The Big Day Home Comforts at Christmas

The heart of my home is the kitchen.

And at this time of the year, it's the perfect place to gather

and celebrate the festive season.

For me, Christmas is all about rustling up some fantastic food.

And eating it in the company of my favourite people.

These are the dishes that I cook

when I want to spread a little bit of cheer.

These are my Christmas Home Comforts.

Christmas Day may be the highlight of the holidays,

but all that pressure in the kitchen can definitely put

a dampener on your celebrations.

But don't panic, I've got all the recipes you'll need,

together with some fantastic tips, to make the day go off without a hitch.

Today I'm adding some seasonal fire to a classic starter.

Now treat this like rocket fuel.

It's everything you want for a lovely Christmassy edge.

Settling creative differences with my Michelin-starred mate,

Paul Ainsworth.

-Do you want some more?

-Absolutely, it's my house now.

THEY LAUGH

Cheers, everybody.

And discovering that there's more to Christmas dinner than I thought.

I've learnt a new dish today - chocolate and Yorkshire pudding.

ALL LAUGH

But if you want the day to go well, you need to start it well,

with something that's easy to prepare and bursting with flavour.

And this is my favourite way to kick off the celebrations.

Right, well, the big day's arrived. You want something really nice

and simple for breakfast.

And rather than do a full English breakfast and fill everybody up -

cos you really want them to eat that lovely Christmas lunch -

this is a great alternative and it's using waffles as the base.

It's a simple recipe that you can incorporate

tonnes of different flavours in.

And I'm going to do this with smoked salmon.

You want something luxurious, but you want something not too heavy,

because you want to enjoy your lunch later on.

The first job is to make the waffle batter.

Mix 250g of plain flour with about 200ml of milk,

three eggs,

a pinch of baking powder and salt.

And then we grab some melted butter,

so you just want about 100g of butter that we just melt in a pan.

While it's on the hob, add around 200ml of milk to the batter mix,

followed by the butter.

And don't go using half-fat ingredients,

this is a Christmas recipe.

Now if you want to turn this into a sweet batter,

you would just put in a little bit of sugar,

but this is where you can add whatever you want.

I'm just going to add a touch of chives to this,

but you could of course add a little bit of cooked bacon,

even some chopped smoked salmon.

I'm roughly chopping three tablespoons of the herb.

Once mixed in, the batter's ready to go into the waffle iron,

and this is the fun bit.

I just want a tiny little bit of butter in each one,

and all we do is just pour the waffle mixture in.

Now, it's got baking powder in so they will actually puff up

a little bit, so try not to overfill...

with mixture.

We just shut the lid, like that.

The waffles take around four to five minutes

and while they're cooking,

you can get on with poaching your eggs.

You start this by bringing a pan of water to the boil.

Drop some salt in there

and then you've got some vinegar.

So whisk up the water so you can get a nice little vortex.

Swirling the water like this stops the eggs breaking up.

Just as well because you really don't want to waste these.

And I'm going to use duck eggs.

I love duck eggs.

You could do this with some hen's eggs,

but I think duck eggs work a treat with this.

When your eggs go in, turn down the heat and let them

poach for three to four minutes.

In that time, heat some butter into a pan,

and when it bubbles, add a little greenery.

I've just got some picked baby spinach.

Tiny bit of salt.

Little bit of black pepper and we're just going to wilt this down.

Soon as it hits the pan, you take it off the heat

and it basically keeps that nice colour.

And if you keep the colour, of course, you keep the flavour.

Just perfect.

This is really just fancy egg on toast.

I pile the wilted spinach, slices of salmon and poached egg

onto the waffle.

But to make it extra special, I also add a touch of creme fraiche.

And all you do is grab some leftover bits of chives...

..chop them up, put the chives into the creme fraiche...

..and all you want is a dollop...

..of that over the top.

And there you have it - breakfast for a champion.

It's delicious. It's really simple, but it's really luxurious.

You've got the nice warm waffles, you've got the wilted spinach and

that delicious smoked salmon, and not forgetting the amazing duck egg.

