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CHRISTMAS: Chef Tom Harris' Christmas Feasting tips

1. Get as much done as possible the night before. Chop veg (if you're roasting the veg cover them in fat) and don’t worry about fridge space: it's so cold this time of year you can keep everything covered in the garden.

2. For the meat, I always roast a goose this time of year, so I heavily salt it the night before

3. On the day, if cooking goose, roast the bird at 180 degrees for first twenty minutes and then lower to 110* for two hours. (If you cook it long and slow you'll avoid over-cooking.) Make sure you pour off the fat occasionally and that the goose is cooked an hour before serving. Put it aside to rest.

4. Always cook more than you need (Christmas leftovers are the best leftovers anyway).

5. Always have something light to start (I’d go big Christmas breakfast and no starters rather than a three course Christmas lunch).

6. On my menu every year are: Goose, roast potatoes, cabbage, lots of bread sauce, and lots of stuffing. For the stuffing get your sausage meat from the butcher, throw in some chopped/minced goose livers and hearts, onions, chopped prunes, sage, a few breadcrumbs, shape into meatballs and bake until brown & cooked through.

7. Above all make it easy on yourself – make sure you enjoy it. Christmas day should be a day off!

(or make Christmas feasting extra easy and book your table at One Leicester Street)

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CHRISTMAS: CHOOSING THE WINE

Our Restaurant Manager Hannah suggests thinking about your wine choices for the table both for how they work with your food and by their personality this Christmas…

If you’re eating…goose:

“For the goose I’m thinking white, but not one of the voluptuous whites…instead a mature Fruilano grape wine from Italy, the Clivi Brazan (2008). It’s savoury and oily and complements the richness of the bird.

If that doesn’t sound like your thing, consider the Picarana (2012) from Madrid. She’s a lady – voluptuous and supple with hints of stoned fruits. This is all about texture…she has a heaving busom, let’s put it that way."

If you’re eating…beef:

“Here’s a couple of reds to consider: definitelythe Pie Franco (2011) – rustic, earthy, has a hairy chest. It’s dry and full of texture, it’s big and bold…all the characteristics of dark fruit. Basically it has the same character as the beef.  Secondly: ‘7 Fuentes’ (2011). Aged meat has a savoury quality reminiscent of aged cheese which pairs well with this red, with its grapes grown in Tenerife’s volcanic soil.

If neither of those are your thing, I’d pick Passanau (2003): sophisticated and hot-headed with a high alcohol content. A fantastic wine, perfect for Christmas day, no?”

If you’re eating…lamb:

“For the lamb: Rhini (2009) from Baden, Germany. Pinot noir is usually strawberries and raspberries and very light – this one is a masculine wine, a bearded foresty-type. It’s intense and fuller style of pinot noir and the aromatics in the dark forest fruits perfectly match the lamb. Can’t go wrong.”

(Book your Christmas Feasting party at One Leicester Street now)

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CHRISTMAS: DRESSING THE TABLE

The main thing that's in my mind when I start to think about dressing the table at Christmas is how not to take up too much space or where will the goose go, never mind the trimmings. Food really does take precedence at Christmas, as it should. I also take issue with big vases of flowers in the middle of the table; having got the whole family squeezed round the table, you do actually want to see them, don't you? Candles are great for bringing a bit of atmosphere, but again part of the feast is the feast for the eyes that you get as you contemplate how the devil you're going eat everything that's laid out in front of you. It's part of the fun and you want to see it. So where does that leave you?

Well, this year I had an eye to make the table decoration reference the food as well as the season; so instead of just flowers and the usual suspects - holly, ivy and spruce - I'll be decorating my table with spices, dried herbs, berries and fruit. Nothing that you would want to eat as they are, so still decoration, but things that smell, look festive, wake up the senses and whet the appetite. Using old glass sundae dishes or cake stands as vessels I'll be piling high juniper berries, pink peppercorns on the stalk, star anise, cinnamon, dried fine slices of oranges, bay leaves, pine cones and acorns. They'll look really pretty, even if the need for space determines that they are ultimately usurped by a great big pile of crispy roast potatoes.

- Miria Harris, One Leicester Street floristry designer

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Delicious pork collar, white beans roasted cabbage on the #lunch menu today: http://bit.ly/1eUSiNG 

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Pick up a copy of GQ this month - Tom's amazing Christmas Baked Alaska recipe is in it...

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We are on the look out for a pastry chef. Sends cv's to [email protected]. Spread the word. Thanks!

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Tonight's festive goose dish!

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A festive feast tonight, goose and goose fat potatoes. Tis the season!

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Looking to escape Christmas madness? Treat yourself and someone special to a festive break: http://bit.ly/18lsyGi  #WeekendBreak

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Join Talented Mr Fox in the bar for #WhiskeyAdvent this december! Retweet him for a chance to drink the dram, then pop by the bar and mention #WhiskeyAdvent...

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Our new coffee cart is up and running! Stop by on your way to work (from 7.30am onwards) for a flat white from Finn. And a Lisle St Bun too...

