Christmas dinner ideas and tips

[UTmaniac]

Fajita vegetatble mix in cast iron skillets (with wooden "trays" underneath) keeping it warm on the table, seperate skillet for meat (turkey pieces or otherwise) if veggies are present, super tasty and so easy to make.

 

[Dolly]

Have you thought about dessert? Last year I did a Christmas Wreath Pavlova and it went down really well:



Oh and Baileys ice cream which was amazing!

We also did turkey two ways - roasted in the oven, and smoked the legs and bacon lattice wrapped breasts on the BBQ. The smoked turkey was a big hit.



Other tips:
- make the stuffing in advance (if you’re doing your own). I tried it this year and it was really easy to throw together and tasted great.
- we par boiled the roasties and half roasted them in the morning - finished them whole turkey was resting.
- cooking sprouts in pancetta is the only way to go.
- roast parsnips in a little honey
- carrots are chopped with skin on, covered in salt and pepper and roasted - much better than boiling
- make the turkey stock in advance so you’re not having too much to do on Christmas morning

For roasties, I’d like to try rapeseed oil this year as a few people have recommended. We usually use goose fat.

And, final tip...warm plates to keep it all hot!

 

[Liquid_Entity]

We found out the tesco Vegetable oil is all rapeseed oil so we were going to use that nut oil someone mentioned earlier on in this post but rapeseed oil is the best for a roast potato in our household. The wife is vegetarian so no chance of goose fat.

 

[jpaul]

- make the stuffing in advance (if you’re doing your own). I tried it this year and it was really easy to throw together and tasted great.

do you stuff the crop ? the turkey then shares it's taste.. agree with simmering up the giblets the day before.


LOL - itv food programme at 7pm was showing people preferring a pre-cooked js turkey crown(looked like a boil in bag) to the real roasted thing - bad cook ? or sponsored by js; equally they did not even contend that people might make their own christmas puddings

is all rapeseed oil so we were going to use that nut oil

what's up with rapeseed ? didn't see a nut mention ?


with the butternuts in abundance MrT, belated thanksgiving pumpkin pie at the weekend, forgot the rum, but butternut puree+evap+eggs+light msucovado

 

[pepp77]

We always have a gammon with the turkey, the leftover meat is great in sandwiches and warmed croissants.

My family to differentiate Christmas from a normal Sunday roast also change the potatoes and do not do roast. We do double dipped potato croquette balls. So mashed potato, egged and breadcrumbed and then egged and breadcrumbed again before being fried. They are so good.

Add some nice honey roasted carrots and a good slice of neck stuffed sausage meat and you have yourself a lovely little Christmas dinner.

 

[Liquid_Entity]

I love groundnut oil for anything like this generally (oven chips, roasties etc)

I always hear good stuff about rapeseed oil though so might try that out too.

what's up with rapeseed ? didn't see a nut mention ?

Think I meant groundnut oil. We had that on our Xmas list but then we saw tesco Vegetable oil is actually made of rapeseed oil so we're buying that to do roast potatoes.

 

[Mark M]

Tried doing roasties with rapeseed oil and the cameout great so will be doing them on Christmas Day.

Bit of a daft question but how do you rest meat? I noticed someone above say that you can rest it for 2 hours but wont it get cold? I tend to loosely cover with foil and then put a couple of tea towels over but if there a "proper" way pf doing it?

 

[Liquid_Entity]

Tried doing roasties with rapeseed oil and the cameout great so will be doing them on Christmas Day.

Bit of a daft question but how do you rest meat? I noticed someone above say that you can rest it for 2 hours but wont it get cold? I tend to loosely cover with foil and then put a couple of tea towels over but if there a "proper" way pf doing it?

Just watched a Jamie Oliver youtube vid and he did a layer of foil looseish then 2 tea towels for 2 hours. So you got it right. Anyway a litre of gravy soon warms up turkey etc

 

[jpaul]

usually decant the turkey from the original roasting tray and put it in another pre-warmed tray + foil/cloths ont top ... so that you can recover the floating fat and scrape the good bits into the gravy. - usually carve from that since our conventional spiked carving tray, not man enough.
... more or less, the once a year outing for the meat thermometer, too.

 

[Felix]

For roasties, I’d like to try rapeseed oil this year as a few people have recommended. We usually use goose fat.

And, final tip...warm plates to keep it all hot!

Another vote for rape seed oil for roasties.

Always warm the plates. Also fill the gravy jug with very hot water (and then empty!) before filling with gravy. Always disappointing with a roast is all that effort and great food being put on cold plates and then luke warm gravy poured on it.

 

[SeatIbiza]

Tried doing roasties with rapeseed oil and the cameout great so will be doing them on Christmas Day.

Bit of a daft question but how do you rest meat? I noticed someone above say that you can rest it for 2 hours but wont it get cold? I tend to loosely cover with foil and then put a couple of tea towels over but if there a "proper" way pf doing it?

You will be surprised how much heat a 5+kg bird retains. It will still be hot after 2 hours, especially covered in foil and towels.

I do a double layer of foil and a few tea towels for mine.

 

[Snookums]

Cooking my first Christmas Dinner this year.

Any of you guys got any decent recipes for rolled sirloin? I'm tempted to sous vide so a sous vide recipe would be even better