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HARRIET ARKELL THE SAVVY SHOPPER: Frozen food just got posh: Forget boring old fish fingers. From beef Wellington to budget lobster, now you can feast from your freezer

Published: 20:18 EST, 17 November 2014 | Updated: 04:26 EST, 18 November 2014

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Food from the freezer used to mean second best: dusty fish fingers, tasteless budget pizzas, and tubs of long-forgotten left-overs you couldn’t bring yourself to throw away.

Now our freezers are temples of luxury, home to delicacies such as succulent lobster, beef Wellington with shallot jus and toffee and pecan roulade.

Tesco’s frozen party food and desserts buyer, Catherine McMeikan, says: ‘The image of frozen food is changing and shoppers can enjoy mouth-watering delicacies, including a number of authentic world foods that we can offer simply because they’re frozen, such as onion bhajis brought directly from India and fish cakes from Thailand.’

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Now our freezers are temples of luxury, home to delicacies such as lobster and beef Wellington such as the £69 version from Cook (pictured)

If you’re looking to spread the cost of Christmas, you can find gourmet frozen party food and puddings in most supermarkets, so buy them now and store them in your freezer.

You won’t be alone — Waitrose says sales of frozen puds are already up 13 per cent.

Meanwhile, if you’ve got relatives descending and worry about having enough time to cook everything, upmarket frozen ready meal firm Cook (cookfood.net) is your salvation. The Kent-based firm has 79 shops and more than 350 concessions around the country, but if you don’t have one near you, it’s planning to expand next year and is well worth seeking out.

Here’s a selection of the best luxury treats to fill your freezer with . . .

Beef Wellington with Red Wine and Shallot Jus

(1.25kg, £69, Cook)

If you make beef Wellington yourself, the raw ingredients can easily set you back at least £50, so why not save yourself the trouble and splash out on this spoiling main course (main picture, top right)? Prime fillet of British beef has been smothered in porcini and chestnut mushroom duxelles and wrapped in all-butter puff pastry to create a really luxurious celebration main course.

Venison and Pistachio Pate

(220g, £4.99, Cook)

Pate is such a useful standby for this time of year — it can be turned into canapes or a starter in seconds, and this one from Cook tastes home-made, so you can pretend it is.

Handmade with Scottish venison, pancetta, pistachios plus juniper berries, it’s smooth and rich.

Deluxe whole cooked lobster

(£5.99, Lidl)

When celebrity chef Aldo Zilli did a taste test of frozen lobster last week, he gave this full marks and pronounced it the best of the bunch. Zilli said: ‘It’s crammed with meat and is deliciously sweet and really fresh.’

Truly Irresistible Amaretto and Raspberry Semifreddo

(500g, £4, The Co-operative)

If you’re after a showstopper pud to wheel out when everyone’s had enough Christmas pudding, how about this? Made using mascarpone, vanilla custard and cream infused with authentic amaretto liqueur, this semifreddo also features amaretti biscuits topped with a raspberry compote swirl and gold sugar crystals.

Finest Cranberry & Chestnut Loaf

(590g, £4.50, Tesco)

This may be aimed at vegetarians, but I reckon even the staunchest meat-eater will want to sneak a slice onto their plate this Christmas. A really juicy nut loaf made from walnuts, chestnuts, parsnips, spices and breadcrumbs, it’s enriched with cranberries and a spiced wine sauce.

Large slow-cooked leg of lamb

(2.49kg, £36 down from £54, DonaldRussell.com)

Royal Warrant-holding butcher Donald Russell is many good cooks’ best-kept secret. The meat has crossed the threshold not just of royal palaces but of many of the best restaurants and hotels around the world — and with good reason: it is of seriously good quality.

This large leg of lamb will feed ten people and is already prepared — you can even pop it in the oven straight from frozen.

Seriously Chocolatey Tarte au Chocolat Pralinee

(425g, £4.49, Waitrose until Dec 2)

If you’re after a rich pudding to enjoy in small amounts with a strong, post-lunch espresso, this is for you. All-butter pastry surrounds rich gianduja and crunchy feuilletine wafer, topped with caramelised hazelnut pieces. Worth holding back on the turkey for.

Taste the Difference Scottish Langoustines (500g, £7, Sainsbury’s)

These would look lovely on a seafood platter or on top of a paella.

Defrost them and then fry in hot butter and garlic.

Heston from Waitrose Ultimate Chocolate Bar

(610g, £9.99, Waitrose)

Based on Blumenthal’s favourite childhood chocolate bars, this is a Mars Bar/Twix hybrid for grown-ups, with layers of chocolate caramel mousse, crunchy chocolate biscuit, caramel ganache and almond and hazelnut mousse.