As you basically crack open the egg yolk, you get this lovely

sauce that makes it really special for a Christmas morning.

And above all else,

it's actually nice and light.

Because you know what's coming.

A big roast.

We all like to raise a glass at Christmas,

but we don't have to stick to the same old tipples every year.

Our festive food reporter Annie Gray

has gone to Austria for some alcohol inspiration.

And she's found plenty of ideas

in the amazing Christmas markets at Innsbruck.

But she's also got a whiff of something special up in the Alps.

I'm here in the village of Stans in Tyrol.

It looks sleepy and quiet, only 150 households,

but 50 of them are distillers.

It's why it's known as the town of schnapps.

I'm here to meet one family in order to find out

about schnapps, Austria and Christmas.

Schnapps is a brandy that can be made from all kinds of fruit.

In the Tyrol, more than 4,000 people have a licence to distil it -

not bad for a place that's barely bigger than Yorkshire.

The Schimpfossl family take a real pride in their festive

version of the spirit.

Hallo, Angelika?

'And I caught up with Angelika to find out about their juicy,

'home-grown ingredient.'

-So this is your orchard? Wow.

-Yes, yes.

Tell me, what's special about these plums?

Are they a particular variety?

We say we have Genuss Region.

It means in this region, the plants are very good.

But it's special here.

Because we are living in a village 1,035 metres high,

we can have 25 degrees Celsius on the day

and in the night it can go down, maybe five degrees.

That's why the plums make sugar.

And how important is the fruit for making schnapps?

Can you make it with just anything that's lying around

or does it have to be really good?

Only what you put in, you can get out, so if you...

if there is good fruit in, you can...good schnapps will come out.

And it's popular here in Tyrol, especially at Christmas?

Yes, it's very popular at Christmas, because it's the time when

we produce the schnapps, because the fruits are ready in September

and we produce the schnapps in the time before Christmas.

It's very special to drink schnapps after very good meal.

ANNIE LAUGHS

-So it this a medicinal thing to have at Christmas?

-Yes.

Before anyone can take a sip of the stomach-settling spirit,

those plums have to be picked.

The whole family helps with harvesting,

then it's over to the master distiller,

Angelika's husband, Josef.

What we're doing here is making a mash.

So in go the plums and then we're just going to add some yeast,

and this is the base for our schnapps.

Making the drink started as a hobby for Josef about 25 years ago.

It's not exactly a money-spinner, but he loves it so much,

he even takes time off work to do it.

I don't blame him!

What's not to like about playing with a giant mixer?

I wish he'd give me a go on it.

It smells like autumn.

All the plums together giving off this incredible aroma,

kind of like jam, but kind of not.

The next step is to distil the seasonal spirit

from the plummy jam.

And as this is a proper cottage industry,

Josef does it all in his front room.

This gets more fascinating by the second.

We're just adding the mash, that's the plums that we saw earlier,

they've been waiting for two weeks with a bit of yeast.

They go into this and then there's a wood fire underneath,

which is heating up all of the plums so that the alcohol comes off

and then it's distilled down into a bucket.

There's no water added, it's all just pure fruit juice

and this starts the process of making schnapps.

You can see that the alcohol is being condensed right now

and coming off into this bucket.

And that's at about 45-50% alcohol.

That's then taken off and redistilled,

and by this point, the alcohol will be at 80%.

And then it will be watered down to give us

what we think of as drinking schnapps, around 40% alcohol.

But there's more to this than science.

Making schnapps is also an art.

Distil it for too long and it reeks of hay,

stop the process too soon and it tastes of garlic.

So, getting the plummy, Christmassy flavour just right

really is a job for an expert.

Good schnapps needs a lot of things.

You need to be able to judge when the fruit is ready.

You need to be able to make the process happen properly.

You need a real personal set of skills to be

able to know that you've got a really good product.

This is so brilliant. Schnapps brings the whole family together.

I'm definitely going to have a bottle in my cupboard

on Christmas Day.

Like Annie, I love trying out new flavours at this time of year.

But there are one or two traditional dishes that you just can't beat.

I'm making a massive festive lunch for some special guests later.

