Episode 3 Christmas Kitchen

-Jingle bells, something smells...

-Absolutely delicious.

It must be time for Christmas Kitchen.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

-Hello and welcome. I'm Matt Tebbutt.

-And I'm Andi Oliver.

And this is your virtual Christmas cookbook

bringing you all the best recipes for the festive season,

everything that's naughty and nice.

And, coming up today, we've got the man who, after Santa,

is probably the most associated with Christmas - it's Aled Jones.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

And the master of Italian cooking, Theo Randall,

with his version of roasted partridge.

-APPLAUSE

-Thank you.

And one of this year's Bake Off finalists.

It's Jane Beedle, and she'll be teaching us how to bake

a thoughtful gift - some almond and cranberry biscotti.

And providing some delicious drinks to wash this all down with

is our wine expert, Jane Parkinson.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

She's scoured the supermarkets to find

the best in luxury and budget wines to suit all tastes,

along with a few Christmas cocktails. Excellent news.

-Yes!

-Look forward to that one.

Plus there's recipes from the Hairy Bikers and Tom Kerridge,

and we'll be stepping back in time with Mary Berry

who's come up with a budget-busting way

of making a Christmas board game.

When you cut through it, it looks like a chess board.

-LAUGHTER

-Oh, OK...

-Like that?

-Yeah, delicious(!)

-Mary Berry's fishy board game.

-Mary Berry!

We've got to love Mary Berry.

Find out how to make that rather fishy version of chess

a little bit later on.

-Right, shall I start cooking?

-I think you should.

Well, I'm using salmon, as well, for this recipe.

It's just a very light Asian broth, basically.

-Lots of fresh herbs.

-It looks beautiful and zingy.

-I like the fact there are chillies in here.

-I guessed that.

-Aled, why don't you come and join us?

-OK, will do.

-OK, in here... Hello, Aled.

-Hello.

-You're looking as Christmassy as I'm looking.

-Bah humbug.

-All dressed in black.

-He's very dapper.

-Thank you.

-I'm glad you've turned up.

-He looks like Johnny Cash.

Well, that's a good thing. That's a good thing.

-Johnny Cash is about 80 years old, isn't it?

-He's also dead.

-Great.

-MOUTHS:

-Dead?!

-Johnny Cash is beyond.

THEY LAUGH

Big fan(!)

So, Aled, for Christmas, I mean,

you are literally synonymous with Christmas for so many people.

-How does that feel for you?

-I don't mind at all.

I spend the whole of Christmas just playing

with Mary Berry's fishy chess game.

I can't get enough of it, to be honest with you.

Yeah, it's lovely.

The scales are falling from my eyes, Aled. This is a whole different...

So, listen, I'm really lucky. You know, the fact is that, OK,

I'm associated with Christmas because of a song. You know the one.

But it's a good song, it's a nice cartoon, so all is good.

And that kind of stardom...

-I mean, how old were you when The Snowman came out?

-The actual...

I wasn't the original guy who sang on the film,

but I did the single when I was 14.

But it was actually one of the last things I did.

I'd already done 12 albums by then when I was a kid.

Spitting Image did this sketch of me,

and it was the only time I was ever trendy in school.

They had me, as a little kid, singing,

-# We're walking...

-VOICE DEEPENS:

-..in the air... #

And the voice started slipping down.

And the producer goes, "Oh, my God, we've got ten minutes

"before Aled Jones's voice breaks - that's 17 albums."

-And it was a little bit like that.

-Yeah.

And was it traumatic, though, when your voice broke?

Cos, I mean, did things change enormously for you at that moment?

-Well, I got a beard.

-LAUGHTER

And a few other things changed,

but I don't think we should get into that.

Don't think we need to talk about that.

Honestly, and you're asking me that question with him slicing

through something with a knife.

But, no, by the time you're 15, 16,

I was more interested in girls and football.

So, I knew I wouldn't sing boy soprano forever,

I didn't want to sing boy soprano forever.

But I knew I'd sing again in the future,

whether I'd sing publicly or just in the shower,

well, that wasn't up to me.

-And you're singing with yourself as a boy...

-I am.

..duetting with yourself. Slightly surreal?

Yeah, if you're watching this now, you haven't been drinking heavily.

It is me singing as a child with me now.

This is an album that came out...

The first concept of the album came out in April this year,

and it was album number 31 for me and my bestselling album ever.

-It was incredible...

-I believe... Oh, yes.

We've got a clip coming up of this. Let's have a look.

-IN DUET:

-# We're walking in the air

# We're dancing in the midnight sky

# And everyone who sees us greets us as we fly

-SOLO:

-# We're walking in the air

# Walking in the air... #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Was it quite difficult being so Christmassy?

Does it get a little bit...

No, I actually really like Christmas, so it's a good thing.

-You're really busy around Christmas.

-Yeah, and also, you know,

the music that's on the album is all Christmassy, it's all carols.

This is the music I've always grown up with,

I love Christmas carols.

So, having the opportunity to go back to my childhood,

to when I was, what, 12 years old

and singing again with that voice, it's been amazing.

It's been a really, really incredible year.

One moment, please -

I just need to know what's happening with the recipe, what are we doing?

Well, it's just very straightforward.

Here's my stock. I've got a little fish stock in here,

infusing just with the ends of those herbs.

A bit of dill, a bit of coriander, some chilli,

star anise, garlic and ginger.

And some lime leaves in there, as well.

Bring that up to the boil.

And then, basically, in this bowl,

I'm going to put all the raw ingredients, slice them up,

slice the salmon, put them over there

and basically pour the hot stuff over.

Such a lovely dish at Christmas, something like this.

Refreshing, light and sort of brings you back to life

after all that heavy food.

But, really, it gets a bit much.

-Are you a cook?

-Yeah, I love my food.

I love my wine, as well.

But Christmas is all about, for me, closing the front door,

being with family and eating and drinking too much.

-Do you sing at home?

-Yeah, I sing Walking In The Air solidly(!)

LAUGHTER

And then I sit the children down

to watch The Snowman solidly over Christmas.

I'm a really nice dad.

I sing all the time without knowing.

I really annoy the family because I am always singing, or whistling

or humming along with stuff.

-That's quite nice, surely.

-Well, it's the season, isn't it?

And my kids love music, as well,

so there's always music playing in the house.

Isn't your daughter a bit of an actress,

and as you say, has the gene?

Yeah, she does a lot of films,

so she's in Canada at the moment, just finishing off a horror movie,

and she'll be back for Christmas.

-She's only 14?

-She is, yeah. Yeah.

-Getting her out to work already.

-Yeah, yeah, exactly.

-I'm taking 30%...

