Christmas Classics 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.

Many of us have our own Christmas rituals and habits.

How and when to decorate the tree,

or even our choice of snacks for Santa -

it's all about tradition.

And that includes those classic seasonal dishes

that we love to eat every year.

I'm going to share with you some of my favourite Christmas recipes

that are guaranteed to satisfy your festive family food cravings.

'On today's menu, my cured seasonal salmon.'

Looks like Christmas already. Look at that.

'Over in Austria, they have their own traditions,

'and Annie Gray dives straight in.'

Wow. Quite an exciting way to get your Christmas dinner.

'While back here, food legend Michel Roux drops in.

'No pressure, then(!)'

It's only Christmas once a year, so don't panic, OK?

I'm not panicking.

Just happen to have a three-star Michelin chef in my kitchen.

There are some classics that should always be cooked

in the same time-honoured way.

But there's also a few that you can make your very own,

by adding just a simple twist or two.

Now, if you're talking about classic dishes around Christmas time,

this has to be on the list.

It's a glazed gammon -

a fantastic piece of ham with a lovely glaze on the top.

Now, so often, people just use a mixture of honey and cloves.

I'm going to incorporate other flavourings into this like marmalade,

and I think it works an absolute treat,

and serve it classically with a parsley sauce.

My gammon joint has been soaked in cold water overnight

to remove any excess salt.

So pop the ham straight into the pan,

and then you can concentrate on the aromats.

Some lemon, an orange,

cinnamon stick, an apple,

little bit of onion of course...

and then, to spice this up,

just a touch of dry chilli.

And then one thing that I absolutely love...

star anise.

The sort of aniseedy sort of flavour

I think works so well with the gammon.

So I'm going to put a few bits of star anise in there.

Cover the ham with cold water,

put it on to boil,

and let it gently simmer for two hours.

So the ham's ready.

Now we need to pay attention to the glaze.

And the glaze is really simple.

It contains plenty of orange marmalade.

This is what I used to have as a kid.

Really good quality orange marmalade.

So often it would be just done with honey,

which is fine,

but you'll find it can burn as well.

I'm just going to piquant this up, spice it up a little bit,

with a bit of English mustard.

And then pop in a few bits of star anise. Only a couple.

Now, what I like to do first of all

is just basically bring this gently to the boil.

While you wait, you can prepare the cooled ham.

Snip off the string that held it all together,

and then decorate it with cloves.

Once the glaze has come to the boil, pour away.

As soon as this goes in the oven, you've got to keep your eye on it.

Because of the amount of sugar in the honey and the marmalade,

it can burn quite quickly.

So set the oven quite high -

425, something like that -

and then every sort of three or four minutes

take it out and just keep basting it.

And as it cooks, like that, it'll start to caramelise.

It will only need about 20 minutes in the oven.

Just enough time to prepare two things I love to serve with it -

new potatoes...

and a classic parsley sauce.

I say classic parsley sauce because you always start it off

the same way as you do a classic bechamel sauce,

which is milk, and an onion cloute.

It's one of the things that I learnt at college.

It's basically an onion,

bay leaf, studded with cloves,

and this is just to flavour the milk.

Add the cloute to the pan, and bring the milk to the boil.

Take it off the heat immediately,

and allow the flavours to infuse.

Next, melt some butter in another pan,

add flour, and whisk.

Then pour in the milk -

minus the onion, of course.

We're just going to let that simmer,

and then we can pay attention to our ham.

Keep basting the joint with your glaze

until the sugars start to caramelise.

Mine isn't quite ready yet,

so in the meantime

I'm going to enrich the parsley sauce.

I'm adding a touch of lemon juice,

some double cream,

a handful of chopped parsley,

and a final seasoning of salt and pepper.

Perfect.

Then go back to the oven and check your ham again.

How good does that look?

And it'll look even better on the plate with these -

boiled new potatoes tossed in butter, and a little more chopped parsley.

Now, you can have this hot,

straight out of the oven like I've done here,

or cold as cold cuts,

which makes it one of the best dishes, I think,

for this festive period, because...

it's everything you want.

It's sweet, it's tangy, particularly with that marmalade...

