In Between Days The Hairy Bikers Home for Christmas

Christmas. We love this time of year.

Yeah, wrapping presents, decorating the tree and generally making merry.

And nothing beats a bit of Christmas home cooking

shared with family and friends.

Delicious festive food for all occasions packed with flavour and

-full of love.

-Ding Dong merrily on high.

And we'll be joined by some familiar faces to get us all into the festive

-spirit.

-Oh, my goodness!

That is preposterously wonderful.

-Merry Christmas.

-We'll also find out how to make someone's day with

delicious, home-made foodie gifts.

So, hang up your stockings, tweak your tinsel...

Turn on your fairy lights and relax.

-BOTH:

-We're home for Christmas!

Imagine, Dave. Christmas is over,

you're recovering from all that wonderful food.

The relatives have gone home, you're looking forward

to the New Year but somehow you just feel...

Well, you feel a bit lost.

Oh, yeah, I know that feeling, mate.

It's called the Crimbo limbo.

You know, it's those in-betweeny days.

You know what the antidote to that is, though, mate?

Cooking up some more fun, festive food!

Yay!

So, today, we're making figs stuffed with Stilton wrapped in Parma ham

with a beetroot, walnut and apple salsa.

Plus chestnut and chocolate roulade with Christmas pudding parfait.

And we're joined by Alex Jones to find out how she spends Christmas.

I don't do Christmas by half.

-No, you don't!

-I mean, get the jumpers out - I love sparkle.

But first, a dish that turns your leftover turkey

into a powerful salad.

-It's...

-Bang bang turkey.

We all love bang bang chicken, so why not bang bang turkey?

Well, exactly, why not?

Bang bang chicken, it's like that Chinese salad.

It's full of spice and flavour, and cold chicken breast.

Well, we've all got turkey breast left over.

You could use whatever part of the turkey you wanted.

And also we've got that really lovely salad.

Interestingly, we're going to use shredded raw cabbage in this

and the reason for that is

it gives a really lovely, powerful, peppery taste and

it's just fresh and great, perfect for those in-between days.

We start off by marinating this cooked meat.

So some chilli powder goes in.

Some five spice powder.

There's a bit left in there, mate.

Some soft brown sugar.

Soy sauce.

About a good tablespoon.

And the juice of about half a lime.

You know also for the sauce, do you think I should...?

I'll start the shallots off and start to fry them off, eh?

Yeah, bang bang chicken has traditionally got a peanut sauce

but we've taken that sauce several steps further with coconut milk,

peanut butter and all manner of good things.

Now, I'm just going to put this turkey into the fridge

and just leave it to absorb all those wonderful flavours

while we get on making the sauce and the salad.

So, to make the sauce, first we start to sweat down a shallot.

Now, I'm going to grate the garlic finely for this

because it's going to end up being a sauce.

Now, as you've seen, and you might say, "What on earth is Kingy doing?"

Well, I'll tell you.

I'm stripping the outer skin

off this beautiful piece of ginger root with a spoon.

It's the best way to do it - trust me, try it - it's great.

It's funny, we always talk about the scent of Christmas.

All of a sudden we've added a new dimension, haven't we?

Oh, yes. It's lovely.

And that's the great thing about these in-between days, isn't it?

You can get a little bit creative, because you know when you open

the fridge door and the turkey's still there and you get a fright?

Yah!

So what you do is you think, "Right, I'm going to get you

"and you're going,"

and this is the perfect way to make it all disappear.

Have you ever been frightened by a turkey?

I have, well, yeah, cos I keep forgetting it's there.

Some red chilli, thinly sliced, goes in.

-Oh, lovely.

-Ready.

-This is not far off itself, really.

-In the pan?

-Yes.

-Ready for it?

-Yes.

Just sear that down.

Look at those colours.

To this, we add some coconut milk.

It's a funny old time between Christmas and New Year, isn't it?

What do you like to get up to?

I like going on quite long walks.

I take the dog out, and off we go.

I love that and even when it's raining and it's not very nice,

I love it because then you can come in and treat yourself

-to something lovely.

-Yeah.

-What about you?

-I kind of like to hunker down, really.

I like to sleep late because inevitably I've cooked at home,

like you have, because I love cooking

and I like to keep it simple.

-Yeah.

-And this is the perfect in-between supper.

You know what else I like to do?

-Falling asleep in front of the telly.

-Oh, I know. I love that.

-It's so great.

-I always like Scrooge.

I've always got to have A Christmas Carol.

"Oh, we will have a turkey on the table, Mr Scrooge."

-Just brilliant.

-Oh, it's brilliant, The Guns Of Navarone.

