Couch Potatoes 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, while Christmas Day's about

putting on that festive spread for family and friends,

the days after should be all about you.

So hit the sofa and relax with a mince pie and a glass of sherry

in one hand and the TV remote in the other.

You see, just because you are stuck to the couch

with your favourite telly

and tunes, it doesn't mean that you can't refuel in style.

So today, we're cooking pici verde with Christmas meatballs and roast tomatoes.

And a delicious turkey tortilla soup.

Sally Lindsay joins us for some festive fun

and shares her couch potato secrets.

I remember as kids, everyone was slightly drunk, all the time,

constantly just topping up.

-Tipsy.

-Tipsy, that's it.

-A little bit tipsy.

-On Martini rose.

Martini Rosso.

But first, let's cook our beetroot and goat's cheese risotto with some

crispy deep-fried kale chips.

Ooh.

Just cos it's comfort food doesn't mean to say it has to be lazy or

-too simple, does it?

-Or stodgy.

And, again, it's colourful, it's Christmassy.

You see, goat's cheese and beetroot, they go together, well,

-like me and him.

-Yeah, you know, like Fred and Ginger.

Kermit and Miss Piggy.

-Chocolate and orange.

-They were born to be together.

But when you put it in a risotto, you got that crunch on the top,

-it's brilliant.

-Now, while Dave's doing the beetroot,

I'm just going to melt some butter and equal amounts of oil into

the frying pan and saute off some onions.

Now, this is the good bit, this, I put some stock...

..into my processor.

Now, this is vegetable stock,

but you could use chicken stock for flavour.

So put half the beetroot in here, the other half,

we save and dice to fold into the risotto when it's done.

And this is just plain boiled beetroot.

Don't use pickled beetroot, it's going to give it a funny taste.

And it's a much maligned vegetable.

Beets are great.

Another top tip, you see when the butter starts to bubble in the oil,

that is when you add your onions.

And we are going to saute those down until they are really soft.

We don't want any colour on them, we just want them to be translucent,

unctuous and gorgeous.

Now, we're going to add, as I always do,

a little bit of salt to bring all of those sweet acids out of the onions.

Now, when you make a risotto,

you always work from hot stock.

You add the hot stock to the rice.

If you keep adding cold stock, it just doesn't work,

it just goes cold and hot and it never has the right texture,

so we bring it to a gentle simmer and we add it ladle by ladle, and we

produce the most wonderful, reddy-pink risotto.

It's like Christmas risotto.

You can chop your garlic, but I'm going to grate it

because I want it to permeate all the way through.

I think risotto's one of the best couch potato foods.

It is the sort of food that gives your stomach a cuddle.

It does.

Right, we add the wine.

Now, we add the wine at this stage.

Get it to bubble and basically,

you are burning the alcohol off but keeping the flavour, so we want that

to go until there is virtually no wine left.

I'm just going to chop through some thyme.

-Oh, nice.

-There we go.

Thyme's quite an earthy herb that goes so well with goat's cheese and

-the beetroot.

-And now for the rice.

What we need to do is we need to coat that rice, so stir it,

and it should go slightly glossy.

Risotto is one of my favourite things to cook.

If you do obey the few basic rules, it makes all the difference.

So, a ladle at a time, we add the stock.

And stir it in.

There. I'll tell you what, mate, the couch potato days for me,

they are the best days of Christmas.

You just kind of live on leftovers.

You cook food that is kind of just for you, not for anybody else, and,

you know, you have this well-trodden path between couch and kitchen.

Yeah, in your onesie or your jammies, it's great.

-Do you have a onesie?

-I do have one, yeah.

-I do too.

-I love it.

Have you noticed how dry this is?

Dave's just adding a little bit at a time, because what we want to do,

we want the rice to absorb all that beautiful, beautiful stock.

It is lovely to have everybody round for Christmas, friends and family.

But by 'eck, it's nice when they've gone.

And you can settle down, can't you?

What's your favourite telly repeat at Christmas?

White Christmas. I love it.

-What's yours?

-Morecambe and Wise.

Oh, of course!

-Of course.

-I remember back in the day,

I think viewing figures were something literally like half

the population of the country watched the Morecambe and Wise shows

and I don't think they've aged at all.

Oh, they are absolutely superb.

That's the last of your stock.

That should be enough.

If it's a bit dry, just put some boiling water in,

but that's spot on.

I'm just going to put some more butter in

and I'm just going to put this beetroot...

Just fork this through so you don't break up the rice grains too much.

I'm going to do some crispy kale, like kale chips,

to serve on top of the risotto.

Now, watch this, it's great.

BUBBLING AND CRACKLING

They take about 30 seconds to cook and about three-and-a-half hours

to clean your kitchen. And I've got my Christmas waistcoat on,

that's why I'm stepping back.

