With so much rich food on the table at Christmas, you need to balance your December menus with the season’s lighter offerings

Despite the cold weather, when I’m planning a menu for December I like to keep my starters small and simple or crisp and fresh. And nothing could be fresher than a winter salad. At this time of year, we’re lucky enough to get hold of the various chicories with their bitter leaves: look for witloof, the pale yellow and white plump oval chicory, radicchio with its strong crimson colour, and whatever other varieties you can find.

I like to partner these slightly bitter leaves with sweet, anise-flavoured fennel, crisp, nutty celery and the sweet and slightly peppery kohl rabi. I cut the vegetables into wedges and slices as appropriate, and tear off the leaves. I prefer to hand round the dressing separately, in case there are others like me who prefer to eat the salad au naturel.

Winter vegetables
For a change from sprouts – British or Brussels – look for something more exotic, such as salsify or scorzonera. These are tough-skinned root vegetables that need peeling before cooking in boiling water. After that, you can turn them into a gratin, with a silky texture and delicious, subtle flavour.

Creamed leeks are a delicious accompaniment to grilled and roasted meat as well as fish, and all you do after trimming, slicing and rinsing them thoroughly is put them in a heavy saucepan with a nut of butter. Cover with a lid, and cook gently until the leeks are tender. Fork to a purée with a little more butter, cream or crème fraîche and a grating of nutmeg. Brussels sprouts can be prepared in the same way.

Here are some more of my favourite winter vegetable suggestions:

• Jerusalem artichokes in a gratin

• Savoy cabbage, shredded and stir-fried with olive oil and sherry or fruit vinegar
• Chinese cabbage, shredded and stir-fried with oriental aromatics
• Kale, cavolo nero or green cabbage, shredded and stir-fried with flaked almonds, sultanas and creme fraiche
• Baked sweet potatoes
• Baked pumpkin
• Wild rice cooked in vegetable stock with wild mushrooms
• purées of root vegetables with spices
• Chestnuts, small onions and quartered pears, braised and glazed.

Over the page: The main course

The main event
When it comes to Christmas, there are those who love and those who loathe turkey. Fortunately, there are turkeys to suit a variety of tastes – your choices include organic birds, traditional breeds and joints. Turkey joints are a good idea if you’re feeding a smaller number of guests – and especially good if you don’t want to be eating leftovers for days afterwards.

As an alternative, consider game and other poultry. Pheasant is at its best in December, and is a good buy. Try pot roasting it for maximum juiciness, or cook the breasts quickly, and use the legs for casseroles; or mince the meat and serve as miniature ‘cottage pies’.

On Boxing Day, a splendid standing rib of beef or a ham will have their fans. The latter is a good choice if you’re cooking for a sizeable number, and the delicious leftovers are much more versatile than turkey off-cuts for sandwiches, risottos, pasta sauces and soups.

And don’t forget the seafood: oysters and smoked salmon – not to mention caviar for those who can afford it – are holiday classics. What makes them so perfect for entertaining is that they need nothing doing to them. Look for smoked wild Scottish salmon, or smoked organic salmon for a real treat.

Over the page: Dessert ideas and Frances’ December menu

Just desserts
We often forget that cheese is seasonal, but it makes sense when you think about it; cheeses maturing now will have been made from rich summer milk. Mont d’Or from the French Jura is a wonderfully rich, creamy cheese girdled with a strip of juniper bark. It’s perfection in winter, and a luxurious choice for holiday entertaining. Serve it on its own, cutting off the top with a sharp knife and scooping out the interior with a spoon.

Citrus fruits from southern Europe are plentiful now, particularly those known as ‘easy peelers’, such as satsumas and clementines – the traditional stocking fillers. Look out, too, for chestnuts (for roasting) and hazelnuts, brazils, almonds for cracking to eat with figs and dates.

Finally, take a tip from the French: in Provence, les treize desserts (the 13 desserts) is a traditional Christmas sweet that includes all manner of dried fruit, nuts, nougat and baked goods.

To make something similar at home, choose a shallow, circular basket and line it with a piece of Provencal fabric – or use a large, decorative platter. Then simply fill it with a variety of sweetmeats such as nougat, halva (a confection of crushed sesame seeds and honey or syrup), honey-dipped figs, dates, crystallised fruit, moscatel raisins, dried apricots, and a selection of nuts, shelled or not. To this delicious mix, add home-made or shop-bought marzipan ‘petits fours’ and spice biscuits. Cut ginger cake into individual squares and wrap in colourful paper, and don’t forget to treat yourself to Elvas plums, the ‘sugar plums’ of legend.

December menu
While November’s menu offered an interesting British take on Thanksgiving, all or some of this month’s seasonal courses make a delicious substitute for your Christmas dinner. The tanginess and nuttiness of the soup is a real winter warmer that’s substantial without being filling, while the lightness of the pomegranate complements the delicate pheasant perfectly. And a mincemeat tart – enough for dinner tonight and tea tomorrow – is the definitive end to a December dinner.

Celery, Blue Cheese and Chestnut Soup
Pheasant Breasts with Pomegranate Sauce
Mincemeat and Marzipan Tart

Tom Bissell’s wine suggestions:
A small glass of cool, dry oloroso sherry is the perfect partner for the soup, its warmth and nuttiness matching that of the chestnuts.

The hint of fruitiness and acidity in the main course needs a wine with plenty of character, and I would look to Spain again, for a Ribero del Duero, or for something less exepensive, a wine from Navarra.

Spain is also home to some delectable dessert wines, of which Moscatel de Valencia is an ideal choice with the mincemeat and marzipan tart. This would also be very good with the Christmas pud.

What do you most look forward to in December? Share your thoughts with Frances and Tom Bissell on the All About Food & Drink message board.