Episode 7 Christmas Kitchen with James Martin

It's cold outside, so stay with us and settle down

for some festive food, because it's time for Christmas Kitchen.

Hello, and welcome to the show.

We've some brilliant Christmas treats coming up for you today.

Lorraine Pascal will be baking some mince pies

and biscotti exclusively for us,

plus we delve into our BBC's archive

for some festive fishing with Rick Stein.

Now, joining me in the studio is a man

who runs the best Italian restaurant in London - that's what he says.

It's Theo Randall.

And next to him is another modest Yorkshireman

who has currently taken up residency in this kitchen,

-it's the great Brian Turner, of course.

-Morning.

And, of course, our special guest is here,

it's Texas frontwoman Sharleen Spiteri.

I seem to get applause!

Great to have you on the show. Christmas shopping all finished?

Done bits of it. Done most of it, a few bits to do.

A few bits to do. There you go. So, Theo...you're cooking.

What are you going to make for us?

Well, I'm going to do a roasted pheasant.

Going to wrap it in some pancetta,

and I'll do a delicious winter leaf salad

with some pomegranate and some chestnuts.

That sounds a bit fancy!

And using these leaves, which are slightly bitter in flavour,

-but great taste.

-Slightly bitter,

but this time of year you get these wonderful leaves from Italy,

with a bit of balsamic vinegar they taste delicious.

And they look fantastic as well.

-And Brian, you're back with your Turkey Challenge.

-Absolutely.

Trying to tempt me and Theo, cos apparently he doesn't like turkey,

and Sharleen, who also doesn't like turkey.

-Good luck!

-So, we're ganging up on you today.

What are you going to do?

-Do you ever get the feeling that you weren't wanted?

-Exactly!

This, you're going to love.

It's really - it's just seasoned with mincemeat,

it's that time of year, with cinnamon apples,

and really tender turkey breast.

-You will love this.

-I mean, it sounds lovely, but it's...

It's the taste, innit? I'll show you something far more tasty over there.

-Oh, no!

-Dive into this.

Come on up over here, Sharleen.

Like you say, Christmas shopping is done for you.

The kind of idea for this is you can get some...

These are little marrons glaces, now,

-they originally come from North Italy or Southern France.

-OK.

But these are lovely, marrons glaces. They're candied chestnuts.

And I thought I'd do a roulade, a meringue roulade with it.

Something different for Christmas.

But it's all about the sauce, as well, with this.

Now, it's quite unusual, this sauce, because of this ingredient.

This is goat's milk. And it doesn't work with any other type of milk,

-it's got to be goat's milk.

-OK.

Don't tell anybody that. It's a bit like putting turkey on the menu.

Um, it puts people off before they even try it.

-Whereas this is literally...

-Unfair, unfair!

-Unfair, unfair.

But the flavour comes from a little bit of cinnamon,

and then we put sugar, golden syrup and then baking powder.

Now, what the baking powder does is gives it a slight bitterness

-to this sauce as well.

-OK.

-It's quite an unusual mixture.

So Texas is back, after - what? An eight-year break, now?

-It's terrible, I feel really guilty.

-Why the break, anyway?

-Because you said that was good...

-It was going to be a short break,

it was going to be a year or two, and then things happen in life,

but almost five years ago now, our guitarist, Ally,

had a grade V brain aneurysm,

so that kind of put a stop right in the middle of things

when we were just about to do the next Texas record.

I did one solo record, I did a solo record in between,

which was basically just made out of necessity,

because the album - I'd split from my daughter's father

years and years ago, and it was after that point that I ended up,

when I decided to do music again,

that really I had something that I wanted to write about, and...

But the break must be good, because it must get to a stage where

you're just churning out, churning out...

-Because you write a lot of your songs.

-We write all our songs,

and we toured... I mean, basically, we're on...

It's 25 years next year of the release of Southside,

which was our first album.

It is incredible, because when you think about music, how it's evolved

and how it's changed, nowadays, you know, it's manufactured,

they're in, they're out, you know,

there's not many bands that can stand the test of time.

It's really hard. I must admit, it's hard.

I mean, we were lucky enough that

when we did put a record out that the album was so...

I mean, the album was such an important format then.

Nowadays it's not so important.

I think things will change in the next few years,

with a lot of the new, young bands that are coming out.

They're not going to majors, they're distributing their own records

through distribution companies, they're making their own videos.

And the art of making an album has become very important.

So, I think things will change again.

But it's really hard to build a band without catalogue.

And catalogue can only be with albums,

you can't suddenly keep putting one record out every couple of years.

It's really hard.

I'm just going to run through what I've got on here.

So, what I've done is made these little cuts inside.

-This is for lining a Swiss roll tin.

