How much Christmas LUNCH can you cook in advance?
... what do you need to freeze — and what can you pop in the fridge?
WITh December 25 only days away, many hosts will be steeling themselves. already Some cooks will be panicking about the timings — and how long they’ll be stuck in the kitchen, while everyone else is having fun. But there might just be an easy solution . . .
Did you know most of your Christmas dinner, including the turkey, can be cooked, frozen or chilled and reheated on the day and — best of all — your guests will never know?
Prue Leith raised a few culinary eyebrows recently when she confessed she likes to stuff, cook and freeze an entire boned turkey in early December, saving her hours on Christmas Day.
If you haven’t been that organised, don’t worry. Most of the meal can be casually prepared, cooked and reheated in minutes on the day, according to Sarah hammond, director of celebrity caterer Rhubarb.co.uk.
You could make a couple of dishes a day in the lead-up to Christmas, freeze them, then defrost overnight in the fridge (it keeps everything below 4 deg C, the temperature at which bacteria can grow).
For those serious about cutting corners, and kitchen time, you can even freeze ready-to- serve individual Christmas dinners plated up — then unwrap the Cellophane and heat them up again in a conventional oven or the microwave.
‘It’s perfectly safe, as long as everything is cooked well and defrosted properly,’ says Sarah. ‘ My advice is to cook everything thoroughly, then as soon as it is cooled put it in an oven-proof dish, cover with Clingfilm and stick it in the freezer.’
It sounds the perfect answer for the nervous cook. But what does a defrosted festive dinner taste like? Writer and mum of two JILL FOSTER put it to the test . . .
TURKEY
Sarah recommends buying a boned and rolled turkey, which is quicker to cook and a breeze to carve, too. Just find a friendly butcher willing to do it for you. This is not a job for amateurs.
When ready to cook, rub the skin with olive oil, salt and cover it with streaky bacon for flavour, before placing in a deep baking tray with about an inch of water, some bay leaves, and an onion.
Cover with foil and cook in a pre-heated oven at 160c/ gas 3 for around 17 minutes per pound/half kilo.
Baste regularly. The water lets off steam and keeps it moist. remove the foil half an hour before the end of the cooking. Check cooking times, but boned turkeys take less time than whole ones. My 11lb boned turkey took about four hours at 160c.
If you’ve used pork stuffing on your turkey, this needs to reach a temperature of 80c. ‘For big numbers and safety’s sake, I often cook the stuffing separately,’ says Sarah.
Once the turkey is cooked ( either use a temperature probe which should read 75c or a simple skewer should let the juices run clear), let it cool and then slice it.
Drizzle with gravy and nobs of butter, before layering them with slices of greaseproof paper and stacking them, one on top of the other, in an ovenproof dish. The stack should then be sealed with Clingfilm and placed in the freezer.
Thaw overnight on Christmas Eve, then heat it up on the day. It takes about five minutes at 160c. But use the meat probe to check it is hot enough. JILL’S VERDICT: I’ll be honest, a ready- sliced turkey doesn’t have the same fanfare as a big, plump, whole one. It looks deflated and a little bit sad.
Sarah does recommend presenting it on a bed of fresh herbs, a bunch of rosemary, watercress, bay leaves, and maybe cranberries for that ‘tah-dah’ factor. Tastewise, it’s perfect, if you can get over the aesthetics. It was incredibly juicy and moist — you’d never know it had been frozen.
TIME SAVED: Four hours.
SKIP THE FUSSY STARTER PIGS IN BLANKETS
‘ThESE freeze really well,’ says Sarah. ‘Cook as normal in the roasting tin and as soon as they are cooled, cover with Clingfilm while still in the tin, then defrost overnight and warm up for ten minutes in a hot oven on the day itself.
Once they are cooked, you can
decant them into an ovenproof dish that can go from oven to table on the big day.’
JILL’S VERDICT: They work perfectly well. They take only 24 hours to defrost in the fridge and heat up within ten minutes.
TIME SAVED: 30 minutes. POTATOES THESE can be roasted the conventional way, cooled and placed in the fridge.
They can then be crisped up again on a greased tray, in a hot oven for about 15 minutes.
Sarah has a great tip: ‘I place Bakewell paper ( like baking parchment) on the bottom of the tin for two reasons — it saves washing up and the potatoes don’t stick.’ JILL’S VERDICT: This is a triedand-tested method for me. I often freeze my roast potatoes to heat up again. No one has ever guessed — or if so, they’ve been too polite to say. TIME SAVED: 45 minutes.