-Marvellous work!

I won't be on this show next Christmas - let me tell you.

I'll be in the Bahamas.

LAUGHTER

-Fancy coming?

-Yeah!

-We'll do it there.

You've just done something with Michael McIntyre.

Tell us about Michael McIntyre.

He's a crazy man who I keep meeting every Christmas

in Selfridge's, in London, the department store,

and it happens every year, for some reason.

It's just me and him panic buying on Christmas Eve,

and we bump into each other. And you know how loud he is.

He goes, "Oh, my God, it's Aled Jones - Mr Christmas!"

I'm like "Oh, keep down... Keep your voice down."

So, actually, he invited me on his Christmas special show this year.

It was the most uncomfortable I've been all year

because it's the Text To All

where he sends a text to everyone on my phone.

He gets hold of your phone.

-I think we might have a bit of this, actually.

-Oh, great(!)

Yeah, fantastic news, right(?!)

-Photos - is that OK?

-Oh, no.

Oh, this is a lovely, Christmassy picture. Who's this little guy?

-That's my dog, Cubby.

-Cubby.

-Yeah.

-Hi, Cubs.

-Um...

-LAUGHTER

-You're an elf.

-Yeah, I like dressing up as an elf.

OK, this is an awkward seduction technique.

LAUGHTER

Mrs Jones in the shower while you're getting ready.

-AS ALED:

-You'll like this, love.

Because it's a special night for us, I've taken my socks off.

LAUGHTER

Happy anniversary, darling.

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

-Yeah.

-Yeah, a little bit intrusive.

-Very.

It was really...

I don't want to give too much away, but, yeah, it's quite funny.

It's good fun, good fun show to do.

What he texts is pretty outrageous.

But, unfortunately, none of my friends on my phone

-were shocked at all...

-Not even slightly.

-Yeah, exactly.

-And how are we getting along, Matt?

-OK. All...

-Ooh!

-..all good.

OK. So, basically, I've just filled this bowl with all the nice stuff.

So, there's mushrooms in there,

there's a little bit of chopped pineapple - a bit of freshness -

a chilli, coriander, dill,

bit of Chinese cabbage here and spinach.

And when the stock goes over, it's all going to just slowly...

Just melt. Have you got noodles in there?

-Oh, they're over there.

-No, I forgot to put them in, cos...

-Would you like me to get your noodles for you?

-Let's get those in.

Let me get you some tongs, and let's get your noodles in.

So, it looks absolutely... It's very artfully done.

-Well, that's me all over, to be honest.

-Artful?

Can you do it with leftover turkey?

Yes, you can...actually!

You're laughing, but, yeah, no, absolutely.

It's a bit of shredded...

As long as you've got those nice fresh ingredients, as well.

-Yeah. Looks lovely.

-And that's it.

-That's really beautiful, Matt.

-Just pour that over the top.

Obviously this salmon's going to be really, really pink,

but then, it's good, you can eat it like that.

-Really pink, almost raw, but that's nice.

-Yeah.

Well, I like it like that.

You could always stick it to the bottom of the bowl

if you want it more cooked.

And I guess you could also put it

into the stock for a couple of minutes...

Yeah, I mean, the idea being that you could serve it like that,

give it a minute or two, and then just kind of mix it all up.

-A little bit of fish sauce, there.

-It's quite Japanese, as well.

There's a dish. I can't remember. I went there as a kid,

and we had...I think it's called shabu-shabu,

where you put everything in

and it cooks however much you want it to cook.

-It means "shake, shake".

-Does it?

Yeah, cos you, as you take the food in the bowl, a little bit like that.

I'm liking your moves.

-Right.

-Beautiful.

-There you go, that's it.

-So very, very simple, nice and fresh.

-Lovely!

-Wilted down already.

-So, there you go. A little bit of Asian sharing.

-Very good!

You've got the job.

-Are you getting the feeling?

-Yeah.

-Right, come on over, guys.

-I've got cutlery.

-Come and try this.

I've got cutlery! This looks so good. I'm quite excited about this.

-It smells fantastic!

-You've got your spoon in your pocket!

ALL TALK AT ONCE

-Always keep a spoon in your back pocket.

-Just in case.

So, I suppose you've got lots of veg left over that you don't use

on Christmas Day. You could just use broccoli and...

Yeah, yeah, it's kind of one of those dishes that you

could just empty your fridge.

-Nice kick.

-Absolutely lovely.

-Yeah, lovely!

It's nice and sort of hearty and wintry,

but also fresh at the same time.

You could have little roasted roots in the bottom of that,

-it would be gorgeous.

-It's good, isn't it?

-The only thing missing

from this dish is something to wash it down with.

Jane, I'm guessing you have some suggestions,

otherwise you wouldn't be here.

I do. I have better than one wine, I have two wines

for Christmas Kitchen. So, I have a luxury and a less one.

So, I'm going to get you guys to taste both of them and work

out which you prefer, which works better.

-Shall I go and get them?

-ALL: Yeah!

While Jane sorts the wine from her special wine tree,

it's time for our daily Christmas quiz.

Here I set you the challenge of guessing what one of the

nation's favourite chefs is going on about just by listening to them.

It's like an audio version of charades.

Today, it's the turn of food wizard Heston Blumenthal,

but what is he describing?

I don't care if that's an aphrodisiac or not,

it tastes fantastic.

Aphrodisiac?

-What could that be?

-"I don't care, it tastes fantastic."

-A snail.

-Yeah.

-He's been there, done that.

-I think it's offal.

-Do you?

Get you, Theo Randall!

Next on the menu, reindeer kidney.

SHE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

Ohhh...!

I don't care if that's an aphrodisiac or not,

it tastes fantastic.

-How did you know that?

-Um...

How could that ever be an aphrodisiac?

There's actually a book called Venus In The Kitchen by

a guy called Norman Douglas, who's a brilliant cookery writer.

-Written in the '50s. And most of the recipes are all about offal.

-Really?

-Yeah.

-But if you eat reindeer, who's going to deliver all the presents?

True, exactly. And on that note, look what he's done to your snowman.

Yeah?

This has got to be milk.

It's good! It's very good.

LAUGHTER

I don't know what he was eating there, it looked disgusting.

Get over it. Anyway, now, it's wine time.

Jane, you've been out to find two wines

that complement Matt's beautiful dish.

One that's reasonably priced

and one that a bit more of a treat for this time of year.

So, one that's luxury and one that's less.

So, two delicious wines, but slightly different budgets,

because, at this time of year, people have different budgets.

I'd like you to try both of them.

I'm going to play little game in working out which one you

think is the luxury one and which ones you think is the less one.

