A year ago a fitting soundtrack for the Gilmartins' family feasting would have
been a variation on a cheesy song with words like, “Last Christmas I gave it
my heart”. A brilliant cook who can't resist trying new recipes and
entertaining friends and family, Caroline Gilmartin admits that she went a
bit over the top last year. "It took us six months to shift the weight,” she
laughs, “and I hate to think what it cost. It was fun, but I can't do it
again.”
Although Gilmartin and her husband Marcus, an investment adviser, haven't had
to pull in their horns drastically, she admits that she has become more
cost-conscious in the past year as the price of food has gone up and the
credit crunch hits home. “We are aware of what a profligate life we lead and
definitely want something leaner and meaner this Christmas.”
Never mind one knockout meal. Last year they just kept coming, with a roast
goose followed by beef Wellington two days later and a steady succession of
Gilmartin's glorious puddings - trifle, white chocolate cheesecake and tarte
tatin - right up to Marcus's 40th birthday at the beginning of January.
Apart from countless calories and a stack of cash, Gilmartin would like to
save some energy, too. “She worked herself to death last year,” says her
mother Barbara Jarvis who, with Gilmartin's father David, join their
daughter, son-in-law and children Amelia, 9, and Hugo, 5, at their clifftop
Georgian home overlooking Bristol for the annual extravaganza.
Enviably adept at keeping everything under control in her kitchen, Gilmartin
cheerfully combines cooking dinner with one hand and humouring the excitable
Hugo into cutting out pastry stars with the other. She makes the pastry
herself, which is cheaper than buying it, always turns a chicken carcass
into stock, and as a good and ingenious cook is careful not to waste food.
“I get very cross if I have to throw anything away, even a yellow sprout.”
She has also scaled down her shopping. “Once you're dragged into a supermarket
you just start buying.” Using the local delis doesn't necessarily cost more
if you choose cannily, she has found, and cites mussels from the fishmonger
as a deceptively economical supper.
Even if we can't catch Gilmartin out for being wasteful, the home economists
can encourage her to restrain her instinct to be generous. Christmas
killjoys? Don't you dare. In the spirit of seasonal giving we're offering to
help the Gilmartins to eat just as well, more healthily and less expensively
this year.
Out with the old, in with the new
Goose is first to go when it comes to downsizing. Gilmartin isn't altogether
sorry. “There was nothing left of last year's bird so that killed leftovers
stone dead,” she recalls. Marcus backs her bird choice. “I like the way
turkey can reappear in different formats, especially as curry.”
With spare meat and a broth made from the carcass as the base for an aromatic
vegetable soup, it's possible to eat for next to nothing after Christmas.
Any remaining meat can be frozen and join scraps of ham in a pie long
afterwards. “And turkey is so healthy,” she concedes.
The Scandinavian-style Christmas Eve smoked trout and blinis idea gets the
thumbs-up. Beetroot can divide a family but her husband approves. Just as
well he loves puy lentils, so the cheap-as-anything ham hocks should pass
muster. It's not unlike the cassoulet they bring back from France but is
much easier to make.
Rediscovering the coleslaw she remembers from childhood will be “very credit
crunchy”. So too will turning the celery, apples and walnuts that are always
around at Christmas into a Waldorf salad rather than shaking out a bag of
leaves. But more than anything they'll notice the difference that giving
beef Wellington the boot makes to the cost, calories and time. Creamy
puddings give way to fresh fruity deserts and though they'd really prefer
jelly in their trifle, Barbara and David are willing to give pomegranate
jelly the benefit of the doubt.
“It was quite obscene what we had last year,” Gilmartin admits, a touch
nostalgically. But the family is in no danger of being deprived of delicious
food. Bring on the “small, slow Christmas” is this year's chorus in the
Gilmartin home.
Christmas Eve
LAST YEAR
Whole roast salmon, hollandaise sauce, roast cherry tomatoes and green beans;
mince pies.
Cost £28
THIS YEAR
Home-made buckwheat blinis, smoked trout and horseradish-spiked crème fraîche,
grated carrot salad, beets with a splash of vinegar, potato salad with
vinaigrette; home-made mince pies with grated apple added to the (bought)
mincemeat.
