HANDMADE ENGLISH AFTER-DINNER MINTS
Always have a few boxes of handmade English mint chocolates – not just the perfect present, but something no house should ever be without at Christmas.
MARMALADE
Fortnum’s probably has one of the widest ranges of marmalade in the world, from the thick-cut, deeply-flavoured charms of Sir Nigel, through to the tangy, medium-cut thrills of Old English Hunt, to the dark, rum-infused punch of Old Navy. In fact, Fortnum’s is so marmalade-mad that it even sponsors the Dalemain Marmalade Awards, where the winner gets a place in the Fortnum’s line-up. In 2018 the winner was Janice Miner’s G&G, which mixes grapefruit with gin to produce a marmalade with a wonderful sweet/sharp balance. But whatever your taste, make sure it’s proper marmalade, rather than some sorry, mass-produced mountebank.
MARRONS GLACÉS
More sugar-coated succour, this time candied chestnuts. Eat them on their own, purée them to make Mont Blanc (not exactly the easiest of puddings, but well worth a try), or simply eat with ice cream.
MINCE PIES
An utter Christmas essential, and available in all manner of sizes. Once made with minced meat and suet, most of the carnivorous ingredients have now gone. But all they need is a few minutes in the oven, and you have wonderfully spiced comfort, encased in crumbly, buttery pastry. A dollop of brandy butter never goes amiss either. At Fortnum’s, as ever, the range is dizzying, covering everything from traditional mince pies to the almond-topped.
NAPOLITAINS
Serious, grown-up chocolate, flavoured, individually, with salt, ginger, peppermint, lemon or orange, and individually wrapped. Blissfully addictive and eternally popular for any time of day or night.
NUTS AND DRIED FRUITS
For as long as I can remember there’s been a packet of dates that come out for Christmas then seem to disappear back into some distant cupboard for the rest of the year. But one taste of Fortnum’s soft, succulent Medjool dates, known as ‘the king of dates’, and you know these won’t hang around for long. Nuts are another essential, from the humble peanut right through to the delicately spiced wonders of their Scheherazade’s almonds.
PANETTONE
An Italian Christmas classic, this sweet Christmas cake (originally from Milan) contains the usual candied citrus peel and raisins, and can be served with sweet wine, amaretto or crema di mascarpone. It keeps well, so can be used as emergency teatime supplies too. For unexpected drop-ins. At Fortnum’s their version is made by the legendary Cipriani, of Harry’s Bar restaurant fame. And it’s used in the recipe for Marmalade Bread and Butter Pudding. Damn good it is too. Eat it warm for breakfast, with a cup of good coffee.
PICKLED WALNUTS
As English as David Niven strolling down Jermyn Street in a three-piece and a bowler hat and whistling ‘Rule Britannia’, pickled walnuts are a soft, sharp delight. Serve with thick slices of ham, or a great chunk of Stilton.
PORK PIES
A proper pork pie is a thing of pure porcine majesty: properly seasoned, peppery pork, surrounded by wobbling pork jelly and clad in a crisp, lard-based pastry. Triple pig, and all the better for it. You could, of course, make your own, but that hand-raised crust can be hard work. I tend to leave it to the experts. And buy a huge pie. The problem is, I find it very hard not to snack on it, slathered with piccalilli, or a great smear of proper English mustard. It’s also a Boxing Day stalwart, although in my house it rarely makes it through Christmas Day.
PORT
This fortified sweet wine makes a perfect end to any dinner, be it Vintage (rich, redolent and deeply complex), chilled Dry White (full-flavoured but fresh), Crusted (matured, then bottled without any fining or filtration, to retain that delectable fruit concentration), or Tawny (served chilled, it’s rich, sweet and silken). So far from being the old club buffer’s tipple, it’s a wine with a version for every occasion.
PRUNEAUX D’AGEN
Ente plums, a rare local variety found only in the South of France (and grown by a small co-operative of farmers), are stuffed with a sweet, succulent prune purée. They’re soft, juicy and, alongside a good cup of coffee, the perfect way to round off a long and languorous dinner.
SHERRY
Forget the days, long past, where a glass of sherry meant a tot of your Granny’s oversweet stuff, poured from an old dusty bottle. Because at long last we’re starting to appreciate the endless glories of this wonderful Spanish fortified wine. A chilled glass of dry, delicate Fino, the perfect aperitif, which also stands up to the most robust of flavours, taking on garlic and chilli with equal aplomb. Oloroso VORS (very old and robust sherry) has been aged and is rich and nutty, while Manzanilla is less rich, with a saline whiff of the sea. For those looking for a bit more oomph, then Pedro Ximénez VOS (very old sherry) is the perfect end to dinner, deeply flavoured and intensely fruity, to be drunk with blue cheese, or with chocolate puddings, and equally wonderful poured over ice cream.
SLOE GIN
A stalwart of British winter, this deep purple libation manages to mix the sweet with the tart. A nip or two is an essential winter warmer, but it also makes a wonderful cocktail ingredient, used in Sloe Negronis and sloe toddies, too. Fortnum’s sell their version, but I always make my own. You’ll find the berries in late autumn: simply take a few handfuls (around 500g), freeze them overnight, then mix them with gin (good-quality please) and caster sugar (about 2 tablespoons) in a sterilised bottle. Leave for a couple of months in a dark place, and this regal concoction will be ready in time for Christmas.
SMOKED SALMON
The proper stuff, elegantly smoked (rather than choked with a bitter bonfire of fake oak flavouring), resolutely ungreasy, and elegantly, expertly sliced. Quality is everything: try to find a variety that uses fish farmed to the highest standards, as they do at Fortnum’s. The very best needs little more than a drizzle of lemon and a dusting of freshly ground black pepper, plus a great pile of thickly buttered brown bread. Or do as my mother does on Christmas night and make a huge pot of runny scrambled eggs, to sit atop a few slices of serious smoked salmon. Simple, and simply sensational.
STEM GINGER
Ginger was once one of the most important spices imported by Fortnum’s, and by the mid-nineteenth-century, they offered ‘preserved West Indian Ginger, clear and young, in original jars and bottles in various sizes,’ as well as East India Preserved Ginger, in small china jars. And a pickle called Chou Chou.
During the Great War, preserved ginger from Fortnum’s was a staple of parcels sent out to the Western front, and officers could share cubed glacé ginger, pickled Chinese stem ginger, Chyloong stem ginger, Piewoong Stem Ginger, Manloong Stem Ginger as well as that West India Ginger ‘beautifully clear and free from string,’ in heavy syrup. And Chow Chow (the spelling of this pickle had changed by 1914).
Ginger is one of those wonder spices, said to help everything from upset tummies to morning sickness. Which is why it’s so useful to have a jar of the stuff, preserved in syrup. You can add it to puddings, scatter it over ice cream, even eat it straight from the bottle. A store-cupboard essential.
STOLLEN CAKE
A classic German Christmas bread, you want to buy the big version, which should last you through the festive