It’s that time again so if you need some assistance with food decisions, you may find this piece useful. Click on the green links for recipes. There are also two previous Sherbhert pieces about Christmas Food, Need to Talk about Christmas Food? and Christmas Food 2021 which may help too.
If you find Christmas Food stressful to deal with as a cook, best advice is to keep it simple and serve it well and also, buy less but buy the best you can manage. And remember that you can get so many good things at a farmers’ market or farm shops.
There are plenty of lovely vegetables in season and available now such as Kale, Beetroot, Leeks, Parsnips,Red Cabbage, Brussels Sprouts, Sprout Tops, Cavolo Nero, Kalettes and Main Crop Potatoes, to name just a few. Oh, and there are Wild Mushrooms such as Chanterelles if you are lucky enough to find them.
And for fruit, there are still lots of very good British grown Apples and Pears around, and at farmer’s markets they often have various varieties available to taste, so do try them in order to get what you like best. You can top up your fruits with Lemons, Oranges and of course Clementines from Europe. And don’t forget that we also produce Walnuts, Cobnuts and Sweet Chestnuts in the UK if you are lucky enough to find a supplier.
Geese and Game are available now as well as all the usual meats and poultry and there is an excellent choice of fish such as Red Gurnard, Turbot, Hake, Haddock and Halibut as well as Mussels and Oysters.
And at this time of year don’t forget to get some British Cheese, even if your budget only runs to one cheese, please do make it a British one. We have more than 700 types and you may find there is one or more produced locally to you. If in doubt, some popular Sherbhert favourites are, Baron Bigod, Colston Bassett Stilton, Lincolnshire Poacher and Golden Cross. These 4 cheeses would make a well-balanced cheese board and you could add some fresh apples or pears or some Pear Chutney together with some good butter and some Oatcakes, Simple Sea Salt Crackers or some Soda Bread. There are lots of cheeses covered in these pages, search CHEESE to find more. Any left-over cheese can always be added to some good, toasted bread for an easy but special supper perhaps with some Red Cabbage Slaw or Green Cabbage Slaw.
And if you are interested in making your own bread quickly, do look at Miracle Overnight Bread – it’s quick and easy, produces a very nice homemade loaf and smells delicious.
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 seasonal produce sourced as locally as possible.
Sherbhert occasionally recommends suppliers entirely on the basis of their good produce and ethos.
