Heston Blumenthal's perfect Christmas: From succulent turkey to perfectly crisp potatoes, Britain's top chef serves up a festive feast to remember

By HESTON BLUMENTHAL

His Hidden Orange pudding has been the hit of this year’s festive treats, selling out in days. Here, exclusively for the Mail, Heston Blumenthal gives his guide to the perfect Christmas dinner.

The perfect roast: Heston Blumenthal gets busy in the kitchen


ROAST TURKEY

Serves 6, with leftovers

Prepare: 20 minutes, plus brining
Cook: 3–4 hours (40mins/kg), plus resting

Ingredients
4–4.5kg free-range turkey
800g salt
200g unsalted butter, at
room temperature
3 onions, sliced
2 carrots, sliced
3 leeks, sliced (white and pale
green parts only)
50ml dry white wine
15g rosemary
15g thyme

Method
1. Chop the wing tips off the turkey and reserve for the gravy.

2. Brine the turkey on Christmas Eve by mixing the salt and 10 litres of water in a clean ­container and stirring until the salt has dissolved. ­Submerge the turkey in the brine, cover with a lid or foil and leave in a cool place for at least nine hours or overnight.

Remove the bird from the brine and submerge it in cold water for one hour, changing the water at 15-minute intervals. Dry the turkey well with kitchen paper.

3. Preheat the oven to 210c, fan oven 200c, gas mark 6. With clean hands, work the skin away from the flesh of the bird and rub 100g of butter between the skin and the flesh, being careful not to tear the skin. Rub any remaining butter over the skin of the bird. Season with salt and black pepper.

Set the bird on top of the onions, carrots and leeks in a roasting tin; add the wine and cook in the oven for 30 minutes to colour the skin.

4. Melt the remaining 100g butter in a pan and add the rosemary and thyme.

5. Reduce the oven temperature to 130c, fan oven 120c, gas mark ½. Baste the turkey with the herb butter and cook until the thickest part around the neck or thigh reaches 70c (you’ll need a probe thermometer). Continue basting every 45 minutes (when the butter gets used up, use the cooking juices in the roasting tin to baste). This should take three to three-and-a-half hours, depending on the size of the turkey and the type of oven.

It is important to check that the turkey is cooked by cutting into the thickest part (between the breast and thigh) to be sure that none of the meat is pink, and the juices run clear.

6. Remove the turkey from the oven and allow to rest for at least 30 minutes before carving. Reserve the pan juices and vegetables for ­making the gravy.
Per serving 560kcals/8g carbs/6g sugars/38g fat/20g saturated fat/2.6g salt


source: dailymail

Delia Smith's totally different Christmas recipes: Christmas coleslaw

By DELIA SMITH

4-star Slaw: This festive coleslaw can be made well ahead of Christmas day


This is our favourite coleslaw, which we have improved from a recipe called 4-Star Slaw in the first book.

If you mix the cabbage, celeriac and carrots with a little salt and lemon juice overnight it draws the excess liquid out of the vegetables, which means the finished salad keeps much longer, so you can make it well ahead.


SERVES 8-10

INGREDIENTS
225g (8oz) celeriac, peeled and coarsely grated
225g (8oz) carrots, peeled and grated
225g (8oz) white cabbage, finely shredded
1 tablespoon lemon juice
6 spring onions (including the green parts), finely chopped
Poppy seeds, to garnish
For the dressing
150ml (5fl oz) soured cream
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons natural yoghurt
1 teaspoon mustard powder
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Salt flakes
Seasoning


METHOD
The night before, place the prepared celeriac, carrots and cabbage in a large bowl with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and 1 rounded teaspoon of salt. Toss them around, then cover the bowl and chill overnight.

Next day drain the vegetables in a colander, place a clean tea towel over them and press well to get all the liquid out.

To make the dressing, combine the soured cream with the garlic, mayonnaise, yoghurt and mustard powder. Then mix together the oil, vinegar and lemon juice and gradually whisk these into the soured cream mixture. Taste and season as required.

Then, to prepare the salad, simply put the vegetables in a bowl, pour over the dressing and toss with forks to mix thoroughly.

Taste to see if it needs more seasoning, then cover and chill. Just before serving, toss the slaw again and sprinkle with the poppy seeds.

