Winter Sun 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!

-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!

Even when it's cold outside and there's snow on the ground,

you can still bring a little bit of sunshine into Christmas.

Our recipes'll warm your cockles.

We've got sunny Moroccan spices in a delicious lamb shank tagine.

And Christmas Madeira cake,

served with a ginger, orange and chocolate fondue.

To help us get into the festive spirit,

we'll be joined by Nicki Chapman...

Forks away!

Thumbs up?

Gorgeous, boys. Gorgeous.

Merry, prosperous, lovely Christmas.

Thank you! Well, cheers to you as well.

-Cheers!

-Merry Christmas.

-Merry Christmas!

-Merry Christmas!

But first, a jambalaya that will bring warmth and sunshine

to your leftover Christmas turkey.

Oh, he's not joking - there's more warmth in this,

it would melt your snowman's socks.

-It would!

-But, you know, first we start off with our Cajun spices.

Now, you can go and buy a pot of it from the supermarket,

but it won't be as good as this.

We've got salt, onion powder, garlic powder,

thyme, oregano, basil,

cayenne pepper, cumin and sweet paprika.

Now, while Dave's mixing the spice,

I'm just going to add about a dessert spoon of oil

to our leftover turkey,

-and then...

-Smell that.

Oh, wow. That takes you back to Louisiana!

It does, doesn't it?

The reason that we've put the oil on the turkey is very simple.

It's to make this wonderful Cajun spice stick.

The other thing that we're going to do while we're here is take some

more Cajun spice and just toss the prawns in it,

because a jambalaya wouldn't be jambalaya without prawns.

And it wouldn't be a jambalaya without a tasty sausage.

We're using chorizo sausages.

You could use fancy ones, or a bit of boudin,

but you could also use

the chipolatas that are left over from your turkey dinner -

but to be fair, there are never any leftover chipolatas in our house.

No, no, same. Leftover sausages?

It's wrong!

If you were a nut, what would you be?

-Walnut.

-Walnut?

Yeah. It's, like, slightly old and knobbly.

-Oh, aye.

-What would you be?

-Oh, a brazil.

-Why?

Tough and moreish.

THEY LAUGH

Oh, cashew!

I think one of the best things about turkey is the leftovers, you know?

Oh, absolutely, I love it.

You know, because it's minimal effort for maximum satisfaction.

Already, as it gets warm, the fat -

that lovely red smoky fat's coming out into the pan -

that'll end up in the rice, the chicken and the prawns,

and all the veggies.

And it's such a great flavour.

Oh, aye. And we'll just set that aside.

Oh, it smells great, doesn't it?

Fry the celery, onion and green pepper

in the oil from the cooked chorizo.

It's like, you know,

when you start making your sofrito for your risotto,

it's almost nice to change the aroma of your house, isn't it?

-It's great.

-You know, you've had your cinnamon,

your scented candle's going, then all of a sudden - boom!

I love a scented candle at Christmas, do you?

Yeah, I'm quite partial, yes.

Good, because that's what I bought you last year.

Thanks. I haven't got it yet, though.

The best present you ever bought me was that bottle of cognac.

Oh, 80 years old, wasn't it?

Oh, yes. It didn't last 80 more years, I tell you.

-Oh, no.

-It was fabulous.

Fabulous.

Garlic goes in now.

I remember on Christmas Eve as a boy, and I'd got -

it was a typically kind of children's fairy tale silver bicycle

with stabilisers,

and it was only about three days till I got my stabilisers taken off,

and I was up and down the back street like a good 'un.

It was red, shiny, chrome mudguards - perfect.

You never forget your first pedally bike, do you?

-No.

-Mine was a chopper.

It was a yellow one. I could not believe it.

We had great hills where I lived,

and you just used to fly down them at high speed.

Oh, it was brilliant.

Right, mate, I think we're there.

Right, and now some tomatoes.

And now we'll return that wonderful...

Go on, have a bit. I know you're dying.

We'll return that wonderful chorizo to the pan.

Oh, great, that. That's so good!

Sprinkle the rice over the top...

Look at the colours in that.

Says sunshine, doesn't it?

-Oh, aye.

-It says, "Wake me up before you go-go."

-Look at that.

-Oh, aye.

Then we put the stock in.

It was about a litre of turkey stock.

Yes, you've guessed it.

Do not waste anything from that humble bird!

Now, that needs to cook for about 15 minutes,

until the rice is just cooked through -

which gives us time to make our sweet potato fritters.

-Oh, yeah.

-Uh-uh!

-Mm-hm.

-Mm-hm.

-Right.

Now, the main ingredient for sweet potato fritters is...

sweet potato!

