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Beetroot Relish from Jamie Oliver

You’ve been making a list, checking it twice, you’ve worked out what’s naughty and what’s nice. And now you’re having a sudden panic as you’ve counted up the presents and you’ve forgotten someone! If it’s a foodie gift you’ve forgotten, then never fear! Here’s some last minute suggestions you can still order in, so no need to brave the High Street just yet.

1. Jamie Oliver has some great stuff, without his face on it, that I think makes a great standby foodie present. There are good preserves and oils and, lets face it, you’re going to trust these more than some awful flavoured collection from the corner shop. A duo of beetroot relish and red onion pickle, wrapped in a funky teatowel, or a mixing bowl, would make a brilliant gift. Or I suppose I should have said a pukka present. Order by Thursday this week to guarantee pre Christmas delivery, and benefit from free delivery. Perfect!

2. Treat them to a different foodie day. All of the major experience companies offer very interesting days, and most still seem to be guaranteeing pre Christmas delivery. From Virgin, you could buy the Cupcake & Cocktails Experience, or learn some new dishes at the Novelli academy or spend a day cooking fish with Keith Burke. Not quite doing it for your foodie? Try Red Letter Days or Buy A Gift or check out the fantastic courses for real artisanal food at The School of Artisan Food, from patisserie through to wild yeast baking.

3. Heal’s have some great foodie gifts, and you’ve got through till midnight this Sunday to order from them. Truly a

Love it or loathe it, it's a great gift

present of love if you hate the stuff, but if your foodie loves the stuff, then they have a great Marmite gift. I’ve featured the pate gifts before, and you’ve got a choice of game, meat or fish, so something for everyone. There’s some cool stuff in their barware section, like the Beer Cooler Zinc Tub, ideal for the beer and party loving foodie. Looking forward to warmer days ahead, then I like the Metrokane Wine to Go Neoprene Carrier, perfect for picnics.

4. For the serious foodie with expensive tastes, then London Fine Foods is perfect hunting ground for great gifts. They have everything from Beluga Caviar to White Truffles, milk fed Pyrenne’s lamb and fabulous Jamon Iberico de Bellota. There are gift boxes on offer or, if the choice is too much, gift vouchers! The provenance and quality will make any foodie’s Christmas morning!

5. For your pick of great foodie presents, it’s also still not too late to order from Natoora. For most of the UK, orders can go through up until 22nd December, some parts of London are the 23rd. There are beautiful boxes of macaroons (watch this space, I say 2010 will be the year of the macaroon) and panettone, and if the choice is too much there are some great hampers already put together. Check out the Pure Indulgence and Great British Christmas versions.

That should keep the foodies very happy with their presents come Christmas morning, and should keep you happy by shopping from the comfort of your own chair!

Buy it for someone else who needs it

It’s coming round to that time of year, when you’ve ticked all the easy ones of your list, and you’re facing into the fact you’ve only got that one awkward so and so to still shop for. We all have at least one, and every year it’s tough going. My best advice is shop early for these ones, it doesn’t get any easier the later you leave it!

So, what would I suggest for those awkward ones that say “don’t get me anything”? Here’s a few ideas:

1. Don’t. Literally. Don’t buy anything for them, buy something for someone else who is in much greater need. You can even get them with a food theme. With Gift in Action from Action Aid, you could buy cocoa tree saplings, a community garden or a goat breeding programme. Practical Presents offer a fireless cooker, a cool zeer pot or some funky chicks. Someone else gets to cook to survive, they don’t get a blueberry vodka filled stiletto.

2. Buy them something they have forgotten they loved. I think this is where the more unusual nostalgic sweets come into their own, and I love the decade boxes that A Quarter Of have. There are boxes from the 50s onwards, with the 50s having Pontefract Cakes and Peanut Brittle, whilst the 70s (peak sweet eating time for me) has Tooty Frooties, which makes it all worthwhile for me. The other good option for foodies is a much earlier cookbook, to revisit food from your childhood. Nothing for me makes a day better than cooking up cakes from the BeRo cookbook. Check out Alibris for out of print stuff.

3. Buy them something they’ve always wanted to do. I think experiences rather than things are often a better bet, and memories have value for such a long time afterwards. Long after the blueberry vodka has gone. I would think even the least festive feeling person in the world would be happy to find themselves the recipient of a booking on a course at The School of Artisan Food or perhaps bread making with Richard Bertinet in Bath. For something even more niche, how about a sugar decorations masterclass or even a home food smoking course. Smiles guaranteed, both on Christmas Day and on the day of the class.

4. Do something for them. Be the commis chef on Christmas Day, without complaint or tutting. Sort out their cookbooks, or put all the recipes they’ve been collecting into some sort of sensible system for future reference. Get the oven professionally cleaned. Plant salad ready for next year (sorry, can’t remember, sure there are types you could plant now). Just think about the things they always complain they never get round to doing.

5. Go all out and spoil them. Notch up a Michelin starred restaurant or two, or at the nearest top one from the Good Food Guide. Travel overseas and exploit their best food offering, or even just different food offerings to what’s on offer near you.

Don’t leave this till the last minute, as you may need to do more question asking to just get a really good feel for anything except option 1. Failing that, just buy them the Giant Gummi Bear and a jar of Marshmallow Fluff. That’ll teach them.

Learn to put more chocolate on a plate!

