Luxury Christmas menu on a budget

The menu

• Starters & nibbles

  Smoked trout with watercress purée and chopped egg salad

• Main course

  Neck of lamb stuffed with cannellini beans and hazelnuts

• Side dishes

  Butternut squash, sage and crème fraîche mash

• Desserts

  Chocolate mousse with fiery ginger shortbread and candied orange peel

Menu ingredients

Serves 6

• Fruit and vegetables

  • 140g/5oz watercress leaves, washed, roughly chopped

  • 1 punnet mustard cress

  • 8-10 cornichons, drained, sliced

  • small handful chopped fresh dill

  • ½ lemon, juice only

  • ½ lemon, cut into 6 wedges, to serve

  • 5 garlic cloves, peeled, chopped

  • 2 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves only, chopped

  • 250-300g/9-10½oz cavolo nero, stalks removed

  • 10 fresh sage leaves, chopped

  • 1.5kg/3lb 5oz butternut squash, peeled, seeds removed, cut into 2cm/1in pieces

  • large pinch chilli flakes

  • 50g/1¾oz fresh root ginger, washed, unpeeled, finely grated

  • 2-3 pieces crystallised ginger, sliced

  • 1 large orange, peel only, white pith removed, sliced into 0.5cm/¼in strips

• Tins, packets and jars

  • 1½ tsp Dijon mustard

  • 800g/1lb 12¼oz canned cannellini beans, drained, rinsed

  • 80g/2¾oz plain flour

• Cooking ingredients

  • salt and freshly ground black pepper

  • 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, or rapeseed oil

  • 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for greasing

  • 50g/2oz shelled hazelnuts, toasted, skins removed

  • salt and freshly ground black pepper

  • salt and freshly ground black pepper

  • 25g/1oz caster sugar

  • 30g/1¼oz icing sugar

  • 30g/1¼oz cornflour

  • drop of vanilla essence

  • 80g/2¾oz caster sugar

  • 150g/5oz demerara sugar

• Biscuits, snacks and sweets

  • 100g/3½oz dark chocolate, broken into pieces

• Drinks

  • 1 shot espresso

• Dairy, eggs and chilled

  • 3 free-range eggs, hard-boiled, peeled, chopped

  • 3 tsp soured cream, or crème fraîche

  • 60g/2½oz butter

  • 40g/1½oz parmesan, coarsley grated

  • 6 tbsp crème fraîche

  • 30g/1¼oz unsalted butter, chopped

  • 3 free-range eggs, separated

  • 100g/3½oz unsalted butter, softened until very soft, plus extra for greasing

• Meat, fish and poultry

  • 6 x 40g/1½oz pieces smoked trout fillet

  • 1.2kg/2lb 10¼oz lamb neck fillets, each butterflied, then beaten out to 15cm x 30cm x 2cm/6in x 12in x 1in rectangles using a meat mallet

• Other

  • 4 ice cubes

  • 2 tbsp water

  • 6 thin slices toasted soda bread, buttered

By Allegra McEvedy