Christmas lunch is often a complex piece of cooking. This one was no exception. The main components were: roast Maris Piper potatoes, carrots, brussels sprouts, sliced chicken breast, sausage meat and sage and onion stuffing, oven roasted sausages dressed in bacon (pigs in blankets), and a chestnut, onion and mushroom gravy.
The main trick is to get all of the components hot at the same time, and delivered to the plate within two minutes. Everything except the sausages was prepared the previous day. I used three rings on the hob to reheat the sprouts and carrot (in one pot), the chestnut gravy, and the chicken slices in some chicken stock. The roast potatoes were reheated in the microwave. The slices of sage and onion stuffing were toasted under the grill. The pigs in blankets were cooked from scratch in a fan-assisted oven. You have to watch these carefully, since they can be ready several minutes before you expect them to be.
I started with the vegetables, the chestnut sauce, and the chicken, which took three pots. Heated under glass at a low heat.
Ingredients: Brussels sprouts, chopped carrot, sliced chicken breast cooked in some chicken stock. The chicken breasts (four altogether) were cooked the previous day in the oven, in roasting trays and wrapped in aluminium foil. They can be cooked in ten to fifteen minutes at 200 deg C. These pieces had been frozen, and so I left them in the oven for forty minutes altogether, with the heat turned down for the last fifteen minutes, to ensure that they were heated all through.Wrapped in foil this is not a hazardous process, since the chicken is cooking in its own juices, and does not dry out. The chicken slices were very tender when served.
The Chestnut sauce was made with Merchant Gourmet brand cooked chestnuts, sliced, half a white onion, and diced chestnut mushrooms. Additional ingredients were: a splash of dark soy sauce, a pinch of paprika, two bay leaves, and some oregano. Plus a splash of a dry sherry.
The second item was the pigs in blankets.These were cooked from scratch at 180 deg C, for a notional 25 minutes. Ovens are so variable, even with an internal thermostat, that they were essentially ready in 15 minutes. I turned off the heat and put them back in the oven to make sure that they were thoroughly heated, and took them out after 20 minutes.
The first list of items were removed from heat after simmering for ten minutes or so.
The third item was the sage and onion stuffing. Because it contained pork sausage meat it was important to make sure it was thoroughly heated. Cooked under the grill, and the slices were turned once using a fish slice (about seven minutes each side - judged by eye). Made from scratch with:
Outdoor bred sausage meat from Sainsbury's, one diced apple, one diced onion, three medium handfuls of porage oats, one beaten egg, 40 g of salted butter,
a teaspoonful and a half of dried sage. Cooked in the oven on the previous day at around 180 deg C, for forty minutes (watched carefully). I used a silicon bread tin, so the stuffing was cooked much like a meatloaf. Sliced when cold, and stored in the fridge.
I've made stuffing before, but not as good as this one!
The roast potatoes take just five minutes to reheat, so they were the fourth item to be started. I've blogged about roasting potatoes before, so search on roast potato for the details. In this case I used olive oil rather than goose fat, which is a popular choice at Christmas, but isn't strictly necessary to get excellent roast potatoes.
All components of the meal were thoroughly heated and cooked and still hot before serving. All components were on the plate within two minutes, starting with the sausages and the stuffing, followed by the chicken, the roast potatoes, the vegetables and the chestnut and onion sauce. Serve with Cranberry Sauce.
Does this seem like a military operation? Yes it does. It needs to be thought through first, with every part properly sequenced in your head before you start. After that, it is no problem. Especially if the major cooking is done on the previous day.