Given all the chocolate wonderfulness around this week, perhaps you’re feeling inspired to take your skills with it up a level or two. You could read more or you could book on a course and get some hands on experience. Now whether novice, keen amateur or absolute gourmet, then there is something suitable somewhere for you. Here’s a few options:

1. Artisan Chocolate Making at The School of Artisan Food - please Santa, if I am really good, can I go on this in March? It says this is a course for anyone with a desire for real chocolate, so it sounds perfect. You get to work with sweet and savoury flavours, and you get to make chocolate bars and truffles. On top of that, you do so in fantastic surroundings. Worth travelling for!

2. Cooking with Chocolate Masterclass - this is an interesting little gem from one of the gift experience companies, Buy A Gift. This masterclass is with “celebrity” chef Nigel Brown at his home in North Lincolnshire, and you’ll get to create chocolate desserts as well as petit fours and truffles. All this and you get a good lunch too! Sounds like a good foodie gift, and I have used Buy A Gift for other gift experiences which have been delivered to a high standard.

3. Chocolate Delight Workshop – these sound like a bit of a giggle, ideal for a group but less serious from a food perspective. That’s possibly my personal prejudice as it starts with a chocolate fountain. That said, you go onto learn all the skills of truffle making and will leave with around 30 to 50 truffles to enjoy later. You can book direct, or a lot of the gift experience people, such as Red Letter Days and Buy a Gift, offer it as gift options.

4. Atelier Visit and Chocolate Discovery- maybe if Santa doesn’t think I’ve been good enough for the first one, then he could let me spend the day with the team from Artisan du Chocolat. You can travel the atelier and also the journey from bean to bar and bars to chocolates. At £35 this sounds like an absolute bargain and whilst not so much hands-on experience, I would think it was an incredible way to spend a few hours on a Saturday.

So, four very different options, and I would fancy giving them all a go, just for the comparison really. Great courses make a great and unique gift for a foodie at any level of experience. Just try and match their experience to the course! No point sending an advance student on the Chocolate Delight Workshop for example!

Fabulous chocolate image by avlxyz on Flickr.

Get out and support your local one!

My good foodie friend (her of the cheese making kit) and I went to the Food & Drink Fayre in Newark today, in the sunshine. I have to admit I went off with fairly low expectations as the marketing had been pretty low key and fairly short on detail. I’m always a bit suspect when no list of firms taking part is forthcoming.

However, I have to take my misgivings back (but not the amazement at their lacklustre marketing). Perhaps they got lucky because the sun shone, but there were lots of people wandering, tasting and buying. A big truck hosted a stage for ongoing demos and music, and also was being put to good use tonight with an open air showing of Mamma Mia. Hopefully the audience, with a little lubrication perhaps, will sing louder than Pierce.

Back to the food. The one thing that the outing really reinforced, beside the fact that I do love a potato roasted in duck fat, is that these are fabulous hunting grounds for unexpected and unusual foodie gifts, as well as immediate food shopping for the week ahead. There’s stuff you might buy for a “just in case” moment, as well as the more person specific stuff.

And I hate to mention the word, but once the kids go back to school in just a couple of weeks, you just know it will be downhill to Christmas. My absolute for finding fabulous gifts and presents of any type is shop in plenty of time, as rushed last minute things are always a) a compromise b) often disappointing and c) more than you planned to spend in the first place. So getting out to your local food festival or fayre now will at least furnish you with some good ideas if not actual gifts.

What caught my eye today? Here goes:

1. Short courses at The School of Artisan Foods – please, sign me up for every course, these sound amazing and are in the beautiful surroundings of the Welbeck Estate, which is also where they make Stichelton unpasteurised cheese. I think these courses would make a great gift for a foodie and cover everything from preserve making to a basic brewing course, hand raised pies and terrines and even wild yeast baking. Half days start at £65 with full days from £125, including refreshments and lunch. Worth travelling for I would say!

2. Poacher’s Pasties - these were scrumptious, a pasty of pheasant and venison.  You can get them sent mail order across the country, as well as some very good pate. Richard Glover describes himself as a whingeing Pom but we found him very dry and amusing, and he can’t half dish up a good pasty!

3. Chapman’s Finest Fishcakes - direct from Grimsby, making the most of the local fish and potatoes. There are very traditional fishcakes which were awarded the Gold Prize at the Great Taste Awards in 2008,  but I rather liked the smoked haddock with smoked bacon. Not available directly from them online, but they are at the local food markets in the Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire area.

4. Spire Brewery - for the beer drinkers, this is a small brewery based in Chesterfield. We didn’t do a lot of tasting, but I am rather partial to a stout, so would suggest their Sgt.Pepper Stout, or perhaps the Beer-A Lynn. You can go do a brewery tour, and even talk to them about a personalised beer.

5. My Secret Kitchen - I’m not normally a fan of party plan events, but quite liked this one. Perhaps it’s because it’s the first one based around food. I’d not heard of them before but they are nationwide. We tried the red pepper cheese ball mix, which was retro but interesting, the balsamic reduction, which I can imagine being very useful and the maple caramel sauce, which was just divine. It all seemed like good food and a non pressurised sell, so we will probably book a session, get a few of us together, some wine, and see what we really like.

The other thing to always look out for at these events is the Country Market stall, otherwise known as the WI. I would always stock up on home cooked jams, curds and pickles. These always make a good standby gift to take if you’re going for dinner somewhere, although the curds don’t have a very long shelf life. Jams and pickles will still probably be good at Christmas, so you could use them as the basis of your own gift collection for someone.

Go find your nearest festival or fayre, and support your local producers! They need you this year more than ever!

Photo of Huddersfield Food Festival by Janet 59.