two recipes gives: after boiling till almost falling apart, let the potatoes dry on a cooling rack, then put them in the freezer (not touching, in a single layer on greaseproof paper) to dry more. When they were frozen, I just put them in bags in the freezer, and left them there till Christmas day. Used duck fat and followed a BBC recipe for temps/times (30mins at 190 then 30mins 220). I am serious when I tell you that I think I stumbled on the best roasters in the world ever. For serious.

Christmas Eve Eve: got the turkey. Big bronze free range beaut. There's only the two of us here, so inspired by the beer revolu, the OH took the legs off the turkey and put them in the freezer, ready to be defrosted, deboned, stuffed and devoured around late January once we've overcome our December-turkey-overload. We usually brine our turkey a la Nigella, but decided this year to save ourselves the palaver and just stick a pound of butter under the skin instead and figure that'd make it moist

Christmas Eve: prepped the Christmas breakfast: Dan Lepard (the legend)'s panettone. Freshly baked on Christmas eve for the nyomming on Christmas morning while we open the gifts I'm a sucker for the baked goods.

Christmas Eve (just before we went to bed): Squished the smoked ham in the slow cooker with a red onion cut in half and as much coke as would fit in the thing. Left it in there on low until ready to sit down to eat. We always do ham in coke, but this was only the second time doing it in the slow cooker. Will always do it in the slow cooker in future, and the OH has demanded that Christmas ham be done in this way in future. No glazing, but we are willing to sacrifice glazing for the level of nyom that this is.

Christmas day was so lazy it was unbelievable. Seriously, I've done 10 course Christmas dinners before - I've recreated courses of Heston blow-your-mind stuff before for Christmas - it's lovely and wow and all - but WOW there's something to be said for sensational simplicity.

The turkey - we went with, as I said, a pound of butter under the skin, as many lemons as we could stick in the cavity and a riff on Emeril's Creole Seasoning (i.e. no garlic, no onion) on the skin.

When the turkey was cooked and resting, we threw the roaster oil into the oven to heat up, then put the roasters in. Soon after we put the stuffing balls into the oven. I hadn't pre-planned what kind of fat I was going to cook the stuffing in, but the second we tasted the turkey juices, we decided that they were defo going to be used. Buttery, lemony, turkey GOODNESS. Oh my sweet divine food provider. The best stuffing balls, in the history of the world, ever. Oh, and some of the turkey juices went into the reducing gravy too to give it a turkey lemony boost.

While they were cooking, we peeled a couple of spuds and made some obligatory mash, because I cannot function without mash. And the OH got to work on the veg.

We decided in advance that one type of veg was enough (seriously, I love veg probably more than the next person, but Christmas is a meat-fest, why waste valuable belly room with veg?!). So, I made the executive decision to scrap all veg traditions and decided we were going to have brussels sprouts slaw - raw thinly sliced brussels sprouts, apples, toasted pecans and dried cranberries. Don't ask me where I got the idea from. I think maybe because I ADORE pulled pork - the other significant, although more regular meat-fest in my life, and that is always accompanied by a riff on Nigella's New Orleans' coleslaw. So I googled to make sure I wasn't insane (at least to double check that somebody somewhere had tried the same thing) and while I didn't (at first glance) see anyone with exactly that combo, I saw enough to give me confidence to go ahead - and enough all using a using a cider-vinegar/olive-oil/wholegrain-mustard dressing to push me in that dressing direction. It was PERFECTION. Seriously. Cannot get over how it just livened up the plate. So anyway, that was prepped while the stuffing balls cooked. 30 mins.

Oh yeah, and we obviously skipped a starter. Takes up valuable room, starters.

We'd planned on having cheese later, if there was room. There wasn't.

That was a really long post. I didn't quite mean it to be so long, or quite so gushing. Can you tell I really enjoyed my Christmas dinner?

Couldn't have done it without you folks.

Dizzyblonde

catho_monster wrote: »

Can you tell I really enjoyed my Christmas dinner?

Just a bit!

Sounds like an amazing Christmas dinner too.

BaZmO*

If I have a new year's resolution this year it'll be to be as prepared as much as I can be well in advance for next year's dinner. I enjoyed the dinner (as always) but the absolute chaos leading up to serving always takes away a bit from the enjoyment.

I did make the gravy in advance (using Jamie Oliver's chicken wing recipe), which was really nice before I added the turkey juices. I should've just left it the way it was......would've meant less work too!

The Hill Billy

@catho_monster - Wow! Many thanks!!

Animord

You'd better start planning again soon Catho Monster, because you could have all of us with you next year.

Though I am free for Easter if you are planning a re-run?

Mrs Fox

BaZmO* wrote: »

I did make the gravy in advance (using Jamie Oliver's chicken wing recipe), which was really nice before I added the turkey juices. I should've just left it the way it was......would've meant less work too!

Aye. I really enjoyed the thick stock as it is too. Adding the turkey juice made the gravy a tad sweet.

the beer revolu

regarding advance preparations:

A week or so before christmas, I made got a couple of bags of chicken carcasses and made a brown chicken stock which I reduced down to 3 litres and froze. This was for poaching the turkey crown.

I also made and froze my stuffing well in advance. I did my serrano ham stuffing parcels and enough left over to stuff the turkey legs.

23rd, I did my spiced red cabbage - it only got better in the fridge over the couple of days.

Christmas eve, I boned, stuffed and rolled the two turkey legs and prepared the crown. I roasted the carcass, made stock and then gravy from the roasting sediment and the stock. On Christmas day, I bulked out this thick gravy with some of the chicken stock that the turkey was poached in.

So, considering that my BIL did the seafood starter, I really didn't have so much to do on the day. I just did carrot and parsnip mash (which could be reheated in the micro along with the red cabbage before serving), roast spuds, roast carrots, parsnips and onions and sauteed leeks. Ham and spiced beef have always been served cold in our family. Obviously, the turkey needed poaching and browning and the gravy heated up and thinned out too.

13 people were fed with the minimum of fuss or stress - I really enjoyed my meal as a result!