Do you have a starter at Christmas dinner?

[ElfPantsAtMidnightMass]

...if so, what do you have? My mother is insisting on three courses and I'm in charge of all non-main course stuff.

I suggested french onion soup - or some other v small bowl of soup.

Any other ideas?

oh pleeease

I am expected to come up with some delicious morsel and atm all I can think of is "let them have sausage rolls ffs"

Yes. We have the bacon crisps from the turkey.

It's NOT a formal starter as such.

We steal it off the surface whilst mum isn;t looking.

Just some smoked salmon, thin brown bread and nice butter. Squeeze of lemon and twist of black pepper. Nowt so complex as soup.

We always have smoked salmon and brown bread with a bit of salad, would suggest somwting cold as then not so much of a hassle. Can just be put on plates and put on the table.

prawn ring

champagne/other fizz, a ton of chocolate, chips, dip. we are very cultured in this house you know.

maybe some canapes of some kind? like little olive pinwheels? smoked salmon/bruschetta/similar? goats cheese and cranberry tarts?

We have fizz and nibbles no formal starter

We're having a pretty informal christmas, so my mum and I are going to have goats cheese and red onion tart becaue I love goats cheese, my dad will probably have a can of soup

this year - salmon and chive pate

last year - individual tomato and pesto tarts

Scallops & chorizo with pea puree
DS is having some smoked salmon and will probably want some chorizo as well.

oh thank you all for replying

I can't understand why anyone would want to add any more food into Christmas dinner tbh, and my idea of a starter is v similar to Grizzly's

salmon is a good idea, i don't eat fish (am veggie) but fine to do it for others. Some might look askance at my toast and marmite replacement though...

What is a prawn ring? I always thought it was some kind of MN euphemism.

I can't believe how many of you have starters. We would never ever have them in a million years. Neither mine not dh's family do. I agree with the why would you need to add more food train of thought!

It's a ring of prawns with marie rose in the centre...popular at Iceland

Thanks for the recipes bumpy - that tomato and pesto tart sounds lovely.

This year we're having a choice of pate or smoked salmon, but other year's we've had melon. It's nice and light, so either just cut into wedges, or ball it and make a sauce with the juice of the melon and some balieys mixed together.

Oh right thanks juneybean - home of the least appealing beef/yorkshire pudding combination of all time.

Individual puff patry tartlets sound nice - I could do some with cream cheese and salmon (just bake the pastry alone first) maybe?

they are very yummy :) I made them and cooked the day before then just warmed up on the day before serving.

I'll be making more later for Christmas Eve buffet. I use red pesto on some as my children prefer it. There's also a recipe on the good food site for a similar thing with caramelised red onions and that's very yummy too :)

Smoked salmon and prawns with bread and salad, also soup usually. Mil in charge of that this year, I'm lucky just to have the main course to deal with

Well, absolutely Lady - and stuffing

Juney - how do you make the goats cheese/onion tart?

Keep it simple and light, sliced melon with parma ham for example. French onion soup is delicious but too heavy.

see the idea of salad, at christmas, in this cold weather, well it just makes me shiver with cold just thinking of it.

I haven't made it yet but I'm cheating all the way. I've bought a slice of goats cheese and a jar of red onion chutney and I had intended to buy a pastry case but asda had no savoury left so I spect I'll have make my own which should be fun in itself!

I want to make a balsamic reduction but I don't know how, does anyone know???

We will start with chocolate at around 6am

followed by some simple chocolate nibbles at 7am.
A soujourn into selection boxes at 8am, with a bacon sandwich and bucks fizz chaser.
I always like to have an amuse bouche of, say, chocolate at 9am and I have sourced some rather cheeky little chocolates for later.

As a prelude to the main attraction, we will tempt our tastebuds with some chocolate, before sitting down to a four course feast of chocolates,turkey, chcolates and erm, cheese and biscuits.