There are already lots of recipes and ideas in these pages if you need inspiration for some Christmas foods: Slow Roast Pork Belly with Crisp Crackling and Gravy, Roast Goose, Beef Short Ribs and also some ideas for meals on the days around Christmas, all shown in the following links.
Need to Talk About Christmas Food ? – Christmas Food 2023 – Christmas Food 2021
If you find Christmas Food stressful to deal with as a cook, 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.
But this could be the year to make some changes and perhaps move away from tradition if you want to. There are two reasons for this, time and cost. If you are doing the cooking, and especially if you have house guests, it can be overwhelming, exhausting or both. And the cost of producing a traditional Christmas Feast looks to be more expensive than ever this year, so you might consider some less expensive and less time-consuming options that are easier to make to perfection and might mean less waste too. Scale the quantities in the recipes up or down to suit the number of guests. In suggesting a move away from tradition, I have in mind a complete departure from the norm such as: –
Mains
- Shepherd’s Pie with Mustard and Mint Sauce and Winter Greens or Braised Red Cabbage
- Pot Roast Chicken with Walnut and Parsley Pesto
- Mussels with Garlic, Parsley, White Wine and Cream
- Red Gurnard, Baked Potatoes with Thyme and Leeks and Saffron Mayonnaise
- Shin of Beef with Onions and an Anchovy Dressing, Kalettes and Miracle Overnight Bread
Other things
- Mincemeat Dessert Cake
- Chocolate Biscuit Cake
- Saffron, Orange and Almond Cake
- Miracle Overnight Bread
- Blood Orange and Beetroot Salad
- Braised Red Cabbage
- Roast Root Vegetables
- Cavolo Nero with Orange, Chilli and Garlic
- Cheese Shortbreads
- Sausages with Bacon and Honey and Mustard Glaze *see below
And don’t forget to have some delicious British Cheese. There are so many excellent ones. Search “Cheese” in the Sherbhert search facility for some ideas.
Whatever you decide to eat, I hope it goes well, and you have a very Happy Christmas.
*Here is one further recipe for a classic Christmas treat which I now realise I have not included in these pages before now. They can be an accompaniment to Roast Goose or Chicken or a delicious appetiser with drinks before a meal or instead of a first course.
Sausages Wrapped in Bacon with Honey and Mustard Glaze
12 Large Pork sausages and 12 slices of streaky bacon will produce around 36 pieces
- Preheat the oven to 180c and lightly oil a baking tray large enough to hold the sausages.
- Prepare the glaze by mixing 2 tablespoons of runny honey with 2 tablespoons of English Mustard in a bowl and set it aside.
- Cut each sausage and each slice of bacon into 3 pieces.
- Stretch each piece of bacon and wrap it around each piece of sausage, secure it with a cocktail stick and place each one on the prepared baking tray.
- Put the tray of sausages in the preheated oven and bake for around 35minutes until the sausages are browned and cooked through and the bacon is starting to crisp.
- Remove them from the oven, pile them onto a serving plate and spoon the honey and mustard glaze over them evenly.
- If serving them as an appetiser, let them cool a little before serving.
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.
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