Original subtitles

Winter is here, and it's time to get festive.

There's some wonderful British fruit and veg

braving the cold and ready for picking.

They're at their most delicious, most affordable -

better for you and the planet.

These are the gorgeous ingredients

that love this time of year as much as I do.

Just brilliant.

So, if you've got a bit of time to make something special,

I've created a beautiful get-ahead party menu,

ideal for a Christmas get-together...

Nice little cook-up, people you love coming round.

Hallelujah. Perfect party food.

..taking fruit and veg

and giving it a bit of Yuletide sparkle.

From epic, finger-licking festive nibbles,

hot and spicy roasted veg, and mouthwatering kebabs...

Oh, my God, the chicken skewer's insane.

..to a cheesy traybake and a sensational party pud.

Unbelievable.

So, join me at home in my shed

as I end the year cooking what's in season in the hope

it inspires you to have a think about the way you cook,

shop, or even grow your food, too.

THEY CHEER

Merry Christmas.

I'm prepping for my Christmas party tomorrow,

and my first stop is the garden

for perhaps a surprising addition to my festive menu.

Wintertime. A bleak, damp, chilly time of year.

Tomorrow, I've got some friends coming round.

I'm going to make some lovely food

and I'm just going to pick some of these beautiful greens

and salad leaves to go with it.

People think that salads are just for summer, and actually,

some of the most exciting salads are winter-based.

I've still got rocket,

like, probably one of the most common leaves

that you can get in the supermarket.

We've had a frost here already, a really heavy frost,

and the rocket is still going strong.

It's hardier than people think.

This is the Mustard Red Giant.

Look at the colours.

Really, really nice.

And you've got the big leaves, which are brilliant,

and they're fantastic in salads.

You can even put them through stir-fries

and things like that.

And if you look at things like the little kale as well,

these little centre leaves are less bitter

and they're more kind of supple and less fibrous,

and they really do make incredible winter salad leaves.

Conker, what...? Look at the state of you.

Where have you been? You're so covered in mud!

HE LAUGHS

Generally speaking,

the salad leaves and the cabbages of winter

are naturally a little bit more bitter,

and when you use bitter in your pantry of flavours

and you contrast it with sweet and sour,

you can truly create immense flavours.

So, don't think of bitter as a negative.

Think about it as an opportunity, and that's what we've got here.

My party tonight is the perfect chance

to give these crunchy winter salad leaves

the Christmas treatment.

Served with cheesy filo parcels

and a cheeky hack for the simplest cranberry dip,

my Christmas cracker cheese parcels and winter salad

are a brilliant way to kick-start a festive feast.

I'm going to take ingredients that most of us have in the fridge

at this time of year - so, cheese, nuts, fruit -

and put them together in a completely different way.

So, let's start off with a really simple sauce,

and this is a good one.

This is celebrating amazing, sour, dried cranberries -

the flavour of Christmas.

Wherever you've got something rich, this sauce will cut through

and give you contrast and deliciousness.

So, one pack here of the dried cranberries.

Just put it into a liquidiser.

100g goes in, right?

Then I'm going to use about 200ml of port,

just enough to cover it.

So, I'm just using the liquidiser as a kind of measuring vessel, right?

Because that's where it's going to get whizzed up.

So, I'm going to pop this into a pan.

Just bring it to the boil.

And that liquid and that heat will allow them to plump up

and go from hard or chewy to silky soft.

So, a nice little pinch of dried, ground cloves.

Nice little pinch of ground ginger.

Let's take another little festive friend, the clementine.

This zest is gold, right?

So, this is the simplest of sauces.

Just bring that up to a little simmer,

about one minute.

Turn it off...

..and give it a nice little whizz-up.

It just smells of Christmas,

and that, with crispy filo and the melting cheese,

is going to be absolutely delicious.

So, sauce done.

Next up, let's do these beautiful little filo parcels.

Have a little look at that.

This is kind of a brie-style British cheese,

but pick whatever cheese you want.

Slice it up into nice little centimetre pieces like that.

Little wedges of it.

And of course, this cheese is amazing just as it is,

but it's also lovely to cook with cheeses.

It's so nice to support our local cheesemakers.

It's really important. Use it or lose it, guys.

I'm now going to use some chives.

And then you got walnuts.

The season is from sort of October, November,

and if you're not quick,

the squirrels will get them and steal them,

but you'll see them all around the markets

and supermarkets now.

