Xmas day starter?

A light starter that can be prepared in advance and has a great flavour - A warm salad of poached pears with blue cheese, hazelnuts and rocket.

This is simplicity itself.

Pears
Blue cheese (Gorgonzola, Stilton, mild or strong depending on your taste)
Hazelnuts
Rocket (Or lambs lettuce or mixed leaves)
Hazelnut oil
Vinaigrette dressing
White wine
Lemon juice

Take one large pear per person. Get the under-ripe, slightly hard ones (Shouldn't be difficult, the shops sell no other type!!)
Peel the pears but leave whole and keep the stalk on the top.
Place in a saucepan and cover with a mixture of dry white wine and water 50/50. Add some lemon juice to acidulate the water - about half a lemon for every 4 pears - this will prevent the fruit from discolouring. Bring to boil and simmer until tender. Once cooked, the pears can be left in the liquid until needed. The hard pears will keep their shape and not fall apart.

Hazelnuts, a couple of tablespoons per person - if the have the skins on, dry them in the oven (180 degrees) for 10 to 15 minutes. Place the nuts in a clean tea towel and rub them - most of the papery skins will come off. Bash or chop into halves and set aside.

Vinaigrette dressing - equal amounts olive oil and wine vinegar - squeeze of lemon juice, a small dollop of dijon mustard, salt and pepper.

All this can be made well in advance.

To finish the dish halve and core the pears
Place on a baking tray and add a slice of blue cheese to each
Grill until the cheese melts and bubbles
Add a pile of salad leaves to each plate
Scatter with chopped hazelnuts
Arrange the pears on top (scraping up any melted cheese that has escaped)
Add a few drops of hazelnut oil
Finish with the vinaigrette dressing and serve.

Turkey giblet soup is indeed one of the finest things about Christmas. But, would it not be a bit of a turkey overload to have it as a starter before the turkey-fest main course?

Does anyone serve soup as a starter anymore ? Must be the simplest thing to make, can be visually stunning, light and very tasty.

Out of fashion?

Ramsay has a recipe for a cream of cauliflower soup (He calls it a nage) with a sorrel and caviar finish.

Basically it is cauliflower and potato cooked in a light stock, whizzed to puree, add milk or cream and season. That's the soup.

Serve it in white bowls. Chop some fresh sorrel into thin strips, pile a tablespoon in the middle of each bowl and top with a teaspoon of lumpfish caviar. Very striking with the stark white, vivid green of the sorrel and the black caviar.

Prawn cocktail would also be my call. That's the tradition here anyway and always goes down a treat. Not too heavy and scrumptious all the same.

Prawn Cocktail & Smoked Salmon - You cannot go wrong!

I always make Leek & Potato soup because my mother loves it.

A couple of years ago I was a guest at Christmas dinner where we were served those Prawns in Filo with a tomato chutney and a nice Asian Salad.

It was lovely and light and left plenty of room for the whopper of a trifle that followed the main course.

The-Rigger wrote: »

How can anyone love sprouts Brother Billy?!

Easy!

Blanch the prepered sprouts in hot water for a couple if mins until bright green.
Drain and toss in lightly fried smoked lardons, scatter over a couple of teaspoons of Sesame Seeds, cover and whack in the oven until cooked through.

Never a sprout left.

washiskin wrote: »

Easy!

Blanch the prepered sprouts in hot water for a couple if mins until bright green.
Drain and toss in lightly fried smoked lardons, scatter over a couple of teaspoons of Sesame Seeds, cover and whack in the oven until cooked through.

Never a sprout left.

Tis not the sprouts you love, tis the lardons and things you cover the sprouts with to make them edible.