What is Christmas dinner like for chefs? Do they delve into it with passion, take a culinary route less travelled, or hang up their toque and eat baked beans? Corinna Hardgraveasks a few of them for seasonal treats
TROY MAGUIRE Head chef, L'Gueuleton, Dublin 2
"Dad cooks the Christmas dinner and I'm in charge of morale," jokes Maguire. "And yes, it will be completely traditional. But if you want to add something special, a garnish of three little devils-on-horseback works really nicely on the slices of turkey. It's got that salty-sweet dimension, and a bit of watercress or rocket will add a peppery note."
DEVILS ON HORSEBACK
18 Agen prunes (available from speciality food stores)
200g Roquefort cheese, cut into 18 pieces
9 dry-cured, rindless streaky rashers
8 cocktail sticks, broken in half
Roll the streaky bacon out between two sheets of cling film to make it thinner and cut each piece in half. Cut a slit in each prune and stuff with a piece of Roquefort. Roll the bacon around each prune and hold together with half a cocktail stick. All of this can be done in advance. To cook, fry gently on a pan with olive oil for three to four minutes. Turn over to ensure that the bacon is cooked evenly. Keep them warm until ready to serve.
IAN CONNOLLY Head chef, The Mermaid Cafe, Dublin 2
"I usually go where I'm fed," says Connolly, who has recently become the father of a baby boy. "It will either be at my girlfriend's or my parents' house, but either way, it will be a good traditional dinner. If you want to do something more unusual, smoked Gubbeen and chestnut croquettes are a nice idea as an additional element. And if you make them slightly larger, they're great as a vegetarian option."
SMOKED GUBBEEN AND CHESTNUT CROQUETTESMakes 24
1 kg Rooster potatoes, peeled
2 eggs lightly beaten
2 egg yolks
20g softened butter
100g plain flour
60g smoked Gubbeen cheese, grated
2 tbs milk
100g fresh breadcrumbs
24 chestnuts (vac-pack are fine), crushed in a blender or
roughly broken-up with a rolling pin
Oil for deep frying
Cook the potatoes. Mash them and place in large bowl. Add butter, egg yolks, flour, cheese and chestnuts and combine with a spoon. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Using floured hands, shape heaped tablespoons of the potato mixture into fairly flat, fish finger shapes. Dust with extra flour and shake away the excess. Mix the milk with the two beaten eggs and dip the croquettes into this mixture individually, then roll in the breadcrumbs. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Heat the oil in a wok or large saucepan. Deep fry the croquettes in batches until they are lightly browned. Drain on absorbent paper and serve.
AOIBHEANN McNAMARA Proprietor, Ard Bia, Galway
"I like to do things a bit differently," McNamara says. "I'll be starting with locally produced mezze plates, have a second course of chargrilled halloumi with falafel, and follow with marinated Wicklow venison and tabbouleh salad with Ard Bia's stout bread. Dessert will be a Burren honey and Crozier sheep's yoghurt panacotta with toasted pistachio nuts and cardamom baked figs."
JESSICA MURPHY'S ARD BIA STOUT BREAD
25g yeast (fresh if possible)
700ml Guinness, at room temperature
250g dark rye flour
750g strong white floor
20g salt
1 tbsp Pastis
Flour for dusting
Whisk the yeast into the Guinness in a large mixing bowl until it has completely dissolved. Add the rye flour and 400g of the white flour and whisk the batter. Cover with a tea towel and allow to rest for two hours. Add the rest of the ingredients to the batter and mix to a dough. Kneed until the dough is supple and elastic and no longer sticks to your hands. Shape into a ball and put into a lightly floured bowl. Cover the dough with a tea towel and leave it to rest for 45 minutes, then turn the dough out on to a lightly floured work surface and reshape into a ball. Place back in the bowl, cover it with the tea towel and leave it to rest for a further 45 minutes.
Turn the dough out again. Reshape into a ball and leave it to prove for one and a half hours, until nearly doubled in size. Pre-heat the oven to 240 degrees/gas eight. Place the bread on a baking tray, and put it in the oven. Lower the temperature to 220 degrees/gas seven, as soon as the bread goes in. Cook for 30 minutes until it is dark in colour. Cool on a wire rack.
SEBASTIAN MASI Head chef, Pearl Brasserie, Dublin 2
Frenchman Sebastian Masi will be heading to Wales with his partner Kirsten Jayne Batt, for her mother's special Christmas dinner. Their day starts with cockles (collected locally by her mother and purged with oatmeal the previous evening) served with laver bread and Welsh salted bacon. Christmas dinner will be a starter of duck and pistachio terrine, followed by wild partridge stuffed with truffles, and a Christmas Bombe for dessert. Masi suggests that a capon - a large, castrated rooster - makes a great alternative to turkey and says that it is particularly good with black winter truffles. Capons can be ordered a week in advance from La Rousse Foods in Dublin and Belfast. www.laroussefoods.ie.