-That's actually a very good tip.

So, you basically just line that. So you end up with square edges,

rather than this chunk of paper in the corner.

So, we've got that. The sauce, you just throw everything in.

The idea is, you bring it to the boil -

be careful when it comes to boil, otherwise it boils over.

Whisk it quite well, and then the baking powder will just disappear.

-OK.

-You keep reducing it,

and you end up with this caramelly sort of colour over time.

And then I'm going to make this meringue,

really, for this one, which is egg whites whisked in a machine,

where we're basically just going to start this up,

and then I'm going to fold in, or rather just throw in,

the sugar that we've got here, normal caster sugar.

So, while they're whisking up,

we've got a little clip from the new single, the latest single.

-Yeah, Dry Your Eyes.

-Dry Your Eyes. Have a look at this one.

# I know your mind's made up

# Though it feels as if it's come undone

# Oh darling, please

# Dry your eyes

# Oh darling, please

# Dry your eyes

# Dry your eyes

Of course, this reminds me of Texas how it used to be.

-Yeah.

-Guitars and all that kind of stuff.

It's gone right back to the roots.

Is that something that you wanted to bring back?

Yeah, I think it was that - it just seemed right to us,

we just made a record because we wanted to.

It was to just take our time with it, no pressure.

It's the first time we've ever made a record without a label,

and we literally finished our contract with Universal

and we just made a record,

and suddenly we ended up going to an independent when we'd finished it,

and just gave them a made record.

And it's been a different experience.

But it's not all plain sailing, you see. Because...

I'm going to add the sugar to this, but while I'm adding to this,

just take out this little outtake.

# How they're hurting you

# When they're not deserving you

# So, so afraid of you... #

That looked pretty painful to me, you see.

That was a... I was a wee bit middle aged, there. "Woo!"

Off I went.

Well, at least you get £150 for one of those programmes now,

-showing that clip.

-Can you believe it?

That woman and her pram, I was like, "Please!"

-I know, I should send it in.

-That looked like it proper hurt, as well.

I sat on the train - cos they kept saying, "Shall we keep shooting?"

And I was, "Ooh..."

But, you know, with that thing where I kept running.

My face was hurting so much, and it was swelling up.

But I sat on the train on the way back to London

and I was literally, like, my face was getting bigger and bigger

by the moment. And I honestly looked like I'd either had surgery...

And I thought, there'll be people looking at me going,

"Sharleen Spiteri's just had plastic surgery!"

Only on one side!

So, yeah, I looked like a real idiot.

Now, the single's out now, the album's out as well.

-And the touring - you're back touring on the road.

-Yeah.

Which will be great for the fans as well.

Touring round Europe.

You're now, well, shortly, in January, off to the Middle East.

Yeah, we're going out to the Middle East in January.

We just finished Europe and the UK,

and we're going back out again next year,

so that's going to be announced.

But in January we're out in the Middle East doing some dates,

which I've never done before, it's the first time.

-So, that'll be interesting.

-Brian spends most of his time out there.

Look at this. You can tell, that's where he gets his tan from.

-Dubai, we like to go to.

-Yeah, I'm going there.

-What date?

-I'm there, I think, the 23rd.

Brian's normally - you can find him on the beach,

just surrounded in tinfoil.

Baking.

-Just like a turkey. Like a big turkey, exactly.

-Yeah.

Bit more of an old, hairy turkey.

But anyway, take this meringue

and all I've done is thrown in the sugar, set the oven

to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, it's about 170 degrees Centigrade.

Now, you cook that for about eight minutes,

drop the temperature down and then cook it for another 12 minutes

about 50 degrees lower, and what you end up with is this meringue.

And we're going to fill this meringue with these chestnuts

and a little bit of whipped cream.

Bits and pieces.

So, is it good being back with the band, then?

Cos you spent a while... Are you still doing your solo stuff?

No, I mean, that was literally a one-off thing that

I was going to do anyway, it was always a one-off thing.

And plus, I had the blessing of the band.

They couldn't stand to be in the studio with me at that point.

I was just being a narky old woman, do you know what I mean?

So, yeah, I mean, it's been great, I mean, the tour was fantastic,

and, you know...

It was weird, cos you don't know how you're going to be received

after not making a record for eight years, so you have no clue.

You're thinking, "Are people going to come see us?"

-But...

-Do you really think that?

Because having a career like you've had...

Yeah, but you know, nothing's definite.

It's like - you don't know

if people are still going to be interested. It's a long break.

But you know, people like the record, so - the record came

in top five in the UK, and it's doing unbelievably well, we just -

I mean, The Conversation,

at the moment it's still number one in the airplay charts.

In France we cannot get it off the radio,

which is a nice complaint to have.