-So, dive in, guys.

-Which one shall we start with?

Either one, the robin or the Santa. I don't mind.

We'll start with the robin.

Jane, I know you don't have wine, because you don't drink, but we've

got a brilliant mocktail coming up later on, so if that's OK, great.

-So dive in.

-That's so fresh, like, crispy.

So, the first one that we've got,

so the robin one is a Riesling from Australia.

Often people think Riesling is always a sweet wine,

but it's often not. An Australian Riesling

is super crisp and zingy fresh.

It goes with all the ginger and all the herbs in your brilliant broth.

It's fantastic.

And so the one on the left, the Santa one, this is from Austria.

Austria's flagship white grape.

It's called Gruner Veltliner,

which we called GV for short cos it's much easier.

And this also goes really well with your broth, but it's a kind

of richer texture, slightly broader on the palate, a bit heavier.

It goes with the mushrooms and the rich flavours of the broth.

It's quite sharp, but this is a very...

It's fresh because Austria is a pretty cool climate

when it comes to wine, so you get that zingy freshness, as well.

If you look at the colour of it,

there's much more colour in the Austrian one. It's much yellower.

Hands up if you think the robin wine, the one from Australia,

is more expensive.

-ALL: Oooh!

-Look at you guys!

Gold stars for all of you because you're all completely right.

So, the Australian one is the less one, the cheaper one.

So, this is the Aldi Exquisite Collection Australian Riesling.

So, it comes from the Clare Valley in South Australia, which,

which is the hub of Riesling, and they make these super crisp,

super fresh wines.

And it's an absolute bargain. It's £6.99.

So fresh, so zingy.

You could have it an aperitif at Christmas time, with all these Asian

flavours. Just beautiful, beautiful clean, crisp wine.

And quite low in alcohol, as well - 11.5%, by wine standards.

It doesn't sound very low in alcohol!

I'll ramp it up to the Austrian one, which is our luxury one.

So, this is 17.99 from Waitrose,

and it's the Brundlmayer Gruner Veltliner

and again, it's very, very classic.

-So, worth the extra money?

-I think so.

When you taste it, it's a lovely aftertaste, it's really full.

-You really feel it's a nice glass of wine.

-It's interesting.

It peps up the palate, doesn't it? It's so fresh.

-I'd like a bag on the way out.

-LAUGHTER

Right, coming up, Bake Off star Jane Beedle

will be baking a beautiful gift.

-What are you going to do for us, Jane?

-I'm going to be making biscotti.

You can make them well ahead of time, so, you know,

it's so busy at Christmas.

Package them up and they'll still be brilliant.

Are these what they also call cantucci, that you dip in the wine?

It's pretty much the same thing.

There's usually different types of nuts, in cantucinni,

they put honey in there.

-Chestnut honey, which gives it that lovely flavour.

-Chestnut honey!

Delicious!

Matt and I are going to go head-to-head in

a cook-off. A bit of festive friendly competition

we've called Yule Decide.

-GROANING

-You like that?

-Telly gold.

And, today, we're going to prove who has the best cranberry recipe.

But first, let's have our daily visit to the Hairy Bikers,

who are working their way through the 12 days of Christmas.

And today, they're cooking French hens three ways.

We're going to start taking the legs and thighs off.

You can see where it falls away, look. Then what you do...

you turn it over with your thumbs and you press and you pop

out those five joints.

And then what we do is make a small incision there to cut

through the tendon.

I'm not a professional butcher, but I just love doing it.

And I'm going to show you how to butcher vegetables.

I'm not a professional butcher, I just love it.

Let's start with carrots. You make a chop there and off it pops.

Cut it there, cuts it there, and you find that you have a carrot!

-Can be a tricky job, can't it, Kingy?

-What, peeling carrots?

THEY LAUGH

While Dave struggles with the veggies, I'm removing the

breast and cutting away the drumstick from the thigh.

See that? That is said thigh bone.

So, what we do, take a knife - a good thing for cutting with -

and just pull the flesh away from the bone, like that,

until you get to a point where you can put your knife underneath the

bone. Just cut up towards the bone nice and gently,

you don't have to be tough with it at all.

One boned thigh. How simple is that? Come on. Just give it a go.

Give it a go.

That was brilliant!

So, we have the drumstick that's going into the soup.

The carcass that's going into the soup,

the lovely thigh, two lovely breasts.

What an iconic place to cook!

The Tyne Bridge, the mighty Tyne. It's nice to be home.

-Why don't Geordies wear overcoats?

-Dunno. I dunno.

-Mind, there are a few satsumas wandering around the town on a Friday night.

-Oh!

You know them tanning shops, all the girls in false tan an' that?

They're like Day-Glo jackets. You think, no, no, that's a tan!

But enough about the locals, let's get on with this great winter soup.

Right, put the carcass in, the wings in and the drumsticks in, as well.

Leek goes in. Couple of sticks of celery. And don't forget the leaves.

Whilst Kingy's work is cosmetic and beautiful, mine can be

a bit of a hatchet job because I'm in it for flavour not for beauty.

Ya-ha!

Bung that in.

Just put some peppercorns in, just whole peppercorns.

And I'm going to make a little bouquet garni.

Just three or four bay leaves, a bunch of thyme.

Put the string on there like so.

It's like a little Christmas present full of flavour.

That's it. Just bring to the boil,

let it simmer for at least two hours,

preferably all day, really.

There's going to be pints and pints of lovely chicken noodle soup!

So whilst the chicken soup is on the go,

it's time to get on with the stuffed chicken thighs.

This stuffing is a classic lemon and parsley.

Lots of zesty flavours, herbs,

breadcrumbs and all held together with an egg yolk.

And that's it. So, it's over to you, Kingy.

Oh, that's going to be great, man.

Look at all those lovely flavours coming together.

It's making me mouth water just thinking about it.

Now the citrus-crusted chicken breasts.

To start off, I'm going to melt down some lardon.

And I want to sear the chicken breasts,

but I'm doing that in the bacon fat. It's super juicy.

Oooh, look at you and your posh lardons!

You can't beat a lardon for flavour, Kingy.

Whilst the lardons are sizzling away,

I'm going to get on with the citrus rub for the chicken breasts.

I'm combining lots of fruity flavours with a little bit of thyme

and garlic and seasoning to taste.

Now that the paste is ready,

it's time to sear the chicken for a few minutes.

I only want it colouring, I don't want it frying through,

I don't want to get tough.

Put this on here, ready for the oven.

I sincerely wish you could smell these.

-Abso-blooming-lutely!

-Aw!

Just a teaspoonful of this paste, spread onto the chicken breasts.

