Christmas Picnic

Many young people who are traveling or living abroad spend Christmas away from home, but still want to make it a special celebration to enjoy with those around them. This shoot was all about celebrating the holidays amongst friends in a cozy but casual way. Cushions, rugs and an easy picnic style Christmas menu set the tone for a festive and fun Christmas on the floor! The whole idea behind this shoot was keeping the food and styling as effortless as possible, offering up an array of ideas that don't involve excess hours of prep in the kitchen or formal table settings.

Styling

Style wise, we wanted the setting to have a quintessential Christmas vibe to it, while being very informal and youthful with a slight boho feel to it. We did a fresh take on classical Christmas hues with a colour scheme of maroon, duck egg blue, creamy whites and brass.

cushions: Sweet Living, white wall decorations: Dille & Kamille

brass candlestick: Microscope Telescope auf Etsy

gold scissors: HAY Amsterdam

Dining on the floor was made comfortable and inviting with layered rugs (a vintage kilim atop a natural woven rug) and a spray of cushions to rest on and against. Soft candlelight flickered from tall brass candlesticks and a large collection of white and cream coloured candles in various heights and sizes. A foraged tree branch served as a Christmas tree, decorated simply with a beautiful selection of ornaments.

With typography being the underlying theme for the shoot, we added in hand-made gift tags and labels for Ajda's chutney. To make the rice paper gift labels, simply stamp letters directly onto the paper using an individual alphabet stamp set. Tie the two typography labels together using cotton string.

hand lettering by Sarah Krug

Recipes

For most young people, spending Christmas with family usually means they don't do much of the cooking. Tradition has it that parents and grandparents take over the special family day, so, when it comes to spending Christmas without family, attempting a Turkey for the first time might seem like a daunting idea.

The most important thing when creating these recipes was to keep the essence of Christmas and the traditional dishes and flavours alive but without hours of prep time and much simpler recipes. Turkey is hugely expensive during the festive season and also takes hours to cook so we decided to go for the next best thing, glazed Christmas ham. With a smaller piece of ham that isn't on the bone, the cooking times are greatly reduced but the results are still Christmassy and delicious with the traditional sticky glaze.

The potatoes boulangere and the warm roasted brussels sprout, parsnip and cranberry salad both involve minimal prep and you can just leave them to cook in the oven and do their thing. In fact, if you start with the ham, you can cook everything in the oven at the same time because the oven temperatures are the same for all dishes making it super easy to manage.

The chutney can be made in advance, is perfect with the ham and a selection of cheese and crackers and also makes the perfect Christmas edible gift. Especially when made to look beautiful with a hand drawn typography label.

The dessert is a simple assembly job that takes just minutes but your friends will be suitably impressed and wowed by the presentation. My take on an Eton Mess with quintessential Christmas flavours had a bit of booze to make it extra special!

The picnic was made even more festive and yummy with some seasonal clementines, chestnuts, mulled wine, bread, a selection of salami and cold meats, a variety of cheese, pickled baby onions, sliced apples with honey and some fresh cranberries for decoration.

Red Cabbage and Apple Chutney

Makes 4-5 jars

700g red cabbage, finely diced

2 apples, peeled and diced in 1cm cubes

100g fresh cranberries

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp chilli flakes

2 inch piece of fresh ginger, grated

200g brown sugar

250ml orange juice

100ml white wine

vinegar

1 glass red wine

Sea salt and cracked black pepper

1. Place the red cabbage, apples and cranberries into a large pan with high sides.

2. Add the spices, grated ginger, brown sugar and give it a good stir.

3. Pour over the orange juice, white wine vinegar and glass of red wine and turn the heat up to high until the chutney comes to the boil.

4. At this point, turn the heat down a little so that the chutney is still bubbling away but not boiling.

5. Season the chutney well with some sea salt and cracked black pepper and continue to cook it, without a lid on, for about 45-50 minutes until the liquid has almost all reduced and thickened.

6. Cover the chutney and allow it to cool completely before transferring it into sterilised jars.

Warm Roasted Brussels Sprout, Parsnip and Cranberry Salad

Serves 6

6 parsnips, peeled, halved and cut into equal sized batons

1kg brussels sprouts, washed and ends trimmed off

200g fresh cranberries

Olive oil for roasting

For the dressing

50ml olive oil

25ml balsamic vinegar

1 tsp dijon mustard

Sea salt and cracked black pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F).