Absolutely brilliant.

Squash the nuts together and really crumble them.

So, herbage, nuttage, cheesage...

..make up wordage.

HE LAUGHS

Just push the nuts into the cheese.

So, get yourself a tea towel and just get it wet.

It's very important to look after the filo

cos it's very fine and very delicate.

And it will dry out on you,

but if you put it on this damp,

clean, wrung-out cloth,

you've got nothing to worry about,

and at this time of year,

you don't want anything

to worry about.

So, let's get our production line going.

We're going to get it properly festive,

cos we're not just making a beautiful parcel.

We're going to make a nice little Christmas cracker parcel.

Cut them in half one way,

and then cut them in half the other way.

And now you start to understand what's going to happen, right?

This incredible combo of cheese is going to melt

inside this crispy pastry.

Crunch, golden, hot, and then on the inside,

oozy and delicious.

I'll just take a little dish.

Some extra virgin olive oil.

Take a little brush and go around this pastry, like that.

Then this is the fun bit. We're just going to roll them up.

And then we can go to the end,

pinch it nice and gently, and then twist it lightly,

and what we've done is made a little edible Christmas cracker.

Get yourself a tray.

Oil the tray just so nothing sticks.

And then you can cook it in a frying pan

until golden and crisp, or you can pop it in a hot oven,

and I think it's joyful and a bit sort of quirky and festive.

I love it.

Just brush it again.

Just cover this in the fridge, easy.

It's a nice little nibble, ready and raring to go.

So, this one here,

let's cook that now so I can show you what to expect.

So, get a pan on, medium to medium-high heat.

Just give it a little oil.

Now, I just want to quickly talk

about these beautiful winter salad leaves.

I've given them a nice wash.

The rocket, the kales, you know, these are amazing colours.

So, what you might presume

is a really boring time of year for salads, right, I disagree.

I think it's really exciting.

And then I'm going to just take a little clementine.

We start being able to tell a very beautiful story.

We'll take a drizzle of clementine,

top that up with some lovely vinegar.

And then just pour in some lovely extra virgin olive oil.

Three parts oil to one part acid.

A nice pinch of salt.

A nice little pinch of pepper.

Delicious. Crunch, tang... Gorgeous.

And I'll do this obviously fresh when they come.

Let's come back over here.

The great thing about these is they cook in,

like, three, four minutes

and you can kind of do it in front of people while they all turn up.

It's a brilliant way to start a party, I think.

A nice little convincing blob of that lovely cranberry sauce.

And then, when they get nice and golden,

which is about now...

Oh, the cheese is just thinking about coming out.

I like that.

That's always the dangerous bit,

where it's perfect, oozy, crisp, golden.

Take some of that nice, lovely winter salad.

Just joyful colours.

That's what we're talking about. That...

Mmm!

Whoa.

That combo -

hot, oozy cheese with a little mop-up of that cranberry sauce.

The kind of crunchy, bitter, mustardy, and the sweet

is a thing of joy. Mmm!

My goodness.

Didn't last long

but it did exactly what I wanted it to do - wake up the taste buds.

So, that's going to be brilliant.

Knock out a load of those super quick, in a pan.

Really, really tasty.

I think my guests are going to love it.

How much? Big one or small one?

Big one! Thank you.

We're going to make some decorations, OK?

Ooh!

Not long till Santa comes.

Yay! It's Christmas.

HE LAUGHS

Let's go and find some pine cones.

Yay! OK? Go, go, go, go.

I can do it!

There's pine cones here.

Good lad.

We'll dry them, string them up,

and then we can spray them colours as well.

Ooh, there's loads! Where? River, there's, like, a million.

Oh!

This is going to take, like, ten hours.

I want to cook something that's going to be perfect

for my winter party guests,

standing here, just enjoying it, having a little drink-up.

Something that's going to make you feel good.

And I want to celebrate a beautiful winter veggie,

cauliflower, and its cousin, romanesco.

To treat my guests to a veggie extravaganza tomorrow,

this gorgeous winter cauliflower is sensational

when paired with the last of autumn's romanesco

in an easy, cheesy sauce,

all wrapped up like a present in layers of home-made pasta.

My Christmas cauliflower lasagne is a brilliant get-ahead dish

to cook for a celebration.

If you travel around Italy,

loads and loads of lasagnes are not meat-based.

