Episode 9 Christmas Kitchen with James Martin

Jingle bells, something smells...absolutely delicious.

That's because it's time for Christmas Kitchen.

Hello, and welcome to Christmas Kitchen,

the first port of call for all your Christmas cooking quandaries.

Coming up today - a man as jolly as Santa, Tom Kerridge invites us

to his restaurant for an exclusive recipe of venison Scotch egg,

and we've got a Christmas Berry, that's a Mary Berry,

with some Christmas recipes,

and joining me in the studio today is the master of tapas,

the Salt Yard's Ben Tish,

-and the master of turkey is back - Mr Brian Turner.

-Thank you, sir.

I'd like you to be my assistant master of turkey. AMT.

There's a thing.

I've been called a lot of things, but not that.

And my special guest today, Strictly champion and former

Holby heartthrob, he's now about to star in a new BBC two-part drama

about the Great Train Robbery.

It's Tom Chambers. Welcome to Christmas Kitchen, everybody!

Tom, Christmas is busy for you.

Do you cook?

Well...can I be honest?

-No! Are you a carver, then?

-I do carving

and I'll go out there and I'll drag it back in. Bow and arrow!

-You just take the glory at the end?

-Yeah, yeah, that's right.

-Are you a turkey man?

-Turkey or beef?

I just generally thought that turkey's just a bigger chicken.

Perfect! What a nice man.

You ain't tasted it. Wait till the end of the show.

He'll prove a point. Ben, what are you going to make for us?

I'm going to be doing some little skewers, Spanish pinchos,

with some duck, some poached quince,

some smoky bacon on there, perfect for a little canape party

-or if you want to have it for your starter on Christmas Day.

-Pinchos?

Pinchos. Yeah, Spanish-style skewers or kebabs, James.

-Brian was a bit confused there. He said, "Kebabs!"

-I love 'em.

And Brian, during this festive season,

you've been given the task to make something delicious out of turkey.

-It's proving...

-It's not proving difficult.

I'm getting so many phone calls off people saying how wonderful it is.

-How many phone calls have you had?

-Two.

-But they keep ringing... No, no.

-What are you going to make today?

Today is a stuffed leg of turkey.

It's got a sweetcorn stuffing,

got a bit of dry sherry in there

and, just for you, we have a maple syrup glaze on the top.

-That's what I like, maple syrup.

-That's sold it.

We haven't got any maple syrup for this next recipe,

-but what we have got is vodka. Do you fancy that?

-Oh...

-Join us over here.

-It's never too early.

We've got a vodka panna cotta with ginger doughnuts

and we've got some nice poached pears to go with it as well,

but nice and delicious.

We're going to make our little panna cotta first of all

-by heating up some cream.

-Yeah.

-That's going to go straight in here.

A little bit of vanilla

and then some sugar added to it.

But the main flavour of this doesn't just come from the alcohol

but comes from buttermilk, which gives it a lovely acidic flavour.

So, I have to say, fantastic cast in this new show.

You can tell us. The phone call must have been fantastic.

Yeah. It was Jim Broadbent,

of course, who... Oscar winner.

I've always loved all of his work. You can't not love it.

And then Nick Moran,

-your favourite from Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels.

-Yeah.

And Rob Glenister.

It's quite an interesting way of putting this story together

because it's 50th anniversary, but lots of people have done it before.

I remember Buster, Phil Collins did it in the film as well.

It's been done before, but this one's quite a different take

of looking at it. Tell us about it.

The interesting bit is that you're getting both sides of the story,

so you get the whole thing from scratch

from the robbers' point of view,

which of course was last night.

The important thing is, you don't have to have watched last night

-in order to get tonight.

-Yeah.

So tonight is now the version from the coppers' points of view.

So it's literally...you've seen the robbers

and now it's down to the coppers to try and solve it

-and get the guys. It's good cop, bad cop.

-It is.

-It is a true story.

-Yeah.

-It was the biggest robbery ever.

-Absolutely.

Fantastic news...worldwide, that story went. It was amazing.

Everybody knows the story.

Yeah. And actually, I was playing Detective Sergeant Steve Moore,

and he is the last remaining sergeant... He's still alive.

So did you speak to him about it?

I didn't get to go and visit him, but they did a recording.

They had an interview with him.

I sat through this hour-and-a-half interview,

him talking about the attitude back in the day between...

If you call it the good guy and the bad guy,

the relationship between the police and people who were out there

doing a few crimes. They kind of knew them all.

-Yeah.

-And there was this kind of camaraderie that they would have

between each other, and a kind of underlying respect

that they had for the criminal...

of these boundaries that you would and wouldn't go to,

and it's kind of 1960s, so you've got all the gear,

the period, the style, the cars.

