Christmas with Gordon: by Gordon Ramsay

3 Reviews For This Product

1. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   03

   by The Person September 7, 2023

   This review is for the latest 2015 edition.

   I have collected quite a few cooking books over the years and this one is a great addition. Plenty of great Christmas dishes. Some classics with modern twists and some completely new ones for me. The book is very beautifully presented with lots of mouth-watering pictures and clear, detailed preparation instructions. Typically for Gordon you get some very fancy and complicated dishes that take time and some skill to prepare. However, there is also plenty for the occasional inexperienced cook. What I like is that there are complete Christmas menus to choose from with dishes that go together very well. Each menu has a planning section to help you prepare ahead and organise your time efficiently. Again, typically for Gordon there isn’t much faffing about just straight to the point to get things done. Just how a cooking book should be.

   Very happy with my purchase and I cannot wait to try some of the recipes so Christmas might come early this year.

   Here is the list of sections and recipes from this book:

   PARTY FOOD:
   -Dry-roasted spiced nuts
   -Smoked salmon-witch avocado and horseradish mousse on pumpernickel
   -Pumpkin tartlets with sage and thyme
   -Marinated beef skewers with garlic and rosemary
   -Paprika chicken with aioli
   -Stilton gougeres
   -Stuffed dates with honey and pistachio marzipan

   CHRISTMAS MENUS:

   ROAST TURKEY MENU:
   -Roast turkey with lemon, parsley and garlic
   -Turkey gravy with cider and walnuts
   -Pork, apricot and pistachio stuffing
   -Caramelised cranberry and apple sauce
   -Roast potatoes with chilli and turmeric
   -Brussels sprouts with pancetta and chestnuts
   -Light steamed pudding with whiskey cream

   BEEF WELLINGTON MENU:
   -Pan-fried scallops with caper, raisin and olive vinaigrette
   -Christmas beef Wellington
   -Watercress purée
   -Truffle mashed potatoes
   -Pannacotta with pomegranate glaze

   GLAZZED HAM MENU
   -Cream of cauliflower soup with truffle oil and croutons
   -Haney glazed ham
   -Pear and saffron chutney
   -Parsnip purée
   -Creamed cabbage with thyme
   -Ricotta cake with caramelised clementines and star anise

   SEA BASS MENU:
   -Smoked duck breast salad with pomegranate vinaigrette
   -Pan-fried sea bass with lemongrass veloute
   -Potato and celeriac dauphinoise
   -Broccoli and sugar snap peas
   -Sherry-glazed figs with pine nut brittle

   ROAST GOOSE MENU:
   -Roast goose with five spice and honey
   -Redcurrant and red wine sauce
   -Braised red cabbage and apple
   -Honey glazed carrots and parsnip
   -Passion fruit parfait

   BREAKFAST & BRUNCH:
   -Christmas muesli
   -Chestnut muffins
   -Scrambled eggs and smoked salmon on toasted croissants
   -Ham and potato cakes
   -Cinnamon pancakes with caramelised apples
   -Provencal Christmas bread

   LUNCHES & SUPPERS
   -Pumpkin soup with wild mushrooms
   -Linguine with mushrooms and truffle
   -Ideas for smoked salmon:
   *Potted salmon with harissa
   *Smoked salmon chowder
   *Farfalle with smoked salmon and peas
   *Smoked salmon and char-grilled potato salad
   -Poached side of salmon with a light tarragon mayonnaise
   -Salmon salad nicoise with coddled eggs
   -Ideas for cooked turkey:
   *Soba noodles and turkey in miso broth
   *Turkey, cranberry and wild rice pilaf
   *Turkey curry
   *Turkey, chorizo and bean stew
   -Pan-fried duck breast with spiced orange and cranberry sauce
   -Shallot tart tatin with roasted tomatoes and goat’s cheese
   -Ideas for cooked ham:
   *Pea and ham soup with minted crème fraiche
   *Spaghetti ‘carbonara’
   *Glazed ham salad with roquefort dressing
   *Leek, ham and mushroom pies
   -Winter minestrone with walnut pesto
   -Pumpkin risotto
   -Bubble and squeak cakes
   -Ideas for stilton
   *Stilton and walnut palmiers
   *Celeriac, apple and stilton soup
   *Griddled fig salad with stilton dressing
   *Steak with mushroom and blue cheese sauce

   SWEET TREATS:
   -Italian-style trifle
   -Christmas bombe
   -Pear and amaretto cheesecake
   -Vanilla shortbread
   -Cranberry mince pies
   -Cinnamon and almond drizzle cake
   -White chocolate biscotti with pistachios and dried cranberries
   -Mint chocolate truffles

   I hope you found this review informative and helpful. Thanks for reading.

2. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   03

   by The Person September 10, 2023

   I’ve gone from “Gordon Ramsay is completely obnoxious and not worth watching” to “Gordon Ramsay is a culinary genius” and hang on his every word.

   If you follow his recipes very carefully you end up with just amazingly flavoured food. I love that when the ingredients are put together the flavours are so perfectly balanced that whole new flavours emerge. I also love that many of his recipes are demonstrated on a video site to help with technique and presentation.

   Our Christmas dinners have been the same since i was a child and they have been lovely. This year we’ve decided to go for a full Gordon Christmas so i decided to get this book.

   Although the book is now a decade old it’s still beautifully presented (maybe time to spoil us with another edition???) and contains all the elements for a spectacular christmas dinner from party food, the main meal right through to desserts. The christmas pudding looks delicious and intriguing as it’s much different to the one i currently make.

   You get suggestions for cheeses and wine to accompany different foods as well as christmas staples.

   Some of the recipes appearing on my christmas table will be the potato and celeriac dauphinoise, pear and saffron chutney (sounds like something that Mrs Bennett would have on her table at Longbourn), Gordon’s signature beef wellington. So much yummy stuff in this book.

   One of the difficulities with cooking a vast dinner is timing everything. Gordon helps us out with a timeline…well in advance…day before 1.5 hours ahead etc. It’s a really handy guide and great for the less experienced chef to make sure the meal goes according to plan.

   This is my new christmas cooking bible.

3. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   03

   by emma who reads a lot October 21, 2023

   Christmas cookbooks are easy to like, given the season, but it takes something special to write a really good one. Has Gordon Ramsay succeeded? Written in conjunction with the home economist Emily Quah (if you read the small print) this one is quite lovely on first impressions. Lots of recipes, lots of pictures and a total lack of noodling on about christmas à la Nigella.

   It divides up into:

   PARTY FOOD
   spicy nuts, mulled wine, and some really lovely canapé ideas that I will definitely be trying. Little pumpkin tartlets, marinated beef skewers, little stilton gougères. Nothing obvious, just very delicious-looking. He has a wonderful imagination for dishes, I think.

   FIVE CHRISTMAS MENUS
   Vegetarians will be weeping at this point – it’s turkey, goose, beef wellington, ham or sea bass.
   Top marks here, actually. Anyone who has read the normal drag of Christmas books knows how hard it is to invent new recipes for traditional meals, but… Great stuffing ideas, intriguing gravy suggestions, good pudding recipes (pomegranate panacotta… mmm) There’s a pear and saffron chutney for eating with ham that i’m making while writing this… smells delicious so far.

   BREAKFAST AND BRUNCH
   Personally, almost my favourite bit of christmas, and some good muffins (with chestnuts!), delish sounding ham and potato cakes, a provençal christmas bread.

   LUNCHES AND SUPPERS
   Actually, finally some good things for the non-meat-eater! Pumpkin soup with wild mushrooms and a fantastic shallot and goat’s cheese tatin would make an amazing Xmas menu. Also some excellent and original non-clichéd suggestions for using up smoked salmon, stilton, turkey and ham.

   PUDDINGS
   Italian-style trifle; a BRILLIANT looking Christmas Bombe made of shop-bought swiss roll and ice cream, pear and amaretto cheesecake, and others.

   My biggest criticism would be … GR always has a tendency to make recipes that come too directly from the restaurant kitchen. For eg: There’s a pumpkin risotto which has the rice parboiled and cooled on a tray, but most of us will be wanting to make it one go, surely, and would prefer the recipe like that?

   Or there’s those potato cakes, but which require boiling potatoes and leaving them (preferably) in the fridge overnight before continuing. These sorts of things give a whiff of complicated cooking, and also require the person using the cookbook to use a bit of common sense if they DON”T want to do it like that. So for me, fine; for my sister, who prefers everything a bit more literal, not so good.

   I’m taking off a star because of that drawback, and would advise beginner Christmas cooks to buy 

   Delia Smith’s Christmas

    with its copious shopping hints and excellent timetables (this book has nothing as comprehensive as that, though it has a short page on what to do for each menu). But if you are already a keen cook and fancy adding to your yuletide repertoire, this is definitely a bargain and I think you are sure to find a few things that the family request every year from now on!