They could be celebrating all kinds of veggies

at different times of the year, and I love that.

So, what I'm going to do is start off the story

with four cloves of garlic, just finely sliced,

and I'm going to braise off the veggies.

So, get a casserole pan on a nice high heat.

Four tablespoons of olive oil in there,

and go in with the garlic.

I've got some beautiful, fresh lemon thyme.

Pick off the leaves.

Broccoli, cauliflower, and romanesco love a little spice,

so we're going to take just a little bit of chilli.

So, half into this over here.

Then we're going to come on to the leeks.

I've given them a nice little wash

and I'm going to use this half right here.

I will not waste these.

Soups, stews, and anything else you can think of.

The white part of the leeks, they're sweeter,

they're more tender, and really, really delicious.

Just cut them in half like that, and then just finely slice them.

Actually, leeks are a fantastic thing to grow

if you're going to try something new.

You can harvest from August, all the way through winter,

sometimes into spring.

Give it a little light seasoning now with salt and pepper.

I'm going to turn the heat up,

and then let's have a little look at the cauliflower.

They're a classic winter veg.

Just take the florets off

and just separate the stalks from the flowers, like that.

And what we want to do is cook these flowery parts slightly less

than the stalks.

Now, the stalks, these will be cooked down.

Now, let's have a look at this romanesco.

Some people call it posh cauliflower.

These are in season from the end of summer

to the end of autumn, but it's still beautiful.

Take these little florets off.

Actually, the stalk has got a completely different flavour,

and if you can cook it down and caramelise it,

you're going to get savoury, almost, dare I say it,

meaty tones, which you can get.

You really can.

I love cooking out here.

I couldn't be happier.

Got me fairy lights on, a few candles.

Nice little cook-up, people you love coming round.

I just love it.

So, look, it's on full whack now.

After about five minutes, we're going to add white wine -

a nice, generous glass - and then a little knob of butter.

Put a lid on top.

So, next up, I want to show you a really, really clever way

to make white sauce with a different technique.

So, normally, when you make a white sauce,

you take equal quantities of butter and flour

and you just fry it off gently.

And then you start adding infused milk,

but it takes quite a long time.

So, instead of making a bechamel sauce,

this is called a beurre manie.

Put two litres of whole milk,

or any of your chosen milk, in there, right?

Bring it up to a simmer.

We're going to infuse it with herbs.

Sage, rosemary, marjoram, thyme.

Those herbs are going to perfume that milk.

It's going to be delicious.

Then I'll thicken it with a different technique.

What is cool about beurre manie is you take

the same equal quantity of flour and butter,

just mix the butter and flour together,

and then what you've got is something

that you can add in, nugget at a time,

to any broth, any casserole,

any stew, any soup,

to thicken it and enrich it.

It's a brilliant little technique.

So, if you've ever made a little casserole

when it tastes great but it's a little bit thin,

you just add a little bit of that, super cool,

and that's what I'm going to use to thicken the milk here

and make a lovely white sauce.

So, look, you can hear now... SIZZLING

..right, this is frying.

Beautiful. Let's go in with these veggies,

like that, and then I'm going to add some water.

About half a pint.

A little seasoning of salt and pepper.

And let that cook

for another 20 minutes or half an hour,

and then over here, remove the herbs.

Take this beurre manie and just add little nuggets of it,

and that'll thicken.

You're enriching it, too.

So, look, that's ticking away.

What I'm going to do now is make some pasta,

and you don't have to do this for this lasagne.

You can buy the dried stuff or the fresh stuff already done,

which is brilliant,

but I want to show you how easy it is to make your own pasta.

500g of flour.

Now, this is tipo 00, which is pasta flour.

It just means it's finer.

You can use regular flour if that's all you've got.

And we're going to use five eggs to 500g of flour, right?

Super simple.

Just give it a nice little beat, like that.

Bring in the flour. It gets thicker and thicker.

Just use your fingers just to bring it in, like that.

So, just knead this, and in no time at all,

you'll start cleaning the table.

Stretch it and mix it and roll it.

And then you have home-made pasta.

I'm going to let that relax a little bit,

so I'll just put a cloth over it.

Back here, the white sauce is done,

but I want to flavour it with some amazing British cheeses.

I'll do about 150g of cheddar.

Then I'm going to use a Lancashire cheese.

More tangy.

Another 150g.