I don't want to get grease on this.

Let's go for a big one.

That's what you call a Christmas cracker.

What we're doing is we're folding the goat's cheese in.

OK? We're there.

Perfect.

It's a comfy big bowl of food.

-Look at that.

-Lovely, mate, lovely.

-Beautiful. Sea salt.

-Black pepper.

I love the contrast with the texture of the risotto

and then the fab crisps.

Oh, it's good, innit?

Love it.

-Perfect.

-It is lovely, isn't it?

Shall we go and take this and have a sit down before the next bit?

-Yeah.

-Because we can.

Beetroot and goat's cheese risotto with deep-fried kale crisps.

Perfect for a lazy Christmas afternoon on the sofa.

Christmas is all about sharing.

Food, memories and, of course, presents.

And if you're stuck for that perfect gift,

food blogger Eshe Brown has a delicious home-made idea

which is ideal to share with your fellow couch potato.

Today, I'm going to be making hot chocolate spoons.

So it's melted chocolate in a mould with a spoon pushed into it and then

it's set, so the idea is you just drop the spoon into the mug

and you stir it and the chocolate melts into the milk

and you have a really rich hot chocolate drink.

They are a lovely gift to give and they are really easy

to make as well.

You can go all out with the type of chocolate you buy.

You can get a really expensive chocolate

or a very luxurious chocolate.

Here we go. Oh, yeah.

It's very good now, very velvety.

I absolutely love chocolate.

Every dessert I have, it has chocolate in.

It makes me so happy.

It's just thick and velvety

and quite hard to not stick my finger in and have

a little taste.

Really good.

And when it's slightly set,

you can put little decorative spoons in there.

They are also nice gifts if they are silver-plated.

You can pop into charity shops, car boots, junk shops

is the best place to get them.

The technique with this is to make sure it goes all the way down

to the bottom, give it a little wiggle

and hold it, and it stands.

Yeah, you've got something you can remember that someone gave you when

you use that spoon again, you can remember it was a lovely gift

that you gave and they look really pretty as well.

And once that's done,

give them another five minutes and then you can top them

with sprinkles, or nuts.

It's a little bit messy, but it's fun.

Pop them in the fridge and then, yeah, just leave them to set.

They are really easy to pull out of the moulds after that.

Give them five minutes to sort of come to room temperature and then

they'll slide out really easily.

And they just make a beautiful gift to give and my friends all love them

as well, I give them to them at Christmas.

So I definitely recommend giving it a go.

We've got a great guest today.

It's the fabulous Sally Lindsay.

Sal in the house.

Thank you very much for coming round to our house...

-It's beautiful.

-It's our comfy house and it's comfy food.

It's one of those days in between Christmas and New Year

where you just want to cuddle up on the sofa and it's a bit raining

-and cold outside.

-And nobody really knows where to go or what to do.

Yeah. Well, what we're going to do is cook some dishes for those days.

-Fabulous.

-Is it those sort of days at Christmas, or is it, like,

the day itself that you prefer?

I think because I've got seven-year-old twin boys,

it's Christmas Eve for me, because you're sort of reliving it again.

The sense of anticipation is fab.

I think I've only sort of got a few years left of that,

so it is like magic for us, so we do make a big, big old deal of that,

I've got to say. But, yeah, I do love those bits in between,

because of the kids, really.

Well, we started thinking about food and what we're going to cook for you

first, it's a pici verde, a big hand-rolled sausage pasta.

All it is basically is washed spinach and flour.

That's it, no eggs.

-And Mr King...

-I've got something for you here, Sal.

-I can't wait.

-Paprika meatballs - a hot, sweet paprika, smoked,

and then just a beautiful, sweet, smoked paprika.

-Oh, it's going to be great.

-Yeah, that sounds fantastic.

-Shall we get on?

-Yes, please.

-First, I've got to make the pasta.

Pack the spinach in here.

Just flour and spinach?

-Oh, yes.

-I'm absolutely aghast at that,

because I absolutely love spinach and try and get it in everything.

-Do you? Good lass.

-Yes, my doctor said because of the cholesterol,

which is an amazing thing,

spinach is a thing that brings your cholesterol down.

When I was a kid, I used to watch Popeye and made my mum go out and

buy cans of spinach and I kept thinking,

"Ooh, this is filthy,"

but I'm still eating it.

Like this, going...

-I know.

-Bing.

-Bing!

Well, this is an homage to spinach.

Put the flour in.

Wow.

I'd never have put those two ingredients together, ever.

Well, you know you get lasagne verde, that's all it is.

Of course. Oh, right, of course, never thought of that.

-That's where the green comes from.

-Oh, I'm an idiot.

Very festive colour.

Have a feel.

And that's it?

-I think that's all right, you know.

-It's-a perfect.