Peel and grate the sweet potato.

Sweat down chopped onions and garlic.

Do you know somebody has actually worked out

the speed of Santa's sleigh,

that it would have to go at to go round every house on the planet?

How much... What is it?

It's something like 2 million miles an hour.

Wow.

But that's not accounting for the magic of Christmas.

No.

Whoosh!

So we'll just leave that to cool.

Meanwhile, I'll get on with me batter.

Into the bowl, I want some flour, some baking powder, one egg -

will be un-oeuf!

A teaspoon of our Cajun seasoning, the zest of a lemon,

and now some cream.

It's no semi-skimmed milk in this, it's cream.

I remember one year we had indoor firework Christmas crackers.

Like miniature fireworks of volcanoes.

You put these fireworks on a dinner plate, light them.

They just go...

But it's like, eeeeh!

I'd had me turkey, now I had me own firework display!

It was tiny, but it was mine!

I bet the local Fire Service loved your house!

The worst thing was when your batteries went down in your toys.

My father said to me, "If you put the batteries warm,

"then you'll get a bit more power out of them."

So I put the batteries in the oven, with the turkey.

You've heard of battery chicken - well, they blew up.

Never put a battery in the oven.

Now, into the batter we put the onions.

Along with the onions, add the grated sweet potato,

chopped parsley and a pinch of salt.

Now I'm going to pop this in the fridge, just to chill down a bit.

Like all good batters, it needs to rest.

-Now, at this point, we're going to stir the turkey in...

-Lovely.

..and then put the prawns in.

Now for my fritters,

I just take a spoonful of mix, and fry it.

I don't want them to cook too fast,

because they need to cook through the potatoes,

because it's raw sweet potato.

Let's see how we're doing here.

Oh, he's beautiful - look at that.

-Nice.

-What's your favourite pantomime?

Oh, Captain Hook. It's great.

I think mine was Jack And The Beanstalk.

Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman!

Be he alive or be he dead, I'll grind his bones to make my bread!

Oh, he'd be brilliant in pantomime, don't you think?

-No, I don't want to.

-Rub his belly and get three wishes.

Oh, now that - I'll do that! HE CHUCKLES

God knows what your wishes would be. Never mind.

-Should we?

-Yeah, let's have a look.

Oh, look at that! That's fabulous!

It is beautiful, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-It's moist, it's juicy.

Now, what I'm going to do is finish that with the celery tops,

the parsley and lemon zest.

-Parsley first.

-Oh, give us a bit of green.

Celery tops.

Lemon zest.

And then...

-Oh!

-We just push that through.

There we go. Sweet potato fritters.

Yes! Beautiful.

And you can't have that without some hot sauce!

Oh, man.

Make sure you get plenty of prawns, plenty of turkey.

Don't you worry!

Plenty of sausage in there as well.

All the flavours, beautiful.

I think for three.

-Yeah!

-One for me, one for you, and one for Rudolph.

-Let's have a taste.

-Oh, hot.

-Those fritters are epic.

-They are, aren't they?

What's the turkey like?

-Lovely, Dave.

-And, you know,

there's something that's nice to eat about this -

it's a simple dish to eat, isn't it?

Mm-hmm.

This meal is absolutely perfect a couple of days after Christmas.

This would wake up the most jaded palate.

And enough to bring sunshine into anybody's dining room.

It certainly is.

Oh, will we have seconds?

Yeah.

Jambalaya!

Christmas turkey leftovers turned into the perfect winter warmer.

Christmas isn't just about cooking fabulous food.

We all love a good pressie too, and even better if you can eat it.

Home-cook Christian Bigland

has mustered up some winter sunshine in a jar.

If there's one thing for me that smacks of Christmas,

one thing that looks like Christmas in a jar,

that's crab apple jelly.

When I give crab apple jelly as a Christmas gift,

it's hopefully going to be cracked open on Christmas Day,

especially if we're having a lovely roast meat.

Crab apples are abundant.

If your neighbour hasn't got a tree, and there isn't one down the lane,

you'll know someone who's got access to crab apples.

I think I've got a kilo and a half

to two kilos to use.

Quite a nice little bounty.

They're looking beautiful in this pan.

Once they split in half, it's time to strain them.

They look really good.

Really good. Smell delicious.

I love this part because it...

it says to me something is happening.

You can make it quickly by squeezing it,

but it will make it slightly cloudy,

so if you want the nice, clear stuff, overnight.

Hang it overnight.

So wake up in the morning, down to the kitchen,

and there's your bowl of crab apple juice.

Crab apples do require a higher amount of sugar,

because they're so tart.