We're not forgetting we've got that lovely bacon fat, lardon,

we'll baste the chicken with that.

We'll get, in the bottom of this dish, the most wonderful kind of

drizzly juices.

Then place it in the oven for around 20 minutes.

Here we go. Forsooths!

Madam.

-Lovely, thank you.

-You're very welcome.

Bon appetit, all, I hope you like it.

# Every day is Christmas... #

What do you think?

-I think it's very nice, very tasty.

-I'm enjoying it, it's lovely.

The best soup I've ever heard.

Right, time for the mains.

POP! CHEERING

Here we go. The other two dishes.

# Every day is Christmas...

# With you. #

-Have you tasted that breast?

-That is a lovely breast.

-Isn't it?

-What do you think, Lucy?

-I think it's great, you can taste the difference.

I'm a fan of Nando's, but you've done a good job.

-Thank you very much.

-LAUGHTER

Thanks for that, guys.

Time to bring an international flavour to the kitchen.

Theo, what are we doing today?

How are you going to bring your Italian-inspired dish to us?

I've got a very English bird here, a partridge.

There's two types of partridges.

The red-legged partridge and the grey partridge.

Grey partridge is probably the more superior bird, it has more flavour.

-Have you got red?

-I've got the red!

-Exactly. So, I've got the red, red-legged partridge.

-Right.

I'm going to put a bit of thyme in there,

-just to give it a nice flavour.

-OK.

-I'm going to wrap it in pancetta.

-What can I get on with?

You can peel that carrot and we'll make a little soffritto

with celery, carrot and onion.

Do they eat a lot of game in Italy?

They eat loads because they can shoot...

There's a rule in Italy, if you have a gun, you can shoot on anyone's

land, you're not trespassing so you can shoot whatever you want.

-It's not poaching?

-It's not poaching at all, no.

-Ah!

-Is that right?

-If you've got a gun licence, you can do what you want.

So, basically, just tie this up.

We put string around the bottom of the bird and then go over to

the breast under the legs like so and then bring them together,

make it nice and tight. Then tie that up.

We seal this off in the pan with some butter.

We're going to cook it with some Savoy cabbage, some chestnuts,

pancetta and, obviously, those vegetables you're about to cook.

In goes the butter.

It sounds quintessentially British.

It is sort of British,

it's just got an Italian sort of feel to it with the pancetta.

What do you do for Christmas?

For me, Christmas, the restaurant's open until Christmas Eve.

We close for a few days after that.

But, for me, it's kind of relaxing on Christmas Day.

But on Boxing Day, we have my family and my wife's family over

-so it's actually a bit of a catering...

-Nightmare.

-..task.

-Yeah.

The 27th is spent cleaning up so, yeah, it's always fun though.

That goes in the oven. Oven about 180 degrees.

I'm going to put some port in there to let it all cook together,

It'll cook about ten minutes.

In this pan, we're going to put some olive oil.

We'll do a little bit of pancetta and the onion and celery,

just to give it that nice flavour.

It's important to get lots of flavour into the Savoy cabbage.

We're going to add some chestnuts, as well. Beautifully chopped!

-Thank you.

-You should do that for a living.

I should work in a kitchen!

I have been trying to get out of one for 20 years.

-Stop, stop, that's plenty.

-Is that enough?

-Yes. There it goes.

-Pancetta, celery.

-Do you not want more carrots?

-No, it's perfect.

-OK.

-Then we're going to get some chestnuts.

We'll just chop the chestnuts up.

Give my hands a quick wash.

Are those fresh chestnuts or those vacuumed...?

They're the simple easy vacuum-packed ones.

But with fresh chestnuts, I've got a good tip,

cut them in half when they're raw and then

just boil them in boiling water for about ten minutes.

Then get a teaspoon and just pick out the chestnut and it's

amazing, the flavour is really really sweet.

-Is it worth doing that?

-Definitely, that's worth doing.

It's much better and also they're cheaper, as well.

And this time of year, you should definitely be using fresh products.

So, a little bit of garlic in there, as well.

Do you want me to sort those chestnuts out?

-OK. I can do those.

-You all right?

I'm just going to chop them up.

That's that and then we're going to add

a bit of chicken stock to the Savoy cabbage when we add it.

A lovely smoky flavour.

Is this the kind of thing you're doing in the restaurant at

the moment, Theo?

Yes, we do something like this.

We do use grey partridge with this kind of thing and

chestnuts. A bit of seasoning.

Then I'm going to get some port and add the port to the partridge

-halfway through. It just sort of steams it.

-OK.

-You make this amazing sauce with it.

-That's quite decadent.

-That's it in.

Is that the only sauce that's going, the port and the juices?

That's all you need. It's got so much flavour.

I've got one here which has been cooking.

-You can see that lovely sauce there.

-Right.

Take this off and put this on the side.

Add a bit of stock to the Savoy cabbage.

That cooks down.

You end up with it sort of caramelised.

-You cook that for about ten minutes.

-OK.

So all of the sweetness from the carrots and Savoy cabbage

comes out.

That pancetta sort of seasons it and you're left with this...

-How long did you keep that on for?

-About ten minutes.

-OK.

-OK, let's get this bird out. Warm the sauce up.

-Nice.

Take the bird out and then we're going to cut the string off.

Don't forget to cut the string off.

Theo, if it's a smaller bird,

does that mean you don't have to rest it for quite so long?

-Yes, that's true. Then just cut down...

-How long would you...?

-I'd let that rest for probably five minutes.

-OK.

Then just cut through the carcass.

Would that do two people?

This would do one I'd say.

You could... I would just do one bird per person.

The nice thing about it is you've this amazing taste.

You can actually make a nice stock with the carcass,

which would be brilliant to use for a risotto.

-It's one of my favourite game birds.

-Yeah. They're quite reasonable.

So, that's got a nice syrupyness to that Savoy cabbage.

And then, pop that on the middle of the plate.

We're just going to get our lovely partridge.

Theo, if you come round to mine to cook for Christmas morning,

I'll come round to yours Boxing Day and sing some carols.

LAUGHTER

No, thanks.

Is that a threat?

It sounded vaguely sinister, didn't it?

-It looks so good.

-Did you ever go round the doors carol singing?

No, of course I haven't.

You should do!

You should do.

-Collection box.

-Good idea, actually!

Or send your daughter.

Do you leave it slightly pink like you would duck?

Yes, absolutely, it should be nice and pink and juicy.

If you overcook game, it loses its flavour.

A little bit of butter in there just to sweeten it up.

Then just move it around the pan because you've got all those

lovely bits from the roast tray and the roasting pancetta in there.

Move that around. Just pour this beautiful porty sauce on top.