-Style!

-As you'll well know.

-Turkeys were big in the '60s!

-Were they?

I'm going to recap. I've got my panna cotta here.

We've added gelatine to that warm cream,

we've added the buttermilk to it as well,

and that just sits in the fridge.

This is an enriched yeast dough. This is the doughnut side of it.

The difference between this and a normal bread dough

is the addition of butter and sugar,

but other than that it's made the same. We keep the machine turning,

while you enjoy a little clip from the new programme.

SIRENS BLARE

Neighbours.

Mr Green, Mrs Green, open the door, please. It's the police.

Police!

Mr and Mrs Green? Anyone here?

HE SIGHS

No-one here. The house is empty.

Amazing cast, amazing storyline.

But also fantastic locations. Where was that?

Where's that filmed?

-We did it all up in Leeds.

-Leeds?!

-What a fantastic location Leeds is.

Well, do you know, it's probably one of the places that's still got

so much of the period of the style of the 1960s.

We were filming in some of these amazing snooker halls

that actually look pretty much how they were.

They've got the real deal.

And then, like the house, the exterior you just saw then,

it's all the sort of Art Deco and going into the '60s.

Looking at the cars as well. Mark II Jaguars, stuff like that.

-It's fantastic.

-You'd like them.

I bet you would have liked driving the cars around.

-I love all that.

-It's just the smell.

When you get into one of those cars, the authentic smell.

You can smell the leather, you can smell the years of that historical...

-You've got a classic...

-I love all the classic cars.

I was looking at your career - it's kind of a mix and match, really.

You came out of acting college,

you said you were unemployed for six years.

-On the job.

-Your agent got rid of you...

-Yeah, that's true.

-..cos you didn't follow his advice.

Because I didn't accept a particular job.

Tell us about the particular job.

My wife's going to kill me for this.

She's so bored of these stories that I keep coming out with.

It was Bob The Builder, The Arena Tour.

I decided it wasn't really acting

so I would wait for a proper acting audition to come up

so I said no to it, and she got rid of me.

So I was without an agent and decided to try and recreate

one of my favourite tap routines of all time -

Fred Astaire - with a drum kit, and spent nine months doing it,

sent out a thousand copies and ended up with an audition at Holby City.

The audition for Holby City, originally,

-wasn't that for an American doctor?

-It was for an American role

and their thinking was, Fred Astaire was American,

that bloke must be American, so let's get him in and audition him.

That turned into a three-year contract as Sam Strachan.

You mentioned tap dancing. As we all know,

-Strictly winner as well.

-Well...

-You are!

-Somehow.

Which is kind of gutting!

-To be honest.

-I think we had the same dance partner.

We did, but you went on to win and star in the West End.

I went on to come fourth and now I'm in Clapham High Street.

Starring...the master of theatre himself...in the kitchen.

It is. Now, you've just finished this Top Hat as well,

which you finished this year. That must have been a fantastic role.

-First time at the West End as well. Amazing.

-Yeah.

I've got so much respect for people who work in the theatre industry,

-cos it's literally eight shows a week.

-Yeah.

-That's full on.

Six days a week.

I think I was pretty well and truly worn out

by the end. We did about 500 performances.

And of course, you desperately want to do every performance,

because people have paid good money, they've travelled a long way

to come down and see...this big night out for them.

No late nights?

I had no idea about the speciality of food-nutrition management,

because I couldn't just get away with eating anything

just because I was burning so many calories. It had to be specific.

I was on a special diet of granola and fish

and slow-release energy, as opposed to...

That's where I went wrong with Strictly, you see.

I used to get through on a Saturday and just go back to

a very, very famous chicken outlet and have a big bucket

-on the way back.

-We definitely did that.

But if you're having to do it eight times a week

instead of once a week, that's when it would have got to you.

Good luck with it, and good luck for 2014 as well.

Here's a little recap - we've got panna cotta,

sugar-roasted doughnuts that I've rolled in sugar and ginger,

caramelised pear to go with it,

and with the leftover trimmings of the pear, you blend it with butter

and you end up with this wonderful sauce that goes with it.

-A few bits of mint leaves.

-How are you able to talk and do all this?

That's something I still haven't managed to get.

I'm not on the West End!

I guess maybe tap dancing, singing, acting - this is it!

Very good, right, excellent.

I haven't got the right shoes on!

-This is it.

-Go on, then.

-It's a nice panna cotta.

-Hmm.

-The secret is buttermilk.

-Mmm.

-There you go.

-Lovely.

You've got turkey next.