I've used golden caster sugar.

We have struck crab apple gold.

And I'm going to add a nice sprig of rosemary to make it even more

relevant to Christmas as a gift, and as a flavour.

One of my favourites, crab apple jelly,

taking those small little red jewels

and turning them into that beautiful, beautiful jelly

is a wonder.

You know today's all about

bringing a bit of sunshine into our Christmas food.

Well, somebody who brings sunshine

into all our lives on a regular basis - Nicki Chapman!

-Merry Christmas, Nicki!

-Merry Christmas, guys!

-Merry Christmas.

Thank you for sharing a bit of Christmas with us.

-It's lovely.

-And you've got your red dress on, you're looking fab.

-Festive.

-You are.

-Definitely.

-And a belt that can loosen,

because I know I'm in for great things today!

-Well, we've got some good treats here today.

-Good.

We have, we have.

But strange to find you in the country at Christmas.

Yes, often I'm abroad.

And I choose sometimes to be abroad as well,

with work and things like that,

but I don't think you can beat being at home.

But when you are away, it gives it a different feel.

It's nice to try different things, isn't it?

-Well, you know what we're going to do for you...

-Go on.

We're going to do some lamb shanks with some figs,

and it's full of spice and flavour.

Sunshine on your plate on a grey day.

You see, we thought lamb shanks, it's so typically British, isn't it?

-Good old lamb shank.

-Lamb shanks.

But we're making it as a tagine, full of Moroccan flavours

-to bring the sunshine of North Africa into that.

-That's it.

This is for the Thursday after the day before that was Monday

-that was Christmas Day.

-This is true!

Now then, what we're going to do first of all,

we need to colour these...

Look at those, beautiful, beautiful.

We need to colour these lamb shanks.

Get as much colour on them as you can.

What I love about lamb shank is,

it's a little bit having your own personal joint on a plate.

Yes, it's nice, that.

But the meat needs to be completely dropping off the bones.

And that's the aim.

Nicki, what is it that you love about Christmas?

The best part of the day, when it comes to the food -

is from breakfast onwards, literally.

I love eating.

I absolutely love eating.

I'm mesmerised watching you two, because I'm not a great chef.

I'm a good sous-chef although I can't cut onions like that.

-Smells good already.

-Yeah.

How adventurous do you think we are at Christmas with our food?

I'm not sure, actually.

Well, you're changing that, are you changing that?

No, I don't think...

I think the traditions of Christmas need to be upheld,

because it's the one time in the year that everybody gets together

and those traditional family values and those traditional family nuances

are all in one day at one place, and everybody celebrates them,

and I think that's dead important.

I think we take some of those traditions for granted.

I mean, things like cranberry sauce, with the fruit with the meat again,

it's quite adventurous.

Bread sauce as well.

Almost now, the inevitable turkey curry with the leftovers,

that's almost a bit of a tradition.

-It is.

-I think we're better than we think, really.

So, look, it's going to take about five,

a good five minutes to get some colour on these shanks,

so just be patient, because you want a deep colour on them, OK.

Look, nice bit of colour.

So, Nicki, what is the traditional breakfast at Christmas in your household?

-What do you do?

-Bucks fizz.

Oh, perfect.

Yes. Scrambled eggs.

-Any smoked salmon?

-Smoked, always smoked salmon.

Plenty of toast.

If anyone wants a little bit of a fry up, they're allowed it.

I would say no, because that's a lot of washing up,

but my husband allows it.

-Sounds like our houses, doesn't it?

-It does. Very much.

Very similar. Now, I don't know if I should be sharing this, but,

are we still in our pyjamas for breakfast,

or have we got all togged up and dressed up?

-Jammies.

-Jammies.

Do you dress up for Christmas, you two?

-Oh, Christmas dinner, yes.

-You've got to.

-Yes.

I did one year where we all got in tuxes, and I had to sit,

it was flipping murder.

-So I think there's a limit, isn't there?

-Yeah.

-I'll never do it again!

-I've got some spices here,

and five of these start with C as well, a bit like Christmas.

I've got cumin, cardamom, cinnamon,

coriander and cayenne pepper

with a bit of ground ginger thrown in for good measure.

These are like your classic Moroccan/Middle Eastern spices.

The dried spices.

Dried spices you cook into the dish

to bring out as much flavour as possible.

-Just bung them in.

-Now, Nicki,

you're going to start to be able to smell it any minute.

-Am I going to be feeling I'm in Marrakech?

-You are.

Funnily enough, these are the spices of Christmas, aren't they?

-The ginger, the cinnamon.

-Warm.

Yes, we would put these in an apple pie, you know?

