Christmas Day in England

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Christmas Day in England

On Christmas Day children wake to see if the legendary "Father Christmas” or "Santa Claus” has filled their stockings with presents. Families join together and celebrate by exchanging gifts found under the Christmas tree and having festive meals together. While the family sits and eats Christmas dinner together, they usually catch up on what has been happening in the past month or year.
Christmas Day in the UK is a time when family and friends get together for special times. Others take the time to reflect on the religious significance of the day, attributed to the birth of Jesus Christ. Church services are held on Christmas Eve and Christmas day providing an opportunity to celebrate with family and friends.
Christmas decorations are put up in homes, streets and businesses at this festive time of the year.
A Christmas Tree can be any size – from small to large and is found in most homes at this time of the year. The Christmas tree is usually an evergreen such as a spruce, fir, pine, or hemlock. Some families choose to use artificial trees – the fibre optic trees are beautiful and can be found in many colors. However, many families still opt for the traditional authentic tree which is cut down every winter season.

http://ukbankholidaydates.co.uk/christmas-day/

Christmas Wreaths Christmas Tree Stand Christmas Lights

http://www.scottishchristmastrees.co.uk/

Christmas turkey Method

This recipe is from:

Jamie cooks Christmas 2013

If you're worried about cooking the perfect Christmas turkey because you're afraid you'll get it wrong, don't be. This recipe is nice and simple and will help you achieve brilliant results for your Christmas meal.

Take your turkey out of the fridge about an hour before you're ready to cook it so it comes up to room temperature before roasting. Give it a good rinse then pat it dry with some kitchen paper, making sure you soak up any water in the

cavity. Drizzle the meat with a good lug of olive oil, add a few good sprinkles of salt and pepper and then rub this seasoning all over the bird, making sure you get in to all the nooks and crannies.

Preheat your oven to full whack then get started on your stuffing. Pour a lug or two of olive oil into a large pan

on a medium heat and fry off your chopped onion for about 10 minutes or until softened. Stir in a good pinch of salt and pepper, the ground nutmeg and your chopped sage leaves, then continue to fry and stir for another minute or two.

Spoon the onion mixture into a large bowl and let it cool completely. Once cooled, add your pork mince and

breadcrumbs and use your hands to really scrunch everything together. Once it's mixed really well, bring the stuffing together into a ball, then cover and chill until you're ready to stuff your turkey.

Pull the skin at the neck-end back so you can see a cavity and push about half of your stuffing inside your

turkey. Not too much: you don't want to pack it so tightly it slows down the cooking. Once done, pull and fold the skin over the opening and tuck it under the bird so it looks nice.

Turn the turkey around and drop a few small pieces of stuffing into the larger cavity along with your clementine

halves and a few sprigs of rosemary. Place your roughly chopped veg in the bottom of a roasting pan and lay your turkey on top. Cover the turkey with tin foil then put it in the hot oven and immediately turn the temperature down to

180°C/350°F/gas 4. Cook for about 35 to 40 minutes per kilo. The 5kg bird in this recipe will take about 3 to 3½ hours.

Check on your turkey every 20 minutes or so and keep it from drying out by basting it with the lovely juices

from the bottom of the pan. After 2½ hours, remove the foil so the skin gets golden and crispy.

When the time is up, take your turkey out of the oven and stick a small sharp knife into the fattest part of

the thigh. If the juices run clear and the meat pulls apart easily, it's ready. If not, pop the turkey back in the oven to cook for a bit longer then check again. Once ready, cover the turkey with tin foil and a few clean tea towels for 30 minutes and let it rest while you get your veg and gravy ready.

Ingredients

5 kg turkey, preferably free-range or organic; olive oil; sea salt; freshly ground black pepper; 1 clementine, halved;

a few sprigs fresh rosemary; 2 onions, peeled and roughly chopped; 2 sticks celery, roughly chopped; 2 carrots, roughly chopped;

for stuffing : onions, peeled and finely chopped; sea salt; freshly ground black pepper;½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 a few sprigs fresh sage, leaves picked and roughly chopped;300 g higher-welfare pork mince;1large handful breadcrumbs

http://www.jamieoliver.com

Turkey salad

Ingredients

banana shallots; olive oil; 2 clementines; 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar; sea salt freshly ground black pepper; 250 gleftover free-range turkey; 100 g mixed nuts and seeds, such as hazelnuts, pistachios or