And I'm kicking the whole thing off with a classic starter.

I'm going to create wonderful little pate. It's really simple,

using chicken livers at its base.

Now, you can use duck livers for this,

it's entirely up to you which one of those two you use.

First off, you'll need to cook the livers.

But before they go in the oven, season them generously

and add fresh herbs.

I've got marjoram still growing way till

sort of January, February, but if you haven't got this,

you can just use some basil, you can use rosemary, bit of thyme,

it's entirely up to you what herbs you want to put in here.

Then a tiny bit of brandy...

..over the top.

And as I say a tiny bit,

a little bit, it's a Christmas portion, isn't it, really?

Smells pretty good, and just tuck the whole lot in the oven.

Don't overcook them.

If you overcook chicken livers, they instantly go bitter.

To avoid the unpleasant taste,

preheat your oven to 230 degrees Centigrade

and put them in there for just four to five minutes.

While they're cooking,

I oil a terrine that I'm going to use as a mould for the pate.

And just line this with Clingfilm.

Well, I say just line it,

but as we all know, Clingfilm is one

thing almost guaranteed to slow you down in the kitchen.

Still, Christmas recipes are worth making a special effort for.

This has to be nice and sort of precise when you turn it out.

So make sure you've got no air bubbles in there.

When the livers are cooked, pop them whole into a blender

and blitz to a fine puree.

So, while the livers are still warm,

you can throw in a decent amount of butter.

In my book, a decent amount is 250g.

With the motor running, add it a bit by bit to the pureed livers.

Stop the blender and season well.

Plenty of salt and pepper.

Then just blitz again for a minute or two.

Then you'll end up with this amazing mixture,

this beautiful colour

and when you pour it into the mould,

you get this delicious pate.

It really is that simple.

Now this goes in the fridge to chill for half an hour,

leaving me time to make my lovely seasonal chutney.

This is the key to it - Bramley apples,

one of the finest apples there is.

And I've tried growing these in my garden here, failed miserably.

So I've resorted to buying them, but there's one thing with these -

you're guaranteed an amazing flavour.

It doesn't work the same with eating apples.

Peel and slice about 450g of the Bramleys.

Then add 200g of light, soft, brown sugar to a dry pan.

You get this on a high heat

and get this caramelising.

What this is going to do is speed up the process of making a chutney.

I always like a little bit of fruit as well as the apples.

You can use sultanas, I've got some nice apricots here.

You can use dried figs, works really well also.

When the sugar is caramelised, add the dried apricots

along with two finely chopped shallots.

Now, at this point, you can turn it down a bit

and we can deglaze the pan with some vinegar.

You can use malt vinegar, or I've got white wine vinegar.

Or even, of course, a bit of cider vinegar will work as well.

Now I can throw in the main ingredient -

those lovely Bramley apples.

To give it all a bit of winter warmth,

I also add a teaspoon of ground cinnamon.

And then ground cloves. Now treat this like rocket fuel.

Cloves are so strong in flavour, so you only want a tiny, tiny amount.

You start to get this amazing smell coming off this chutney.

And a free facial.

Once everything's in the pot, cook until the apples are tender.

Then stir in chopped walnuts and season well.

So you can just leave that

to go cold.

To make sure the pate doesn't discolour,

I'm using readymade clarified butter,

otherwise known as ghee.

Now you can actually buy this from the supermarket.

Indian cookery uses this all the time.

Melt it down and pour that over the top of the set pate.

And once you've put that butter over the top,

you can make this about a week in advance, you can even freeze it.

Once you get that nice and covered over the top of the pate,

pop it in the fridge and leave it for a couple of hours.

Because I'm a '70s kid, I'm serving this with Melba toast.

To make it, I first grill good old-fashioned white, sliced bread

on both sides.

Then what you need - it's good to do it with a serrated knife -

is you slice the bread in half...

..through the middle like that.

You then need to roll the slices,

cut-side down, on a board to remove any loose bits of bread.

What you end up with is sort of a thin, dry piece of bread,

which is perfect for Melba toast.

Just put it under the grill, it'll only take about 30 seconds.