-I don't want it too...

It's-a perfect, innit?

So I want to pop that into the fridge, just to rest.

So what's Christmas like in your house, Sally?

It's very exciting, actually.

We're going out this year.

-Are you?

-I cooked last year and it was like, 17 people came to the house.

I haven't even got a table big enough,

so we sort of did a Christmas buffet last year

and there was a bit of that, in the corner, when everybody

is trying to eat dinner. Christmas Eve, we always sit down and watch A Christmas Carol,

absolutely standard. The day before, we watch Elf.

That's brilliant, that. Do you get dressed up?

We all wear elf hats...

No.

You nearly had us there, Sally.

I was thinking, "Yeah, that's great, what a good idea."

And what are the little traditions that you keep,

that you maintain with the kids?

Always have stockings,

but it's really funny because I used to have stockings at the bottom of

my bed, and it was my dad's work stockings, it wasn't like...

They've got really glamorous ones now, but my dad was a flagger.

For posh people, that's people who lay stones in the road.

POSH ACCENT: In the road, where other people walk on.

He was a flagger and he had these really massive work socks,

so that is what I used to have.

So I said to the boys, "Shall I leave your stockings at the end

"of the bed?" And he went, "Oh, no, I don't want him coming in my room.

"Put them downstairs in the fireplace."

And I went, "All right, then."

So, they are very funny, very cute, yeah.

What we're going to do, we're going to do some of these

fantastic paprika meatballs.

-Really looking forward to these.

-So what we have got is

got some beef and some pork, and we're going to mix that together.

-Oh, right.

-Slightly different flavours, but slightly different textures

as well, because the grains of the meat are different and the pork,

it's not too fatty but it will just keep the beef really,

really nice and moist during the cooking process.

-That's interesting.

-So what we're going to do,

we're just going to put our sweet, smoked paprika in.

So, that's the one that's not too hot?

Yes. And then we've got some smoked, sweet, hot paprika and some oregano.

-Good old oregano.

-You cannot whack a bit of oregano.

I've had oregano in my cupboard for about 20 years.

-It won't be any good, Sally.

-And I keep buying it.

-It'll be sawdust.

-Got to clear it out, it's ridiculous.

And then breadcrumbs give it...

..a great texture.

And a bounce on the mouth and, again,

-it keeps all of that moisture in those meatballs.

-OK.

So what I've done here,

I've sweated down some onion and some garlic

in a little bit of olive oil and let that go cool.

So that's got to be cool?

Yes, it has to be cool.

An egg.

And then, basically, and it's great for the kids, this,

you just get stuck in and make sure that it's as mixed as it possibly

-can be.

-Shall I chop you some parsley for those?

Would you mind? Thank you.

Then we're going to season with salt and pepper.

And then some creme fraiche.

Oh, now, that's interesting.

Rich balls. These are going to be the best Christmas baubles you've

-ever tasted.

-It's Christmas, it's a little bit indulgent, it's lovely.

Comfort food, isn't it?

-It is.

-Here you are, mate.

-Thanks, mate.

Beautiful. So, Sally, what's your favourite couch potato night?

You know what, I love doing my ironing

in front of some really rubbish sort of American formulaic

police nonsense that you could literally write

yourself, because they're all the same.

-Brilliant.

-I always used to do my ironing in front of

-Saturday Kitchen.

-Saturday Kitchen's good.

DIY SOS, I love that, because I like a good cry.

-Gets it all out.

-I know, it goes, it does.

I don't watch it any more, because I go...

-I like a good cry.

-But you've got something great on Boxing Day that

the whole nation can couch potato in front of, haven't you?

Yes, I have, Still Open All Hours, which is our fourth series.

-Brilliant.

-So it's the Christmas special, Boxing Day,

all the favourite characters are in.

It's a really interesting programme,

because it has really worked as a reboot, you know,

and I think obviously that is down to David,

but it's interesting that me and Johnny Vegas are, like,

the juvenile leads, because we are the youngest.

So it's brilliant... Apart from James, who plays Leroy.

So this is my dough, that's been rested.

Now, this is a great one to do with the kids.

No pasta machine involved.

Clean hands, flour...

-They would love this.

-And you take...

..about a grape sized-bit, bit bigger than a marble,

roll in your hands,

go like that, make a little sausage.

And start rolling it out. I always put, like,

Dean Martin's greatest hits -

it's always a bit of Italian when I'm doing pasta.

You know,... # When the moon hits your eye... #

My boys can sing that. They love a bit of Dean Martin, my kids.

They're very eclectic in their music tastes.

Justin Bieber and Dean Martin.

Oh, flipping Nora, you were doing so well.

-I know.

-And do you get them involved in Christmas?

Yeah, food, decorations, they love it.