It's not too sweet. It's just delicious.

It's one of my favourites.

Putting your own unique spin on a dish like this

will delight your guests

and get them in the mood to celebrate.

OK, confession time -

I'm not a big fan of Christmas pudding myself,

however good the recipe.

After a huge dinner, I prefer something a little lighter,

but just as flavoursome,

and I can't think of anything better than this one.

This dish is fabulous,

and it's based on a pavlova.

But we're going to incorporate a few little winter spices into it as well

to make it a little bit more festive.

So the first thing we need to do is make our meringue.

First, whisk six egg whites until they form soft peaks.

And with the machine still running,

gradually pour in 300g of caster sugar.

Add about a tablespoon of white wine vinegar...

and some cornflour -

about a tablespoon -

and then give it a quick mix.

The vinegar and cornflour will give the meringue

that soft chewy centre everyone loves.

And then what we need to do is pipe it out.

What we're looking for is a Christmas tree.

Fill the piping bag, make a small incision in the bottom,

and unleash your inner Picasso.

The best advice I can give, really, is start off with a triangle...

and then gradually increase the size of the triangle. And fill it in.

And then basically just repeat the process,

but you're just doing it slightly wider.

Once you've created the outline of your tree with three triangles,

pipe the trunk.

And then smooth the meringue with a palette knife.

Next, pipe a raised edge to hold the fruit filling in place,

and finally, add any little flourishes that take your fancy.

And there you have it.

Not bad.

Now I'm going to bake my meringue on a really low heat

for one-and-a half to two hours.

Now, while that's in the oven, we can create the topping

for our Christmas tree pavlova.

And carrying on with the Christmas theme...

first of all, you need to make a stock syrup.

So we get a little bit of water in here...

and roughly equal quantities of sugar and water.

So what you need to do now is boil this up

with your Christmas spices -

things like cinnamon,

powdered ginger,

and a little bit of powdered clove.

You have to boil the sugar, water and spices

for roughly five minutes to let the syrup thicken.

I love this dish. What you end up with is your whole kitchen

smelling of mulled wine.

It's got that great combination of spices.

Because of that, I'm going to add some orange and lemon zest.

Rather than the zest, just take the whole lot and peel it.

Now for the main fruit -

in this case, fresh blackberries,

and lots of them.

Now, as soon as the berries are mixed together, we switch the heat off.

We're not creating a jam,

we're just creating a glaze for our blackberries.

And you can see that the orange zest nicely caramelises as well.

Smells delicious.

And if we leave that now,

for about the same amount of time as our meringue takes to cook,

it'll be absolutely perfect.

When both the meringue and fruit have cooled,

whip some double cream along with some vanilla bean paste.

And for the blackcurrant hit,

one or three glugs of creme de cassis.

I love this stuff. Especially with champagne.

It's just delicious.

Mmm!

Now we just have to assemble our tree.

I always have this opinion in food, less is more,

but particularly around this time of the year

it's all about indulgence, I think.

And don't try to measure the quantity of topping either.

You want a really thick layer of sweet and glossy blackberries.

Mmm! Mm! Mm! All for me.

The flavour of the blackberries is fantastic.

Any fruit that's in season as well is perfect for this.

With its chewy meringue, luxurious cream, and spiced berry topping,

this is one dish that'll definitely light up the season.

Most Brits can't imagine Christmas without a tree...

and they wouldn't settle for anything less

than a classic roast turkey on the big day either.

The Austrians also love their seasonal traditions.

But many of them enjoy a very different meal during the holidays...

..as our festive food reporter Annie Gray has been finding out.

The market stalls here in Innsbruck

are jammed with seasonal goodies,

but to get a real taste of the classic Austrian Christmas,

I headed far beyond the fairy lights of the city.

'12 years ago, Peter was a successful businessman in Vienna.

'But he gave it all up for a simpler life in the country

'with his wife and three children.

'He now farms a staple ingredient of a classic Austrian festive dinner...

'carp.

'I offered to help him catch some.'

-Hallo, Peter.

-Hallo, Annie.

'Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time.'

Put your waders on.

-OK.

-We'll go fishing.

-OK?

-OK.

'I've got all the gear, but I'm still none the wiser.

