Christmas Tasty Tips from The Brehon

 

By Head Chef Mike Hayes

Here at the Brehon kitchen, preparations for our Christmas menus started quite a few weeks ago.

From pudding basins to jam jars, our team of chefs have been busying themselves with their annual tasks of soaking fruits, making preserves and relishes, and generously pouring the liquor over our rich, fruity Christmas Puddings.

It is our pleasure to lend a hand to our blog followers in their efforts this Christmas, and our team of chefs, led by head chef Mike Hayes present you with these tips to make this Christmas a special one for you and yours.

The Starter

We all know what happens after Christmas dinner. After eating the equivalent of a small Victorian banquet, plonked on the sofa, unable to even reach for the remote, we are left pondering that same old question as last year- Why did I have that second bowl of trifle?

With this in mind it is sensible to keep your Christmas Day starter as light an easy as possible.

Seafood is always a popular choice as a prequel to the annual turkey roast, and whether you decide on smoked salmon, delicious Irish crab meat or fresh local prawns, for even the most unadventurous of home-cooks, it’s hard to go wrong. As a great alternative to those frozen supermarket shrimp from the North Sea, how about calling to your local fishmonger in the run up to Christmas, and ordering a kilo or two of fresh Irish prawns. Your fishmonger will do all the shelling for you, leaving you with the simple task of blanching the prawns in some salted boiling water, chilling in ice-water, then tossing them in the dressing of your choice.

The Roast

The turkey is probably the part of the Christmas meal that causes the chef the most stress.

Timings and checking the doneness of the bird can be quite tricky, and this can result in an over or undercooked turkey.

Why not take the stress out of the day and ask your butcher to bone out your turkey. Have your butcher stuff and tie the legs, leaving you with a much quicker and easier task on Christmas Day.

Because the legs will take a little longer to cook, wrap them in foil and place them in a pre-heated oven at 180°C for about 2.5 hours.

The breast will cook far quicker than a whole bird and will result in far moister and juicier meat.

Brush the meat with a little butter and season with sea salt and black pepper before roasting at 180°C. The general rule of thumb for cooking poultry is 20 minutes per pound weigh, so if the breast is 4lb weight it should be cooked in 80-90 minutes.

The Pudding

Here at the Brehon we love our Christmas pudding. Over the course of the month our team will steam over 1000 plum puddings for 3 ½ - 4 hours.

The method is simple but it is important to follow the steps carefully.

Using quality dried fruits is essential to the success of your pudding, and good quality liquor provides a richness of taste that will not go unnoticed.

Soak the fruits for at least a day before making your pudding.

The important points to remember are as follows: cream the butter and sugar well, add the eggs slowly to the mixture to avoid curdling, and cover well to avoid steam getting into your pud.

Plum Pudding Recipe ( makes 1 2lb pudding)

100g Raisins

50g Sultanas

50g Dry Cranberries

50g Mixed Peel

50ml Dark Rum

65g Butter

50g Brown Sugar

1 Orange Zest

40g Breadcrumbs

20g Plain Flour

20g Self-Raising Flour

1 Tspn Mixed Spice