The Big Freeze

Nigella Lawson enjoys the run-up to Christmas and prepares her Christmas larder in advance. Cooking at Christmas is a wonderful piece of slow-down therapy but that doesn't mean that you have to be tied to the stove the entire time. Getting ahead and filling the freezer can be the answer to a Christmas prayer.

After mixing a lychee martini, Nigella cooks roast pumpkin and sweet potato soup with a Stilton swirl, mincemeat pies and her Star from the East, plus a lamb and date tagine - all wonderful to eat straight away or to store in the freezer for the arrival of last-minute guests. And if they have any room left, Nigella's 'girdle buster' pie more than lives up to its reputation.