'Thankfully, Peter knows what to do.

'He breeds carp in several ponds like this one.

'Fishing them out with nets is no easy task,

'so drastic measures are called for.'

We're draining the lake so we can get the carp out more easily.

A bit like draining a bath - you pull the plug,

the water comes out,

and all the carp are pushed towards the plughole.

And then we're fishing them out with the net.

This is the classic way to catch your Christmas dinner.

All the people you see helping come along for the day for free

to help out, in return for their Christmas carp.

It's quite an exciting way to get your Christmas dinner.

Not quite...

'Even though they've been cornered and put into a big net,

'it's still really tricky to catch one.

'They're slippery little devils.'

-It's hard work.

-Yes.

'But I'm not going to let a fish beat me.'

OK!

-One...

-One. Yeah.

-SHE LAUGHS

'And this one's all mine.'

Wow...

Quite a workout.

And you've been doing... Well, "you" -

PEOPLE have been doing it like this for 500 years.

Wow. Respect.

'The carp will now be kept in small holding ponds

'until they are sold.

'But I want to understand exactly how carp

'fits into the festivities over here,

'so I've booked a cookery lesson with Peter.'

Peter, tell me what we're making here.

Oh, we make a traditional...

Christmas dish - potato salad with carp.

Nearly the same as fish and chips.

I quite like the idea of having fish and chips for Christmas.

When do you eat it in Austria?

December 24th.

OK, so Christmas Eve.

'Back in the days when Austria was strictly Catholic,

'eating meat on the 24th of December was forbidden.

'So people turned to fish instead,

'and a Yuletide classic was born.'

HE SPEAKS GERMAN

'Before we fry our Christmassy fish,

'it's coated in flour, egg and breadcrumbs.

'The fillets only take a few minutes to fry in hot sunflower oil.

'Now, THAT'S easier than preparing a roast on Christmas morning.'

So, do we get to taste it?

-Yes.

-Excellent.

And, for the finishing touch,

a potato salad dressed with apple vinegar, cooked onion,

sugar, salt and vegetable stock.

Quick, easy - and not a Brussels sprout in sight.

No wonder the kids love it.

SHE SPEAKS GERMAN

-Ja.

-Yeah? Cool.

SHE LAUGHS

This is a complete revelation.

It's absolutely delicious,

and I can totally see why so many Austrians

choose it for their Christmas meal.

And the best thing about today is that

I have helped to fish for a lot of Austrians' classic Christmas dinner.

There's no reason why we in the UK

shouldn't enjoy fish at this time of year too.

But as carp can be hard to get hold of,

I've got a luxurious recipe that'll keep fish firmly on the menu.

Now, there's one dish that I would call a Christmas classic,

and that's smoked salmon.

Now, it's quite difficult to MAKE your own smoked salmon,

and if you get a really good quality bought in one, I would stick with it.

But another cured salmon dish that you can do,

and would certainly be in my top ten around Christmas time,

is gravadlax. It's really simple to make.

First, top and tail the skinned and boned fillet of salmon,

so the fish is the same thickness throughout.

You can always use the offcuts for other dishes, like fishcakes.

Now, the cure for gravadlax can vary so much,

but fundamentally it uses two ingredients - sugar and salt.

And then we can make the additions of other ingredients,

like some coriander seeds,

and some pink peppercorns.

Roughly crush both of these in a pestle and mortar

to help release their flavours.

They can go into the salt and sugar mixture...

..together with some dill.

Now, this is the crucial thing, really,

whenever you're doing gravadlax.

Next, place a layer of the cure mix on the bottom of the dish.

Looks like Christmas already. Look at that.

Then place the fish on top,

and coat with the remainder of the cure.

This now has to go in the fridge for 24 hours.

I've got one in the fridge here.

And you can see how much liquid comes out of this.

This is just the moisture from the fish

as the fish starts to shrink up.

Let's face it - if I put you in a combination of salt and sugar,

and left you for 24 hours, you'd shrink a little bit.

It's exactly the same thing with this piece of fish.

Now the cure's done its job, you can simply wash it off.

And once you've dried the fish with some kitchen paper,

it's ready for a hot and herby topping.

