Christmas At Home With... Andi Oliver

Should it come as a surprise that Andi Oliver runs Christmas like a military operation? In the Oliver household, prep for the big feast begins with endless list-making and a full pantry restock. But there are also 24/7 festive jingles playing and a few rum cocktails thrown in, bringing joy and laughter to the whole occasion. We sat down with Andi Oliver to find out her Christmas traditions and memories, and what makes the perfect Boxing Day sandwich.

Who does the cooking at Christmas?

Is that a trick question? I do the cooking at Christmas! I do allow other people to help because I love the help and the company, but they must follow instructions to the letter because it's very important that we get it quite right.

What will you be eating this year?

This Christmas I am making my new porchetta recipe. There's all of the standard things – turkey, ham, beautiful crunchy goose-fat potatoes, sprouts with crispy bacon, there's always bread sauce, cranberry sauce – the gravies and the condiments are extremely important at Christmas. And this Christmas I will be making my rum and green seasoning cured porchetta. You rub all of that into the pork belly for a couple of days, you roll it, roast it really slowly in the oven, and then you take that crackling, bash it up and soak it in rum. Yeah, it's good.

What's everyone drinking?

Well that's quite a long list. There's rum and ginger ale – we're from Antigua, we love rum. It's got to be good rum, amber-coloured, apricot sort of flavoured, lots of ice, a bit of lime and ginger ale. There's also a drink called a Hix Fix that we like. That's Champaign with cherries soaked in eau de vie. And that is really good. Or later in the day we move to a full-bodied red. We like a Barolo. Really deep and luxurious and wonderful.

What are some of your Christmas traditions?

Sometimes we have Christmas with our friends – The Owens – and when Alison gets here in the morning, she and I have a Hix Fix. We start opening presents gradually throughout the day. There isn't one opening session, we open a couple and then get distracted. We always play Articulate which is a very good game, very shouty. And there's always a Christmas quiz and Miquita is the Quiz Mistress.

Turkey - yay or nay?

Absolutely turkey. I don't always do turkey. Sometimes I do a goose. But absolutely turkey. And this year, I'm going to barbecue it. I've never done it before, so I'm quite excited.

Do you listen to Christmas music?

I love Christmas music! I drive everybody crazy with Christmas music because it starts on the 1st of December and it kind of goes on until after New Year, with me. I have to be sort of prised away from my Christmas playlist. Nat King Cole, Sam Cooke, Dinah Washington, Aretha Franklin, The Staple Singers, James Brown, Patsy Cline, Dolly Parton. I mean, it goes on and on and on. And on.

Do you have a funny Christmas story?

The Christmas story that my family torture me with... So, I cook everything from scratch and sometimes that's been in quite a small kitchen with quite a small cooker. When we lived in quite a small flat, there were still 12 or 15 people over for Christmas dinner. And Christmas dinner basically got to the table at quarter to midnight. I still maintain that's 15 minutes before Boxing Day so it still qualifies as Christmas dinner. They do not agree.

What's the inspiration behind your festive menu with Dishpatch?

The inspiration behind my festive menu is, 'make it delicious!'

Tell us more...

My Dishpatch Christmas box is wonderful. It actually features two of the things that are always on our Christmas table and one of those is something that my mother absolutely loves. In the Caribbean we love a Christmas ham and I've come up with my own way of doing it in the family. So, you take a ham and poach it in spices – beautiful aromats like cinnamon, chillies, coriander seed, cumin seed. Poach it very gently, so you keep the moisture in the ham. Take it out, score the skin. You make a beautiful glaze with brown sugar, rum, and any other aromats you fancy. You pour it back over the ham and put it into the oven, and you have a juicy, succulent, beautiful dish for the centre of your table. And mac and cheese! Very important at Christmas because you need that gooey, cheesy luxury. So this time, I put chilli garlic shrimp in the middle of that mac and cheese because those are two of my favourite things, all wrapped up in one goopy, cheesy, luxurious, decadent bundle. And that is in my Dishpatch box, just for you!

What is the perfect boxing day sandwich?

It is, in fact, inspired by an episode of Friends. You take a slice of bread, very lightly toast it. You put your turkey and your stuffing in, and you put whatever else is going to go in there – mustard, all that stuff. You take another slice of bread, you toast it, and then you put it in the gravy. Soak it properly. You put that on top of the already half-built sandwich, then you put the same stuff on again, and put a toasted slice on top. Then you cut it in half and you put it in your face. That is a Christmas sandwich!

Who deserves a gift this Christmas?

My mum always deserves a gift. She's incredible, my mum, and I don't see her enough, but she's coming to live with us so I'm quite excited about that. And I would really like to get her something that lets her know how much we all love her.

Tell us you three tips for a stress-free Christmas:

A stress-free Christmas – to me – is about making sure that you're organised. And you've got some kind of emotional back-up and support as well, you shouldn't really be on your own in a whirl of chaos.

I've already started making my list of what I'm going to cook. In the next couple of days I will be writing a shopping list for each of those dishes and getting any dry goods. I will get those a couple of weeks before and put them away in cupboards. The fresher stuff, obviously, you'll need to get closer to Christmas Day. But anything dry – you know, good oils, or vinegars or lovely smoked salt or anything you think is going to be essential, get it, and just put it away in the cupboard.

Secondly, I start really cooking a couple of days before Christmas. So if I've got a cranberry sauce to make, or stocks I need to get on, or something I need to bake... (If you've got something you need to bake, just bake it and put it in the freezer and then pull it back out and finish it off.) Anything that can be made ahead, get it done, get it put away. And then on Christmas Eve, I make sure all the vegetables are prepped, my bread sauce I'll make on Christmas Eve. I tend to stay up late on Christmas Eve cooking, playing music. If one of my mates is over, we'll be hanging out having a nice glass of wine, peeling sprouts, peeling potatoes, getting those vegetables into acidulated water (that's water with a bit of lemon juice in it) to stop anything going brown. All of that prep, get it done before hand.

Lastly, have a list, stick it on the wall. And as you get each job done, tick it off. And you just feel like you're some kind of superhuman! Once you're about three-quarters down that list you're like, "oh, I am rocking this!" And that's how you need to feel.