For a festive treat, we pay a visit to the homes of some of the BBC's

favourite chefs to find out what they like to cook for Christmas.

Today, it's the turn of Tom Kerridge,

who is inviting us to his restaurant

to show us his recipe for a venison Scotch egg.

Now, I'm originally from Gloucester in the West Country,

but this is my new adopted town

and this is Marlow

and Marlow is one of those beautiful towns

that's quintessentially English.

We have a wonderful bridge that's on a river, fantastic park,

a great high street and, above all else,

we have an amazing community spirit and feeling.

Christmas is a great time for food.

It's everything that I love best - friends and family,

slow-cooking meats, beautiful root vegetables.

It's everything that we do great in this country,

and the recipe I'm going to do for you today encapsulates all of that.

So my Christmas Kitchen recipe is a play on that great pub classic,

it's a venison Scotch egg.

So in it we're going to have a very soft poached quail's egg

surrounded by some spicy, Christmas-flavoured venison meat,

deep-fried and served with a beautiful apple puree.

The first thing we need to do is get the apple puree on.

I'm going to peel these apples, and I'm using Bramley apples.

Bramley apples have a fantastic flavour.

They're full of acidity,

and they break down really nicely,

which helps make a beautiful puree.

A Scotch egg, for me, is one of those great pub classic dishes.

The flavours that come from it are just stunning,

and it's normally served with pork,

but this time I'm using venison with a little pork meat in it.

So this is going to make quite a lot of apple puree.

Or if you make it quite thin, it can be apple sauce.

You can keep it in your fridge.

It'll last about a week.

I'm just going to put a good squeeze of lemon juice.

Again, adds more acidity, but it also helps keep the colour

so the apple doesn't oxidise.

Into that apple and lemon juice mix

I'm just going to put a little bit of caster sugar,

and then all I need to do is stick this on the stove,

leave it to stew down and cook.

The next thing to do is get onto the quail eggs.

These ones here get cooked in some boiling water

for two minutes and then we just drop them into iced water

to stop that cooking process,

and then, with delicate fingers,

we can peel the skin and the shell off it

and you end up with these -

beautiful little soft-boiled quail eggs.

I have a whole packet like that.

If you get 100% of them peeled,

you can end up with a job here at the Hand & Flowers.

The next part of the process is the actual sausage meat itself.

Here we have some minced venison.

This will come from the haunch, preferably,

cos that's where loads of the flavour is.

It gets minced down so it's still very lean.

Because it's so lean, I'm going to add to that some pork belly.

The flavour that comes from the venison

mixed with the juicy and the fattiness of the pork

will give a great sausage meat, a great Scotch egg.

And into that, some picked thyme leaves,

and then, into the mix,

I'm going to add the spices to give it that sausage-y kick.

Cracked black pepper. This gives a real heat to the dish.

It also gives a nice crunch.

Ground mace.

This is one of those beautiful Christmas flavours.

It smells amazing and is very English.

So half a teaspoon of ground mace

and half a teaspoon of salt.

And then venison goes so well with juniper.

Then you get your hands in and mix it all together.

You keep working it until it forms a ball.

So we just simply wrap it around the egg

and just gently mould it. Don't squeeze it too tight.

If you do that, the egg'll pop and that's not what you want.

You won't know until you've deep-fried it.

This mix will probably make enough for eight to ten.

This is going to be a snack size,

the sort of thing you could do

as a starter on Christmas Day.

If you didn't want to make Scotch eggs,

they make amazing venison burgers.

OK, so I've made up five of these Scotch eggs.

I'm going to put them in the fridge,

leave them to rest for about an hour and then we'll cover them

in breadcrumbs.

So these are my venison Scotch eggs.

They've been sat in the fridge for about an hour,

and you can see the meat has firmed up.

We're going to pane them, which means to cover them in breadcrumbs.

They go into flour first

and then dust off the excess flour

and then with one hand put them into the whole eggs.

Once the Scotch egg comes out of its egg mix,

drop it into the breadcrumbs

and then, with the dry hand,

dust it around

and then bring it out, and you haven't got your hand

covered in egg, flour and breadcrumbs.

That hand stays the messy one.

And the breadcrumbs I'm using here are panko breadcrumbs.

They're Japanese breadcrumbs

and it's bread that's been cooked with a little bit of honey

so when it cooks it goes a lovely golden caramel-brown.

Once you've got to this stage,

these guys can go into the fridge

and they can sit there for an hour or two

until you're ready to deep-fry them

or you can just stick them in the fryer now and they're ready to go.

