It was not only the weather that made my Lebanese Christmases different from my English ones, but also our meals which were not always the same, and which we had on Christmas Eve.

My mother's Christmas preparations started at the beginning of December when she started sewing dresses for my sisters and I, and took my brother to a tailor to have him fitted with a new mini-suit. On the day itself, my grandmother and aunt arrived in the morning to help prepare the feast. They came laden with presents, some very large (big dolls for us girls and a large toy car for my brother), and others quite small (books and other useful gifts), which they placed under the tree while we tried to guess what was in the beautifully wrapped packages.

They then went into my mother's room to change into house dresses before going into the kitchen where I followed. My aunt was put on meghli duty while my grandmother started chopping the herbs for the tabbouleh, a constant of our Christmas meal together with hummus and baba ghannuge. My mother prepared the meat, rice and nut stuffing which was the same whether she was cooking a turkey or a neck or breast of lamb. They worked all day, chopping, peeling and pounding; and when they finished, they went back into my mother's room to change back into their finery. They came out looking incredibly glamorous – all three were real beauties – and smelling of rose water, which they rubbed their hands with to wipe out any cooking smells. By then my uncles had arrived and were with my father in the drawing room, enjoying a glass of whisky and nibbling roasted pistachios.

I loved those warm Beirut Christmas Eves and I can still see the colours on the table with the bright greens and reds of the tabbouleh contrasting nicely with the silky ivory of the dips and the golden savoury pastries, all surrounding the large glistening roast meat.

Stuffed breast of lamb

My mother normally made turkey for Christmas, giving it a Lebanese twist by stuffing it with a highly seasoned mixture of rice, meat and nuts. Sometimes, she replaced the turkey with a breast or neck of lamb stuffed with the same mixture. I much preferred the lamb as it was more moist. There are two ways of stuffing the breast. One is to fold it in half and sew it all around leaving an opening through which you insert the rice, meat and nut stuffing before sewing the opening shut, while the other is to make a pocket between the skin and the meat which you then stuff with the rice mixture and sew shut. The presentation is more appealing if you keep the breast whole. You can also use a whole neck or a boned shoulder which will give you a lot more meat.

SERVES 8

pine nuts 100g

blanched almond halves 100g

minced lamb 300g

7-spice mixture, or allspice 1 tsp

ground cinnamon 1 tsp

finely ground black pepper ¼ tsp

sea salt

calasparra rice, rinsed under cold water and drained 400g

side of a breast of lamb (ask your butcher to slice off the rib bones and to make the opening between the skin and the rib meat) 1

vegetable oil

cinnamon stick 1

bay leaf 1

medium onion 1 spiked with 8 cloves

Preheat oven to 200C/gas mark 6. Spread the pine nuts and almonds on a non-stick baking sheet and roast in the preheated oven for 5 minutes, or until golden brown.

Put the lamb mince in a non-stick pan large enough to cook the rice and sauté over a medium heat until it has lost all traces of pink. Add the spices and salt to taste, then add the nuts (reserve a little for garnish) and the rice. Mix well, then add 650ml water and more salt to taste. Bring to the boil, lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Cool slightly.

Sew one side of the breast and start stuffing the pocket with the rice mixture. You want to use about one third of the rice and serve the rest on the side, having moistened it with a little of the cooking broth of the stuffed breast to finish cooking it and heating it up. Spread the rice evenly in the pocket, align the edges of the breast and sew the opening shut.

Melt a little vegetable oil in a large pan over a medium heat. Delicately transfer the stuffed breast to the pan and brown on both sides. Then add 1½ litres water, together with the cinnamon stick, bay leaf and the onion with cloves. Bring to the boil. Skim the surface clean then cover the pan and boil gently for about an hour and a half. Remove the breast from the pan and at this stage you can serve it as it is, or if you want it to have a more golden colour, you can transfer it on to a baking dish and bake it in a hot oven for 10-15 minutes, or until golden. During that time, add a little broth from the breast to the remaining rice, and cook over a low heat until the rice is completely done and very hot.

Rest for 5 minutes then slice the breast thickly, being careful not to break up the rice. Serve with more rice on the side.