We had our Christmas Day early as we’ll be working on the actual day. Here are some of my presents:

I used the mezzaluna and board to chop up sage to add to the gravy I made to go with our sausage and mash tonight. The gravy turned out very well. I sliced 2 shallots and fried them very slowly in olive oil. Towards the end I added 2 chopped cloves of garlic and continued the slow frying. When the garlic had just browned I drained off excess oil and added some plain flour, probably 3 heaped teaspoons in total. (Delia says not to use corn flour to thicken gravy as the gravy ends up with the wrong texture and I must say I agree.) Once the flour was fried, little by little I added a 500ml bag of Waitrose beef stock and boiled it all gently until the gravy was reduced by about half. There was no need to add salt. The result was a meaty, garlicky (but not too greasy or gelatinous) rich gravy.