-It's going really good.

-Brilliant! Right, I'll just finish off this.

This is the meringue that I've got here.

You just take a little bit of whipped cream, Sharleen, you see.

This is the low fat version of this dessert.

-Get out!

-I like full fat, I'm all right, yeah.

No, it's good stuff, that.

But we've just got a little bit of this cream.

If you're going to eat something like that, eat it properly.

-We take our chestnuts over the top.

-Ooh.

These are these candied chestnuts.

Marrons glaces.

Then what we do is fold this over.

-Roll it up.

-He makes that look so easy! I know how hard that is!

Well, the hard bit is getting it from there to there.

-Yeah.

-What you do is, you take this cloth and just roll it...

-Oh, that is clever.

-Over onto our...

little dish, like that.

-Ooh...

-Turn that over.

Like that.

And then, if you're feeling the need to be a bit poncy, you can take

some of these - and hopefully Brian has got me a little sprig of holly.

-I've got some, I've seen some.

-Bring it over.

LAUGHTER

A little sprig.

-You could...

-That's a Christmas tree.

How much do you need, Chef?

I only want that bit, Chef, thank you.

But this is normally, of course, with Brian Turner,

this is normally mistletoe.

-Cos he's desperate.

-Do I not get a kiss, then?

Right, just put a bit of that on there.

In fact, we'll take some of our sauce.

Now, this is this caramelly sauce that goes over the top...

-That looks amazing.

-..that you have with it.

A few bits of holly on the top.

I don't know where you even start with that, but...

I'm thinking, do I eat the whole thing?

-Well, you kind of - yeah, you've got the marrons glaces...

-Ooh!

I'm thinking where to go in, cos I want to get the...

Brian, did you...? Look at that, you've ripped the scenery.

-That wasn't me, it was the holly!

-Yeah, yeah.

-That is unbelievable.

-It takes us seven months to put that up.

That is delicious.

Well, it's just, basically, about 16,000 calories, really,

so it's bound to be.

Some people, obviously not Brian and me, worry about Christmas food

being fattening, so we went to...

It's a bit unusual doing this straightaway!

So we went to pay a visit to Lorraine Pascal,

who has some great ideas for some lighter festive treats -

mince pies and biscotti.

I just love Christmas.

It's such a great time to catch up with friends and family and indulge.

Great food, great wine and, of course, cooking.

And I have two very delicious

and light recipes that I'm going to make right now.

The recipes I'm doing for Christmas Kitchen

are spiced biscotti with cashews and cranberries,

and crispy filo mince pies with a pear and apple mincemeat,

which is what I'm going to do first.

So, I've got 100g of raisins, 75g of cranberries...

pecan nuts.

Feel free to use any nuts you like, but I just love pecan nuts,

so about 50g of those, roughly chopped.

And the good thing with this recipe is you don't have to be exact.

So, you want cinnamon, spice, nutmeg,

pinch of everything to give those wonderful Christmassy flavours.

But of fresh nutmeg, freshly grated.

And my alcohol of choice is going to be rum today.

Three tablespoons of that.

And then apples.

So, we've got three apples and one pear.

Everything in there.

OK, now the zest of an orange.

I'm going to use fresh ginger, just to give something a bit different.

So, big amount of ginger in there.

And then, as in most things sweet, some vanilla.

So, the seeds of one vanilla pod in there.

Some apple juice.

Mix it all together and give it a taste.

Perfect.

OK, so that goes onto the heat for ten minutes, just on low.

Just want that fruit to soften a little bit.

And whilst that's cooking I'll get on with the pie cases.

So, I've got the filo here.

So, I want probably two layers of filo,

and I'm going to cut them into squares.

And then brush with some egg.

Not too much.

And then pop one...

..inside, like that.

And it breaks and it tears, that's fine.

You can just patch it up.

Bit more.

Push it in.

When you're baking them, just to make sure that the bottom

crisps up as well,

sometimes I like to put a baking tin into the oven first,

just a flat baking tin, and get that nice and hot,

so that this tin gets nice bottom heat

so that the base of the pastry

is nice and crisp as well.

Just pop them into the oven,

at about 180 degrees for five or so minutes.

They might need longer, might need less,

but just keep an eye on them, because they do cook very quickly.

My tin's in there already, in they go.

This is pretty much ready.

Smells fantastic!

So I'll just pop that off the heat

and leave that to cool down

whilst the filo crisps in the oven.

OK, now, I've been keeping a close eye on this

and they're crisp and crunchy and ready.

I'll just pop a good tablespoon

into each case.

Now, you can serve them like this,

but I like to put a bit of a top

on them, just to finish it off.

So just get a little bit like that

and then scrunch it up

and place it on top.