And just use the residual heat here to melt the cheese,

almost like a fondue.

Oh-ho-ho!

Right, let's put this lasagne together.

So, cut the pasta into four.

I'm going to take a pasta machine. Just saves a bit of time.

You can nick a little bit of flour to stop it sticking.

Every time I put it through, I'm going to take it down a notch,

which means it goes thinner.

So, it's really, really simple to do.

Absolutely, you can use a rolling pin...

..and what you're going to get is a really elegant, fine pasta.

Look at that. Hallelujah.

I'm just putting olive oil in this dish.

Take that pasta and put it in the middle, like that.

So, we go back up to the thickest setting again.

Going down a notch every time.

It's good fun.

So, this is what you might refer to as

a normal lasagne sheet, right?

But of course, we've got this.

That's the advantage of making your pasta.

We're going to layer up inside as per usual,

but around the edge, we can wrap it up

so it's like a closed, beautiful vessel of lasagne.

It's going to look and feel completely different.

Up the edges and around the sides.

Let's make this dish.

Do a nice little layer of the cauliflower.

And I'd say four spoons, like this, of white sauce.

A blue cheese of your choice, just a few little nuggets.

So, now we can go to our little slices

and layer it up...

..like that.

And repeat.

That last layer,

just use your spoon to push it right down,

and then we start bringing in the sides,

and you can move it in and around, like that.

And it's like a little lasagne Christmas present.

Take a little bit of that cheese over the top.

Then, rosemary and garlicky breadcrumbs

are a thing of joy.

You can make this one or even two days

before when you need it,

so it's a really good get-ahead recipe.

This is going to go into the oven for about one hour,

maybe one hour 20 minutes, until golden,

blipping, and delicious.

Very importantly, it's going to go at the bottom of the oven

and you get a nice, crispy base.

170 degrees Celsius, which is 325 Fahrenheit,

and that, my friends, is going to be a beautiful, beautiful thing.

The smell is amazing.

Oh-ho-ho-ho!

This is why I love this kind of dish.

By having that pasta around the outside,

it really does seal it all in.

Oh, did you see that? Did you see that? Look. Edge.

HE CHUCKLES

That is what it's all about - the edge.

Oh.

And the layers.

Look at that. Wow.

Creamy leeks, and cauliflower, and the romanesco.

Right, get amongst it. Oh.

Mmm!

Mmm.

Wow.

The breadcrumbs give you that crunch.

The outside pasta is crunchy.

Then the inside pasta is so, so delicate,

like silk handkerchiefs.

Then you get that deep flavour

from the cauliflower and the romanesco,

and then in the background is a little "Whang!"

of that beautiful blue cheese, just a little kind of kick.

Wow!

If you're out and about and you see cauliflowers,

romanescos, leeks,

get them in your basket and have a little cook-up.

What a pleasure, and what a lasagne.

I think my guests are going to love it.

I'm getting more.

Ooh!

This one's a cool one.

Dad, it's overflowing now. Like, actually, really.

Right, I think we've got enough.

Right, let's go and decorate.

Now, look at these, River.

Ooh!

You go and hang one on all nicely for me.

This is almost just like tinsel.

What do you think?

That's amazing!

I wanted to do a beautiful dessert celebrating walnuts.

Perfectly in season right now, they're picked in autumn time,

then they're dried, and that's why now,

a few months later, we get them in abundance.

They're pretty much in every home in the country,

the classic Christmas nut that you'd have a cracker for.

And look at them. These are beautiful.

So, let me take you on a journey of this incredible dessert.

These winter nuts are getting

the best Christmas party makeover ever.

I'm whizzing them up with medjool dates

and festive spices and giving them a bath

in the most outrageously delicious, fudgy, coffee, caramely sauce.

My sticky toffee coffee pudding will be the perfect end

to my party tomorrow.

Yep, you heard it right.

This is the coming together of my favourite dessert

in the world, sticky toffee pudding, with a coffee and walnut cake.

Super simple. Super quick.

You throw it all into a food processor.

So, first up, let's get the thing

that gives you that amazing toffee,

kind of fudgy flavour, and that's medjool dates.

So, 450g of these stoned medjool dates

into a food processor.

And we're going to pour over the top some boiling water.

300ml in there.

Then we're going to add just a level teaspoon of cinnamon

and one whole nutmeg - a classic flavour of Christmas.

