Christmas is a time where we should all be allowed to have fun and let our creativity run wild. It doesn’t have to be an endless list of chores and tiring days of preparations. It often is, but really, it doesn’t have to.

And for what the menu is concerned, since Christmas is about abundance and the number of courses are always far too many plus the traditional food far too heavy for our modern lifestyle, we should feel free to change the rules a little and adapt the tradition to better suit our contemporary bellies.

I am all for tradition and I am not at all ready to just get away with it.

I think it’s so important to carry it forward for years and generations to come. That doesn’t mean we cannot reinterpret it, enrich it and add something to leave our mark on it, as many others have done before us. Tradition, at the end of the day, like anything else, is not something invariable and set in stone. Only what is dead stays unchanged and until tradition lives in us it evolves with us and for us.

This year, we want a fun Christmas: a beautiful and whimsical table, delicious and elegant food that is gentle on our waistline and doesn’t leave us in a food coma, inexpensive and easy to organise menus and decorations… It’s possible and easily achieved.

All that said, menu wise, I have chosen three very simply yet utterly chic starters: home cured salmon on brioche bread, prawns and lettuce in cocktail sauce and a creamy cucumber soup. Recipes below.

Salmon and seafood are always a good idea when there is something to celebrate and they are light and best when served fresh and with as little addition as possible. Just this, it sounds wonderful to the busy home cook hassling to the get the big dinner ready. Recipes below.

The first recipe, the home cured salmon on brioche bread is a long favourite of mine, that I was taught during a culinary course at La Scuola de La Cucina Italiana in Milan more than 20 years ago. It’s been a recipe I used over and over for parties and dinners because it’s super fast and simple to prepare, it’s utterly delicious and, above all, it can be prepared a few days before the occasion, something I personally find invaluable when you have to go through challenging menus and you don’t want to find yourself rushing everything till the last minute and ending up making a mess of it.

A dignified cooking and entertaining is essential for any modern woman and I am no exception. I like to have it under control, I want to take my time and receive my guest after I have been in the shower and I have changed and freshened up. I don’t want to be exhausted and looking a mess!

The salmon is marinated in sugar, salt and herbs for days and its delicate flavour marries the gentle sweetness and roundness of the brioche bread so well that there is nothing more to say than, it was a match made in heaven. Recipe below.

The prawn and lettuce in cocktail sauce is a classic and never gets old. It’s delicious because it enhances the flavours of its ingredients and if served with a home made cocktail sauce, it really brings out the best in them without taking over the palate. Super simple and fast to prepare, it’s a pleasure for the eyes and mouth and is normally loved by everyone. The cocktail sauce recipe comes from a family friend who was a fantastic cook and the best barbecue master I have ever met. Recipe below.

The last recipe, the Creamy Cucumber Soup, is a really old fashioned one, I have found in The Official Downton Abbey Cookbook by Annie Grey (White Lion Publishing) that mention as original source of the recipe, Eliza Acton’s Modern Cookery for Private Families, one of the best-sellers of the nineteenth century that remain in print for more than 60 years. It takes us back to a time where cucumbers were a popular cooked ingredient, served stuffed, stewed or in soups. This recipe can be served cold or warm and for a Christmas menu I recommend the latter. It has a very gentle flavour and it’s perfect to clean the palate and set a smooth transition onto the first course of the meal. Recipe below.

As per the table settings, it’s a real mismatch of cutlery and crookery accumulated in time adorned with some brunches of my garden hedge and some green from the garden. The charge of it is the layers of history that I have added to the table just bringing these things together guided by the gorgeous rusted brown leaves of my garden hedge that have worked as a guiding principle of the entire composition, which I have then matched with the antique glasses and the general warmth of the other items which have functioned as the canvas or background where the leaves could come to life.

featured:

Tablecloth: Aramis Barcelona - www.aramisbarcelona.com

Candle Holders: Garden Mile - Shtrading ltd, Livingston, West Lothian, United Kingdom - bought on Ebay.