When they're gone to bed, obviously, I do the tree again,

because it's just a mess, like someone has just chucked

all the baubles on it.

But I let them do it, you know.

-And it's all on one side.

-On one side or that high,

because they're only that big.

Have you had the argument, you know,

when they've come in from school and it's always that season when they

-come in from school and they've all made fairies?

-Yes.

Well, as the kids get older, you'll be able to have the argument that happens in

our house every year, still to this day, me eldest son is 28,

James is 25 and Dale's 17,

and they go, "Where's the fairy I made at school?"

I say, "It was year six!"

"Well, where is it? It's my turn to have the fairy on the top of the tree!" You go, "For God's...

"Will you get over it?"

"You're a doctor of physics, can you get over it?"

Can you just not mention the flaming fairy?!

Must have been great having twins,

because obviously their discovery and awareness of Christmas would

-have been at the same time.

-It's beautiful.

And do they kind of wind each other up with excitement?

Oh, well, I've got a trick, you see.

You know the alarm flashing thing in the corner of your house?

-Yes.

-So,

when it gets to about October and Christmas comes about and we start

chatting, if the alarm goes off, I go,

"That's Father Christmas watching from Lapland,

"I hope you're being a good boy."

And it works like a treat.

You know what, that is sheer and utter genius.

I know. Thank you.

There you go, you can have that one, parents.

Well, it is, he's looking at them and just checking that they are

being good boys. That's it, you see.

-It works for me.

-Absolutely.

Do you have any guilty Christmas snacks?

What's the thing that you'll savage?

Mince pies, I adore.

I love mince pies.

My gran used to make them in, like, in industrial numbers

when I was a kid.

We used to just have boxes of Tupperware full of mince pies.

"Go on, take that to your Auntie Winnie."

Do you know what I did once with this?

I rolled it out, but I made one piece

that was about a metre-and-a-half long.

And there was somebody coming to dinner that was always a bit pompous,

so I put it in carefully, like a cobra,

so, they're winding it up and I knew,

and I told everyone one else that they just had

this metre-and-a-half-long piece of pasta.

On the fork...

Yeah, it was great.

There was plenty of jumper at the end of it.

What we are going to do, because we're going to put these tomatoes in

at the same time.

If you halve them for us, Kingy, that'd be brilliant.

I'll just chop the garlic.

So just a load of oil, tomatoes, garlic...

-Thyme.

-And thyme.

-You can fry your meatballs all the way through and

cook them, you can fry them a bit then put them in the oven,

but we're just going to put these in the oven, shall we?

Yeah, let's do that. And, honestly, they will colour up just as nice.

And there's going to be juice from the tomatoes with the olive oil and

the thyme. There's going to be juice from the meatballs.

-That's your pasta sauce.

-Let's get them in.

200 degrees, 25 to 30 minutes.

You know what it is time for now, David?

I think it's time for a cup of tea.

-Exactly.

-Pasta can look after itself.

-Ooh, nice.

-Let's get a brew on.

So, Sally, what was the first job that you wanted to do when you were little?

What was it? What ideas did you have?

It wasn't... I didn't want to be an actress or anything.

I wanted to be the curtain buyer for a well-known high-street store.

-Curtains?

-That sells curtains.

-Yes.

-Pull yourself together!

Hey, hey!

My mum had a mate who worked in the textile industry and I just thought

it was so glamorous, because she flew everywhere round the world

looking at material. And I thought...

And my gran was a seamstress.

And I thought, "What a wonderful existence to fly around the world looking at gorgeous material."

So when I was very little, that's what I wanted to do!

How bizarre.

-What happened then?

-Bizarre.

Then I got a big thing about going to university,

cos there's not many people have been to university in our family.

-Right.

-So I wanted to go to university.

I was quite good at English.

And my brother did as well.

And then my mum decided to go back to university.

So all three of us were at university at the same time.

I was at Hull, and my brother was at Sheffield, and my mum was at

Huddersfield, and when we got sort of any money,

we used to send money round, like a tenner, cos everybody was so skint.

But then what happened, the acting thing,

it was the second to last term of my last year

and there was a fella in the drama society,

he was a lovely mate called Charlie, Charlie Pickerell.

I remember him, he was such a nice fella.

Dead, dead posh. And he went,

"Somebody's dropped out of the play, Sally, could you possibly fill in?

"You know, bit of a laugh, aren't you?"

And I was like, "Well, yeah, that sounds like a laugh."

And it was just fantastic, cos I went to all the rehearsals,

I just saw this sort of amazing thing come together,

it was like a non-aggressive sport, really.

-Yeah.

-And I just thought, "God,

"all these people are just fighting for the same thing."

And I got the bug then.

And I auditioned for the next play and I got the lead part.

Ooh, that caused ruffles.

-Ruffles?

-Ruffles.

