Panicking about how many times you need to baste? Enduring sleepless nights over just how long to cook the sprouts? You can kiss your Yuletide woes goodbye with the help of Chef Olia Hercules, who was trained at Leiths and perfected her skills in the fiery kitchens of Ottolenghi.. Here she shares her top tips for how to create a flawlessly traditional yuletide meal.
1. When roasting a topside of beef, turn it every 20 mins in the oven to ensure an even roast.
2. To speed up your potato roasting, parboil them for 5 minutes the night before, drain and leave in the fridge.
3. People score their brussel sprouts but it isn’t necessary if you blanche them for 3 minutes and shock in cold water – this gives a more al dente sprout with a vibrant colour.
4. When making cranberry sauce, start with a sugar syrup of sugar and a little water first before adding the cranberries. Adding sugar later will create a lumpy consistency.
5. Brioche bread sauce is a sweeter alternative to using white bread, also mace instead of nutmeg balances the flavour nicely.
6. When roasting vegetables, put the oil onto a baking tray and put it in a hot oven for 5 minutes before adding the vegetables. This means they will get a really crispy coating.