Extracted from Delia's Happy Christmas by Delia Smith, published by Ebury at £25. © 2009. To order a copy for £18.99 (p&p free), call 0845 155 0720. For more recipes, visit www.deliaonline.com


source: dailymail

Delia Smith's ultimate Christmas dinner recipes: Traditional bread sauce

By DELIA SMITH


Your Christmas turkey should be served with all the trimmings. This bread sauce is the real deal.

The real deal: Traditional bread sauce flavoured with cloves and bay leaves

SERVES 8

INGREDIENTS
110g (4oz) freshly made white breadcrumbs
15-18 whole cloves or a whole nutmeg
1 large onion
1 bay leaf
8 black peppercorns
570ml (1pt) Channel Island or whole milk
50g (1¾oz) butter
2 tablespoons double cream
Seasoning


METHOD
Cut the onion in half and stick the cloves in it (how many you use is a personal matter - I happen to like a pronounced flavour of cloves). If you don't like them at all, you can use some freshly grated nutmeg instead.

Place the onion studded with cloves, plus the bay leaf and the peppercorns, in a saucepan with the milk. Add some salt, then bring everything up to boiling point.
Take off the heat, cover the pan and leave in a warm place for the milk to infuse for 2 hours or more (see 11.45am in the turkey recipe below).

Extracted from Delia's Happy Christmas by Delia Smith, published by Ebury at £25. © 2009. To order a copy for £18.99 (p&p free), call 0845 155 0720. For more recipes, visit www. deliaonline.com

source: dailymail

Delia Smith's ultimate Christmas dinner recipes: Blinis with smoked salmon and salmon caviar

By DELIA SMITH


Whet your guests' appetites with these prettiest of canapés.

Pretty festive: These blinis with smoked salmon taste as good as they look

Makes 16

INGREDIENTS
1 x 135g pack of 16 cocktail blinis
140g (5oz) sliced smoked salmon
2 rounded tablespoons crème fraîche
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1 x 50g jar salmon caviar
A pinch of cayenne pepper
A few sprigs fresh dill

METHOD
Preheat the grill to high for 10 minutes. Melt the butter and brush the blinis lightly with butter on both sides, then arrange them on a baking tray.

When the grill's hot, place them about 10cm from the heat and time them for about 1½ minutes before flipping them over and giving them another 1½ minutes to get them a little more golden and slightly toasted.

While they're cooling, divide the smoked salmon into sixteen pieces. Then divide them between the blinis, folding them to fit neatly.

Place a spoonful of crème fraîche on top of the smoked salmon, then spoon the caviar on top of that, dividing it as evenly as you can.

Finish off with a dusting of cayenne on each one, along with a sprig of dill. if you are making these in advance, cover and chill and put the dill on just before serving.

source :dailymail

Delia Smith's Christmas recipes: Traditional mince pies

By DELIA SMITH


Traditional family recipe: I will always cherish fond memories of my mother's cooling trays piled high with mince pies

I will always cherish fond memories of my mother's and my grandmother's cooling trays piled high with freshly baked mince pies on Christmas Eve, ready to be packed into tins and brought out whenever friends popped in for Christmas drinks. The following is the traditional family recipe.

Makes 24

INGREDIENTS
560g (1lb 4½oz) mincemeat
350g (12oz) plain flour
a pinch of salt
75g (2 3/4 oz) lard
75g (2 3/4 oz) butter

FOR THE TOP
icing sugar
a little milk

YOU WILL NEED: One (or two) trays of 6cm (2½in) patty tins, one fluted 7.5cm (3in) pastry cutter and one 6cm (2½in) cutter.


METHOD
Preheat the oven to 200C/gas mark 6. Make up the pastry by sifting the flour and salt into a mixing bowl and rubbing the fats into it until the mixture resembles fine crumbs.

Then add just enough cold water to mix to a dough that leaves the bowl clean. leave the pastry to rest in a polythene bag in the fridge for 20-30 minutes, then roll half of it out as thinly as possible and cut it into two dozen 7.5cm (3in) rounds, gathering up the scraps and re-rolling.

Then do the same with the other half of the pastry, this time using the 6cm (2½in) cutter. now grease the patty tins lightly and line them with the larger rounds.

Fill these with three snips in the tops with a pair of scissors. Bake near the top of the oven for 25-30 minutes until light golden brown. Cool on a wire rack and sprinkle with icing sugar. When cool, store in an airtight container.

Extracted from Delia's Happy Christmas by Delia Smith, published by Ebury at £25. Copyright 2009. To order a copy for £20.99 (p&p free), call 0845 155 0720. For more recipes, visit www.deliaonline.com


source: dailymail