Christmas is a time for gathering loved ones, indulging in good food, and creating memories. But for many, the festive cheer stops short in the kitchen, where the pressure to deliver the “perfect” Christmas lunch can leave the chef feeling more stressed than festive.
Enter Jamie Oliver, the celebrated chef and father of five, with a timely reminder: Christmas should be a day for everyone, including those behind the stove.
“We love Christmas in our household,” says Oliver, author of Simply Jamie. “My favourite tradition is that when we first cut into the cake, the whole family screams from the top of their lungs! Well, it’s really my wife’s tradition, and I’m not necessarily a fan, but it brings the whole family together, having fun, so I love it.”
But with so many mouths to feed and dishes to make, how does Oliver ensure a stress-free Christmas?
“When it comes to saving time and stress on the big day, I’m just going say two words: plan and prep!” advises Oliver. “Lock in cooking times by taking the time you want to sit down to eat and working backwards – so if you want to eat at 2pm and the turkey needs two hours to cook, you need to be in the kitchen for midday at the very latest. Make sure you know what’s going in the oven and when – and always check you have space to fit everything.
“And do as much prep as you can beforehand, whether that’s making dishes and freezing them until you’re ready, or laying the table and prepping the veg on Christmas Eve. That takes out a lot of the stress, so you can enjoy the day too.”
Here, Oliver shares two recipes to make your Christmas day easier than ever…
Jamie Oliver’s fuss-free cauliflower cheese
Serves 4-6, as a side
- 1 head of cauliflower (800g)
- Olive oil
- 300ml single cream
- 1tsp English mustard
- 100g cheddar cheese
- 100g cornbread
Preheat the oven to 180°C fan/350°F/gas 4. Click off and discard the outer leaves of the cauliflower, then break it apart into 3-4cm florets, and finely slice the stalk.
Place everything (stalk and all) in a 25cm x 30cm roasting tray in a single layer. Toss with 1tbsp of olive oil and a pinch of sea salt and black pepper, and roast for 40 minutes.
Remove the tray from the oven and squash the cauliflower with a fork to break it up a bit.
Mix the cream and mustard together, season, then pour evenly over the cauliflower.
Finely grate over the cheese, crumble over the cornbread and bake for a final 10 minutes, or until golden and bubbling.
Nutritional information:
ENERGY 399kcal FAT 30.1g SAT FAT 16.1g PROTEIN 16.3g CARBS 16.9g SUGARS 8g SALT 0.9g FIBRE 4g
Jamie Oliver’s epic sticky toffee pudding
Jamie’s top tip: To make this alcohol-free, swap the whisky for orange juice, or leave it out.
Serves 16
- 2 Earl Grey tea bags
- 200g Medjool dates
- 1tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1tsp ground cinnamon
- 1tsp ground ginger
- ½ nutmeg
- 350g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
- 350g golden caster sugar
- 350g dark muscovado sugar
- 350g self-raising flour
- 4 large eggs
- 50ml whisky
- 300ml single cream
Preheat the oven to 160°C/325°F/Gas 3. Steep the tea bags in 175ml of boiling water, destone and add the dates, then stir in the bicarb and leave for 10 minutes.
Remove the teabags, then blitz the mixture in a food processor. Add the cinnamon and ginger, grate in the nutmeg, add 175g of the butter and 175g of each sugar, all the flour and the eggs, then blitz again until smooth.
Grease a 20cm x 30cm baking dish with butter, pour in the pudding mixture, then bake for 35 minutes, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
To make the caramel sauce, put the remaining butter and sugars into a small pan, along with the whisky. Simmer for five minutes over a medium heat, until you get a shiny, spoonable consistency, whisking occasionally.
Remove from the heat and stir in the cream.
As soon as the pudding is out of the oven, pour over half the caramel sauce, serving the rest on the side, for drizzling over.
This is delicious rippled with tinned custard, or with whipped cream or ice cream.
Nutritional Info
ENERGY 485kcal FAT 24g SAT FAT 14.6g PROTEIN 4.9g CARBS 66.1g SUGARS 49.9g SALT 0.5g FIBRE 0.7g
Extracted from Simply Jamie by Jamie Oliver (Penguin Michael Joseph, £30)
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