2. Lay the parsnips on a large baking tray, season with sea salt and cracked black pepper and toss in a little olive oil. Roast in the oven for 30-35 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, add the brussels sprouts to a pan of boiling salted water and cook for 2-3 minutes.

4. Add the cranberries to the brussels sprouts and cook together for just 1 minute until the cranberries begin to pop.

5. Remove from the heat and strain the sprouts and cranberries in a large colander. Shake off any excess water, add them to the parsnips that are already roasting in the oven, drizzle over a little more olive oil and continue to roast for the remaining time.

6. Once the vegetables are tender and golden brown, transfer them onto a large platter.

7. Mix together the olive oil, balsamic vinegar and dijon mustard in a small jug, season with sea salt and cracked black pepper and drizzle over the vegetables.

8. Serve on top of some lovely, crisp salad leaves.

Potatoes Boulangere with Rosemary and Thyme

Serves 6

8 large potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 cm thin slices

2 large onions, thinly sliced

Handful of sprigs of rosemary and thyme

500ml chicken or vegetable stock

25g butter

Sea salt and cracked black pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F).

2. Layer the potatoes and onions in a large, deep-sided baking dish, starting with onions and ending with potatoes, seasoning between each layer with salt, pepper and rosemary and thyme leaves.

3. Pour in the stock and add a few knobs of butter over the top.

4. Bake in the bottom of the oven for about 30-40 minutes until the potatoes are tender and golden on top.

Easy Glazed Christmas Ham

Serves 6

1.5-2kg piece of ham, skin on (not on the bone)

1 onion, peeled and quartered

5 black peppercorns

2 bay leaves

30-40 whole cloves for studding

For the glaze

75ml soy sauce

75ml balsamic vinegar

200ml beef or chicken stock

1 glass red wine

250g brown sugar

2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce

1 tsp cloves

1. Place the ham in a large, high-sided pan and cover with water.

2. Add the onion quarters, peppercorns and bay leaves and turn the heat up high to bring the ham to the boil.

3. Once boiling, reduce the heat a little and continue to cook the ham for 40 minutes, skimming off any scum from the top.

4. When it is ready and the heat is off, leave the ham to cool down in the water until it is cool enough to handle.

5. Place the ham onto a chopping board. Carefully take off the skin and some of the excess fat, making sure you leave an inch thick layer to score and stud with cloves.

6. Preheat the oven to 220°C (425°F).

7. To make the glaze, add all of the ingredients into a saucepan and bring to the boil.

8. Reduce the heat and let it simmer vigorously, for about 15 minutes, until the sauce reduces and thickens.

9. Meanwhile, score the fat in a diamond pattern and stud the centre of each diamond with one clove.

10. Place the ham into a deep-sided baking dish and spoon over half of the glaze, reserving half for basting later and roast for 30 minutes.

11. Remove from the oven, reduce the temperature down to 200°C (400°F), baste and roast for a further 30-40 minutes, until caramelised and crispy on top.

12. When the ham is done, transfer it onto a serving platter and spoon over any of the leftover sticky glaze from the baking dish.

'Christmess’ Layered Christmas Pudding, Meringue and Baileys Cream

Serves 6

1 Christmas pudding

4 meringue nests

250ml double cream

2 tbsp icing sugar

25ml Baileys Irish Cream

1. Warm up the Christmas pudding in the microwave according to the instructions on the packet and set aside to cool down.

2. Whip the double cream and icing sugar together in a large bowl until just holding soft peaks. Add the Baileys and whip again for a minute until well combined, making sure not to over whip the cream or it will turn grainy.

3. Break the meringue nests into a bowl.

4. Begin to layer your dessert into 6 individual glasses, starting with meringue, then Christmas pudding, then cream and repeat.

5. Garnish with shaved dark chocolate.

6. Can be kept in the fridge but much better eaten straight away!

Styling & photography: Holly Marder

Recipes & food styling: Ajda Mehmet

Models: Jennifer Laarman & Jennifer Van Den Heuvel