For We All Like Figgy Pudding

For festive parties

Hannah Read's Sausage Roll Wreath with Camembert

Ingredients

• 500g sausage meat (you can use sausages and take them out of their casings)
• 70g of stuffing mix (mix with 150ml of boiling water)
• 1 sheet of pre-roll puff pastry
• 1 Camembert
• 1 egg (whisked)

Method

1. Mix the sausage meat with the stuffing and add salt and pepper.
2. Slice the pastry sheet in half lengthways so you have two long lengths. Put one length of pastry below the other length, overlap slightly and stick them together using some egg wash.
3. Fill with the mixture to make a long sausage roll, egg wash the edge and fold over. Glaze the pastry with the egg wash (you can also sprinkle with sesame seeds).
4. Cut 12 slices (not all the way through) and wrap round in a circle. Twist each piece to the side so the sausage meat is facing up.
5. Pop on a tray with baking paper. Put a Camembert shaped oven-proof bowl in the middle.
6. Bake at 180c (fan) for 45 minutes. After 25 minutes remove the bowl and replace with the Camembert.
7. Criss-cross the top of the Camembert and cook for the remaining 20 minutes before serving.

Every Christmas, Lucy Foot's family do a festive twist on a much loved cocktail and make Aperol Spritz Granitas (pictured here in front of Lucy's tree). The recipe is here and we've roughly converted measurements from imperial to metric:

• 50g sugar
• 60ml water
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 4 strips orange zest
• 360ml orange juice
• 4 strips clementine zest
• 120ml clementine juice
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary, plus more for serving
• 300ml Aperol
• 750ml bottle Prosecco, chilled
• Orange and clementine slices, for serving

The big day

For those looking to get organised, look no further than Sophia Towers' Make-Ahead of Time Gravy recipe:

For the first 10 years that I hosted Christmas lunch for the family, the gravy was my biggest bugbear. It's always the last thing I had to do. All the burners on the hob were already in use. My guests had already arrived and were partying it up in the living room. And I am stuck in the kitchen trying to reduce down stock and turkey juices as quickly as possible whilst everyone waits for lunch (particularly as it wasn't unusual for me to have forgotten about it altogether, called them all to the table and then made them wait for 20 minutes).

So, I don't do that anymore. I make it in advance a couple of days before and at my leisure. It's become a bit of a tradition in our family, the 23rd December gravy making evening – mostly because it involves chicken wing snacks for all.

Ingredients

• 12 chicken wings
• Turkey giblets
• Leek tops
• Onion
• Carrot
• Fresh Thyme, parsley and sage and a little bit of rosemary
• Bay leaf
• White wine
• Worcestershire sauce
• Dijon mustard
• Garlic
• Chicken stock cube
• Anything else you fancy in your gravy/have leftover in your fridge!

Method

1. Cook your chicken wings – don't over flavour them (like you normally might), a bit of onion salt and/or garlic is probably sufficient. Step one can be ignored and you can simply add the chicken wings into step two, but my family get very upset with the idea that there is chicken simply going into the gravy. You do also get a bit more flavour from the bones themselves being roasted in step two.
2. Drain off the fat from the pan you roasted the wings in, but don't wash it – there's flavour in there. Gather all the chicken wing bones from your family (having reminded them that it is preferable if they haven't gnawed the bones!) and put them back in the roasting pan, alongside the turkey giblets (if you have already purchased a turkey – which some years I haven't). Add your chopped leeks, onions, carrots and salt and pepper and pop the pan back in the oven until the veg gets a bit of colour on it. You might want to stir it around a couple of times.
3. Put the pan on the hob on a high heat. Add in your herbs and a bit of Dijon mustard. When it's super-hot, add a good glug of white wine and some Worcestershire sauce. Cook off the alcohol and crush in the garlic. Add boiling water from the kettle and a stock cube. Reduce. I normally cook it down for quite a long time – probably at least an hour, but often more (depending on how much time I have). Taste as it reduces, adding in additional seasoning as required. You can add some corn flour to thicken, though if you cook it long enough you shouldn't need to (and it depends how thick your family like their gravy).
4. Turn off the heat and run the gravy though a sieve. Cool, and refrigerate in an air tight container ready to reheat on Christmas Day.
5. When you reheat it, you can add some of the juices from the cooked turkey (leaving the fat behind), just to give it a bit more of a turkey flavour.