Keep your eye on it cos you definitely don't want it to burn.

It works.

Look at that!

Melba toast.

With everything else ready, the only thing left to do is de-mould

the pate, then you've got a real Christmas cracker on your hands.

Now the reason why I'm serving it on this,

and on this piece of wooden board,

is that this is actually my gran's old wooden chopping board.

It's kind of a little homage to her.

You've got a chicken liver pate

with a lovely apple and walnut chutney

and classic Melba toast.

It's everything you want for a quick and easy starter at Christmas.

All of it can be made in advance

and it is one of those classic dishes.

By adding those lovely winter spices, that touch of clove little

bit of cinnamon,

gives it that lovely Christmassy edge.

This dish is a real reminder of my childhood.

Another one is Christmas crackers.

And do you know what? I still get a kick out of those old jokes.

And food historian Ivan Day has been finding out

when novelties like these first landed on our tables.

Breaking open a novelty to discover a small gift, motto or riddle inside

dates back to the Tudors and lasts through until the 18th century.

They had a sweet course called a banqueting course,

which consisted of edible sweets placed on the table

for the delight of the guests.

And the richer the host was, the more extravagant the gift.

We know about bottles of perfume, diamond rings

and other expensive items of jewellery,

so when their guests broke them open,

it enabled hosts to demonstrate to their friends

that they could afford to enjoy such luxuries.

And Ivan has been busy for weeks

hiding surprises in his own festive novelties.

Today, he's making his final treat, ready for the big day.

I have a little book here

which is called A Queen's Delight,

the queen being Henrietta Maria,

who was Charles I's wife.

And these are allegedly recipes from her and I have one here,

which is to make artificial walnuts.

And that's the recipe that I'm going to use from the 17th century.

Ivan begins by mixing powdered sugar with water,

and a strange medieval binding material - gum tragacanth.

After kneading, it becomes smooth and white.

I've got here a little pot covered with silk,

which has been rubbed with almond oil and this is Tudor Clingfilm.

Having rested in Ivan's special airtight container for 24 hours,

the paste is ready for a splash of colour.

A very popular dye used by Tudor confectioners was something

called red sanders, from a tree, which grows in Indonesia.

And it gives this amazing brick red colour.

I pick some up on the paste and I knead it in.

And I'm going to pick up a little bit of cinnamon.

And I've also got some ginger,

which I'm going to also blend into the paste.

We're getting a colour now, which is

not that far off from the light brown of a walnut shell.

Illusion and deception were all part of the fun

and Ivan's 17th-century walnuts are tame compared to the

elaborate novelties created for royalty.

Mischievous sugar novelties like these

often featured on royal tables.

Henry VIII once presented Francis I of France with

a full sugar chess set and board.

His daughter, Elizabeth, at Christmas in 1561,

was given as a table centrepiece a scale sugar model

of Old St Paul's Cathedral.

That must have been quite a treat, even for a queen.

Before long, people lower down the ranks were enjoying sugar

surprises at Christmas too, and Ivan's been hiding gifts

and mottos inside his own designs.

So here we have a lovely selection of sugar sea shells,

artificial walnuts and other novelties.

There's a magnificent sugar egg

which has really caught my attention here.

So let's see what's there.

You have to crack it open...

Aha!

Amethyst and diamonds, my goodness me.

And of course, the other feature that's so important

in a Christmas cracker these days

are those corny old mottos and jokes,

so let's see what we have in this Tudor artificial walnut.

Do you know what it says? It says,

"There is no place like Home Comforts."

Now, all that sugar's got me thinking about how I'm going

to round off my own Christmas Day lunch.

I've decided to do something a bit different.

It's a dessert that's rich and festive,

and there's not a brandy flame in sight.

Now, to be honest, it's difficult to know what to do for dessert

on the big day, but for me, it has to be one thing,

and that's not Christmas pudding.

It's a prune and Armagnac tart - one of the finest desserts

and tastiest desserts you'll ever have,

because when it's made fresh, it can be absolutely delicious.

So, the first thing I'm going to do is soak these wonderful prunes,

Agen prunes.