Oh, that's excellent, isn't it?

The Guns Of Navarone. "The sea shall not have them." Oh, I love...

-Yeah!

-Yeah. It's there. The films.

-Love it.

Turkey stock, cos, after all, we haven't wasted any of the turkey.

That goes in.

So, just to recap, in this pan, I had the shallot,

which was kind of frizzling away nicely.

We put into that some garlic,

some ginger, some chilli and then I put some coconut milk in,

some stock and now some peanut butter.

Oh, do us a favour, Kingy.

No worries, dude, on its way.

-We haven't finished with the flavour yet.

-Ooh, no!

Some rice wine vinegar for a bit of sharpness.

Some soy sauce.

Now, I know there are a lot of ingredients on this but, honestly,

get all your stuff out, set yourself a little place out and it isn't as

complicated as it looks.

Soft brown sugar.

And some ketjap manis.

That's like the Indonesian sort of reduced soy sauce.

It's thick and, look at that, it's almost like treacle.

You know what I'm going to do, mate? I'm going to get on.

I'm going to chop our finishing dressings.

-Oh, yeah.

-So I'll get on with that, mate, so it's all ready and prepped.

Last thing for the sauce is more lime juice.

Pop that in. We can always add more but we can't take it out.

Now, we just let that cook until it reduces a bit

but it won't take long, two or three minutes.

It's quite thick and chunky anyway.

And we've got an amazing guest today, Kingy.

We've got our old mate Alex Jones coming in a bit.

-Oh, she's lush.

-She's lush.

We love her. We do.

-Can't cook for toffee.

-No.

I think that's there, Si. It's lovely.

I think we can start to build, now.

I think we can. So...

this is a put-it-all-on-one-platter and

plonk-it-in-the-middle-of-the-table job.

As Dave was saying before, this time, in the in-betweeny days,

let's make it easy. So, we've got some courgette, some radish,

some spring onions, carrot and red pepper.

Now, we're using raw cabbage.

The reason is it's fresh, it's lovely,

it's tasty and it gives a real, lovely, peppery flavour to the dish.

Can I have some of that wonderful marinade from your turkey?

-Well, we'll need the turkey anyway.

-Yeah.

-There we go.

-Oh, lush, mate.

-There we are.

-Right, just going to toss that together. Like that.

Taste that turkey - let me know what you think.

I said it seems odd to marinate cooked meat but it's with cold

-ingredients.

-Oh, man, that's awesome.

It's just given that turkey a new lease of life.

Now, look at that, it's thickened up beautifully.

Put that in there.

Look at the colours. How fab is that?

Look.

Cos the cabbage is quite robust, even though the sauce is warm -

it's not boiling - it shouldn't wilt it too much.

That is going to be so good.

Now, just put that on top there like that.

-Oh!

-How's that?

Put the bang bang turkey on the podium.

Mm!

-I want my turkey.

-Oh, man!

You get all of those lovely, lovely flavours.

The ginger, the lime.

Aw, it's great.

This is a perfect meal for in between Christmas and New Year.

And, again, it's a leftover special but what a leftover special.

-Love it.

-And that's one turkey you can truly take to the party.

It's brilliant.

Bang bang turkey salad, a powerful dish packed with flavour.

The perfect dish for those in-between days.

When the big day's over and all the pressies are delivered,

you sometimes need a last-minute gift.

Well, don't buy one, make one.

And Lisa Card has the perfect solution.

What I'm going to make is some Italian amaretti biscuits.

Kind of like crunchy almond macaroons, I guess,

if you're looking for a modern-day kind of equivalent.

You can put them in a little spice jar like I have

or you could just find a little jar

that you've used and upcycle it and make it look pretty and Christmassy.

And you can make them a few weeks in advance and kind of bag

them up and have them ready if you want to give them to teachers and

things like that but a really lovely gift.

You can buy them in Italian delis now.

You can get the soft ones or you can get the crunchy ones but the ones

we're making today are going to be the crunchy ones.

The amaretti are the biscuits and the amaretto is the liqueur.

Funnily enough, though, it's just an almond flavour,

so you don't have to use the liqueur in the biscuits,

you can just use almond extract

which gives that real, nice, almondy flavour.

Just fold it in nice and gently to keep the air into the mixture and

then you're going to have one of two types of mixtures and I've had it

both ways. It can be quite soft,

where you can pipe it onto a tray and then

you bake them in the oven, or, if it's slightly firmer,

which is almost easier,

you can actually just roll them into little balls.

If you wanted to be super precise, you could weigh this out

but I quite like the rustic nature of giving a home gift

where they're not all uniform.

I would just buy them, if I wanted to do that.

