At this most important meal of the year, many of us have the urge to stretch our wallets and culinary skills to breaking point. The aim is an honest one - to provide our nearest and dearest with the perfect Christmas experience, but at some point there has to be a reality check about exactly how much money and time it's taken to lay on the spread. So I've been out scouring the shops, looking for the bargains while keeping my standards high to make a delicious feast for six.

This is my advice: make your brandy butter but buy the pudding; a frozen goose from Lidl, once it's been stuffed and glazed, tastes as good as a fresh one at three times the price; home-made stuffing from old bread knocks the socks off ready-made, and so on.

When shopping around for the extras that define the lunch (smoked salmon, Christmas pudding, stilton), don't be a label snob - it will save you an arm and a leg, which can go towards a Christmas present to yourself.

Canapés

Doing a starter for Christmas lunch is pretty much lunacy. You just don't need it given what's to follow, and your guests will actually thank you for not trying to kill them through over-indulgence. On the other hand giving them something to soak up the booze before lunch is wise and welcome: these three simple fishy canapés set the tone for what is to come without causing much stress to the wallet or cook.

ALL RECIPES SERVE SIX

Lobster and crayfish on leaves

1 cooked lobster
half a tub of crayfish (70g drained weight)
1 red chilli, thinly sliced
1 tbs chopped coriander
half a spring onion, thinly sliced
juice of half a lime or more to taste
1 tsp fish sauce
¾ tsp sugar
1 tbs toasted sesame seeds
a few leaves of chicory/baby gem/iceberg lettuce

Get the meat out of the lobster tail and claws and chop into bite-sized pieces. Mix with the crayfish, chilli, coriander and spring onion.

In a bowl whisk the lime, fish sauce and sugar together until the sugar is dissolved, then dress the seafood with it. Taste, and add a little more lime if you think it needs it. Share the mix between six leaves of whatever head of lettuce you choose.

Rollmops on cucumber with beet and mustard

1 tsp Dijon mustard
1½ tbs crème fraîche
⅓ of a cucumber
2 precooked beetroot
half a jar of rollmops (use the ones in sweet marinade with a bit of pickle in the middle)

In a small bowl mix the mustard with the crème fraîche and a bit of black pepper. Cut the cucumber into 12 slices 1cm thick. Slice the beet a little thinner, and sit a slice on top of the cucumber. Take the stick out of the rollmops and without letting them unravel, slice into three. Sit these, flat side down on the beet, then finish with a splodge of the mustardy crème fraîche.

Smoked salmon on brown bread

smoked salmon
a few slices of good fresh brown bread (I think wholemeal works better than granary here)
butter, at room temperature
squeeze of lemon
black pepper, from a mill please

You can't seriously expect a recipe for this...

Main course

This is what it's all about. You can make the savoy and lardon dish the day before, and just concentrate your efforts in the morning on the goose and all the bits in and around it. Use the goose fat for the roast potatoes - it saves money and tastes better.

Orange and ginger glazed goose with traditional fruit stuffing and roast potatoes

1 goose - about 4.4kg, plus giblets

For the stuffing:

4 red onions, diced
3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
handful of sage, chopped small
300g bag of mixed dried fruit (like apricots, prunes, apple etc) whizzed to a small chop in the food processor
1-2 handfuls nuts - almonds, pine nuts, cashews, whatever, roughly chopped
salt and pepper
big pinch allspice
big pinch/good few scrapings of nutmeg
juice of an orange

For the roasties:

sea salt
goose fat
For the glaze:
50g ginger, washed, hard bits trimmed off and grated finely
4 tbs marmalade

Preheat the oven to 200ºC/Gas 6. Take the giblets out of the goose and set side for the gravy. Season it well on the outside, put it

breast-side down in a large roasting tray, with splash of oil on the bottom and once the oven is up to temperature, put the goose in, on the middle shelf.

Tear up the bread into nuggets, spread out on a tray and toast in the oven above the goose for about 10-15 mins, giving it a shuffle halfway through; take it out to cool once it's golden and crunchy.

Chop the onions, garlic and sage, and by now some of the fat should have come off the goose. Using all your dexterity, tip all the melted fat into a heavy-based saucepan, then put the goose back in and heat the pan on the hob.

Fry the onions, garlic and sage in the fat for about 10 mins over a medium heat with a lid on.

Once these are softened add the chopped dried fruit and give it all a good stir. Tip into a bowl with the toasted bread and the other ingredients for the stuffing and put outside to cool until a handleable temperature - about 10 minutes.

Drain all the fat out of the bottom of the goose pan again, but this time leave the bird out as you incorporate the fat into the stuffing bowl. Use your hands to really squish this mix together, breaking up any large pieces of bread as you go - the goose fat is what makes it stick together.

Use a spoon to stuff the goose, really packing it in with the back of the spoon: it should all just about fit, then pop it back in the oven, again breast-side down.

Put the prepared spuds into a saucepan of cold, salted water and bring to a boil. Simmer for about 15 mins until only just cooked - a knife should meet just a bit of resistance when you stick it in. Drain very well, and depending on how falling apart they are give them a bit of a shimmy in the colander to get the edges fluffy.