You'll need to warm a syrup of Armagnac brandy,

water and sugar to soak them in.

Agen prunes come from the south west of France

and are just about the best you can get.

But you could make this dish with less fancy varieties.

Fantastic. We just leave those,

just to sit there and plump up and get full of flavour.

Think of this as a French version of the Bakewell tart.

The base is a sweet pastry made from plain flour, butter,

icing sugar and eggs.

What we're going to do is roll this out.

Now the key to pastry is to make sure the surface is cold,

that's why it's a good idea to use a metal surface

or even a bit of marble, to be honest.

I remember when I was a young nipper,

for Christmas, I was always into a bit of sugar work.

And I always wanted a sugar lamp.

And sugar lamps were a heat lamp over the top of a warming plate.

But being a Yorkshireman,

my dad was never going to spend 300 quid

on a heat lamp or a sugar lamp.

I ended up with a pig lamp and a bit of broken marble.

But it kind of worked.

In order to get this pastry to work,

you need to roll it out nice and thin,

and then use it to line a greased baking tray.

But don't trim the excess just yet.

That looks pretty good to me.

So once you get to this stage,

we take the entire lot and chill it.

And while the pastry case is in the fridge,

turn your attention back to the prunes.

Now, even after about sort of five minutes,

these will actually start to puff up,

which is exactly what we want.

And then what we need to do is to create almost like a puree.

And for that, what I need to do is just blend some of these prunes

with some of the liquid.

About half of them.

And what we end up with

is what the French call a jam.

You've got this combination of prunes and Armagnac,

and we can use that to line the base of the tart.

Now, the flavours remind me so much of my childhood

and this is one I have in the house all the time at Christmas time.

I just think it's so special and so simple to prepare as well.

So you've got that layer of the prunes.

Now, one thing you have to do with this as well

is keep this still nice and cold, so back into the fridge.

And then we can make our classic frangipane, that really light

filling that people know of when they're thinking of Bakewell tart.

Start by beating 100g of butter with the same amount of caster sugar.

Until it's white and fluffy.

Then mix in three eggs.

Now the key to this is add the eggs one at a time.

You mix this together.

Sometimes it'll actually start to split and separate.

Just keep persevering, the mixture will come together

and then we add another egg.

Now what you end up with is this very light,

kind of sponge mixture, I suppose,

but then we need to add the rest of the ingredients,

which are ground almonds and self-raising flour.

And for that, it's crucial that you measure them.

What you need is 50g of flour and 125g of ground almonds,

and another splash of Armagnac.

Then it's just a matter of mixing the whole lot together gently

and using it to fill your tart.

Now, the reason I like this, particularly for Christmas Day,

is that you can make this on Christmas Eve.

In fact, you can do this the day before Christmas Eve as well.

You don't have to cook it until Christmas Day,

you can just leave it in the fridge until you need it.

Spread the almond mixture evenly

and then gently place the Armagnac-soaked prunes on the top.

Making a Christmas pattern with them is optional.

I'm not into sort of fancy sort of stuff,

just randomly chuck them on.

Then grab some whole almonds. It's a good idea to use whole

almonds and not flaked almonds because the flaked ones tend to burn.

What you do is just chuck them on with finesse.

Like that.

Decoration done.

The tart can now go into an oven,

preheated to 190 degrees Centigrade for 25 to 35 minutes.

While it's baking, put the pruney Armagnac syrup back onto the heat.

So we bring it to the boil

and rapidly cook this for about five to ten minutes.

And after that, that sugars will start to thicken up the liquid,

which will make a nice glaze.

When the tart comes out of the oven, cut off the excess pastry.

To turn it out, I put a bowl under the tin.

And then for a final touch of seasonal excess,

I whip cream with a splash of

what else but Armagnac.

You could do this with pouring cream,

you could do it with ice cream.

If you want it to be a bit fancy,

you could do it with a creme anglais or a custard, really.

But for me, I like the simplicity of this.

And let's face it,

on Christmas Day, we just want it nice and simple.

And of course, it would be rude to serve it to anybody without

some quality control. Well, that's my excuse.