Ooh, ructions in the university.

I mean, to be fair, I wasn't that great at the time,

but I sort of knew I had something.

And then that was it.

I went for it, I got the bug.

And that was... Got my first job when I was 24,

that was 20 years ago now.

Wow. Dave and I have got a pressie for you.

Thank you. Ooh!

What's this now?

Very well wrapped, boys.

SHE LAUGHS

-I see!

-It's a sort of gold record.

I tell you what, took us ages to find that spray.

Well, now, so, the story behind this,

There's No One Quite Like Grandma,

so, I had a Christmas number one in 1980 when I was seven,

with the St Winifred's School Choir,

and called There's No One Quite Like Grandma.

That is some going, isn't it, really?

-It's brilliant!

-I was seven.

It annoyed every single adult, I think, in the world.

-Yeah.

-Apart from if you were a grandma.

Every kid bought it.

Sally, what was it like, that Christmas?

-Oh, yeah.

-So you had this huge success, what was all...

-How did that work?

-Well,

cos you're little and because I'm from such a down-to-earth,

working-class family, I wasn't really allowed to have any sort of

airs and graces about me or the kids...

It became normal.

That sounds weird, but choir practice in Strawberry Studios became normal.

I think I was too young to sort of really appreciate it.

-Yes.

-When I look back, I think, "Actually, good grief,

"that was pretty amazing." Yeah, it was like, whatever.

My grandma got one, she liked it.

She got her single.

One of the kids that used to live next door goes,

"What am I going to do? I haven't got a grandma."

I goes, "Well, buy it for your auntie."

And he goes, "I know, but it's not the same, Kingy, man,

"it's not the same. I haven't got a grandma!"

I'll never forget that.

-It was massive, wasn't it?

-It was huge.

-It was huge.

-Everybody, everybody.

-I know.

Brilliant marketing, isn't it?

-Can you smell?

-That's the smell of meatballs and tomatoes roasting.

-Oh!

-Should we?

-I think we should.

-I think we should.

-It's imminent.

-I'll get the pasta on.

I'll get the meatballs out.

Oh, they ain't dry!

That's what we're after.

That's what you want. Oh, they're gorgeous.

I'll take this one and then I'll get the tomatoes out as well.

-Oh, look!

-Look, lovely little confits of cherry tomatoes.

Beautiful.

Squish them onto the pasta.

Talking of pasta, you want to put your pasta into boiling water.

If you put your pasta into cold water,

you'll get soggy, sticky pasta.

So... And plenty of salt.

-Boff!

-Lovely.

-Gorgeous.

And while it's on the boil,

we just drop these in and basically when it floats, it's done.

Bit like myself!

Take your wiggly worms...

Ooh. My little friends, you will swim.

Now, as you can see,

Dave is putting them in quite quickly one after the other,

it's important that you get the pasta in as quick as you can

so they all cook at the same time.

Yeah. And at this point, aunties come in and go,

"Where the hell did you get those French beans from?

-"They're massive."

-They're massive.

Just give them a little shake and just wait for them to float.

-And that's it.

-Gorgeous.

So, given half a chance, Sally, are you a couch potato at Christmas?

I do like a snooze in front of the film, yeah,

bit of cheese and pickle.

What we do is, we've got this sort of corner couch.

So there's me, Ste, my husband,

and the twins and we all sit with this massive blanket over us.

-Aw.

-And then if anybody wants the loo,

we get dead annoyed cos they have to get up and disturb us.

And it's always the one in the middle, isn't it?

It's always the one in the middle.

-Yeah, the one with the weak bladder, get on the end!

-Yeah!

Sometimes with lasagne verde, it's like green pasta, yeah, so what?

This tastes of spinach.

It tastes of what it's supposed to be.

And because you use fresh spinach, look at the colour of that.

It's just amazing.

That's comfy pasta.

All I need to do is to strain that.

Oh, it's gorgeous.

Look at that.

Amazing.

But as a family Christmas...

-Yeah.

-..comfy treat, I think this takes some beating.

So the pasta goes on the plate, look at that.

Wow.

And then we're just going to drizzle over this beautifully garlicky tomato oil,

and look at the colour of that, Sally.

-Thyme.

-Beautiful.

-Wow.

-Just put those over here.

-Gorgeous.

-Beautiful.

-I love food like this.

-It's so colourful, isn't it?

But it's also so simple and it's not, you know,

it's not challenging and it's flippin' quick.

Oh, what, look at that.

And then a little bit of oil.

The challenge is to make a pasta dish that was Christmas and

not just like a turkey leftover.

We want something that's a comforting treat.

That's amazing.

Absolutely amazing.

What flavours in that.

Wow, look at this.

Oh, boys, this is unbelievable.

Bit of that, bit of everything.

