Top 10 Tips for Christmas Cooking

Well the fish gratin went down well with you!  One thing though, if you are going to cook something from the blog, always go to the website not the email sent out, as I sometimes tweak recipes slightly after posting.

Top 10 Tips For Christmas Cooking

1.  To cook brussels sprouts boil them in a very large quantity of heavily salted water until tender, cutting the base of the stems off first, and halving them if very large.  This rids them of their strong flavour, which frankly is very neccessary, and was often done to cabbages in the past, before adding them to pot au feus for example.  Drain and add back to the pan with a knob of butter, salt and pepper, and stir over a low heat briefly to drive off water.  You keep their nice round shape this way and they will taste good.

2. The only way to tell when potatos are boiled enough to be roasted is with a small sharp knife.  If they are the size of a golf ball you want 1cm cooked around the outside but the inside still hard.  Toss in a colander to roughen and season well before roasting.

3. Make a dark chicken stock in advance to help boost the gravy, if you are cooking a turkey or game bird.  Just roast some chicken wings or carcasses, and separately roast a big tray of stock vegetables, turning both over until well browned.  Deglaze with a generous amount of white wine then assemble in a stockpot for a lengthy simmer.  Salt only lightly and don't add peppercorns until the last half hour.  Reduce.  See roast chicken blog post for a fuller discussion.  Handy to have for leftovers as well.

4. Laying bacon on a roasting bird is pointless.  Too salty, ruins the crisp skin and doesn't acheive anything.

5. Wrapping chipolatas in streaky bacon is debateable.  Can be hard to make them stay on the sausages, and removing the skin first, which does help it stick, can be a fiddle.  Alternative is to just roll up the bacon and fix with a cocktail stick.

6. Brining a turkey for a day before cooking will add flavour and succulence.  Dry the bird thoroughly before roasting, wrapped in a tea towel overnight potentially.

7. A starter before Christmas dinner is strictly optional, for purposes of seconds.

8. Brandy butter can be a bit greasy with Christmas pudding.  A nice alternative is a bechemal sweeted with sugar and with whisky, rum or cognac added.

9. The sweetness in cranberry sauce can kill delicate fine wines such as Burgundies, that would otherwise be perfect with a roast turkey.  Maybe only have a little bit.

10. Cut the core out of quartered parsnips to make nicer to eat.

11. Afterthought: Try not to be a food Nazi (note to self).