Preparing dinner for the Christmas festivities can be the perfect opportunity to let your skills as a cook come to the fore without exhausting yourself; but a successful outcome depends on how well you organize it all beforehand.

Write out your menu, adding the plates, cutlery and table decoration you plan to use for each course, check pans and roasting tin availability, and calculate the timing. Order the main course bird and the wines; a sparkling, a medium red, and a dessert or ice wine to finish.

An effective menu for two

1. Smoked Salmon with chopped hard-boiled eggs, capers, purple onions, lemon wedges, toast and a sparkling wine. 2. Roast Goose with a Potato & Onion Casserole, Courgettes, Tomato & Snow Peas salad. 3. Cheese with walnuts and apple, and to conclude 4. Fruit Cake or Christmas Pudding.

Alternative menu: Caviar Crme, Roast Goose, Wild Rice and Long Grain Rice, Cheese & crackers, Victorian Trifle.

A big turkey is too much, but a 10-12 lb goose can be just right for 2 people, with leftovers the next day and the scraps and bones turned into a good congee.

Allow 4 hours from checking out the goose to sitting down to dinner - allowing time to change into party mode.

Light the oven, remove any quills from the bird with a pair of tweezers, rinse it with lemon juice and water, dry and prick the skin lightly all over with a fork. Put it into a deep roasting tin (it will shed a lot of fat) and roast in an oven at 180 C for 30 minutes, then at 20 minutes per pound after that.

In the meantime

Menu 1: Slice 2 large potatoes and 2 yellow onions, and layer them alternately in a casserole. Add 1 cup of chicken broth, put in the oven for the last hour of baking the bird.

Menu 2: Add 2 ozs of wild rice to 4 ozs of Long Grain rice and add 1 cups of water, cover and steam for 20 minutes, set aside. Also for this menu: add 1 small jar of Danish lumpfish roe or Caviar to 4ozs of pasteurised cream and add a pinch of black pepper and the juice of a small lemon, stir carefully and put into a glass dish set into a larger bowl half-filled with crushed ice at the time of serving - along with hot toast and cold champagne.

For either menu: gently fry sliced courgettes, steam the snow peas for a few minutes but don't overcook, cool and mix with sliced tomatoes and set aside, make a light dressing from 2 parts olive oil to 1 part balsamic vinegar and pinch of salt - spread this over the peas and tomato just before serving.

Serve a ripe Camembert cheese with a side dish of lightly toasted walnuts and crisp red apples. This course needs little work and can be served with the same wine as the main course (Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon or my favourite - Pinot Noir).

Unless you made your own Christmas pudding months ago, just buy one! Or get a rich fruit cake. To make from scratch, a Christmas pudding takes weeks or months to make properly.

Add your own touch with a Brandy Butter - a combination of good-quality unsalted butter mixed with sifted icing (confectioners) sugar in almost equal proportions depending upon how sweet you like it, with a glass of Grand Marnier slowly mashed in.

For the Victorian Trifle: split a plain sponge cake in half, spread apricot jam on one half and place in a round bowl, add 1 tin of mixed fruit in light syrup, put the other half sponge on top. Mix 1 glass of sweet wine and 1 small glass of Grand Marnier (orange flavoured liqueur) and pour over all. Whip 6 ozs cream with 1 teaspoon icing (powdered) sugar and peak it over the trifle, you can add a few dark cherries (de-stoned) as decoration. If you're feeling extra generous, add a few pieces of Marron Glace and a little grated chocolate over the top. Cover well with cling film and put in the fridge until needed.

After removing the goose from the oven, let it sit for 10 minutes before carving.

Don't add oil or fat to the goose - it sheds lots of fat as it cooks, so make sure the roasting tin is deep, and reserve the fat (there's usually a lot of it) to make real potato chips next day to accompany leftover goose - not French Fries but "chips" very thinly cut slices of old potatoes deep fried in goose fat - super delicious! Do rinse the sliced potatoes well and dry thoroughly before frying or they will stick together and go black!

Bon Appetit and Merry Christmas!

For China Daily

(HK Edition 12/13/2014 page9)