Glorious gourmet gifts

Who doesn’t love receiving a gift basket of foodie treats? Sending out edible presents is a Purim tradition my family didn’t observe when I was growing up, but I’m fully on board with now. It meant even more over the last couple of years, when it was the only way to show friends and family they were in your thoughts.

Mishloach manot — the official term for the edible goodies handed out for Purim — are a custom inspired from a verse in the Book of Esther that talks of the Jews sending “portions to one another”.

The religious rules say that to count as a mitzvah, you must send at least two items of food or drink (ideally ready-to-eat) to at least one person. At its most simple, it could be a packet of crisps, a hamantaschen or two and a drink.

If you want to celebrate in style, up the ante with themed packages. Make someone’s morning with a breakfast basket — pastries, preserves and juice. Add individual pots of creamy Greek yoghurt plus seasonal fruit compote and crunchy granola. It’s super easy to bake your own granola. Just warm three tablespoons of honey or golden syrup with a tablespoon of rapeseed or sunflower oil in a pan then add 175g rolled oats and 100g of roughly chopped nuts (and/or seeds) of your choice and mix until well coated. Bake at 200°C for about 10 minutes until turning golden and starting to clump together then leave to cool. Finally mix in 200g of whatever dried fruits you prefer — chunks of soft, dried apricots and cranberries add colour. Decant into kilner jars or (planet-friendly) recycled, lidded jam jars— and tie a simple handwritten luggage label-style tag around the jar.

Or present the cheese lover in your life with their personal platter. You can buy reasonably priced small, wooden boards on which to load up an assortment of artisan cheeses wrapped in waxed paper and tied with coloured string. Add small bunches of grapes, dried fruits and nuts and a few crackers together with small jars of pickle or relish.

Sweet tooths will love a cookie and milk package. Pack home-baked mini, chocolate chip cookies in cellophane bags with little bottles of milk and colourful paper straws. For chocaholics, swap out cookies for gooey brownies and flavour the milk with chocolate powder.

Another simple-to-make but impressive looking treat is chocolate bark. Once you’ve got the method sorted, you can go freestyle on the toppings. Line a rimmed baking sheet with baking parchment and melt 300g of dark, white or milk chocolate. Take it up a notch by adding spices like cardamom, cinnamon or chilli to the melted chocolate or a teaspoon of grated citrus zest or just leave it as it is. Pour the liquid chocolate onto the baking parchment, spread it out evenly (not too thin) and scatter with toppings such as: toasted nuts/chopped dried fruits/multi coloured sprinkles, sugar coated chocolate beans or crushed peppermint sweets. Once cooled, drizzle with a different coloured chocolate if you like or spray with edible shimmer, and once the bark has set, break into large shards and package in cellophane bags.

And if you haven’t time to bake your own, there are plenty of ready-made gifts out there:

Andrew Krauz Gourmet Fish Grazing Board

Carnivorous carnival:
Andrew Kraus of Blue Smoke creates a range of artisan smoked meat treats and accompaniments in his home smokehouse that will make any carnivore drool. Entry level menu items are pots of Trail Mix (a blend of ‘Burnt Ends’ — chewy beef smoked dry and crispy; roasted Lacon — cured, smoked lamb rashers and honey roast nuts) which is £25 per pot. Or treat yourself to a whole box of the Burnt Ends — which are addictively moreish (£15 per 100g); or, for someone you really love, one of Blue Smoke’s Decadence Grazing Boards, which are a meat (or fish) lover’s dream. These start at £95 for a Petit Decadence Meat Grazing Board (designed for 2-3).
Kraus can (with sufficient notice) also produced bespoke requests, such as figs wrapped and roasted with lacon and maple syrup. He sells out well ahead of time so get orders in fast. Ordering info is here.

jelly belly box