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In a restaurant kitchen, even professional chefs don’t have to make every element of a three-course meal.
But at Christmas, “When you’re cooking at home, you have to do everything,” says Rick Stein, “therefore your timing has to be really good. In a restaurant kitchen, you’re doing four or five things really, and nothing else; also, they’re all part of the same course.”
The popular TV chef, has published his first-ever festive cookbook, Rick Stein’s Christmas, which includes how to organise your time “to do it all painlessly”.
He advises: “Don’t leave everything until Christmas morning, there are many, many things that you think need to be done at the last minute – they really don’t.”
From festive canapes (think mini brioche toasts with whipped feta, fresh figs and pickled walnuts) and starters (Jerusalem artichoke soup with crispy bacon) to impressive desserts to wow your guests – like semifreddo cheesecake with clementine and Campari syrup, or Black Forest trifle – Stein’s recipes are designed to be made in the fortnight around Christmas. And it wouldn’t be Stein without some seafood, too.
Here’s his advice for getting the meal right on the big day.
The bird
“I think Christmas is special in that it is about celebrating the same things or every year,” says Stein. “I really quite like the repetitiveness because it only comes around once a year. So turkey or goose with all the trimmings is what it’s all about. I would feel like I’d sort of let people down if it was just roast beef, even if it was absolutely wonderful roast beef.” Although Stein’s new book also has plenty of alternatives for the big day – or other days in the festive period – think venison bacon and prune shortcrust pie, glazed bone-in Christmas ham and roast butternut squash wellington with porcini gravy.
So what are the main mistakes people make with turkey? “Overcooking it,” he says. “It’s just a big chicken, really. The biggest mistake is getting too nervous and overcooking it. People worry they’re going to get food poisoning if it’s undercooked, which is very, very unlikely.
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Rick and wife Sass, who inspired many of the recipes in his new festive cookbook (James Murphy)
“Buy yourself an oven temperature probe to make sure you don’t overcook it. I think the safe temperature for a turkey is something like 70C. Once you start going over that, you get this problem with dry meat.
“I do suggest wrapping the turkey in buttered muslin [but] it’s really about not cooking it too long.”
The gravy
“The best advice – people that I’ve mentioned it to seem a bit surprised – is don’t make your gravy at the last minute,” Stein says.
“I would always buy a free-range turkey or goose, so I get the giblets, and I’m making giblet stock the day before, to make that really nice and rich. Then I get some chicken stock as well.
“I start with a little bit of duck fat and put a bit of flour in (I don’t like a lot of flour in my gravy). I cook that out, then make the gravy, because then I can absolutely make sure it’s quite intensely flavoured.
“The next day, I’ve got that gravy, it’s made. Just having roasted my goose or turkey, take it out and use some of the gravy to deglaze the roasting tray so I get all the goodness from that [and add it in].”
Roast potatoes
The trick is to make sure you parboil the potatoes, without over-parboiling them. “I go for seven minutes in lightly salted water,” says Stein. “Seven minutes is enough if you’re using Maris Piper or King Edward, to make them a bit crumbly on the outside.
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The Steins – Rick, Sass and son Jack – keeping Christmas a true family affair, both in the kitchen and at the table (James Murphy)
“Shake the potatoes in the pan or colander to roughen up the edges a bit. I always sprinkle in a bit of polenta or semolina, to give it a bit of crumbliness.
“I tend to parboil the day before, but I don’t put them back in the fridge, I just leave them out. You can really tell the difference. And I always use goose fat or duck fat to cook them.
“But the secret, I think, is having a fairly firm potato and not in any way elastic. It’s got to have a sort of brittleness, but not too brittle.
“I’m really hot on roast potatoes because I think actually the gravy and the roast potatoes are the most important part.”
The stuffing
“I don’t tend to put stuffing in the turkey anymore, just to cook it separately, but I always do stuffing,” he says. If he’s cooking goose, Stein prefers a sage and onion stuffing to accompany it – “because goose is so rich you want something quite bland to serve with it.
“With turkey, I tend to go for chestnut stuffing or sausage meat stuffing because turkey has a less rich flavour than goose. It can take a bit more flavour in the stuffing.”
