Party Time 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!

Now, if you are hosting a festive bash this year,

there's nothing that gets the party started quite like food.

We're making porcetta pork loin served with sauteed chard and parmesan.

Plus, prawn and salmon terrine with a chilled dill and cucumber sauce.

And Denise Lewis joins us for some festive fun.

Do you still indulge in all the pigs in blankets and all the accessories?

Yeah, there will be literally a fight going on in the house if

there are no pigs in blankets!

-Cheers, Merry Christmas.

-Merry Christmas.

-Merry Christmas.

But first, our trio of festive canapes.

Well, you've got to have canapes when you've got people coming round,

-haven't you?

-Yeah, of course.

-The finger food, you greet people,

they're hungry and it entices them.

You suck them into your web of joy.

And these tomatoes, in bacon vodka, are perfect.

Two things that are part of our every day existence, bacon and vodka.

Take half a dozen rashers streaky bacon, put them in a pan.

What we need to do is get that bacon infused vodka into these lovely

cherry tomatoes.

And the way that you do that is take said tomato, take a cocktail stick,

and do that,

-a lot.

-This will keep him amused for hours.

At Christmas it's lovely to invite your neighbours round for aperitifs.

And, you know, it's great, you know you're not invited for dinner,

or you know you're not invited to stay that long,

so it works on both sides.

And after a while, the bacon will shrink away,

and then we scrape the bacon into that dish.

Now, the wodka.

We will just pour the bottle of vodka over the fatty bacon.

We put this to infuse in the freezer.

Have you done those already?

-Yeah.

-You clever lad!

-I'm quick, aren't I?

-After your six hours or overnight,

-it looks like this.

-Ooh.

I've got a sieve with some muslin cloth.

We pour the vodka in there.

That is bacon vodka.

-Yes!

-You heard it here first.

What's not to love?

So what we do now is pour over the bacon vodka

and leave all those little "tom-toes" that go,

"Whoa! Voddie, bacon! Mmm!"

And they'll suck it all up.

And we just pop those in the fridge for a couple of hours.

Thank you.

The next canape is an Italian classic, mortadella mousse.

Now, mortadella sausage has been around in Italy since Roman times.

It's like a cross between a cold pork sausage, and luncheon meat.

What we do is we take the blender and we pop in the mortadella.

Could you start grating me some Parmesan cheese in here, Si?

I can, mate, yes.

So, creme fraiche...

And I want some cream.

-Tell me when, mate.

-More.

More!

Then just give it a blitz.

We will finish this off with some nutmeg.

-Good, we're doing well.

-We are.

Pop those in the fridge.

It is brilliant, it's so easy, it's epic.

You know, Si, I wonder if mortadella mousse

could become the new Christmas sensation.

Everybody all over Britain could be making it.

Have you seen the mortadella mousse?

-Have you seen it?

-You may need shares in mortadella.

It could be a water cooler moment.

A water cooler moment.

Our final canape for the trio is goat's cheese rondele served with a

fantastic salsa, drizzled with warm honey over the top.

-Perfect.

-So, first off,

I'm going to infuse the oil with a couple of cloves of garlic.

Do you prefer, Si, a dinner party or a nibbles party,

an hors d'oeuvre party?

A nibbles party, I really like that, as it just...

Cos you get lots of different flavours and tastes.

I quite like it at this time of the year.

-Yeah.

-I'm going to make a really simple salsa.

We have some tomatoes, some red onion, some finely chopped garlic,

some chilli, and then I'm going to chop through some coriander and some

-basil.

-How do you feel about fancy dress parties, Si?

-I could never get it right.

-One fancy dress party,

I went as a white rabbit.

I had the suit and everything, big pink ears, you know, like this.

But that was the thing, it wasn't a fancy dress party.

So I spent the whole night dressed as a rabbit.

How did you not know it wasn't a fancy dress party?

It said fancy dress on the invite, but they only put it on my invite!

I used to love it.

I once went as Fungus The Bogeyman.

Didn't meet a girl that night, either.

Now, let's put these garlic cloves away now.

They are frizzled out.

I've just mixed some red wine vinegar and some honey,

and I'm going to dress the salsa with it.

Nice. What I love is when your guests turn up, and it's worth the effort.

You know, rather than just get something out of the freezer that

you've bought in a packet, it's a surprise, it's lovely.

Where did you get this?

I didn't get it, I made it!

And there's nothing better, is there?

This time of the year, Dave, isn't it,

it's always a great time to show off.

-It is.

-Particularly when you're having a party, it's great.

