Pre-Christmas stocking
Confit of chicken breast with a sun-blushed tomato and tarragon mousse served with smoked bacon mash, creamed spinach and a shallot sauce may not be your average Christmas fare, but it will be sitting proudly on one of the banqueting menus at London's Landmark hotel throughout December.
Executive chef Gary Klaner is well aware of the growing number of festive diners who want anything but the traditional option. "An increasing number of people are fed up with turkey," says Klaner, who is glad of the chance to flex his creative muscles and devise menu options that cater for the burgeoning ranks of the anti-turkey brigade.
His creativity is felt across four set festive menus, each offering four courses and most of them diverting from the traditional, though Klaner concedes that one of the menus has to offer the traditional turkey complete with sage and onion stuffing, croquette potatoes and carrots, because this is what the traditionalists expect. And as well as the traditional Christmas pudding, Klaner also offers his own slant on it with an iced parfait of macerated winter fruits, including dates, cranberries, sultanas, apple and almonds, together with marzipan served in a warm Madeira and clove compote.
Of course, Klaner is lucky enough to have the resources to make all the food served at the Landmark from scratch, so if he wants to get away from the usual Christmas offering, he just dreams up some other dishes and orders the ingredients. But fear not if you rely on pre-prepared products to cope with all those extra covers brought about by festive office parties and the like, because menu development chefs employed by food companies have been racking their brains for months to provide you with a glut of alternatives to turkey.
Rosemary Price, divisional manager for food buying at Makro, has seen a definite shift in the type of products caterers are buying for the Christmas period. "A lot of people will go to at least two Christmas parties, and they are unlikely to want to eat turkey twice and then again on Christmas day. Christmas parties are often more about having a special meal than eating a Christmas dinner," she says. "A lot of caterers want alternatives to turkey, such as pheasant, and some are returning to the real traditional Christmas bird, goose." Makro sells both options in a frozen format. Another alternative to turkey that is growing in popularity is duck breast fillets, which Price says appeal particularly to the higher end of the market.
With alternative Christmas offerings in mind, UBF Foodsolutions has added three new dishes to its Knorr Chef Creations range: Salmon in White Wine Sauce, Venison and Pork Sausages in Port Demi Glace, and a whole Pork Rib in a Dolcelatte and Spinach Sauce. "For most of the population there are 12 days of Christmas, but for caterers there are 62 days to consider," says marketing director Ian Colvin. "The Christmas party season kicks off on 1 November and the revelries don't stop until 2 January. Chefs may be able to offer just a few menu variations to cover the whole period, but more than likely they will need something different for office parties, private dining, family get-togethers and the big events of the season - Christmas lunch and New Year's Eve dinner."
Ronnie Rusack, owner of the Edinburgh Canal Centre, is one caterer who has opted for help from the Knorr Chef Creations range. While Rusack and his staff still make the majority of their dishes from scratch, the demands of running three restaurants - the Bridge Inn pub-restaurant, catering for party bookings of about 40, and two 38-seat barges, both booked solidly by Christmas revellers from the end of November - created a need for some pre-prepared options.
On this year's Christmas menu is a vegetable cannelloni and a beef teriyaki, both based on Knorr products and customised by Rusack, in the case of the beef teriyaki by adding chestnuts and ginger for a more seasonal flavour.
According to Brakes, a Christmas menu should offer a balance of tradition, variety and innovation so as not to discourage particular types of diners, such as families with children, through lack of flexibility. So besides various traditional products, including individually frozen stuffed turkey fillets offering good portion control, and Christmas pudding with brandy custard, Brakes has come up with several other options, particularly on the dessert front, where the idea is to combine traditional Christmas flavours with innovative presentation. Individual mulled wine terrines contain raspberries, blackberries, redcurrants and mandarins in a mulled wine jelly; Plum and Port Pudding is a port syrup-soaked white bread case filled with plum pieces; and for children there's a chocolate sponge Yule Log filled with chocolate cream and covered in chocolate fudge and white and dark chocolate flakes.
Products that make life easier for the caterer are essential during the festive season, says Steve Love, business development chef at Nestlé Food Services, which produces the Chef range of fonds and jus that can be made in minutes. "It is vital that caterers choosing to cook to order use ingredients that are quick and simple to use but that don't detract from the overall quality of the dish," he says. And spending more time over presentation is another thing Love recommends, because he believes diners expect something a bit special over the Christmas period. "A simple action such as drizzling some sauce over a main course in a creative way or piping mashed potato can make all the difference," he says.