Brussel sprouts
“I have cut corners by buying pre-peeled from a supermarket.” He even did a test one year and bought some of each: “I tested them both and you couldn’t tell the difference.”
Perhaps surprisingly, Stein doesn’t do sprouts with the classic chestnut and bacon combination and prefers them alone. He adds: “It’s not a sort of purity. It’s the balance of the whole meal. If you put stuff with every veg, they’re just fighting against each other.”
Roast goose with sage and onion stuffing and apple sauce
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Rick’s roast goose with sage and onion stuffing – the festive centrepiece that rivals any turkey (James Murphy)
“I have probably enthused about goose elsewhere but for me, the great benefit is the roasted skin and delicious fat,” says Stein.
“I often think that goose is more like roast beef than poultry. The excellent goose for this photograph was supplied by Goodman’s Geese.”
Serves: 8
Ingredients:
1 x 4.5-5kg oven-ready goose
Salt and black pepper
Sage and onion stuffing
3 large onions, finely chopped
75g goose fat
200g fresh white breadcrumbs
200g vacuum-packed chestnuts, chopped
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
4 tbsp chopped fresh sage
3 tbsp chopped parsley
1 large egg, beaten
Oil, for greasing
Salt and black pepper
Stock/gravy
4 rashers of streaky bacon, chopped
Goose giblets
1 small onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
2 celery sticks, chopped
2 bay leaves
6 black peppercorns
2 heaped tbsp plain flour
Apple sauce
4 Cox’s apples, peeled, cored and sliced
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 220C/fan 200C. Remove any clumps of fat from the inside of the goose cavity, put them into a pan and leave over a very low heat until melted. Pass the fat through a fine sieve into a bowl. Season the goose inside and out with salt and place it on a rack set over a large roasting tin. Roast for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and lower the temperature to 180C/fan 160C.
2. Lift the goose on to a board with 2 wooden spoons (you don’t want to pierce the skin), pour off the excess fat from the roasting tin and then replace the goose on the rack. Keep the fat for future roast potatoes.
3. Put the goose back in the oven and roast for a further 1–1½ hours, or until the juices run clear when the thickest part of the thigh is pierced with a skewer and the temperature of the meat when probed in the thickest part of the thigh reaches 66°C for a minute.
4. To make the giblet stock for the gravy, fry the bacon, giblets and vegetables in a little goose fat until golden brown. Pour off the excess fat, add 1.2 litres of water, the bay leaves and peppercorns and simmer for 1 hour. Strain through a sieve and set aside.
5. For the stuffing, fry the onions in about 75g of the goose fat until soft and very lightly browned. Put the breadcrumbs, chestnuts, lemon zest, sage and parsley in a bowl, add the onions and season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the beaten egg to bind the mixture together. Spoon the stuffing into a well-greased terrine dish or loaf tin, cover with a lid or foil and set aside to cook later.
6. For the apple sauce, put the prepared apples into a pan with 100ml of water and simmer for 12-15 minutes, stirring now and then, until soft. Season the sauce with a pinch of salt and keep it warm.
7. When the goose is cooked, lift it on to a board, cover it with foil and leave it to rest for at least 20 minutes. Put the stuffing in the oven and cook for 25-30 minutes.
8. Pour off most of the fat from the roasting tin, leaving about a tablespoon. Set the tin on the hob, stir in the flour and cook for a couple of minutes. Add the giblet stock and deglaze the tin by rubbing the base with a wooden spoon. Simmer for about 10 minutes, then taste to check the seasoning. Pass the gravy through a sieve into a warm gravy boat.
9. Serve the goose with the stuffing, apple sauce and gravy, plus roast potatoes and vegetables.
Tip: Not being a very neat carver, I like to carve in the kitchen and take the slices of goose to the table on a large, warm plate. I cut off the legs and cut each one in half, then carve the breast meat away from each side into long, thin slices.
Filo tartlets with raw salmon, wasabi cream and capers
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His wasabi-spiked salmon tartlets bring a hit of modern flair to the canapés (James Murphy)
“I do think that cold canapés need plenty of what I can only describe as oomph and the oomph in this case comes from wasabi and white miso,” says Stein.