Yeah. And let's face it, what's the point of cooking if you haven't got mouths to feed?

And at Christmas, those mouths that you feed

are full of Christmas spirit and cheer,

and you can fuel that Christmas spirit and cheer as well as

much as you like! Well, this is the goat's cheese,

and we're going to cut it into pieces, about a centimetre.

We're going to pane these.

Pane-ing, In kind of cookery terms, means kind of crumbing.

So, in one bowl I have my flour, in the other bowl a couple of eggs,

and in this bowl some breadcrumbs.

Now, to bring the flavour out,

we're going to mix in a couple of tablespoons of Herbes De Provence.

It tastes of lavender, sage, time.

It's wonderful.

Right, it's that old trick.

Flour, egg and herby crumbs.

Herby crumbs, it sounds like a saxophonist from a jazz band, doesn't it?

Now on the saxophone, Herby Crumbs!

And we pop that in the garlic infused oil to sizzle away.

And as soon as they have taken on that golden colour,

take them out of the pan and drain the oil.

Now we can start designing our platter of canapes.

Why not?

I've just got some little toasts here.

We're just going to stack these up with some of the mousse,

and top with chopped pistachios.

You know, a lot of us are on a budget and times are tight.

It's a little treat, and its pretty cheap as well.

So I've got ten

little kind of snacks here out of half of that quantity

of just basically one packet of mortadella.

I'm going to dress our beautiful tomato

with some Worcestershire sauce,

some Tabasco on it as well.

Just a note, the bacon vodka infused tomatoes

are not suitable for children.

But the mortadella mousse is something that the children will

-love.

-Oh, flipping heck, it'll not be long before they are here.

I know. You always want to make it look nice as well.

-I know.

-Oh, man.

What happens if nobody turns up?

Well, then we've got loads to eat.

Yes!

-And then just to finish off...

-Oh!

-..a little sprig of rosemary.

Oh, you poet. And there we have it, our trio...

-of canapes.

-What would you go for first?

As soon as you come in, what would be your first pick?

-Vodka-infused cherry tomatoes.

-Yeah, let's go.

-They are brilliant!

-It's a party!

Oh, they are, aren't they?

-Hey, man!

-It works.

-Right...

-This has got an ooze.

-Oh, man.

-That is brilliant.

You get the most wonderful...

The goat's cheese is oozing,

it's hot, the crunchy crumbs, the salsa...

Finally, but by no means least...

Mortadella mousse garnished with nutmeg and pistachio.

-Epic.

-It is epic.

I tell you what, I'd love to come round to a party at our house.

-I know, it'd be good, wouldn't it?

-It would, wouldn't it?

I never get invited anywhere else.

-Shall we go and circulate?

-Yeah.

Mortadella mousse topped with pistachios,

drunken tomatoes with bacon vodka,

and deep-fried goat's cheese.

Let the party begin!

If you are stuck for Christmas gift ideas,

then why not make your own?

Eshe has a foodie present your friends are going to love.

They do smell good.

Really good.

It's a great present because it looks absolutely gorgeous,

and it is so Christmassy, you know,

orange just smells lovely at Christmas.

Dried oranges are always around my house as a decoration so I just love

using them.

You pop one cup and a half of water, and one cup of sugar,

and then you start to bring it to a gentle boil.

Then you want to just turn them every 15 minutes,

and the idea is that the oranges start to go clear around the edge.

And until that's at that point you're not ready to take them out.

They always look like things that you could tie to a Christmas tree.

They're like little sweets that you can take,

and they will sparkle as well if it is sort of fairy lights and things.

Orange with chocolate is just a winning combination.

I mean, you can do other things as well.

You could do lime, lime and chocolate is really good as well.

It just depends on what flavours you like,

but fruit and chocolate just go so well together.

So this feels so Christmassy right now,

the smell of the orange and the melted chocolate,

it just looks gorgeous.

Everyone is getting them, a big old batch of them,

and then everyone is going to get them for Christmas or in their stocking.

So, they are little bit of a sticky sweet,

so I recommend popping them into a little jar, an airtight jar,

and that means that they will keep them preserved,

you don't have to worry about them going off.

You can keep them in the fridge or you can just keep them in the jar.

They look really nice if you pop them in a jar,

and then tie a bit of ribbon around them and a little bit of fern,

or a fern cone or something like that,

just to make them look really pretty.

And then you can just gift them in a jar like that

and you don't have to worry about them being sticky.

And they taste amazing, they taste a little bit like chocolate orange

cakes. When people give you this,

they think it is something you have bought in a shop because it looks

that pretty, but, yeah, when you tell them you've made it,

they are even more impressed, so it's definitely something to try.

