'I'm a chef - get perfect crispy roast potatoes by taking one unusual shortcut'

The writer of The Get Ahead Christmas Cook shares her time-saving hacks for the festive feast including making breadstuff sauce, spuds and parsnips months successful advance

The superb happening astir roast potatoes is that you tin navigator them from frozen. And if they're cooked from frozen, they weirdly instrumentality little clip to cook. They’re besides crispier than if they haven’t been frozen. If you’re cooking roast potatoes betwixt present and Christmas, conscionable marque immoderate other for Christmas Day.

Parboil them for 15 minutes truthful they’re somewhat falling isolated with fluff circular the edge. Drain them, fluff them up, and extremity them onto a tray successful 1 layer, making definite they’re not squashed. Freeze them connected a tray and erstwhile frozen, place backmost successful the freezer successful a polythene bag. On Christmas Day, region them from the freezer and navigator them successful lipid successful a roasting tin for astir 45 minutes, turning erstwhile during cooking.

You tin besides hole them 2 oregon 3 days earlier Christmas, up to the parboiling stage, and support them successful the fridge. Sometimes they spell a small grey but that disappears erstwhile they’re cooked. Scroll down for my get-ahead tips for the remainder of your trimmings, positive proposal for Christmas meal itself...

The Get-Ahead Christmas Cook by Jane Lovett, £28, is disposable connected Amazon

Parsnips: You tin navigator parsnips from frozen arsenic well. Parboil them for 2 minutes past hole them successful the aforesaid mode arsenic potatoes.

Stuffing: Make your stuffing present and frost it. I’m not sniffy astir stuffing, I alternatively similar Paxo.

Sausages: Cook your chipolatas present and past spot them successful the freezer successful a shallow oven-proof dish. Take them retired to thaw connected Christmas Eve and past connected Christmas Day conscionable reheat them and crisp them up successful the apical of a blistery oven for 10 to 15 minutes. The aforesaid goes for pigs successful blankets. Cook them successful beforehand and enactment them successful the freezer.

Bread sauce: You tin frost breadstuff condiment 3 months successful advance. Freeze it successful the crockery successful which you’re going to service it. But if you’re going to request the dish, enactment it with a container oregon clingfilm, adhd the breadstuff sauce, frost it past propulsion that retired of the bowl. So erstwhile you instrumentality it retired of the freezer connected Christmas Day, you tin enactment it consecutive backmost successful the bowl. It mightiness conscionable request immoderate beverage stirring successful aft it defrosts. You tin reheat it successful the microwave oregon saucepan.

Cranberry sauce: Put the cranberries successful a cookware with immoderate sweetener and flavourings – a spot of orangish foodstuff and immoderate spices. They instrumentality astir 5 minutes to crook into cranberry condiment and that lasts weeks successful the fridge.

Carrots: Carrots frost precise well. You tin besides hole them 4 days successful advance: Cut them into signifier and permission them successful water.

ON CHRISTMAS DAY

Turkey: Finish roasting the turkey 2 to 4 hours earlier you service it up. All nutrient needs to remainder truthful that the juices are each drawn backmost into the flesh, oregon the nutrient volition beryllium grey and tough. When it comes retired of the oven, enactment it connected the sheet you’ll service it on, and loosely screen it successful tinfoil and bath towels – not beverage towels, they’ve got to beryllium dense – and it volition enactment lukewarm for 4 hours.

Gravy: The infinitesimal I instrumentality transportation of the turkey, I instrumentality the giblets retired and navigator them, making them into banal with bay leaves. That volition support successful the fridge until you request it. I marque gravy with the pre-prepared banal and juices from the turkey tin positive capable flour to soak up the fat.

Sprouts: You tin hole them successful beforehand but they’re the lone rootlike you’ll request to navigator connected the day, unless you’re serving peas. Buy them connected the stem if you tin due to the fact that they’re overmuch fresher. I portion a small spot disconnected the bottommost of the stalk past beryllium them successful a vessel of h2o successful a acold spot to support them caller for longer.

Pre-prepared packet sprouts are chopped disconnected astatine the bottommost so, erstwhile you navigator them, the leaves autumn off. If you request to instrumentality thing disconnected a sprout, conscionable instrumentality the finest small portion disconnected the bottom. That way, each the layers and leaves are held unneurotic by the root, and they’ll navigator evenly successful a 4th of the time. Once cooked, drain them nether the acold tap. They’ll spell brighter greenish successful beforehand of your eyes and it besides stops them cooking without making them cold.

The Get-Ahead Christmas Cook by Jane Lovett, £28, is retired now.

Also if you're looking for tips connected what to bash with your Christmas leftovers, we urge Emily Gussin's 'Don't Waste Your Turkey'.