And then just pop them on the tray

and bake them for 15 minutes until they kind of go crispy.

You have to be quite brave.

You have to catch them where they're kind of just going beyond golden

but not too dark brown because you want them

to be crispy all the way through to the middle.

But, you know what, if you don't get it right,

it doesn't matter, because they're still great,

cos that slight, little, soft bit in the middle is quite tasty, too,

so, either way, you're going to have a great gift.

They taste pretty great within about ten minutes of coming out the oven,

they taste good.

So, once they're cool,

you can put them in a cellophane bag or in a little jar.

I've got lots of friends I can think of that would be really appreciative

to receive something like this,

so I hope some of them would make me some, too.

Well, we've got some company now

and this guest could brighten up any in-betweeny day, Christmas or not,

Alex Jones.

Thank you, boys.

-Hello and welcome, Alex. How are you?

-Very well. How are you?

We're all right. You're looking very festive.

-Well, I don't do Christmas by half.

-No, you don't!

-No, you don't!

I mean, get the jumpers out, I love sparkle.

-Do you love Christmas?

-I do, I do.

But it starts for me in about end of October.

I mean, my husband finds it all a bit too much.

-Yes.

-Yes.

-So, are you an early Christmas present shopper?

Oh, no. No, last minute, but I'm early on the sherry!

THEY LAUGH

You're early on the Christmas spirit.

On the Christmas spirit.

Organisation, not so much.

Your family, do you ever have Stilton at Christmas?

We do, we love a bit of Stilton.

-Yes, tick.

-Tick.

-Figs?

-Figs, love figs.

-Tick.

-Oh, we're doing well.

We're going to be doing figs that are stuffed with Stilton,

wrapped in Parma ham

and roasted with thyme and honey and served with...

With a fabulous apple and beetroot salsa.

It's all mixed in, it's going to be fab.

First off, I've got to just take the top off my figs.

-Give us a couple to take off for you.

-Oh, these are so ripe.

We take them and we put a cross in them, like so.

-It's quite far down, isn't it?

-Yeah.

Then you squeeze it from the bottom.

You see, it just opens up, just like a blossom.

Look at this, they're like orchids.

I mean, Alex, this has been a massive year for you

and, obviously, having a baby,

this is your first Christmas with your new family.

It is and I suppose when I, you know,

imagined having children, I'd always imagined it at Christmas time

and the idea for me of having a family was always the one thing

I always wanted, so we are just thrilled that this is going to be

-the first year with little Ted.

-What is Christmas like for you?

Well, Charlie's from New Zealand, so he's been living in the UK for about

18 years and every year so far, he's been with myself and my parents,

because I'm a bit of a child when it comes to Christmas -

I can't bear the thought of being away from my own parents.

It's very childish, and I appreciate that,

but it's just the one time of year I like going home.

I like everything to be the same

as it has been since I was a little girl and he's just got to fit in.

-Poor bloke!

-Basically! But when we go home to Mum and Dad's

house at Christmas, he is not allowed in the kitchen.

Mum and Dad, they've got their routine, you know,

they move around each other in the kitchen like a dance

-and you just have to leave them to it.

-It's lovely, that, isn't it,

when the gang's in the kitchen

and it's all choreographed cos they've done it for so long.

-Completely.

-It was like my mum at Christmas -

she was in charge of the kitchen and everybody worked to Mam and she was

brilliant and I don't think anybody does Christmas like the UK.

-Oh, I mean...

-They don't, do they?

-..my husband keeps saying -

"Right, we are going to New Zealand for Christmas,"

- and we are this year - however, who wants a hot Christmas?

Nobody. I mean, I don't even like it when it's mild here.

-Who wants mild weather?

-No, I hate it!

-Get the snow out.

You see, my thinking behind this is Teddy won't remember this one.

By the time he does,

we'll be back in Mum and Dad's house in West Wales!

THEY LAUGH

He's on a hiding to nowt, Charlie, isn't he?

Yeah! So it's going to be a bit strange

because the weather will be nice, we might have a barbecue.

It will be very bizarre for me

but, you know, they're a great family,

I love my parents-in-law, they're good sorts and they're English,

-actually, so I'm trying to work on them to move back here.

-Oh, right.

So I hope this will be our first and last Christmas in New Zealand.

Right, shall we stuff the figs?

-Yes, why not?

-So, we've mashed this to a point of oblivion

and what we do is you take the fig, take this over here.

-I'll just tidy up a bit.

-Thank you.

-We're tidying.

And you just take a little ball of the Stilton

and push it into that blossoming fig.

