I’m on the starter, I don’t arrive home for Christmas until Christmas Eve so ease of cooking is the key. One stipulation is nae shell fish. the starter will be a warm up to roast lamb. Any suggestions please?

Alcohol and a selection box hits the preparation thingy.

Tend to do soup as it can just be left and time easily altered depending on the rest of the stuff.

Something with goat’s cheese maybe?

How many you got coming? If it’s a few and you’ve got kids then we’ve done canapes the last couple of years. Everyone arrives, glass of champers to greet. Kids pass round the canapes, I sort lunch. Makes it much less stressful than trying to get starters and Christmas lunch all ready together.

5 adults 1 6 year old. We always do soup so looking for something different.

Black pudding served over sliced apple with honey & mustard dressing.

i am making some homemade chicken liver pate.
that gorgeous black girl made some on the tv the other night.
looked ace…… 😀

Is the sliced apple raw?

ton that’s on the shortlist!

Is the sliced apple raw?

Yup!

half a kilo of toblerone & some bucks fizz for me. 🙂

Smoked salmon blini with horseradish

We had this last year and its a piece of piss to make, at tastes ace! Made it several times since.

Err, is the shellfish issue because of pregnancy? If so, the salmon and pate ideas (my favourite is salmon btw) might be out too.

Pan fried Haloumi with warmed pears, walnuts and honey dressing, or actually as you are having lamb you could do a citrus haloumi thing
black pudding with diced quality bacon lardons on steeped apples and a whisky cream drizzle

Personally we’re having as many scallops as i can dredge the day before, 2 crayfish, smoked salmon and mini prawn cocktails. Then a side of sirloin, a butterflied lamb leg and venison mcwellington (venison loin wrapped in haggis in pastry)

Goat’s cheese and fresh fig salad with a drizzle of honey. Takes five minutes, tastes sublime.

NZCol, any room for a little one at your table?

We normally have seafood, scallops or lobster, I think we’re having some goats cheese concoction this year.

buttered wholemeal loaf with continental meats, simple side salad and lemon

no prep at all expect plating up

That Iceland range looks pretty good.

Always room – usual outside dinner beside the spa pool with the fire going 😉

If you’re (or somebody is) cooking a full christmas dinner for a load of folk it all gets a bit hectic and the last thing you need is to have to put it on hold for a starter.

And normally there’s far too much food on the table anyway.

Just make sure there’s a big bag of kettle crisps next to the champagne in the kitchen and everybody will be happy to go and nibble and sip and help to get it all ready.

I’ve never understood having starters at xmas – it would use up value stomach space for roast potatoes

Shell fish are a no due to a pesky sibling’s allergy…

Chicken liver pate and black pudding with apple are the favourites…keep them coming though.

If you can try and get hold of Stornoway black pudding – and don’t forget the dressing!

“If you can try and get hold of Stornoway black pudding – and don’t forget the dressing!”

This ! Makesball other black pud tast crap

If you can try and get hold of Stornoway black pudding – and don’t forget the dressing!

That should be nae bother. Any particular type of apple? Big fan of Braeburns myself!

Black pudding, pea purée, rocket and a honey and mustard dressing. The purée is so easy and can be done well in advance.
Baby leeks with some kind of bread, a poached egg and a warm mustard sauce.
Tartiflette, very small amounts with a bit of salad. You can chuck it in the oven with the turkey.
An itlaian platter, lots of salami, cured meats, mozzarella, olives, sun dried tomatoes. Can be made days before on a bug plate and you just ask people to help themselves.

Good shout lunge on the pea purée-cheeky bit of mint thrown in?

Plenty of wine and beer with some assorted pick’n’mix should do the trick nicely.

If the queen is coming round and you insist on pushing the boat out then I guess you could stretch to some cheesy nibbles. Maybe some pineapple and cheese squares on cocktail sticks pushing into a cabbage wrapped in tinfoil. That’s not free advice by the way, party planners would charge you a fortune for that information.

scallop and black pudding tower things… my dad is ace at them. and he is off to collect the scallops personally from the ocean floor just off heather island.

We don’t have a starter, but feed up on a late breakfast of smoked salmon, scrambled eggs and toast – washed down with Bucks Fizz.

Starter for Chritmas dinner for us is fried scallops and bacon lardons on a bed of rocket salad.

Albanach, mint to taste, I don’t as I like the sweetness of the peas and the richness of the butter without it but you can certainly do so if you so desire.