Forget Nigella’s spuds, Gordon’s turkey and Jamie’s sprouts. You only need one ingredient to make a great Christmas dinner.. and it’s love
Chef’s tips for frazzle-free festive nosh
The talented cook, who runs The Sisters restaurants in Glasgow, has all the tips and recipes you need for a frazzle-free festive season. From an all- in- one turkey slice, which takes the drama out of carving the bird, to turning your boring cabbage and sprout leftovers into a fantastic feast, Jak has a stocking-full of ideas. The mum-of-two, of Carmunnock, near Glasgow, believes the key to great Christmas fare is keeping it simple and treating it like any other meal, which is exactly what she does every year. The chef, who will pass on her sage advice in STV2 series Jak’s Festive Menu, said: “The pressure people put on themselves for just one meal is truly terrible. It’s not what is on your table that matters, it’s who is around it. A lot of folk seem to have forgotten that.
“You shouldn’t be stressed out of your box or let the TV and magazines pressurise you into creating a fairytale.
“Just think of it as your normal roast, rather than something out of the ordinary. It doesn’t have to be perfect.
“The main doesn’t have to be up to Nigella’s standard and who cares if the potatoes are too crispy and the sprouts are overdone? It’s been made with love and that’s what matters.”
Jak, who has two award-winning restaurants in Glasgow’s Jordanhill and Kelvingrove, added: “Removing the stress is the key to a great dinner, not just for the person making it but for the others watching them freak out.
“All you should have to do on the day is shove the food in the oven and cook it as all the preparation can be done in advance.
“Vegetables can be peeled and chopped the day before, desserts, chutneys, accompaniments and other bits and pieces can be made weeks beforehand and shoved in the larder until needed.
“I set my table on the 23rd so everything is ready and raring to go on the big day.”
Jak, 47, who is married to property developer Ewan, 53, says despite cooking the other 364 days of the year, she will never hand over the Christmas reins to anyone else – especially not her husband.
She said: “We always have Christmas at home and then head off on Boxing Day to ski in the French Alps.
“There used to be 14 of us for dinner but now there are only 10 as we have sadly lost some parents and grandparents.
“I do all the cooking. I don’t mind at all as I can do it with my eyes shut and it stops the others having to stress or me freaking out watching them.
“Ewan is the worst cook I have ever come across. He can just about manage toast but we ruled out poached eggs long ago. He hasn’t cooked for me once in 25 years and that’s the way I like it. He has many other talents but cooking isn’t one of them.
“I always have a wee glass of sherry when I’m cooking as it mellows me out and allows me to raise a glass to those who are no longer with us.”
Jak, who is mum to Gemma, 13, and Fraser, 10, added: “This year, we will be having crab and salmon risotto to start with, soup for the oldies, goose and venison wellington for mains and clootie dumpling and puff candy meringue with cinnamon, caramelised figs and pistachios for dessert.
“The biggest fights in our house on Christmas day are over the Brussels sprouts. When I was a little girl, I hated them and would cool them off before
slyly slipping them to our dog under the table. My two fight it out to get the biggest share.”
The chef, who made it to the final round of BBC2’s The Great British Menu in 2014, says her only Christmas cul inary disaster involved icing sugar and her dogs.
She said: “I made the mistake one year of making Santa boot prints on the floor beside the fireplace with icing sugar. When we came down in the morning, there was not a footprint to be seen but the floor was a sticky mess. I soon figured out our labradors Buke and Rusty had licked them clean.”
Jak, who is working round the clock in her restaurants, is getting ready for a stress-free family Christmas.
Here, she shares the recipes that will allow you to follow her lead. Jak’s Festive Menu is on STV2 every night from Monday, December 18, to Friday, December 22, at 8.30pm. A sixth episode, Jak’s Ultimate Hogmanay Buffet, goes out on December 27 at 7pm.