Christmas Day a la Radio 2
From Bread Sauce to Nut Roast and Christmas Cake to the Queen's Speech, here's a run down of the nibbles and nosh your favourite Radio 2 presenters need to have on their most festive day of the year!
Vanessa Feltz
My must-have dish is roast potatoes and my late, great friend Sir Clement Freud gave me his recipe which has never let me down. After you chopped and parboiled your potatoes, you must pour them in a colander and give them a vigorous shake. This roughs up the skins and makes them more uneven which will help them soak up more oil while roasting to give them a really crispy finish.
Ken Bruce
Early on Christmas Day I always pour myself a nice glass of dry sherry. It’s not something I normally drink but it feels the right thing to have on such a day and it helps me get in the festive spirit. I only ever have one glass and purely for medicinal purposes, of course.
Simon Mayo
I will bore people senseless until I get some Bread Sauce. I can’t get enough of it. But ever since I was a kid, what I love most is the cold leftovers later in the evening. We always had our Christmas dinner in the early afternoon and I remember it getting later in the evening when I go get some cold turkey and sprouts and put on big handful of crisps and then sit in front of the telly to watch Morecombe and Wise. It still much the same today in our house and there’s always some bread sauce.
Sally Traffic
Being a vegetarian, I always make Chestnut Roast every Christmas. It can be a faff to make because it involves a lot of cutting of carrots and parsnips and the vegetables, but it’s always worth it because it tastes so great. Even my meat eater friends say they love it.
Michael Ball
Every year I will do a traditional Christmas cake that I begin making 2-3 months before and every Sunday I will feed it with a mix of whiskey, brandy and dark rum. This just infuses the cake with the most wonderful flavour. Two weeks before Christmas I begin to decorate it with marzipan and white icing, which I always stylize to a specific festive theme.
Maria McErlane
It’s not Christmas in our house until I’ve had one of my sister Teresa’s homemade mince pies, which she makes with a dollop of cream cheese in the middle. They’ve been a family tradition for over 20 years and they’re always a real treat when you warm them up and the cheese melts in your mouth. Come January I will have eaten so many I can barely squeeze into my jeans.
Anneka Rice
It’s a tradition in our house to have a glass of champagne with brandy in it on Christmas morning. We adults chat and sip over some lovely smoked salmon and toast while the kiddies go crazy opening their presents. It’s just a lovely way to ease into our festivities and always make the rest of the day go by with a breeze.
Nigel Barden
Oh, I do like a bit of Brandy Sauce with my Christmas pudding! I like to make it from scratch with butter, milk, sugar and a good splash more brandy than the recipe calls for. You can cheat and add a big splash of brandy to some store bought white sauce, but real is better. I always warm it up before serving.
Tony Blackburn
As I’m a vegetarian, my Christmas must haves really has nothing to do with a “traditional” Christmas dinner. Load me up with potatoes, sprouts, runner beans, peas, carrots and cover it with butter and lots of vegetable gravy. We often dine out on Christmas day so that’s what I like to order and am happy.
Bobbie Pryor
As a vegetarian I love everything that meat eaters eat... just not meat. I always make a Veggie Nut Roast. Unfortunately I don’t have a food processor, so I’m up late on Christmas Eve banging two pounds of mixed nuts with a rolling pin. Red wine gravy is a must, and it is the only thing I make ahead of time - Christmas with us is always last minute.
Lynn Bowles
I must, must, must have Bacon Rolls on Christmas Day! Americans might call them Pigs In Blankets, but around our house they’re called Bacon Rolls. That’s it! I prefer to make them with unsmoked back bacon from which I cut off the excess fat and use them on the turkey breast to keep it moist. I also prefer using chipotle sausages for a bit more bite to the flavour.
Johnny Walker
The biggest tradition in our house actually has nothing to do with food as my wife insists we can’t open up presents until after the Queen’s Speech. So we nibble away the morning with some champagne and smoked salmon as my wife works on our lunch. This always gets me feeling rosy and I can think of no better way to start Christmas Day than with some bubbles.
Trevor Nelson
We do Ham On The Bone every Christmas in our house. We always boil it first so the aroma until the aroma fills the house then we add cloves to the fleshy part, boil it some more and then leave it to rest for a couple of house. We always serve it with hot pepper sauce and hard dough bread.
Jeremy Vine
Mum always does bread sauce at Christmas. She doesn't do lunch so often now, because my parents downsized and it's easier if they come to us. But no one does bread sauce like my mum. If I had some to eat now I'd probably cry. And she was kind enough to let me share her recipe with you:
Diana Vine’s Christmas Bread Sauce
Serves 6 – 8
Preparation time: 10 minutes plus standing time (Christmas Eve). Plus, 10 minutes (Christmas Day)
Ingredients
1 onion
450 ml (3/4 pint milk)
1 bay leaf
8 peppercorns
2 fresh thyme sprigs
150 g (5oz) white breadcrumbs
25 g (1oz) butter
Pinch salt
90 ml (6 tablespoons) double cream (or equivalent milk if preferred)
Christmas Eve
Pour the 450 ml milk into a pan. Add the onion, bay leaf, peppercorns and thyme. Bring slowly to a boil. Take off the heat and leave to infuse for 30 minutes. Strain the milk into a clean bowl or pan.
You can put the milk in the fridge overnight and leave the breadcrumbs out to dry a little or you can skip this step and do it all on the same day.
Christmas Day
Remove milk from fridge and bring to boil in pan and add the breadcrumbs. Return to a boil, stirring and simmer for 5 minutes until thickened.
Stir in the butter and a little salt. Transfer to a serving dish and lightly stir in cream (or 6 tablespoons of warmed milk, if preferred)