And this is where we can grab some of our Dijon mustard

and just spread this over the surface of the fish.

I wouldn't use English mustard, it's too strong for this.

Dijon mustard is actually perfect.

Now chop a large handful of dill

and sprinkle it over the top of the salmon,

patting it down onto the Dijon.

I'm actually going to serve this with an amazing mustard.

It is really simple to make your own mustard at home.

And here's how...

Add some crushed juniper berries to a pan with some mustard seeds,

dark brown sugar,

a drop of red wine vinegar,

and a pinch of salt.

Bring the mix to the boil,

and let it gently simmer for six to eight minutes

before adding something a little special.

And I am going to add just a touch of champagne.

Well, it is Christmas, isn't it, really?

Take the mix off the heat,

and then blitz in a food processor for three to four minutes.

I'm sure you'll find something to do while you wait...

When you get about halfway through you can just check it,

make sure the consistency's getting there,

and then offset it with a little bit of champagne...

..and a top-up.

And blitz it again.

-I think

-I

-might be blitzed by the end of this.

But there you have it.

Your instant home-made grain mustard.

With the luxury mustard made,

all I have to do is slice and plate up the gravadlax.

Don't use a serrated knife for this.

It's got to be a flat-bladed knife, nice and sharp,

otherwise you're just going to rip the fish.

Carefully cut the gravadlax into thin even slices.

If you present it properly, you'll really wow your guests.

And of course you've got this amazing champagne mustard.

And, for me, it needs very little else, really.

Maybe just some pumpernickel bread, something like that.

It tastes so much better if you make it yourself.

The champagne's not a bad touch too.

This would be in my top ten favourite things to eat at Christmas.

It's a real classic.

Gravadlax on its own is fantastic,

but with a very quick and simple champagne mustard,

it makes it extra special.

Cheers.

Cured, coated, and accompanied with festive fizz,

this salmon will definitely keep the Christmas spirit alive.

One more? Oh, go on, then.

'I still put a game bird on my Christmas table every year.

'I always enjoy welcoming friends too,

'and none more so than one of my all-time Michelin-starred heroes,

'Michel Roux.'

-How you doing, boss? You all right?

-I'm good, indeed.

Good to see you. Come on in. Lovely to see you.

'If anyone can give me a masterclass

'on cooking this wonderful seasonal dish, it's him.'

-Well, welcome back to the kitchen.

-Yes.

-You've got your Bloody Mary.

-Yes.

-Right.

Now, I thought we'd do a pheasant,

cos I love pheasant,

but you have a passion for pheasant this time of year though, don't you?

Well, for me, Christmas is always pheasant,

because pheasant is small

and we're never more than eight or ten at Christmas.

Because we are a small family,

a lot of us are working,

and I believe a pheasant...

There is no cold meat left.

Turkey, I love turkey too,

but you've got to have a big party

and you've got to face the cold turkey

for quite a few days afterwards.

So, let's have a pheasant. It's lovely.

Exactly. So we've got some lovely pheasant here,

and I thought what we'd do is we'd roast that off

with a nice little ravioli.

So how would you cook YOUR pheasant?

Would you roast it whole on Christmas Day?

I roast it whole, and then let it rest on the breast.

-Yeah.

-But you... What are you doing there,

you're taking it off...?

Yeah, I'm taking the legs off,

because I thought I would do a nice little farce for your...

That's one of the best way...

..for your... I'm glad I'm doing it right!

'I'm not feeling any pressure here, honest(!)

'I mean, it's only Michel Roux...

'Right, let's separate the legs into drumsticks and thighs,

'and remove the breast crown from the carcass.

'You could get your butcher to do this for you.

'I'm adding the drumsticks to a hot pan.

'As they cook,

'place the chopped skinned thigh meat for the ravioli in a food processor,

'along with some cream, salt and pepper, and blitz to a fine puree.

'Grate in a teaspoon of truffle, and blitz until smooth.

'Next, add some chopped carrot, leek and celery to the drumsticks,

'and fry until they're golden.

'Now place the frying pan in the oven for 15 to 18 minutes.