Well, the thing about Christmas and Christmas parties and people coming

round is that you want people, you want fantastic people,

your mates to come round, and we have certainly got that.

We have, because with us today we have the one,

the only Denise Lewis OBE, and gold medal Olympian.

-Welcome. Thank you for having me.

-And a very Merry Christmas to you.

-Merry Christmas.

-Merry Christmas to you, too.

Do you love Christmas?

I do, and I have grown to love it even more so since I have had my

children and my own family.

Of course, of course, because it is the big event, it's the big day,

everybody gets excited.

Yeah, they get excited, it's a chance to spend time together,

real quality time which we are all searching for.

And so, the perfect time is Christmas.

How old are your children?

15, 11 and nine.

So they are actually fully immersive in Christmas now.

-They love it.

-We have got a special dish for you.

We're going to cook an Italian porcetta roast on a bed of potatoes

and onions. It is a wonderful party sharing dish.

Now, what the butcher has done is he has boned this loin out,

but left the pork belly.

What happens is the fat seeps into the loin,

and keeps it beautifully moist.

I have to say, as a child, we didn't eat that much pork,

and I used to just assume it was because it was so dry.

Well, this is an absolute cast-iron guarantee that you're going to get a

moist, tasty, beautifully crispy joint.

I'm going to make a stuffing,

but it is not a stuffing like you would do for turkey or...

It is more a paste, isn't it?

Now, that is a whole head of garlic, some chilli flakes,

and some crushed fennel seeds.

About three tablespoons of rosemary, and the zest of a lemon.

I can smell some of those herbs.

-Yeah.

-Just imagine.

I'm just wasting time here.

Wow.

So, Denise, do you do the cooking at home at Christmas?

Well, it's actually a bit of a family affair.

As it should be. Obviously, I do most of the hard work, of course.

THEY LAUGH

But my kids and my husband get stuck in, you know,

so they will be in charge of the potatoes, the veg,

and I will take care of all the meat and the presentation.

-The table layout...

-Who does the drinks at Christmas?

That's my husband. Yeah, he does the drinks,

and he will certainly hammer through them as well, but it's...!

Well done, Steve, well done.

I'm going to put a bit of olive oil in,

then I'm going to dribble white wine in until we have that said paste.

Can you just use any white wine or does it have to be cooking wine?

No, there is a really famous saying.

Never put anything into a dish that you're not prepared to drink.

-That was Keith Floyd, wasn't it?

-It was.

-Are we there yet?

-Are we there yet?

-Are we there yet!

-A little bit more.

About 50ml of wine will do nicely.

Do you enjoy cooking?

I do. But I've had to get used to larger numbers.

But I think that's where the preparation comes in handy.

In one, absolutely.

Are you good at preparation?

I've got better. I've got better over the years, you know,

certain things that you can do, you can leave things overnight,

and so you can actually interact with people instead of just being

head down in the kitchen all day.

Well, this dish is perfect for a party,

because of course you can make it a couple of days in advance.

You get it rolled, stuffed, you leave it in the fridge for two days,

the flavours are just going to get better and better.

So, Denise, how did you learn how to cook?

By observation, just watched my mum.

She was a really good cook.

She liked to experiment.

And so, it must have filtered into my consciousness,

because I never thought I'd be able to prepare the meals that I do today.

Well, you know, I think that's how we all learn, isn't it?

I mean, certainly, Dave and I, from our parents, and friends.

And the pleasure you get from that.

-Yeah.

-But are you laid back at Christmas

or are you kind of hyper organised?

I tell you what I have done is popped round to the neighbours,

and had very unusual sparkling Shiraz.

Oh, yes.

-It's nice that.

-And lethal.

Yeah, no, it does get you a bit tiddly.

Yes, I had probably two, three glasses of that,

forgot that the turkey was in, half an hour/hour chat turned into four hours,

and it was carnage.

My bird was literally...

When I came to pick it up, the undercarriage fell off.

-Overcooked.

-I've got to say,

when you're undercarriage falls off your bird, it's a tragic tale of woe.

It is. What has Santa left for you?

The undercarriage and no breast!

You could just have told your guests it was Cajun.

-I know!

-You could have!

Right, so I've just put the onions and the potatoes in the tray

ready to receive those beautiful cooking juices.

It's where you go all panto, isn't it?

Do you just slob out in front of the telly like the rest of us on

Christmas Day and Boxing Day?

-Yes.

-Cos I bet you've got lots of tracksuits!

I've got a fair few.