So, finely grate the nutmeg...

..and give it a nice little whizz-up.

It really does smell amazing.

Now, a little handful of walnuts.

Let's just say, like, 50g, just to lightly flavour that sponge.

And then 170g of golden caster sugar.

170g of muscovado sugar.

Then 170g of beautiful butter.

So, very easy to remember.

Get that beating together.

We're going to go in with four eggs.

Once the eggs are in, we can go in with 340g of self-raising flour

to give it that lovely, fluffy texture.

A nice little pinch of salt,

and then a last couple of pulses.

Right, so,

we've got our batter ready and raring to go.

I'm going to make it extra special

for Christmas time by using a bundt tin.

It comes out like a beautiful crown.

It makes everything really, really special,

but you can use whatever you've got your hands on.

Just take a little bit of this butter

and rub it around the edge of this mould

and then just take a little bit of flour, like that,

and then just move it all the way around.

And this creates a little layer that makes it,

I think, impossible to stick.

Good to go.

In we go now with our beautiful batter.

Look at that colour.

So, let's get this in the oven.

The oven is preheated to 180 degrees Celsius,

which is 350 Fahrenheit,

so we'll cook that for 45 minutes.

So, while the pudding cooks,

let's make the most outrageous sauce -

kind of caramel, kind of fudgy, with the walnuts and the coffee.

I love it.

So, 250g of butter into a pan.

Then I'll cover it with 125g of golden castor sugar,

125g of that dark muscovado sugar.

That's going to give it amazing flavour.

So, let the butter melt.

That will in turn start to melt the beautiful sugar.

Now we're going to add in 50ml of coffee

and about 50ml of rum.

And let that come to a nice little boil.

Look at that. Oh-ho-ho-ho!

Smells amazing.

And then we're going to go in with 300ml of beautiful double cream.

Wow.

You know that that's going to be good.

A couple of handfuls of the nuts go in -

those incredible seasonal walnuts.

I'll turn it down to a low,

let it simmer for, like, five minutes.

It'll thicken up.

And when that pudding comes out the oven, we'll flip it out

and brush it with that gorgeous sauce and put some nuts on top.

This is going to be a proper festive celebration dessert.

Smells amazing.

Just let it cool down for a second.

Get a nice little cake stand, put it on top like that,

flip it, tap it...

..and there you go.

Now, the best bit is this bit,

where we take this amazing sauce and start brushing it

onto the sponge while it's still hot,

and what's beautiful is, as this cools down,

it creates this little snappy layer,

and it also protects the sponge

and keeps it really moist on the inside.

So, once you've given it a good old dousing,

right around the inside as well,

take some of those walnuts and just lay them on the top.

And they're shining and beautiful.

That is an incredible sticky toffee pudding

dressed up as a sticky toffee coffee and walnut pudding.

Ready to party.

Serve that with some ice cream, some custard, some double cream,

whatever you fancy.

I reckon they're going to love it.

That's another thing ticked off the list.

Right, it's the party tomorrow,

so it's time to get my beauty sleep.

It's the day of my Christmas party,

and because I cooked most of the menu yesterday,

all I've got to do is prep my main course.

Oh, and finish doing the tree.

I think you're doing a good job, Rivs.

I'm very good at decorating.

I think root veg often get a bad rep,

but it's an incredible world, and in the wintertime,

you've got some crackers available.

Parsnips is one of my favourites.

They're going to be in the supermarkets right now.

In the winter, all these parsnips,

they're not growing, but it's also not going off.

It's staying really, really fresh,

and it'll stay fresh for, like, four months, which is brilliant.

So, every time I need a batch of parsnips,

come out and just dig them up and they will be delicious.

Let's get one up.

What we've got is a massive humdinger.

HE CHUCKLES Just brilliant.

They used to be Britain's chosen, favoured root veg.

We use it in so many different ways,

and they're so sweet, we even used it like a sugar.

But as soon as the potatoes turned up from South America,

these were kicked to the kerb, thought of as frumpy,

but chefs have been bringing back the swedes, the turnips,

the parsnips, the celeriacs,

and doing incredible things with them.

I'm also going to get some other veggies

that are good at this time of year.

They're not winter veg but they've survived.

I've got the beets here.

Lovely beetroots.

And then there's another root veg, classic carrots.

So, very similar in season to the beets.

And I'm also going to dig up a little celeriac.