OK. So my Scotch eggs,

they've been cooked for about four minutes in the deep-fat fryer,

180 degrees. I'm just going to season them

with a little bit of this flaky sea salt,

and we leave them to rest, like all good meat,

for a couple of minutes,

just so they continue cooking,

and the venison should be just about cooked and pink in the middle,

and the egg, with the yolk in the middle,

should still be nice and runny.

This apple puree has just been cooked out on the stove

until it's gone all soft and broken down,

and I've put it in a jug blender and blended it,

passed it through a sieve, and just kept it nice and warm on one side.

Scotch eggs, just going to serve this like that.

And then that, my friends, is my venison Scotch egg.

I'll cut one open - that is amazing.

With that, I wish you lot a very happy Christmas.

That looks really good, I have to say.

Inspirational, Tom Kerridge. What about a turkey Scotch egg?

-I knew you were going to say that.

-But it's right.

You'd need a lot more sauce than that little boat to go with it.

Soak it all up like a sponge.

Black pudding Scotch egg, that's what we want.

Still to come on Christmas Kitchen -

Brian will be making a meal out of turkey but, before that,

here's some of the country's finest chefs

with their special tips for the festive season.

At Christmas time, for me, one of the most fantastic,

enjoyable parts of the meal is the stuffing.

I absolutely love Christmas stuffing.

I take lovely pork mince, really good pork mince, good quality,

it's really important, a few breadcrumbs,

just to dry out all the fat,

lots of booze in there - Madeira, brandy, port -

pistachio nuts, prunes in there as well,

and just bind all that together.

A little tip is to take a little bit and fry it off

and taste it and make sure the seasoning is right

before you make the big stuffing out of it,

pack that into a lovely terrine mould and roast it in the oven.

That makes the most beautiful stuffing.

Another tip for turkey, which is a nice touch,

you can make a nice flavoured butter,

putting orange zest and cinnamon

and spices and rock salts and garlic and rosemary.

You lift up the turkey breast and forcibly remove the wishbone,

but you push the butter right up inside the skin.

It's called crouching, and that bastes the turkey beautifully.

You can play with the butter and put some interesting spices in there.

A nice treat for Christmas - some sea bass fillets.

Get nice big ones and put them in tinfoil

with a bit of butter, basil and some lemon,

a drop of vermouth,

and create a little bag, like a little oven,

add some butter in there

and steam them in the oven so they all puff up,

take the juice out, reduce it by half, add a little bit of butter,

some steamed spinach, maybe a few lentils,

and you have the most delicious Christmassy dinner. Nice and light.

Great ideas there, guys,

but we've got tapas on the menu from Ben Tish now,

-so what are we going to do?

-OK, James, so pinchos, or skewers.

We've got some duck, we've got some quince here,

so quite an unusual fruit. It's not used very much.

-A lot of people don't know what to do with it.

-Yeah.

We're going to poach it with some nice aromatic winter spices.

We've got star anise, cloves, some cinnamon.

We'll get some orange in there as well.

-It does lend itself fantastically with duck, this stuff.

-It does.

As do pears. A sweet fruit.

Really cuts the richness of the duck.

We've got some smoky bacon in there as well.

We're going to grill those

and serve them as a little tapas

or maybe for a canape party, something like that.

Sounds good to me. You're sealing off the duck breast.

I'm sealing off the duck.

I've got duck in here and I've added it to a hot pan without any oil

or anything in there, and I'm rendering the fat down.

You want a little bit of fat

but not too much.

We want to get a nice crispy skin.

Do you slice it first? Cos we've got one over here.

I'm just going to show you.

I'll pop this on here.

You just want to score the skin.

-Not too far into the flesh.

-Yeah.

Just cross-wise, like so.

That will just help release the fat

and give it a nice pattern on the skin.

I don't know why people don't use this more often.

-It is delicious.

-It's beautiful

but people seem to be frightened

-because it is so solid when you start with it.

-Exactly.

But once you cook them... And they do take time,

but once you cook them, it's amazing.

-OK, so got a nice piece of smoky pancetta here.

-Yeah.

Just take the skin off.

-There we go.

-So, why tapas for you, then?

Tapas - yeah, I mean, for me, it's...

I love eating tapas.

I love that social way of eating

and the interactivity. You get to try lots of different flavours,

and it's just such a great way of eating.

You don't have to have what you don't want. It's just really nice.

-You're a tapas fan, aren't you, James?

-I am. I go to Spain a lot.

They have some of the finest - particularly pork - in the world.

Iberico pork is one of my favourites.

When you are sat at one of those tapas bars,

you don't really understand what's coming next.

-Exactly.

-You're grazing, more than anything else.

And it's super fresh. It's all really quickly cooked,

it's all about speed and flavour.

