Mark Hix's season's eatings: Why not make gourmet treats as an alternative present?

Instead of scrabbling around crowded shops desperately trying to think of Christmas gifts to buy loved ones, why not get them some unusual, high-quality ingredients, or even make them a few delicious edible presents?

Serrano ham with tomato bread (Jason Lowe)

It would obviously be easy to be all very organised and buy your Christmas presents far in advance, ahead of the rush. But for most of us, it often becomes a last-minute shopping frenzy among the crowds. It can all get rather stressful, especially as, if we’re honest, many of the gifts we give and receive aren’t really needed by anyone.

But there is another way. Behold: edible gifts. They’re a different story altogether – you have some fun buying and making them and the receiver has fun eating and drinking them. You also don’t even need to fork out too much money for some of these presents. The old saying goes: “It’s the thought that counts” – and with edible gifts, I think it’s spot on. >

Serrano ham with tomato bread

Serves 4

If you are a lover of Spanish ham, then a whole Monroyo Serrano ham with the stand, knife and a carving how-to DVD is the perfect food lovers’ pressie. I often have a whole ham on a stand on the kitchen table over the festive period which provides the perfect snack at any time of the day.

You can buy the above from the Brindisa Spanish food shop in London (and online) for £115, which is a bit of a bargain, I’d say.

4 slices of white country-style bread or sourdough
2tbsp extra virgin olive oil
A couple of very ripe tomatoes, halved
Half a head of garlic
12-16 slices of Serrano ham

Grill or toast your bread and while it’s still hot, drizzle with oil and rub well with the garlic bulb. Next rub the tomatoes on to the bread until they have almost disintegrated or, alternatively, finely chop the tomatoes and spoon them on to the bread.

Finally, lay the ham slices on top and serve.

Serrano ham with tomato bread (Jason Lowe)

Barberry and chilli chocolate wafers

Makes about 20-25

I first saw these at Melt, the chocolate shop in Notting Hill. They are dead simple to do and you can even make your bespoke versions with whatever flavourings you fancy.

It’s certainly a hell of a lot easier to make these than chocolate truffles and they look much more dramatic, broken into shards in a bowl or on a plate.

Barberries are tiny dried berries used a lot in Russian and Eastern European cooking. If you can’t find them, it will work equally well with chopped-up dried cranberries or other dried fruit.

500g good-quality 70 per cent dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces
50-60g dried barberries
2-3tsp dried chilli flakes

Put the chocolate in a clean, dry bowl over a pan of simmering water and stir until melted. Remove from the heat, leave to cool for a few minutes and stir in the barberries and chilli. Line a flat baking tray with silicone or greaseproof paper and pour on the chocolate, scraping the bowl with a spatula, and spreading the chocolate to about ¼cm-thick. Don’t worry about having neat edges. Leave to harden – you can place it in the freezer if you wish. To serve, break the chocolate into large, rough shards.

Barberry and chilli chocolate wafers (Jason Lowe)

Baked potato with Mottra caviar

Serves 4

My favourite way to eat caviar is on a baked potato, either a large one as a starter or with new potatoes as a cocktail snack. A tin of caviar from 30g upwards is available from the likes of Selfridges, Fortnum & Mason, and Ocado. It’s a perfect gourmet Christmas gift.

An added bonus to all this is that you can eat the Mottra caviar produced in Riga without a guilty conscience: that’s because the sturgeon aren’t killed for their eggs but milked and released to produce again.

4 small baking potatoes weighing about 200-250g each
60g Mottra caviar 50-60g butter
½ tbsp chopped chives
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2-3tbsp good-quality mayonnaise

Preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 5. Place the potatoes on a tray and bake for about an hour, or until soft.

Leave to cool a little then halve them, scoop the potato into a bowl – but make sure to keep the skins – and mash with the butter and chives and season to taste.

To serve, refill the skins with the mashed potato, then spoon the caviar over the potato, completely covering it.

Baked potato with mottra caviar (Jason Lowe)

Dirty black cow martini

Serves 3-4

You may think that a bottle of vodka presented as a Christmas gift is just a little bit dull. Perhaps, but if you add a jar of olives, throw in a couple of martini glasses and maybe even a lovely vintage cocktail shaker if you can find one, well, all of a sudden you have a fantastic gift on your hands.

Black Cow is the hot new vodka made down my neck of the woods in Dorset from cow’s milk.

As you can see, we’ve been having a bit of fun with martini names. I prefer the ‘twisted black cow’ myself.

100-150ml Black Cow vodka
A teaspoon of dry vermouth
2-3 large green olives with the brine
Ice cubes

Put the vodka, vermouth and a couple of tablespoons of the olive brine into a cocktail shaker and half fill with ice cubes. Next, stir for about 20 seconds, strain into martini glasses or similar and place an olive in each glass and serve immediately

Dirty Black Cow martini (Jason Lowe)