Chef Paula McIntyre: Christmas shouldn't be about being chained to the kitchen

The traditional turkey and trimmings dinner has enough components to send a professional chef into meltdown, yet we persevere, pretending we’re just one Brussels sprout away from a Michelin star.

So it only makes sense to ask one of Northern Ireland’s most esteemed chefs and Farming Life columnist, Paula McIntyre, what she’ll be cooking this Christmas.

This year, the Aghadowey-born chef, food writer and broadcaster, will be spending Christmas day at her brother and sister-in-law’s house, with some 16 guests for dinner. Although Paula won’t be on

turkey cooking duties this year, she will be bringing along some of her own range of Christmas puddings and preparing a fancy-sounding pithivier for the vegetarian diners.

Paula explains: "A pithivier is basically a round of puff pastry which you fill with layers of things. I put on a layer of spinach that I’ve cooked down with butter and a bit of salt, pepper and nutmeg and then squeeze it to get all the juice out of it. Then I do a stuffing with chestnuts – fry onion and chestnuts together with a bit of butter, de-glaze that with balsamic vinegar, throw in some breadcrumbs and some feta cheese, and then another layer of roasted butternut squash, and I just keep layering it up. I do a gravy with porcini mushrooms, balsamic vinegar and a bit of marmite, veggie stock and onions.”

There’s usually one component of the traditional Christmas that someone doesn’t like, and Paula

admits she isn’t a big fan of Brussels sprouts, especially if they are overcooked and soggy, but she has found a way to make the much maligned brassica ‘palatable’

“I like sprouts when they are well cooked. I would normally cut them in half, put them into boiling salted water for about two minutes, drain them, pat them dry – they’re lovely and green at this stage – I toss them in a bit of local rapeseed oil, some freshly chopped rosemary, some sea salt and put them onto a baking tray and into a hot oven for about 15 mins and they are lovely.”

She also has some top tips on how to make deliciously fluffy, crisp festive spuds.

"I’m not a fan of doing them in goose or duck fat. I par boil them, dry them off really well, put them back in the pan and while they’re still hot toss them in fine semolina. I use Broighter Gold rapeseed oil (from Limavady), which is really lovely and golden. Fill the bottom of a tray with that, get it roasting hot​​​, put your potatoes in that with a bit of sea salt. Keep turning them and you get a really lovely, light crisp roastie.”

When it comes to homemade Christmas cake, Paula lets her talented niece do the honours.

“My niece is a brilliant baker. She does a Christmas cake every year. She ices it properly and decorates it. When you’ve got somebody in the family that does something better than you, just let them do it!”

But Paula will be helping her niece make cocktails from her own range of Paula McIntyre Gin and Rum, which is produced in partnership with Giants Basalt Distillery on the north coast.

“We are going to make cocktails on Christmas Day for everyone who wants them. My rum has got blackberry and honey in it, so my niece has come up with a blackberry daquiri. I think I will either do martinis or a French 75 with gin, lemon and bit of prosecco.”

Paula is a well-travelled lady and has enjoyed a few Christmases abroad, including in the US, where she studied, and in Italy and France.

”The last time I was away was just before Covid. I went to Nice with some American friends and I had Christmas day lunch on the beach. We had wild seabass and I think that was one of the nicest Christmas lunches I ever had. I’d love to serve my family that, but there’d be a major row!”

Growing up, Paula said Christmas dinner was “always turkey”.

"We took it in turns of going to my granny’s one year, my uncle’s, and then us. When I was 18 I had started catering college and I did that whole thing where you stuff a turkey with a goose with a duck with a chicken. I wanted to show off. But it went down very badly, especially with my grandfather, I think he blamed me for ruining Christmas that year! Granny would have made sherry trifle and we always had homemade Christmas pudding and sometimes cheesecake.”

And Paula recalls the treats she left out for Santa on Christmas eve.

“We left out one carrot for Rudolph (there was only one reindeer in Aghadowey, the rest of them must have knocked off early!), a mince pie and a very good ‘snorter’ of whiskey. It was very funny because Santa would have taken one bite out of the mince pie, but he always drank the whiskey!”

​But, let’s face it, cooking Christmas dinner can be stressful, especially if you aren’t a particularly skilled cook and haven’t prepared a mega-banquet before, but Paula’s advice is try not to get too stressed about the whole palaver.

“It’s not about somebody being chained to the kitchen, it’s about having a bit of fun and if that means cracking open a box of Pringles and opening a bottle of wine, so be it.

"Because I’ve been so busy this year I am looking forward to just catching up. I love that whole thing of sitting round the table after dinner, having a bit of cheese and port and chatting. As a family, TV would never have been a part of Christmas day, we’d rather have a bit of craic.

“When it comes to entertaining I will be visiting my local cheese shop and there will be cheese and charcuterie and I’ll make bread. I’ve had a really busy year and I just want to enjoy myself.”

And her advice for others is to keep things simple, do a bit of preparation the day before and don’t go over the top with vast quantities of food.

“We cook far too much quantity and far too many varities of things. Trim it all down. Yes, do the turkey, but you don’t need a massive ham. And also, get as much done as you can the day before. I cook the turkey the day before, get it all sliced up, get your ham sliced up and then heat it up in the oven that day. And try not to stress. If you want to do a turkey crown, it’s a lot handier. Keep it simple. The whole thing about Christmas is getting together and just look on it as a Sunday roast . You wouldn’t have six different types of vegetables for your Sunday roast, so do sprouts, carrots, peas, do your roasties and mash. You don’t need a load of stuff.”

For more tips on what to serve up this festive season, there’ll be a special edition of Paula’s hugely popular Hamely Kitchen on BBC One NI next week.

She gives a taste of what viewers can expect, with recipes that reflect her own Ulster-Scots heritage.

“I’m making a turkey cooked in a muslin cloth with butter. There’ll also be a savoury king cake.”

As Paula points out, traditionally in Scotland the marking of the New Year and the epiphany, January 6, was of greater significance than Christmas.

"In France they do a king cake, a filled choux ring or puff pastry with frangipane and it’s in the shape of a crown and you decorate it with icing and baubles to make it quite gaudy like a crown. There’s wee trinkets in it and if you slice it open and get a coin that’s good luck. I am doing a savoury version of a King cake, which is a centrepiece. It’s got vegetables in it, including sprouts and a really lovely cider gravy.”

Paula will also bake spiced biscuits inspired by her Ulster-Scots cooking heroine Florence Irwin, who wrote a weekly cooking column in the Northern Whig for 50 years.

In the episode, Paula pays a visit to St Columb's Cathedral in Londonderry to learn about famous hymn-writer Cecil Frances Alexander who wrote Once in Royal David’s City and was the wife of the Ulster-Scots Bishop of Derry back in the 19th Century.

"There’s a lovely stained glass window in the cathedral dedicated to Cecil Frances Alexander. She was a wonderful woman and a great philanthropist, who represented the true essence of Christmas. We made spiced biscuits and served those to the girls in the choir.”

*The Hamely Kitchen Christmas Special is on December 22, BBC One Northern Ireland and BBC iPlayer at 7.30pm.