'While the pheasant crown cooks,

'lay out a few ready-rolled fresh pasta sheets

'and cut out some large discs.

'Next, place a spoonful of the pheasant stuffing

'between two of the pasta discs,

'and pinch them together to form your ravioli.'

So what's the best Christmas present you've ever had, then?

Well, it's my first Christmas present. I will always remember.

It was wrapped into a little foil of a tablet of chocolate...

It was an orange.

The first orange I ever had in my life.

I was about five or six years old.

And that is a fantastic Christmas present.

I was smelling my orange...

Nobody would have taken my orange away.

And when my mum said, "You can open it up,"

I didn't know what to do with it. I didn't know how to open it.

You know, that's something.

It shows how special Christmas should be, though, shouldn't it,

really, rather than it...

-With it being commercialised and everything else...

-Well...

But you saying that, you know, it just...

You can't stop the progress and how the world is moving,

but there was something.

'Next, chop a bunch of kale,

'and put some butter in a pan

'with a little water and garlic.

'Then saute the kale till it's softened.'

-It's not bad having a commis chef in the kitchen to be honest.

-Oh, no, but it's lovely.

I knew I was not only invited for a drink.

Well, precisely, yeah...

-There's always something.

-You've got to work for your supper.

-Yes, I know, I know. I tell you...

-Well, normally,

-we're on the golf course, aren't we, more than anything else?

-Yes.

-You want to wear that shirt, actually, on the golf course.

-Huh?!

-We'll see you in the woods.

-No, but the pheasant will see me.

'Now fry some wild mushrooms in a pan with some butter,

'and add a chopped shallot.

'Next, take the pheasant out of the oven,

'and check to see if it's ready.'

And we're in business.

I think that's probably... Probably might want a bit longer.

A touch under. You need another two or three minutes.

It's me panicking, that's what it is.

We've got... It's only Christmas once a year,

-so don't panic, OK?

-I'm not panicking.

Just happen to have a three-star Michelin chef in my kitchen. I'm not panicking at all.

It's fine. It's just normal Christmas, isn't it, for everybody?

Did you pepper the mushroom?

-I think I did, yeah.

-Mm-hm. Let me check.

No, you did not.

HE LAUGHS

I knew you were going to forget something.

I need a drink. I'm getting a drink.

'When the pheasant is ready, set the breast crown to one side.

'Add a splash of Madeira and some hot reduced stock to the pan,

'and bring it to the boil.'

-Very good.

-What does it need?

Oh, no, it's perfect.

HE MOUTHS

'Now strain the sauce...

'..add a little more shaved truffle...

'and pop your ravioli in a pan of boiling water.

'This will only take three minutes to cook,

'so we can carve the pheasant and plate up -

'first with the kale and mushrooms,

'and then the pheasant breast.'

Lovely.

-Oh-oh-oh!

-Oh-ho-ho!

Now, give me that.

Please can I have it?

Oh-la-la-la-la.

'And now the pasta is ready,

'we can pour over our lovely jus.'

Tell you what, Michel, that's not bad, is it?

-Looks bloody good.

-JAMES LAUGHS

'Seal the deal with a final flourish of truffle shavings.

'Well - it is Christmas after all.'

You can tell you're not paying for this one, can't you? Look at that.

That's it.

Whoa.

I tell you what, that looks pretty good, doesn't it?

This is, to me, a classic sort of dish around Christmas time.

Perfect dish.

And the texture is perfect.

And it took 15, 20 minutes to cook.

The stuffing's not bad for the ravioli as well.

Stop there, stop there.

-Little bit more... No, I want...

-Don't come again.

Look at that. Isn't it lovely?

You're quite right. I'm quite pleased with my stuffing.

Yeah, you're not bad at this.

You should try it for a living maybe sometime.

As far as I'm concerned, it just isn't Christmas

without these classic dishes and ingredients.

And if you serve them with good company

and a glass of whatever takes your fancy,

it's sure to be a merry one.

-Cheers.

-Happy Christmas, boss.

I'll see you on the golf course next time.

Oh, no. I prefer to cook with you than play golf.

THEY LAUGH

-Happy Christmas, boss.

-Happy Christmas.

-It's delicious, that.

-Lovely.

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