-Yes.

-So, we're going to put the shanks back in,

all coloured up and lovely.

And what we do is, we just keep recycling flavours,

because everything goes into the one pot.

I'm also loving the fact that you do everything in one pot,

because remember, I'm the washer-upper.

I bet you've got a machine in your house.

You so have! It's called Nicki!

THEY LAUGH

Now, if you have a fancy tagine pot, use it, it's great.

But really, a tagine is just a stew.

So the pot doesn't matter.

We're calling it tagine because of what's in it,

all those wonderful spices and saffron.

Look. Stock.

Beautiful.

I love saffron.

Now, that's the colour of Christmas, isn't it?

Look at that. Have a smell, Nicki.

It's very subtle. I can't get much out of that.

-Oh, you will.

-You're having a laugh, aren't you?

What should it smell like?

-Saffron?

-Yeah, hold on, I'll give it a stir.

That's better. Smells quite nice.

It has its place and this is absolutely in its place,

in our lovely ethereal lamb shank brothy loveliness.

-It's warm, isn't it, Dave?

-Yeah.

-And there's a depth to it.

The colour of the sauce is going to be a beautiful rich sunshine colour.

Put this into a preheated oven, about 180 Celsius for two hours.

And then we come back to it.

I tell you what, it's a heavy pot, that, dude!

I've just put me back out!

Do you know what I think?

-Go on.

-In this two hours...

let's have a cup of tea and a chat.

-That sounds good.

-Should we?

-Yeah, come on.

Nicki, welcome.

-Thank you.

-It's lovely to see you.

-Merry Christmas.

-Merry Christmas. Look at us with our tea.

-Let's cheers.

-Cheers.

-There's a time at Christmas for tea.

Nicki, tell us a little bit about Christmas when you were growing up.

What were your favourite things?

-Presents.

-THEY LAUGH

I should say being with the family, getting together.

-No, it's not, though. It is presents.

-It was presents.

-Great.

-My family used to come down

from, originally from London, before I was born

and they got into the tradition of opening the presents

after you've had your dinner, your Christmas dinner.

-You can't have Christmas lunch, can you? It's always dinner.

-Dinner.

Christmas dinner. But to keep the children happy, the children were

allowed to have their main present with their stocking

first thing in the morning.

So, when I was born, that tradition carried on. So I'd wake up,

-I'd have a stocking at the end of the bed...

-Yes, same.

..and I'd have my main present there.

And I'll let you into a little secret.

I still have a stocking to this day.

Wherever I am, and sometimes I'm abroad,

my mother will do me this incredible stocking.

Do you carry it with you?

-My husband has to put it in his case.

-Right.

He moans the whole time because he says,

"How much cotton wool and make-up remover can one have?"

And then I open it up.

Well, to keep with your family tradition,

-we've got you a little stocking.

-How lovely.

Oh, how kind.

-You're very, very welcome. Happy Christmas.

-Happy Christmas.

Am I allowed to open it now?

-Yes.

-Am I?

-Yeah, because we want to see your face.

That's what all adults say at Christmas to their kids, isn't it?

"I can't wait to see his face when he opens it."

OK, which one wrapped it?

-Dave.

-I'm not very good at wrapping.

Not bad. Oh...

Oh, what's this?

Now, taste them.

-We heard...

-Can I?

-Yeah.

..that you have a penchant for the wonderful taste combination

that is chocolate and orange.

Every year in my stocking, it is the tradition that I would have

a chocolate and orange combination, shall we say,

right at the bottom of the stocking, so it always reminds me.

And although I love it, if I eat chocolate and orange together,

it reminds me of Christmas and my stocking.

Whatever season, whatever month.

I think that feeling in your heart is the magic of Christmas.

I think we need to find out what the magic is in the oven, Si.

Yeah, it's starting to sniff.

Everything smells good in here.

It's hot and heavy, a bit like yourself.

HE GROANS

-Are you ready?

-Yeah, go on.

# Hark the Herald Angels sing

# Look at our shanks, the lovely things! #

Oh, I think that's there.

Right, Dave, would you mind chopping me a preserved lemon?

This really is sunshine in a lemon.

It's lemons preserved in salt

and Christmas isn't Christmas without a dried fig.

So we've got about 12.

Why 12 figs? The 12 days of Christmas?

Yes, exactly that.

We thought of that, didn't we?

-Yeah, definitely...

-Not.

-Well done, mate.

Write that down, guys, write that down.

So the figs just go in whole.

-And give it a stir.

-Your very thoughts, Mr King.

