Food TV Blog

Here is the third and last part of Nigella’s Christmas Kitchen. I hope you have enjoyed this series, and I hope you have gotten some inspiration from them. Recipes are available under “more”.

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

From Nigella’s Christmas Kitchen

Running time: 29 minutes, Filesize: 84,0 megabytes

Spiced and Super-juicy Roast Turkey

Ingredients
For the turkey
4-5kg/9-11¼lb turkey
6 litres/10 pints 11fl oz water
125g/4¼oz packet table salt
3 tbsp black peppercorns
1 cinnamon stick
1 tbsp caraway seeds
4 cloves
2 tbsp allspice berries
4 star anise
2 tbsp white mustard seeds
200g/7oz caster sugar
2 onions, quartered
1 x 6cm/3in piece of ginger, cut into 6 slices
1 orange, quartered
4 tbsp maple syrup
4 tbsp clear honey
handful fresh parsley, optional (only if you’ve got some parsley hanging around)
For the basting glaze
75g/2¾oz butter
3 tablespoons maple syrup

Method
1. For the turkey, place the water into your largest cooking pot or bucket/plastic bin and add all the turkey ingredients, stirring to dissolve the salt, sugar, syrup and honey. (Squeeze the juice of the orange quarters into the brine before you chuck the pieces in.)
2. Untie and remove any string or trussing attached to the turkey, shake it free and add it to the liquid. Add more water if the turkey is not completely submerged. Keep the mixture in a cold place, even outside overnight or for up to a day or two before you cook it, remembering to take it out of its liquid (and wiping it dry with kitchen-towel) a good 40 or 50 minutes before it has to go into the oven. Turkeys - indeed this is the case for all meat - should be at room temperature before being put in the preheated oven. If you’re at all concerned - the cold water in the brine will really chill this bird - then just cook the turkey for longer than its actual weight requires.
3. For the basting glaze, place the butter and syrup into a saucepan and cook over a low heat, while stirring, until the ingredients have melted and combined.
4. Brush the turkey with the glaze before roasting, and baste periodically through out the turkey roasting time.
5. Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7. Cook the turkey for half an hour at this relatively high temperature, then turn the oven down to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and continue cooking, turning the oven back up to 220C/425F/Gas 7 for the last quarter of an hour or so if you want to give a final, browning boost to the skin. For a 4-5kg turkey, allow two-and-a-half to three hours in total. But remember that ovens vary enormously, so just check by piercing the flesh between leg and body with a small sharp knife: when the juices run clear, the turkey’s cooked.
6. Just as it’s crucial to let the turkey come to room temperature before it goes in to the oven, so it’s important to let it stand out of the oven for a good 20 minutes before you actually carve it.

---

Allspice Gravy

Ingredients
giblets from turkey (not including the liver)
1 litre/2 pints water
1 tbsp allspice berries
½ tsp black peppercorns
3 fresh bay leaves
1 x 4cm/1½in cinnamon stick
1 stick celery, halved
2 carrots, peeled and halved
1 onion, halved, but not peeled
3 tsp salt
1 clementine, juice and zest
2 tbsp plain flour
2 tbsp clear honey

Method
1. Place all of the turkey giblets, the water, the allspice berries, black peppercorns, bay leaves, cinnamon stick, celery, carrots, onion, salt and clementine juice and zest into a large saucepan and bring the mixture to a boil. Cover the saucepan with a lid and reduce the heat so that the mixture simmers gently. Cook for two hours.
2. Remove the saucepan from the heat and strain the gravy stock through a sieve into a clean large measuring jug. This should give you about one litre of stock.
3. When you are ready to make the gravy, remove the cooked turkey from the roasting pan and let it rest on a clean carving board.
4. Pour the turkey juices from the roasting tin into a clean saucepan.
5. Place the flour into a small bowl. Add a few tablespoons of the gravy stock and mix well with a handheld whisk.
6. Add the flour and stock mixture to the saucepan and mix well over a medium heat on the hob until the ingredients have combined.
7. Gradually add the stock and honey to the saucepan and mix well. Let the gravy bubble away until it thickens and the floury taste disappears.
8. Pour into a jug or sauceboat and serve with Nigella’s Spiced and super-juicy roast turkey.

---

Bread Sauce

Ingredients
1 day-old loaf unsliced white bread
1 litre/2 pints full-fat milk
1 onion, peeled and quartered
4 cloves
2 fresh bay leaves
1 tsp white peppercorns
2 blades fresh mace or heaped ¼ tsp ground mace
2 tsp salt
30g/1oz butter
2 tbsp double cream, optional
1 fresh nutmeg, for grating

Method
1. Remove the crust from the bread and tear the stripped loaf into a mound of rough chunks or cubes about 2cm/¾in in size. You should end up with 175-200g (6¼-7¼oz) of cubes. If the bread is not slightly stale already, leave the pieces out on a wire rack to dry out.
2. Pour the milk into a saucepan. Press a clove into each quarter of the onion.
3. Add the onion quarters, bay leaves, peppercorns and the blades of mace (or sprinkle the ground mace into the pan) along with the salt and bring to the mixture almost to its boiling point.
4. Remove the pan from the heat. Cover the pan with a lid and let the ingredients infuse for at least half an hour, though you can leave it for a few hours if that helps with your cooking schedule.
5. After the mixture has infused, place the pan back on a very low heat. Using a slotted spoon, remove the onions, peppercorns, cloves, bay leaves and the blades of mace.
6. Add the bread to the saucepan and cook for about 15 minutes, stirring every now and then, by which time the sauce should have become thick and warm.
7. Just before serving the bread sauce, add the butter to the saucepan and stir until the butter has melted and combined with the sauce and season, to taste, with salt.
8. Add the cream (if using). Grate over quite a bit of nutmeg, adding more once you have poured the bread sauce into a warmed bowl or gravy boat.

