How to feast like a foodie

There is still time to have yourself a merry little Christmas. The secret recipe is less, not more. A shopping basket of the best food and wine is better than a trolley-load of Enumber nibbles and wine-lake plonk. We are what we eat, which is a scary thought this Christmas, as Thai turkeys and fatladen puddings and pies disappear from the supermarket shelves and into our bellies.

I am passionate about real food, which is why I jumped at the chance to open a deli on the ground floor of my house. I wanted a shop that I would enjoy; so at Verde's you take your time and have an espresso while you discuss what sauce to eat with your freshly made rocket ravioli.

At Christmas, there is nothing better than eating with people you love, and I like to start my Christmas celebrations with the shopping. For me, that means avoiding the stress of the supermarket, where I always need a Santa sackful of Valium. Christmas contorts the misery of the weekly shop into a suicide raid. Why fight over chocolate logs when you could be having a lovely time at farmers' markets, specialist delis and local shops?

The argument is time and money: no time to shop, no time to cook, plus the modern folklore that anything not in a supermarket is unaffordable for all but the self-indulgent rich.

None of this is true. It's a question of priorities rather than realities, but even if it were true surely, once a year at Christmas, we could do something different?

Remember, the key is pleasure, not stress, and that begins with a list of what you would love to eat, instead of what the big commercial retailers want you to buy. I never bother with turkey. I prefer goose or venison or woodcocks spit-roasted, though this year I am trying wild boar.

There is no pleasure in eating misery, and the lives of factory farmed animals are cruel and unhealthy. A good butcher can supply you with free-range organic meat, or game birds. For those who say it's all too dear, what is wrong with a brace of pheasants for a fiver? One pheasant feeds two people, and £2.50 each does not seem excessive on Christmas Day. It will taste delicious and you won't spend days scoffing turkey sandwiches.

I serve my pheasants with a sauce of windfall apples and leeks from my garden. I cook them in butter and oil on a low heat in a frying pan then, when soft, turn up the heat and fire the pan with Calvados.

I love sprouts and carrots at this time of year and, if you go to Bermondsey market, you can buy the best veg in the world from Jane Shotter's organic stall.

Jane grows everything herself on her farm in Herefordshire and harvests it the day before she comes to market. Unless you have your own garden, you will not find fresher food. There is nothing more delicious than seasonal local produce. It is a taste we have forgotten, and one well worth re-discovering.

Ignore beans and peas from Kenya. Cook red cabbage with vinegar and apples and buy potatoes that are not sterilised in plastic bags, but that smell of dark earth and frosty mornings.

I get my cheese from two suppliers: Neal's Yard in Covent Garden and A Gold in Spitalfields. A Gold specialises in British foodstuffs. A trip to their shop, with its wooden floors and strawlined boxes of produce, will feed your senses, and lift your heart. If you can't get to the shop, you can order on the internet.

I have ordered a whole Colston Basset Stilton, which is wonderfully whiffy, and glorious to eat with English pears or celery. You can make your own oat cakes in about 10 minutes, or try Dove's Farm Organic Rye crackers. I shall also be eating a real Lancashire crumbly and a Montgomery cheddar, both unpasteurised.

On Boxing Day, we shall have fish pie, made a couple of days in advance and popped in the freezer. Order your cod and smoked haddock now, from Steve Hatt in Islington, and add a few fresh sardines, heads on, to pan-fry with lemon juice and parsley on Christmas Eve. With a watercress salad and bottle of champagne, this is the perfect pre-Christmas day cleanser.

I have already made batches of mince pies, tiny melt-in-the mouth treats, with far fewer calories than the saucer-sized supermarket things. Clear the kitchen, put the radio on, pour yourself a drink and proceed as follows:

Rub 2oz of white vegetable fat or best lard into 8oz of organic plain flour. Add a bit of water to mix and firm into a stiff dough. Roll out your pastry and use a small cutter to make rounds.

Press these rounds into a 12- or 24-mince pie tins, dollop a teaspoon of organic mincemeat into each round, then re-roll your leftover pastry and cut out strips or stars for lids on your tiny pies.

Freeze the batch till required, or cook in a hot oven for about 15 minutes. Have another drink while you're waiting.

How simple is that? And think how much hydrogenated fat, palm oil, E numbers, preservatives, additives and flavouring you're not eating.

Chocolates have got to be Green and Black's Organic, or come to Verde's and buy a small box of Pierre Marcolini truffles, hand-made, and the best.

My Christmas always starts at 3pm Christmas Eve with Radio Four's Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, pink champagne, and little squares of black rye bread topped with wild smoked salmon. For me, that's the beginning of a real celebration.

Verde's, 40 Brushfield Street, Spitalfields Market E1, 020 7247 1924; A Gold, 42 Brushfield St, E1, 020 7247 2487; Jane Shotter Organics, Bermondsey Market SE1; Neal's Yard Dairy, Covent Garden, WC1, 020 7232 5149; Steve Hatt Fishmongers, Essex Road N1, 020 7226 3963.