Brian McDermott's Christmas Menu: Today

Method

Lightly spiced parsnips soup

1. Melt the butter in a large saucepan.
2. Sweat the onion, garlic, bay leaf & ginger for a few mins to soften.
3. Add the parsnips & leeks and sweat for couple of minutes. Then add the cumin & garam masala and sweat for 4 minutes until parsnips are soft. Pour in the milk and simmer then add the hot vegetable stock. Simmer for 15 minutes on a low heat stirring occasionally.
4. Add the cream and bring to the boil once then switch off.
5. Blitz the soup until it's really smooth.

Brian's tips:

• Serve with toasted cumin seeds on top or chopped coriander.
• Great with toasted sourdough & melted parmesan on top.

Brian's traditional brown bread

1. Preheat Oven to 180 degrees C
2. Use a bowl and wooden spoon, do not use an electric mixer.
3. Sieve the plain flour, add bread soda, whole wheat flour and mix thoroughly
4. Beat the egg, add the yoghurt, treacle, rapeseed oil & add buttermilk . Mix together then add the liquid to the dry flour mix and mix to form a deliberate wet mix
5. Grease two 1 lb loaf tins and drop mix into the tin half filling each tin. Do not pat down the mix as this tightens the resulting bread. Scatter some porridge oats on top and bake for approx. 40 minutes

Brian's tips: Wrap bread in a clean dry tea towel not cling film. Bread will freeze very well.

Roasted turkey breast

1. Preheat oven to 180°/350°F /gas mark 5
2. Wash, peel and half 2 carrots, 2 potatoes and 1 onion. Place them in the base of a deep roasting dish
3. Place the turkey breast on top of the carrots, potatoes and onions in the roasting tray.
4. Brush the outside of the skin with melted butter and season with salt and black pepper, and place fresh sprigs of rosemary, thyme and sage leaf into the cavity
5. Loosely cover with tin foil and place the turkey in the oven
6. Allow 20 minutes per KG cooking time for Turkey breast.
7. Once the turkey is cooked remove from the oven and place the cooked Turkey breast on a board to rest for 15 minutes before carving.
8. As with any poultry, always double check that the turkey is properly cooked before serving. Your turkey should be piping hot all the way through with no pink meat left and the juices should run clear when the thickest part of the breast are pierced with a clean fork or skewer. A temperature of 75 degrees celcius
9. Make your gravy by placing the roasting dish directly on the stove and add a glass of red wine and reduce the wine staring as it reduces. Add 1 tablespoon tomato puree and 1 25g plain flour. Then add 1 litre chicken stock and allow to simmer for 8 minutes. Strain to serve.

Cranberry, orange & port sauce

1. Heat the water and sugar until it dissolves then add the cranberries and allow simmering until the cranberries burst. Then add the orange zest and juice with the port. Allow cooking on low heat for 10 minutes stirring occasionally.
2. If sauce gets a little too thick add a bit of warm water.
3. Place in a sterilised jar hot allow to cool and the refrigerate for use as required.

Brian's tip:

• Double the recipe and the sauce will keep for a few weeks and is perfect for cheese boards and the all-important sandwiches with left-over turkey and ham.

Festive Brussels sprout bake

1. Boil water and cook sprouts for 8-10 minutes until they are soft. Drain and mash a bit to almost break the sprouts open.
2. Dice the cooked gammon or bacon
3. Roughly cut the chestnuts
4. Melt the butter, add nutmeg, pepper and gammon or bacon simmer for 3-4 minutes.
5. Add the sprouts, pour in the cream and bring to a warm temperature.
6. Place in earthenware dish and sprinkle the chestnuts and chopped sage leaves on top of the sprouts and bake in the oven for 8 minutes at 200 degrees C.

Rich traditional trifle

1. To a pot add the frozen berries, sugar, cinnamon stick and sugar then simmer for 10 minutes until it gently bubbles in the pot. Remove and set aside.
2. To make the custard warm the cream in a pot with the scrapping of the vanilla from inside the vanilla pod. In a bowl which together the egg yolk and sugar until light in texture. Then add the cornflour and whisk before adding the warm cream.
3. Whisk all together and return to a pot and slowly cook until custard slightly thickens whisking all the time. Take off the heat and set aside when thickened and allow the custard cool

Assemble:

1. Break up the Madeira cake and place in a bowl, drizzle half the sherry over the sponge.
2. Remove the cinnamon stick from the berries and add on top of the sponge. Drizzle remaining sherry over the berries. Spoon on the custard.
3. Whip the fresh cream and pipe it neatly on top of the custard. Sprinkle with grated or shaved chocolate on top.