Hogmanay Dinner / NYD Lunch

[AgentProvocateur]

I’ve overstretched myself and overcommitted at NY. I’ve got 6 other adults coming for dinner on Hogmanay, so I was thinking canapés, duck and a cold pudding. These same people will stay late, and more people will arrive after the bells, so I’ll have bacon rolls and soup I think. That’s all fine, but it will be a v late night, and then I have 12 coming for (late) lunch on NYD!

They’re all family, so I don’t need to impress them, but I need a crowd pleaser I can prepare ahead. My mum won’t eat anything remotely spicy, so bear that in mind. I also don’t like steak pie, so I’m breaking with tradition. I was thinking a nice ham and baked pots, but what to do with it? Help!

Do a red cabbage side, I’d buy it, but you could make now and freeze. Or do cauli cheese. I’d have with a salad and coleslaw, Jamie Oliver has a great winter veg coleslaw. I’m always craving fresh by then.

I was thinking coleslaw and then I wondered if ham, potato and coleslaw was a bit dull. But it will be delicious ham, and posh coleslaw.

You could do Nigellas ham cooked in coke - it's divine

That’s the one I’m doing, but I’m doing it in Irn Bru, which is even nicer than the coke one!

Coke in Iran bru...that works?

That ^ is the most Scottish sentence I've ever read ! Love it.

I think ham potatoes and coleslaw sounds great, but I will confess to being hammed out by new year. I always do one for Christmas and or Boxing Day and will have been eating its leftovers for days.

Are there other pie options? Chicken and leek? Raised game?

@crabapplecake - it totally works. It doesn’t taste like Irn Bru, but you get that sweetness.

Thanks for the pie suggestion, but I’m
not a huge pie fan (a very un-Scottish sentence ) and it will be the only ham of the season

I like Savoy cabbage cooked in cream.
the guardian has a recipe "suspiciously delicious cabbage" which is AMAZING.