Be quite careful at this point

because the meat will start to move away from the bone

and what we want to do is try and keep the integrity of those shanks

so we can serve them in a beautifully provocative way.

Right, we pop this back into the oven for half an hour.

What is the worst present you've ever had, Nicki?

The worst present would be from my sister.

HE GASPS

And she is a brilliant present-buyer

but we're talking many years ago and I was really naughty.

I did what you're not allowed to do.

I went under the tree and I opened the present

-about a week before Christmas.

-You rebel.

-I know.

-That spoils it.

And it was probably like the late '70s, some woven bag.

And I looked at it, I was so excited cos she kept saying,

"I've got the best present, I've got the best present."

And then I had to reseal it and put it under the tree and over the next

seven days I had to keep a straight face until Christmas Day

and open the present that I knew I didn't like.

It served me right, really, didn't it?

-It did serve you right.

-To go with the tagine,

we're going to do a couscous.

Sometimes in winter you feel you need your greens,

you need some vegetables, you need a few vitamins,

something from the sun,

so we are going to make a rainbow couscous.

THEY CHEER

Back to the '60s!

THEY HUM A TUNE

You know that trend for doing, like, cauliflower rice,

we're ricing - as it were -

cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, peppers, cabbage and sweetcorn

and finishing it with a warm dressing.

This is like 15-a-day.

Blend the vegetables individually and make sure not to over-process.

You're looking for the consistency of breadcrumbs, not mushy peas.

Add them all to a large pan

with 100ml of steaming water

and stir.

It takes about five minutes to steam and then it's ready.

So, Nicki, is Christmas just Christmas Eve,

Christmas Day and Boxing Day or does it go on a bit?

We have quite a few Christmases in our house.

My parents have remarried and my husband's parents have as well,

so we get to do it four times.

That's four Christmas dinners, Nicki.

-Tell me.

-How do you look like that?

-That's lots of washing up for me.

-That's not fair!

What is your worst pressie?

What have I given to someone?

I have given somebody something - I haven't had it back from them

but I know they've re-gifted it to somebody else.

Have you ever done that?

I do know people who when they're given perfume as a present,

they will have a squirt,

decide they don't like it and just give it to somebody else.

-That is naughty.

-It is. Yes.

-Ingenious but naughty.

-I know.

So, we're going to take the juice of a whole orange,

about a tablespoon of olive oil,

some cardamom,

the zest of half a lemon.

If you like a lot of zest and you like a lot of lemon,

put a bit more in.

So, Nicki, for you, in your time, your music career was huge

and some of the acts that you used to manage and work with -

from David Bowie to the Spice Girls -

it's incredible.

The only one that ever demanded certain foods was Prince.

We used to have to get trestle tables full of food for him.

He had his own private chef and I don't think he ate anything,

but he wanted to make sure that if he was hungry,

he had the right food close to him.

Wow.

Another great tip with this is

if you leave this to go cold,

leave the dressing to go cold and treat it as a salad,

it is the most wonderful, colourful, tasty side salad.

It smells fresh. Should I get the beef out of the oven?

You should.

Here we go. Da-daddle-a-da-da-da!

Look at that. Look at the figs, they're plumper than Santa's cheeks.

Now, to finish...

..we're going to add some honey.

What do you think of the smell, Nicki?

Gorgeous. And I love honey.

But we're going to counter it with some lemon zest

and the juice of half a lemon.

And to finally finish,

we've got some mint and we've got some parsley.

There we go.

It is fresher than a newborn reindeer.

Indeed.

THEY LAUGH

-Oh, it's so good.

-Is it all about balance?

-It is.

-Yes,

this supermodel on her high heels will not fall off the catwalk.

Right, stand this one up.

Oh, yes, it's going well.

It looks magnificent.

It's worth making the effort

just to do a little bit of presentation, isn't it?

-Over to you, chief.

-Thank you.

-But also at Christmas

it isn't just about the main meal on the day, is it?

If you've got family or friends staying with you,

this could be Christmas Eve, it could be Boxing Day.

-Absolutely, Nicki.

-I think this is December 28th.

-Do you?

-Yes. The 28th, 29th and 30th,

the no-man's-land between Christmas and New Year.

So you start eating it on the 28th and you finish on the 30th?

-Is that what you're saying?

-Now, there's your harissa, Nicki.

So, as much or as little as you like.

Have I tried harissa before?

-It's chilli paste.

-Oh.

-It's wonderful.

-Is it?

I don't think I'm going to be getting up from the table, am I?

-We've got pudding.

-Have we?

Can't have Christmas without pudding, Nicki.

-What a feast.

-Have a taste.

-Can I?

-BOTH:

-Yes.