pumpkin seeds; 50 gdried cranberries 1 teaspoon runny honey; 2 red chicory; 75 g

watercress; 75 g rocket; 2 tablespoons low-fat natural yoghurt; 1 pomegranate

Method

Peel and finely dice the shallots, then add to a small frying pan with a splash of olive oil and cook over a medium-low heat for around 5 minutes, or until golden and sticky. Finely grate in the zest from the clementines, then squeeze in the juice and cook for a further 5 minutes, or until reduced to a nice, syrupy consistency. Pour in the vinegar and 4 tablespoons of olive oil, season to taste, then reduce the heat to low and leave the to simmer until needed. Heat a lug of olive oil in a large non-stick frying pan over a medium-high heat. Shred and add the turkey (I use both the brown and white meat) and fry for around 5 minutes, or until crispy. Roughly bash the nuts and seeds in a pestle and mortar, then add to the pan with the cranberries and honey. Season with salt and pepper and cook for a further couple of minutes, or until sticky and caramelised. Meanwhile, trim the nice tops off the chicory, leaving them whole, then trim and finely slice the base. Place the chicory leaves onto a serving platter with the watercress and rocket. Drizzle over the warm clementine dressing, pile the sticky, caramelised turkey on top and spoon over the yoghurt. Halve a pomegranate, then hold one half cut-side down in your hand and bash the back with a spoon so the seeds fall over the salad. Serve and enjoy!

Traditional Christmas Pudding

Method

Begin the day before you want to steam the pudding. Take your largest, roomiest mixing bowl and start by putting in the suet, sifted flour and breadcrumbs, spices and sugar.

Mix these ingredients very thoroughly together, then gradually mix in all the dried fruit, mixed peel and nuts followed by the apple and the grated orange and lemon zests.

Don't forget to tick everything off so as not to leave anything out.Now in a smaller basin measure out the rum, barley wine and stout, then add the eggs and beat these thoroughly together. Next pour this over all the other ingredients, and begin to mix very thoroughly.

It's now traditional to gather all the family round, especially the children, and invite everyone to have a really good stir and make a wish!
The mixture should have a fairly sloppy consistency – that is, it should fall instantly from the spoon when this is tapped on the side of the bowl. If you think it needs a bit more liquid add a spot more stout.

Cover the bowl and leave overnight.

Next day pack the mixture into the lightly greased basin, cover it with a double sheet of silicone paper (baking parchment) and a sheet of foil and tie it securely with string (you really need to borrow someone's finger for this!). It's also a good idea to tie a piece of string across the top to make a handle.

Place the pudding in a steamer set over a saucepan of simmering water and steam the pudding for 8 hours.

Do make sure you keep a regular eye on the water underneath and top it up with boiling water from the kettle from time to time.

When the pudding is steamed let it get quite cold, then remove the steam papers and foil and replace them with some fresh ones, again making a string handle for easier manoeuvring.

Now your Christmas pudding is all ready for Christmas Day. Keep it in a cool place away from the light. Under the bed in an unheated bedroom is an ideal place.

To cook, fill a saucepan quite full with boiling water, put it on the heat and, when it comes back to the boil, place a steamer on top of the pan and turn it down to a gentle simmer. Put the Christmas pudding in the steamer, cover and leave to steam away for 2¼ hours.
You'll need to check the water from time to time and maybe top it up a bit.To serve, remove the pudding from the steamer and take off the wrapping. Slide a palette knife all round the pudding, then turn it out on to a warmed plate.

Place a suitably sized sprig of holly on top. Now warm a ladleful of brandy over direct heat, and as soon as the brandy is
hot ask someone to set light to it. Place the ladle, now gently flaming, on top
of the pudding – but don't pour it over until you reach the table.

When you do, pour it slowly over the pudding, sides and all, and watch it flame to the cheers of the assembled company!

When both flames and cheers have died down, serve the pudding with rum sauce, or rum or brandy butter.

If you want to make individual Christmas puddings for gifts, this quantity makes eight 6 oz (175 g) small
metal pudding basins.

Steam them for 3 hours, then re-steam for 1 hour. They look pretty wrapped in silicone paper and muslin and tied with attractive bows and tags.
To make this recipe gluten-free: Replace the suet with either gluten-free or vegetarian suet. Use gluten-free white flour and breadcrumbs made from gluten-free bread, and replace the stout and barley wine with the same amount of sherry.

http://www.deliaonline.com/

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