---

Brussels Sprouts with Chestnuts, Pancetta and Parsley

Ingredients
1kg/2¼lb Brussels sprouts
1 tbsp vegetable oil
250g/9oz pancetta, rind removed and cut into 1cm/½in cubes
2 tbsp butter
250g vacuum-packed chestnuts
60ml/2fl oz marsala
1 large handful fresh parsley, chopped
freshly ground black pepper

Method
1. Slice the bottoms off each of the Brussels sprouts, cutting a cross onto the base of them as you go.
2. Place the Brussels sprouts into a large saucepan of salted boiling water. Cook the Brussels sprouts for five minutes, or until they are tender but still retain a bit of bite.
3. Remove the pan from the heat and drain the excess water from the Brussels sprouts.
4. Heat the oil in a large clean saucepan. Add the pancetta cubes to the pan and cook until they are crisp and golden-brown in colour, but not cooked to the point of having dried out.
5. Add the butter and the chestnuts to the pancetta saucepan and with a wooden spoon or spatula, press down on them to break them up into pieces. Once the chestnuts have been warmed through, turn the heat up and add the marsala to the pan. Cook until the mixture has reduced and thickened slightly.
6. Add the sprouts and half the parsley to the saucepan and mix well. Season the Brussels sprouts with freshly ground black pepper.
7. To serve, place the Brussels sprouts onto a warmed serving plate and sprinkle the remaining chopped parsley over the top.

---

Gingerbread Stuffing

Ingredients
3 tbsp butter
1 tbsp vegetable oil
500g/1lb 2oz onions, finely chopped
2 eating apples peeled, cored and finely chopped
750g/1lb 8oz streaky bacon, finely chopped
2 clementines or 1 orange, zest only
450g/16oz loaf gingerbread (or 2 smaller ones to give you 450g)
2 free-range eggs, beaten
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper

Method
1. Heat the butter and oil in a large wide saucepan. Add the onion and apple to the pan and cook until both ingredients have softened and turned golden in colour (about 10-15 minutes).
2. Add the bacon to the softened onion and apple mixture and mix well. Cook the mixture, stirring frequently, for about five minutes. Then add the clementine or orange zest and mix well.
3. Remove the pan from the heat and set a side to cool a little.
4. Roughly cut the gingerbread into clumps and crumbs and add the pieces to the stuffing and mix well.
5. Add the beaten eggs and pepper to the stuffing, and press the stuffing into a buttered baking dish. Bake the stuffing in a hot oven with your turkey for about the last 45 minutes.
6. To serve, let the cooked stuffing sit in its dish for a good ten minutes after it has been removed from the oven, before turning it out on to a clean serving plate and slicing it.

---

Maple-Roast Parsnips

Ingredients
1kg/2¼lb parsnips
125ml/4fl oz vegetable oil
80ml/3½fl oz maple syrup

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.
2. Peel the parsnips and then halve them crosswise, then halve or quarter each piece lengthwise.
3. Place the parsnips into a roasting tin. Pour the oil over the parsnips and mix them well so that the oil covers all of the pieces.
4. Pour the maple syrup over the parsnips and transfer the roasting tin to the oven. Roast the parsnips for 35 minutes, or until they are tender and golden-brown.
5. To serve place on a clean serving dish.

---

Perfect Roast Potatoes

Ingredients
2½kg/5½lb potatoes
2 tbsp semolina
2 x 320g/11oz jars goose fat

Method
1. Preheat the oven to the hottest possible temperature.
2. Peel the potatoes, and cut each one into three by cutting off each end at a slant so that you are left with a wedge or triangle in the middle.
3. Place the potatoes into salted cold water in a saucepan, and bring them to a boil. Boil the potatoes for four minutes. Drain the excess water from the potatoes using a colander and then tip the potatoes back into the empty saucepan.
4. Sprinkle the semolina over the top of the potatoes. Hold a lid firmly on top of the pan and shake the potatoes around to coat them well and so that their edges disintegrate or fuzz and blur a little: this facilitates the crunch effect later.
5. Place the goose fat into a large roasting tin and heat in the oven until very hot. Then carefully place the semolina-coated potatoes into the hot fat and roast the potatoes in the oven for 45 mins to an hour or until they are darkly golden and crisp, turning them over halfway through cooking. If the oven is hot enough they probably will not need more than about 25 minutes a side; and it’s better to let them sit in the oven (you can always pour off most of the fat and leave them in the tin) until the very last minute.

---

Redder Than Red Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients
1 x 340g/12oz packet fresh cranberries
200g/7oz caster sugar
3 tbsp cherry brandy
75ml/2¾fl oz water
lemon juice, optional

Method
1. Place all the ingredients in a pan and cook until the liquids have reduced to a thick cranberry sauce.
2. The pectin-rich nature of the fruit means that it solidifies briskly as it cools, so take the pan off the heat to stop it from cooking and reducing when you still think there’s too liquid. Once the berries have burst, which should be after about ten minutes, it should be ready. Taste to test whether the sauce needs more sugar (if you find it too sweet just add some lemon juice).

---

Rum Butter

Ingredients
225g/8oz icing sugar
150g/5oz unsalted butter, softened
50g/2oz ground almonds
3 tbsp dark rum, or to taste

Method
1. Place the icing sugar into the bowl of a food processor and blend the sugar to remove any lumps.
2. Add the softened butter to the bowl and blend the mixture again. Add the ground almonds and blend the mixture again.
3. Flavour the mixture with the rum, to taste.
4. To serve, place in a small, clean serving dish.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 6th, 2007 at 1:31 pm and is filed under Nigella Lawson, Video Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.