-Plenty of sugar? That's the key to this.

-Plenty of sugar.

You've got the zest and the juice of an orange, and the spices.

That's going to take about an hour to cook through.

The quince will change colour

to a deep orangey-pink colour. That's when you know it's ready.

I've just turned my breast over. Just sealed it on the bottom.

Be nice and pink inside.

And take it out.

Just trim it up a little bit.

It goes like a pear, really. I suppose it's a cross between a pear

-and an apple.

-Exactly.

James, you're going to dice those nicely. We'll start skewering.

I've got my pancetta here and this beautiful duck.

It's got a nice crisp skin on it.

We've got the skewers here

and all I've done with these is soak them for a few hours in water,

so when we grill them they won't ignite under the grill.

It just stops that happening.

The key to that is...not cook it so it's REALLY soft, just...

Don't overcook it. You're going to put it back through the grill.

It's got to stay on the skewer. You want a tiny bit of bite on it.

It will go back under the grill.

I'll pop that one in there.

Pinchos has become quite a modern cult in Spain.

We all hear about pinchos now,

-but they've been round for years, haven't they?

-Yes.

Pinchos Morunos is the classic one,

and that's Iberico pork or lamb, with cumin.

It originally started when the Moors invaded Spain.

That's when it originally started.

But our restaurants, we kind of do all sorts of things.

-We do duck, venison.

-Turkey's a good idea!

Turkey pinchos? Yeah, I could see that coming!

I've been to a lot of tapas bars in Spain.

There isn't any turkey on the tapas menu.

I can't say I've seen turkey in Spain, James.

That's it, then. I've got a new... We're going to do it!

If somebody's a foodie in your family

and you want to get them something as a gift, then anything Iberico...

A whole Iberico leg would be the ultimate gift, wouldn't it?

-With the stand.

-You've got to really like them - it's about 700 quid!

-Exactly.

-Oh, dear me!

-Exactly.

Right, I've got a little tray on here.

-Good stuff. We'll just get a little bit of oil on there.

-Yeah.

-There you go.

-Nice and hot. Good.

-Ready when you are.

And we're going to get our skewers onto there. Thank you, James.

A little bit of seasoning.

We've got a hot grill on here. They don't take long.

They're very quick.

We'll seal them on the hot grill, flash them under the salamander,

we've got a little glaze that's the cooking liquor...

-Cool.

-Stick on one.

-Get those on.

Good stuff.

Yeah.

I'm really just taking the chill off this griddle pan, that's all.

-Exactly. OK.

-They look pretty good.

Is this the kind of stuff you're going to do this Christmas?

I might do. I'm staying at home at Christmas, having a quiet one,

but if I have friends round, that's probably something I'd do.

But it's just nice for different canape ideas.

So...

Good. That's what the duck breasts will look like.

-That's done.

-OK.

Now, you mentioned a gift for Christmas.

This would be a fantastic one as well.

This is also using quince.

This is quince membrillo

and it's used with cheese in Spain. If you have manchego,

you'll probably get quince membrillo with that..

-It's not bad with Stilton.

-It's what?

It's not that bad with Stilton.

Absolutely marvellous with Stilton.

Can you open that, James? I need a strong hand from you.

You need to get a jar opener as well for Christmas.

Good.

-I've got my...

-The north and the south - that's the difference.

THEY ALL TALK AT ONCE

..cooking liquor that I'm just going to pour back into the duck pan.

We're going to reduce that down to a glaze.

-There we go.

-This is for a nice little sauce to go with it?

And also, I'm just going to brush it over the skewers.

Just give it a nice glaze. Thanks, James.

-There you go.

-A little bit of that in there.

Just add a bit of richness.

-You can prepare all this in advance.

-Absolutely.

And just finish those under the grill.

And that piece of bacon that you've got in there,

that's a dry-cured piece, is it?

That's dry-cured smoked pancetta.

But if you can't find a piece like that,

-the slices, you could roll them up and...

-Yeah, roll them up,

make them a little bit thicker. Exactly.

OK, so that's nicely reduced. We've got a nice body to that.

That's lovely.

Get that in there.

-Good.

-You're going to glaze them?

-Yeah.

-I'll make more sauce while you're glazing those.

-Good stuff.

-They still make it look all very easy.

-It is.

-It's choreographed.

-Choreographed?

-You're like two dancers

as you move around on that stage.

One going to the oven, the other going to the stove. It's perfect.

We are impressed.

-Can you do that with turkey, Chef?

-It's like watching a ballet.

-A ballet going on in the kitchen.

-Easy on the dancing.

-OK, so another minute under the grill, they'll be ready.

-OK.