I'm not going to be polite, I'm just going to go straight for it

-because I like my food.

-Please don't.

-You can join me.

-Oh, thank you.

-Can we?

-THEY LAUGH

-That didn't take long, did it?

-No.

Oh.

What do we think?

Mmm. That meat is divine.

I'm going to have some of this on its own so I can really concentrate

-on it.

-It has got a little bite in it as well, it hasn't gone to mush.

I like the texture.

Is that important, then, that you have a slight crunch?

I think so. Yeah.

There's a point when you want some nice, crisp veg.

Thumbs up?

Mmmm.

Gorgeous, boys. Gorgeous.

-We need to think about pud now.

-Yes.

You think about it. I'm going to keep going if you don't mind.

Perfect, let's get on with pud.

Lamb shank tagine brings you warmth and sunshine

even if it's cold outside.

Christmas is a time for giving

and what's better than cooking up something as a delicious gift?

Home-cook Vanessa Dennett has bottled up some summer sunshine

for her Christmas presents.

I'm going to make some lemon curd.

I think it's a really nice gift to make.

It's a little bit of beautiful, bright,

citrusy lemony colour in the middle of winter,

so you might think of it as a summery gift, but actually, I think

it's nice to bring a little bit of sunshine into the winter months.

It's quite simple, it's quite quick, it only has four ingredients.

Here the mixture looks really a bit ghastly because it curdles.

The important thing is to not panic,

but keep heart that it is going to work.

Traditionally, lemon curds are made directly in the pan,

but I have found that this way

avoids the whites of the egg cooking faster

than the rest of the ingredients.

You can sometimes end up with

little flecks of egg white in a lemon curd,

so mixing together the ingredients before you put them into the pan

does avoid that problem.

The good rule of thumb is that if you can lift your spoon up

and run your finger across the back of it and leave the line,

then you will know that the curd is, you know,

thickening to about the right degree.

You end up with a lovely, creamy, brightly-coloured lemon curd.

I'm going to make some baby scones

to give as a gift with the lemon curd.

A recipe based on how my grandmother and mother made scones.

With scone mix, it's really important not to over-handle it,

so kneading gently.

The important thing is not to twist or drag the scone mix,

but just to press it in and pull it up.

It should ensure a nice, straight scone.

There are, apparently, lots of people who don't like mince pies in the world,

so it's a really nice gift to take somebody at Christmas time

who you might otherwise take mince pies to.

I used just some beautiful, brightly-coloured fabric

to make a lid for the jar and then I also made

just a tiny little handmade or hand-painted tag.

You can make it up to a couple of weeks in advance,

or it will keep for a couple of weeks after you've given it,

so it has a bit of longevity too.

-Miss Chapman.

-Thank you.

Merry Christmas.

-Merry Christmas.

-Merry Christmas.

-Sounds so good, doesn't it?

-As it pours.

-Yes.

-It's not bad.

-We're very, very lucky people.

We are. I'm very lucky.

Being spoiled.

Merry Christmas, Nicki.

-Thank you.

-Merry Christmas.

-Merry Christmas.

-Cheers.

-Cheers.

-Health and happiness.

-Yes. Hear, hear.

Well, we promised you a dessert and we've got a belter.

We're going to do a classic Madeira cake.

That's old school.

Well, it's old school any day of the week, isn't it?

-It's great.

-But Madeira cake's perfect for this.

We're going to do a chocolate fondue,

but the fondue, again, is full of sunshine and spices and chilli.

It's really grown-up.

And guess what - the Madeira cake is for dunking into your fondue.

We've cheated a bit for Nicki.

We're going to put some clementine juice and zest within the cake,

so a little bit of orange in that too.

-I like that.

-With the chocolate.

-See? See? We thought about you.

Yeah, I'm liking this. That little special touch.

Sieve 300g of plain flour and two teaspoons of baking powder.

Cream together 250g of butter and 200g of caster sugar.

Nicki, what are you going to be doing this Christmas?

I'm back on Radio 2, actually,

sitting in, doing the Early Breakfast Show.

-Fantastic.

-Yeah. I've done it before and I've really enjoyed it.

-Yeah.

-Because it's not the usual.

You get different people listening,

you get different people texting in, e-mailing in,

and it's just that great feeling.

You know if they're listening to the radio, they want to be encouraged,

they want to have a great time. It is all about Christmas.

That's it. That's Christmas.

It is. Loads of people have to work at Christmas, don't they?

-They do.

-And we're very grateful, you know. So, it's lovely.

Often, they're the ones that I'll be reading out dedications to

-and things like that as well.

-Oh, lovely.