But, yeah, I like to relax.

But I'm always on the go, I'm an industrious worker at Christmas, as well.

Well, yeah, you look like an industrious worker, I have to say.

Of course. Now, here is a top tip.

What we're going to do is we are going to put a little pocket

to receive Dave's fantastic paste.

Shall we stuff some down there?

-Absolutely.

-For starters. But you get almost like,

when you cut it you get this little vein of herbage.

Herbage? I love that.

-Herbage.

-But it is great cold this dish as well.

So lovely.

That is a top tip. Obviously people are used to scoring on the outside,

but also this pocket is handy.

It smells fantastic.

-Doesn't it?

-Yeah.

-Doesn't it smell great?

Now, if you've noticed,

what we haven't done is there is no salt in this paste,

because if you put salt in now it will draw all the moisture out of

the meat, which is fatal.

That is what we don't want.

We are trying to keep the moisture in.

So what are you going to cook for Christmas lunch, Denise?

Well, depending on how this turns out...

-Might have a convert.

-Oh, brilliant!

Might be a convert. I think it's fantastic.

The thing about porcetta is, remember, it's this big.

If you get a pork loin that's that long, it's exactly the same method.

So you could feed 15, 20 people, and what a centrepiece for your party.

So...

Should I hold and you knot?

Absolutely. That would be grand.

Do you still indulge in all the pigs in blankets?

There will be literally a fight going on in the house

if there are no pigs in blankets.

We once wrote a leftover recipe that involved leftover

pigs in blankets, and somebody said, are you mad!

This is not going to happen.

But even with your rarefied athletic system,

do you allow yourself pigs in blankets and bread sauce,

or does it sabotage the entire machine?

What I do is I pick them out, some of them, before I get to the table.

So I have my portion whilst I'm cooking, so no-one notices that I'm eating it,

so I create an illusion of holiness.

Yes, well, ladies and gentlemen,

the doughnut on the way to the car from the supermarket car park,

that does count.

-You devil!

-I know, little devil.

Now, we have got this rolled, we have got the paste in,

we have some water in the bottom of the tray.

-Why the water?

-It stops it burning, then we've got some wine.

You probably want to leave this to dry out and to be in the fridge

for at least 24 hours.

And the reason that we want the skin to dry out is that it forms a better

crackling, and then we will push salt into all of those scores that

your lovely butcher has made.

So it's OK to salt the skin, but not the meat?

-Definitely.

-You must salt the skin.

-Yeah.

-Perfect.

And then just rub it all over with oil.

OK?

And then season with salt again, and have you noticed,

the salt now starts to stick,

and it will form a beautiful salty crust which will help the crackling no end.

It's fantastic, I mean it looks impressive,

but the top tips there that I think people can really apply to their

cooking and just make a big difference.

Now, this needs to go into a low oven, 150 Celsius, for four hours.

Then we take the foil off, and put the oven right up to, say, 200,

220 Celsius, for the last half-hour,

and your joint will be cooked perfectly.

And that skin will be as crispy as a crispy thing.

Oh, aye. Well, the four and a half hours or so give us plenty of time to have a

nice cup of tea and a natter.

-That would be lovely.

-What's not to love?

Right, let's have a cuppa.

I think this is the nicest bit,

when the food starts to cook and you can stop

and have a cuppa and a chat.

Yeah, I mean, it smells incredible, but the chat is nice.

-I'm so happy.

-It is.

What was Christmas like when you were a young girl?

It was a quiet affair, because I grew up with my mum,

and I'm an only child, so it was very intimate, very quiet.

What traditions do you still maintain from, you know,

those Christmases with your mum?

I like to do a stocking for each of my three children, which is nice.

I see them, they look forward to opening that if they haven't already

done so before I wake up.

What did you used to do with your mum?

What was the big thing that you both looked forward to other than

spending time together?

There was always a West Indian Christmas cake.

Right. What was in that?

Oh! Well you could smell it before you taste it, so it's full of the rum,

lots of fruit, mixed fruit, a bit like a Christmas pudding if you like.

-But...

-It's wet and moist and, oh, God, that's great.

-Moist and gorgeous.

-So did the food have like a West Indian flavour?

Was there some spice to it,

rather than the traditional Christmas that we know?

Yes, definitely a little bit more spice, I'd say.

A little bit more kick.

But that fusion of the Caribbean meets traditional British food was

always, you know, present in our household,

so we had the classic roast potatoes,

but the stuffing always had a little bit of a twist to it.

Yeah.

What sort of pressies did you get?

