Jamie Oliver's Christmas dinner masterclass
Preparing for Christmas dinner can be quite a daunting prospect. Worry no more, as Jamie Oliver is here to give us a Christmas dinner masterclass! He teaches us the best ways to carve a Christmas turkey and how to add some delicious, mouthwatering twists to your basic Brussels sprouts and red cabbage.
Why do we rest the bird?
Don’t be under the illusion that when you remove the turkey from the oven it stops cooking. The residual heat will continue to cook the bird, giving the juices time to travel back throughout the meat, meaning a juicier bird all round. Piping hot meat is not a clever thing – warm, juicy meat, hot gravy and hot plates is the holy grail.
1. Carving method
Use your hands to disjoint the wings and legs, using a good, sharp carving knife to chop and help you pull them away. You can either slice or pull this brown meat – it’s so tasty. Keep it warm while you move on to the breast meat. Use the full length of the knife in a smooth action to slice through the meat, transferring it to a warm platter as you go.
2. Carving method
Again, use your hands to disjoint the wings and legs, using a good, sharp carving knife to chop and help you pull them away. Now, feel where the backbone is and cut with the length of your knife all the way down beside it until you hit the carcass, and lift the whole breast off the bone. Slice on a board, transferring it to a warm platter as you go.
Brussels in a hustle shredded with garlic and sage
Recipe taken from Jamie Oliver’s Christmas Cookbook
Serves: Serves 6 to 8, as a side
Method
Peel and quarter 1 red onion, push it through the fine slicing attachment of your food processor, and tip into a large pan on a medium heat with 50g of unsalted butter.
Pick, finely slice and add the leaves from 4 sprigs of fresh sage, then fry for 4 minutes, or until soft, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, wash and trim 1kg of Brussels sprouts, clicking off any tatty outer leaves. In batches, push them through the same fine slicer. Add them to
the pan, turn the heat up, cover, and fry for 10 minutes, or until soft, adding a splash of water, if needed. Toss in 4 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce, then turn the heat off and gun in 1 clove of unpeeled garlic through a garlic crusher. Stir well, season to perfection and serve.
Nutrition for recipe above: 114 kcals, 6.9g fat (3.6g saturated), 4.8g protein, 8.5g carbs, 6.4g sugar, 0.2g salt, 0.5g fibre.
Red cabbage, crispy smoked bacon and rosemary apple, fennel seeds and balsamic
Celebrating one of the most affordable veg out there – the humble red cabbage – this is a really delicious, classic veg dish. Wonderful as it is hot, I also love it cold, almost like a salad, with meat and cheese, so embrace those leftovers.
Recipe taken from Jamie Oliver’s Christmas Cookbook
Serves: Serves 8 to 10 as a side
Total time: 35 minutes
Ingredients
1 red cabbage (1kg)
4 rashers of higher-welfare smoked streaky bacon
Olive oil
2 eating apples
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
1 heaped teaspoon fennel seeds
100g dried prunes
1 clementine
6 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
Method
Click away any tatty outer leaves from your cabbage, trim off the base, cut the cabbage into wedges, then finely slice it and put aside. Finely slice the bacon and place in a large casserole pan on a medium heat with 1 tablespoon of oil. Leave it to crisp up while you peel, core and dice the apples.
When the bacon is crispy, strip the rosemary leaves into the pan, stir for 1 minute, then use a slotted spoon to remove the bacon and rosemary to a plate, leaving the smoky bacon fat behind. Add the fennel seeds and diced apples to the pan, then tear in the prunes, removing any stones. Stir and fry for 2 minutes, then finely grate in the clementine zest and squeeze in the juice. Add the vinegar, cabbage and a pinch of sea salt and black pepper. Cook with a lid ajar on a low heat for 20 to 25 minutes, or until cooked through and a pleasure to eat, stirring well every 5 minutes to help intensify and mix up the flavours. Serve sprinkled with the crispy bacon and rosemary leaves.
GET AHEAD: Make this the day before and simply reheat it in a pan – it’ll taste great, but if you do this I’d recommend stirring the bacon and rosemary through it rather than serving them on top as a garnish.