If you need ideas and recipes for Christmas Food, there are lots in these pages reached by clicking on the green links.
If you are looking for something economical this year you might like to try Shin of Beef with Onions and Anchovy or for relaxed slow cooking Slow Roast Duck Legs with Leeks or, if you like the idea of something chocolaty to make in advance, you might like Chocolate and Ginger Truffles.
And you can find lots more ideas in these posts: Thinking About Christmas Food – Christmas Food Update – Need to Talk About Christmas Food – Look Locally for Christmas Cheese
My best advice is to keep it simple and serve it well but also to buy less but buy the best quality ingredients you can manage.
There are lots of lovely British seasonal foods available at this time of year with a few excellent exceptions from Spain and Portugal such as oranges, lemons and limes. You can get so many delicious things at good prices from farmers’ markets or farm shops so, if you haven’t already tried, perhaps see if you have any locally as they are very much worth visiting. The food is so good, you won’t want to waste anything,
Some Ideas for Food Gifts
Saffron from www.norfolksaffron.co.uk
Liberty Fields Apple Balsamic Vinegar which you can buy from www.hodmedods.co.uk who also sell lots of lovely organic grains and beans.
Halen Mon sea salt flakes www.halenmon.com
Canned anchovies from www.thetinnedfishcompany.com
Some good local cheese – type “British Cheese” into the Sherbhert search facility to find some lovely ones.
And a gripping read – The Spinach King by John Seabrook – yes, it’s about spinach but so much more.
Some Standby Foods
A can or two of anchovies in olive oil – just warm them in a pan until they melt and stir them through some cooked linguine is just one of many uses for them.
Frozen Spinach – see Easy Standby Spinach
Frozen Peas – see Easy Standby Peas
And some excellent advice below from Giles Coren of the Times on “resting meat” but remember to keep the meat warm by covering it with foil while it rests.
“ Whatever the hell it is, a roast chicken, a steak, a lamb chop, you just have to rest it for much longer than you think for it to taste of anything and feel good in your mouth. In the case of a roast, about half as long as it took to cook; with a grilled thing probably two or three times as long as it took to grill. I didn’t eat rested meat till I was at least 25 (my mum never bothered — people over 60 don’t even know about it), and cannot believe how I wasted my life.” Giles Coren -The Times 6th August 2025.
Whatever you decide to eat, I hope it goes well, and you have a very Happy Christmas.
If you want a healthier and more environmentally friendly diet, a good start would be to cook from scratch, avoid buying ready-processed meals, and so avoid foods with a high sugar and salt content. Have a look at food labels, you will likely be amazed by how much salt and sugar is included and, worse, how many of the ingredients are not recognisable as food.
Sherbhert champions delicious, healthy and sustainable food where its production minimises environmental damage, exploitation, animal suffering and subsequent processing. Sherbhert’s recipes are simple and use mainly UK organic seasonal produce sourced as locally as possible.
Sherbhert occasionally recommends suppliers entirely because of their good produce and ethos.
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