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Christmas food and cooking


Gus Mears

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1 hour ago, Silky Kisser said:

Me and the misses have the rare honour of having Christmas day at ours this year, just the two of us. 

Really looking forward to doing the dinner but not sure on what to do about the meat.

Seems absolutely pointless to get an entire Turkey for just 2 people. I suppose I could get a crown, but I'm wondering if there are any other cuts/joints people would recommend?

 

Cheers y'all

Just roast a small chicken instead? Turkey's inferior anyway.

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57 minutes ago, Onyx2 said:

Ask your butcher / check supermarket for what I said above - a roulade. I had Aldi's a couple of years back and it was fantastic. I've just Googled it and I can't find it on their site but most of the supermarkets will do one. That or a turkey parcel, which is a spherical version.

Crowns are horrendously poor value for money.

I have also gone with roulade for the past 4 years and completely agree on this. So much easier to carve as well.

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Is it wrong that I chuckled at "12:45pm — Gammon in" on Onyx's list? 

Anyway, last couple of Christmases have been quiet, but this year I think we're expecting a dozen people. My sister's put herself in charge of organising everything and even posted a menu in a family Facebook group convo, which seems a bit over the top. Apparently Yorkshire puddings and sage & onion stuffing are a side dish now, according to her. Among the mains will be carrots, Brussels sprouts, parsnips, broccoli, sweet potato, peas and of course roast potatoes with veggie haggis, non-beef wellington or nut roast. My other sister is allergic to the last of those. And some of the guests aren't vegetarian. This hasn't been thought through. Luckily I'll be out of the house most of Christmas Eve when they start to prepare all of this.

I think we tried cranberry sauce a couple of times and I didn't go down well. Dessert's gonna be Christmas pudding which I was persuaded to sample once and couldn't stomach, so I'll probably be excusing myself from the table to go and munch on chocolate in front of the end of the telly instead. 

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I love cooking a roast and would love to host for Christmas lunch as my roasts are far superior to the mother in law's (not to brag or anything) but as they live on a farm, they can't get away with coming over to ours as they still have to do the milking etc throughout the day.

So I think we're going to make a Bailey's cheesecake for pud and take it round.

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The only odd thing about my family Christmas (turkey and pork, veg, spuds, Yorkshire, full sized sausages wrapped in bacon) is my mother's obsession with three types of stuffing. This year sage and onion, chestnut and apple and I think she's contemplating walnuts.

Well, that and she makes a cheesecake because nobody likes Christmas Pudding. "But its traditional" means bugger all if you don't enjoy it, Christmas Pudding is for Tories who buy those mailaway limited edition plates every time a royal gives birth.

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Cooking Christmas dinner is pretty much my favourite thing to do, ever. I love love love it.

6th year in a row I'm doing Pork Belly. My friends won't let me do anything else. I raised the subject of Lamb in the pub last week and they were having none of it. But why have anything else when you can have this (pic from last year):

IMG_0363.thumb.jpg.ade42db69dd8d7311d902954daa26bf6.jpg

Got a couple of Vegetarians this year, so gotta make 2 gravies, and sadly won't be doing the Potatoes and Yorkshire Puddings in the pork fat this year. 

Here's what the dinner is refined to now after years of tweaking:

- Pork Belly (and crackling)

- Some one is bringing a Nut Roast for the veggies. 

- Roast Potatoes

- Braised Red Cabbage 

- Glazed Carrots

- Sprouts (with bacon and chestnuts)

- Yorkshire Puds

- Stuffing

- Gravy

Biggest tip I can give is do Jamie Oliver's Get Head Gravy a few days beforehand. It's an absolute winner and piss easy to make. Will save you loads of faff when bringing everything together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmxJeptDDlY

EDIT: also, assuming you're doing a big joint of meat or a bird, let that sucker rest out of the oven once cooked for a LONG time. At least an hour, some even say you should rest it for as long as you cooked it. Either way, cover it with tin foil and tea towels and make the most of having a shit load more oven space for a couple of hours.

 

Edited by Chilly McFreeze
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4 minutes ago, Chilly McFreeze said:

Cooking Christmas dinner is pretty much my favourite thing to do, ever. I love love love it.

6th year in a row I'm doing Pork Belly. My friends won't let me do anything else. I raised the subject of Lamb in the pub last week and they were having none of it. 

Biggest tip I can give is do Jamie Oliver's Get Head Gravy a few days beforehand. It's an absolute winner and piss easy to make. Will save you loads of faff when bringing everything together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmxJeptDDlY

 

Fuck that noise.

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On 12/7/2018 at 11:58 AM, King of Hamptons said:

Braise it with red wine, cinnamon, dark brown sugar and a bit of red wine vinager.. You could even put cranberries in if you wanted. 

I went for Balsamic Vinegar instead of wine last year and it was glorious. Used half a bottle. Also chuck a Star Anise in there.

2 minutes ago, Rey_Piste said:

Fuck that noise.

Well shit, one of my better typos I guess.

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Roasted a whole chicken on the bbq this afternoon as a tester for if that is a viable plan for Xmas day to free up some oven space - 

photo5792048052364750323.thumb.jpg.3ec27cd106efcc1d4dbfa6eed96b58fa.jpgphoto5791701061956907353.thumb.jpg.d7a2727818f414579e0509604e36a7d9.jpg

 

It worked pretty well, I have to say! There's no real reason to do it if you do have an oven, but it was very nice nonetheless. This keeps my plan of making three different kinds of meat for the meal alive. Although I have a little suspicion that might be overkill. But anyway the current plan is a chicken, a leg of lamb and a pork shoulder. Roast potatoes and kartoffelknoedel for potato options. Red cabbage. Carrots. Not sure on other sides right now. And my aunt is making the veg main.

 

Edited by Chest Rockwell
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