I was browsing round my local pound store hardware-type shop and realised that a lot of my Christmas presents could be bought there. Dinky kitchen gadgets for foodie friends (a designer-looking swivel vegetable peeler, calibrated turkey baster, a lovely solid stone pestle and mortar for £15.99 for myself, retro-style glass sundae dishes etc ). If you ditch the sometimes tacky packaging, and repackage them yourself, they can make lovely gifts.

On this theme, I have been thinking of Christmas cooking on the cheap. Free range and organic turkeys can be expensive (£31.64 for a 3.5kg one in Waitrose, which feeds 4-7). But buying   TWO chickens would cost only £11.16. With the right zingy seasoning they will be a fabulous alternative (see recipe).

Zingy Festive Roast Chickens

Ingredients (serves 8-10)

2 x 1.7kg chickens

1 tbsp ginger paste (Barts spices)

1 tbsp toasted sesame oil

salt and pepper

I onion, peeled and cut into 8 wedges

100ml red wine

500ml water + 1 chicken stock cube (Oxo fine)

Method:

Rub the ginger paste and sesame oil all over the chickens then place in a roasting tin on top of their giblets and onion wedges. Sprinkle over salt and pepper. Pour round the wine and stock. Roast for 30 minutes at 220 degrees celsius them turn down the heat to 170 degrees. Cover the dish with a huge dome of foil, to keep in the moisture, and roast for another 90 minutes. Check to see if it’s done by seeing if the juices run clear (or if they’re bloody) at the point where the leg meets the body. Remove the foil and brown the breast if it’s not already. Add more stock if the liquid is in danger of burning – this can then be liquidised (take out the giblets first) to make your gravy – add a little cornflour, water from boiling your veg and a tablespoon of honey and/or madiera/sweet sherry if you fancy it.

Trimmings

Don’t buy ready made “garnish packs” of sausages wrapped in bacon etc. Make your own – so easy you don’t need a recipe to roll bacon rashers around sausages cut in half and then roast for 15 minutes around the bird. Always get your veg fresh and do all the trimming/chopping yourself – it’s cheaper than pre-prepared, although it takes extra time.  I go for sprouts because they’re traditional (although savoy cabbage, red cabbage, or any green veg such as broccoli are good alternatives, and probably more popular). I also have carrots, sweet potatoes chunked with butternut squash and roasted with olive oil, salt and pepper. Plus potatoes. This year I may roast them but usually I am lazy and they are simply boiled as a neutral foil to all the richness. And then we come to cranberry sauce: isn’t there some statistic that Ocean Spray owns all the cranberries in the world, or something? Anyway their original cranberry sauce is only 97p for 190g so I would actually plump for that. They are the experts with cranberries, after all. 

Xmas Pud

As for pudding – a traditional xmas pud can be bulked out to make a lighter alternative by crumbling it and mixing it through vanilla ice cream, then refreeze to make an Xmas Pud Ice Cream. I tend to stir through a 200g tub of creme fraiche too, to cut the richness and sweetness. Fruit is the cheapest and healthiest dessert of course – lovely clementines, peeled, de-pithed and sliced, with cream – it can’t be beaten.

A Swedish traditional Christmas pudding is Ris a la Malta – rice pudding to you and me. But it’s made with cream, gently bubbled on the hob and served with sliced oranges. Short grain pudding rice is only 89p/500g so it will feed a crowd cheaply.

Spiced Nuts

Nuts and nibbles can be made cheaper by spicing them and toasting them yourself.  Take 500g natural mixed nuts and toast in a dry frying pan for 3 minutes then sprinkle over 1½ tsp garam masala or curry powder (or just cumin if it’s what you have). Add 1 tsp salt, 2 tbsp olive oil and 2 tbsp soft light brown sugar. Swoosh around for a bit taking care not to burn! Cool on baking parchment  then serve in bowls with 1 tsp chopped rosemary sprinkled over, still warm. 

Watch this space for more tips on Christmas leftovers. Incidentally I recommended Lidl’s chocolate advent calenders a while back. They are fine but they only go up to 24th December, as they are German and that is the tradition on the continent. Anyway, at least it is educational explaining this to my kids…