Get ready for Christmas with these essential Elizabeth David recipes

THE RECIPES

Prawn PasteThe ideal hors d’oeuvres for a Christmas Eve get-together. Enjoy while watching King’s College carols with a glass of Prosecco. Served on toasted sourdough, this traditional fish delicacy provides light luxury to gear up for the bigger treats to come.

Smoked Cod’s Roe PasteComforting as an alternative if you want a richer effect. Add thin cucumber slices and serve it with, for example, a light red or white Rhône.

Spiced Beef LoafAs an alternative to the Spiced Beef recipe, this terrine is a perfect centrepiece for a light picnic-style lunch on Christmas day. It’s ideal with one of the soups below.

Pumpkin and celery soupThe celery adds a bittersweet flavour that balances out the simple sweetness of the pumpkin. I’d recommend serving this with a terrine, or cold meat and fresh or toasted sourdough.

Carrot soup My favourite Christmas soup. I boost the amount of orange to counteract the sweetness of the carrot. Perfect for the light picnic-style lunch that some of us prefer while deferring the main Christmas feast for the evening.

Turkey stuffed with chestnuts and applesThis may be the simplest and most straightforwardly traditional of the roast turkey recipes. Collect your chestnuts in late October and keep them somewhere cool. Or buy them ready-prepared.

Roast pheasant with chestnut sauceThis alternative to turkey could be an old-fashioned contender for the Christmas dinner. With apple and cream sauce, this braised bird makes a worthy Boxing Day menu leader.

Spiced beef for ChristmasSpiced beef, even with its 10-day spicing experience, is the ultimate Elizabeth David Christmas fare. Cut in super thin slices and served with Oxford sauce, it gives a sense of a medieval castle banquet. I have a lifelong affection for this dish as it was always the star offering in the Christmas hamper Elizabeth David brought around to our house. All us children devoured this brown paper-wrapped parcel with its spicy outer layer, giving it no more than 24 hours in the larder even though it had theoretical lasting properties. Elizabeth David describes the flavours that include juniper, allspice and Jamaica pepper as ‘rich, mellow and spicy’. It’s a faff to do but once a year you don’t regret it. Surprisingly it has become a symbol of Christmas food in more households than just my family.

Cumberland sauceI enjoy this a treat at Christmas because it partners so well with cooked meats, from gammon through turkey. The ingredients of mustard, wine vinegar, port, ground ginger, oranges, lemons and red currant jelly, work together a delicate magic.

Oxford sauce (also known as Oxford Brawn sauce)My favourite of all the meat accompaniments. The classic combination of mustard and brown sugar works so beautifully to enhance the textures and deep flavours of the meat.

Endives cooked in butterAmongst the underused veggie gang in the middle of the book, this is a striking recipe. Adding the celery gives it a textural range along with the stock—or cream in a richer version as a delicious complement to turkey or white meat. Alternatively, whizz the cooked vegetables up and turn them into a puree thickened with egg yolk and lemon. Wow.

Torrone MolleHere I have to summarise Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall. When he made this for Elizabeth David while learning his craft at the River Caféhe upped the chocolate content. On serving it his customer immediately noticed and called for his attention back at her table. With some trepidation he returned to be told, after a short pause that might have seemed long, that she actually approved of his modification. Apparently this was one of the great moments of his cookery career. Torrone Molle really is the perfect chocolate cake, succulent, slightly stodgy, a chocolate zap of the highest order. 

Chocolate ice creamThe first recipe I cooked as a little boy was this one handed to me by Elizabeth David, typed on a piece of carbon copy paper. It simply pleases everyone, served soft and fresh, without crystallisation from being stored in the freezer. It’s worth serving it with luxury biscuits to extend the eating time.

Pears baked in red wineThe classic dark winter pudding and a receptacle for thick cream. As pears get older, or are underripe imports, here’s a perfect use for them. I enjoy lots of cloves but these are optional. What isn’t, though, is candles on the table when you serve these softly gleaming ruby pears. 

Orange and almond cakeThe orange gives this classic but easy-to-make cake a fresh and delicate flavour. It appeals to children and adults and is not a problem to make gluten-free by using GF-flour breadcrumbs. Serve it with Muscat de Beaumes de Venises and you’re heading for heaven.

ADD THE BOOK TO YOUR FAVORITES

Essential Elizabeth David (Christmas) is the first installment of a new compilation of the very best of Elizabeth David. Watch out for more classic Elizabeth David recipes on ckbk in the near future.