Have yourselves a perry little Christmas! F

I hope you’re all nicely prepared for this weekend, and you have everything planned and prepped.

I find it’s the only way I can properly enjoy myself, knowing I’ve left nothing to chance.

And, kitchen-wise, it’s a great feeling to have everything plotted out – you should see my wonderfully pernickety day-planner for the next couple of weeks! – so even a casual pop-in can be catered for with swan-like grace.

This is the time of year when having a lovely big pork pie handy is essential, to be served with some summer pickles or chutneys.

A joint of ham, too, be it a classic British roasted affair or a vogueish leg of Jamón Iberico, always finds itself nibbled at over the feast days.

There should be enough mince pies to sink the QE2, a firm, fruity Christmas Cake (to be enjoyed, as tradition dictates, with a wedge of good strong cheese in front of ‘Where Eagles Dare’) and bottles of Bailey’s, cream sherry and strong Christmas ales available.

Just add a few cheese footballs and some minty chocolates, and you’ll be fine.

It’s also important to have your puddings ready to go (it’s easy to forget the end of a meal, but it’s what your guests remember most, often times), and this week’s recipe is a nice simple one that can be made up a day or so in advance; one of those that can be pushed into a hot oven and largely forgotten about.

A conversation on Twitter way heard of this technique.

The gentle rubbing of a peeled pear with a coarse teatowel ‘sands off ’ the edges and produces a smooth, rounded pear, which is why the ones in fancy restaurants and in photos look so smooth and elegant.

Well, I was eager to try, and so concocted this dish around this new-found technique.

A poached pear is a classic, usually cooked in syrup or sweet red or white wine, but I decided to poach mine in a spiced-up perry, the pear version of cider. (Pub quizzers may note that 70’s grandma’s favourite tipple, Babycham, was actually sparkling perry).

It’s quite easy to find these days, and is a lovely, tart drink, with that unmistakable fragrant note that only pears give.

To accompany our pears, a lovely hazelnut crisp, the recipe for which I unashamedly pinched off top chef Simon Rogan.

It’s a beautifully-textured, sweet crunchy biscuit which you’ll find hard to resist.

You could serve clotted cream, or vanilla ice-cream with this dish, but I liked the idea of the absolute purity of cold whipped cream as a textural addition.

The poaching liquor is reduced to a syrup to serve as a drizzling sauce, and the dish is done; a wonderfully seasonal pudding, full of warming spices and deep flavours that can be put together in a trice.

And, as this is the last article before the big day, allow me to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas.