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
