Russian Standard Vodka has teamed up with MasterChef 2009 winner Mat Follas to bring you something different for your dining table this Christmas and has come up with four alternative recipes to serve your hungry guests. Instead of the traditional turkey and Brussle sprouts this year why not indulge in alternative high dining with some tantalising Russian Standard cocktails to celebrate in style!
Questions about cooking your Christmas turkey? Call the Turkey Hotline for help!
Who do you turn to when it’s Christmas Eve and the turkey you’ve just lugged home from the shops won’t fit in the oven? Or the recipe says ‘stuff the neck end” – and you just can’t tell which end is which? You call the turkey hotline of course!
Pete Gottgens Wins Glenfiddich ‘Spirit of Scotland’
Up against some of Scotland’s top chefs, the rural hotelier on Perthshire’s Loch Tay (profiled in August) was recently announced overall winner during the prestigious awards at Edinburgh’s Prestonfield House.
Cornish Quartz a Cheddar with taste and texture for your cheeseboard
We all love a bit of Waitrose even those of us in postcodes where Waitrose fear to tread. We simply mount an expedition to a more favoured code (SW12 over SW16 for me) and then bring back our goodies under cover of darkness in case the local chavs spot our signs of obvious affluence.
Balham Bingo – discounted meals when you get your eyes down
Hoping for full houses 6 independent restaurateurs have come up with an innovative way to attract customers to their establishments to create a local business partnership. In the New Year the venues (all within walking distance of each other) will be launching ‘Balham Bingo”, where diners present their special bingo cards to obtain discounts at the participating eateries
Talisker Limited Edition Christmas Gift-Pack raise funds for the RNLI
The RNLI Talisker gift pack is a great Christmas present for whisky connoisseurs and with one pound from every sale of the pack being donated to the RNLI, you and the loved one who receives it will know that you are helping support this incredibly worthwhile charity.
Feeding of the 5,000 – Trafalgar Square
I have lined up the russets, wondrous in their crunch, the foxy Coxs, the carrots – knobbly – and the bananas. All of them perfect, earthly gifts distributed during the feeding of the five thousand. It was a Biblical act, a water-coloured wintry vision in Trafalgar Square – part West Country festival, part Regency splendour as the skies unloaded their first Christmas snow onto a lunchtime mob of far more than 5,000 believers.
Vegetarian recipes from Vanilla Black
We know it’s the season to stuff yourself stupid, but when the guilt kicks in you’ll want feel better about yourself and one great way to do that is to eat vegetarian. To help out we have some tasty, meat-free recipes from Vanilla Black London’s only fine-dining vegetarian restaurant and one recommended in the Michelin Guide.
Queen Cristina Sparkling Chardonnay can rule your Christmas and New Year
Credit crunch eating into your champagne budget? Think the stuff is overpriced anyway? Then why not turn your gaze toward Spain where sparkiing wines may not have the snob appeal of Champagne, but in the glass and on the nose can often hold their own against fancier tipples. Reina Maria Cristina is a Chardonnay blended sparkling wine, full of fine persistent bubbles and fresh, intense aromas.
ROKA Restaurant, Canary Wharf London
No one is going to make the trek out to eat at the Wharf who doesn’t work there obviously, they can go to ROKA in town instead. But if you are in the area then beg a banker to buy you a meal. It’s not cheap ROKA, if you want cheap there’s Wagamama, but it’s stylish, cool, beautifully designed and with food that is catwalk chic and classy.