“My son Jack has introduced me to the glory of Japanese fermented soybeans in all their different guises and white miso is perfect for these tartlets as it is pale. I recommend looking out for large filo sheets, such as the Theos brand which is available in supermarkets and online.”
Makes: 24
Ingredients:
2 large sheets of filo pastry (about 45 x 25cm)
30g butter, melted
150ml double cream
1½ tsp white miso paste
1-2 tbsp wasabi
80-90g raw salmon fillet, skinned and pin-boned
24 capers
Sea salt
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180C/fan 160C. You’ll need a 24-hole mini muffin tin.
2. Lay a sheet of filo on a board, brush it with butter, then cut the pastry into 5cm squares. Place a square into each of the 24 holes in the tin, pushing it down well. Repeat with the second sheet of filo, this time placing the squares in the tin at right angles to the first squares to create attractive star shapes.
3. Bake for 5-6 minutes until crisp and golden brown, then leave to cool. You can store the baked cases for up to 24 hours in an airtight tin.
4. For the wasabi cream, whip the cream very lightly until it is only just beginning to hold its shape – it will thicken when you stir in the seasoning. Fold in the miso paste, add a tablespoon of wasabi and taste, then add more wasabi according to your heat preference. Set aside.
5. About 30 minutes (or less) before serving, cut the salmon into small pieces. Spoon or pipe a teaspoon of the cream into each filo cup, then top with a piece of salmon, a caper and a sprinkle of sea salt.
Hazelnut pavlovas with white chocolate and dark berry sauce
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Hazelnut pavlovas with white chocolate and berry sauce – proof that Christmas dessert doesn’t need to be heavy to impress (James Murphy)
“I am a bit of a purist about pavlova,” says Stein. “As it is one of Australia’s classic dishes, I feel it should be made with something exotic like passion fruit, but when Andrew Sullivan, the pastry chef at The Seafood Restaurant [in Cornwall], made these I was very taken with them. I asked Andrew to send me the recipe, which was for about 50 portions of a lovely seasonal dish using cobnuts and damsons.
“I have cut it back to a more manageable eight servings and made it suitable for winter by using hazelnuts and frozen berries. Thanks, Andrew.”
Serves: 8
Ingredients:
For the meringues:
4 medium egg whites
220g caster sugar
2 tsp cornflour
½ tsp white wine vinegar
For the berry sauce:
500g frozen Black Forest berry mix, defrosted
2-3 tbsp icing sugar
To serve:
75g blanched hazelnuts
150g white chocolate
500ml double cream
Fresh raspberries or blueberries
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 120C/fan 100C. Line 2 baking sheets with baking paper.
2. In a clean, grease-free bowl, whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Gradually whisk in the caster sugar, cornflour and vinegar and continue to whisk until the mixture is thick and glossy and the beaters leave a thick ribbon trail in the mixture.
3. Spoon the meringue mixture on to the sheets to form 8 round nests about 10cm in diameter. Place in the oven and cook for about 1½ hours or until the meringues are crisp and dried out. Leave them in the switched-off oven to cool completely.
4. For the berry sauce, blitz the fruit and sugar in a food processor, then pass it through a sieve. Store in the fridge until ready to use. It will be fine for up to 2 days if you want to prepare ahead.
5. Add the nuts to a hot dry pan and toast for a minute or so until they’ve taken on a little colour. Watch them carefully so they don’t burn. Chop the nuts and set them aside in a bowl.
6. Melt the white chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water.
7. When the meringues are completely cool, dip each one into the melted white chocolate and then into the bowl of chopped nuts. Set aside to cool on a wire rack.
8. Whip the cream until it holds its shape. Spoon a tablespoon of berry sauce on to each plate and top with a teaspoon of the cream, then place a meringue, nut side up, on top. Spoon some cream on to each meringue and use a clean measuring spoon to scoop a hollow in each dollop of cream. (Dip the spoon in water between each plate to get a clean scoop.) Spoon a little berry sauce into the hollow and top with a fresh berry and a few more nuts. Serve immediately.
‘Rick Stein’s Christmas: Recipes, Memories & Stories for the Festive Season’ (BBC Books, £28).
Dining and Cooking