There you have delicious roasted red-legged partridge,

-with pancetta, Savoy cabbage and chestnuts.

-Beautiful.

-I don't know if you can hear the noises!

-We're squinting.

I'm doing a dance.

And magical music over the top of that, as well.

OK, everybody, let's go try, an Italian roasted Christmas.

-Oh, my word, Theo, that looks so beautiful.

-Tuck in.

Look at the gloss on that sauce.

We might need a knife, actually.

I was going to say we might need a few...

-Thank you very much.

-Let me cut you some little slivers.

-Well done.

Thank you, Dad.

Is it easy to get hold of partridge?

Red-legged partridge you can get pretty much anywhere,

in the supermarket.

-OK.

-Grey partridge is a bit harder to get, I think.

Everyone's going for the same bit!

You're going to have the wing, aren't you?

-This is right up my street.

-Me, too.

All the flavours that I really like.

-I can't get in there.

-Yeah, wait, wait.

-Hurry up.

Tell you what, you've got to fight with this one,

she's elbows and everything.

-Beautiful. This is so good.

-Blimey!

It's a bit tussly round here.

-Really delicious.

-I've just found the shot.

LAUGHTER

-On my new tooth.

-It's real!

-That's nice.

It looks like there's not going to be many leftovers from Theo's dish,

but Tom Kerridge has got a great idea to use up any leftover

mincemeat you might have,

-a spiced orange cake with mincemeat ice cream.

-Ooh!

Wait till you see what I've got in store

for your stodgy Christmas pudding.

I'm going to show you an amazing Christmas cake

that encapsulates everything that's lovely about this time of year -

oranges and spices.

And the best thing about it is, it's very easy to do.

First things first, three oranges.

Going to stick them into a saucepan as they are,

cover it with water.

These oranges are just going to sit on this simmering heat

and cook for about an hour and a half to two hours,

until even the outsides go lovely and soft,

and the middles have all broken down.

By doing this, I'm removing any bitterness from the skin

so I can use the whole of the fruit in my cake.

Once cooked down, set these aside to cool,

and weigh out the rest of the cake ingredients.

300g of ground almonds adds a lovely, nutty hint to the cake.

Then 300g of caster sugar, two teaspoons of baking powder,

and in with some Christmassy flavours -

a nice, big heaped teaspoon each of ground ginger and cinnamon.

This is a million times easier than doing Christmas pudding.

You could do this on the morning.

Christmas pudding takes quite a while to do.

It's a massive amount of effort, and I love it,

but if the other half doesn't, it's a bit of a waste of time.

Once the oranges have cooled, remove any pips, then whizz them up.

400g of this delicious orangey puree

will provide amazing moisture to my cake mix.

Then simply bung it all in the processor and give it a good mix.

# I don't care what the neighbours say

# Christmas time is here... #

Seven eggs complete this butterless batter,

and it's ready for the lined baking tin.

Cook it in a medium oven, about 160 degrees centigrade,

and bake it for about an hour, hour and 20 minutes.

That is going to be proper lush.

# I wish it was Christmas today

# I wish it was Christmas today, oh-oh

# Wish it was, which it was... #

To go with my orange cake,

I have a tub of the best vanilla ice cream

that you can get your hands on, and a Christmas pudding.

Any Christmas pudding will do.

Just crumble it into a bowl

and scoop out the softened ice cream on top.

You need to work quite quickly

so that the ice cream doesn't melt all the way through.

This ends up tasting like the most luxurious, fruity ice cream.

And for everybody who says they don't like Christmas pudding,

they haven't tried this yet.

Look at that, it's amazing.

Then back into the freezer to set up.

Make sure the ice cream stays semi-frozen,

and put it straight back in the freezer once it's mixed together.

That looks like the best orange cake ever in the world, ever.

Freshly-baked biscuit and orange smell.

Rock and roll.

It's proper Christmassy, served with a tangy plum sauce.

Then, finally, the Christmas pudding ice cream.

That is three of the best Christmas flavours ever,

all come together to make one festive dessert.

Perfect for Christmas Day.

Still to come, Jane Parkinson will be getting us

in the Christmas spirit with her choctails.

-Yep, chocolate cocktails.

-Delicious!

And showing us how to make the perfect Christmas gift

is one of this year's Bake Off finalists, Jane Beedle,

with her version of almond and cranberry biscotti.

And we're paying a visit to Mary Berry, back in time 20 years,

in fact, to enjoy Mary's recipe

for a salmon dish that will feed a crowd.

And, this time of year, the supermarkets are full

of seasonal foodie gifts, so my gift to you...is this.

Oh, it's my turn today? I'm getting a gift? Fantastic.

-It is your turn.

-Very exciting.

-Right, ready?

# Ta-da! #

# Ta-da-da-da! #

-It's an alien!

-It's a panettone!

-It's a panettone!

-You don't like panettone?

-I do like panettone.

-What are you playing at?

-Sometimes it can get a little bit dry,

-it can be a little bit...

-Do you like panettone?

-Love it.

-Do you?

-Do you like panettone?

-Oh, yeah.

-Yes.

-Everyone.

Don't need to be so aggressive!

I've done something delicious with the panettone.

I'm going to make a panettone...

-You pull the box.

-If you can get it out of the box!

I'm going to make a panettone bread-and-butter pudding,

-and we're going to use blackberries in it.

-Right.

-Which is...

-It's a funny-looking panettone.

-It's a very...

-I think it's because it's really posh.

-Oh, right, OK.

We're not used to seeing such posh panettone!

Have you seen one of these? Something like this?

Can't even get it out.

-That's the sort of sweetened one, isn't it?

-Is it?

It's what they call a margarita, which has got the fruit on top.

-That's my middle name.

-And it hasn't got sugar on top.

-Is it?

-That's my middle name, Marguerite.

-Well, there you go.

-All right.

I thought you were going to say "Panettone"!

-LAUGHTER

-I can't get this off!

Here you are, could you do away with that? That would be great.

Right, so, what are you doing?

I am making a panattone bread-and-butter pudding,

-but with blackberries.

-OK.

-And it's something...

I've got a really lovely pastry chef that I work with at the pub,

-called Jade...

-Can I have a bit?

-..who's so sweet.

And she and I just do lovely things together.

This is one of the things that we came up with,

with a giant panettone that somebody gave us.

It's a great thing to do, cos they're so massive...

-It's really good.

-..and you never know what to do with the rest.

-All right!

-LAUGHTER

You could just eat it with a nice cup of tea.

You could have it with a nice cup of tea,

but when it gets dry and you don't know what to do with it,

this is a really good idea. So you just butter it up.