Now you have to take my word for it when I say,

this is one of the best desserts you can ever make.

If it's made properly.

So just a dollop of the cream as well to go with it.

If there was Christmas on a plate for me, this would be it.

This festive dessert is part of a meal I'm cooking

for eight people later.

I want Ralph to look his best for the occasion.

But his costume is going down about as well as a turkey dinner did

for Ian and Brenda Waterman a few years ago.

But instead of accepting their Christmas Day disaster,

they decided to take radical action.

Essentially, it goes back about 12 years when we were having

a Christmas lunch and I said to Brenda, "Not a bad turkey."

And she said, "Well, it should be pretty good for the price I paid."

She told me what she paid for it and I nearly went through the roof.

Come on!

Once he calmed down,

Ian decided they could rear better turkeys themselves

and he knew exactly what type of bird they needed.

I was adamant that I wanted the heritage variety,

a traditional variety.

And by that I mean a turkey that can mate naturally,

can incubate and rear its own young, so we started looking around.

But that search proved to be long and difficult,

because these turkeys are rarer than hen's teeth.

All of the nine varieties that we have

are on the Rare Breed Survival Trust endangered list.

But some are rarer than others, in particular, the Buffs.

They're a variety - small, bit diminutive bird,

very nice nature, very good flavour, easy to keep.

We have the Lavender. They're a good converter of feed to meat.

We have Crollwitzers, who are not good on the table,

but they're beautiful for ornament.

Some other birds have talents that stretch

far beyond the Christmas kitchen.

Turkeys, they're tremendous characters, no doubt about that.

They can make very good pets.

But sentiment aside, Ian and Brenda are running a business.

And every year, customers like Peter

buy their turkeys to rear at home during the run up to Christmas.

That's it.

That'll fatten up nicely up for Christmas.

It'll do lovely, I should think.

And how were the birds you had last year?

They did very well indeed. The family members had them

and they were happy, you know, really enjoyed the taste

and flavour of the turkeys.

The couple are at their busiest in the spring and summer,

when chicks hatch and there are young to look after.

By late December they can relax, even if the turkeys can't.

On Christmas Day, we find it quite amusing coming out and giving them

some treats, thinking,

"You made it this year, let's hope you do next!"

With a steady supply of free-range birds roaming outside,

you can guarantee the Waterman's lay on one mean Christmas lunch.

Cheers. Merry Christmas.

They're a niche bird,

but they're a delightful bird to have on the table.

They're unique and we should hone in on that.

I think it's only by creating a specialist market for them

that we can sustain them long term.

It's delicious. It's full of flavour and it's got a body to it.

It's not the least bit watery.

Really nice.

Clearly the key to a happy Christmas dinner table

is a tasty home-reared bird.

And Ian believes we could all enjoy the benefits of a DIY turkey.

I would love to think that other people would do just as we've done.

You could do it in the back garden.

You could have a couple of turkeys and you could enjoy

a brilliant Christmas dinner that you produced yourself.

Well, I'm not sure how impressed Ralph would be

if I started breeding turkeys in the back garden.

Hello, Ralph. How are you?

But luckily, he does approve of my Michelin-starred buddy,

Paul Ainsworth.

-Hello, mate.

-How you doing? How are you?

-You good?

-Yeah. Good to see you.

-Come on in.

-Excellent.

He's here to help me make my favourite Christmas meal.

We've been friends for years and today I'm hosting a festive

blow-out for him and his family, who are all coming over later.

-I thought we'd do classic roast dinner.

-Yeah.

I thought we'd do roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes

you've got to have. And we'll do a selection of veg because

that's what Christmas is about, a classic roast dinner.

Definitely. Nice to have a change as well, some nice beef.

So are you a traditional sort of thing? Would you do turkey or not?

No, I'd do beef. Do beef, maybe a nice shoulder of lamb,

but a traditional roast, keep it nice and simple.

I'm all for an easy life too.

For our Christmas lunch, I'm using a beautiful side of sirloin.

The key to this is sealing the meat in a pan before it

goes into the oven.

A straightforward job

unless you've got someone like Paul in your kitchen.