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RECIPE: Oxtail Pie

1 x whole oxtail – cut into sections 2 x onion quartered and sliced into 1cm pieces 2 x carrot/quartered and sliced into 1 cm pieces 1 x head celery sliced into 1cm pieces1 x bottle Stout 25ml pickled walnut vinegar (from jar of pickled walnuts) 250ml port 1l chicken stock 2 x cloves (ground) 2 x Bay leaves 2 x allspice berries (ground) 

The day before

Season the oxtail pieces gently a couple of hours before cooking

In a heavy pan over medium high heat brown your oxtail pieces in a mixture of butter and oil

In the same pan add a little more fat and soften the veg and spices, scraping all the meaty bits from the oxtail.

Deglaze the pan with the port, stout and reduce until sticky

Return the oxtail pieces to the pan and cover with chicken stock

Bring to the boil, cover and put in a 120* oven for 4 hours

Remove from oven and leave to cool

When cool enough to handle remove meat from bone in large chunks

If the broth is looking thin, reduce a little, removing some of the fat

When you are happy with the consistency adjust seasoning with pickled walnut vinegar and  salt and return meat to liquor

Leave to cool

Suet Pastry 500g self raising flour 200g suet 50g butter – ice cold and grated Pinch of salt Ice cold water Egg for wash

Bring flour and fat  and salt together in a mixer.

Slowly add enough water till it comes together in a clump

Turn out onto a cool work surface and roll into a ball

Rest for 20 minutes in the fridge

Roll out to 2cm thick and rest in fridge

To finish 

Fill your chosen pie dish with oxtail filling, egg wash the rim and top with pastry. Crimp as desired and brush the  top with rest of the egg wash.

Heat oven to 180* and bake pie till golden and bubbling at the edges 

Serve with a glass of stout, some pickled walnuts, mustard and some buttered greens.

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Get up to the bar tonight and warm your cockles on Talented Mr Fox's new Kamma Ray: hot apple juice, Beavertown Brewery Gamma Ray beer, hop gin, Kamm & Sons & spices...

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WIN A WEEKEND STAY WITH TICKETS TO SKATE AT SOMERSET HOUSE

Be sure to instagram your favourite dish at One Leicester Street this month and tag the photo #oneleicesterstreet. We'll be choosing our favourite to win a weekend stay with a meal for two on the house, along with tickets to SKATE at Somerset House.

Or perhaps a £100 bar tab is more your type of prize? If you're coming to the bar for a drink or to sample one of the Talented Mr Fox's concoctions, then get a photo of your favourite cocktail and tag it #oneleicesterstreet to be in with a chance to win.

You've got until 7th December, so get snapping! Want to know what your competition looks like? You can see the whole feed on Facebook.

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MEET: Farmer Tom Jones, supplier of meat like THIS for Tom Harris and the One Leicester Street Kitchen.

What's your meat ethos/what makes your meat so good? (Tom raves about it) Animals should not be farmed intensively and should be kept as wild as possible. I rotate the cows and sheep between the fields always allowing one field to be empty. This is a traditional organic method which makes sure that the animals are as disease free as possible (the bugs die on fields without animals to carry them around). I always keep native breeds of cows and sheep such as Dexter's for beef and Cotswold's for lamb and mutton. Native breeds are hardy because they have a higher fat content in their muscles and this gives the meat such a great flavour. This fantastic platform is improved immensely by hanging the carcass in a cold store: ten days for sheep, two weeks for pigs and up to eight weeks for beef.

Do you have a typical day? You can mark the farming calendar with various dates such as shearing and harvest, but most days do not have a routine. Last week a group of sheep went blind after being infected by a virus and so I had to inject each one to flush it out. It was an unwelcome, surprising outcome and farming is full of unscheduled actions. It is a myth that all farmers get up at four in the morning! Unless, of course, the farmer is in dairy and then the whole year is dictated by a groove of routine. One thing I certainly do everyday is walk around the animals with James Johnston, my sheep dog.

…do you give any of your animals names?! As a rule I do not name my animals unless they will be with me until the very end of their life and may possibly die of natural causes. Therefore I have an eighteen month old Cotswold cross ewe called Cindy, whose mother died after birth and was raised on a bottle (Cindy is a bit nasty to James Johnston), Steve a Speckled Faced ram named after Steve McQueen because he is very cool under pressure, Alan a Welsh Badger Faced ram named after Alan Bateman a celebrated Welsh rugby player who could always find a gap on the rugby pitch (Alan the ram is always escaping) and The Minx a squat chocolate Ryeland ewe. The favourite of my named animals is James Johnston. He is the worst sheep dog I have ever worked with, but out of working hours he is a good laugh, a keen West Ham supporter and a talented water colour artist. 

Your favourite cut of meat? You have to go a long way to beat a very slow cooked mutton shoulder off a Welsh Badger Faced sheep or pan-fried pigs brain on toast or a rib eye steak off a six year old Dexter cow.

If you weren't Farmer Tom Jones, you would be… Playing professional football in Italy after a long and successful career at Arsenal.

There's more about Farmer Tom Jones on his website and Twitter...

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Sundays were made for roasts... (1-4pm today)

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Beastly equipment in the bar: that would be Talented Mr Fox filtering gin through carnauba wax for a "waxy mouth-feel and honey-ish taste". He's developing a new drink "The Forager": a waxed gin Old Fashioned with oak moss...