Christmas special #6: glazed cocktail sausages

I didn't take this photo. My friend Elena Heatherwick did. She is available for all manner of photographic commissions. Nudity if classy.

It's possible to go really wild with cocktail sausage glazes. There are all sorts of knowledgable people who will tell you to add cranberry sauce or soy sauce or sugar or sesame seeds or chilli or whatever.

And by all means, do these exotic glazes if you feel like it. But don't let anyone tell you that there's anything wrong with a good old honey and mustard glaze as it's very easy, very festive and very delicious.

When you're buying cocktail sausages for a party, it's worth taking a trip to a butcher to see if they can get you a bag of 50 - or even 100 for a reasonable price. Supermarkets will gleefully bumrape your wallet when it comes to cocktail sausages, ("18 sausages for £9.99 - what a bargain"), because they know full well that you are desperate. So if you wanted to do them for a lot of people, perhaps go elsewhere.

Unless you are some hedgefund manager and cost is no issue, in which case, why the fuck are you doing your own party catering? Actually, I know a hedgefund manager and she'd probably do her own party catering because they're like that - (over-achievers) - but even then, be smart and go to a butcher.

So, for 20 sausages you will need:

- 1 tbsp runny honey
- 1 tbsp mustard - either grainy or English. Don't be scared off by the English mustard: I know it's fieryhot but the honey will balance it out and all you'll get is a mustardy note in the background, which will be very nice. You can use Dijon, but I think it's a bit of a wimpy flavour and a sausage needs something more robust
- the juice of half a lemon, just to loosen the whole thing up

1 Cook the sausages for about 15-20 mins at 180 on a baking tray or until coloured around the edges. At this point you can either take them out of the oven and store somewhere until you're ready to glaze them, or just go straight for it.

2 Whenever you're ready, assemble your glaze in a bowl, then pour over the sausages. You'll worry here that there isn't enough glaze to go round (and it IS true that there's no such thing as too much) but the honey will melt and spread out.

3 Put back in a 180C oven and continue to bake for about 15 minutes. If you've got time and are sober enough to remember, give them a bit of a shake half way through so that the glaze coats the sausages evenly.