Christmas Preparation Guide
Christmas is a time of family, friends, and festivity. It’s also a time for food, which can be a delight to plan and prepare. With a little bit of scheduling in advance, you can make sure your rich, smooth gravy, deliciously tart cranberry sauce and juicy mince pies are ready to serve with the least amount of effort on the day. Once you’ve made a list of ingredients, all you need to do is set aside some time to prepare your recipes up to a week before Christmas Day.
This is a day for pure indulgence, and we have tried-and-true recipes that will ensure your lunch is a complete success (and that your kitchen will smell like cinnamon, nutmeg, fresh strawberries and warm, buttery-fresh pastry).
On the menu
Pumpkin & Cauliflower Quinoa Salad
A week to go
With one week to go, this is the time to be certain of your menu, to shop for ingredients and to have the correct pots, pans, cookie cutters and utensils you’ll require for each recipe.
With a week to go, this is the time you can make and bake your gingerbread, Christmas Cake and Yorkshire puddings. The Christmas shortbread, Christmas Fruit Cake and gingerbread can be baked and stored in air tight containers. The batter for the crispy, fluffy Yorkshire puddings can be made ahead, refrigerated and cooked on the day.
A day earlier
This is the perfect time to make your summery, gorgeously fresh mixed berry trifle, allowing the brandy and jam to soak into the sponge overnight. If you prefer a pavlova, this divine summer pavlova is also layered with juicy, sweet berries with a lighter texture than trifle.
This is also the day for making your salad dishes, like the Classic Potato Salad, Pumpkin & Cauliflower Quinoa Salad and the hearty
Pumpkin & Black Bean Salad, which is packed full of flavour thanks to the even heat applied by the CircoTherm function.
On the day
Making sure all your dishes land on the table at the right time is easy with the Flex induction cooktops. They operate intelligently to assess the size and number of pots on each burner, then they heat up accordingly.
Making a deliciously rich gravy using the induction cooktop is easy, and you probably already have all the ingredients you need in the fridge and pantry. Simply combine the pan juices from your roast turkey (or meat of choice) with vegetable stock, red wine and butter. You can prepare this in less than 10 minutes with the assistance of NEFF PowerBoost, which enables you to quickly heat your pans before resetting to Level 9 temperature. Keep an eye on gravy to prevent lumps.
Depending on whether your turkey is frozen or thawed, cooking time is between 1.5 and 2 hours. The glazed ham has a similar cooking time of 2 hours. Using VarioSteam® and the MultiPoint MeatProbe ensures that your Christmas turkey is flawless. The additional steam maintains the moisture and flavour of the turkey, and the MultiPoint MeatProbe monitors the internal temperature of your meat, automatically switching off your oven once it’s been cooked to perfection.
Fill out your table with bright sides
Choosing simple side dishes that maximise flavour and colour is the best way to avoid spending longer in the kitchen than necessary. You can whip up a grilled vegetable salad while your turkey is cooking using whatever vegetables you have at hand: sliced zucchinis, sweet potato, carrots, pumpkin, beans and snow peas are all ideal. Simply preheat the oven on Grill function, give them a spray of olive oil, leave for a couple of minutes then season with salt and pepper to taste.
Spending time in the kitchen is part of the Christmas tradition. With intelligent NEFF appliances, cooking for your loved ones is a stress-free experience. Conveniently, NEFF ovens are designed with the CircoTherm function, providing the ability to cook multiple meals at once without any intermingling of flavours, so with careful planning (and matching oven temperatures) you can potentially cook your menu simultaneously on the day if preparation gets away from you.