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For our special 2014 Christmas Day programme Diana Henry whipped up some festive treats and Kay Plunkett Hogge made the perfect cocktails to make the day go with a swing.

Diana Henry's Fennel and Apple Relish (To Serve with Smoked Salmon or Gravlax)

Serves 8

A salad or a relish? It’s hard to say what this should be called but it’s lovely served alongside smoked salmon or gravlax, or on top of it if you’re serving it on bread. Fresh and light. It’s best if you make it directly before serving otherwise the ingredients go a bit flaccid.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 tart apples
• juice of 1 lemon
• ½ red onion
• 1 fennel bulb
• 6 tbsp rice vinegar
• 4 ½ tbsp caster sugar
• 2 tbsp roughly chopped dill

METHOD

1. Halve and core the apples and cut the flesh into neat matchsticks (there’s no need to peel the apples). Drop the matchsticks into a bowl with the lemon juice as soon as you cut them.

2. Slice the red onion wafer thin – a mandolin is the best thing to use for this – and set aside. Trim the fennel bulb, quarter it and remove the tougher outer leaves (keep hold of any little fronds you see and add them to the relish later). Remove the tough little core at the base of each piece then shave – using a mandolin is best – into very thin slices. Toss into the lemon juice as they are ready.

3. Mix the rice vinegar with the caster sugar until the sugar has dissolved. Lift the apples and fennels out of the lemon into a serving bowl (leave excess lemon juice behind). Toss in the dill, onion and rice vinegar dressing and serve immediately.

STAR-TOPPED MINCED PIES

Serves 20

For the pastry:

• 350g (12oz) plain flour
• 225g (8oz) butter, chilled and cut into cubes, plus more for greasing the tin
• 100g (3½oz) icing-sugar
• finely grated zest of ½ orange
• 1 tbsp double cream (you may need a drop more)
• Icing sugar for dusting

For the filling:

• 75g (2¾oz) fresh cranberries
• 1 tbsp orange juice
• 275g (9¾oz) good-quality mincemeat
• 2 tbsp orange marmalade
• finely grated zest of ½ orange
• 85g (3oz) cooking apple flesh, very finely chopped
• 1 tbsp whisky
• 2 tbsp soft light-brown sugar (you may use less)

METHOD

1. Make the pastry ahead, so it has time to rest. Whizz the flour and butter with a good pinch of salt in a food processor until you have a breadcrumb-like mixture. Add the icing-sugar and zest, briefly whizz, then add the cream. Whizz again. The pastry should come together to form a smooth ball. You might need a little more cream.

2. Don’t overwork the dough – as soon as it forms a ball, take it out, press into a thick disc, cover with clingfilm and chill for an hour.

3. Cook the cranberries in the orange juice over a medium-low heat until they begin to burst. Help them along by pressing them with the back of a wooden spoon. Turn the heat right up and quickly cook until there is hardly any liquid left. Take off the heat.

4. Mix the mincemeat with the cranberries and the rest of the filling ingredients, holding back some of the sugar. Taste – you want a sweet-tart mixture, but don’t overdo it (you may not need all the sugar). Keep the mincemeat covered in the fridge until you want to use it.

5. Take the pastry out of the fridge to soften a little before rolling it out. Don’t let it get warm. Butter 20 holes in two 12-hole pie tins. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface to the thickness of a pound coin. Cut out 20 circles slightly larger than the holes in your tins. Gently press the circles of pastry into the holes.

6. Roll out the remaining pastry to the same thickness and cut 20 star shapes to top each pie (they need to be about the same size, not smaller). Lay these on a lined baking-sheet and put them and the pie tins in the fridge for half an hour.

7. Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas mark 6. Fill the pastry cases three-quarters full with the mincemeat mixture, put the stars on top then bake for 15 to 17 minutes (keep an eye on them – they go from the golden colour you want to brown very quickly).

8. Remove from the oven and leave the pies in the tins for a few minutes, then carefully lever them on to a wire cooling rack. Allow to cool and dust with icing sugar.

Kay Plunkett Hogge’s Cocktails:

The Fine and Dandy

• 20ml fresh lemon juice
• 20ml Cointreau
• 40ml gin
• A dash of Angostura bitters

METHOD

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice and add all the ingredients. Shake until icy cold and strain into a Martini glass.

The Massa(man)hattan:

• 60 ml rye whiskey
• 20 ml sweet red vermouth
• 20 ml Massaman syrup
• A twist of orange to garnish
• To make the Massaman syrup:
• 1 tbsp mace
• 5 cinnamon sticks
• 2 tbsp coriander seeds
• 3 cardamom pods
• 15 cloves
• Half a nutmeg, broken into pieces
• 1 litre of water
• 800g dark soft brown sugar

METHOD:

To make the syrup, place all the spices in a dry frying pan over a medium heat and stir often until fragrant and lightly toasted. Add the water and bring to the boil. Add the sugar, bring it back to the boil and immediately remove from the heat. Leave uncovered in the fridge until it’s cool. Strain the syrup into a sterilized jar. It will keep in a cool place for up to a month.

To make the drink, fill a shaker with ice and pour in the ingredients. Shake vigorously then strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the orange twist.

The Cumfetanya:

• 15 g dried hibiscus flowers or roselle
• 1 tbsp dried allspice berries, crushed
• 2cm piece of fresh root ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
• 250ml water
• 75g caster sugar
• 1 litre chilled water
• Lime wedges, to serve

METHOD

Place the hibiscus flowers, allspices and ginger in a saucepan with the water and bring to the boil. Bubble hard for 5 minutes, then remove from the heat and add the sugar. Stir to dissolve, then pour everything into a heatproof jug and top up with the strain and serve in tall glasses over ice, squeezing a wedge of fresh lime over each serving to finish the drink.

From 'Make Mine a Martini' by Kay Plunkett Hogge, published by Mitchel Beazley