So much easier than faffing about making gravy on Christmas Day and generally makes better gravy, as you've taken the time to maximise the flavour.

Frank Newton's Ghanaian Jollof Rice

Bringing to you a taste of tradition: Ghanaian jollof rice for Christmas Day – a firm favourite in Frank Newton's household. It’s the perfect dish for special occasions like Christmas, family gatherings, or any time you want to add a vibrant splash of colour and flavour to your spread.

 Ingredients

• Thai Jasmine rice
• 4 tomatoes
• 1 large onion
• Scotch bonnet (depending on how spicy you want your jollof rice to be)
• Jollof seasoning (usually found in most supermarkets' world foods aisle)
• Tomato puree
• Ground ginger
• Garlic
• Paprika
• Thyme
• Bay leaves
• 2 red bell peppers
• Salt
• Cayenne
• Curry powder
• Chicken stock

Method

1. Prepare the rice: Rinse the rice in cold water until the water runs clear. Drain and set aside.
2. Make the Tomato Sauce: In a blender, combine the tomatoes, red bell peppers, scotch bonnet, garlic and half of the chopped onions. Blend until smooth.
3. Cook the Base: In a large pot, heat the vegetable oil over a medium heat. Add the remaining chopped onions and cook until the onions start to brown. Following this, add the tomato puree and reduce the heat. Use a wooden spoon to stir while it fries for 5-7 minutes. Stir in the ginger, garlic, paprika, thyme, and curry powder, and cook for another minute to release the flavours.
4. Add blended tomato sauce: Add the blended tomato and pepper mixture. Cook the sauce over a medium heat for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the mixture reduces, and the oil begins to separate from the tomato sauce. Season with salt, 3-4 teaspoons of jollof seasoning, curry powder, paprika, ginger and cayenne (depending on your spice tolerance).
5. Simmer with Broth: Add 300ml of chicken stock (or vegetable stock), bay leaves, and bring the mixture to a simmer. Let it cook for 10 minutes.
6. Cook the Rice: Add the washed rice to the pot and stir to coat the rice in the tomato sauce. Add enough water to cover the rice by about an inch. Stir well, place a sheet of aluminium foil over the rice and then cover the pot with lid and reduce the heat to low. Check after 10 minutes and stir the rice with a wooden spoon. Repeat this several times until the rice is cooked through and has absorbed all the sauce. This should take around 30-40 minutes. Once done, leave for a few minutes before serving.

Ghanaian jollof rice is best enjoyed with proteins, be it: grilled chicken, fried fish, or a hearty side of stewed beef. It also pairs wonderfully with fried plantains, salad, or a spicy pepper sauce to kick it up a notch.

Sweet treats

For Rebecca Butterworth, Christmas food is almost always Delia (from a very battered family copy of her 1990s 'Delia's Christmas' which provides lots of fun trying to figure out whether the temperatures are fan oven or not).

When it's not Delia, we have had great success with Felicity Cloake's Perfect Christmas Cake and Nigella's Ruby Red Raspberries in Chardonnay Jelly (pictured). You won't be disappointed (or hungry).

As an alternative to brandy butter, why not try Fiona Sawyer's Aunt's Rum Butter recipe:

I grew up with it and now make it for my family. It’s dead easy to make. The recipe is in imperial measurements so I've done a conversion:

Ingredients

• 4oz butter – I use unsalted and translate this as about 115g.
• 8oz sifted icing sugar – I use white rather than golden icing sugar because I like it to look pale, and I use about 225g.
• "A little rum or rum essence" – I loved Christmas pudding with lashings of this as a child, and I'm sure that my aunt used rum essence then, but I can safely say that, when it comes to rum for the grown-ups, my Aunt doesn't really mean a "little". I tend to add several tablespoons, tasting between each to get it to a strength that I like but being careful not to add too much because experience has shown that it can curdle. This year we are going to try using a spiced rum made by a local producer, but I usually use basic white rum.