Specially Selected Coquilles St Jacques

(400g, £3.99, Aldi)

I’ll never forget a miserable French exchange week in Brittany, when I mostly shivered in the rain helping the family’s father, a farmer, deliver calves. But things looked up on the last night when, presumably to celebrate my departure, they cooked a feast of creamy coquilles St Jacques. These, from Aldi, took me right back.

Lidl shows off their budget £5.99 Deluxe Whole Lobster

Luxury Topped Atlantic Side of Salmon Fillet with lemon and herb crumb (600g, £7, Iceland) (left) and Specially Selected Coquilles St Jacques (400g, £3.99, Aldi) (right)

Luxury Atlantic Side of Salmon Fillet with lemon and herb crumb

(600g, £7, Iceland)

Iceland sparked a lobster price war last month with its £5 whole cooked lobster, and this is another seriously good-value luxury seafood dish from the frozen chain.

It’s a skin-on, boneless salmon fillet topped with a lemon and herb crumb.

Serve with dauphinoise potatoes and steamed leeks.

Confit Duck with Root Vegetables and Red Wine Jus

(650g, £8, M&S)

Last month, M&S launched its first luxury frozen ready meals, and this is one of the range’s best. With slow-cooked marinated duck legs on pearl barley, root veg and a red wine jus, it serves two and would be a hearty treat on a winter’s night.

Taste the Difference White Chocolate and Raspberry Gateau

(878g, £6, Sainsbury’s)

This would make a fantastic alternative to Christmas pudding: a layered Belgian chocolate sponge with raspberry sauce in the middle and white Belgian chocolate cream on the outside.

Hand-finished with raspberries and dark chocolate curls, it’s perfect for a special occasion.

Taste the Difference White Chocolate and Raspberry Gateau (878g, £6, Sainsbury's) and Confit Duck with Root Vegetables and Red Wine Jus (650g, £8, M&S).

Finest Roast Potatoes with Goose Fat

(450g, £2.60, Tesco)

Potatoes cooked in goose fat are a luxurious treat, and this is the right time of year to indulge. These premium potatoes tumbled in flavoursome goose fat need 70 minutes of cooking from frozen to transform into crunchy golden potatoes.

Duck Spring Rolls

(225g, £5, M&S)

Perfect to whip out of the freezer if people unexpectedly arrive at drinks time, these little spring rolls have layers of crispy pastry filled with duck and oriental vegetables, and come with a hoisin dip.

New treats out this week

Cranks Breaditerranean sliced bread, £1 until December 7, then £1.69, Waitrose

Part of a new range that the vegetarian food company has developed with TV chef Richard Corrigan, this is packed with red and green peppers, olives, red onion and sun-dried tomatoes. Other flavours are Carry On Carrot, with pumpkin seeds and coriander, and Hippity Homity, with cheddar, potato, leek and onion.

Whole Earth peanut butter with sunflower, pumpkin and flax seeds, £2.99, Tesco

This has a rich taste of sunflower seeds, which have been blended with pumpkin and flax seeds as well as smooth peanut butter to give an entirely different, rich flavour.

Cranks Breaditerranean sliced bread, £1 until December 7, then £1.69, Waitrose (left) and Whole Earth peanut butter with sunflower, pumpkin and flax seeds, £2.99, Tesco (right)

Tasty Little Numbers 100 calorie cakes, £12.50 for a box of 25, Waitrose, Amazon

Calorie counting may be boring, but it is effective, and dieters will want to know about these little handmade cakes from the Tasty Little Numbers range of treats, which includes chocolate bars and crisps. Designed to satisfy a craving for a sweet treat without blowing the calorie budget, they come in country fruit, lemon drizzle and carrot cake varieties, and taste very good indeed.

J2O Glitter Berry, £4.39 for a four pack, all major retailers

This limited-edition fruit drink is a blend of grape and cherry with a hint of spice. It’s very sweet and pretty, with gold glitter floating in it.

Tasty Little Numbers 100 calorie cakes, £12.50 for a box of 25 at Waitrose and online at Amazon

Jack Daniel’s Winter Jack, £15, Morrisons, Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury’s

A real winter warmer for spirits lovers, this apple whiskey punch is a blend of Jack Daniel’s Old No 7 Tennessee whiskey and festive spices infused with apples. It’s best served warm, and makes a nice alternative to mulled wine.

Popchips nacho cheese tortilla chips, £1.99, Waitrose

Popped with heat, rather than fried or baked, these half-fat tortilla chips come in four new flavours, including nacho cheese, which are strong, sea salted, crazy hot and cool ranch.

Denhay dry cured gammon, smoked or unsmoked, £11.50/kg, Waitrose

This gammon from the people behind the bacon is ready prepared to roast perfectly without having to be pre-boiled.

I covered mine with a maple and mustard glaze and served it with an onion and mustard sauce. Even our fussiest child cleared his plate.