But the great thing is, like I said, you can prepare these in advance.

-Nice and simple.

-Yes, exactly.

Before they went on the grill, you could keep them in the fridge

-and then just finish them...

-Now, if December wasn't a busy enough time

for most chefs, you've just opened a new restaurant...in December.

Yes, a ridiculous time to open a restaurant. Don't recommend it!

-But yes, it's going well. Ember Yard on Berwick Street.

-Right.

So the same sort of ethos? The tapas thing?

Yeah, same type of thing - Spanish, you know, with Italian influences,

some tapas, but we're doing a lot of grilling over charcoal and wood.

So we've got a big custom-made grill in there

with wheels on the side, where you can move the grill up and down.

-That's great, James. Fantastic. Thank you.

-Put those on there.

-Guys, do you want to have a taste?

-Shall we?

Come and have a taste of this.

They look amazing, actually.

So the duck's still nice and pink.

So the key to that is just seal off the fat, really?

-That's what you're looking for?

-Exactly that.

-I'm going to have a taste of one of these.

-Go for it.

-Tuck in, guys.

-This looks good.

-You know this is going to taste good.

-I know it'll taste good.

This'll taste almost as good as my turkey today!

A bit of dipping in the sauce.

-Looks delish. In you go, Chef.

-Almost as good.

-You calling me Chef?

Almost as good as...?

The turkey that we're going to have in a minute.

That is delicious.

While these lot dive in, still to come - Brian Turner continues

his quest to make turkey tasty, but first,

let's delve into the BBC's Christmas food archive

with a visit to the Great British Bake Off.

Christmas pudding - isn't that exciting?

Don't you feel Christmas is coming when you start to make the pudding?

Christmas pudding, for me,

is one of the best parts of the whole Christmas dinner.

Let's line the bowl first.

You want about a 2½ pint bowl -

this is on the generous side -

and really generously butter it.

I'm going to take a disk of foil,

this is parchment-lined foil,

and I'm going to put that at the bottom

because sometimes it sticks. You just pop it over there

and we'll get soaking the fruits.

I've got 450g of mixed fruit

and I've put some apricots in here.

I think that makes it rather different.

As well as the dried mixed fruit,

Mary's recipe includes the zest and juice of a fresh orange

and a roughly chopped cooking apple.

And then we come to the booze.

Three tablespoonfuls.

If you haven't got brandy, you could put sherry in, if you wanted to.

And actually, as you soak it in booze,

-it stops the discolouring of the apple.

-Yeah.

And I'm going to give that a good stir.

Then you want to soak that,

to really plump up the fruit a bit for a good hour, could be longer.

While the fruit is soaking,

you'll need to cream 100g of light muscovado sugar with 75g of butter.

When you have a light and fluffy mixture, gradually beat in two eggs.

That's a lovely consistency now.

You'll need 100g of self-raising flour and 40g of white breadcrumbs.

Don't use old bread cos it comes into too fine a crumb

and it won't give a good texture.

Then add 40g of roughly chopped almonds

and a teaspoon of ground mixed spice.

Now we're ready for the fruit so that can go in all in one go.

So it's a really fruity pudding. In that goes.

-You can just dollop this in, can't you?

-Dollop it in, that's right.

Then push that down,

levelling it off.

So, I've got a bit of foil that is parchment-backed.

If you haven't got it, use parchment and put that on

and then put the foil on top.

So, put it over the top like that

and then carefully tuck it under all the way round

because there's a rim here and it goes underneath that rim.

Next, take a large pan that's deeper than your pudding bowl

and place a jam-jar lid at the bottom.

This will separate the pudding bowl from the direct heat of your stove.

And then take a piece of foil and fold it in four.

Then take that like that.

And push that, so that will help you take it in and out of the pan.

So, put that on like that.

Now, you want to fill it up with water, halfway up the pan.

Bring it to the boil and let it boil very, very gently

for about seven hours.

But don't go out and leave it. Keep checking and also check the colour.

It gets darker and darker with long, slow boiling.

Or you could do it in a steamer.

I haven't got a steamer.

Always make sure that the water is kept topped up throughout

the seven hours.

You're waiting to see that familiar deep brown colour

of a good fruit pudding.

Now, brandy butter. So simple to make.

Start by creaming 100g of unsalted butter.

And then I'm going to gradually add the icing sugar.

You'll need 225g of icing sugar.

That's all blended together.

I'm just going to add the rest of it now.

That's it.

Brandy.

You can add rum if you prefer.

And it'll take about three tablespoons.

If you add more than that, it will curdle.

After adding the alcohol, whisk the mixture until it's fluffy.

That looks just right.