Now, we are going to cook these so it's all going to melt and it's

going to mix in. You know, like, the sour Stilton

-is going to mix with the sweet fig. It's going to be fabulous.

-It is.

So, would you have this as a starter or would you have this as,

you know, something like a canape in a drinks party?

I'd have it in front of the telly!

THEY LAUGH

Watching The Great Escape!

It would be a starter, I think,

-because it's quite a substantial thing.

-It's quite rich, isn't it?

I'm going to wrap these in the Parma ham.

Any kind of air-dried ham would do.

Serrano, presunto.

Take it like so.

And just about two thirds of the way up,

just wrap it, caress it, put it in its little blanket.

It's like Jesus in his swaddling bands in the manger.

-Made from ham.

-Will that stay like that, then?

-Yeah, yeah.

-All that will happen is

the ham will tighten around as it cooks.

It will tighten around the fig and

then you get the crispy edges to it. It's so nice.

It's like how your jeans go tight around you by about Boxing Day.

I mean, Alex, if you cooked Christmas dinner,

-what would it be like?

-Terrible.

-Really?

Oh, I mean, I've never cooked a Sunday lunch,

let alone a Christmas dinner.

But, you see, Mum and Dad are brilliant cooks, you know?

So, Mum does the traditional stuff,

Dad does the more experimental stuff -

he likes sort of curries, risottos,

that sort of thing, and, between them,

they're a force to be reckoned with in the kitchen.

I just didn't get the memo. I don't know what happened to me.

My sister is fantastic and they tried their best.

They cooked with us when we were children, I'm married to a chef.

I don't know what happened.

If we had to force you to cook us Christmas dinner,

-what would you cobble up for us?

-I think I'd go traditional.

I'd probably add a Yorkshire pudding.

-I know it's not right.

-No, no, I agree.

Is there any time in life when you wouldn't want a Yorkshire pudding?

-No.

-No.

-No.

-No.

-True.

So I'd go Yorkshire pudding.

What we've got now is we want some olive oil in here,

just about a tablespoon.

And some honey.

-Do you want me to chop those?

-Yeah,

if you chop the thyme, that would be great.

And that's that soft thyme, so the stalks and everything can go in.

So, so far, we've taken the tops off the figs,

we've cut a cross in the top and opened the fig up,

stuffed it with mashed Stilton and wrapped it in Parma ham and in this

bowl, I've got some honey and some oil and Si's chopping some thyme.

Everything has its place on this little simple dish

and just drizzle the honey and oil,

make sure every fig's got a little bit.

You see - honey, Stilton, sweet, savoury, crispy.

We're trying to tick those boxes, Alex.

I think I could manage this recipe.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-I think you do yourself a disservice.

I think if you concentrated on stuff,

because, as your career has shown,

you can do anything you put your mind to.

-Oh, thank you, Si.

-Yeah, if you don't get fired!

That was back in the day.

I mean, you know, I started off in television as a runner, you know,

as most people do, and worked my way up and I was hideous at it.

I picked up Michael Crawford, you know, the first Phantom, Michael,

you know, Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em,

from the airport and the director-producer had said to me,

"Now, take him for some lunch

"because we're not quite ready for him,

"take him for some lunch on the way to the set."

So I took him to a McDonald's drive-through.

You took him into a McDonald's drive-through?

Well, I did, because I didn't have any money, Si,

and I didn't have petty cash and so that's all I could afford.

I mean, he hasn't had a chicken nugget for years

and he enjoyed it.

You know...!

"Where are you with Michael?" "Oh, at the drive-through."

-We'll be there now!

-Oh, oh!

-That is genius!

-And was that what got you the sack?

No, it wasn't that.

I think it was probably, um...

We were filming with an orchestra and Julian Lloyd Webber,

who's Andrew, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber's brother,

was doing a big solo on the cello and he said, "Listen, Alex,

"do you mind just watching my cello

"because I need to take a phone call."

-Oh, no!

-I went, "Yes, no problem."

Anyway, I got chatting to this parking attendant,

who was quite handsome, and, when Julian Lloyd Webber came back,

the said cello, Stradivarius, worth millions, had disappeared.

Oh, no!

Oh, I felt cold.

And so we looked everywhere for this cello - nowhere to be found.

Luckily, somebody had seen this cello on its own

and taken it and put it under the stage but, of course,

this was three quarters of an hour later.

-I mean, the man was raging by this point.

-Aw!

-I think that was the icing on the cake.

-So that's what did it.

That's what did it, probably.

But you have to say, Alex, that you did that in style.

-If you're going to go down, you go down properly.

-And to be fair,

the same company who fired me then rang me a week later and said,

"Look, you can't be a researcher or a runner any more but would

"you like to come in and do a screen test?"