You only need one sheet as opposed

to two that you use for the shell.

OK.

Finish it off with some oil spray.

I just want this topping to go brown.

There. And then, back into the oven

for five minutes maximum.

So these are ready now.

Nice and crisp.

So all they need is a little sprinkling

of icing sugar to finish them off.

Done.

So I'll pop those aside for a little

bit and get on with the biscotti.

So really simple recipe.

Got 100g each of wholemeal flour and plain flour in here

and I need 75g of chopped cashew nuts,

75g of cranberries,

75g of soft light brown sugar

and then, I want about a teaspoon

each of mixed spice and cinnamon.

More Christmassy tastes.

A teaspoon of bicarb

and a teaspoon of baking powder.

There.

Two eggs, medium size, pop those in.

And then, of course, vanilla

for that extra flavour

and just mix it all together.

So get your hands in

and really squidge it together.

Like that.

And then, on to the board.

I want to make it into a log shape.

So just roll it and bits fall off,

that's fine.

On to the baking parchment.

And then, you pop that into the oven

for about 30 minutes.

At 180 to 200 degrees.

Now, I've already got my baking tray in there,

which I used for the mince pies,

so it'll be nice and hot.

And I can just slide this on

and give it a good head start.

Super simple!

These should be ready now...

..to be cut for their second bake

and then using a serrated knife,

we need to cut the biscotti at an angle,

so an angle like that

to give you that familiar biscotti shape.

And then, back on the baking tray.

So these have had one cook

and they're still very soft, almost spongy

and biscotti is traditionally nice and firm,

so what we do is pop them back into the oven for about half an hour,

but do check after 20 minutes or so

so they get really nice and crisp and crunchy,

which is the way they're supposed to be.

So the biscotti should be ready by now.

They're nice and firm and crisp.

I'm going to pile these up here.

Great smell.

So that's my cashew,

cranberry and spice biscotti

and filo mince pies with a pear

and apple mincemeat

and I hope that you have a very happy Christmas.

We're now two people having a good Christmas,

cos one's starting at one end and the other one at the other,

and me and you are sort of stuck in the middle here.

Biscotti is a good idea. You make them now, they keep, last until...

They'll last till Christmas.

But nothing beats that, James, you are quite right.

I was even going to eat the whole thing at one go, that is delicious.

Right, still to come on Christmas Kitchen,

Theo will be roasting a pheasant wrapped in pancetta

with chestnut and pomegranate salad

and Brian will be creating yet another turkey dish

to try and tempt me, well, all of us...

THEY LAUGH

But first, here are some of our favourite chefs

with their festive foodie tips.

My tip for Christmas is to take

a bottle of marmalade

and fold it through

with some whipped cream

to serve on the side of your Christmas pudding.

Hi, my Christmas tip is actually

a Boxing Day lunch. So whatever

you cooked for Christmas,

whether it's goose or turkey,

whatever's left over, just shred it up, stir-fry that with a bit of

curry leaves, green chillies, onions and coconut.

Make that a really nice Southern Indian stir-fry.

That you could fill inside a sandwich or a wrap

or you could have it on its own.

Go on, have fun, Merry Christmas.

Don't stuff the turkey, funny enough,

because it can dry the meat out.

Leave it open, actually sit it

on its breast and let the actual juices

go in the breast and keep it much more juicy.

Cook the stuffing separately.

If you're really worried about drying up the bird,

you can take the legs off and cook them separately.

If you've got a very, very small family, and you want a big turkey,

cook one breast on Christmas Day and a turkey leg on Christmas Day

and put the other turkey breast and the leg in the freezer

for New Year's Day, so there's no wastage.

Don't, whatever you do,

throw away your turkey bones.

Just put them in a pan with

an onion, a clove of garlic,

cover it with water and simmer away

and use that stock to make Stilton and celery soup.

Delicious!

That one was for you, dear Brian.

Thanks, guys. Right, Theo, it's your turn to cook.

-We've got pheasant on the menu, what are we going to do?

-We'll roast this

lovely small hen pheasant and then make a salad with it.

We'll roast it, wrap it in pancetta, stuff it with some rosemary

and I've got these beautiful leaves here - some trevisse tardivo,

-some castelfranco and some dandelion leaves.

-Look at those!

I've tried growing these this year in the garden

and with some success, some not so good,

this one particularly is quite difficult to grow.

But certainly, the radicchio and the dandelion is pretty straightforward,

but you get a beautiful colour with this as well.

And they also have a really nice texture

and they're really good for a hot salad.

And what's nice, if you add balsamic vinegar and lemon juice,

sort of quite sweet things,

it actually adds a really... It goes really well with the bitter leaves.