YORKSHIRE PUD
OpINION is divided as to whether Yorkshires should be served with Christmas lunch. Traditionally they’re served with beef but ... it’s Christmas, so why not?
Using my mum’s old and reliable method: 4oz plain flour, 1 egg, 300ml milk and a splash of water — I mix it all together and leave in the fridge overnight before heating up oil to a very high temperature in a bun tin and then making eight individual Yorkshire puddings.
When cool, they can be placed in plastic bags and frozen.
Having defrosted overnight in the fridge, they heat up in a hot oven in just three minutes.
JILL’S VERDICT: I’m worried that the defrosted Yorkshires will be a bit on the soggy side but no, like the Yuletide carol, they’re deep and crisp and even.
TIME SAVED: 20 minutes.
CARROTS
BOIlEd vegetables can be frozen, but because they’ve absorbed so much water, the result can be mushy when they’re defrosted.
Instead, Sarah suggests roasting them: ‘ I drizzle honey and a little bit of cumin over the carrots and they’re delicious.’ Freeze them in a plastic bag and heat up in an oven-to-tableware dish on the day.
Or you can chop and parboil them the day before, and finish them off in minutes on the day.
JILL’S VERDICT: She’s right. These heat up brilliantly and the addition of cumin gives them a delicious twist. I’ll be doing these on Christmas day.
TIME SAVED: 40 minutes.
PARSNIPS
SaraH suggests parboiling these and then rolling them in grated parmesan to give them flavour and added crispiness when they’re roasted.
I cut them lengthways, parboil, leaving them quite crunchy, drain, add the parmesan and roast them in a hot oven for around half an hour. I let them cool, wrap them in Clingfilm and pop in the fridge.
JILL’S VERDICT: like the carrots, these taste crunchy and sweet when they’re reheated. You’d never know.
TIME SAVED: 40 minutes.
SPROUTS
pErHapS the only part of Christmas dinner that does not freeze well is the boiled sprouts. They thaw out like little blobs of tasteless, mushy cotton wool.
Sarah recommends blanching them in boiling water, for five minutes, a few days before the Big day. They can then be stored in the fridge, and fully cooked on the day itself, or blitzed in the microwave.
as for slicing a cross in the bottom, it’s more like a tradition but I don’t think it serves any culinary purpose. JILL’S VERDICT: She’s right. defrosted and reheated sprouts are pretty vile. The parboiling method works perfectly though. TIME SAVED: Five minutes.
BREAD SAUCE
THIS can be made weeks ahead. Sarah’s method is to stud an onion with cloves and immerse it in milk with a knob of butter and simmer gently for half an hour with a small sprinkle of nutmeg. Then leave it to cool so that the flavours infuse. lift out the onion and stir in white breadcrumbs and then season with salt and pepper. Freeze it in the dish that you’ll be serving it in — or on the plate itself — and defrost on the day and heat up in the microwave. JILL’S VERDICT: Yes, it works perfectly well. I took it out the night before and it was still a little frozen so I simply defrosted it in the microwave. You’d never know the difference. TIME SAVED: 20 minutes.
GRAVY
aCCOrdINg to Sarah, gravy freezes beautifully. duly encouraged, I pour the juices and water from the bottom of the turkey tin into a large pan along with the giblets and carcass.
I add a bayleaf, onion and a couple of carrots, a large glug of red wine and a spoonful of cranberry sauce plus salt and pepper and boil for around 90 minutes until it’s reduced.
Once cooled, I sieve it, pour into a bag and then freeze flat to reduce thawing time. JILL’S VERDICT: Deeeelicious! I’ll be freezing and defrosting gravy for every meal from now on. TIME SAVED: 15 minutes.
SERVING AS ONE PLATE
TO SEE if it really is possible to freeze, defrost and heat up an entire plate, I also froze and defrosted one Christmas dinner, already served up.
pouring a little bit of gravy over the plate before I covered with Clingfilm and froze overnight.
defrosting took 12 hours in the fridge and everything looked a little tired and limp when I put it in the microwave.
Once heated, the sprouts were mushy, the potatoes and Yorkshires were a little doughy, but everything else tasted fine.
However, it looked a bit like a sad TV dinner, I’m afraid, and one cheat too far.