Look, you can kind of start to see how important the roots are,

and they're going deep for moisture, water, nutrition.

This will kind of be sucking a certain selection of nutrition

out of the soil,

so we never grow the same thing in the same place.

We'll always rotate it, and this stuff,

it might look gnarly and dark and mysterious,

but once that's scrubbed up,

a little bit like me on a Friday night,

inside is just a load of gorgeousness.

Right, I've got some scrubbing to do.

I'm turning these frumpy, wonky root veg

into the belle of the winter ball, using the Hasselback technique.

Then, taking inspiration from the warmth of Caribbean flavours,

plus a few additions,

I'm going to roast them

in my version of a festive jerk-inspired rub.

Paired with chicken, sausage, and bacon kebabs,

my Hasselback root veg and party skewers

will really get your guests in the party mood.

Now, you may know Hasselback potatoes already,

but that technique is going to take these root veggies

to the next level.

So, let me show you how to do it.

These lovely beets and purple carrots,

if you cook these or roast these, once cut,

with any other veg that are white or different colours,

they will all become purple, right?

So, I'm going to do two trays -

the reds, and then all of these.

HE LAUGHS Look at that. That's just brilliant.

Now, you can use

either two chopsticks like this

or two sort of similar-sized spoons,

and basically what that's going to do

is stop the knife going all the way through the vegetable.

If you just take a little parsnip like this,

we can slice all the way down, every half a centimetre.

It allows seasonings and marinades

and rubs to really get into the heart of the veggie,

and what you end up with is this fantastic little concertina effect,

so it helps you cook it, flavour it,

and it looks pretty cool, too.

So, let's just rummage through a whole bunch of these.

And you can kind of get faster at it,

and you can pretty much Hasselback anything, literally.

Carrots, turnips. I've done aubergines.

How cool is that?

Yellow carrot. Love it.

That's like a cheek of swede.

Swede roasts up a treat.

People often just boil it and smash it,

but roasted, beautiful.

Hasselback onion.

Hasselback beets.

Hasselback purple carrots.

Now let's treat these veggies to some jerk flavourings, right?

And this is where I think it ties into this time of year

at Christmas really, really well.

I'm going to make a batch of jerk spice, or marinade.

So, I've got some Scotch bonnets.

I'm just going to remove these seeds.

They're fairly hot.

Wear gloves if you're going to prep it,

and obviously, if you don't wear gloves,

then wash your hands.

And then, in with three shallots.

And three garlic.

Five bay leaves. Love that.

A little bunch of chives.

A little bunch of thyme.

I'm going to go in now with some spices.

A level tablespoon of ground cloves,

a tablespoon of ground pimento,

and then one nutmeg, just grated in.

Sea salt and pepper.

A little oil.

And then just whizz it up.

Once it's kind of made into this beautiful paste,

what we can do then is add some honey.

A nice tablespoon goes in.

Three tablespoons of malt vinegar,

and then about 100ml of rum.

Trust me, this is delicious,

so I think it's really nice to make the effort.

Right, I'm just going to decant some of this...

..beautiful jerk marinade into a jar.

You could use this in so many ways,

and the flavours at this time of year are just brilliant.

Just keep that in the fridge.

It's good for a week.

The rest of it I'm going to put over these lovely veggies.

Look at that.

Let's have a little try.

Oh-ho-ho-ho!

Ohh!

It's got everything.

Spice, the hum of the chilli.

Right, I'm... HE CHUCKLES

It's so good.

Put some olive oil on the veggies.

All of that jerk marinade going into all those little cuts.

That's going to be good. That's going to be really good.

Two beautiful trays of jerk-spiced Hasselback veggies.

So, this will go in the oven for one hour at 180 degrees Celsius,

which is 350 Fahrenheit,

and if you wanted to do it in advance,

you could do it a few hours before,

take it out, and then when your guests get there,

you can reheat it for 10, 15 minutes - beautiful.

While my jerk-inspired Hasselback veg is cooking,

I'm going to get ahead and make the perfect accompaniment - kebabs.

Hallelujah. Perfect party food.

I've got chicken, sausage, and pancetta or bacon.

So, it all starts with a lovely marinade.

Here, in a pestle and mortar -

you can use a food processor if you want -

so, a couple of handfuls of rosemary.

I'm going to leave the stalk, by the way,

because this is a natural version of a skewer, right?

