Jamie's Family Christmas saves the day...

I'm not sure if you managed to catch Jamie Oliver's Family Christmas on Channel 4 a couple of weeks ago, but thank goodness I caught it as this year we were having a small family Christmas (just the two of us, plus the adorable but fussy-eating toddler!) and decided early on to forgo the whole turkey option and try a crown instead...but what to do about gravy?!

This is where Jamie came to the rescue with his Get-Ahead Gravy. Quite radical in the method - you basically roast off chicken wings, herbs, spices and veggies before making a reduced stock of them.

When the show was aired, it appears everyone raced to find the gravy recipe online but it wasn't posted due to restrictions in how many they could post per episode; however you can find it explained in full in his December issue of "Jamie" magazine - available from WHSmiths still if you hunt about - and I'm sure it'll appear in a future cookbook if he goes the way of Nigella, Delia et al! And because I'm always happy to share a good thing, you can find the details below...

Get-Ahead Gravy (Jamie Oliver)

Makes about 1 litre

2 celery sticks, trimmed and roughly chopped
2 carrots, roughly chopped
2 onions, quartered
5 bay leaves
5 sage leaves
4 sprigs of fresh rosemary
2 star anise
2 rashers of smoked streaky bacon
8 chicken wings
30ml olive oil
4 tbsp plain flour
60ml sherry or port (optional)
2 dessertspoons cranberry sauce

*Preheat oven to 200.C/gas6. Put the veg, herbs and star anise into a heavy bottomed roasting pan (as it'll need to go on the hob later on). Scatter the bacon over the top. Break the chicken wings open and add to pan. Drizzle the lot with the olive oil, season and roast in the oven for about 1 hour (until meat is falling off the bone).
* Take the pan out of the oven and pop onto the hob. Over a low heat, mash it all up with a potato masher, scraping the bottom of the pan and mix in the flour. The longer you take to do this, the darker the end gravy will be. Once the flour is comboned well, add 2 litres of of hot water and boil for 10 minutes until thickened then turn down to simmer for about 25mins. If adding sherry or port, do so now.
* Once it's at the right consistancy for you, check seasoning and strain/sieve into a bowl. Discard what is left behind and cool down to chill or freeze.
*On the day itself: take your gravy out to thaw (if frozen). Once the turkey is cooked, tip it up to pour the juices into the pan. Remove all but 1 1/2tbsp fat and pour in your pre-made gravy. bring this to boil, scraping the bottom of the pan for crusty bits and add your cranberry sauce to taste before serving.

Now we found the star anise very strong, even though I only used 1 (pre-empting the 'chinese crispy duck' flavour!) discarding it before the water-adding stage, and so next year I'll be missing this out entirely. I also found that to get to the right consistancy (i.e. not water!), I had to simmer it for nearly 40 mins leaving us with nearer 500ml rather than a litre of finished gravy, but I guess that everyone's oven and hob differs! And as there were just 3 of us, I wasn't overly concerned that we'd run out. Like many others, I also couldn't get hold of chicken wings for love nor money so I replaced the wings with 2 chicken quarters instead, though I'm sure thighs or similar would also work just fine.

Favourite recipes #1 - Youvetsi

I have to confess that my major vice is cookbooks.

I can't get enough of them and I have tons of them (ask my husband, he doesn't understand why you need so many!), but I just love to read them and cook from them of course - but most of all just to read them. For me, they're the ultimate in dip-in-and-out-of easy reading and the best bedtime genre too. For a list of my top reads, see the list to the right.

This greek recipe has become a favourite of mine for a mid week supper and comes from the beautiful "Falling Cloudberries" by Tessa Kiros.

I tweak it to suit our tastes as my other half dislikes lamb so I usually use good quality beef braising steak instead, and sometimes I've used larger pasta shapes if I've not had the risoni or orzo specified to hand...but somehow it does taste so much better with risoni or orzo, so do try and source it if you can! Barillo is a particularly good Italian brand that makes risoni.

Youvetsi (Lamb & tomato with rice-shaped noodles)
Serves 4-6

3 tablespoons olive oil
800g lamb shoulder or leg meat, cut into 3cm chunks
2 red onions, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
600g tinned tomatoes with juice, chopped
1 piece of cassia bark - or cinnamon stick
30g butter
400g risoni or orzo (small rice-shaped pasta)
grated Parmesan, pecorino or kefalotiri cheese, to serve

Preheat the oven to 180.C(350.F/Gas4). Heat the olive oil in a casserole and fry off the meat in batches until golden on all sides. Transfer to a plate and add the chopped onions to the casserole and saute until golden and softened, stirring all the time so they don't stick (adding another drop of oil if you think it needs it). Then add the garlic and cook for a minute before adding the meat back to the pan. Tip in the tomatoes, crushing them with a wooden spoon, season with salt and pepper, and add the cassia or cinnamon and butter. Let it all bubble for 5 minutes or so before adding 1 litre (4cups) of hot water. Cover and bake for 1 hour, or until the meat is tender - it should be very soft.

Rinse the pasta and add to the casserole. Mix through, cover and return to the oven for another 15 minutes, or until the pasta is cooked and has absorbed most of the sauce. The cooking time will depend on the pasta - it will usually take twice as long to cook in the oven as it would on the hob according to the packet instructions. Watch if it gets too dry and add a little hot water if you feel it needs it. Serve hot and sprinkled with grated cheese.

If you're not serving right away, remove the casserole from the oven before the pasta is totally cooked as the residual heat will continue to finish off the cooking while it stands.