I think one of my best Christmas presents

was a pair of trainers.

Because, even at that age, I aspired to be an Olympian.

There was a particular brand that was synonymous with the Olympics,

and I wanted those trainers.

And so it was a big deal for me to get brand-new spanking, you know,

"named", named trainers!

Yeah, that's important.

Well, that's interesting. Did you always have that aspiration to be an

Olympian, even when you were little?

Yes. I watched the Olympics, and I was moved, I was in awe,

and that was what I set out to do.

For me it was an opportunity to see the world,

and I really have done that.

-Oh, you have.

-And, you know, to represent your country...

Yeah. Amazing.

..on the biggest stage, it really doesn't get better than that.

So as a child, how did you start running?

Was it those shoes that set you off?

It was a bit Forrest Gump, just go, run, keep running.

-Yeah?

-I loved it. At school I used to race in the playground,

and I literally just kept taking it on a notch,

and so the Olympics for me was the catalyst,

that was what unlocked the passion even further,

because then I knew that just being able to run, but run with purpose,

I could go somewhere with it.

Yes.

And my go-faster trainers did help.

Well, Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without a pressie, would it?

-It certainly wouldn't.

-I was wondering.

-So, Dave and I

have got you your said stocking.

-Wow.

-So, Merry Christmas from Dave and I.

-Thank you, guys.

-Just a little something.

That's the absolute... It's got to be.

It's got to be, there has to be a satsuma, tangerine in there.

-Love it.

-Now, you'd think initially we were quite cheap, but we're not.

-Keep going, keep digging.

-Is there more?

-Oh, yes.

Ooh.

-Eager.

-It's just a little thing.

I mean, the anticipation is overwhelming.

This is great!

It's nearly as big

-as the other one.

-It's bigger than my other little gong.

But there's chocolate in it, so you'll be all right, you'll be all right.

That's actually really funny,

because when I started taking my Olympic medal,

my gold medal around to schools just to share my story,

there was one child that asked me, he said, "Has it got chocolate in it?"

-Aw!

-What a sweetie!

So sweet, so, yeah, that's very lovely, thank you.

I could chat on for hours, but we need to get back now and finish dinner.

-OK.

-I'll get my running shoes on now.

Come on.

That's it, Kingy. Foil's off.

-Perfect, well done, mate.

-And that gives us just time to do two cracking

sides. I'm going to do a wonderful Italian dish with chard and Parmesan

cheese. So, my first mission is to finely chop the stalks and shred the leaves.

Well,

I'm going to do a beautiful spiced apple sauce to go with our porcetta.

So, what we're going to do is we're going to add some butter, and I,

while that is melting,

I'm going to speedily peel and chop these lovely Bramley apples.

It is all going to go really well.

Straight into the pan,

and then we're going to add some lemon zest,

and then the juice of a whole lemon.

If you've just had you nails done for Christmas,

this is probably not a good idea, use a squeezer.

As long as you don't wipe your eyes afterwards,

that's what I have done and forgotten about it.

With chilli, yeah. It's with chilli or any sort of...

-Scotch bonnet chilies.

-Oh, dear me!

And then we add some cinnamon, some allspice, some cloves,

and some soft brown sugar and four tablespoons of water.

Well, I need to get my chard on.

So, first off, put the shallot in there, and we start sweating that down.

And alongside that, all the chard stems I've just cut.

Do you want me to give it a quick stir, mate?

Yeah, please. Certainly makes a change from my Brussels sprouts.

-It does, it's great.

-Trying to find the vegetables that the children

will eat, because my littlest one is allergic to most things green.

Do you have any of those sayings in your house?

When my boys were growing up, I used to say,

"Right, you cannot tell me you don't like it unless you've tried it."

-Yeah.

-Do you?

Yeah, I've been known to get them to close their eyes as well.

-Yeah.

-And chew.

So it was kind of like, you know, that sort of experience.

Into this I'm just going to strip some thyme leaves.

You can smell it now, can't you?

Yeah, it's fab.

Now, the zest of a lemon.

I've got to say, mate, it smells fabulous.

Oh, it's a lovely dish.

Now, the leaves go in along with some stock and freshly grated parmesan cheese.

Such a lovely colour, the chard.

My mouth is salivating over here.

Good. It's good food.

So, Denise, are you a good buyer of Christmas presents, do you reckon?

I just think Christmas is a time where you can overspend,

and I have done it on numerous occasions.

And so I have just, over the last few years, been a bit more sensible,

I like to call it.

Not tight, but sensible.

No. You're not tight. So how frugal are you?