-Do you want me to do something?

-Do I want you to do something?

-No, that's all right, thanks.

-THEY LAUGH

No, actually... No, I'm fine.

This butter's nice and soft, we're good to go.

Just going to get the bread all buttered up. Well, the panettone.

Obviously, if you don't have panettone,

-you can just do this with normal bread.

-Just take this away.

You know, baking is quite a new thing to me, Jane, actually.

In the last few years, I started baking.

It was kind of the last bit of cooking that I got really into.

I think people get a bit intimidated by it. Slightly scared of it.

I think they do, because you can have failures,

and we all have failures,

or witnessed most of us having one in the tent.

And it's some sort of... It's science.

You've got to get the balance right.

You can't just throw in a load of flour or throw in...

You've got to get the right proportions,

and I think people are a bit intimidated by it.

But it's great fun and when it does work...

you know, it makes everybody happy.

And I suppose if you realise that the disaster isn't the end of

-the world, then that's what you learn from?

-Yes, absolutely.

-It's just food.

-And you can usually...

usually get a bit of something and not waste it all.

I made something... I'm blaming the tin.

I made something the other day and I was playing around with the recipe,

and dashed out of the door,

having taken it out of the oven a little bit too soon.

When I came home, it had all sunk in the middle.

But it was full of almonds and cherries and orange.

So you just get on and eat it?

So we took the middle bit out that sunk and was a bit gunky,

and we just picked off all the good bits,

cos it also had a bit of a drizzle on it.

-This has got a nice kind of amaretti topping.

-It's kind of delicious.

That's why it's crispy on the top.

Now let me just say one thing about this. This butter's little bit hard.

If you're doing it at home, just let the butter get a bit soft.

It's kind of all right, cos it melts in any way,

it's not the end of the world. But, um...

There we go. Thank you very much. Then you just layer it in.

-You could do a bit of layering for me, if you like.

-Yeah, fine.

-Do you want to do some layering...

-I can do that.

..while I make the custard?

Ooh, yum - blackberries, butter, panettone.

It's all happening already.

Are you buttering both sides, or just the one?

Just one side is fine. That's really moist, that panettone.

So, we're going to use four whole eggs,

and we're going to use two egg yolks.

And then we've got milk, then we've got cream. And we've got sugar.

It's very, very simple, the whole thing.

So, are you making, like, custard?

It's just a custard. It's a bread-and-butter pudding.

It's a standard bread-and-butter pudding,

but we've got blackberries in it and then the panettone

actually gives it a really nice bit of welly, I think.

-HE LAUGHS

-"A bit of welly"!

It's another technical term. Pokey, welly -

-I'm very, very across all this stuff.

-They make perfect sense.

Yeah. So, let me just get these egg yolks.

Cos panettone's one of those things that you buy before Christmas

and then don't always get to eat because there's so much else to eat.

-Are you kidding? It gets eaten within five minutes.

-Does it?

No, I've still got half a panettone from last Christmas

sitting in the tin, to be honest. It just hasn't been eaten.

Now you know what to do with it, darling.

But it hangs about for ages, doesn't it?

-Cos you open it and think you could actually eat it as it is.

-Yeah.

But this is a brilliant way of using it up

-before you get to the next one.

-Do you want some?

Well, there might not be any left!

I was hoping you might send some over!

Stuffing your face, constantly!

-JANE:

-We have got tea here.

-Have you finished with it?

I have finished with it. Yes.

-That slice, put that slice in as well, please.

-OK.

Come along, come along. Do as you're...

No, it's just that I've actually run out of room.

-No, no, no, you just layer it up.

-Oh, OK.

Now, the trick with this is when you get to this bit,

when you're pouring the custard on...

Cos you know if you ever made a bread-and-butter pudding,

and it doesn't soak in properly?

So you've just got give yourself a little gap.

Like, put it in, let it soak in, and then...

And then pour the next bit in.

This is something that I've learned from the pastry chef.

OK, now this sugar's really hard. All right, I've got it.

Now, so we've got cream, eggs, milk and sugar in that one.

And here we've got panettone that's been buttered,

and we've got a lovely blackberry compote.

And, of course, we're using blackberry compote

cos they're not in season now.

You can, of course, use fresh, whatever you want.

-We did one with figs the other day.

-Figs?

-Yeah, beautiful.

-Nice.

Sort of fig panettone bread-and-butter pudding.

-Right, so we're going to pour it on.

-There you go.

-OTHERS:

-Ohh!

-Obviously...

-About time!

-We're going to let it soak right now.

-Cos we don't have time.

-Ladies.

What have you got there? Mmm! Have you got tea, as well?

How come...? See, I'm working...

I'm working, you lot are hanging about, eating.

It's not a good picture. Right, I want to slip this into the oven.

-It's on about 160.

-Right.

For about...half an hour, I think.

Here we go.

And, you know, some people are very...

I'm not that methodical. You could be much neater than that, obviously.

Matt did that one, anyway, so, there you go.

SHE LAUGHS

-Blame me.

-But some people are very symmetrical.

Some people are higgledy-piggledy, chuck it in.

I think either way is really fine.

And this is the other one.

I've just had it resting in here, keeping warm and delicious.

I'm going to whack that. Can I have a big serving spoon, please?

Nice, big spoon.

It's come out very neat, actually. Look at this one.

Beautiful.

I love bread-and-butter pudding. Oh, look. And all the blackberries...

-Ooh, yeah, lovely...

-..are doing

what they're meant to be doing at the bottom.

A little bit of icing sugar.

Right, don't forget, all of today's studio recipes,

including this one from Andi, are on the website.

Go to...

There we go. Panettone bread-and-butter pudding

with a little bit of cream.

-Fantastic.

-Lovely.

-Good work.

-Right.

-Right, people.

-Smells good.

-You've had the dry one.

Now you can have this one.

-Oh, lovely.

-Yes. It's good, isn't it?

Yeah, nice.

Your partridge...

-Beautiful.

-Well done.

-Thank you very much.

I love that you keep congratulating us.

-You had no help at all.

-I know, you know, hardly. Barely.

I think he's slightly amazed.

Every time he gets to eat, he says, well done.

"How are these amateurs allowed on the programme?"

That's what he's thinking.

He's thinking, "Wow, these guys are really struggling."

-This isn't going out anywhere, is it?

-No, no. No.

-How's that?

-Delicious.

-The blackberries are good, right?

-It's like a hug in a bowl.

-Hug in a bowl.

-It's lovely.

-Good.

Such outrageous success. Now, in just a moment, baking superstar,

Jane Beedle, will be showing us how to save money this Christmas

with a home-made gift. Biscotti with cranberry and almonds.

