Five easy festive flavour hacks

How to use store cupboard ingredients to boost the flavour of your Christmas cooking

Around this time of year, after months of writing and thinking about Christmas, I start going slightly mad. I put the word ‘festive’ into a thesaurus in the hope it will magically create a new way for me to describe this season, which seems to go on for a lot longer than a season (at work, where I’m the senior food editor at M&S, I had my first kick off meeting in March).

I’ve spent years trying to reinvent Christmas food, writing features and recipes for different publications. The first, working on our December issue at Jamie OIiver’s magazine, was thrilling. Cooking a turkey in July! Putting together the Christmas gift guides! Shooting a towering, caramel-covered croquembouche for the cover in sweltering sunshine! But over a decade later, it can be more of a challenge to come up with new ideas. Plus, the food media landscape has changed so much – now it’s not just the big chefs and magazines publishing recipes, but countless content creators with slickly edited videos, and of course, the brilliantly talented community here on Substack.

I’m left wondering if anyone needs any more Christmas food content. After all, most of us will end up eating the same tried and tested recipes on the big day (side note: I hate the term ‘the big day’ but try writing about Christmas without repeating Christmas in every sentence, and you will see why I sometimes must fall back on this odd turn of phrase). Is there any space left for more ideas?

This dilemma gets to the heart of why I write for a living. I can’t help myself. I have to join in the chorus, because this is all I really know how to do. So, reader, here you are. Some more festive food to heap onto your already overflowing plate, with five easy hacks to boost the flavour of some dishes you may or may not be cooking over the next few weeks. Merry Christmas.

Mustard powder and turmeric on your roast potatoes
I learnt this trick when interviewing the chef Paul Ainsworth a few years back and have been enjoying levelled-up roasties ever since. Once you’ve peeled, par-boiled and cooled your roasties, get a tray of oil heating in the oven. Tumble the cold roasties into the hot oil along with ½ tsp each mustard powder and turmeric, then roast to perfection. It gives them a gorgeous golden colour and can’t-put-your-finger-on-it flavour.

Clotted cream under your mince pie lid
This also works with brandy butter but I love it with clotted cream. Take a shop-bought mince pie and carefully cut off the top. Fill with a spoonful of clotted cream then warm through in the oven. You’ll never look back.

Quick-pickled cucumbers with your smoked salmon
There’s lots of smoked salmon around at Christmas. Whether it’s with your eggs for breakfast or on top of a blini for canapés, it will be elevated with some quick-pickled cucumbers. Mix 2 tbsp white wine vinegar and the juice of ½ lemon with ½ tsp sugar and ½ tsp salt. Use a speed peeler to cut rounds of cucumber and toss in the pickle mix. When you’re ready to eat, drizzle over a little olive oil

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Candied walnuts on your salad
I love a bitter salad at this time of year, with radicchio, endive or fennel and maybe some winter citrus – and burrata for proper festive indulgence. Finish with candied walnuts, made by dissolving 2 tbsp sugar with 2 tbsp water in a pan then cooking until syrupy and just starting to brown. Meanwhile, line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper. Stir 100g walnuts into the sugar then quickly stir before transferring to the baking sheet. Allow to cool then roughly chop and scatter over a bitter, citrusy salad.

Sea salt on your cookies
If you’re baking some cookies or biscuits this year, a little flaky salt will make everyone love them more. My go-to recipe is still Alison Roman’s, which makes more of a buttery, dark chocolate-stuffed shortbread than a chewy cookie, but it’s very good. You can make the dough ahead and keep in the freezer, ready to slice and serve.

PS This week I’m loving…

The best Christmas music has a melancholy edge in my view. This Phoebe Bridgers EP hits all the right notes.