How to cheat for Christmas treats 2014

It is nine days until Christmas, time not to panic but to look for clever ways to cut some corners. Here is the Good Food Guide to products and producers who can make life a little less fraught much more festive before Santa comes down the chimney.

Mangoes and garlic to your door

A box of cherries and mangoes delivered to your door is Christmas breakfast in a box. Snowgoose can still deliver wooden crates of premium cherries and mangoes (from $85). They also deliver a range of last minute gifts including the 'Taste of Sardinia by Pilu' box, complete with bottarga, pasta, olive oil, salumi, zucchini flowers, garlic, cherry tomatoes, a bottle of Sardinian white wine and a signed copy of Giovanni Pilu's cookbook.

www.snowgoose.com.au

Penny Simons and Sahlan Hayes of Borrowed Land Garlic near Robertson in the Southern Highlands; planted their first crop of garlic this year. It yielded 350 kilograms, which they have recently harvested, and boxed for Christmas. Simons says their 500-gram and one kilogram gift boxes, and their three kilogram bags of biodynamic garlic can still arrive in time for Christmas.

www.borrowedlandgarlic.bigcartel.com

Gin-cured salmon

John Susman of Fishtales Seafood Marketing says farmed Australian tiger prawns are the best choice during Christmas week. "Australian farmed prawns are cyclically geared towards Christmas, so they are fresh and delicious."

For an easy, impressive entree, to accompany the prawns, Susman recommends learning how to shuck an oyster. Closed oysters can be bought well ahead of time he advises. "Even nine days out, if the closed shells are wrapped in a wet tea towel and kept in the bottom of the fridge, they'll be fine on Christmas Day. Put an oyster knife under the tree for Dad so he doesn't have to use a screwdriver to open them."

Smoked or cured salmon is also an easy first course, says Susman. He suggests Mt Cook Alpine Salmon, which has been cured in gin, or cold smoked using wood chips made from retired port barrels from Seppeltsfield, South Australia. The gin and the port barrel chips impart their unique flavour into the flesh.

Sydney Fish Market, Pyrmont. Annual 36 hour Seafood Marathon, runs from 5am Tuesday, December 23, right through until 5pm Wednesday, December 24.

Sides of Four Pillars gin cured, and port barrel cold smoked Mt Cook Alpine Salmon is available from Kitchen by Mike, 1/85 Dunning Avenue, Rosebery, on December 19 and 20.

A pre-brined turkey with stuffing on the side

The Dinner Ladies, Sophie Gilliatt and Katherine Westwood began delivering home cooked dinners seven years ago. This is the second year that they have ventured into Christmas dinners. "Christmas can be unbelievably stressful," says Gilliat. "The level of expectation is so high." Working to reduce the stress, the pair deliver traditional Christmas ingredients and accompaniments in generous portions.

"This year we are delivering items that are time consuming to get your hands on, like a kilos of farmed tiger prawns from Queensland," she says. Free-range Thirlmere turkeys arrive brined, ready to roast, stuffing - made from prunes, almonds and sourdough is optional, as is gravy, ready to heat. "For the potatoes, we send bags of potatoes with a portion of herbed butter. "They are easy to cook on the stove top when the oven is full," says Gilliat.

For dessert, Christmas panna cotta's with raspberry jelly and gold stars for sprinkling on top can be delivered, or an ``Aussie Christmas trifle". "It's a hybrid, pavlova meets trifle," says Gilliat. Last year, Gilliat managed to feed 45 of her own family on Christmas Day, after delivering Christmas dinners to clients all over Sydney.

The Dinner Ladies are still taking orders (last orders Wednesday 17 December): www.dinnerladies.com.au

Free Range Meat and Poultry with a twist

Providore Melinda Dimitriades has long been a stall holder at Sydney farmers' markets including The Sydney Morning Herald Growers' Market, where she sells cuts of Melanda Park heritage pasture raised pork, and smallgoods. 15 months ago she opened Chop Shop Carnivorium in Hurlstone Park, near Dulwich Hill, where she also stocks Christmas hams, and a selection of pasture raised beef, lamb and poultry, including Aylesbury Peking ducks, free-range turkeys and geese.

For Christmas, Dimitriades recommends roasting a scotch fillet of pork (available in 1kg or 3kg) stuffed with the black truffle paste that she makes in-house. In addition to the pork roast, Dimitriades uses the truffle paste to infuse her Chop Shop Selection signature hams. "We use a scotch fillet of pork for these too," she says. "We smear them with the paste and then double smoke them."

Free-range turkeys are hugely popular at Christmas, of course, says Dimitriades, but for her family Christmas dinner, she opts for goose. "I love it," she says. "I make a stuffing from free-range pork mince, Schultz Butcher's speck, lemon zest and sage. It takes just 20-minutes to prepare, two-hours to cook and doesn't need to be turned," she says. "When customers buy a goose I give them the recipe."

Chop Shop Carnivorium,10 Crinan Street, Hurlstone Park. Phone 9558 5000; www.chopshopcarnivorium.com.au. Chop Shop Signature Hams are also stocked at: Taste Organic Crows Nest, Phone 9437 5933; Dr Earth Newtown, Phone 9550 2554.

A chef's pudding

Chef Neil Perry's 500 gram Christmas puddings are available from Rockpool and Rockpool Bar & Grill, or online through Qantas Epicure. "The Christmas pudding is a combination of our mums' recipes," says Perry. "It's a very traditional pudding, using suet (sorry, vegetarians) and brilliant Australian fruit soaked in brandy." The puddings are still available for delivery before Christmas. www.qantasepicure.com.au

Mountains of mince pies

Hany Bottrose of St Honore Bakers in Edgecliff, Mosman and North Sydney sells more than 1500 mince pies at each of his stores in the week prior to Christmas. Production begins long before. "We soak fruit in a mixture of rum and beer infused with spices for a couple of months," says Bottrose. "It sits until we are happy with the balance of flavours, then we add more fruit for texture and let it sit again." The pies are the stores' best sellers on Christmas Eve. "We actually start selling them in the last week of November," says Bottrose. "Customers tend to try one with their coffee and then buy boxes for Christmas." In addition to mince pies, loaves of sourdough bread and baguettes run out the door. "Christmas Eve is always busy; we sell more bread on December 24 than any other day of the year."

St Honore Bakery, North Sydney, Phone 9929 4388; Edgecliff Phone 8068 8872; Mosman Phone 9969 6303. Open until 6pm December 24.

A panettone centrepiece

The Italian fruitcake has become a popular addition to Christmas fare, traditionally given as a hostess gift during the holiday season, John Quattroville of Fourth Village Providores, Mosman, says his grandmother receives so many panettones at Christmas, that she has a room dedicated to housing them. "When my uncle Tony left home she turned his bedroom into the panettone room," he says.

The Quattroville family stock panettones, including the famed Milanese brands Tre Marie and Amaretti Virginia but the best sellers are Fourth Village's own. "We have them made by a bakery just outside Milan," says Quattroville. "They are buttery and light, filled with raisins and plenty of candied fruit."

Quattroville's personal favourite though is the fluted, fruit-free pandoro. "I love the shape, you can slice it through the middle, arrange the pieces to look like a Christmas tree and decorate it," he says. "It makes a terrific edible centre piece."

Fourth Village, 4 Vista Street, Mosman. Open until 4pm December 24.