And then that's how I started as a presenter.

Well, there you go. Right, well,

I've got that finely chopped thyme and we just sprinkle.

Make sure - it is Christmas - each fig has got its fair share.

Now, we pop that into a hot oven.

-Hot!

-Hot!

200 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes,

which gives my friend here just time

to knock up his apple and beetroot salsa.

# Uno, dos, tres

# Cuatro, cinco, seis, uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis... #

-Not that sort of salsa.

-No, no, no.

You did a fabulous salsa on Strictly, didn't you?

It was awful! My mother, right, she was watching me on Strictly,

week one, and she said, "Oh, Alex,

"how long is this going to go on for? Because I enjoy this programme

"normally and this is really putting me off - I feel stressed."

I said, "All right, Mam,

"don't worry, I'll be out probably week three."

Anyway, semifinals, I was still there,

-and it was just to annoy my mother!

-Oh, gosh!

Right, mate, could you dice me?

-Certainly will.

-Thank you.

Onion and then we start with the beetroot.

Now, you know the beetroot that you get in the vacuum packs - it's that,

it's not the pickled one.

Don't use the pickled one.

Just boiled beetroot, isn't it?

Exactly. Just an apple.

I'm just going to dice that the same size as our beetroot.

Add it to the bowl. Dave's coming over with the onion.

It's just a lovely assembly, this, and it's really quite quick.

Great mixture of flavours, isn't it?

It is, it's lovely. And then we're going to take some thyme and some

tarragon. Use the soft parts of both

and just chop that really, really finely.

-Would you mind chopping me some walnuts, Dave, please?

-Certainly.

-Look at the colours, aren't they lovely?

-Oh, beautiful.

It's the flavours of Christmas as well, isn't it?

Absolutely, man, absolutely.

And, then, what we're going to do is make, in a very large bowl,

some cider vinegar,

about a tablespoon, and then two tablespoons of walnut oil.

-Oh, walnut oil.

-Yes, it's lovely.

And this is going to be our dressing. A bit of salt.

Not too much. A little bit of pepper.

Give it a mix.

And that goes over...the salsa.

It's kind of the Christmas colours as well, isn't it?

It is, it's lovely.

And we just give it a stir.

And then put...

..some lovely walnuts into the salsa

and then save some to sprinkle over

the plate as a lovely finish, and it'll look really nice.

And the walnuts will say it's Christmas still.

Great, I'll get the serving plate.

-Yes.

-Are we there, mate?

-Oh, yes.

-Fantastic.

A thing of beauty, actually.

-Oh. Not too shabby, are they?

-How lovely are they?

That liquor's going to be beautiful.

Right, well, I think what we'll do...

..we'll put a bit of this...

-..on the bottom.

-It's oozy-licious, isn't it?

It's all your super foods in there.

It is, it is, they're all there.

-That should be big enough, I think.

-Oh, aye, yeah!

Beautiful.

They remind me of little jacket potatoes.

THEY LAUGH

-Bring it back to basic.

-See, this is the best bit.

You've got a fig, the thyme, the honey.

Beautiful.

A few sprinkles of walnuts.

Alex, there you go.

Oh, look at that!

DAVE LAUGHS

Yes! That is amazing!

Oh!

-Yes?

-Taste sensation...

-I think it's a hit.

-..right there.

-Can we join you?

-Go on.

-Mm!

-Mm!

-That works well.

-It does, doesn't it?

-Mm!

-Mm!

It's sweet, it's salty, it's savoury.

Full of flavours of Christmas.

It's delicious. Don't mind me.

-WHISPERING:

-I think she likes it.

-I think we're on winner.

Figs stuffed with Stilton wrapped in Parma ham with beetroot,

walnut and apple salsa.

A dish for between Christmas and New Year that oozes flavour.

Now, Christmas is the season to spread peace and joy,

so why not brighten up somebody's day

with a really thoughtful gift that's made with love?

Jo Ingleby has a great idea

for a gift that's not only fun but tasty, too.

We're going to make a Christmas tree made from crackers.

This is something a little bit unusual which you can either serve

yourselves as the centre of a cheese board or a kind of tapas or you can

take it as a gift for friends.

I get my kids involved in making this as well, because it's a really

lovely, fun thing to make as a family.

It doesn't take too long as well.

You could use oat flour for this,

but that can be tricky to get hold of, so what I do is just get regular

porridge oats and just whizz them really quickly in a food processor,

and you've basically made your own oat flour

and it costs a fraction of the price.

And then you're adding to that some different flavours.

This is where your creativity comes into it.

You can add anything you like to this.