-We've got the hen pheasant.

-We'll just wrap it up.

Why particularly the hen pheasant?

-Girls are more tender than boys, basically.

-All right.

And they kind of...they're a bit smaller...

Is that so with turkey as well?

I don't know about turkey.

You need to ask Brian.

-Brian is the expert!

-You'll learn about turkey and you'll like it

-and Sharleen agrees with that. Girls...

-Girls are always tender.

I'm just breaking these chestnuts cos you're going to boil them.

I'll just boil them and add them to the salad.

You could roast them, but I think boiling them is just as nice.

But the secret is just make a split in them first,

otherwise they start exploding everywhere.

You can just, rather than faff around trying to peel them,

you can just get a teaspoon and just scoop out the insides.

Now, using pancetta there.

You could use dried cured bacon as well, but pancetta is beautiful.

You could use streaky bacon, you could use prosciutto di Parma,

you could use anything, really.

But I think the thing about it is that it gives it...

it keeps the breasts nice and juicy.

And I'll cook this for a reasonably long time.

I always think with pheasant, if you cook it too quickly,

you end up with the leg being a bit undercooked and it doesn't taste

so nice, but if you cook it slowly,

all that fat sort of renders down and you get really tasty birds.

I'm going to cook this, seal it off.

And of course, still in season as well at the moment.

So you can get them all over the place now.

And also, they are pretty good value for money,

I mean, you can get a pheasant very cheap.

OK, so we've got our salad leaves.

I often think the grouse this time of year,

is it kind of hit or miss?

Yeah, I agree with you, absolutely.

Do you want to wash your hands in the sink?

So I think with grouse, really,

this time of year, it's not one that I would go for.

It's not finished, but, yeah,

a casserole grouse, however, works nice this time of year, I think.

-Good heart-warming stuff.

-Yeah.

Slow-cooked. So you're getting a bit of colour on there.

A bit of colour, yeah, and I'm going to pop that in the oven.

So what do you have in Italy at Christmas time?

-Cos it's definitely not turkey, is it?

-Well, Christmas time,

they tend to have...it's big family gatherings,

so they have a big sort of baked pasta to start

and then, there'll be something like a bollito misto,

so they cook it like a capon and they have cotechino sausage or zampone.

-Cotechino?

-Cotechino, yeah.

It's a pork sausage and it's kind of slightly spicy

and it's just sort of poached, it's absolutely delicious.

OK, so our salad leaves. We've got some dandelion,

some of this thing called trevisse tardivo

which has got a lovely sweetness to it, slightly bitter.

-And we've got some...

-If you can't find that, chicory would...?

Any kind of chicory -

you could use white chicory or you could use radicchio.

Do you mean a Belgian endive by that, Theo?

Belgian endive, exactly. So we've got our salad leaves...

There is an argument as per how to call chicory or an endive...

Certain people call them different things and I get confused myself.

-So this would have been cooked for about...

-He's full of information.

This has been cooked for about half an hour

and we've got the...it's sort of quite juicy in the inside,

and that pancetta has really gone crispy

so we just take the string off.

Now, you cook this for a decent amount of time

cos, you know, a lot of people say game should be nice and pink,

-you've cooked this for...

-I think for something like a salad,

it's really nice to have it cooked through cos if it's too rare,

it doesn't taste so nice

and it can be a bit tough, particularly the legs.

You won't use every single bit, cos there's so much on here.

OK, so just take the breasts and the legs off.

It's funny you mentioned grouse, but I think this time of year,

if you pop roast pheasant, I think that's fantastic as well.

Absolutely, yes.

If you cook it a decent amount of time rather than have it pink.

So heat the pan up, get rid of some of that fat.

-Do you want some of these leaves of this one?

-Yes, please.

-What do you call this one again?

-It's called castelfranco.

And then, add a little bit of Marsala.

You can put a bit at the beginning of the cooking,

but it tends to get a bit too...

so we'll just reduce that down slightly

and then, we're going to add our bits of pheasant,

so take off any little bones.

Do you need to flame the Marsala at all?

-Just cook it down so you get rid of the alcohol.

-Right.

But I put a little bit in the pan before it went in the oven,

so it just gives it that extra fishing off for the dressing.

-So take the skin off.

-Do you want me to chop this...?

That'd be very nice, thank you.

And then, just sort of take big chunks of the pheasant,

makes the salad much more sort of rustic and warm-tasting.

-Leave some for the salad, Chef!

-One for the pot, one for me...

THEY LAUGH

THEY MURMUR

So that Marsala, we've just reduced that so we get that sweetness

which goes on really nicely with the dressing.

Another one for me.

-We just flame that.

-Yeah.

So this is basically the salad dressing that we're making now.

