Dinner Party: please help me find a starter that will go well with Reindeer! And which wine!

[QuintessentialShadow]

I am going to have to pick the brains of all you cooking gurus.

We are a group of friends who take it in turn to do "native" dinner parties, so we cook popular dishes of our homeland. Next time will be my time to host.

The main course will be shavings of reindeer, panfried, with a little onion and mushroom, seasoned with salt, pepper, allspice, coriander, and quite a lot of crushed juniper berries, then sour cream is poured over towards the end, with grated norwegian brown goats cheese "melted" into the sauce as it browns. Simply served with new potatoes, cranberry and some steamed broccoli and asparagus.

Dessert is either fresh cloudberries on vanilla ice cream, or a cloudberry parfait served in a sort of fine pastry pipe.

Coffee and cloudberry liquour.

I was thinking Faustino V to go with the reindeer, but not sure.

The starter has me stumped. Any ideas?

It will have to be some class of pickled/salted/smoked fish wouldn't it? with shots of iced vodka.

Hi Carmenere (this is starrystarrynight btw)

I guess I could do a strips of salmon and goats cheese on rocket salad? Some sort of caramell flavoured dressing?

For starters, you need pate of pan-friend Rudolf tongue sprinkled with shavings of boiled Mrs Christmas

sprinkle chopped coriander over before serving

Hi there But how do you serve salmon where you come from? I don't think that salmon and goats cheese go terribly well together. Why not keep it simple.

A great Pinot noir or Shiraz/syrah will go well with the Venison.

i love a horseradishy dressing with smoked salmon

morningpaper, you know, thats pure genius. I am thinking bruchetta with crushed tomato, basil and ox tongue!

Modern and traditional and international norwegian fusion cuisine!

lol I like it!

hmm maybe not salmon and goats cheese.

Norwegian cuisine is actually quite interesting, sadly overlooked by the rest of the world. But, it is a nation that relied on either asparagus soup or prawns in avocado for starters for generations, and have now suddenly warmed to the idea of a starter. They can be quite creative, incorporation all that world cuisine can offer, but with local ingredients. Hence there are dishes such as seal lasagna gaining popularity, and thai reindeer curry, and salmon korma. etc.

But smoked salmon in a salad setting is a great idea, as I can get good quality salmon here.

How about this

Or this looks great.

and this

And these look easy.

Oh, I like that egg recipe. I can make a tray full of them, and people can just help themselves. Or should I have two eggs on a plate with some sort of green, or is that superflous? I am thinking beauty in simplicity of presentation.

I agree to keep it simple for starters. How about some home cured gavedlax, served with a pinot heavy chamapgne.

With the reindeer, because of the other ingredients, I agree with the Shiraz wines (Rhone Valley has some great ones like Cote Roti or Hermitage would go well).

A tray of the eggs on some lettuce would look good. I would probably do a horseradish/sour cream type sauce too tbh.

Those are all fabulous, but very labour intensive, best as main course, I think.

I like the simplicity of the egg.... or a salad involving smoked salmon.

Yes, a tray of eggs would be good. Should I include just some strips of smoked salmon too? I like sour cream, it is very traditional.

Thanks guys, I will ponder these options, need to get to work now!

Right!

Modifications!
Starter, gravadlax with green leaves on top, with a potato pieces creamed in mustard and dill on the side.

Thinking about wine, served with a Pinot Gris, which will be a welcome drink too.

Main remains the same.
Should I go with Faustino I ?

Dessert, a vanilla ice cream with artic cloud berries on top, with artic cloudberry liqouir drizzled sparsely on.

Coffee and Cloudberry liquoir.

Thoughts?

Well I am a fan of faustino 1 and I think it will be great with the game but for the starter I would perhaps go for a chardonnay, so maybe a Chablis?

I love Chablis, but not sure which one to chose... I have had this with gravad lax before, and it is soo good to just have on its own too.

Well, that is it. I am decided. Faustino 1 and a Chablis. Thank you!

How about finding the person who actually knows about the wine in your local off license (ie not the wit-less teen serving) and asking them to recommend a decent one?

You know, I have lost faith. We had a lovely little Nicolas, but now there are only Threshers and Majestics nearby, and they never seem to know anything. And when my AP introduced me to her friend who was working the wine shelves in Waitrose, and I quizzed him about wine, he said he didnt really have a clue, he was transferred from shelving groceries because he had a nice posture.....

DOn't knw much about wine, but how about some mixed smoked fish, or pickled herrings (I love rollmops myself) with a green salad/potato salad?