Method

1. Take the butter out of the fridge well in advance to make sure that it's soft.
2. Cream the butter with the sifted icing sugar.
3. Beat in the rum/rum essence a teaspoon at a time, tasting regularly until you're happy with the strength but being careful not to add so much that it curdles.
4. Transfer into a nice bowl, smooth the top and put in the fridge until you want to use it. Generally best to take it out of the fridge a bit before using to make it easier to spoon out of the bowl.
5. I've seen varying advice on how long to keep it for, which all depends on the freshness of the butter and whether it's being stored in the fridge or the freezer. We don't usually have a problem with knowing how long to store it – it gets eaten!

Leftovers

For any leftovers, you've come to the right place for The Christmas PSL (Perfect Sandwich Lunch), with all classic ingredients in play, by Kate Wilson:

Ingredients

• Sourdough bread, lightly toasted
• Butter
• A dash of mayo
• Cranberry sauce
• Sage and onion stuffing, warm
• Turkey breast
• Baby spinach leaves
• Parsnip crisps

Method

1. Stack in the following order:

• Bread
• Butter
• Mayo
• Cranberry sauce
• Spinach leaves
• Leftover stuffing
• Leftover turkey
• Parsnip crisps
• Cranberry sauce
• Mayo
• Butter
• Bread

2. If you're feeling generous, serve with extra stuffing and vegetable crisps (as pictured). And this would be followed perfectly by a mince pie.

Every Christmas, Gaby Coppack's family stocks up on Blue Cheese (the firm fave is potted Stilton).

This year, I plan to give Nigella’s radicchio, chestnut and blue cheese salad a whirl as a fancy salad to accompany leftovers.

A friend from Sweden introduced me to putting blue cheese on top of ginger biscuits instead of crackers - and it works surprisingly well! I dare you to give it a go.

Holiday indulgence

And if you're feeling sick of traditional Christmas recipes, indulge with Nick Turner's Festive Carbonara for two:

Ingredients

• 3 yolks from large free range eggs
• 200g guanciale (pork cheek and has higher fat content than lardons)
• 80g pecorino romano cheese (this is a Roman hard cheese but parmesan will do…)
• 300g good quality fresh spaghetti
• That's it.

Method

1. Put the egg yolks into a bowl, finely grate in the pecorino, season with pepper, then mix well with a fork and put to one side.
2. Cut any hard skin off the guanciale and set aside, then chop the meat into 2cm blocks.
3. Cook the spaghetti in a large pan of boiling salted water until al dente.
4. Meanwhile, rub the guanciale skin all over the base of a medium frying pan (this will add fantastic flavour, or use 1 tablespoon of oil instead), then place over a medium-high heat.
5. Fry guanciale blocks for 4 – 5 minutes until crisp and remove a couple of spoonfulls of the fat to add to the egg/cheese mix. Remove the cooked guanciale blocks with a slatted spoon to a side bowl.
6. Reserving some of the cooking water, drain and add the spaghetti to the still hot pan used to fry the guanciale. Toss well over the heat so it really soaks up the flavour, then remove the pan from the heat.
7. Add a splash of the pasta water and toss well, season with pepper, then pour in the egg/cheese mixture – the pan will help to cook the egg gently, rather than scrambling it. Toss well, adding more cooking water until it’s lovely and glossy.
8. Serve with a grating of pecorino and an extra twist of pepper (and a cold glass of Cervaro della Sala, Antinori from Umbria).

Come back tomorrow to open the door to Day 23 of our advent calendar for a festive forecast on what we can expect from the UK real estate market in 2025.