It's the salad dressing, yes.

The Marsala just goes in with that lovely sort of sweet taste,

-that's our Christmassy taste.

-Yeah.

Because often, you've got to cook the legs separately, really.

Cos they can be quite tough.

Sorry to... But the French used to put the whole bird in,

take it out when the breast was cooked, let it rest,

take the legs off, put them back in and serve the legs with the salad,

just like Theo is doing, afterwards. It's just brilliant.

OK, so give it a bit of balsamic vinegar.

Which is what they still classically do with poule...with chicken.

Absolutely right, yes.

-And duck, em...blood duck or whatever it's called.

-Blood duck?

-What is it called?

-Blood duck(!)

-No, what is it called?

I can't remember!

THEY LAUGH

-It's what it is.

-Canard a la presse, canard a la presse, that's it.

They press the blood out and use that for the...

That well-known dish - blood duck.

When it's reduced, it's gone slightly sweet, we're going to add

the cooked pheasant back in there.

Just mix that all together so you get this lovely,

all these lovely roasting juices and that flavour of Marsala back in.

And then, we're going to toss our salad together.

-Do you want to add a bit of mint?

-Right, OK.

So this is good balsamic vinegar in it, really.

Very good balsamic vinegar.

A bit of olive oil. A little bit more.

And...I'm going to get a plate and start making up our salad.

So we've got the lovely mixed bitter leaves,

a few of those on the plate.

And then, we're going to get our chestnuts, which you've peeled.

And the pomegranate and then, we sort of build up our salad

and it's the perfect thing to put at the middle of the table

for lots of people,

because there's so much meat on a pheasant.

OK.

Then layer that up, a few more leaves,

and then we're going to finish off with some lovely...

I think you guys better come over and have a taste of it.

..roasted chestnuts...

-There's enough for all of us here. So...

-Roasted chestnuts.

So there are the chestnuts we've just boiled.

It takes, what, ten minutes, something like that?

Yeah, and then just peeled. And then, we've got out pomegranate.

That looks delicious.

And then a few... I've got so much mint. And then, a few bits of mint.

Nice and rough. A bit of pancetta.

I think you've done that for Lorraine Pascale...

THEY LAUGH

-We just finish with a bit of balsamic vinegar.

-Ooh!

And there you are - a delicious roasted pancetta salad with pheasant.

Thank you.

The leaves are the key to this, aren't they, if you can find them.

With the Marsala and the pancetta it's quite sweet,

so you want something to counteract that,

so having the bitter leaves really works.

I'll take a bit of everything.

-Finish off with a bit of mint as well.

-Mm!

But the quality of the balsamic vinegar is really important.

The cheaper stuff nowadays can be very watery.

You need to use good stuff.

It's too acidic. You want something quite sweet and thick.

-Happy with that?

-Fantastic.

-That's really good. Delicious.

While we dive into this, let's pay a visit to Rick Stein for some

-seasonal salmon fishing in Scotland.

-That is delicious.

One of the best farmed salmon around comes from the Outer Hebrides.

It's so good it's almost like wild. A bit like the weather here.

My main question coming to the islands is to see

Angus Macmillan's organic farmed salmon in Benbecula.

This is the first time I've actually been to a fish farm which is truly out at sea.

And suddenly you can see what they say about being out in the open sea.

There's water rushing down here all the time

and constantly you're getting clean water.

And that is the main thing, I think, about organic salmon.

Not only that, but the cages are well spaced apart

and I'm sure a low density of fish in the cages.

They don't have any electronic feeding machines here.

They deliberately feed the fish by hand so that they only get what

they need and there is no excess food on the bottom polluting the water.

We've got two! This to me is a very attractive fish.

A lovely colour, as you can see, and it's also nice and sleek.

And the thing I always look for in good farmed fish

is the shape of the fins. This is used to swimming a great deal.

One of the things Angus was saying was that because the fish here

are out in a strong current

their muscles are being engaged actively all the time

and you can feel that.

When I just go like that the fillet is really firm.

Yeah, I'd quite like to do something with that. Eat it, in other words.

This is roasted salmon with salsa verde.

But, usually, I'm going to stuff the salmon with salsa verde

and roast it on a bed of tomatoes.

I sprinkle the sliced tomatoes with a good handful of capers

and then two or three coarsely chopped cloves of garlic.

Next, plenty of fresh thyme and a good amount of sea salt.

Drizzle olive oil over everything and then a little bit of water as well.

Lay the fillets of salmon on top

and don't forget to season them on the inside.

Look how lovely and pale the flesh is.

That's because there's no pink dye in their feed.

Now, to make the salsa verde stuffing, using mint, parsley,

anchovies, garlic and capers.