At this stage it's lovely and soft and this is how I like to serve it.

Once the pudding has been steamed for seven hours,

you can store it in a cool place overnight

or in the fridge for longer.

Then on the big day you'll need to steam it again

for two hours before serving.

-So, let's see how...

-Oh, yes.

-The smell's coming anyway, isn't it?

-Yes.

-So there it is.

-Lovely.

-Tip it to one side.

And then the weight of the pudding will go down

and pull it away from the edge.

I think we're all the way round.

Then, if we put this on the top like that...

I'm going to turn that like that.

So, off with the bowl.

-Watch your hands, Mary.

-That's right.

-Now, you remember we did that disc of paper in the bottom?

-Yep.

There is the disc of paper

and it did mean that it came out absolutely smoothly.

To serve with a final flourish, warm four tablespoons of brandy in a pan.

Pour over the warm pudding and set it alight.

Lovely!

It smells good, too.

-I love that blue flame, cos it just screams of Christmas.

-It's lovely.

Oh, yeah.

Mm. That, married with the brandy butter,

I think it's absolutely gorgeous.

Brain Turner, it's now time for some turkey, of course.

Brian is trying to convince me -

and, by the way, 25% of the British population...

Chef, it's getting less. There's now only 20% don't eat it.

All right, that we should all be eating turkey this Christmas,

in a challenge aptly called...

-And, Tom, he's done the voiceover for that bit as well.

-I love that.

-Very convincing.

-Yeah.

This is a little bit calmer than we're normally used to, this jumper.

This is a naked turkey.

And if you look round the back, that's where the leg came from,

cos we're going to do a leg today stuffed with a sweetcorn stuffing.

So, no trimmings with this, then? This is just it?

This is just it. This is going to sell itself.

You're going to love this, I promise you.

OK, so, a bit of chopped onion goes in the pan first.

Going to make the stuffing first.

How do you know that's a turkey and not just a big chicken?

Because it says so on the packet that I got it in.

-Yeah.

-No, it looks like a big chicken, you're right.

And you should treat it as a big chicken in many ways,

except it's got a different flavour, a nicer flavour.

-A nicer flavour?

-I didn't say that, I didn't say that.

You didn't say it's a nicer flavour than the chicken?

Bit of garlic to go in there. And all we do now is we just sweat that

down a little bit, not too much colour.

Just get the flavours in there. That's probably enough there.

What are we going to do with the leg, then? Just stuff it?

We're just going to stuff it,

going to make this wonderful sausage meat stuffing.

And then we're actually going to stuff it

and it is going to work wonderfully well, you will be amazed.

Bit of green pepper goes in there, Chef.

I've also got a little bit of white wine

and some dry sherry going in there. So we put that in.

Little Spanish element there, Brian.

Yeah, I'm just trying to get you on board as well, Ben.

Yeah, I know you're trying to convince me.

Marvellous. And we just cook that out now and reduce it down.

A bit of chopped parsley, if you could, please, Chef.

-Sherry?

-I put the sherry in, Chef.

-Oh, right, OK.

-Just smell that.

Smells wonderful, that sherry.

I'm just looking at that, that looks like something that he's been

chopping up on Holby City, look at it.

That actually looks like a shoulder of lamb.

Are we going to treat it like a leg of lamb or a shoulder of lamb.

So just slice it a little bit here to make it easier to work with.

-Right.

-A bit fell off then.

Here we go.

And then we're going to season it.

Wonderful.

Is the idea, Brian, that you buy a whole turkey,

get the legs taken off, so you've got, basically,

the crown one day and then you could do the legs the next day?

People don't cook turkey correctly cos they only do it once a year.

So we're going to do turkey more times of the year,

other times of the year, not just Christmas.

A turkey's not just for Christmas.

Sausage meat goes in there.

And we're going to put our sweetcorn in there, that's wonderful.

And I'm just going to...

just chop a little bit of lemon rind in there as well.

Just to give it a bit of flavour, OK? So that goes in there as well.

Marvellous. Now we can make our stuffing.

Bit of salt and pepper.

Bring it all up to... Just pull it all together here.

OK, right, so where are we now?

Let's just make sure we've got the right way round. There it goes.

Put the stuffing in here and then wrap the whole thing round.

And we want to make it into a nice-looking piece.

-So, string it up at each end to keep a nice shape.

-Yeah.

It takes a bit of time.

If you're very lucky you can get your butcher to do it for you

but I think you'll be very lucky to do that these days.

One each end.

And then a couple of times in the middle,

just to keep its shape whilst it's roasting.

Now, this is a lovely joint to roast and you can put it in,

not too high a heat, and you can leave it for quite a long time.

