This year my Christmas piece is ‘X’ rated and purely for adults only. For those of us that like a good old Christmas and New Year tipple, what could be better than having a go at making something yourself and impressing your friends and family. More so since taxes on alcohol have dropped drastically in the past month! So much so that people have emptied the shelves of Johnnie Walker in case there’s a quick u-turn but that’s a story for another day.
Growing up in the UK and that too, a good old Manchester working class town, literally everyone’s dads, grandads and uncles were making some sort of homemade beer or wine. We always had something bubbling in that cupboard under the stairs, with many hits and of course a few awful hangover misses. Homemade wine became a bit of a favourite of my dad and I remember him trying everything from the usual red and white grape to apple, pear and a strangely but deliciously sweet carrot wine! Hence, you can pretty much make wine out of anything once you understand the basics of how sugar and yeast work their magic.
So lets start off with a homemade wine. This one is tried and tested over generations and is probably the easiest way for me to explain it to you. Sadly it won’t be ready for your this year’s New Year bash though, so for now at least, make the most of those reduced taxes on booze while they last.
Now this is going to sound like a long faff-filled process but once you’ve done it two or three times, you can have a dozen on the go at a time at one-week intervals, so here goes!
Eggnog, Gondhoraj Limoncello, Mulled wine
My grandad’s homemade wine
This is a family recipe being passed on from generation to generation beginning from those long hard years of rationing during the first and second world wars. It is incredibly simple if you follow a few basics.
To start, you’ll want to crush around 2.5kg of well-washed red grapes in a scalded container (stainless steel would be perfect) and when I say crush, I don’t mean blend, as the seeds will also be ground. You want to treat the mulch as a lady, not your worst enemy! Once you have something nice and squishy, add to this 2 litre of boiling water, 1kg castor sugar and give it a good stir. Allow it to sit until tepid before stirring in 2tsp of brewer’s yeast (there are plenty of varieties available online). Cover loosely with a tea towel and stir twice daily for seven days. Storing it in a cool dark place is best.
After seven days, remove the pulp and siphon off the liquid through a strainer into a scalded demijohn bottle. I just looked and you can also find these online (it’s a long time that the word demijohn has sprung into my head. It could have just been a word my grandad made up for all I know so I was honestly surprised to see them). They are basically a big 5litre bottle with a wide neck. Pull a balloon over the mouth of the bottle and secure it with a rubber band and put one pinhole in the balloon so the gasses from fermentation can escape and no bacteria can get in. It’s the method my grandad always used but if you really want to, I’m sure you can find an airlock stopper online.
Let this ferment for four weeks in a cool dark place. By now the balloon should be floppy and fermentation should have stopped. If the balloon is still upright, siphon the wine from the top, leaving the sediment behind into a clean demijohn and repeat the balloon method, until fermentation has stopped, maybe a week or two more. Finally, siphon off and bottle. You can drink after a week but it will get better with age.
So once you have your wine, next is something I can only really relate to in the wintery months and especially around Christmas time. The smell of all those festive spices and the red wine does somehow make me feel a bit mushy inside and I’d love to say use your homemade wine for this but if you want some mulled wine this Christmas, you’re going to have to buy a bottle.
Mulled wine
Pour one 750ml bottle of your favourite red wine into a saucepan (a good full-bodied red will be good for this) and add to it, 1 large cinnamon stick, 2 star anise, 4 cloves, a blade of mace, the pared zest of half a lemon and orange and 80g of caster sugar.
Bring to a slow simmer and allow to simmer for five minutes. Remove from the heat, pop on a lid and keep warm, leaving to infuse for about half an hour before serving in mugs or thick glasses and for an extra dash of Christmas spirit, you could pour in a little of your favourite spirits, rum, brandy, gin.
Another favourite homemade drink of mine and brilliant any time of the year is Limoncello. It’s really easy to make and will keep for literally years if kept in a cool dark place. You could make with any citrus fruit — lemons, limes, oranges or grapefruit. Just have some fun! Here I’m going to use the City of Joy’s very own gondhoraj, especially for you.
Gondhoraj Limoncello
Remove the zest from six gondhoraj lemons, taking care not to include any of that nastily bitter white pith. A peeler or zester will be fine. Put the zest in a large clean jar and pour over a 750ml bottle of vodka. Cover with cling film and leave for a week, giving the jar a little shake each day.
After your week is over, place 750gms of sugar with 300ml of water into a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Remove from the stove, add the vodka and peels, give it a stir and leave for another week, covered, giving it a shake regularly. Once your week is up, strain into bottles and keep in a cool dark place. It’s great over ice — I love it over ice cream and is best enjoyed amongst friends.
Growing up, Christmas just wouldn’t be Christmas for my grandmas and aunts if there weren’t a glass or two of eggnog floating around after lunch of Christmas Day with the mince pies and a good old Christmas Day siesta before the leftover turkey and stuffing sandwiches came out and they were all ushered into my dad’s car in batches to be escorted home to a glass of sherry and to bed.
This recipe for eggnog is deliciously rich as it’s made only with unadulterated cream and a little will go a long way in warming the cockles of your heart.
Eggnog the Chef Shaun way
To start, bring to a boil 1litre tetra pak cream (Amul, Britannia, D’lecta — there are many available). I’d obviously love to say fresh double cream but somehow the viscosity in Kolkata and fat content just doesn’t do it for me. While you’re waiting for it to come to a boil, whisk six lovely fresh egg yolks in a bowl with 150g caster sugar until pale yellow and thick — best done with an electric hand-held mixer but a good balloon whisk and some elbow grease never hurt anyone.
