[Closed] For those who do the cooking over Christmas

My tip is to lock yourself in the kitchen with a bottle of bubbly and ask to be left alone.

It works for me.

Some useful tips in this piece, regarding preparing in days beforehand.

[url= http://food.uk.msn.com/sainsburys/cooking-catering-for-eight-crowd ]http://food.uk.msn.com/sainsburys/cooking-catering-for-eight-crowd[/url]

I love cooking for hoards. Especially as we have a big open plan main room so I can still interact. And all the pretty ladies gather around my kitchen island to look at my chopper.

Blanch the veg and potatoes then freeze, take out the night before to defrost then cook, you've done most of the hard work though. As for your "bird" or whatever you are having well I try to flash fry the outer skin very early in the morning way before anyone gets up, it's messy and stinks the kitchen out but once done is fine, then put the oven on and slow cook the "bird" as per normal.

Pudding, I get the Outlaws to do that..

Booze, that flows form about 10am and continues until 4'ish...

Do they help crush your nuts as well, Stoner?

My tip is to [s]lock yourself in the kitchen with a bottle of bubbly and ask to be left alone[/s] go for a bike ride.

It works for me.

 

Why am I so jealous of Stoner's life?

best christmas dinner I ever had was a pasty after an epic surf.....

One of my fave Christmas lunches was pizza and champagne here - http://www.sportinia.it/it/il-ristorante

Glorious.

Do they help crush your nuts as well, Stoner?

They do indeed, CFH. They do indeed.
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always have lunch for about two so get the queens speech at 3. always do that jamies christmas turkey and veggies etc always do fresh same day ..

prepare stuffing and bird xmas eve during day leave in oven overnight.. 8 am turn oven on.. open pressies with kids wine/sherry nieghbours etc do veggies eat...

I like doing xmas dinner

IMO

If its up to ~8 people don't sweat it its just a roast dinner.

Once you get over 8 people, you've got to think that everything takes waaay longer than it would usually. Both to prepare, but also to cook cos its all crammed in there and the oven keeps opening and closing (unless you have multiple ovens).

Write a list of what needs doing and when. After a few drinks my timing goes to pot and I forget everything. And don't get too drunk.

Prepare turkey the night before, in oven, start cooking in the early hours (on oven timer). Aim to have it out a good 2 hours before you eat whatever method you are using.

Prepare sprouts and carrots etc the day before but do potatoes and parsnips ~3 hours to go and keep in water until needed or else they go manky.

Inevitably someone will offer to help you - keep a list of 'keep out of my way' jobs they can do.

I wouldn't even start anything until a couple of days before personally, and if just 4-6 or so I'd do it all on the day.

Why not just go for the pre bagged fresh veg? Expensive I know but always tastes good.
Mothers doing the bird before she comes round so that's a bonus time and cash wise. Actually she's doing crackers and table favours so I'm glad I invited the parents 😉

Cook steak instead of god awful turkey. Easier, less fannying about, and you don't have to sit and pretend your enjoying it.

A turkey is a big besat and will happily sit around for 1-1.5 hours resting, so you can cook the bird first, then roast the veg (and pigs in blankets etc) while its sitting about.

The overnight oven timer tip is great, it gets the turkey on the go in the early hours, leaving you free to sort out veg when you get up.

Fixing the gravy a day before works well.

another (slightly over the top) one

I serve everything in serving dishes for people to help themselves, but I have barely enough dishes for this purpose. Plan what is going to go in what and stick post-its on them so you remember. Also then you can get your helper to take stuff out of cooking and into serving mode by telling them to put the sprouts in the dish with sprouts written on it etc.

Christmas with Mrs North's family is slightly different - there's usually an extended family get together (done on a strictly rotated basis) on the evening of Christmas Day, when we all eat a buffet.

Roast is then on Boxing Day. Not sure whose turn this year. However, I've already made the Christmas Pud - will just need to repeat the same laborious steaming process to heat the damned thing up..!

I've taken to cooking on Christmas eve for immediate in-laws. Usually fish, just to throw off the usual diet of meat, meat, meat.

The gravy is done, courtesy of Jamie Oliver

Good ideas so far.

Gravy........ sh1t - I need to get onto that

Here's a link to the recipe:

[url= http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/chicken-recipes/get-ahead-gravy ]Get Ahead Gravy[/url]

Of course, you can get a lot of it done earlier on in the day and keep it nice and warm in the bottom oven of the Aga.

You do have an Aga, don't you? 😉

Get a good multitimer - you can get free ones on your phone but using your phone when your hands are covered in something grim is unappealing.

think I'm going to part cook the bird the evening before and then split it down first thing for finishing off for 30 mins before the meal.

It's just a Sunday roast with a few extra bits - I've never understood how people get so worked up about it!

Thanks for the link Matt - something to do on Sunday afternoon 🙂

Gravy makers. Make sure you never commit the sin of serving thick gravy. Yeurgh!

Or not making the gravy from the meat juices.

A good tip - put the sprouts on NOW 🙂