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Top Bristol chefs share Christmas lunch tips
They say Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year.
Yet, for those of us put in charge of Christmas dinner, it often feels like the most stressful time of the year.
Spending hours in front of a hob, while others are off playing board games, watching movies or opening presents, can feel anything but rewarding.
Fear not, though, as some of Bristol’s best chefs have some top tips to help you make this year’s Christmas dinner the best yet.
Could your Chrismtas lunch reach the dizzy, delicious heights of a roast dinner from the Bank Tavern? – photo: Bank Tavern
Duncan Robertson
1. Cook the turkey in a kettle barbecue. It’s really challenging to create a good spread if you only have a standard home oven. I always light the barbecue first thing and get the turkey on low and slow, which frees up the oven for spuds, parsnips, pigs in blankets and mince pies.
2. Don’t skimp on the bread sauce (or gravy and other condiments). The little extras are what make Christmas dinner special.
3. Buy the Christmas pudding – don’t bother making one yourself.
4. Get the cheapest crackers you can find. It doesn’t matter how much you splash out: the jokes and toys are always forgettable.
5. Put a spoonful of doenjang in the gravy. No one will taste it, but everyone will be talking about how delicious the gravy is.
Duncan Robertson is the co-owner of two Korean restaurants, Bokman on Nine Treet Hill and Dognae on Chandos Road – photo: Lola Laurent
Hannah Catley
1. Prep as much in advance as possible. You don’t want to be prepping veg on Christmas Day – it’s not glamorous.
2. If you’re cooking for a ton of people and want to save on the washing up, grab some single-use baking tins from somewhere like B&M. You can recycle them and you save space in the dishwasher for plates and cups.
3. You don’t need a three-course meal. People will be nibbling on picky bits all day anyway, so put the extra effort into the main event and skip the starters.
4. Make sure everyone is in charge of bringing something with them. Use their strengths to your advantage. If you know your auntie makes a killer cauliflower cheese, don’t ask your grandad, who can’t cook toast, to bring it.
5. Remember you are just cooking dinner. People often completely ruin Christmas for themselves under the pressure to deliver this one-off, Michelin-quality meal. Just enjoy the day and remember, Christmas dinner cock-ups always make for the best stories.
Hannah Catley is the baker behind Catley’s which has locations in Clifton and St Anne’s – photo: Catley’s
Adam Ball
1. Always make a prep list and cook time list. I like to work everything back from the turkey. If you know the turkey will be ready to carve at 2pm (including rest time), ensure that everything else is ready to come out at that time. Your roast potatoes will cook while your bird is resting, so don’t panic. Let your Yorkshire puds be the last thing you do, as you don’t want that door to open again once they have gone in.
2. Cook as much as you can on the hob. If your oven space is limited, you can cook a lots of vegetables on the hob. I like to cook my carrots and parsnips on low and slow in stock and butter, and then glaze them with
honey once the stock has reduced. Pigs in blankets? Frying pan.
3. Butter is your friend. Yes, people are concerned about butter these days, but hey, it’s Christmas. Put butter in everything: under your turkey skin, on your roast potatoes, on your carrots, in your sprouts… everything.
4. Always make your own gravy. Your turkey is going to rest for at least an hour or more, so use the tray you cooked the bird in. Place it over low heat on a hob, add a glug of wine and let it burn off the alcohol. Then sprinkle some flour in and let that brown a little, and add hot water. All the lovely juices and herbs that have fallen off your turkey will give this gravy the best flavour, at a fraction of the cost companies charge.
5. Have fun. As long as you probe your meat, no one is going to get ill. Relax, you’ve got this.
Adam Ball is a former bricklayer, MasterChef UK quarter-finalist and the owner Frankie’s Fried Chicken, based in Kitchen by KASK on North Street – photo: Adam Ball
Main photo: Betty Woolerton
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