Right, so the pan's on full whack, so I'll let you season the beef.

-Absolutely.

-There you go.

So I just score it as well, just across.

You can't resist, can you?

These Michelin-star boys. I would just stick it straight in the pan!

It just lets it in, doesn't it?

Oh, that's to get the seasoning in?

Yeah, that's it, that's it.

Now you say that Christmas is sort of traditional for you really.

Christmas is very special to my mum.

That's, like, the one time of year you don't mess around with.

I remember once me and my sister went out on Christmas Eve,

we weren't too good Christmas Day, never again.

Gosh, she was not impressed.

When it's well and truly seasoned,

the meat goes into a very hot pan with 25g of dripping.

So once it goes in, don't move it.

Too many people start fiddling around.

And then the water comes out of the meat and then it just starts

to boil and it's no good. It's like you said, just relax.

This should be stress-free.

It's in the preparation, isn't it?

Just do that prep and then make the day quite simple

and enjoy it with the guests.

I'm going to get the potatoes on as well.

Now these are King Edwards, which I think are the best.

Cut them up into decent sized pieces,

-I don't like roast potatoes that are too small.

-No.

The potatoes should only take a few minutes to parboil

in a pan of salted water.

I'm giving myself the simpler jobs,

because Paul loves the more complicated stuff.

-Oh, dear.

-Cos you were classically trained though, weren't you, really?

-Yeah, I was.

-You were an ex-Gordon Ramsay?

Yeah, yeah, Gary Rhodes.

-Marcus Wareing.

-So, was food in your blood then? Or...?

Yes, definitely. I think I was very lucky.

I grew up in... My mum and dad own a bed and breakfast in Southampton.

Dad cooked every night. He cooked all the breakfasts in the morning,

and my mum would cook at weekends.

I was very lucky to grow up in a household where everyone cooked.

Once the joint is sealed all over, put it into an oven,

preheated to 200 degrees Centigrade.

I like my beef medium rare, which takes about 50 minutes.

And now it's time to sort out the spuds.

Right, what I want you to do with the tray,

-just put a few pieces of dripping in it.

-Absolutely, yeah.

And I'm going to get the potatoes.

Drain them off.

Shake the pan like that, just to loosen them up a bit.

Just break the edges of the potatoes, really, more than anything else.

-What are you doing?

-Do you want some more?

-Absolutely.

Oh, is there not enough in there?

THEY CHUCKLE

-It's my house now.

-Yeah, yeah.

-Although we're cooking for your lot.

Into the tray.

-Pinch of salt.

-Yeah.

No grief whatsoever.

-In the oven.

-In the oven.

Doing the meat and spuds is the easy part on Christmas Day.

It's the endless veg preparation that most people find a bit nerve-racking.

Not that that's a problem for me this year.

I'll let you break this up into little florets

and you can be as chef-y as you want.

-Yeah.

-All right?

What was Christmas like for you growing up as a kid?

It was literally about the lovely meal,

all the family being together and sort of like that,

which I think's nice. I think ultimately that's what it's about.

Don't you want the rest of this cauliflower or something?

-Oh, we want all of it, do we?

-Yeah, of course we do.

-Yeah, OK.

Look at how many people you've got, we've got eight of us, isn't there?

No matter how many guests you have, the key to making your Christmas veg

is to cook them one after another in the same pot.

But to avoid the cauliflower getting discoloured by the carrots,

cook it first.

The great thing about this is all the veg,

I say all the white veg, yeah, all the veg is perfectly cooked.

That's what we're looking for, so while I cook this lot,

I'll leave you to prepare the next batch, which can be the beans.

-The beans, yeah.

-So top and tail the beans

and then we're going to basically do the carrots.

Do you want them both ends? I leave this end on.

I thought you would do that being a Yorkshireman, to be honest,

-you top and tail?

-No, we just leave the whole things.

THEY LAUGH

Now do you have traditions at Christmas or...?

Mum has her traditions.

So you wake up, the Christmas albums are on, loud.

-The Christmas albums are on?

-Yeah, music is a huge part of it.