This is actually my own dish,

but it's the sort of thing I like for Christmas.

Probably on Christmas Eve, something a bit different from turkey or goose on Christmas Day.

It's actually based on Italian ideas of cooking.

First of all, the salsa verde, which I made really stiff and dry

so it makes a nice stuffing.

But also the tomato under there and the water and the olive oil

is a way of cooking the Italians call acqua pazza, which means "mad water".

I don't quite know why it refers to that,

but maybe as it's boiling briskly like this it's going bonkers.

But it produces this lovely emulsion which will work really well

with that salmon.

Oil the top of the fish and sprinkle with chilli flakes,

some more thyme and a final bit of seasoning.

That goes in the oven for about 25 minutes, a hot oven.

20 to 25 minutes is more than enough for cooking a fish like this.

Let's face it, come Christmas Eve you don't want to be locked

away in the kitchen all night and an elegant and simple dish like this

frees you up nicely to enjoy the festivities.

Those tomatoes are cooked in the juices from the fish

and have softened in the oil and become sweet.

This is a six-pound salmon and it will feed a dozen people.

And it goes really well with a good glass

of sparkling English white wine.

Good idea, that dish.

Every show, Brian Turner tries to prove that turkey is a tasty meat

by not just creating new turkey dishes, but also wearing

ridiculous jumpers

and it's time for Brian Turner's Turkey Challenge!

TURKEYS GOBBLE

We found turkey music, you see? So, Brian, what's on the menu today?

Well, it's seasonal again, so this is a roast

breast of Turkey off the bone, but it's seasoned with mincemeat.

Those wonderful spices...

Before you start, that doesn't look appetising already.

I was always taught not to eat anything that's bigger

than your head.

Well, then in that case, you'd be all...! I didn't say that, Chef.

It doesn't look the most appetising at this moment in time,

but with magic, Chef...

Your raw egg whites and sugar don't look appetising

-but you made an absolute masterpiece out of them.

-Yeah.

What I'm doing quickly, I'm just going to release the skin

a little bit here on the turkey so we can actually get that bit...

-How big a turkey would this be?

-This looks like 2.5 kilos. Two kilos.

I mean the whole turkey.

The turkey would probably be a 25-pounder, I suspect,

before it all started.

-It was like an emu.

-Yeah.

LAUGHTER

Emu has a reputation on television, so be very careful.

I've released the skin to the edges to get the mincemeat in.

-Don't put too much in there.

-No. Can I let you in on another secret?

-I don't like mincemeat either.

-Oh!

-Did one ever feel like one's been set up?

-No, no!

-OK, so you tie this.

It's important to tie it to keep its shape.

It will shrink a bit, but it's to make it an even shape all along.

That way it'll cook nice and easily. You want to cook turkey through.

Of that there is no doubt.

But the problem with turkey is too many people overcook it.

Consequently, some people don't like it because they had a bad experience.

And that's unfair on the turkey.

Once it's gone, it doesn't create the cooking bit itself.

So put another piece in there.

You've got plenty of veg - onions, carrots, whatever you like.

-Celery, herbs, whatever you like.

-To mask the flavour, yeah.

-Just to enhance the flavour.

-Enhance the flavour!

Chef, a lot of dishes that you and I do,

it's all about taking basic products and enhancing it.

-You're going to cut the apples in half?

-I'm going to do it now.

Good man. So we lay out on top there.

We're going to put some butter on here,

because I know you like butter, Chef.

That you can't argue with, surely.

That'll help to roast it and keep it nice and moist.

This will be a lovely moist turkey and bags of flavour as well.

Salt goes on there, pepper goes on there.

I'm glad to put it in the oven at about 180 degrees

and that'll probably take an hour and 20 minutes at 350-400.

It will be ready three weeks on Tuesday, by the size of that thing.

I'm going to wash my hands, which you must do after you use raw meat,

but particularly raw poultry. And then let's get this ready over here.

So tell us exactly what you did, Chef, with those lovely apples.

I put in some cinnamon, butter... Not peeling them, just...

-These are Braeburns, I think.

-They are Braeburns, yeah.

And basically these just get roasted off in the oven.

Roasted in the oven.

And a really nice balance with the cinnamon, goes with the turkey.

Turkey's looking good here.

You have to admit, Chef, that looks a lot more attractive.

It looks like a roasted pterodactyl.

Anyone out there think that looks like...?

I think it looks so much more attractive.

So we've let it sit for half an hour.

Turn it over, let the juices...

Keeps it nice and moist, enhances the flavour.

They don't look impressed over there.

-They were looking very well, OK?

-It smells good.

One thing I forgot to do,

which I'm going to do now quickly, is just put some wine into the turkey.