Well, I have been known to buy a few presents on the date for the day,

but then go out the next day for Boxing Day sales, or even January sales,

and by the presents at a third of the price.

What's he like?

Shall we check on the hero?

-Is it in?

-Oh, yeah, baby!

Oh, yes!

Look at this beautiful porcetta.

I feel like I want to give it a round of applause,

it looks that fantastic.

That crackling is a sight to behold.

Did your mum use to do this?

SPOON TAPS ON CRACKLING

Listen to it, I mean, it's just...

-It's just beautiful.

-Yes, it's all right, there.

Should I, Mr Myers?

You carve, I will serve up the accoutrements.

It's lovely, you can see the herbs in the middle.

There is a big bit of crackling there.

-Yeah.

-And it has definitely got Denise's name all over it.

That has got my name on it, hasn't it? This is the moment I've been waiting for.

Yes!

-Thank you for coming.

-Thank you for having me, this looks incredible.

You're very, very welcome.

Those herbs.

-Yeah.

-For me it is so succulent.

Oh, brilliant.

-Go on, mate, let's have a go.

-Apple sauce.

Now, that pops.

-Doesn't it?

-That really does pop.

But there is one bit you can't just cut with your fork.

-No.

-No.

-And this is where I regress to my childhood.

-Go on, Denise.

PORK CRACKLES

Oh!

Magic.

Are you happy with that?

-Happy days.

-Happy Christmas.

Well, happy, happy Christmas.

Thank you.

Porcetta pork loin with sauteed chard and parmesan,

perfect for when you have a crowd.

It's always good to take a bottle of something to a party.

Vanessa Dennett has the perfect tipple

to kick off any festive gathering.

I really like giving sloe gin as a gift at Christmas time.

Its colour alone lends itself to the season,

that beautiful, beautiful, deep sort of ruby garnet colour.

It's really easy to make it look beautiful

in an unusually shaped bottle,

and with a little bit of decoration,

and sometimes I even put a little note on suggesting

how people might like to use it,

maybe a cocktail or sloshing it over ice cream.

I have been out to find the sloes, they grow on a blackthorn bush.

Now, there are various folklores

that you shouldn't pick a sloe until after the first frost,

but I think of all the advice I've been given and I've read,

the one that made most sense was to pick them when they're ripe.

The skins split while they're frozen,

so that when you come to actually combine them with the sugar

and the gin, all those lovely juices are going to release.

Here's a good tip - to put the sloes in while they're still frozen,

because once they start defrosting they become a little bit stickier

and more difficult to pour into the neck of a bottle.

If you're making it in the early autumn,

you probably could decant it in time for Christmas,

but in honesty it will be much better next Christmas

or even the Christmas after that.

So patience is rewarded.

There are lots of alternatives to sloe gin,

and actually I've also made some blackberry vodka

using very much the same method.

And with some beautiful decoration, maybe some berries and leaves,

and a little handwritten gift tag, I think it's a lovely Christmas gift.

The only danger, I might add,

is that they come to expect it year after year!

So be prepared to repeat.

Enjoy it as I do, just very simply, out of the glass,

in front of the fire. Happy Christmas.

-Cheers!

-Cheers.

-Cheers, Denise.

-Cheers.

Now, have we got a little Christmas special for you.

We've got smoked salmon terrine,

served with a lovely cucumber and dill sauce.

It's a good old-fashioned gelatine terrine, this.

So we're going to soak the gelatine in some water.

And just start by laying the smoked salmon into a loaf tin.

This is definitely a family favourite, the smoked salmon,

in our house.

Well, it's a lovely, it's just a lovely twist on it, you know?

Don't worry about overdoing this,

because for my mind you can't have enough smoked salmon,

especially at Christmas. So, are you big on decorations, Denise?

I've got better, and I've moved away from the generic ones that my mum

used to do, and the reason I'm smiling is because

she was pretty naff, actually, at decorations.

They were awful.

You know, that pink tinsel that had been used and reused

and was threadbare that she used to try and put up, I was just like,

I can't even bear to look at it!

So you don't like tinsel?

-No.

-I'm not a big tinsel fan either.

I am!

-I like stars.

-I like stars.

My house is like the inside of a magpie's head!

I love a bit of bling.

I think my biggest problem is usually deciding whether

I'm going to keep the same colour scheme year after year.

-I know what you mean.

-So, I've baubled out of control sometimes,

you know, I've got the red ones, I've got the clear ones,

I'm going white this year, I'm going multicoloured...

-I'm overwhelmed.

-Now, here's the big question.

Real tree or artificial?

