Speaking of locally sourced ingredients, challenge yourself to make quintessentially English dishes and delicacies with ingredients that are, well, quintessentially English.
Recently, students from the Cambridge Global Food Security strategic research initiative found that many of the fruits and spices used in these Christmas treats could be grown and sourced in the UK. Why not search for such ingredients in a friend's garden or at your local green grocer, rather than stocked and packed on the shelves at Tesco and Waitrose? Plus, mince pies from a nearby bakery are always going to top those lining a shop's shelves, anyway.
Bradbury recommends browsing recipes by famed English chefs like Nigel Slater and Yotam Ottolenghi, that utilise sustainable, local, and often entirely vegetarian ingredients as well.