And we'll be taking a trip down memory lane when we unwrap

the archives from 20 years ago and pay a visit to Mary Berry.

But, first, Aled, what's your best Christmas memory?

-With a mouthful of panettone!

-That was it.

-It's happening right now!

It's happening right now.

Do you know what, the best present I have received as a kid was

-a little six-foot...

-Royalty cheque.

-Yeah.

LAUGHTER

-That first Snowman royalty cheque.

-It's really something.

It was probably a little snooker table I once got as

a Christmas present. Not a proper one or anything like that.

-You dragged it back. I love that.

-And it was brilliant.

I played with it all Christmas. It was fantastic.

How very lovely.

But the second was the royalty cheque.

Here's some more of the nation's favourite famous faces

with their Christmas memories.

I was rehearsing a show in Liverpool, and...on Christmas Eve,

and I got drunk after it,

so I was getting the train home,

with all my kids' Christmas presents,

which I'd got just that morning from Boots.

And I got the train and I fell asleep and finished up

in a siding in Crewe.

They weren't very happy.

Well, I like to...

have something nice popped in my stocking.

And I like to pop something nice in others', as well.

SHE GIGGLES

My worst Christmas ever was 1946. And my dad made me a wooden sleigh.

Marvellous! Because we had no toys.

And, that afternoon, somebody stole it. I was heartbroken.

I've never recovered.

Nothing looks more thoughtful than a home-made gift,

and the best thing about it is it's also a good way to save

a bit of money on present shopping without looking like Scrooge.

-And, as you know, Andi, I love a home-made gift.

-I know you do.

-I do.

So, every day we're inviting the stars of The Great British Bake Off

to dazzle us with their show-stopping ideas.

Today, we've got this one from this year's finalist, Jane Beedle.

-Jane, good to have you here.

-Hello.

-What you going to do for us?

Thank you very much. I am making orange, cranberry,

-and almond biscotti.

-Nice, let's do it. What do we need to do?

Well, it's very, very simple, actually.

You have some plain flour.

Plain flour, baking powder, cos you need them to rise,

so a little bit of baking powder, a little bit of salt.

-Just sieve that through to get any lumps out.

-OK.

Erm...quite a bit of sugar.

There's caster sugar in there.

Some chopped cranberries.

I like to chop them because you have to double slice this,

and if you don't chop them, the knife gets stuck.

Some roughly chopped almonds.

Now, you can flavour it with anything you like, really.

-I like a bit of almond.

-OK.

-But you could put...

-Cor, that's strong.

-It is quite strong.

-So go a little bit easy on it.

-Phew!

Too late!

You could...

You could use mixed spice, you could put some cinnamon in.

I like a bit of fennel.

A good bit of nice, zesty orange.

This is a good, big orange. If you've only got small oranges...

then, you know, shove a couple in.

Try not to get any of the white in there.

So, give that a bit of a mix-up,

just to make it all evenly distributed.

I mean, this is a biscuit that's designed to be dipped in sweet wine.

-It is.

-So, to dip them, you wouldn't need rum in there, as well.

So you could dip it in rum?

That's just gilding a lily, to be quite frank.

I suppose you could dip them in rum.

Dip it in spiced rum, it could be quite nice.

Did I come over all posh?

Jane, how was the whole Bake Off experience? Did you enjoy it?

-Was it terrifying?

-No, it wasn't. It was surprisingly...

It wasn't terrifying at all. I mean, I enjoyed every single minute of it.

And the bizarre thing is, you'd think,

walking into that tent the first time, that you'd be, like,

"Oh, my God," you'd be tongue-tied,

but, actually, because I've watched...

I didn't watch the first series, so I watched five series before,

-it's like walking into your own kitchen.

-You felt familiar with it.

It felt so familiar. Yeah. I loved it.

And the longer you went on, the more comfortable you felt.

It really did feel like your own kitchen by the end of it.

And how have your friends and family,

do they pester you now to bake things for them?

Well, my family always have. In fact...

In fact, now my family go, "Please don't cook any more cake.

"I don't want any more cake."

The awkward thing is these days, though, when you get invited...

Is that a bit dry? Do you want another egg?

No, no, it doesn't need to be... No, you see,...

-All right, well, there is an egg.

-Thank you.

-That's all right.

It looks quite dry. It looks quite dry... Thanks, thank you.

It looks dry but it does actually come together. If you put...

-If you succumb to the extra egg, it spreads too much in the oven.

-OK.

-Good top tip that.

-Yeah, there you go.

-Get away with your extra eggs!

Jane, the other bakers,

are you quite supportive of each other in that tent?

You seem like you all get on really well, but does that stop?

No, not at all. We were.

In fact, at one point, about halfway through, they said,

"All right, enough now. This is a competition, guys."

Were they trying to ramp it up a little bit?

"It is a competition, you're just all being too nice."

We all got on brilliantly from day one.

I don't think there was a single person that...

that didn't... You know, irritated anybody

or you didn't want to spend any time with.

Divide the dough into four,

and we're going to do a couple of these, so you want to roll it out

to about 20 centimetres long.

So, yeah, so, let's go back to the question.

LAUGHTER

Well... Mary, of course, is absolutely lovely. And...

would always find something very positive to say about

whatever you turned out.

I mean, it was very rare that she couldn't find anything nice to say.

Paul was a little bit more difficult to impress, really.

-He just didn't...

-Quite cold and frosty, do you think?

Cold and frosty morning, yes.

-So... It was a bit like my kids.

-You got the handshake, though.

-I did get a double handshake.

-Yes, I saw it.

So, just pop these in the oven, for about 25 minutes.

-And they will spread, so allow a bit of space for them to spread.

-OK.

-After which time.

-After which time.

They have spread, and they are...

If you... I'm going to make quite small ones,

cos we're putting them in jars.

But if you want nice, big ones, just don't divide it into four,

just divide into

three or two. So, I'd better not cut on that, had I?

Do you need your board back?

-There you go.

-So...

If you got a good response from Paul, you knew it was really,

really good. Mary, you just didn't want to disappoint her.

-It was a bit like...

-Letting your granny down?

Yeah, well, you know, I learned over the years instead of

screaming at my kids and being cross, I was disappointed.

And that was the worst thing.

You let yourself down, you let the school down... You let Mary down.

-It's all coming back to you.

-Exactly!

So I never wanted to let her down. But Paul...

It's just that icy stare was just so scary,

you just kind of held your breath while he passed judgment.

And he'd walk about the tent and glance at your bench and then

walk away. And it was like, "Oh, for goodness' sake!"

"Say something, man."

OK, so, basically, you slice it up like that, then back in the oven?

