For Nigella, it’s bags of frozen shallots. For my grandma, it is storing up a dozen different pots of dripping, giving her roast potatoes their magical flavour. For my mum, it is making the most of the freezer to get ahead. Come December the media love to make a mountain out of Christmas dinner, but as the following well-known cooks and chefs show, there’s a middle ground between making everything from scratch on 25 December and Marks and Spencer’s one-hour, all-in-one Christmas meal. Here are some of the best shortcuts they have up their white sleeves…
Romy Gill, chef and author of On the Himalayan Trail: Recipes and Stories from Kashmir to Ladakh
I always have tinned potatoes in my cupboard, and I cook with those – they make a really nice creamy mash, if you like mash, and they’re so easy for roasting. You don’t have to peel, rinse, dice, and they are already par-boiled – plus the nutritional value is often much better than fresh ones. Likewise squash, which my daughter loves with a roast; I use the frozen mixture, because peeling takes so much time.
Finally, fruit cake: my husband is the only one who really likes fruit cake, so while I do make a good fruit cake I’d rather buy a really small, high-quality homemade fruit cake from a farm shop or deli. Otherwise I spend so much money on sherry, rum, flour and butter for something my daughters don’t really like.
Andi Oliver, TV chef, broadcaster and author of The Pepperpot Diaries: Stories From My Caribbean Table
It sounds obvious, but I don’t think many people understand just how much you can do in advance of Christmas Day. Bread sauce, cranberry sauce, red cabbage, mac and cheese – a staple for all Caribbean celebratory meals – all can be made weeks before then frozen, and most of the veg can be prepped on Christmas eve or even the day before, and left on cold water. Even the potatoes can be peeled, par-boiled, fluffed up and kept really cold in the fridge.
Get chefs treats in – I love port – and have plenty of snacks on hand, for yourself as the chef, but for everyone else, so they’re not pestering asking when dinner will be. Slice some ham, get some crackers and nice cheese, do a load of easy dips like white bean, garlic, tahini and olive oil. They’ll still eat their dinner.
Tara Wigley, cook and food writer at Ottolenghi, co-author of How to Butter Toast and co-author of Simple and Falastin
Cut yourself some slack and don’t think you have to make every single element from scratch. Cranberry sauce, mince pies, Christmas pudding, brandy butter, stuffing: it’s completely okay to buy pre-made versions of any of all of these things, if you don’t want to or have time to or enjoy making them. No one minds!
Room temperature starters and sides, which can be made in advance, are also a great idea: everyone would prefer the combination of a chilled host and chilled food over the alternative: host and food arriving at the table all hot and bothered.
Delegate where possible – get someone to lead on the starter, or nibbles, or pudding – and get what you can prepped in the freezer in advance. If a massive great turkey is going to stress you out, just OWN the choice to go for a turkey crown. If your mother-in-law raises her eyebrows then, well, she’s welcome to pull it out of the bag next year…
Samantha Evans, chef at Hang Fire BBQ and author of The Hang Fire Cookbook
We used to joke that our grandmas would get the sprouts on in November in preparation for Christmas Day. Although this did refer to how utterly yielding they were – bitter and void of any bite at all – the joke also was an acknowledgement of how prepared our grandma liked to be. Grandma effortlessly brought dish after dish to the table, dressed to the nines, all quaffed hair, crimson nail polish and lipstick to match – without ever breaking a sweat. Her secrets were in the prep.
Don’t get caught up with all the veg and side dishes having to be cooked and ready minutes before you serve dinner. We steam all our veg, al dente, the night before so there’s almost no veg prep to do on the day. You can warm through, fully covered in the oven, or microwave in minutes.
If you’re thinking of serving starters, try opting for a cold one, whether that’s smoked salmon, gravad lax, a prawn cocktail, a chilled slice of veggie tart, a soup made the day before. This will save you time on the day, and will allow you to finish the Christmas dinner. Is the starter something else a family member or friend can get together while you cook the main course?
Make the freezer your friend: using chicken wings, and giblets, if you like, plus the usual veg, make a batch of chicken stock ready for your gravy. Freeze this in containers and defrost two to three days before in the fridge. Then you can use any fat from your roast turkey to make your roux for that roast turkey hit.
Sally Abe, consultant chef The Pem, St James’
I always cut my parsnips and carrots in half or quarters, rather than batons. Then everyone can have one nice piece each, and I don’t have to cut everything into tiny shapes. They roast nicer, because they don’t shrivel up and resemble old ladies’ fingernails.
I always do a hybrid gravy too. I know some people spend a lot of time making gravies, but I literally roast anything meaty – stuffing, pigs in blankets, chicken – in one big pan, then deglaze it with hot water and mix that into Bisto. That way you still get all the nice flavours from the roasting juices but you don’t have to stand there making gravy from scratch on Christmas Day.
Jeremy Lee, chef at Quo Vadis and author of Cooking: Simply and Well for One and Many
Don’t try to reimagine Christmas. You have the rest of the year to experiment; this is the one time of year you don’t have to, and it works a charm. Get everyone in the household to sit down the night before and prep all the vegetables. Make it convivial, and pop the greens in a sealed container and the peeled potatoes and carrots in cold water. Make all the sauces and relishes weeks in advance.
Ravinder Bhogal, chef owner of Jikoni, author of Comfort and Joy: Irresistable Pleasure from a Vegetarian Kitchen
Give your Christmas some zing by using spices that will effortlessly elevate your meal. I like to rub the turkey with saffron-infused butter and place some under the skin, which gives it a nice golden yellow, luxurious glow.