A simple yet stunning appetiser?

[indianwells]

For Christmas day please. Can I please pick your culinary minds?
I fly back to the UK on Sunday, therefore I will be jetlagged and it won't be until Monday (Christmas Eve) that i'll be feeling anywhere near human! Thing is, i'm doing the Christmas lunch so with all the prep for that I don't want to be faffing about with a million ingredients for the first course.
An added problem is one guest doesn't like Prawns (Shrimp) and another doesn't like Parmesan. Nobody likes Avocado. So without these 3 ingredients can anyone come up with a simple, yet impressive starter for the meal? We eat at 6.30pm so I will have access to a few crowded stores during the day. I've already decided to serve some baked, warm Ciabbata with a herb dip on the side if that's any help.

PS. I'm going to bed now so please don't think i'm being rude if I don't answer immediately!

[shroomgirl]

cheeses, dried fruits, conserve, marcona almonds......without reading your dinner menu it's hard to come up with a complimentary appetizer.

[stir it up]

how about a simple mushroom soup with sherry.

I make a nice clear one, and a 'cream of' one. Simple to make, if you use nice mushrooms it is elegant with the sherry taste, and I would guess that it would go with most Christmas meals.

The other one I make that is always very popular yet surprisingly easy, I would only suggest if you need something to put out in another seating area, it's more like a casual pre-dinner something to munch on with cocktails than for plating at the table.

You take a goat cheese log, fairly large. Fresh rosemary leaves snipped, and coarsely crushed pink peppercorns, and you roll the log in that, embedding red and green flecks. That part can be done as soon in advance as your require. Then you just reduce balsamic vinegar until it has lost most of its vinegaryness, (you still want a little tart, but syrupy, I can't give you a volume-based reduction amount, you have to go by taste). Then you pour that as a warm syrup over the goat cheese and serve with plain crackers, I usually go for a cream cracker or water cracker or similar that I've made myself. (you don't want much flavor in the cracker, a really plain cracker). You can also reduce the vinegar in advance, just warm slightly before pouring on the cheese. It looks best served on a long narrow rectangular dish, crackers in another vessel of some sort.

Or if you want something fresh and light and plated, how about a ripe fresh pear carpaccio, next to a little salad of tender greens including say watercress, pea shoots, mache, stuff like that, a watercress in combination with lettuces that are mild and tender. with a couple walnut halves, candied or not, and a little piece of a lovely cheese, and done.

I always love pear to be in the holiday meal in some capacity.

If you're after something really easy and cocktail food, there's always a slice of dried pear, with a little camembert, and a few currants poked into the cheese.

[LiLChefYoojah]

can't go wrong with deviled eggs.

[Ishbel]

My advice to a jetlagged traveller?

Get yourself down to M&S or Waitrose and pick up some of their gorgeous platters....!

[indianwells]

Originally Posted by Ishbel

My advice to a jetlagged traveller?

Get yourself down to M&S or Waitrose and pick up some of their gorgeous platters....!

Ishbel wins!

[lentil]

I was going to suggest cream of mushroom soup, too. How about bacon and bleu cheese dip with sliced pears and apples? That seems to be my "go to" recipe of late.

I really like the pick-up platter idea, too!

[pgr555]

Stir it up, I am going to try your cheese lig for a party later in the week... love the idea!

[shroomgirl]

Waitrose....what an option! We drool over the photos in the magazine, so gorgeous. Would love to see it live someday.

[Mezzaluna]

How about spanakotiropites? That is, little spinach-feta pies. YOu can make them ahead and freeze, then bake when you need them. They look fabulous, as do most things made with phyllo pastry. I usually get about 84 pieces out of one pound of phyllo. You can also make different fillings, such as mushroom duxelles, curried vegetable, etc.

[jigz369]

Originally Posted by Mezzaluna

How about spanakotiropites? That is, little spinach-feta pies. YOu can make them ahead and freeze, then bake when you need them. They look fabulous, as do most things made with phyllo pastry. I usually get about 84 pieces out of one pound of phyllo. You can also make different fillings, such as mushroom duxelles, curried vegetable, etc.

Did you mean Spanakopita?

[bluedogz]

So this isn't the right crowd for piggies-in-a-blanket then?

Everyone seems to have so much trouble sneering at them with their mouths full...

[Ishbel]

Originally Posted by shroomgirl

Waitrose....what an option! We drool over the photos in the magazine, so gorgeous. Would love to see it live someday.

I buy all my meat from my local, organic butcher - but everything else, including all my organic veggies come from Waitrose.

As you say, their magazine photography is absolutely amazing - we get it free as a weekly customer and account holder!

Their platters of seafood bites and meat bites are just AMAZING. I'm not spending hours making, when I can go to M&S (another BRILLIANT source of ready-made, superior appetisers) or Waitrose!

YAAAY IWells - you KNOW I'm talking sense!

[lentil]

Originally Posted by bluedogz

So this isn't the right crowd for piggies-in-a-blanket then?

Everyone seems to have so much trouble sneering at them with their mouths full...

I know what you mean!!! I had a party this weekend and one of the apps they requested were "cocktail franks in pastry". I wasn't so sure what she meant because it sounded alot like pigs in a blanket. That's what she got, and we were sneering and snickering all the while we were pigging out on the extras. They were delicious! Don't tell anyone, but I think I'll make them for my own party this weekend. Naturally, I'll serve them with gourmet mustard.

[DoryD]

Originally Posted by stir it up

You take a goat cheese log, fairly large. Fresh rosemary leaves snipped, and coarsely crushed pink peppercorns, and you roll the log in that, embedding red and green flecks. That part can be done as soon in advance as your require. Then you just reduce balsamic vinegar until it has lost most of its vinegaryness, (you still want a little tart, but syrupy, I can't give you a volume-based reduction amount, you have to go by taste). Then you pour that as a warm syrup over the goat cheese and serve with plain crackers, I usually go for a cream cracker or water cracker or similar that I've made myself. (you don't want much flavor in the cracker, a really plain cracker). You can also reduce the vinegar in advance, just warm slightly before pouring on the cheese. It looks best served on a long narrow rectangular dish, crackers in another vessel of some sort.

Enmeshed in studying and preparing for finals (and then having to cancel my last dinner party), I was just thinking today I need to throw a party here, and cook (it seems like I haven't really cooked anything above pasta all month, lol)...and I'm totally going to try this -- sounds really yummy without being too heavy. And the flavor combinations sound perfect.