Christmas is about celebration and being with the ones you love around a large table filled with traditional food and drink.
But, what if the children won’t eat the vegetables? What if the newest member of the gathering announces: “I don’t like this,” and what if you can’t fit a whole turkey in your oven?
It may be a day of joy, but there is a lot of pressure on the cook to make the food exactly how everyone loves it.
If that’s you, read on, because chefs Alfred Konrad, co-owner of Wahoo’s, and JJ Hauser, executive pastry chef at the Hamilton Princess, gave us their top Christmas cooking tips. They even shared their secrets for edible Brussels sprouts!
“Deep fried,” Mr Hauser said, “with some bacon and a little maple glaze.” Before frying, cut them in half. This allows the leaves to open up and become crunchy.
“Then, mixed with the bacon, a little bit of sweetness from the maple, it really makes them more palatable.” Mr Konrad steams his, then adds a balsamic glaze.
Pre-preparing vegetables
To make the day more enjoyable, Mr Konrad recommended preparing and cooking as much as possible ahead of time, especially the vegetables. His family enjoy steamed broccoli, grilled asparagus and a medley of roasted vegetables including carrots, parsnips and yellow turnips.
“We just par boil them and then a little olive oil, a little bit of seasoning, a little bit of rosemary on top and roast them in the oven.”
The carrots, parsnips and turnips can be prepared up to the point of roasting the day before. Simply cut them, par boil them, put them in ice water and then into the fridge overnight. All you have to do on Christmas day is roast them with the oil and seasoning.
For fun, he cuts the carrots into Christmas trees for his grandchildren, and then mixes them with honey and dill seeds for the adults.
Both chefs are fans of mashed potato, and Mr Hauser adds parsnips to his for “a little bit of sweetness”.
Meat options
Cooking a traditional turkey is wonderful if you have large oven and Mr Hauser has cooked these birds in every way possible.
The easiest of all, he said, is to air dry it, uncovered, in the fridge for two days.
“This helps some of the moisture escape and you get a crispier skin.” Then, rub it with oil, season it and put it in the oven.
If you can’t fit a whole turkey in the oven, he suggested asking your local butcher to cut it in half, or into pieces, and cooking it that way. Or, just roast a chicken instead.
Ham is also easy for a smaller oven, Mr Konrad added, because you just buy it in the size that will fit.
Mr Hauser’s wife, Dana, is from Newfoundland, which is home to the traditional Jiggs dinner. This is a boiled dinner that they always incorporate this into their Christmas meal and is another good option for a small oven.
The main component is “naval beef”, which is a very salty, cured meat. It is boiled in water along with cabbage, parsnip, turnip, potatoes and carrots. You can even include another Newfoundland food tradition – Figgy duff – which is a molasses bread pudding boiled in a bag.
“Everything gets boiled in the same pot, and your pudding bag can go in there as well. Then, when everything’s ready, it comes out at the same time.”
The salt beef is always on the Hauser’s Christmas table.
Herbs and seasonings
Herbs and seasonings are an excellent way to add flavour to meats and vegetables and Mr Konrad has his own herb garden, which includes basil, rosemary, cilantro, chives, parsley, thyme and sage. He uses the sage for his turkey stuffing.
For his stuffing, Mr Hauser always keeps a stock of savory to hand.
Sweet treats
Being a pastry chef, Mr Hauser enjoys desserts, particularly pumpkin pie, which he serves with whipped cream.
“Pumpkin pie is my favourite for sure. Holiday only, though. Don’t give it to me any other time of the year,” he laughed, adding that the best pumpkin pie recipe is actually the one on the can.
“They’ve been doing it for hundreds of years. They’re not going to put a recipe that doesn’t work and isn’t delicious.”
On the whole, however, he prefers what he calls “dessert hors d’oeuvres” – a variety of small desserts. His favourite of these is a Nanaimo Bar, which originates from his native British Columbia. These have a chocolate coconut base, custard middle and chocolate on the top. Other options could be shortbread, a millionaire bar or some brittle.
Mr Konrad makes a chocolate bread pudding, the recipe for which he has kindly shared. This can be made the day before and heated up on Christmas day. For some extra holiday cheer, Mr Hauser likes to wash dessert down with home-made eggnog including lots of booze and cream.
“It’s a season for lots of cream, lots of butter,” he smiled.
Alfred Konrad’s chocolate bread pudding
- 6 cups of milk
- 6 eggs
- 2 tbsp cinnamon
- 2 tbsp pure vanilla or vanilla extract
- 1 cup cocoa powder
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 loaf white bread
- ½lb butter
- 6 slices of pound cake
- 1½ cups dark chocolate chips
- 1½ cups white chocolate
- Use a pan which is 10 inches by 12 inches, 4 inches deep. Or halve the recipe for a loaf pan 12 inches by 5 inches.
- Grease pan with butter or olive oil spray.
- Put milk, eggs, cinnamon, cocoa power, vanilla and sugar in electric mixer with paddle attachment.
- Mix well for 10 minutes.
- Add loaf of white bread, cubed, and melted butter.
- Mix again for another 10 minutes.
- Fold in the cubed pound cake and all the chocolate chips.
- Bake at 350F for 1-1½ hours.
- Check by inserting wooden skewer. When pulling it back out it should be clean.
- Serve with your favourite custard and add Goslings Black Seal Rum for a more festive dessert.
