Champion local chef serves up his favourites

Here James gives some of his favourite Christmas recipes for you to try at home.

Smoked salmon tartare with Braden Rost salmon scotch egg and crowdie.

For this recipe make sure your fish is very fresh. I like the salmon from legendary Dales smokehouse, Bleikers. You can find wood sorrel in woodland – it looks a little like a four leaved clover and adds a zing of fresh apple taste.

Serves 4

600g piece of salmon fillet skinned and pin boned, 8 slices of good quality smoked salmon, 2 shallots, 2tbsp mini capers, 100g cornichon, 1 lemon, rapeseed oil, Tabasco, flat leaf parsley, dill, sea salt, 200g Braden Rost or roast smoked salmon, 4 quail eggs, 1 egg, plain flour, fresh white bread crumbs 300g crowdie (goat's curd), wood sorrel if available

Place your fillet of fish in the freezer for about half an hour to firm it up. Take from the freezer, slice and chop into little cubes. Place the chopped fish into a mixing bowl, dice four slices of smoked salmon and add to raw salmon. Finely chop the shallot and cornichon and add to sea trout. Chop some parsley and dill and add to the mix with the capers, put the zest and juice of half a lemon in, add a dash of oil, tabasco and a good pinch of sea salt. Mix all the ingredients up and taste, see if it needs seasoning more, cling film and place in the fridge. To make the scotch eggs, boil the quail eggs for two minutes 20 seconds and place straight into ice water. Peel very carefully as the centres are soft-boiled so you end up with a runny yolk, and set aside. Put the Braden Rost, 100g of crowdie and a little chopped dill in a food processor and pulse until bound together, take a little of the salmon mix and flatten it out, place one quail egg in the middle and wrap the mixture around the egg set in the fridge for at least one hour. Take the salmon balls from the fridge and pass through the flour egg and breadcrumbs, place back in the fridge until needed.

To serve, take the tartare mix from the fridge and press it into a ring, leaving about cm at the top. This is to be filled with the crowdie and scraped over the top of the ring with a pallet knife to leave a perfectly smooth surface. Run a knife around the top of the ring and unmould the tartare, place in the middle of your serving plate on top of the remaining four slices of smoked salmon. Deep fry the scotch eggs at 180 degrees until golden brown.

Place the scotch egg on top of the tartare and drizzle a little rapeseed oil over, along with the wood sorrel. Serve with fresh lemon.

Roast loin of deer with sticky red cabbage, crispy haggis, and chestnut dressing

Serves 4

Four pieces of loin of deer trimmed

Sticky Red Cabbage

1 shredded red cabbage, 40g butter, 300ml red wine, 50ml balsamic vinegar, 50ml red wine vinegar, 150g soft dark brown sugar, 2tblsp red currant jelly, 2tsp ground mixed spice, 1 bay leaf, salt and pepper

Crispy Haggis

200g Haggis,50g sausage meat, pinch of crushed juniper, 1 chopped shallot, 1tbsp chopped sage, a splash of whiskey (optional]

Chestnut dressing

150g chestnuts cooked and roughly chopped, 2tbsp crispy bacon lardons, 1 finely chopped shallot, 1 finely diced carrot, 50ml balsamic vinegar, 100ml rapeseed oil ,100ml reduced game stock (optional], 1tblsp chopped sage

To cook the cabbage place all the ingredients in a large saucepan, cover and bring to the boil and simmer for about one hour, check seasoning.

For the crispy haggis mix all the ingredients in a bowl and shape into balls, pass the haggis balls through flour, beaten egg and fresh white breadcrumbs, when needed deep fry until golden brown.

To make the dressing, sweat the shallot and carrot in a sauce pan then add the vinegar and stock and bring to the boil, add the chestnuts and bacon warm through and finish with the oil and sage, season, serve warm.

Sear the seasoned deer loin in a hot frying pan until golden brown then cook in a hot oven for 6-8 minutes remove from the oven and rest for at least five minutes.

Port-fed Blue Swaledale with a walnut crust

Perfect for Christmas time, it takes a while for the whole process, but its well worth it. Blue Swaledale cheese is creamy in colour with distinctive blue veins running throughout. It has a soft moist open texture complemented by a mild smooth flavour with a slight tang. An ideal Yorkshire award-winning substitute for Stilton.

Blue Swaledale Cheese, Port, honey, peeled walnuts

You will need a whole small truckle of Blue Swaledale or a full round of Blue Swaledale for this to work, the bigger the better.

You will need to start the process at least two weeks before you need to serve it.

Slice the crust off the top of the Swaledale and place the cheese on a deep tray, then using a Stilton spoon or a small sharp knife cut a small piece of cheese out of the centre of the Swaledale to make a well.

Reserve the cut-out piece of cheese. Fill the well up with port and cover the top of the cheese with either the crust you cut off or cling film.

Place in the fridge and leave until the port has soaked into the cheese then top up with more port. Repeat this process until you think it has soaked through all the cheese, this will vary on the size of your Swaledale.

When the process is complete replace the original piece of cheese to fill the well. Toast the walnuts and place in food processor, pulse until broken into small pieces.Cut the remaining crust from around the cheese.

Warm some honey and brush the outside of the Swaledale with the honey then stick the walnuts all around the cheese to form the walnut crust. This is now ready to use.

Serve a nice wedge of this with a celery and walnut salad and a large glass of vintage port.