If you\u2019re panicking about cooking Christmas dinner for the first time, or the fiftieth, there\u2019s plenty you can do to get ahead rather than having a melt down on the big day.<\/p>\n
First, however, ask yourself a few questions:<\/p>\n
If you do decide that a traditional Christmas dinner with turkey and trimmings is the only thing that will do for you and yours, the best thing you can do to stave off anxiety is to prepare and plan.\u00a0 There are lots of ways to get ahead rather than having to do everything on Christmas day.<\/p>\n
Plan what you\u2019re going to eat and then make a shopping list so you have everything you need.\u00a0 There\u2019s nothing worse than being part way through a recipe and finding you don\u2019t have a key ingredient.\u00a0 I always book my Christmas shopping with local suppliers around now so I can be sure to get all the things I need for my Christmas cooking.\u00a0 You can book a shop online with supermarkets or some of the farmers markets also now have a collection service.<\/p>\n
See what you can make ahead and fit things into your schedule as and when you have the time to avoid having lots to do when don\u2019t.\u00a0 Lots of things can be made ahead such as roast potatoes, parsnips and stuffing.<\/p>\n
To prepare potatoes ahead, peel, then cut into halves, or quarters if large. Bring a large pan of water to the boil, add a little salt, then tip the potatoes into the pan. Bring back to the boil and cook for 7 mins. Drain really well, then return to the pan and sprinkle over some flour. Place a lid on top of the pan, then pick up the pan using oven gloves or a tea towel and give it a few really hard shakes so the potatoes get bashed around (this will make them nice and crisp).\u00a0 Now freeze in an airtight container or a ziplock bag.\u00a0 The potatoes can then be cooked from frozen.\u00a0 Make sure you have some nice hot oil and cook for around 60 minutes until crisp and golden.\u00a0 You can do exactly the same thing with parsnips.\u00a0 For a savoury coating add some grated parmesan before freezing.\u00a0 Stuffing is also fine to make and freeze.<\/p>\n
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Make sure you\u2019ve defrosted and sorted out your freezer recently, and label everything you put in so you can find it easily when you need to.\u00a0 It would be a shame to lose your lovely festive fare in the frozen depths because you forgot to label it!<\/p>\n
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This is the time of year for lists and time plans to keep you on track in the kitchen.\u00a0 On the big day work out what time you want to eat and work backwards to decide what time you need to do specific tasks.\u00a0 It\u2019ll be a lot less like panic in the heat of the kitchen and you\u2019ll feel more in control.\u00a0 Even as a seasoned Christmas cook, I still write a time plan if I\u2019m doing lots of different elements that need to be bought together at the same time.<\/p>\n
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I always remember my mum getting up at some silly hour to put the turkey on \u2013 result a dry and overcooked turkey!\u00a0 If you want to eat at say, 2pm, you won\u2019t need to put the bird in until around 10am (based on a 4 \u2013 5 kg bird)\u00a0 So, the earliest you\u2019ll need to prep the bird is 9:30am to make sure it\u2019s fit for the oven and the oven is heated (190 or 170 for a fan oven mark 5 for gas)\u00a0 I never stuff the cavity as it slows cooking and it\u2019s hard to make sure everything\u2019s the right temperature if the heat has to first penetrate a pile of stuffing.<\/p>\n
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At 12:30 you can remove the foil and let your turkey brown. At 1pm you can put in the potatoes and stuffing (if you\u2019ve frozen it).\u00a0 Rest the bird and then turn the oven up to 220 (fan 200 gas 7) to finish off the tatties and parsnips.\u00a0 At 1:30 get your pre prepared sprouts in the steamer, and any other veggies you might be having, and steam lightly.\u00a0 Sprouts should not be put in boiling water \u2013 unless you like them soggy and potentially overcooked.\u00a0 Whilst they\u2019re doing, make your gravy and you\u2019ll be ready to serve on cue.<\/p>\n
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The key thing to a calm kitchen is not to panic.\u00a0 If something doesn\u2019t work out quite right it will still probably taste fine and no one is going to criticise given you\u2019ve cooked the Christmas dinner.<\/p>\n
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If you\u2019re panicking about cooking Christmas dinner for the first time, or the fiftieth, there\u2019s plenty you can do to get ahead rather than having a melt down on the big day. First, however, ask yourself a few questions: Do I need to do a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[54],"tags":[55,59,58,56,57],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highlandhomecook.co.uk\/scrapingthebowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highlandhomecook.co.uk\/scrapingthebowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highlandhomecook.co.uk\/scrapingthebowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highlandhomecook.co.uk\/scrapingthebowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highlandhomecook.co.uk\/scrapingthebowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.highlandhomecook.co.uk\/scrapingthebowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124,"href":"https:\/\/www.highlandhomecook.co.uk\/scrapingthebowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122\/revisions\/124"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highlandhomecook.co.uk\/scrapingthebowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highlandhomecook.co.uk\/scrapingthebowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highlandhomecook.co.uk\/scrapingthebowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highlandhomecook.co.uk\/scrapingthebowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}