Californian Christmas recipes

The preparation always started on Christmas Eve, with a foggy drive towards the Point Reyes lighthouse in Marin County, California, along the dairy ranch-lined Sir Francis Drake Boulevard to meet George Nunes. When George wasn't milking cows at his family dairy, he was setting crab traps and fishing for Pacific salmon. George pulled his crab cages out of the water each morning before bringing them to his ranch. You could ask for them live or he could boil them for you right there.

There is much that can be prepped on Christmas Eve. I love this pocket of time when the family are together and the cooking has started. People tend to pop in, delivering homemade cookies and breads or jars of preserves.

I can only remember one or two Christmases that my family did not host. Although we always designed the menu, we distributed the recipes to our guests to lighten the workload. Everyone likes contributing and if you don't have the luxury of doing it all by yourself (or if you don't consider that a luxury), then creating a menu – or using mine – and giving each guest a recipe is a wonderful way to entertain.

CALIFORNIA PICKLED SARDINES

This recipe comes from Tom Batey, a family friend who has been fishing in the Pacific for nearly 50 years. We recently made it together with herring, but as those are difficult to find fresh on these shores, I have substituted sardines. They make lovely gifts with their green and red peppers and pretty lemon slices. You will want to make them at least two weeks in advance and if you aren't planning to give some away, you could cut this recipe in half. Ask your fishmonger to clean the sardines and remove the head, tail and bones but keep the two fillets intact.

Read Full Recipe @ TheGuardian