A magnificently roasted turkey, richly browned and cooked to perfection with all the trimmings is a beautiful sight to behold. A large one will feed the proverbial 5,000, but supposing there’s just two of you? Even the smallest turkey can seem like an endurance test when you’ve had it cooked, cold, curried and creamed but there’s still more meat left on the sad-looking carcass.

Of course, instead of cooking it yourself, you can always go out and let someone else do it, and all the hotels will do you proud. But we find that the ‘animation’ for the children and the visit of Santa Claus provided by those establishments no longer fills us with great enthusiasm. So, if we don’t have company, going out for dinner somewhere nice on Christmas Eve and having a quiet Christmas lunch at home seems more appealing.

There are several other smaller birds that can make a festive meal for two. Duck is good, with enough breast to carve for two, leaving the legs to have cold the next day. But as you really need the skill of a surgeon to carve a duck, I like to buy it in pieces, slow-roast the legs, then add a duck breast for the last half hour of cooking. Served with some sticky slowly braised red cabbage and garlic mashed or roast potatoes, it makes a handsome meal for two. Incidentally, the cabbage is just as good reheated the next day, so I usually make loads.

Beat out some slices of turkey breast, staple them together with sage leaves and Parma ham, then cook and bathe them in a wine sauce. With butternut squash and roast potatoes, you have a feast

If it must be turkey for Christmas, try turkey saltimbocca. Beat out some slices of turkey breast, available from most butchers at this time of year, staple them together with sage leaves and Parma ham, then cook and bathe them in a wine sauce. With some butternut squash and roast potatoes, you have a feast.

Quail, wrapped in bacon and roasted with cider and apple, is also an option. So, too, is guinea fowl, my favourite, which my other half dismisses as ‘just posh chicken’.

So, to please the husband, I’m going to buy a nice plump chicken (his favourite), spread some herbs and butter under the skin and serve it with all the trimmings – balls of chestnut stuffing, bacon-wrapped sausages, roast potatoes, roasted parsnips and Brussels sprouts.

With a brandy-flamed Christmas pud to follow, if we still have room, we’ll then probably just collapse on the sofa and watch White Christmas for the umpteenth time, leaving the washing up for later!

There will be leftovers, but at least they’ll be manageable.

So, if there’s just you and your significant other for lunch, try one of the alternatives, toast yourself with a bottle of something nice and bubbly and be thankful that you don’t have to get up at the crack of dawn on Christmas Day to put that enormous bird in the oven to feed the hungry hoards.

Happy Christmas!

Herb-roasted chicken with all the trimmings

(Serves 2)

1 plump fresh chicken
40g butter, softened but not melted
1 tbsp each chopped fresh thyme and parsley
Grated rind 1 small lemon
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
100g pork sausage meat
100g cooked chestnuts, finely chopped
4 heaped tbsp fresh white breadcrumbs
8 small sausages and 4 rashers streaky bacon
Flour
250ml chicken stock
2 tbsp sherry

Preheat the oven to 200˚C. Starting at the neck end, work your hand under the skin to detach it from the breast, being careful not to tear the skin. Mix the butter with a tablespoon of the herbs, the lemon rind and some salt and pepper. Spread a little of the butter over the legs, then smear the rest all over the breast under the skin. Roast for about an hour and a quarter or until the juices run clear when the thigh is pierced with the point of a knife. Cover and keep warm.

While the chicken is cooking, heat a little oil in a pan and fry the onion until soft but not coloured, then put it into a bowl. Add the sausage meat, chestnuts, breadcrumbs and the rest of the herbs. Season well with salt and pepper. Divide the mixture into eight, roll into balls and put them in a baking dish. Cut the bacon rashers in half, then roll each sausage in a piece of bacon and put them into the baking dish. Brush everything with oil and put in the oven to cook with the chicken for the last 25 minutes.

Skim off most of the fat from the roasting tin, add enough flour to absorb the rest and cook gently for two minutes. Blend in the stock, bring to the boil, then add the sherry, simmer for about two minutes and pour into a gravy boat. Serve the chicken with the stuffing balls, bacon wrapped sausages, Brussels sprouts and roast potatoes, roast parsnips and gravy.

Turkey saltimbocca with butternut squash

(Serves 2)

2 slices turkey breast, 1cm thick (about 300g)
3 slices Parma ham
10 fresh sage leaves
Salt and pepper
1 small butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and cut into 3cm cubes
4 tbsps olive oil
Butter
100ml dry white wine
100ml chicken stock

Put the turkey slices between sheets of cling film, pound them gently until very thin, then cut each slice into three. Top each piece with half a slice of Parma ham, then a sage leaf, staple them together with a cocktail stick and season with salt and pepper.

Cover with cling and chill until ready to cook.

Preheat the oven to 220˚C. Shred the remaining sage leaves and put them into a bowl with the butternut and olive oil, season with salt and pepper and toss it all together.

Spread the butternut in one layer on to a baking tray and roast in the oven for about 25 minutes until tender and slightly charred.

While the butternut is cooking, heat 30g of butter in a pan and when it’s foaming, put in the turkey, sage side down, and fry for three minutes.

Turn the slices over and fry for two to three minutes until cooked through. Transfer to a plate, cover and keep warm.

Add the wine to the pan and let it bubble until reduced by half. Add the stock and let it bubble again for two minutes, then add an extra knob of butter, swirling it round until melted. Taste and season as necessary, then return the turkey to the pan and baste with the sauce.

Divide the saltimbocca between two warm plates, serve with the roasted butternut, some roast potatoes and cranberry sauce.

Duck with braised red cabbage

(Serves 2)

2 duck legs and 1 duck breast, defrosted if frozen
Salt and pepper
250ml chicken stock
Flour
Grated rind and juice of 1 small orange
2 tbsps dry sherry or vermouth
50g butter
1 onion and 1 apple, peeled and thinly sliced
1 small red cabbage, cored, shredded and rinsed
1 heaped tbsp dark brown sugar
1 tbsp balsamic or red wine vinegar
1 tsp mixed spice

Preheat the oven to 160˚C. Season the duck legs with salt and pepper and put them, skin side down, into a hot dry frying pan and fry over medium heat for about 10 minutes until the skin is well browned. Take them out and drain off the fat – don’t throw it away, keep it for roast potatoes – and put the duck, skin side up, into a small roasting tin.

Pour in 100ml of stock, cover the tin with foil, put it in the oven and just forget it for two-and-a-half hours. Brown the skin of the breast, skin side down, in a hot frying pan, then put it in with the legs, skin side up, for the last half hour. Transfer the duck to a plate, cover with foil and let it rest in the warm for 20 minutes.

Skim off all but a tablespoon of fat from the tin, then stir in enough flour to absorb the remaining fat and cook for two minutes. Blend in the remaining stock, sherry, orange rind and juice. Bring to the boil, lower the heat, simmer for another two minutes, then season as necessary.

While the duck legs are cooking, melt the butter in a large pan and fry the onion until softened. Add the apple and fry for a minute more, then add the cabbage, sugar, vinegar and spice.

Give it a good stir, bring to the boil, cover and cook over very low heat for about at least one-and-a-half hours, stirring occasionally, until it is deliciously soft and sticky.

Slice the duck breast lengthways, then divide it between warm plates and serve it with the legs, the red cabbage and either garlic mashed or roast potatoes.