You can make them really hot and spicy, if you want to.

You could add a little bit of Stilton or some grated Parmesan

to give a cheesy flavour.

The key is rolling out the crackers really, really thin.

So, we're talking, you know,

probably about the thickness of a 5p piece.

I use a variety of star-shaped cutters here.

You can buy a set, if you want to,

but what I did is raided my children's Play-Doh kit,

and I also got some cookie cutters, different sized,

borrowed some from friends.

It really doesn't matter about being perfect here.

Each star that you make is going to need a hole in the middle.

There's lots of ways you can do that, but it needs to be absolutely

in the middle, so be careful with this one,

otherwise you're going to have a wobbly Christmas tree.

And you pop that straight into a hot oven,

and it takes about ten minutes.

They should look like they're starting to...just a tiny bit

of puffing going on, and they're just going brown.

Basically, they need to feel quite dry when you pick them up.

If they still feel heavy and quite dense, then they probably need

a little bit longer.

So, you need a nice, long stem of rosemary.

I'm going to strip all the leaves off, apart from the last little

bunch at the top. So, they're going to stick out of the top

of the crackers like a little top of a Christmas tree.

It takes about 20 stars to make a decent-sized Christmas tree.

So, suddenly, you can see this coming together and starting to look

like a Christmas tree. It doesn't matter that they're all different

shapes and sizes, that's perfect. It's a little bit rustic.

It's a bit of Christmas on your plate.

You could pop it on to something like a little slate board,

or a piece of cardboard, so it's got something to sit on,

and then wrap it up with some cellophane and some ribbons.

It's very cheap and cheerful, this recipe.

You're probably spending about £1 on ingredients, making something

that looks like it's cost you significantly more than that.

And I've never seen these in the shops, so it's really unique.

It's really fun, makes you smile and, you know,

they are just crackers, but they taste really good and, actually,

you're eating them from a Christmas tree.

What could be more festive than that?!

This next one's a bit of a treat, really.

You know when it's in-betweenies and Christmas is all about treats.

We wanted to do something that was Christmassy but different.

And we like different, as you know. It's a Hairy Bikers twist.

We're going to do, like, a Christmas-flavoured parfait,

all the flavours of Christmas in a really heavy ice cream.

What's not to love?!

HE CHUCKLES

And, to go with that, a chestnut and chocolate roulade.

Basically, the most calorific

chestnut and chocolate roly-poly.

It sounds like an arctic roll but a posh version.

-Ah! I love her. I do. I love you.

-Sorry.

-You're keeping it real, aren't you?

-Yes.

-Look, we're trying to posh it up, man, it's Christmas!

-Eh?!

Right, well, let's crack on, and I'll crack the eggs.

Right.

For the Christmas parfait,

add sultanas, orange juice,

orange zest and rum to a pan,

with nutmeg, cinnamon and allspice.

Right, Alex, I'm going to bring this over to you because you've got to

smell this. This is definitely Christmas.

Smell.

Oh, I'd love a plug-in like that for Christmas, you know?

Yes!

You know what I mean? So, then, when people came into the house,

they'd just have a beautiful smell.

-It's a rummy plug-in.

-It definitely is that.

Beautiful.

Bring to the boil and simmer.

Mix four egg yolks with muscovado sugar.

Just leave that to do its magic.

Whisk the cream until soft,

whip up the egg whites until they reach soft peaks.

Alex, are you a good present buyer at Christmas?

I'd like to think I am.

I mean, I sort of...I'm a bit last-minute,

but I do plan meticulously.

Because I can't bear being in shops and just having no idea

what I'm doing. I like to have a list.

-Yeah.

-Hit it hard, bish, bash, bosh, out.

So, I think about what I'm buying before I go into the shops.

-I do. Yeah.

-And make a list.

Have you ever had any rubbishy last-minute presents?

Mm... I've had a few from my husband, actually.

-But he's not...

-Flipping heck!

-Oh, do tell.

Once, I told him I wanted this specific perfume,

-it's not hard, is it?

-No, no.

And Charlie's hopeless with presents, and I said,

"Look, don't worry about it, just buy me this perfume."

-Wrote it down.

-You wrote it down?

I wrote it down. I told him you can only get it at this specific shop

-in London...

-Yeah.

-..so just go there, just give this to the woman,

job done. I mean, it can't be easier, can it?

-No.

-No.

-Christmas Day,

opened it, aftershave!

Right make, wrong gender.

-Ooh...

-Flipping heck, man!

But, to be fair, the same Christmas,

I bought him a coat, he opened it, I said, "Oh, try it on, try it on,"

you know, like you do, over your pyjamas. I said, "Try it on."