The pasta's got a good bite to it.

Oh.

That is amazing. Oh.

That pasta...

-..is...

-Pasta's superb.

..stunning. The meatballs are amazing and you can taste the texture of

the two, which is really clever.

They're good, aren't they? Good.

-Really clever.

-I'm glad you enjoyed. There's nothing better than that,

is there? Cooking for people that you like and love.

-Amazing.

-Watching them eat the food.

-Yes.

-Perfect.

That's proper feet up, slippers on food.

Result.

Pici verde with roast tomatoes and paprika meatballs,

the perfect dish to snuggle down with at Christmas.

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

so why not make a thoughtful Christmas gift yourself this year?

Home cook Jo Ingleby has the perfect festive treat,

and it's a great gift for your friends.

Stollen is a lovely thing to make at Christmas.

It fills your house with the smells and the lovely aromas

and it's really satisfying and hands-on and warming food to make.

And also the fact that you can give it as a gift

is just perfect this time of year.

So I'm going to make some really small, mini Stollen loaves.

So they're bite-sized.

A little bit more than bite-sized.

People love these.

They're just really indulgent, they're really Christmassy.

They taste like Christmas markets

and the smell of warm spices.

So, today I'm using cranberries to be Christmassy,

but you could use dates,

you could use apricots, raisins, anything you have.

It is a bit of effort required with this, it's hands-on.

There aren't many short cuts, but it's actually,

that's quite appealing at Christmas to put a bit of love and a bit of

effort into your food, and then you give gifts that actually mean

something and they've taken a little bit of time to make.

The smell will fill your house, it will be delicious.

And we're going to wrap them nicely so they can be given as a gift,

or it might be that you're having a party and you want to just pass them

round to friends.

And it's also a really nice thing if you're popping round to a friend's

house for a coffee around Christmas time,

turn up with a few mini Stollens and you're going to be

everybody's best friend.

Cheers, Sally. It's that time again!

-Merry Christmas!

-Merry Christmas!

Mmm!

-It's a nice drop, that, isn't it?

-Chardonnay.

-Oh, yes.

-Good sip in your pip.

-Very nice.

Just the thing to go with our next couch potato treat.

-Ooh, what's next?

-It's a good 'un, it's a good 'un.

Do you know, we've never run out of ideas of things

-to do with leftover turkey.

-No, we haven't.

This one's a belter.

It's our turkey leftover tortilla soup.

-Wow.

-It's got a taste of Mexico.

-You're going to love it.

-I've got a really hot pan.

So my tomatoes go in a pan...

-Oh.

-And effectively, I'm going to burn them.

Along with some cloves of garlic and ancho chillies.

We put them in and just wait for the fumes.

And I do want them kind of charred and burnt.

And while Dave's doing that, I'm going to make the base of the soup.

So we start with some onion.

It's just like the creole, isn't it?

-The cajun.

-Yeah, it's very similar, yeah.

-Some green peppers.

-Wow.

Some red peppers. And I'm just going to chop some celery.

And look at this, it starts to wilt.

And would you say that's like the taste of Mexico, the burnt...?

It just gives it a little extra edge, Sally, which is lovely,

and a depth of flavour, which is why they do it.

And it's interesting that you put the garlics in with their skin on.

I've never seen that ever.

See, I don't want to burn the garlic itself.

-Yeah.

-So I'm hoping that the husk will take the heat.

I see, right, yeah.

Those are blistered now.

Put them in a bowl.

We cover them in water and leave them to soak.

Now, a Mexican soup at Christmas,

it's just one of those things, isn't it?

You just, you know, you've got to get creative

with your leftover turkey.

Yeah. Cos what we do is we garnish the soup with spring onions,

cheese and fresh avocado.

So you've got some freshness to it as well.

-Glorious.

-What I'm going to do, so in the pan we've got some onions,

we've got some celery, we've got some red and green peppers

and now we've got some salt.

The reason that I'm putting the salt in,

it just draws all of that moisture out into the pan

from those lovely veggies.

So, Sally, give us a flavour of what Christmas

was like for you when you were growing up.

All I remember of Christmas as a child, we lived in, my gran lived in

a sort of terraced house and at the end was my two aunties and then us,

and all I remember as a kid was everyone was slightly drunk...

-Yes.

-..all the time, constantly just topping up.

-Tipsy.

-Tipsy, that's it.

-Little bit tipsy.

-On Martini rose.

-Martini Rosso.

-Rosso, oh!

And I remember me and our Chris used to go, like on New Year's Eve,

they all used to dress up and get hammered...

-Yeah.

-..and I used to sort of nick a bit, you know, a bit of snowball.

Leonard Rossiter and Joan Collins, isn't it?

The advert?

-Oh, yes!

-That was it!