SHE INHALES

I started off with a real tree, because I thought,

-I've arrived, I can do that.

-Yes.

And then the needles.

They say they don't drop, but they drop.

-They do.

-I know, but you've got to put it in a bucket and water it.

It doesn't drop then.

But then your bucket leaks.

-There you go.

-And then the carpet's gone,

then it's an insurance claim for the New Year. Oh, I can see it now.

Anyway, what's your artificial tree like?

Are you a tasteful decorator?

Do you kind of do a themed tree, or is it just like a free for all,

an explosion of colour and tinsel?

No, again, I like to think about these things, so my artificial tree,

a couple of years old, pre-lit.

-Pre-lit?

-Pre-lit.

Oh, yes, so it's all even.

-You get it out and plug it in.

-Perfect symmetry.

It's lovely. It's good, but having spent, you know,

a good few hours on the tree...

..I'm going to sound like a really terrible mother,

but then the kids come in with their lovely home-made ones from school,

and they want to put them everywhere.

And I think that looks pretty,

but sometimes I just move them around to the side.

But I give them their own little Christmas tree,

they've got their own Christmas tree that they like to decorate and have

their own creative licence.

Oh, well, that's nice.

Now, to start the filling,

what I'm doing to do is I'm just chopping through some prawns,

and we're going to flake some salmon,

and try and keep the flake in as much as you can,

because it's lovely when you get those big unctuous bits of salmon.

The base for this is whipped cream, so I've got some cream,

I'm just going to whip it. And it's like a soft whip for this.

Look at that. I'm going to toss that together.

Lemon zest. Some lemon juice.

Sorry...!

I'm going to put some lemon zest...

..some lemon juice, and some salt and pepper...

..to the prawns and the flaked salmon. Lovely.

But do you have parties? Are you a party-giving household?

Yeah, I think so.

We tend to do a good New Year's party, so I invite my friends over,

my hubby's friends and family, and we have a right old shindig.

We have a good time.

Shall we leave our addresses?

-Yes, you could!

-Is that all right?

As long as you come round and cook first, it's all good.

We could certainly bring a couple of salmon terrines.

That's for sure.

And now, we fold in the cream.

What I've loved so far is that,

you know, all the ingredients you're using, they're easy to find,

you don't have to really source them in the most obscure places.

-It's all easy.

-Absolutely.

It has to be easy at Christmas, you know.

I could just eat that now

and call it a really indulgent prawn cocktail.

You could, couldn't you? Now, the gelatine,

it's all gone slightly apathetic.

Wilted and wobbly.

It's almost like a squid that's lost interest, isn't it?

Stop, please!

So, four leaves of gelatine that we're just going to

dissolve in the cream.

Right, what we need to do,

cos it's still a little hot,

all we need to do is sieve that.

And, Dave, if you could stir that, mate,

I'm great chop through some dill and chives.

And I kind of quite like mine quite herby.

-I'm the same.

-It's nice, when you get the green flecks, it's lovely.

Do you use a lot of herbs in your cooking?

-Lots, actually.

-Yeah? What's your favourite?

I love coriander, I love thyme - those are some of my favourites.

-Thyme seems to be in every Caribbean recipe that we've cooked with.

-Yeah.

And it's funny cos in my head it was such an English ingredient,

but every dish we seem to cook with a Caribbean flavour involves thyme.

I just think it's... I love the fragrance.

I quite like the taste as well,

but I have to say coriander is also one of my favourites.

I love it, too.

-Good job, Kingy.

-There we go, nice and fine.

The dill and chives together -

-paradise.

-It's just lovely, isn't it?

-You fold that.

I don't quite understand flat leaf parsley myself.

It's more supple than the old curly.

But you see, you couldn't make a tabbouleh with curly parsley.

No, you couldn't.

But flat leaf parsley, it definitely tastes of parsley.

But there again, I think sometimes now chefs tend to do recipes

that say, some flat leaf parsley, flat leaf parsley,

and forget our curly friend.

Yeah, well, I like our curly friend.

I do, certainly. On a fishcake, on the top.

-With your hollandaise.

-What's not to love?

-Curly friend.

-Now, shall we do this here so we can see?

-Yeah.

-That's my lined tin.

-Over to you, mucker, over to you.

And we just hoof this in.

This actually would be quite a good dish to do with the kids.

-Yeah.

-Because there's lots of nice assembling bits with it.

And again, the result really is pretty stunning.

When the children especially have had a hand

or a part to play in the cooking,

when they see the end result and the fruits of their labour,

it makes it more appealing, really get stuck in.