And he went, "All right, then." Stood there like that.

I went, "That doesn't look right. Check the label."

12 to 13, boys.

-No!

-Yeah. So, that was a bad Christmas, gift-wise.

-We've got a little present for you, Alex.

-We have.

-Really?!

-Yes!

-Am I allowed to open it?

-Of course.

-Of course.

Oh, my goodness. Right, I love Christmas presents.

Ah!

-Oh, look, it's a little cat!

-Ah, you see? Because we did our homework,

-and we knew that you always wanted a cat when you were little.

-I did.

I mean, people say "Don't buy pets for Christmas."

-Yes.

-But Mum and Dad finally caved,

-after years and years of relentless asking...

-Right!

..and so they bought me a little kitten.

Aww!

And I'll never forget, Christmas morning,

we opened our presents and then Mum and Dad said, "There might be

"an extra little something in the kitchen

-"that Father Christmas has left."

-Aww!

So, into the kitchen I went,

as this tiny kitten was stretching,

coming out of her basket, and we called her Holly.

-Christmas, of course.

-Aww!

-Beautiful.

Holly was a lovely cat, died on her first birthday.

-She didn't!

-She did, she was knocked over.

-Oh.

-But...

-Hey, I tell you what,

you know how to bring a great Christmas story down, don't you?!

-Aye.

-Flipping heck. She didn't die, did she?

-She did.

-Oh, well.

But we had another cat after her

and she lived until she was 24.

-Wow.

-Wow!

-24.

-So it made up for Holly's demise.

-It did.

Fold the cream into the sugar and egg yolks.

This is epic.

Add the sultana mixture.

Now, we need to fold the eggs whites in.

The first third goes in. Now, it's important not to compress

the egg whites or you'll end up with heavy ice cream.

It's a folding motion.

And, look, take a little time with it, because it really does,

you don't want a seam of egg white, you want it all nicely combined.

-Right, I think we're there.

-Bosh it in.

Right, and just smooth the top off.

And that is ready for the freezer.

So, on with our luscious chocolate roulade.

Yeah, which really is the bad boy of the roly-poly world.

First off, I'm separating six eggs.

-Two more than last time.

-Ho-ho!

And while Dave's doing that, I'm going to make this -

this is chestnut puree. And we're going to put it into

a blender here, with some sugar.

So, how would you make a chestnut puree?

-You buy a tin.

-You buy a tin.

-Vac-packed.

-Excellent.

-Yeah.

-And it's a really, really good product, Alex.

-OK.

-I don't think anybody would make their own chestnut puree.

-Nah.

-Right.

-It's so good.

It's not hard to find, either.

Add melted chocolate to cream in a pan.

Heat gently, then whisk.

There's always something lovely about melted chocolate, isn't it?

-It's always luscious and luxurious.

-Mm.

Add caster sugar to the egg yolks, and beat until light.

Now, just proving a man can multitask,

I'm also going to whip the whites...

-..to a frenzy!

-Are you a bit short on the lead there, mate?

I am. Pump up the volume, pump up the volume.

THEY BEATBOX

-Look, that's it, perfect. That's stiff.

-Stiff peaks.

Stiffer than a dead man's toes. What I want to do now is,

I'm going to sieve the cocoa powder into this mixture.

Sieve it because I don't want lumps.

Now, while Dave's sieving the cocoa powder,

that is the chocolate and the cream combined.

So, you have your chestnut puree with your sugar.

When the blades are moving,

you start to add the chocolate.

Look at that filing.

Oh, wow!

-That is beautiful.

-Oh, it is, like an Angel's Delight.

-Isn't it?

-Yes.

Do you want to do what I think you want to do?

-I thought you might.

-Well, somebody best test it.

-I think so.

-You know. I'll just take a little bit from there.

-Mm! Is that dark chocolate?

-Mm-hmm.

-Delicious.

-It is, isn't it?

-Mm.

Now, to my egg whites, stiff peaks...

I take a third of it,

put it into the bowl and fold.

And it is a folding motion.

As Delia Smith used to say,

you use any implement, as long as it's not wood.

Do this with a wooden spoon, you will compress the eggy.

Keep folding until all traces

of the egg white's disappeared.

Now, I've got a Swiss roll tin here

that I've lined with grease and baking parchment.

And we pop this in there.

It will find its own level,

so we can quite merrily dump it in.

And we pop this...

..into a preheated oven, 180 degrees Celsius,

for around 15 minutes, until cooked through.

When it comes out the oven and it's been cooled,

you turn it upside down and it looks like this.

So, we carefully peel the parchment off.

