Citylife in Lichfield December 2019

Tastes of the Season
Christmas Tips
By Simon Smith
Christmas is coming and the goose is getting fat!
Now is the time to start planning the Christmas
meal and trying to avoid spending the whole day
in the kitchen. More often than not the ‘chef of
the day’ is short on space in the kitchen and
stressed about cooking for large numbers of
people. With a little bit of advance planning this
can be avoided.
Cook your sprouts a day or two before and put
them straight into cold water to stop them
cooking and keep a nice green colour. Drain
them off and keep them in the fridge. You can do
this with any green veg. When you want to
serve them, tip them into a pan of boiling water
for a minute, drain them off and put on a knob
of butter and a little salt and pepper.
You can also cook your carrots a day or two
before. I would recommend just covering them
with water, a knob of butter, fresh bay leaf, a
tablespoon of honey and some salt. Simmer
them gently until just cooked. Turn them off and
let them cool. Leave in the pan and put into the
fridge ready to reheat in the same beautiful
scented liquid.
Your roast potatoes can be blanched the day
before, cover with cold water and bring to the
boil. Drain in a colander and shake to rough up
the outside. On Christmas day dust with a little
plain flour and some chopped fresh rosemary
and sprinkle with some sea salt flakes. Cook in
hot oil. I always use Maris Piper for this as you
get a lovely crisp and fluffy potato.
The biggest issue of the day is always the turkey.
‘Will it fit in my oven?’ is the most common
question. If you think it may not you can always
ask your butcher to take the legs off and bone
them. This will give you a great cavity to put
your stuffing in. It also gives you some bones to
make turkey gravy with.
Instead of turkey you may want to try a little
something different. In this case I would plump
for goose. A beautiful moist meat but some
worry that it is very fatty. To overcome this I
always prick the breast skin and start to cook it
14
upside down on a cooling rack. This way the fat
drains out into the bottom of the pan and we
can use it to cook our roast potatoes in…
double whammy! Turn it breast side up after half
an hour to brown off.
Roasting times: Cook for 10 mins at 240C/fan
220C/gas 9, then reduce to 190C/fan 170C/gas
5 and cook for 20 mins per kg for medium-rare,
32 mins per kg for more well-done, plus 30 mins
resting.
How to carve: Goose breasts are shallow, so
take a sharp, long thin-bladed knife and angle it
at about 90 degrees to the breastbone, carving
from the neck end. Detach the legs then slice off
the thigh meat.
Citrus Butter
If you want to add a bit of extra flavour to your
bird you can make a beautiful citrus butter to
put between the breast skin and the meat.
8ozs salted butter
1 orange, zested
1 lemon, zested
2 sage leaves finely chopped
Ground black pepper
Method
Soften the butter and add the citrus zest, sage
leaf and black pepper. Work together until
completely mixed and then spread between the
skin and meat. Whilst the turkey is cooking the
flavours will infuse into the meat and the breast
meat will stay beautifully moist.
Simon Smith runs a catering business from his
production kitchen in Lichfield, providing bespoke
private dinners plus wedding, corporate and event
catering. Simon also undertakes cookery
demonstrations around the country and with local
businesses such as Arthur Price and Tippers. During
the summer months Simon works for private clients
both on superyachts and in villas in St Tropez and
Europe. If you are looking for catering or a day of
cookery skills go to www.simonsmith-chef.com
*All recipes serve four people.
**Please take extra care when preparing and
handling hot foodstuffs. Go to www.food.gov.uk for
further details.