The lovely people at Britain’s most famous garlic “brand”, The Garlic Farm in the Isle of Wight, have squeezed this temptingly tasty trio into one long box.  There’s a moreish Toasted Garlic Mayonnaise, a Mint Sauce with Garlic (not overwhelmingly garlicky, they’ve got the balance just right) and a very good Horseradish Mustard with Garlic – thankfully, not so hot that it’ll blow your head off.

The trio will be making an appearance on Christmas and Boxing Day here, but in the meantime try  the Toasted Garlic Mayo  spread on grilled rustic bread,  topped with roasted cherry tomatoes for a quick work-at-home supper – delicious.

The Garlic Farm Condiment Pack £10.50

Explore the glorious world of garlic and more festive foodie gifts here, at one of the UK’s few and far between garlic producers The Garlic Farm  - as seen on BBC2′s Great British Food Revival recently.

Hotel Chocolat Christmas Stocking

Tangerines? Bah humbug!  Give us a chocolate fix instead!

We checked into our favourite Hotel this week and found this festive stocking… in it you’ll find a selection of chocolatey treats: Tiddly White Santas • Milk Chocolate Drops • Milk Chocolate Reindeer Lick • Cool Penguin and a 100g Slab.

We’ve got our eye on those Tiddly White Santas, but if they disappear early there’s always that Reindeer Lick.

www.hotelchocolat.co.uk

£22  Christmas Stocking

From the people that brought us the most British cordial of the summer – Bottlegreen’s Elderflower Cordial – comes the most festive non-alcoholic drink of the year…

Best enjoyed with a Frank Sinatra Christmas album while the chestnuts are crackling on the fire, or warm your fingers around a mug of it in the nippy air while adding a few finishing touches to the snowman.

Deep, fruity and grown up, it’s delicious hot – or just add to warm red wine for an instant mulled wine.

The clever people at Bottlegreen have filled each long-necked bottle with Cotswold spring water, the juice of blackcurrants, aronia berries (like cranberries but with a whopping amount of antioxidants and Vitamin C – more than even goji berries),  cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, lemon and orange.

Bottlegreen are looking for berry good cocktail ideas so why not have a go to win a hamper full of Bottlegreen drinks in their Clever Cocktail competition?  Enter here

£2.99, makes 22 drinks, at Waitrose, Tesco and other retailers. www.bottlegreendrinks.com

CARLUCCIO’S CANDIED CLEMENTINE PIECES IN DARK CHOCOLATE

Here’s a Christmas favourite, the quintessential chocolate orange – but better!  Open the box and nestled inside are candied clementine segments from Calabria just dripping in dark chocolate.  Bite through the chocolatey coating and an oh-so-slightly syrupy burst of succulent Italian orange sunshine floods your taste buds.

Sweet but grown up, marmalade lovers will love them and chocoholics will thank you for not giving them the usual “box of chocs”.

Lots more beautifully packaged Christmas food gifts in Carluccio’s Festa di Natale range to drool over, here:

www.carluccios.com/shop-online … ahh, you have to see these mini gianduja crackers!

300g/£16.95

PS: What does “in Camicia” mean?  We think it literally means “in shirts”, in which case they’re the best-dressed clementines we’ve tasted this year.

It’s beginning to taste a lot like Christmas.  Reindeers, chocolatiers, clementines and tangerines…we’ll be featuring the very best of festive flavours this season when Food Shortlist’s first Christmas Countdown kicks off next week!

We’ll also be featuring treats from Carluccio’s  (like the Pandolce di Genova in the pic) who’ve raised over £550,000 for Action Against Hunger to date www.carluccios.com/about-us/action-against-hunger.

Food Shortlist recently donated £110 to the charity www.actionagainsthunger.org.uk as a result of our 5p-Follow-Twitter campaign in September (see our 5p-Follow page),  you’ll find them at @ACF_UK .

So…if there are any  fabulous food producers or celebrity chefs out there  who’d like to add to, or maybe even match our £110 donation and really raise the fundraising bar in the countdown to Christmas, let us know and we’ll help spread the word on Twitter.  ’Tis the season for sharing and we can’t think of any better way of celebrating than spreading the warmth.

And, if you’re an indie artisan food or drink company, or just want to get in touch, we’d love to hear from you. We’re Tweeting about eating @FoodShortlist!

About fifteen years ago I was in Vancouver one Saturday just before Christmas. It was a  chilly afternoon, slightly foggy, and just as daylight started to fade, snow started to fall like icing sugar from heaven, dusting the pavements and parked cars.

Time for a hot cup of coffee. Tempted  by the glowing orange window of a specialist coffee shop I ventured in. It turned out it wasn’t just a coffee shop, it was a whole tea and coffee emporium. There were rare, exotic blends displayed in tiny wooden boxes, gold embossed tins that looked like square gold bars and large glass jars.  I was peering at the tea labels, to see where each tea was from when a tall, handsome tea “guru” who could have been soul singer Maxwell’s brother appeared from nowhere.  Soon we were on a whirlwind tea tour.  In the end I chose some chai, which Mr. ‘Maxwell’ wrapped up in a glossy gold foil pack and green gauze ribbon. I walked back to the hotel in the snow with my little package of “new discovery” chai tea gleaming like a gold Christmas decoration.