Cost £15
Money-wise
Dove's Farm buckwheat flour comes with the blini recipe and at £1.69 a kilo
there's more than enough for a pancake party. Smoked trout is cheaper than
smoked salmon and a very generous serving is only £1 a head. Root vegetables
are seasonal and hence cheaper. Roasting is the easiest way to cook beetroot
though it is still cheap already cooked. Home-made mince pies cost half as
much as bought.
Health-wise
Buckwheat flour is gluten-free. Trout and salmon have very similar amounts of
omega-3 oils, which help to combat the rich excesses of Christmas by keeping
our blood flowing smoothly. Beetroot provides “betaine”, a supernutrient
that helps to detox homocysteine, a troublesome substance that can clog up
arteries. Half-fat crème fraîche is a good choice, though fromage frais has
even less fat (8g per 100g). Grated carrots add the health-boosting orange
antioxidant pigment betacarotene. Making mince pies means that you can roll
the pastry more thinly than shop-bought versions and stretching the mince
with apple adds soluble fibre and slightly lowers the calories.
Christmas Day
LAST YEAR
Roast goose, potatoes cooked in goose fat, carrots steamed with garlic and
honey, roast parsnips and sprouts with pancetta and chestnuts; Christmas
pudding and brandy butter; trifle with fresh raspberries.
Cost £83
THIS YEAR
Turkey, sausages, bacon, sprouts, carrots, parsnips, potatoes; clementines
with pomegranate seeds, halva and orange blossom water.
Cost £59
Money-wise
There's a reason why most people have turkey rather than goose. You could buy
buckets of goose fat for roast potatoes with the money saved by switching
fowl. And a goose just doesn't offer the leftover opportunities. Compared
with the £20 saved on the bird (not to mention the free meals later from the
leftovers), tinkering with the trimmings doesn't make much impression on the
budget. Buying sprouts loose - rather than in a bag or, although it looks
lovely, on the stalk - saves a bit. Christmas pudding is a token presence,
most of the Gilmartins prefer trifle. Fresh raspberries are twice the price
of frozen. The clementine pudding costs half as much as the trifle.
Health-wise
Switching from roast goose meat (319 calories and 22g of fat per 100g) to lean
roast turkey (153 calories and 2g of fat) dramatically cuts fat and
calories. Though goose is much better for iron, opting for dark turkey meat
helps to make up for it. Sprouts are healthy but some people cannot tolerate
the bitter taste that comes from their supernutrients. Luckily Hugo and
Amelia Gilmartin love them. Clementines are great for vitamin C, while
pomegranate seeds will boost the levels of paraoxonase in our blood, which
researchers have found can help to break down the build-up of cholesterol on
artery walls.
Boxing Day
LAST YEAR
French tinned cassoulet, bagged leaf salad with avocados, prunes and sesame
oil; white chocolate cheesecake with oranges in a saffron syrup.
Cost £24
THIS YEAR
Ham hocks with lentils, carrots, celery and parsley, healthy home-made
coleslaw; pomegranate jelly with cream.
Cost £13.50
Money-wise
The craving for ham at Christmas can be cheaply satisfied with a ham hock.
They're not pretty, but at less than £3 each that's forgivable. A couple of
hocks cooked for the lentil dish leave stock for future use and maybe some
meat to eat with pickles or freeze. Puy are twice the price of other green
lentils but still a snip at £2 for 500g. Caroline Gilmartin buys her cans of
cassoulet in France; they're pricier here. Bags of fancy salad leaves are
much more expensive than home-made coleslaw, while white chocolate accounts
for more than half the cost of her cheesecake. All it takes to make a jewel
of a jelly are the seeds from half a pomegranate and a carton of juice.
Health-wise
The ham hock meal is leaner than the cassoulet (720 calories and 36g fat) but
has twice the salt with 4g (two thirds of your day's upper limit) so season
lentils sparingly. Coleslaw gives immune-boosting vitamin C and a
yoghurt-based dressing will dramatically cut fat compared with mayonnaise (a
whopping 207 calories and 23g of fat per tablespoon). Pomegranates in the
form of juice will be good for artery health, and as such this fat-free
pudding is dramatically lighter than the cheesecake. The combination of
vegetables and juice will add potassium, which will help to balance out the
rather heavy salt load of the meal.
THE GILMARTINS' FESTIVE FOOD BILL
Last year £135
This year £87.50
Total saving (this year) £47.50