Especially when there's a bit of construction involved.

Yeah, I mean, this they would love. They'd really love this.

Now, we just take these tails of salmon, like this, bring it over,

wrap it up. If I've done it right...

Don't worry about it getting thick, cos that's a treat.

It's like the bottom of your walnut whip - the best bit is, you know,

-remember it used to be really thick in the old days?

-Yeah.

-I do.

I want the salmon like this.

I'm going to pop this in the refrigerator,

and I am going to get out one that we've got already chilled.

Oh, yeah. Just tap that.

-Oh, nice.

-It's nice, the mousse.

The mousse is firm, but not too firm, lovely.

Oh, no. No, firm but yielding.

Dill sauce, now.

-You're going to love it.

-I will.

-You're not keen on dill, are you?

It's not my favourite, but, but...

Trust us - have we let you down yet?

No, I've been more than happy so far.

It's just sometimes it was a bit overkill at one stage, dill.

I agree, it was. I mean,

I think dill is one of those herbs that needs to be used appropriately,

because if it isn't, it's pretty strong.

Now, in the dill sauce, we're going to have ribbons of cucumber.

Cut it in half.

Just take all those seeds out.

And what we're left with is the lovely firm cucumber flesh,

which, with the peeler,

I'm going to transform into a bowl full of cucumber ribbons.

You could chop this, but ribbons are better, they're more stylish.

It's a party, after all.

So, to make the sauce for Dave's fantastic ribbons of cucumber,

I'm going to chop through some dill.

Sorry.

But we need the juice of a lime.

We need some cider vinegar, a little bit of salt and yoghurt.

-Can you use creme fraiche at all, or...?

-You can, absolutely.

Or sour cream.

I was going to say, fat-free creme fraiche would be OK,

but considering what's in the terrine,

I think once you've entered that leap of faith

you might as well jump over the cliff!

-That's true.

-But do you know what?

I think our party fare is shaping up pretty well, but, you know,

if you had the ultimate party, who out of everybody, living or dead

-would you love to invite to that party?

-Cor, that's a difficult one.

-You need a good comedian.

-Yes, definitely.

-Don't you?

So, someone to get everyone together, icebreaker...

Maybe Tommy Cooper?

-Yes!

-Nice, nice.

Or even my father-in-law, actually, come on.

I mean, Tom O'Connor.

-Is he your father-in-law?

-Yes, he is.

-Wow!

-We've worked with him.

-He's a lovely man.

-He is lovely.

So who do you get to do the music?

You need a good DJ.

-Pete Tong, maybe.

-Pete Tong, nice.

-Well, hopefully the rest of this doesn't go Pete Tong.

-Pete Tong!

-Class.

-Thanks.

-Simon?

-Yes.

-There are your cucumber ribbons.

I'm just going to put a little bit of that over.

And I'll get the terrine out.

Right, here we go. Izzy, busy, let's get fizzy.

Wow.

Now, a top tip to cutting a terrine, so you get beautiful,

beautiful finish -

use a bread knife, and a wet blade.

Just let the knife do the work.

-Absolutely.

-As my father used to say.

It's the weight of the knife.

You don't need to put any pressure on it at all.

You made that look effortless.

One beautiful piece of terrine.

It looks beautiful.

Here goes...

-All right?

-Is the dill all right?

-Yes!

-It's lovely.

-I'm going to treasure that.

I love this.

-And the dill isn't very strong.

-No.

-Funnily enough.

Is that because of the lime?

Well, it's because... The lime will always take dill down,

-because it's anise.

-I think it's beautiful.

This is really light and fresh.

-Yeah.

-Almost tastes of spring, summer and that, but...

-You're going to get...

-This is superb.

You're going to get a dozen slices out of this,

so it is a way of making a little go an awful long way,

but with a sense of style.

And presentation, I think it would look fantastic on a table, wouldn't it?

Yeah, it would.

Can we dig in?

Please. Sharing is caring, isn't it?

It is, and it's Christmas, and that's what it's all about.

All those flavours, lovely, delicate, fishy flavours, beautiful.

There's a really great balance amongst the flavours,

nothing is actually jumping and screaming out at you,

even though they are quite strong on their own.

You crack on, talk amongst yourselves while I tuck in!

Denise, that's fab. Thanks, Denise.

Prawn and salmon terrine with a dill and cucumber sauce.

Well, it's a party on a plate.

-Cheers.

-Cheers.

-Cheers, Denise.

And a very, very Merry Christmas.

-Thank you.

-And cheers, lots of love to you and your family.

And to you, too. This is wonderful.