Steenbergs Organic Christmas Tea reminds me of that Saturday in Vancouver.  A fusion between mulled wine and tea, this chai tea is slightly spicy and very warming, it’s hand blended in small batches at the Steenbergs Tea factory in North Yorkshire to Axel Steenberg’s own secret recipe. It’s a mix of organic black tea from POABS Estates in Kerala along with cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, ginger, vanilla and orange peel – all Fairtrade/organic.  It’s a lovely winter’s evening tea, and a good afternoon pick-me-up if your energy levels are flagging a bit.  The tin’s lovely too – hide the chocolate biscuits it in when you’ve finished the tea.

STEENBERGS ORGANICS Organic Christmas Tea (loose)

£5.50/125g  (free UK delivery for all orders over £20)

How to make it: You can brew it like normal tea and add milk if you’re in a hurry or at the office, but simmering 500ml water and 500ml milk together with a little honey or sugar and 4tsp of the organic Christmas chai tea for about 4 – 5 minutes takes the spiciness and aromas to a different level (careful though, don’t boil it).

Tillmans of Sweden ORGANIC LINGONBERRY CORDIAL

After a few swigs of this – you’re supposed to mix it with water but it tastes delicious neat – I was hooked.  I love cranberry juice but it can be slightly bitter but this cordial tasted like a sort of grown up Ribena (minus all the sugar).  Not blackcurranty, but bursting with berry flavour, like a sweet, rich cranberry, slightly mellow and fruitier.

There’s something quite Christmassy about this Lingonberry Cordial…the rich ruby colour, the berry nice taste,  and Tillmans have got the ratio between the fruit and added organic sugar just right.  Perfect for stylish cocktails but also perfect alone, if you’re a berry fan, you’ll love the rest of the range . Tillmans’ other organic berry-based cordials include Blackcurrant, Raspberry & Redcurrant, Rhubarb, Elderflower, Strawberry and Cherry www.swedishjuice.com/product.html

Lingonberries are packed with vitamin C and anthocyanins, antioxidants that help keep blood vessels healthy, and the berries have anti-inflammatory qualities, so it’s not just delicious, this cordial’s good for you.

TILLMANS OF SWEDEN LINGONBERRY CORDIAL

£4.61 for 500ml, available online from GoodnessDirect

In his warm and (utterly) wonderful first book, Daniel Galmiche says he apparently stood in the middle of the kitchen (aged 5) and announced, “When I grow up, I’m going to be a chef!”  (Make that a Michelin one).  And at the end of his personal intro he adds, “…if you use this cookbook on a regular basis, it will make me very happy.”

Well “oui” will definitely be using this book (again and again).  I spent a whole Sunday evening (pre-Downton Abbey) drooling over the photos in the French Brasserie Cookbook, preparing some of the recipes in my head before testing a few favourites. It’s an easy, inviting read and the recipes are very accessible – there isn’t so much as a hint of Michelin attitude on any of the 200 pages.

You’ll find “Les Plats Vegetariens” (Tomato Tart with Goat’s Cheese, Provencal Vegetable Gratin and Crepes with Mushrooms & Tarragon)… there’s Fish & Shellfish (Pan-Roasted Salmon Steaks with Lime & Coriander Mayonnaise, Dover Sole with Lemon & Parsley Butter and Cod, Coriander, Tomato & Garlic Parcels – mmm!)…then on to French brasserie classics like Roast Leg of Lamb with Garlic & Lavender and a Pork Belly Confit with Apples.  (Not finished yet!)  Past the Cheese section where Daniel whisks you on a French Cheese Tour across France’s green, creamy pastures…then just as you don’t want the book to end it ends with on the sweetest notes with.. “Les Desserts”!

Ready? Get your pudding plate out for a helping of Raspberry Clafoutis (or as Daniel would say, the much more gorgeous-sounding “Clafoutis a la Framboise”) – you can also make delicious little mini-ones in ramekins.  Daniel whips up almost angelic looking, light-as-air and perfectly crisply-edged Orange Souffle Pancakes which ooze with a floaty Vanilla Custard-based Orange Souffle Mix.  My favourites are the trio of rustic-chic Coffee Creme Caramels, two beautiful Creme Brulees with Raspberry Puree – a rather romantic looking pair of mini-puddings,all golden, bubbly, bruleed and creamy looking, with a fuschia shock of raspberry puree (surprise!) at the bottom.  And “Chocolat” fans will be pleased to know it makes an appearance in some decadently elegant Bitter Chocolate Mousses with Orange Zest which I could eat every night for a month (or 12).

Cookbooks come and go as do the seasons, but the real test is – is it a keeper?  You fall in love with the food, wear down the pages and keep returning to the recipes which feel like familiar friends. This book oozes warmth and is a joy to read, no doubt because it’s written from the heart.  The French Brasserie Cookbook will remind you that French brasserie cooking doesn’t just feel “very right, right now”, but rather, this way of cooking is as connected to nature and timeless as food itself.

FRENCH BRASSERIE COOKBOOK by Daniel Galmiche – “Classic French Cooking with a Modern Twist”

£20 from Amazon and other booksellers. One for the Christmas list.

Daniel Galmiche’s website: www.danielgalmiche.co.uk

Published by Duncan Baird www.dbp.co.uk