Glasses: antique grandparents eclectic collection

Cutlery: antique - family collection

Plates and bowls: Sinikka Harms - www.sinikkaharms.de

Glass bottles: antique - family collection

Wine Cooler Bucket: Silver Antique - family collection

Place mats and coasters: Wingfield Digby London - www.wingfielddigby.co.uk

Vases: The Future Kept - www.thefuturekept.co.uk

Decorative leaves. Cargo Milano - www.cargomilano.it

Table: Ikea MÖRBYLÅNGA - www.ikea.com

Chairs: Ikea BERNHARD - www.ikea.com

Candles: Prices’ Candles - www.amazon.co.uk

recipes:

HOME CURED SALMON ON BRIOCHE BREAD

Ingredients:

500 gr fresh salmon fillet (skin on)

40 gr sugar

20 gr salt

white pepper crushed roughly

herbs (fresh dill, fresh thyme, fresh chervil)

extra virgin olive oil

To serve:

toasted brioche bread

butter

mustard

lemon

Preparation:

Check that the salmon fillet has no bones and remove them if found. Mix all marinade ingredients (with the exception of the olive oil) and cover the salmon. Let it marinate for at least 36 hours turning it upside down a few times. The salmon can then stay in the fridge for several days whilst still covered by the marinade.

Once ready to serve, wash the marinade out, sprinkle a little olive oil on it and slice it as if it were smoked salmon.

Brioche bread

Ingredients:

600 gr flour 00

250 gr milk

25 gr fresh yeast or 1 1/2 teaspoon of dried one

10 gr sugar

150 gr butter

1 egg

2 yolks

15 gr salt

40 gr single cream

Procedure:

Mix all ingredients (with the exception of the cream) in a bowl and knead the dough until ready. Divide it and place it in two plum cake holds. Brush the top with the cream. Let them rest until they have almost reached the top of the old.

Cook in a preheated oven at 220 degrees Celsius for 20/25 minutes.

The dough can be prepared even a couple of days before and kept in the fridge. Just cook it last minute because it is so much better when eaten just out of the oven.

prawn and lettuce in cocktail sauce

Ingredients:

1 kg shelled prawns (king or jumbo)

1 lettuce

lemon

salt

extra virgin olive oil

mayonaise

ketchup

whiskey

Procedure:

Steam the prawn and make sure you cook them just enough for them to change colour and turn pink and you don’t spoil them overcooking them.

Wash and slice the lettuce very finely.

Season the lettuce with salt, lemon juice and olive oil and place it at the bottom of champagne coupes. Place the cooked prawn on top of it. You will pour a little amount of sauce on top at the last minute before serving.

To make the sauce, the best option would be to have homemade mayonnaise that you would tint with a very little amount of ketchup until it turns pink and the add a teaspoon of whiskey and mix all together until perfectly incorporated. You can also use shelf mayonnaise but in that case you might have to thin the sauce with a little water. You don’t want the sauce to be too liquid but you also don’t want ti to be too thick. It’s supposed to add flavour to the prawns without overtaking them completely.

cucumber soup

Ingredients:

4 cucumbers, peeled and sliced 2.5 cm (1 inch) thick

1 shallot, finely diced

600 ml of chicken stock (2 1/2 cups)

2 teaspoons salt (if the stock is not salted, otherwise reduce accordingly)

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon of rice flour

240 ml (1 cup) double cream

1 bunch of flat-leaf parsley, long stems discarded

Procedure:

Cook the cucumbers, the shallot, the stock and the cayenne for about 45 minutes or until the cucumbers are soft. Pure in a blender until smooth. In a small bowl, stir the flour in the cream to dissolve it and then stir the mixture into the soup. Cook the soup gently while stirring it continuously until it thickens (about 10 min).

Just before serving, mince the parsley and add it to the soup bowls.