Then three or four bay leaves,

and then I'm just going to use a little bit of salt

just to create some abrasion.

And then four cloves of garlic,

And we kind of bash that into a paste.

So, we're going to add olive oil and we're going to add acid,

and at Christmas time, we're going to use clementine.

A little swig of vinegar to give it a nice hum.

And then in we go with some mixed spice.

Things like cinnamon, juniper,

clove, coriander seeds.

You know, really nice, Christmassy spices.

This is a brilliant all-round marinade

that you won't regret making.

So, cut the chicken thighs in half.

Then I've got some lovely sausage.

I'm just going to cut inch chunks,

like that, through the skin.

This is pancetta, actually,

so you don't really need to marinate it

cos it's already kind of cured.

And other things, like mushrooms.

And then we've got apricots and prunes here,

with the little stone removed.

And then onions. They're just cut into quarters.

And then you can pull apart the onion into little, beautiful petals.

Make sure every bit of fruit,

veg, and meat is coated in that marinade,

and that'll start getting to work tenderising the meat for sure,

and flavouring everything.

The smells here are beautiful.

Right, I'm going to take the natural kebab,

the rosemary one here.

We'll start with a little mushroom,

a little bit of onion.

Pancetta.

Just hang it off like that,

and then you can kind of go for a bit of chicken,

and then you can put the pancetta back up again

so it's intertwined.

And then you can take the chicken and kind of loop it

like a little S-shape on the kebab.

Sausage goes on there.

So, that is a little bit of everything on a beautiful kebab,

and when that cooks together,

everything's going to kiss each other,

and eating it is going to be a joy.

Right, so, let's get a little tray and let's rack these up.

Last little bit like that.

They just need half an hour, 35 minutes, at 200 degrees Celsius.

Get them nice and golden and gnarly.

It's going to be beautiful.

Right, I'll wash my hands,

and let's check those beautiful veggies.

They smell incredible.

Wahey!

Look at that.

These are looking good.

Here's the brilliance of that.

Gnarly, concertina... Just absolutely brilliant.

And the parsnips, how good is that?

They're dark.

You can see how that little preparation

has completely transformed, like, how it is.

Mmm!

Mmm.

The flavour has gone into all of the cuts.

Absolutely sublime.

And then when my guests get here,

I can reheat them so it's nice and easy.

Happy days.

Not long now until my guests start to arrive,

so in half an hour, I'll take those kebabs out.

And Gennaro's arrived early and he's knocking up some polenta

with loads of Parmesan and extra virgin olive oil

to serve my lovely kebabs on.

Yay! Hello, girls.

Double hug! SHE LAUGHS

How are you? Good. Hello. This looks lovely.

So nice to see you.

Right, let me sort you out a little drink.

Hey!

Come on, little boy.

Gennaro, you're going to be my waiter.

OK. Right.

This is a little Christmas cracker of brie

with a little cranberry sauce, and a nice little winter salad.

Here you are, Jools. Ooh! That is for you.

Oh, my God, that's nice. That's really nice.

Mum, can I have some of this?

Oh, you can if you want. Looks like a mushroom. It does.

Here's the polenta. Look at that.

CHEERING

Look at these, guys.

Beautiful skewers. Chicken, sausage, and bacon.

Do you want me...? Dad? Yes, darling?

Can I have the sausage skewer?

You can have a sausage skewer.

Here, Gennar, look at these. Oh, my gosh.

And then we've got the lasagne.

It's cauliflower and romanesco.

This is unbelievable.

Right, sweetheart, parsnips from the garden?

Oh, these are the Hasselback ones. Thank you.

Ooh, lovely. Thank you so much.

Enjoy.

Do you like veggies? Yeah. Good lad.

What do you reckon to the Hasselback veg?

Oh, great. Amazing. So good!

Delizioso.

My God, the chicken skewer's insane.

SHE LAUGHS

Lovely. Really nice.

I've finished mine already.

Have you, Gennar? And I love it.

CHEERING

Come on, baby.

Wow!

Sticky toffee coffee pudding.

Amazing.

Make this again, I think. Not just for Christmas.

It's so good.

ALL: # We wish you a merry Christmas We wish you a merry Christmas

# We wish you a merry Christmas And a happy new year

# Good tidings we bring To you and your kin

# We wish you a merry Christmas And a happy new year. #

THEY CHEER AND CLAP

Merry Christmas.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media