It doesn't matter if you overcook this too much.

Whereas...

Chef, don't look at me like that.

It's one of those things, it's like a confit, like a shoulder of lamb,

if you cook it a long time, it actually gets better

the more you cook it.

-Right, OK...

-So, put it in the oven now for Christmas Day, then?

Is that right?

Put it onto there, bit of salt and pepper.

And stick that in the oven. 180 degrees it's going to go in.

And it's also very important that you...

It's very important that you take out these pieces of meat

and you let them rest

when they've actually come out the oven.

Let me quickly wash my hands.

-Now, you've put a glaze on this, haven't you?

-That's right.

I'm going to make the glaze now, to show you how that actually works.

Lemon juice, that's very kind, and my maple syrup, Chef.

Maple syrup, Chef.

James, this is maple syrup.

It's brilliant with pancakes. Don't know about the turkey, though.

Just bring it up to the boil and just brush it during cooking, OK?

But I don't need to do that, I've been doing that.

It's been sitting out to rest.

And you leave it to rest for about half an hour.

So let's put that on the board there.

Let us try and get some of this flavour from the glaze.

We want to get that into our gravy

so I'm just going to strain that off.

-And then if you bring me the white wine, Chef, can you?

-Yeah.

I'll get it, Chef.

I think this is the one. I think you've got him.

You've got him and this is it.

-Is it?

-I wouldn't put your money on it, lad.

There we go, we get all that sedimenting off there.

Take all that wonderful flavour

and that's going to go to make our bit of gravy over here.

Thank you for putting the onions on. That's perfect.

Just a little bit of stock, Chef.

-Is that turkey stock, Brian?

-That's chicken stock.

-Not turkey stock?

-No.

No, no, no. Because not everybody makes turkey stock.

Not everybody's got a pan big enough to put the bones in!

Buy him a chopper for Christmas, Chef, and they can cut the thing up.

Please make sure, as always,

that you take off all these bits of string.

-Does look like a leg of lamb, though.

-Thank you very much.

More like a shoulder of lamb, in my opinion. But you're quite right,

one of those appendages, which we know eat perfectly well.

So then it's really up to you, carve it all...

Can you pass me that, Chef?

Carve a portion at a time.

Look at this here, you can actually just make it a nice steak.

So, I'm going to do two of these steaks.

Oh, you've got some parsley, thank you, that's very kind, Chef.

I've got a little bit of watercress to mask up the...

LAUGHTER

I think that watercress goes marvellous with this.

That does, in my book, look extremely good, does that.

Let's just quickly check...

Doesn't look that bad, actually, Chef.

-Looks pretty good.

-Praised by James Martin, how's that go?

Thank you very much, Chef, that's very kind.

Do you want some parsley in there?

James, that would be good.

Oh, dear me, that is delicious.

I'm scarred with turkey, though, look.

Got turkey...

The turkey is fighting back. We are going to get there.

And then all you do is just put a little bit

on the edge of the meat there.

I suppose you guys better come have a taste of this, hadn't you?

-If we must.

-Around the sides there.

-Did you say, "If you must?"

-I did, James.

He said, "They must."

They can't wait.

-Now, you need plenty of sauce with this, don't you?

-No, you don't.

It's like a sponge.

It is not like a sponge at all.

Gentlemen, dig in.

And if you can't get over there, there's a bit here.

-Here you are, Ben.

-The anticipation.

It does actually taste like lamb.

Are you sure you haven't swapped that with a joint of lamb?

That does taste of lamb. I reckon he's just swapped that in the oven.

Have you just swapped that and put a leg of lamb in?

Doesn't taste anything like turkey.

Tastes of lamb, doesn't it?

-A miracle! A miracle!

-It's the magic of the stuffing, Chef.

We have transformed that turkey.

That's really nice. Really, really nice.

That's very kind of you.

Every one of Brian's turkey recipes - or lamb ones...

I have to decide what should go into

our Christmas Kitchen recipe book or in the bin.

What do you think, guys?

I was in your camp, James,

but I think that should be in the recipe book.

I think it's really, really nice.

I've got nothing to compare it to but that's definitely in the book.

I do have to agree with this so that's going in the book,

there you go.

CHEERING

Don't look complacent!

That is lamb!

That's all for today on Christmas Kitchen.

Thanks to Ben, Brian, Tom and Tom Kerridge.

Remember, all of today's recipes -

and you may want this one - are on our website.

Go to bbc.co.uk/christmaskitchen.

We'll be back very soon. Bye for now.

That's actually not bad, actually.

I think it's all to do with the sauce. It's all to do with the lamb.