Christmas dinner starters

[monkeyball12]

Bored of the usual soup and melon! My family will not eat fish so that's out of the question.

Any ideas? TIA!

Look up some avocado recipes. We like sliced avocado with little rolls of smoked salmon, on a bed of leaves and fresh lemon juice squeezed over .

Stuff figs with cream cheese, wrap in palma ham and bake.

@Bunnybigears that sounds amazing!!!

We stopped having starters some years ago, as we were too stuffed and we love our pudding, cheese and crackers, port, liqueur coffees and chocolates .

There was a thread about this a few days ago. Quite a few ideas on that.

Oh didn't realise, I will have a look for the other thread too

Asparagus wrapped in Parma ham, roasted in Olive oil and served with garlic mayonnaise?

We stopped starters as found the small people were just too full to enjoy the main and pudding
We now have a main course, pudding, and then a selection of cheeses, crackers and grapes for anyone who needs more
It’s worked well the last 3 years

Chicken liver and Gin pate here. I'll make it a couple of weeks in advance and freeze it. I'll take it out on Christmas morning and it will be just right by lunchtime.

@madvixen - that sounds delicious. Could I please be really cheeky and ask for your recipe if you don't mind?

I'd like the recipe too please! @madvixen

I was going to suggest pate and melba toast nom nom

@iklboo not a problem. Here you go.

Melt some butter in a pan (around 25g but it is Christmas so no need to be perfect with it). Chop a couple of shallots (or half an onion) and stick in the pan on a low heat until nice and soft. Add a couple of sprigs of thyme for extra loveliness.
Add a pack of chicken livers (all the supermarkets do frozen packs and they're just the right size) and cook thoroughly on a low heat. Add some Gin (brandy works well also). I normally use a couple of capfuls. Cook for another couple of minutes to cook off some of the alcohol. Add a couple of twists of pepper.
Tip the mix into a clean bowl, making sure you scrape out all the buttery juices.
Get into the mix with a hand blender and whizz it down. Once you get it nice and smooth, gently start adding some double cream and keep whizzing until you have the quantity you want. I normally use about 300ml

Pop it into serving dishes and leave to cool. If you're serving it that day, stick it in the fridge once cool. If you're freezing it, cover the dishes and pop in the freezer once cold. I pop mine into Christmas party cups (the paper ones) and freeze them in those.

The original recipe was a bbc Good Food one that I've played with over the years. Here's the link for the original if you wanted more accurate measurements. www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1759638/duck-liver-and-gin-parfait

Thank you @madvixen - that sounds gorgeous.

How do you all manage starters?
Turkey, stuffing, pigs, bread sauce, cranberry, roasties, sprouts, green beans. Followed by christmas pud and boozy creams.

Where do you put it?

I was going to say we don't do starters, but I may steal madvixens pate

Starters? We don't manage pudding. Sometimes we have pudding the next day as a separate meal. Assuming we're not having to follow someone else's rules!

Breaded brie bites with a cranberry sauce dip is my favourite.

A melted cheese with bread to dip in? We get the Cornish cruncher from M&S but would be easy to do Brie or Camembert at home :) I don't eat anymore main on Christmas day than I do usually as I love the whole of Christmas dinner including the starter, pudding, cheese and crackers etc. I just have a small amount of everything.

We have a baked camembert as a starter and eat it about an hour or so before the main meal.

We don't do sit down starters but usually have canapés (from m and s), dips etc about an hour and a half before we eat. Mainly for the kids benefit but FIL really likes it too.

We've always had prawn cocktail. I always thought that was what everyone had until I went to dh's family for Christmas and there was none in sight. Ruined Christmas

Our family loves to play games during christmas. We've decided to play christmas version of minute to win it! Everyone enjoyed and had fun.

Yes - we do canapés too, for people to nibble with champagne as we’re all arriving. Takes the edge off while we wait for lunch. Usual thing is soda bread, creme fraiche and smoked salmon but i’d settle for a box of nibbles from M&S or freeze something wrapped in filo pastry in advance.

Best thing is to get someone else to bring the canapés - with the strict instruction that they have to be ready to plate up and go, no prep or cooking needed - and then you don’t even have to think about it.