Product Description

The only book this year that provides every recipe and idea that you will need to plan and enjoy the months ahead of Christmas to New Year's Eve. Sarah Raven, author of 2007's stunning Garden Cookbook (voted cookbook of the year by the Guild of Food Writers' and the Independent), presents the last word on food, flowers and decorations for the Christmas season. First, Sarah guides us through the Christmas build-up, suggesting puddings, sauces and edible presents to prepare before everything becomes too hectic. She then offers maximum-impact, minimum-fuss flowers and decorations, stylish party nibbles and a host of Yuletide meals for every palate, including a last-minute recipe for the all-important Christmas pudding. Finally, she sees us safely through Christmas Day, Boxing Day and beyond, with fantastic ideas for the inevitable mountain of leftovers. Sarah Raven is the perfect companion for Christmas, with her unrivalled expertise both indoors and in the garden and her emphasis on traditional methods with a fresh, modern aesthetic. With 175 food recipes and 40 recipes for flowers, and complemented as always by Jonathan Buckley's sumptuous photographs, Sarah Raven's Christmas Book will be a must-have manual for every home next Christmas and for many years to come.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7469 in Books
• Published on: 2008-10-20
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 272 pages

Review
There is no more functional or inspirational kitchen bible --Daily Telegraph

Review
A book that will certainly become a much-loved friend

Review
Mouth-watering pictures and prose

Customer Reviews

Sarah does Christmas!
Despite my 5 star rating I have to say that I was looking forward to a fatter book - more the size of Sarah's Garden coobook! I guess I was over hopeful; notwithstanding my greed, this is a gorgeous book. In common with the Garden cookbook it is crammed with beautiful photos - all part of the experience of a stunning cookbook for me.

The book is broken into the following chapters:

PLANNING AHEAD
The Christmas Larder: Puddings and cakes/Fruit chutneys, compotes and cheeses/Homemade sweets/Homemade biscuits/Drinks for the larder.
Forced bulbs for Christmas: Bulbs to flower at Christmas/Bulbs to give as presents.

DECORATIONS
The Christmas Tree: Tree decorations.
Flowers and Foliage: Wreaths and swags/Table decorations/Houseplants for Christmas.

A CHRISTMAS PARTY
A Party timetable/Party planning
Christmas Party Floweres: Instant party flowers/Showy Party Flowers
Christmas Party Food: Small party food (less than 30)/Substantial party food (more than 30)/Drinks for a Christmas party.

CHRISTMAS EVE
A festive breakfast/A light lunch for Christmas Eve/First courses/Main courses/Festive puddings

CHRISTMAS DAY
The bird, stuffing and gravy/Alternatives for vegetarians/Christmas Day vegetables/Christmas Day Puddings

BOXING DAY
Soups, risottos and other easy lunches/Some hearty winter salads/Pates, terrines and other meat dishes/Pies and tarts/Post Christmas Puddings/Post Christmas drinks.

NEW YEAR'S EVE
First courses/Main courses/Puddings for a New Year
success.

Sarah provides a comprehensive Christmas Timetable at the front of the book. This is useful - it gets you thinking ahead about what you can do in the months leading up to Christmas. In these days of the credit crunch, plenty of the ideas she provides in the 'Planning Ahead' section can be turned into gifts - only for special recipients though! In amongst the obvious recipes for Christmas cakes, puddings etc, Sarah also gives some different recipes - mincemeat with damsons and cobnuts, Banbury cakes (which appear to be a mincepie made using puff pastry, without a bun tin, and glazing the pastry), strawberry white chocolate truffles and florentines. None of the recipes are overfussy - and, where applicable, they also contain guidance for packaging for gifts. The ideas for gifts continue through potted crocus bulbs and miniature iris.

This review really could run and run! There are numerous ideas throughout the book for floral arrangments; they look utterly stunning and I would love to be able to recreate them - I suspect though that they may be beyond my novice skills. The pictures really do inspire you though.

Sarah's menus for a party are lovely - not your normal selection of canapes (fennel chunks with parma ham, turkish borek with fillings). She also includes advice for cocktails to serve - and how much to provide!

It is rewarding that Sarah does not simply provide one idea in a section - a festive breakfast includes granola, buns, muffins etc, - numerous stuffings are provided for Christmas Day, numerous different ways of doing the vegetables. Sarah isn't an overcomplicated cook, and I like that. I like the simplicity that her recipes espouse. This may very well become my Christmas Bible.

Gorgeous Sarah Raven Christmas food and flowers collection
I have been a huge fan of Sarah Raven since I got my hands on a copy of her brilliant Garden Cook Book. This has stood me in very good stead for the whole year as each new type of meat, fruit and veg has come into season - it seems to cover every type of veg that I've come across. But her Christmas food book does something different - hurrah! - it gives ideas for how to produce scrumptious, special food for a large or small party. I made the crispy cumin and caraway squid for a group of friends a couple of weeks ago and it went down a treat. The very cheesy biscuits (and pesto cheese straws) are the easiest and quickest (and yummiest) things ever and you can stow away some of the mixture in the fridge for another day if you discover that you've made too much. Her sausages in honey and mustard and bruschetta were also dead easy. She suggests all sorts of snacks that can be made in advance, which are right up my street. The book is really pretty - lots of lovely Christmassy colours, sparkly cover and gorgeous photos of food and flowers. Lovely!

a gorgeous Sarah Raven Christmas
A shiny silver and pink cover, with amazing photography of frosted seedheads: this is a gorgeous Christmas book with the unusual feature of always having one eye on the garden. Raven's timetable for Christmas means she tells us how to force hyacinths as well as make sloe gin, whilst thinking ahead to the Christmas cake and narcissi Paperwhite.

Beginning with the cake and the pudding (Constance Spry's recipe), mincemeat and fruit chutneys, the book takes an old-fashioned, very English approach to the Christmas mainstays. Making your own turkish delight, florentines and gingerbread house, seems so tempting. There's loads of advice about table bulbs including vital suggestions as to varieties; and brilliant ideas for front door wreaths including one laden with chillis and limes.

There are timetables for parties of fewer than, and more than 30 people, and amazing flower arrangements to do for those parties too (including an over-the-top hanging globe with eucalyptus, hdrangea, silver birch and huge bright chrysanthemums. This sounds weird, but it looks great.)

Pages of tasty canapes and unusual cocktails follow, and then finally the big event itself. A great sounding kedgeree recipe for Christmas Eve; or cook cheese fondue, beef carpaccio, or risotto.

And on Christmas Day? Raven is an evangelist for goose, offering a choice of five stuffings, plus a couple of deliciously healthy winter salads that will be making their way onto my table on the 25th. The big veggie option is Fennel and Gorgonzola soufflé tart... it looks as good as it sounds.

Her leftovers dishes have an oriental flavour - Nasi Goreng from Thailand and noodle soup. For Boxing day, terrines, an old-fashioned baked ham, a classic Cumberland sauce, a Mary Berry fish pie,... And then New Year's Eve, with salmon in puff pastry versus beef Carbonnade and Moroccan lamb with couscous. It's not as glitzy as Nigella's Christmas book, but has a much more "real-life" feel whilst still being incredibly special, and I can already see it being used more. A total success.