Mark Moriarty is back with a double helping of Christmas episodes to get you through the busy festive season.
With a collection of classic recipes using familiar ingredients, Mark creates something truly memorable and affordable over the two shows, designed with both first-timers attempting Christmas dinner and the seasoned pros in mind.
"I'm just trying to make it as simple and quick and creating as little wash up as possible," Mark tells me over the phone as he makes his way to Claire Byrne on RTÉ Radio 1 (you can listen back to that interview above).
With tips on time-saving, using pre-made ingredients, planning ahead, plus recipes for leftovers, the series will be a great culinary companion in the kitchen this Christmas.
Across both episodes, Mark will be bringing back his popular "How To Perfect" segments with handy tips on how to prepare the Christmas turkey and what variety of potato is best in class for roasties!
"One of the tricks from the restaurant is a process called brining, which sounds very complicated but it's not. Basically, you just put salt and water together and bathe your meat in it and this keeps all the moisture in the meat.
"Give your turkey a little salt water bath for two and a half hours," he continues. "I've then broken the turkey down into the crown and taken the legs off because they cook at different times. It's one hour from start to finish because all the other things go in within that hour so that dinner is done and you're not taking up half the oven for four hours of the day."
As well as a turkey dinner with roast carrots and stuffing, Mark's recipes across the two episodes include cheesy mushroom vol-au-vents with salsa verde, salmon gravadlax served on toasted brioche with fennel slaw, spiced beef short-rib served with roast potatoes with feta and coriander, mincemeat custard tarts, an overnight sticky toffee Christmas pudding, and the ultimate Christmas leftovers sandwich.
The overnight sticky toffee pudding is bound to be a favourite among viewers who want to prep as many things ahead as possible.
"That could be made almost a week in advance," insists Mark. "Things like roast potatoes will be pre-cooked too. In our 'how to perfect' segment we discuss the best type of potatoes to use for roasting, we tried a variety and the results are quite interesting."
"Starters like the mushroom vol-au-vents and salmon gravadlax can be done three days in advance. Brussels sprouts and things like that I'll have roasted off on trays. Literally, on Christmas day, you can be pulling trays out of the fridge and into the oven.
"There's nothing worse on Christmas day than having a mountain of pots and pans waiting for you. I buy those little tin foil trays, have everything in those, pop them in the oven, serve the food up and throw the tinfoil trays in the recycling bin. Saves on the washing up!"
When the stress of Christmas is over and done with and you're ready to spend Stephens' Day sat on the couch with a cup of tea and a leftovers sandwich, Mark says he has the perfect recipe in store.
"It's really simple and uses up all the turkey leg meat. I'll serve the crown on Christmas day and then roast the legs and hold them back. I shred the meat and mix it in a bowl with mayonnaise and make up a sandwich filling along with some pickled gherkins, which I love, and I always have a jar of them in the store cupboard. The bread from the day before I chargrill or toast to bring back to life. I warm up the stuffing on top."
Traditional Christmas airs on Monday 19 December at 6.30pm, followed by Contemporary Christmas on Tuesday 20 December at 6.30pm on RTÉ One.