-Yes, so, slice them up like this...

-To dry out?

-Yes.

-You reduce the oven temperature down to 140...140 conventional.

-OK.

-So, they go back in...

-140 fan.

-And they come out like this.

So, you turn them over and they come out like this.

So, they're lovely. Doesn't matter if they're slightly different sizes,

-it really doesn't matter.

-20 minutes or so?

-15 minutes each side.

Turn them over, don't worry about them. They will dry out enough.

If you over-dry them, they're going to break your teeth.

-OK.

-So, please don't.

So, you could leave them like this, then.

They're perfectly lovely like this.

-But just to sparkle them up for Christmas...

-OK.

..just dip them in chocolate or you could do a mix of any of it, really.

So, we've got some white chocolate and some dark chocolate here.

-What's all this business here?

-So, this is just...

This is the dipping bit.

You've got some nice vanilla white chocolate, some good dark chocolate.

But then I've got some chopped pistachios here.

And some toasted flaked almonds that... Then you crush up a bit

because you don't want them to be in big bits.

-And then some glitter because I love a bit of glitter.

-Very nice.

-So, you only do it halfway?

-Not even that.

You only need to dip the end in, really. And just...

shake off the excess. Give them a sprinkle.

Don't hold back.

-It won't come out.

-Fortunately, we've got these here.

And this is it ready to go. Right, they look delicious.

-Remind us what they are.

-Thank you.

-They are orange, almond, and cranberry biscotti.

-Yes, they are.

-Right, let's go.

-So Christmassy! Oh, they look gorgeous.

-Very glittery.

I like the shiny.

I'm not sure where to go first. I'm going to go... Goldy.

-I'm going for pistachio.

-Yes, they're milk chocolate

cos they were the only milk chocolate I had knocking about.

-But the pistachio ones are nice with the white chocolate.

-Delicious.

Jane, have you got any sort of top tips for baking for Christmas,

or anything else at Christmas? Give us your tips, Jane.

Baking tips, just get organised really early.

A lot of the stuff you want to do can go in the freezer or, for me,

Christmas Day, I hate being covered in steam with the vegetables.

Everybody's having fun, so partially cook your vegetables,

refresh them in cold water, put them on a buttered plate

beautifully decorated on a buttered plate, cover them in foil,

whack it in the oven for the last ten minutes while you're dishing up.

Top vegetable tips there from our baker, Jane.

Anyway, here's more of my chefy friends with their top tips.

What we do with our turkey or capon, which is very Italian,

we take the flesh out of the roast capon,

we make a stock with the bones, and with the flesh and the pumpkin

and carrots and all the trimmings, we make a filling for tortellini.

So, we stuff the tortellini with this filling,

and we serve with a beautiful broth which comes out of the turkey.

So, it's a fantastic way to use the leftovers and is, again,

an amazing meal.

Merry Christmas.

My good Christmas tip, which will help you on the day,

is to make plenty of chicken stock in advance,

and then you'll have that to add to your gravy on Christmas Day.

There never is enough gravy.

So, if you get that made well ahead, you're good to go.

Hi, my Christmas tip to make your pulses,

grains or whatever extra festive is to add to them chopped herbs,

I like to use a lot of dried fruits, whether it's cranberries,

raisins, bilberries and nuts. A whole load of nuts.

Just toast them, chop them, and festive up your grains or pulses.

You can use anything from lentils, rice,

whatever you choose. Enjoy.

Did you know that on Christmas Day the average person will eat

ten chocolates on top of everything else?

So, Jane's got some ideas to make us consume even more chocolate.

Jane, what is in your chocktails?

Well, I've got three different fantastic ones.

So one's a mocktail, and two with alcohol in. So, shall we get going?

-Yes.

-The base of all of them is this chocolate liquor.

So, a few weeks ago, I had a chat with a friend of mine,

-a chocolatier called Paul A Young...

-Yes.

-Everyone should have

-a chocolatier as a friend in their life.

-It's a good plan.

-I think it is a good plan. So...

-It's warm.

Yes, it's warm, but when you cool it, it cools down with the ice

in the cocktail. So when you get going, it's fine.

So, it's just a mix of chocolate and sugar and water.

You just melt it over the hob, just let it melt so the sugar dissolves.

-It's like a chocolate syrup.

-It's a chocolate syrup, essentially.

Just without any alcohol in it.

So, the first thing I'm going to make is a twist on a Martini.

So, it's called Mrs Claus' Martini.

And this is just your classic Martini but just with some

chocolate added into it. So, the first thing we could go with...

Well, you could use vodka or gin with this because, you know,

-you can have a vodka or gin-based Martini.

-Chocolate cocktails?

-What are you thinking?

-Not sure.

-Not sure.

-We will give it a try.

-We're a bit undecided.

-I'm not undecided, I think it sounds great.

-Well, this is...

-Let's get on.

This is better, actually, than if you have a chocolate liqueur

or chocolate syrup, as far as I'm concerned.

You're going with something you've made yourself.

-It makes the Martini taste crisper.

-What's that?

-So, this is vermouth.

So, to my vodka, I've added a bit of vermouth.

There's some ice already in the shaker.

-Is that sweet vermouth or dry vermouth?

-It's sweet vermouth.

And then we add in the magic chocolate liquor.

-Then you give it a quick shake.

-Watch your blouse.

-Thanks!

-If you were a gentleman, you'd do it for me.

-If you want.

-If! If!

-Exactly.

-It's a big "if".

-So, then, we've got the classic Martini glass.

-Beautiful.

So, I'm just going to put a strainer over.

And then just very quickly tip that in.

-So, there was ice in there, was there?

-There was ice in there

and you kind of keep going.

The idea is you keep going until you can't feel your hands any more

-cos it's so cold, basically.

-Until you go numb!

For these purposes, it's not too bad.

So, that's it, it's that simple.

If you want to be a bit fancy...

It's just a bit of cocoa powder to put on top...

Let's be French this Christmas.

And I know how Matt loves a really complicated garnish. So...

So, there you go. Your Martini, chocolate Martini.

Tough crowd over there. You can try it.

-Are we sharing this between the three of us?

-Yes, you are.

We've got one each. I work around here.

-Oh!

-Oh!

-That's good.

-That's nice.

Why don't you start the next one while we try this?

Dangerously good. So, this is...

We were using blackberries earlier with the panettone recipe,

you were using them. With this one,

we're going to muddle up some blackberries.

-We love a muddle.

-We love a muddle.

-Makes us feel slick, you know?

Gets out lots of the aggression as well at Christmas time,

-with angry relatives.

-Yeah, there's lots of art.

-Slap it all in.