Simon Hellier, Executive Head Chef for Amadeus at the International Convention Centre (ICC) shares his Christmas tips
With the festive season well and truly underway Simon Hellier, Executive Head Chef for Amadeus at the ICC, has shared some of his some useful tips to help make your Christmas dinner a thoroughly magical affair.
Planning the dishes, pre-preparation of ingredients and keeping on top of your timings are all key to a successful meal. The Christmas meal is one of the biggest meals you would do, and the pressure is on when you have the family waiting around the table, wondering what’s on offer this year!
Planning the dishes, pre-preparation of ingredients and keeping on top of your timings are all key to a successful meal.Simon Hellier, Executive Head Chef, International Convention Centre
If you fail to prep, you’re prepping to fail
Prep all the vegetables the day before and store in the fridge. Work out in advance what needs to go in the oven and what can go on the hob and plan your space accordingly.
Never neglect your vegetables!
You can add cinnamon to your roast carrots, ginger to creamed cabbage, rosemary to your roast potatoes, honey to your parsnips and cranberry to your red cabbage.
Tantalising turkey
To keep your turkey moist, add a pint of water and an orange sliced in half to the bottom of the roasting tray and cover with tinfoil for half the cooking time. You can use the remaining liquid as a base for your gravy!
Get stuffed!
To make a great (and easy) stuffing, remove the skin from some good quality sausages then add dried apricots, chestnuts and a handful of breadcrumbs. Then either roll into balls and bake for the last thirty minutes of the turkey or roll in tinfoil and bake, before slicing to serve!
Spice up your life (and your bread sauce)
Simmer 300ml full fat milk for ten minutes with two crushed cardamom pods, a white onion, a garlic clove and one fresh green chilli. Pass the ingredients through a strainer in to 100g fresh white breadcrumbs and return to the stove until thick, then season to taste.
Love them or hate them, sprouts are a Christmas staple
To make the most of your sprouts, boil them in salted water for three minutes and then roast with olive oil, sea salt and plenty of cracked black pepper until they are golden brown and soft.