Once the milk and cream has come to a boil, slowly pour it over your egg yolks and sugar. Whisking continuously, then allowing to sit and become tepid before adding 400ml of whisky, brandy, rum or a mixture of whatever you like. Finely grate in half of a whole nutmeg or to taste, before pouring the mixture into bottles with screw caps of stoppers and store in the fridge for upto a month. To serve, pour into small glasses at room temperature and grate over a little extra nutmeg.
Lastly then onto my Christmas rum. This is the easiest thing to make and will be ready in four days. So plenty of time before New Year to make it.
Christmas rum
Pour 750ml of rum into a 1litre bottle. Add to this, 150ml of liquid nolen gur, 6 cloves, 1 blade of mace, 1 dried Kashmiri chilli, 2 cinnamon sticks, 2 star anise and 2 peelings each of lemon and orange zest. Place on a lid, give it a little shake. Then leave for at least 4 days before giving another little shake and serving (it will get better with age though, I can assure you) over ice with soda, ginger ale or cola.
Q&A
I used to love the plum cakes from Nahoum’s growing up but now I’m married into a vegetarian household. Do you have an eggless plum cake recipe?
I’m happy to give you one as long as you promise to still quietly pop out and get your fill of a Nahoum’s original this Christmas. This is good and I’ll even make it vegan for you but it’ll just never fill that spot sadly.
Vegan plum cake
To start, put 1kg of mixed dried fruit (raisins, sultanas, currants, cherries, pitted dates, prunes or figs), into a saucepan with the zest and juice of an orange and a lemon, 150ml rum and 250ml strong tea liquor. Simmer for five minutes, before stirring in 250g brown sugar and 80g of chia seeds, giving it a stir, placing on a lid and allowing to steep overnight.
Preheat oven to 160°C and line a deep 20cm cake tin with a double layer of baking parchment. Then wrap a double layer of newspaper around the outside, tying it with string to secure. Next, open the lid of your pot and stir in 200ml coconut oil, 225g flour, 100g ground almonds, 1tsp baking powder, 1tsp ground cinnamon, ¼tsp ground cloves, ½tsp ground nutmeg, 1tsp ground ginger powder and 1tsp vanilla extract. The cake mixture should be quite heavy.
Tip the mixture into your prepared baking tin, level the top with a spoon and bake in the centre of the oven for 90 minutes. Once baked, remove from the oven and leave the cake to cool completely in the tin, with a damp tea towel placed over the top. Once cool, peel off the baking parchment and spend the next four days drizzling over a little rum or brandy each day, wrapping well in cling film for another four days and if all goes well, it should be ready for eating on Christmas Day.
Chef, what was your favourite dish growing up in the UK on Christmas Day?
It certainly wasn’t my mum’s incredibly overcooked turkey and vegetables but I did like that once a year and only on Christmas Day prawn cocktail and of course handful of sweets from a big tin of Quality Street.
I’m having a little get-together at home on Christmas Day. Do you have a secret ingredient that I can impress my guests with when serving the Christmas pudding?
What can be more impressive than doing it, just the way it should be. Dim the lights and flambee with rum at the table and serve with rum sauce and my secret — a dollop of brandy butter. It’s so rich and sinful, it will certainly put a smile on any face.
Brandy butter
Beat together 200g softened butter with 175g of icing sugar and 1tsp vanilla extract or the seeds from one vanilla pod. Keep beating until creamy, light and airy and slowly whisk in around 5 to 8tbsp of brandy, 1tbsp at a time, depending how strong you want the flavour to be and dollop away at will. It’s also delicious spooned over warm sweet mincemeat tarts.
Hi Chef Shaun. I’ve been reading and enjoying your columns in The Telegraph for years and have followed a turkey recipe you posted long ago every year and yes, every year I make that pilgrimage to New Market to buy a turkey for Christmas, every year the prices get more and more extortionate and every year the turkeys seem more and more malnourished and last year I decided it would be my last. Do you have some sort of option for cooking a chicken to get similar results?
Of course and I’m going to repeat that recipe because it really was years and years ago. Brine your chicken or chickens exactly the same way. 1.5kg would be a good size if you can find them and cook in exactly the same way.
Roast chicken/turkey
I’m going to start with that turkey or alternatively a chicken or two. We’ll start the day before by submerging the bird in a brining solution so it’ll remain moist — even that dry grainy breast. You’ll need to place into a big enough vessel to fully submerge your turkey or chicken, a bucket would probably be best for this. To each litre of water dissolve 60g of salt and throw in a few peppercorns and bay leaves. Once you’ve made enough to fully submerge, leave it in the solution, refrigerated for 18 to 24 hours.
On the day, drain the bird well and pat it dry with kitchen paper. We’re not going to stuff it but we’re going to make a nice buttery basting that we’re going to rub all over. For each kilo of bird you’ll need 100g of softened butter to which you add two cloves of chopped garlic, the zest of half a lemon and some chopped parsley. You can decide on how much of that and like I said beat it all together and smooth it over the skin of the bird.
Next, place into a roasting tray with around ½’’ of water and roast in a pre-heated oven for 20 to 25 minutes per pound (500g) or until the juices run clear at around 170°C. If it’s a big bird 3kg-plus then cook for the first half of the cooking time covered with aluminum foil to stop it from burning and becoming dry and once it is cooked drain off those delicious juices into a pan and set aside for the gravy and allow it to rest for half an hour or so before serving.
That all-important gravy
Place your roasting juices onto a flame and if they have become very less in quantity, add some stock. There is going to be lots of flavour from the butter mixture so no need to do much more than thicken it with a little corn flour dissolved in water until you have the kind of coating consistency you desire.