Huge, huge part of it.

See, we had an organ.

Nobody could play it, apart from my granddad

who used to get quite drunk and thought he was

basically Liberace on the piano.

How did you do the whole Father Christmas, mince pies,

milk and all that?

That for me was just, that sticks in my mind so much.

I couldn't believe when I saw it empty, it was just...

-Yeah, he'd been.

-Fascinating. Yeah, he'd been.

He started drinking a pint of lager at one stage as well.

I don't remember Father Christmas having that much fun in our house.

Anyway, the cauliflower will take three to four minutes,

then plunge it into iced water to stop it cooking.

After that, it's just a matter of repeating the process with

the other veg, ending with the carrots.

My mum would always keep that water and we'd have a ham on Boxing Day

and she'd put that in for the stock and that made amazing soup.

Shall we just put it in a container

and give her it as a Christmas present?

I think she'd appreciate that, yeah.

He's going to be in trouble when his mum sees this.

Whatever you decide to do with the water,

the beauty of cooking your veg like this

is you can prep them beforehand,

leaving plenty of time to get your gravy just right.

So, I'm going to get the sauce on for this one.

We've got the residual sort of gubbins, as I call it,

from the beef.

I add 200ml of red wine to the pot and cook it

until it's reduced by half.

And then we're going to take some of this beef stock.

This is just bought in beef stock, you can buy this. Yeah.

But they're great quality now, aren't they?

-I think it's fantastic stuff.

-I mean, look at the colour of that.

Use a litre of the stock and cook the whole lot

until it's reduced to a nice thick gravy.

Meanwhile, I'm going to let you, on your own,

let you loose in my kitchen to do the sprouts.

To do the sprouts? OK.

And surprise, surprise, Paul's making posh ones.

He starts by frying pieces of streaky bacon in a pan

with some dripping.

And then we've got the fun job of chopping 500g of sprouts.

That's... All this crisscrossing and stuff like that,

just kind of...just shred them nice and fine. It's just like cabbage.

For me, this is the one vegetable that you could just do

about ten minutes before serving.

-I've noticed how you started talking and stopped chopping.

-Chopping.

-You don't miss a trick you, do you?

-I don't.

I thought I'd get out of it.

No-one takes it easy in my kitchen.

When the bacon is crispy and golden, Paul adds the sprouts

and fries them for a couple of minutes.

A knob of butter will make it extra rich.

Then it's time to crack open a classic Christmas ingredient.

Now the two types of chestnuts you can buy

are obviously fresh or what they call sous vide,

and these are sous vide ones, much easier.

Now be careful when you're actually buying these as well

because they come whole, which it says whole,

but right next to it it'll have pureed.

There's two different types of puree - sweet and savoury.

'And you don't want to be cooking the sweet ones with your sprouts,

'believe me.

'About 250g of the savoury version works a treat though.'

I think they're good like this, actually, the sprouts.

-It just takes them to a different level.

-Yeah.

Finally, add a splash of water and stir fry for a minute or two.

With the sprouts done, the last job is to warm through the cooked veg.

It takes just 30 seconds in one pot of boiling water.

Then it's a matter of plating everything up.

Look at that!

Just as well, because Paul's family has arrived.

He'd better get a move on.

Hello! Come on in, come on in.

Here we go, guys.

Dig in.

There's nothing to beat good food with friends.

I just hope it gets the festive thumbs up from Paul's mum.

-Do you want a Yorkshire pudding? Mum?

-Not a massive one.

HE LAUGHS

Anyway, cheers, everybody.

-Merry Christmas.

-Cheers, everybody.

In my book, you just can't top a roast dinner at Christmas.

But by mixing traditional dishes with new flavours,

you can really make the big day go with a bang.

And with a little forward planning, you'll even be able to sit down

to enjoy the food yourself.

Well, now you know how to make Christmas stress-free.

And if you're worried, invite a chef over for dinner.

Well, I think that's a really good idea.

THEY LAUGH

You can find all the recipes from the series on...

Yes!

I've learnt a new dish today - chocolate and Yorkshire pudding.

ALL LAUGH