That's what they used to... And I remember just having such fun times,

cos in those days people had to work, well, they still do,

but work really, really hard and that was the day that they just...

-Yeah.

-..everybody just went for it.

-That was it.

-I just remember, those times were so special.

With fresh bay leaves, give them a good scrunch up,

-and then I'm going to add some cumin.

-Cumin.

And some oregano.

And some thyme.

And then we're just going to chop through that.

And some coriander stems.

Look at these, these are the dry-roasted garlic cloves.

You can just pop them out the skin.

These tomatoes, look at them.

I like them proper burnt.

-Lovely.

-So when you were a little girl,

was your Christmas food quite traditional?

-What did you have?

-Well,

my gran used to put the cabbage on sort of in September.

-Yes!

-And it'd be sliding off the plate.

-Lush.

-And then my grandad used to say, "Save the water, Nelly,

"save the water," cos she used...

And he used to drink, like, that much of cabbage water,

-cos it was good for him.

-It's good for you.

-Well, it is good for you.

-It is good for you, very good for you.

Yeah, cabbage water was like elixir in my gran and grandad's house.

We used to spend it there and it was only a little terraced house.

She used to put all the tables together so everything was like that

and all the chairs. We used to bring tables and chairs

from my auntie's house. It was brilliant.

-Emergency chairs.

-Emergency chairs, absolutely, yeah.

And it was just great. A tiny little Christmas tree,

dead '70s.

The juice of a lime just sharpens it up a little bit.

Some sweetcorn and some black beans.

-Nice.

-Can't have Mexican without black beans.

Absolutely.

See, that's what you want for Christmas, colour.

-Oh.

-Have a sniff.

-Oh, that's gorgeous.

-That's your five-a-day.

-So I've got my peppers,

and they've been charred and soaked,

and we pop them in the food processor.

Oh, lovely.

Along with...this is about half a head of the dry-roast garlic.

Now, the tomatoes, they're going in as they are.

-Lovely.

-No fancy peeling, we want all those lovely burnt bits.

Go on, lads, in the deep end.

Oh - wait for me!

Fantastic.

Now just blitz this until we've got a sauce.

WHIRRING

Oh, smell that.

-Oh.

-I mean, just because it's leftover turkey,

it's a little bit proper Mexican.

And we've got some chicken or turkey stock here.

-Oh, man, look at that.

-You can smell the smokiness, can't you?

-Yeah.

-Yeah, you can.

-Gorgeous.

-Then just stir that in.

Amazing.

-Amazing stuff.

-So, Sally, what was

your favourite Christmas present as a kid?

-Oh, wow.

-What did you get that stuck with you?

I didn't like dolls.

I used to get really annoyed because my brother is 15 months older

than me and he used to get ace toys, like bikes and skateboards,

and I used to get, like, dolls.

I would be like, "What do I do with that?" I was very ungrateful.

And then... one year I got a Girl's World.

Now, a Girl's World was basically a massive human-size head with hair on

-the top of it.

-I remember them.

Do you remember them? I absolutely loved it.

I used to carry it around like Anne Boleyn, under my arm.

I wouldn't go anywhere without it.

I just loved it so much.

And it was the best, it's still now, until this day,

the best Christmas present I've ever had.

-A Girl's World.

-Oh, I loved it.

I loved that head!

I loved that head.

It came in so handy at Halloween.

Let's see how we're going so far.

Wow, amazing.

-Oh, it's all there, ain't it?

-Oh, yes.

-Wow.

-Oh, that's great.

Was food a big thing in your house growing up, Sally?

Mum used to make this amazing neck end stew.

-Oh!

-It was just stunning.

It was nothing, it was probably, like, a quid to make it.

-Yeah.

-That was your dinner and a bit of bread.

-It was gorgeous.

-Me mam was the same - pan haggerty,

which was a local Geordie dish.

-Same kind of thing.

-Same kind of thing, and...

They do it in Liverpool, Scouse, don't we?

Scouse as well. Yeah. Everybody's got...

-Cobble in Ireland.

-Cobble in Ireland.

-Hotpot.

-Hotpot.

Yeah, your lot. Yeah, that was your dinner.

-Yeah.

-It was lovely.

So I always encourage the kids to sort of...

We cook from scratch, because it's just...

I just think it's easier.

It's that knowledge of food, when you are brought up like that,

-you just crack on.

-Yeah.

It's easier, it's cheaper and it's better for you.

-Miles cheaper, yeah.

-What we do now is,

we're going to turn the heat off and I'm going to pop in this big bowl

of turkey leftovers.

I know everybody does it with turkey leftovers, you can't not, can't you?

You can't help it, can you? You've got to do a bit.

-Oh, get in.

-Oh, very moist.

Now, the mistake a lot of people make is if they're using cold

leftover turkey, you put it in too soon.

