Halve the ducks with a heavy chopping knife, cutting away any excess backbone without any meat on it, and lay skin-side-up in a roasting tray. Season lightly with salt and roast for about 20 minutes until nicely coloured. Meanwhile, in a large pan or flameproof casserole, gently cook the onions in the vegetable oil with the cinnamon, nutmeg, saffron and black pepper for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally until soft.In a blender, turn half the pomegranate seeds to a pur?with a spoonful or so of the stock. Add duck to the sauce, cover the pan, bring to the boil and simmer gently for 1 hour Skim every so often The sauce should have thickened. A fine vintage port from the Symington family, whose clove and cinnamon spiciness adds to the liquid Christmas cake luxury.Mature vintage port … 1986 Fonseca Guimaraens Vintage Port, £20, Waitrose Inner Cellar.

The walnuts-and-raisins bouquet leads to a fruitcake-with-cinnamon-like spirit gracefully softened by age.. This is something my mother passed down to me. It’s Puerto Rican, and she still cooks it when I visit – I’m in Staten Island and she’s over in Brooklyn. It’s pork with rice and peas, and she makes it for special occasions or the holiday season

This is something my mother passed down to me.

Adobo seasoning is a mixture of onion powder, garlic powder, black pepper, cayenne, ground cumin and powdered Mexican oregano Sazon is a blend of seasonings made by a firm called Goya. If you can’t find it, use some achiote marinade (available from, among other places, the Cool Chile Co, 0870 902 1145). Finally there’s Spanish sofrito – for that, I just whizz up some onions, green peppers, garlic and coriander in a blender. A pork shoulder joint (around 2kg) Some adobo 2tbsp sofrito 300g white rice 1 can of pigeon peas (or gungo peas), or the dried equivalent, soaked overnight in cold water 75g tomato pur?A little olive oil A little salt 1 sachet sazonThe night before you want to eat, puncture the pork all over and rub it with plenty of adobo, then leave it in the fridge. Next day, take it out and put it in a medium to low oven for 4-5 hours.An hour later, wash the rice twice in cold water. Then get a pan of water, add the salt, oil, tomato pur? sofrito and the sazon Add the peas and rice and simmer it slowly for 2-3 hours.

Serve together – it’s especially good for leftovers.David Morales’ new album, ’2 Worlds Collide’, is out now on DMI Records. I am a great mince pie fan and wouldn’t want to dissuade you from making a batch or two at this time of the year. Most of those you can buy are made with vegetarian suet, though what traditionally gives mincemeat its slightly savoury taste is the use of beef suet Old fashioned pastry uses lard too. But you’ve probably heard about or even noticed the shortage of lard and pork fat It probably shouldn’t surprise us. So few people use lard any more, and if you do find it in supermarkets it’s probably been there for some time. With only a dwindling number of home bakers and cooks to keep the lard factories going, they’ve probably decided there’s not much point in manufacturing it. Try your local butcher’s if you’re trying to track down some lard.