Christmas at River Cottage Christmas at River Cottage

Date Published:

09/12/2008

Hugh's opening the doors of River Cottage for a full-on festive feast

This year, River Cottage celebrates a family Christmas with everyone getting involved to make this dinner their very best yet.

There's been plenty of healthy competition at River Cottage this year, and Christmas dinner is the toughest test. Hugh challenges his chefs, Gil and Tim, to help transform the reputation of the much maligned Brussels sprout by coming up with new recipes to showcase its potential.

He'll be delving into the River Cottage store-cupboard to find potatoes, onions and parsnips from the autumn harvest to make the perfect trimmings.

Meanwhile, master butcher, Ray, helps Hugh find the most tender cuts in the relatively neglected forequarter of beef and joins Richard the gamekeeper to stalk a sika deer for a venison roast.

As always, nothing is wasted, and Hugh uses the fat from the cow's appetisingly titled 'kidney knob' to make a spectacular flaming jam roly poly, his road test for a Christmas pudding with a twist.

Everyone at River Cottage is also challenged to take part in Hugh's Secret Santa. Each guest has to make one Christmas gift and it's pot luck who picks out which gift at the dinner table. Dan the baker, Pam the jam, gardener Mark and forager Johnny Mushroom are all plunged into a world of plotting and scheming as curtains are drawn and doors bolted when everyone starts to work on their creations.

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