I think, as well, it's important to remember,

not everybody's got a family at Christmas.

You know, lots of people are on their own

and I think something like that, on the radio, it's very comforting

and it's very important and radio's so direct

-because you're talking to that one person.

-Yeah.

Right, so, what we need to do now is to break the eggs in one by one.

We follow that with a spoonful of the flour and baking powder mixture.

That way we ensure that the whole mix does not split.

-Standing by, skipper.

-Right.

It's time for the zest from the clementine.

I mean, any orange will do. Satsuma or mandarin.

Yeah, it's just those flavours, those orangey flavours at Christmas.

Christmas, you've got to have satsumas, haven't you?

-It would be wrong not to.

-Yeah.

-A box.

-A box of them.

-And Turkish delight, that nobody eats, in a box.

My mother used to do that.

Do you remember, it was there till February, wasn't it?

-That's so true.

-It was in our house, anyway.

You know, Nicki, when you get those big tins of sweets...

-Yes.

-With all the colours? Which is your favourite?

-Purple.

-I didn't even have to think about that.

-I'm purple too.

-No.

-Are you purple?

-Red one.

-Red one?

-Red?

-Yeah. Well, it's the strawberry one, isn't it?

You would love my house cos they're always at the bottom at the end.

-Are they?

-Yeah.

-Oh, no.

-They're horrible.

I'm going to take that as an invitation.

And those yellow ones that are just hard toffee.

That's a new chat-up line for you, isn't it?

-Thanks for that.

-They have got smaller, though, haven't they,

over the years? Less in the box.

-Everything does.

-I think they have!

-Yeah, you're right.

-Yeah.

There's less of them. Or I'm eating more.

Which one is it?

Be careful.

At this point, you can add the juice of the two clementines.

Now, Madeira cakes are always loaf-shaped

and a top tip for getting your cake out of the tin is this.

You see, we've lined it

slightly larger than the tin that we're baking it in

because we can then just lift it out as so.

It looks so professional.

-It does.

-It does.

Because it's a Madeira cake,

it's traditional to sprinkle a little bit of caster sugar on it.

Like so.

And we put that into a preheated oven

at 170 Celsius for 55-60 minutes

until risen and golden brown and it looks like this.

You always get that lovely split down the top with Madeira cake.

-You want that.

-You do.

You two have been cooking and baking together for so long,

is it weird being in your own kitchen

without the other half being there?

-It's a bit odd.

-Yeah. It is weird.

Yeah. Once, the worst thing was, and funnily enough,

it was around Christmas time,

and we'd been doing a lot of shows where we were cooking like this

and my wife found me stark naked with the wardrobe doors open.

I was cooking in the wardrobe.

-I was going...

-In your sleep?

-Yes.

"So, Si, I'll chop the onion while you do this."

And she woke me up, she said, "You know,

"you were cooking in the wardrobe last night?"

My first question was, "What was I cooking?"

She said, "That really wasn't worrying me,

"it was the fact you were..."

This is true. Lil and I still laugh about it.

-Yes.

-It's ridiculous.

-Time for a holiday.

-It is indeed.

So, on with the fondue.

Shall we call it the fun-do?

Oh, yes.

Did you see what he did there?

We start with whipping cream.

And then some milk.

Now, this is what makes our fondue special.

We put in a vanilla pod.

A piece of orange zest.

A chipotle chilli. A cinnamon stick.

Three cloves.

Some mace, which is the surround of the nutmeg.

Some black pepper and allspice berries and some dried ginger.

This is a grown-up, spicy fondue.

Nicki, what's your most exuberant Christmas?

What's the most exotic Christmas you've had?

I think it would probably be in Dubai.

-Really?

-Really hot, as you can imagine.

A huge spread.

There was fish, loads of vegetables, there was meat.

It was gorgeous.

Which has been your most frugal Christmas,

the one where Ebenezer Scrooge would have been proud of you?

Well, I think if I cooked, that would be the worst one.

But also, again, we were talking about travelling and going overseas

-and not everybody celebrates Christmas.

-Yeah.

So, we've been in Africa where we made up our little Christmas meal

but it wasn't a traditional meal at all.

Divine but very, very different from my usual Christmases, yeah.

But a great experience once again.

Lovely. So, we're trying to infuse the milk with all those lovely

flavours, so what you want to do is

you want to bring that up to the boil

and then leave it to cool, back to room temperature,

so all of those flavours and all of those oils from the spices

start to infuse the milk.

When you mix that with the chocolate, it's Christmas in a bowl.

It absolutely is.

So, we'll make that disappear and leave that,

save that for another fondue.

Look at that. Spicy milk!

