Kokova Magazine

So you love British food and want to put together the most wonderful Christmas dinner reflecting the glorious range of food that our country produces.

Where to start?

The Source caught up with Alexia Robinson, founder of British Food Fortnight to get her tips for that perfect British Christmas dinner.

In the build-up to this year’s British Food Fortnight the public were asked to choose their favourite slogan for promoting British food.

‘Grown here, not flown here’ was top of the pops so let that be the motto for your Christmas feast.

If you want a slow-grown, quality British turkey for Christmas, order early. The harsh economy has driven consumers to favour cheaper birds and producers have responded by hatching fewer premium turkey chicks.

KellyBronze turkeys in Essex produce some of the best turkeys in Britain.

They live the sort of life they would in the wild spending their days foraging in woodland and parading in open pasture. They shelter from the rain under bushes and fly into trees to roost at night. When they are processed, they are dry plucked then hung for at least 14 days to develop the characteristic KellyBronze flavour.

They are delivered with full cooking instructions, recipes and even a meat thermometer to make Christmas dinner as easy as possible.

If turkey bores you, make your Christmas a wild one with British game.

Grab some small game birds such as woodcock, partridge, pheasant, wild duck, pigeon or snipe from your local butcher and place them in the middle of the table alongside cranberry jelly, bread sauce and all the usual trimmings.

Cooked in approximately 40 minutes and requiring miniscule preparation time, try a roast partridge with cranberry and port gravy. Or a roasted pheasant with a simple chestnut stuffing or a loin of venison rolled in walnut with a redcurrant sauce.

Buying direct from a local estate is hugely satisfying but if you do not live near one www.blackface.co.uk will bring the wild countryside to your doorstep well in time for Christmas.

Vegetables; Think rich, deep wintry colours.

British winter vegetables are some of the most exciting in the world so pile your plates high with British winter veg – it contains all the nutrients that our bodies need at this chilly time of year.

Vegetables to look out for in December: beetroot, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, celeriac, celery, chicory, Jerusalem artichoke, kale, leeks, parsnips, pumpkin, salsify, swede, and turnips.

Most farm shops offer special Christmas vegetable boxes or you can order online from www.primrosevale.com or www.holtsgreengrocers.com and many others.

Cheese is easy; there is such a plethora of British cheese to choose from.

Stilton is the king of Christmas cheeses and so by rights deserves to be centre stage though you could choose another blue cheese such as a Shropshire Blue.

Don’t ignore cheddar. It is so prolific it is easy to take for granted, but having been produced in Britain for 900 years is now under threat with more foreign cheddar than ever before being imported.

And for a bit of colour, Appleby’s Red, one of the oldest cheeses made in Britain – crumbly with a fresh tangy flavour.

The smells in a specialist cheese shop are so heavenly Alexia is reluctant to recommend a mail order alternative but www.teddingtoncheese.co.uk will provide everything you need this Christmas.

If time is tight and you end up doing a last minute supermarket dash, a few moments spent on www.lovebritishfood.co.uk will pay dividends.

All the British products available in the supermarkets are listed under the ‘Want to buy British’ section. You can search by product or by supermarket and print off shopping lists as aide memoires.

Alexia Robinson is the founder and organiser of British Food Fortnight, the biggest national celebration of British food that takes place every Autumn at the same time as Harvest Festival.

Now entering its 10th year, hundreds of shops, pubs and restaurants take part every year with special menus and promotions. In 2012 the dates of British Food Fortnight will change, for one year only, to run at the same time as the London Olympics.

The event’s website www.lovebritishfood.co.uk is a one-stop-shop for consumers, retailers, caterers and schools wanting to enjoy British food.

The site includes a ‘Supermarket Watch’ monitoring what British food is being sold in the big stores, search facilities to find pubs and restaurants serving British food, a Teacher Zone plus sections providing advice on eating British on a budget and ideas for planning promotions during the Olympics.