Now get the goose out again, and put the spuds in the bottom of the tray. Get a cooling rack or trivet and rest it on the tray. Sit the goose on it, again breast-side down and put back in the oven.

From when the bird went in for the first time you want to give it 1hr 45 mins; during this time turn your spuds once or twice.

Once your goose is cooked take it out of the pan and rest it, still breast-side down, on an ovenproof tray covered in foil. Jack up the temperature in the oven a bit and let the spuds really get some colour on them and crisp up for the last 10 minutes.

When you're happy with the colour of your spuds then put them in a serving dish, again covered with foil. Pour out most of the accrued fat - pure gold.

To make the glaze, mix the grated ginger with the marmalade. Brush the glaze on to the breast of the goose and pop back in the oven while you make your gravy. Keep an eye on it though - it should take about 15 mins to reach peak glazed perfection.

Small carving tip - the legs are easier to get the meat off if you take them off the body. Don't forget to make a big stock from the carcass ... instant valuable flavour.

Savoy cabbage and lardons

250g smoked lardons
1 head savoy cabbage, quartered, core cut out and then each quarter shredded
2 tbs plain olive oil
salt and pepper

About 15 mins before the bird comes out, heat a wide pan with the oil and lardons. Fry them for about 10 mins over a high heat until they are browning nicely and just beginning to catch, then stir the cabbage in well, scraping off the brown bits on the bottom of the pan. Put a lid on and turn the heat down. Keep stirring and turning it for the 20-25 minutes it takes to steam and braise. As soon as you're happy with the bite, season, turn the heat off and leave it with a lid on.

Gravy

2 onions
2 carrots
2 bay leaves
small handful of plain flour
quarter of a bottle of red plonk
75ml chicken stock
2 tbs sugar
splash of red wine vinegar
2 tbs redcurrant jelly
good glug of brandy, to taste
salt and pepper

Put the roasting tray on the hob across a couple of burners and chuck out any burnt bits. As it sizzles fry off the chopped onion and carrot for a few minutes with the giblets, also roughly chopped, until the veg has softened and browned a bit, then add the flour. Stir this quickly and well, adding a splash more goose fat if necessary to stop it burning. A couple of minutes after the flour went in pour in the plonk and let it simmer and reduce quickly by two-thirds. Now add the stock, and as it reduces season with salt and pepper. When your gravy looks about the right consistency (after about five-ish minutes of hard boil) stir in the sugar, add a few splashes of vinegar and cognac to taste: rich, sweet with some sharpness and definitely boozy. Strain into a bowl, really pushing the solids to give up all their flavour, and then I always serve my gravy in a teapot as it keeps it warm and pours well.

Puddings

You need to make the jelly a day ahead. Important: microwaving the pudding, even though it's easier than a two-hour boil, makes it taste of plastic!

Christmas pudding with brandy butter
1 Christmas pudding
1 pat salted butter
140g icing sugar
100ml brandy, or more to taste

Boil the pud according to its instructions. Whizz the butter in the food processor with half the icing sugar, then slowly pour in the brandy, followed by the rest of the icing sugar, for about three minutes. Keep at room temperature.

Clementine jelly with clotted cream

1 packet tangerine jelly
12 clementines
4 leaves of gelatine
clotted cream

Tear up the jelly and soak the gelatine leaves in cold water. Juice 8 of the clementines. Check the volume of juice you have and minus that from the volume of the water required by the recipe on the packet. Boil the remaining water and pour on to the jelly cubes, whisking until thoroughly dissolved. Now whisk in the gelatine leaves until dissolved. Cool to room temperature and add the juice. Pour the jelly into one large or six jelly moulds, or goblets. Put in the fridge. Carefully skin the remaining clems with a knife so you remove all the pith. Slice between the membranes with a knife so the segments are released. Once the jelly has started to solidify gently drop the orange pieces in. Refrigerate overnight. Serve with clotted cream.

Extra treats

Mixed nuts, chocolate money, clementines, stilton, port, oatcakes and chutney.

• Allegra McEvedy's new book Leon: Ingredients and Recipes is out now (Conran Octopus, £20). We have five signed copies to give away. To enter send a postcard marked LEON to M Ferrier, OFM, 3-7 Herbal Hill, London, EC1R 5EJ by 8 January. To order a copy for £18 with free UK p&p go to observer.co.uk/bookshop or call 0870 836 0885. For her next online kitchen clickalong on 28 Jan 2009 go to observer.co.uk/foodblog

Shopping list: What Allegra McEvedy bought

Canape starters

From Lidl:

1 cooked lobster £4.99
crayfish tails £2.19
jar of rollmops £1.09
cooked beetroot 54p
pot of crème fraiche 55p
packet of smoked salmon £2.49
packet of rocket 98p

Main Course

From Lidl:

frozen goose £19.99
packet of dried mixed fruit £1.69
savoy cabbage 50p
packet of lardons, smoked £1.49
marmalade 27p
redcurrant jelly 78p
packet of almonds, blanched £1.10

Pudding & cheese

From Lidl:

Christmas pud £2.99
brandy £4.99
clotted cream 88p
bag of clementines 99p

From Morrisons:

stilton, port, oatcakes & chutney setpound;10

Extras from Lidl:

bag of chocolate money 99p
packet mixed nuts 84p