-It's quite a grown-up dessert, this, isn't it?

-It is.

There's an elegance to it, I think.

Elegance? People don't generally call our food elegant.

-She's lovely.

-I know.

I love you. You're great.

Nicki, are you sweet or savoury?

-Sweet.

-Sweet?

-She so is.

-Yes.

-She so is.

-So you're more pudding than a bag of crisps?

Yeah... Oh...

Oh! Now you're talking!

So, what do you have for pudding on Christmas Day?

What do we have? We have the traditional...

I don't like Christmas pudding as such, with the brandy,

-where you light it.

-OK.

-It is brandy, isn't it, that you use?

-Yeah, yeah.

-But I love mince pies, any trifles.

-We might have a trifle.

-Nice.

So we'll have two or three different puds.

-Oh, wow.

-Oh, yeah.

I tell you what, your fella's flipping busy on Christmas Day.

I wonder how many people are like you.

I'll have Christmas pudding but I don't like it.

-I don't like it.

-I'll have a little bit as a token gesture.

Yes, I'm with you, I'll just have that little bit.

All those years, my mam used to give you a Christmas pudding and you

-didn't like it.

-Oh, I ate your mother's Christmas pudding.

-Yeah, you did, actually.

-Oh, I did.

Three and a bit bars of chocolate go into the fondue.

So, we're going to whisk it as soon as that chocolate starts to melt

because the last thing that we want to do is catch the chocolate because

it'll go very bitter if it's caught on the bottom of the pan.

Have you ever had any Christmas disasters?

Oh, yeah. One Christmas,

my oven just died.

And it was when I used to work as a make-up artist.

I had a prosthetics oven, industrial oven, in the garage

that I used for curing foam rubber.

And I had to cook my turkey

in the industrial oven that I used for the foam rubber.

The only problem is, though,

it had an extraction system that sucked all the turkey fat out

and I wrecked my industrial oven.

So it was the most expensive dinner I ever had.

Oh.

The turkey tasted absolutely rubbery.

-Hey!

-Boom, boom.

Have you had any disasters at Christmas?

Once we went to the pub, a few years ago.

A friend of ours owns a pub right on the river.

We were there a little bit too long

and we'd left the turkey in the oven and forgot.

We were enjoying our festive cheer, shall we say.

-Yes.

-But I think the worst was I had a dog...

We had an old English sheepdog and my parents left the turkey

in a cool room in the house, sort of like an extension.

-Oh, no!

-She found it and they didn't realise until Christmas Day,

first thing in the morning, she'd eaten the turkey or had a go at it.

So they had to ring the local butcher, our lovely butcher, Brian,

that we always went to, and he opened up on Christmas Day

and got us another turkey out of the store room.

-Oh, what a lovely man.

-Isn't that brilliant? Yeah.

To finish this off, we've got something a little extra.

Another taste of Christmas.

-A drop of rum.

-Oh, Mr Myers.

We need to warm this because if we put it into the chocolate cold,

it will split and it won't work.

Oh, yes.

I shall get out the fondue set.

Everybody's got one they got as a wedding present, haven't they?

-Haven't we, love?

-Yes, we have. We have.

We've got one. I mean, not together, obviously.

You know, separately.

Nicki, you're in for a treat.

-Am I?

-Watch this pour.

It's just like an advert.

-So, that's mine.

-Yes.

Very indulgent.

-It's Christmas, Nicki.

-Yeah, we are allowed, aren't we?

We've got the Madeira cake

which is perfect to put on the end of your forks,

but the Christmas pudding that you haven't eaten,

dip it in chocolate, some fresh mango, some more clementines...

You know, just whatever takes your fancy.

-Shall we?

-Go on. Forks away.

-That's a great thing, isn't it?

-That's definitely Christmassy.

-I'm going to lick that.

-Have you got the orange coming through?

I certainly have.

The spices. It's got that warmth to it.

Oh, yeah.

You absolutely have to do this at home.

-You do.

-It's obligatory.

Oh, yeah. It may be a winter's day outside...

But this is going to keep everybody around your table.

Madeira cake with chocolate fondue.

Christmas with added sunshine.

Well, Nicki, all that remains to do

is to wish you a very happy, merry, prosperous, lovely Christmas.

-Thank you so much.

-And hope you have a good day at work.

Thank you. Well, cheers to you as well.

-Cheers.

-Cheers.

-Merry Christmas.

-Merry Christmas.

-And thank you.

Oh, try it with mango.

Try it with the Christmas pudding.

Oh, man!

-It's even on your beard.

-Is it?

THEY LAUGH

That's his Father Christmas impression.

Father Dribble.