TRUFFLED CAPON OR TURKEY
1 capon or turkey
1 x 50g jar of truffles (available from speciality food
stores)
100g butter at room temperature
Using a sharp knife, slice the truffles as finely as possible into discs. Lift the skin at the neck end of the capon or turkey and gently ease your fingers underneath, working each side to make two separate pouches without lifting the skin in the middle. Take some of the softened butter, and smear all over the exposed meat. Carefully place the discs of truffle on the buttered flesh, pull the skin back in place and it's ready for cooking. When you're serving the turkey, be sure to give everyone a bit of the truffled breast.
DYLAN MC GRATH Head chef, Mint, Ranelagh, Dublin 6
"It's going to be turkey and all the trimmings in our house," McGrath says. "But I'll be cooking it sous vide (vacuum-packed and placed in a water bath) with some butter and thyme, at a very low temperature, for more than 12 hours." Not much of a tip for the home cook, but if you want to add an extra zing to your Christmas gravy, "a Sauternes wine will work wonders", he tells me. This sweet, white wine, traditionally served with foie gras or desserts is one of the secret weapons in McGrath's sauces. He also uses a chicken wing jus, which he says gives the freshest and sweetest result. If you don't happen to have 20 organic chicken wings to make such a jus, a stock made from the giblets and turkey wings will work handsomely.
TURKEY GIBLET STOCK
Turkey wings and giblets (neck, liver, heart)
3 shallots, chopped roughly
6 whole peppercorns
1 sprig thyme
600ml water
300ml Sauternes
Wash the giblets. Cut the neck and wings into small pieces and sweat them gently with the shallots in a little olive oil. Add the thyme, peppercorns, water and Sauternes and bring to a simmer. Skim and continue to simmer gently for two hours. Strain and refrigerate in a sealed container.
SAUTERNES FOAM
300ml chicken or turkey giblet stock
325ml Sauternes
Juice of 1 large lemon
30g sugar
100ml cream
30g butter
In a deep-sided pot, bring the Sauternes to a boil and reduce by one third. Add the stock and bring back to a simmer. Add the cream, sugar and lemon juice and beat in the butter, so that it is emulsified. Allow to cool slightly. There's a knack to creating the foam, so McGrath showed me the technique in the restaurant kitchen. Tilt the pan and using a hand blender (not a rotary whisk) at an 80 degree angle, and with the blade partially out of the liquid, foam up the sauce. If you have a cappuccino frother, this will give a better result and avoid the splatters of a domestic blender. The cream and butter will stabilise the mixture and help to form the bubbles. Add more butter if the bubbles aren't holding. Spoon the foam over the turkey on each plate.
OLIVER DUNNE Chef patron, Bon Appetit, Malahide
"My mother will be doing the cooking," says Dunne. "She does a great traditional dinner, but she always tries to get me to do a course, which I have so far successfully avoided. I take charge of the drinks. But if you're looking for a festive alternative to plum pudding, there are some great dessert recipes that incorporate chestnuts. Layering a mousse with orange tuile biscuits to make a mille feuille makes it a bit more spectacular. The different elements can be prepared in advance and it's easy to assemble on the day."
MILLE FEUILLE OF CHESTNUT AND CHOCOLATE MOUSSE
Chocolate and orange tuile (makes 24 biscuits)
250g sugar
25g cocoa
150ml orange juice
125g flour
100g butter, melted
Put all of the ingredients in a bowl and mix
thoroughly. Line two large baking trays with
grease-proof paper, spread the mixture on top and
cook at 180 degrees/gas four for six minutes. Cut
into 24 neat rectangles and allow to cool.
Crème Anglaise
175ml milk
75ml cream
3 yolks
45g sugar
½ vanilla pod
Boil the milk, vanilla and cream. Whisk the yolks and sugar together, and pour the hot milk liquid on top. Return to a gentle heat and keep stirring until it thickens. Do not allow the mixture to boil as it will curdle. Allow to chill in a covered container in the refrigerater.
Chestnut mousse
250g chestnuts,crushed
100g sugar
200g water
200g cream, whipped
Put the chestnuts, sugar and water in a pot and bring to a boil. Reduce the mixture by one half. Allow it to cool slightly and liquidise until smooth. Mix with half the crème Anglaise and fold into the whipped cream. Put into a piping bag and chill. To Assemble: This is plated individually. Place a tuile on each plate and pipe the mousse nicely on the tuile, place another tuile on top and repeat the process with the mousse (like the assembly of a lasagne), finishing with a tuile on top. Pour a little of the crème Anglaise around each plate.