Is that because you forgot, Chef?

I didn't forget it, I decided you just let it start to roast first,

get a bit of colour on there, Chef. You are so unkind.

It's because he's forgotten.

He's forgotten it.

So what's next?

It's been sitting for a while,

and because we've got the vegetables with their caramelised juices

and the wine and the stock in there, that's helped to create...

That's going to help us with our gravy. So we just pour that off.

Look at the colour of that. That's great.

I have known people back at home who will serve the actual veg with it.

But you don't want that because you got lots of veg.

-Put that in the pan there.

-That's going to quickly reduce, Chef.

I'm going to put a bit more stock in there, Chef, so we've got plenty.

Everybody loves a really good bit of gravy.

Now, this is the one thing you mustn't forget.

Don't forget to take the string off here.

Whatever you do on Christmas Day, or any other time,

make sure you take the string off.

It's difficult to tell the difference between chewing

a piece of string and chewing a bit of turkey, isn't it?

LAUGHTER

They've both got a very similar sort of texture, haven't they?

You're really not helping me at all here today.

And I can't believe you let me forget anything. That's out of order.

Anyway, I think that looks really good now.

The proof of the pudding, Chef, as they say,

is actually in the eating, so let's...

Do you actually do roast turkey for Christmas? Is that what you do?

I'm doing roast turkey with a chestnut stuffing... Yes.

-What else do you do?

-We do roast beef as well.

There's a lot of us round the table!

I'm not saying you have to just eat turkey!

Look at that, that looks delicious. A really nice, steak-sized slice.

And we just want to finish off our gravy.

That looks really good.

I know it's you and me, James, so we put a bit of butter in there.

There's no flour in this gravy at all and this butter will help...

Look at the shine on that gravy.

The butter's helping to thicken it up,

make it a really luscious bit of gravy there.

Can I have some parsley, please, Chef?

-There you go.

-Good man. Just a drop more, please.

-Any more?

Yes, that's lovely. Perfect.

Thank you, you are very kind. Have you got a spoon, Chef?

That would be really good. OK, so, we're going to put this together.

As you said, there are only four ingredients. Nice and simple.

The steak goes on there.

We put our apple...on top.

We're using eating apples, but cooking apples?

Cooking apples fall too much.

I think you need them to be soft but you got to be able to chew it

a bit, so I think the texture of this...

It's very similar to the meat - you've got to chew it a bit.

Chef, there's nothing wrong with chewing a bit.

But turkey don't really have to chew.

Look at that lovely sauce around the outside. I'M very happy with that.

I don't know about you, Chef.

-So, that looks...

-Do you want a bit of parsley to decorate it?

-A bit of holly?

-No, Chef, that's not too good.

You'd better dive into this. I know you're desperate to try, Sharleen.

-Having had that meringue...

-Thank you.

-..to start with.

I am depending on you. I've got money on you, Sharleen.

You are going to be converted.

You're probably going to want a drink with this, maybe.

He makes me so nervous. Have you had any yet?

-Don't...!

-I'm eating it!

-You sound just like my kids at Christmas.

-I'm eating it!

-You've gone quiet.

-No, it's lovely.

-It's very juicy.

-It's very juicy.

-It's nice.

-Thank you. James? James?

Stop it.

I always think with turkey, you've got to chew it, and then it gets

to about here and it's like you just swallowed a chicken nugget.

It starts to expand.

-What can one say?

-It's very tasty.

-But the apples are going to be good, Bri.

-Shut up.

What do you think to the mincemeat?

I like the mincemeat. It sort of seasons the slightly bland breast.

-But it's very tasty.

-It enhances the flavour, is what you're saying.

-Exactly.

-Thank you. I thought that's what you are saying.

I think we're ganging up on him. It's time to decide whether this turkey recipe

is worthy of going into our recipe book over here or going in our bin.

You guys can help me influence this.

It's a very good way of cooking turkey breast.

-Would you do that for Christmas?

-No.

-Right, next.

That's not the question, Chef!

You know I wouldn't do that for Christmas. I don't like turkey.

That's three of us, so you're going in here.

-Oh! Terrible.

-That's another one. You got a try out of the mincemeat.

That's about it, really. That's all from us in the Christmas Kitchen.

Thanks to Theo Randall, Brian Turner - everybody loves a tryer -

and Sharleen Spiteri.

-Good luck with the new album and the tour next year.

-Thank you.

And of course Lorraine Pascal.

Remember, all of today's recipes, including this one,

if you really want it... I'd throw away the turkey and eat the veg.

But all the recipes are on our website.

Go to bbc.uk/christmaskitchen. Thanks for watching.

We'll see you again next time. Bye for now.

I'm going to have some more apple.