You either stew it and it goes kind of like hay,

or else it falls to pieces.

What I've done is I've turned the heat off

and I'm just going to let this warm through

in the residual heat from the soup.

-Oh.

-That soup really is a bath of flavour.

It's a jacuzzi of joy.

-Oh.

-A spa of sensation.

It's a firecracker of flavour.

Christmas alliteration, that's what I like.

Aye.

Now, these are corn tortillas, the ones that you buy in all the shops.

You can tell that they're corn because they're slightly yellow in colour.

Now, what we're going to do is, I'm going to paint them with some oil.

I'm going to cut them into quarters and I'm going to lob them in

a very hot oven until they go crispy,

and that is going to be our spoon for that.

That's your nachos!

Clever.

Now, avocado.

Around Christmas, there are so many people get hospitalised

-by stoning avocados.

-What?!

It's true.

-Why is that?

-They keep cutting their fingers off.

Oh, yeah, they are tricky, aren't they, actually?

Cut in half and then take that off there like that.

Then I'm going to peel the outside.

Look at that. It's perfect.

It just comes off...

..like so. I only want half of one.

I don't want it to go brown, so I'm just going to cover it

in lemon juice.

Now what we do with Mr Avocado is that we want that thing

where it's like a little armadillo on the top of the soup.

We're going to flare it.

Avocados, that's something I never had when I was a child.

I mean, the only avocado I had was a bathroom suite.

Yeah, they were really trendy at the time.

-Yeah.

-What we do is, we've got lemon juice on that,

so we're going to fan that out.

We lay that provocatively...

..rudely almost,

on top of the soup so that you can take a leaf of that in your soup

and the avocado.

It's trendy, it's lovely - just like us, really.

I remember my Auntie Anne had an avocado bath suite.

-Yes.

-And we all went round for the grand opening of it.

-Because it was a new bathroom suite.

-It was such a big thing.

Talking of my Auntie Anne, she used to get me round to wrap her presents

because she hated wrapping presents

and she used to love it and then she'd

feed me chocolate and I'd be listening to Wham.

-It'd be brilliant.

-Ah. Brilliant.

Best ever. Loads of Christmas memories like that.

Wham Christmas music.

Was that your favourite?

I love Last Christmas, that's my karaoke song, that.

-Is it?

-Yeah, any time of the year!

Now, I'm going to stick these into the oven.

Hottest oven, about 200 degrees C,

until they are all crispy and lovely,

which should take about ten minutes.

Because, after all, it is a turkey tortilla soup.

So, Christmas dinner when you were a child, what was it, Sally?

It was usually pretty traditional, actually.

I love sprouts, from being a little girl.

Which is weird for kids, ain't it?

It's ridiculous. My boys love sprouts as well.

I don't know, it must be genetic.

I used to say to people at the Christmas dinner,

"Have you finished with them sprouts?"

My mum were like, "She's weird, that kid.

"She's weird, she loves sprouts."

I love them, absolutely love them.

I love sprouts, there's nothing better.

I have sprouts with everything.

I bet you're a pleasure to live with!

She was weaned on cabbage water.

Weaned on cabbage water, loves sprouts -

and don't follow your mother up the stairs.

-Here we go.

-Oh, they're nice.

You could, of course, just buy a packet and tip them in,

but it's not the same. Listen to that crisp.

-Lovely.

-I've got a big bowl because it's a big bowl of Christmassy love.

-Ah.

-Pop that there.

Oh, look at that.

Oh, yes.

Oh.

That's absolutely stunning.

It's more of a stew, really, isn't it?

It is. It is.

You just lay some avocado in there, like that.

Oh, gorgeous.

-Beautiful.

-Some spring onions, again, quite chunky.

-This is amazing.

-Some creme fraiche.

Oh. Wow, look at that.

It can't be a Mexican soup...

-..without...

-Lots of tortillas.

-Stunning.

-It's absolutely stuffed with these because, after all,

it's a tortilla soup.

Now, that is one of the best turkey leftover soups

I reckon you could have.

It is a meal. It has to be something you put on that cushion,

on your lap and go, "Mmm!"

It's hearty, it's nourishing, it's healthy.

Look at that, I don't know...

I just don't want to ruin it, it just looks so beautiful.

This is a bowl of joy you can dive into.

I'm diving in.

Absolutely beautiful.

-Oh.

-It's good.

There's integrity to all the flavours.

Just amazing.

What better way to snuggle down in front of the telly,

at Christmas time, with a big bowl?

Cuddle up with turkey tortilla soup, it's delicious.

Oh, I'm still eating.

-Sally, a very Merry Christmas to you.

-Merry Christmas to you...

And your family and all who you love.

Merry Christmas to you two as well.

-Merry Christmas.

-Merry Christmas.

-Merry Christmas.