Take this ever so carefully, because not only do we have the chestnut

filling on one layer, we've got a layer of whipped cream as well.

So, you get a nice Catherine wheel of flavour.

Right, now, if there's too much filling, which I suspect there is

here, well, we can always just give it to Alex.

HE CHUCKLES

-Look at that.

-Just need some cream now.

-Perfect.

-That'll do. Smashing.

Here we go. That's lovely.

And just try and take care not to disturb the...

..the chestnut layer.

There we are.

-Now...

-That's us.

-We just need to roll that up without it breaking.

Beautiful. Now, we're going to have a seam there, so we'll try

-and put that on the bottom.

-Yeah.

Like so. Look at that.

-Perfect.

-Perfecto.

Now, this is the fun part.

We get dark and white melted chocolate,

and just from a height, just want to...

You just keep carrying on till you've got, like, a matrix

of dark and light.

You can be quite random with this.

-Oh, yes.

-I need to put more...

There we go.

When it's cooled down a bit, we'll cut the ends off,

tidy up all this chocolate,

then leave it to set properly.

To the fridge.

What's it like at your house, a normal Christmas Day, Alex?

A normal Christmas Day, we...

We...well, we all have new pyjamas, first of all.

-Wait, yes! Yes! New pyjamas.

-Yes, new pyjamas.

-Christmas Eve, new pyjamas, present number one.

-God, you're rich.

-Yeah. That's right, yeah.

-And, so, Mum always used to buy us

new pyjamas so that we'd all look tidy

the next day for the photos.

So, we all come down, like we did when I was four or five, you know,

and open presents, then we get the sherry out about 11.

-A big breakfast, normally.

-Yeah.

-Sure.

-Because you need

a big breakfast because you're not going to eat much

-for the rest of the day.

-Oh, no!

-7,000 calories on average, apparently.

-I know! Is it?

-Yeah.

-I'm not surprised.

So, smoked salmon for breakfast.

I mean, it used to be cereal and toast but, you know,

-we've moved with the times, even in Wales.

-Yeah.

We're on smoked salmon now in Ammanford, where I'm from.

And then a big Christmas lunch at around three o'clock.

We don't have it too early. Grandmother comes over,

my grandfather used to, when he was alive.

Again, it's exactly the same as when I was very little.

And, then, you know, you go, "Oh, I'm stuffed,

"I couldn't eat any more", and then about five o'clock,

-"Shall we have a sandwich? Sandwich?"

-Yes!

"Shall we have some trifle?"

And do you like Christmas crackers?

I do love a Christmas cracker.

And the bad jokes

-and the bad gadgets that come with it.

-Yeah!

It is. Are you crackers before dinner or after?

-Oh, before lunch.

-Yeah.

All pull the crackers, and then we have to clear the crackers,

you know, get rid of all the waste, then we tell the jokes

-and then we eat.

-We used to put them under the Christmas tree,

-the crackers.

-Right.

-But, as a kid, I'd been around and,

if you open them like that, look down,

and you can find out which one's which and then kind of,

I'd size up the ones I wanted.

-See, you wouldn't last two minutes in our house, you'd be out.

-Oh.

And then they'd be like, "Stop fiddling with the crackers."

I was a very secretive child.

I think it is about time we had something to eat, don't you?

-I think so, mate.

-It'll be set.

-It will.

-And the parfait's set.

It will.

-Yes.

-Yum!

-I'll just go and get the parfait.

-You're going to love this, Alex.

-Oh, I'm sure.

I love this bit, it's great.

-The jeopardy, isn't it?

-Yeah.

CRACKING

Ah! Did you hear that?

-That is the sound of success.

-You have nailed it, Dave.

Beautiful, beautiful.

Well, you can't knock that, can you?

-Now, that's a parfait.

-You can knock it back.

That looks perfect.

And a slice of parfait.

-Beautiful.

-I'm excited.

I can tell.

-Mm.

-Mm.

-It's very different to ice cream.

-Mm-hm.

-Mm-hm.

-Isn't it?

-It is, isn't it?

-Just in texture and everything.

-It goes really quickly on your palate, doesn't it?

-Mm.

I think now that I've watched you do it,

I think I could manage this.

And this would blow people away, I think, as a pudding, over Christmas.

Chestnut and chocolate roulade

and Christmas pudding parfait.

A delightful pud to brighten up those post-Christmas blues.

-Well, Alex, it's been an absolute joy having you here.

-It has.

-Thank you so much...

-Absolute pleasure.

-Thank you for having me.

-..for sharing your Christmas with us.

-Yeah, and a Merry Christmas to you both.

-And a very, very Merry Christmas.

-Merry Christmas.

-Merry Christmas!