Masterchef winner Gary boxes clever
Foolproof cookalong comes with step by step instructions and video
The stressiest thing about pulling off a complicated meal at home is the timings. I’m talking about the long list of instructions with things like 2.40 ***turn down pots*** written on the back of a grease-spattered envelope.
Christmas dinner is a great example of this. There is nothing particularly difficult about roasting a large bird or getting the totties burnished on the outside and fluffy within. The hard bit is getting it all hot, ready and on the table before the children have scoffed their selection boxes and the adults are drunk.
Does ordering a meal in a box make it any better? That is the big question. Some involve a heating schedule more complicated than producing a turkey plus trimmings and create more dirty pans than doing it yourself from scratch.
Gary Maclean has addressed d these issues with his Festive Cookalong box. It’s a cross between a luxury DIY meal kit and super luxe chilled food from m the supermarket. It comes with h detailed instructions and a video. o.
If your household is two grown-ups who are quietly thrilled to have a night off from the traditional dead bird-based feast on December r 25, this could be the very thing. g. It’s straightforward enough for r even an inexperienced cook to present a pretty impressive dinner without getting a stress rash on their neck.
The dessert, which Gary preps s first, needs the most actual cooking. I had never made melting chocolate fondants before and was delighted to report that they are a stroll in the park.
Having all the ingredients weighed out, and the silver foil pudding basins already greased, meant it was just a little light melting, stirring and crumbling in of Christmas pudding.
Chopping cabbage is more work than most meals in boxes but it was not exactly hard labour. Gary, who claims to hate washing up, then blanched the cabbage with the green beans and peas for the starter. And then wanted me to separate out this tangled mass. I would rather have cooked the cabbage, drained the pan and then done the other veggies in the same pot.
However, at least Gary is considering the person who does the dishes, which is more than some other chefs do when putting meals into boxes.
With the sugar snaps and beans
rescued from their cabbagey hiding place, I was ready to plate the starter.
The pea and truffle puree that formed the basis of the dish came in a dinky plastic piping bag. I swirled it on to a side plate with Bake Off flourish. On top went the blanched veggies, then fat shards of hot smoked salmon. Twirly pea shoots and a lemon dressing were the finishing touches.
At last, Gary told me to eat something. And while the tastes were great, there was something missing I could not put my finger on. It came to me the next day, as I had the leftover green gunk on toast.t ItneededsomethingplainItneededsomethingplain but crunchy to bring it all together.
The main course, beef wellington with dauphinoise potatoes, took 18 minutes to cook and five-odd minutes to rest. I put them in before eating the starter, which worked brilliantly.
Gary suggests having a glass of fizz on hand while working in the kitchen and that is one instruction I could not fault.
Feeling no pain, I heated the sauce in the microwave, tossed the cabbage with bacon and even had time for a quick tidy around.
The wellingtons came out of the oven with an impressive pastry latticetoppinglatticetopping. TheTheslabofslabof dauphinoise, which had suffered a little in the hands of the courier, still had lovely browned corners. It looked pretty smart.
All the elements were just right, especially the peppercorn sauce which Carb Boy wanted to drink. The vegetables definitely benefitted from being prepped and cooked from raw. But it lacked the theatre of carving a magnificent fowl or a splendid joint of meat. Restraint may be elegant but it’s not what festive eating is traditionally about.
The dessert helped pull this back. Gingerly popping the fondantsoutoffondantsoutof their foil cupsandcupsand breaking through their oozing centres gave me a moment of quiet pride. Each melty mouthful, with a good scoop of Katy Rodgers’ impeccable crème fraîche, was a joy. The random fragments of Christmas pud within were the nod to festive traditions that the other dishes could have taken.
This was a well thought-out meal kit that delivered on its promise of top notch Scottish produce and minimal washing up. Gary did his best to make the prep and cooking process painless and jolly. It just lacked the lavishness and excess of a non-pandemic festive feast.