Product round-up
For caterers who rely on pre-prepared products, there are ready-made versions of all the elements of a traditional Christmas dinner, plus plenty of innovative alternatives.
Kerry Foodservice worked with the Territorial Army culinary arts team to create a series of alternative Christmas recipes incorporating its Margetts range of meat accompaniments, fruit toppings and fillings.
Christmas is synonymous with buffets, and for such occasions McCain offers a range of hand-held hot bites such as Big Crunch Onion Rings, Mozzarella Melters, Cheese and Chilli Scrunchies and Monterey Melters.
For caterers wanting to offer traditional turkey without the hassle, Bernard Matthews Food Service offers a range of traditional options, plus turkey products with a twist. Boneless Basted Turkey Breast is a whole turkey breast, weighing 1.5kg, while two Easy Carve options are also available - Turkey Breast, and Turkey Breast and Thigh - in two sizes, 4kg and 2.72kg. Alternatively, Rolled Turkey Fillets consist of a turkey fillet with a filling of either pork, cranberry and sage and onion stuffing or a spinach and ricotta mousse.
Masterfoods is hoping to take some of the headache out of Christmas menu planning with a collection of recipes on CD-Rom, available free to caterers. All recipes are designed to serve 10 people and each includes a twist on a traditional theme. The recipe collection includes honey-glazed beef fillet with chestnut and celery crust and roasted vegetables; Thai-style duck leg confit with cranberry and coriander rice; and spicy arrabbiata salmon with sprout and shallot stir-fry Ebly.
New from Snowbird Foods are Gourmet Sausage Meat Loaves and Pork and Cranberry Sausages. The loaves can be pre-sliced for large orders and supplied in a thaw-and-serve format which can be reheated in a microwave if required.
Emile Tissot has two festive meal accompaniments: Sage and Onion Stuffing Balls and Pigs in Blankets.
Tilda suggests combining turkey leftovers with one of its ready-to-use sauces to create such recipes as Turkey Korma or Turkey Jambalaya for those with a more adventurous palate.
This year's festive range from Macphie includes Cranberry Coulis, made from real fruit pur‚e; Chicken Gravy, suitable for serving with all white meats; and a Brandy Sauce.
Arkady Craigmillar offers a range of bake-off snacks for Christmas buffets including Petits Crolines in meat, fish and vegetarian varieties.
Padley's has launched natural deboned chicken mini-joints filled with a range of pork stuffings, including Sage and Onion, Cranberry and Apple, and Chargrilled Vegetable. For children there are shaped chicken Outerspacers, Chick ‘n' Teddies and Breaded Chicken Nuggets.
Matthew Walker supplies a range of Christmas puddings and loaves including 100g individual puddings, 1.36kg loaves and 1.36kg basin puddings. Recipes incorporate a minimum of 26% vine fruits and 9% cider, while the company's Victorian Christmas Pudding has 30% vine fruit content and 14% cider.
Kluman & Balter has created a Christmas selection of baking ingredients enabling caterers to offer a wide selection of seasonal products. The company suggests, for example, using its Kaybee's Chocolate Cake Mix to create a Yuletide Log, topped with Kaybee Fudge Ice.
Farm Frites offers a range of frozen potato products suitable as either buffet snacks or meal accompaniments. Products include Curry Chips, a frozen 15mm chip with a crisp curry batter coating, which the company recommends serving with mango chutney as a buffet snack. Ideal as an alternative to roast potatoes is Mash with Swede and Carrot - frozen, cylinder-shaped potato mash with swede and carrot that can be microwaved in five minutes.
Unifine Dohler says its liquid fonds and roux are great time-savers for busy chefs this Christmas. Liquid Fonds are available in lamb, shellfish, game, fish, veal and poultry varieties, while Liquid Roux are available in brown and white variants.
Contacts
Arkady Craigmillar 0151-343 1600
Bernard Matthews 01603 872611
Brakes 0845 606 9090
Emile Tissot 01952 417776
Farm Frites 01452 415845
Kerry Foods 01296 318000
Kluman & Balter 01992 704000
Macphie 0800 085 9800
Makro 0161-788 8448
Marlow Foods 0800 783 2196
Masterfoods 0800 952 0011
Matthew Walker 01773 760121
Nestlé Food Services 020 8686 3333
Padley's 0800 085 2749
Snowbird Foods 020 8805 9222
Tilda 01708 717777
UBF Foodsolutions 0800 783 3728
Unifine Dohler 01908 281222
