New Year's Eve starters - 4 delicious appetisers

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Starters for New Year! Have you decided on a main course for New Year's Eve, but you're still not sure how to start your dinner? We've been cooking luxurious three-course dinners throughout the festive season and have had time to test four starters that are suitable for New Year's Eve.

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New Year starters - four suggestions

Recently, we've been running a "food and health" theme on the blog on Wednesdays, and we'll probably continue that in the new year. But before New Year's Eve, we want to publish all our food suggestions for New Year's Eve celebrations. Here you will find four tips for New Year's starters, ranging from crayfish soup to scallops. Of course, we are also curious about your best starter tips! We will be celebrating New Year's with friends this year and there will probably be a number of small dishes, both old favourites and some new ones.

1. Crayfish soup on crayfish shells

When we recently cooked prawn soup on prawn shells we became curious about making seafood soup from shells. After all, it's a smart and economical way to make the most of the seafood and get a great flavour at the same time. We looked up a few different crayfish soup recipes online, and then modified and adapted them to suit our tastes. Another way to make crayfish soup is to make the following crayfish cheese soup - it is also delicious!

You need (2 servings)

• Half a kilo of crayfish
• Half a carrot 
• Half an onion
• A quarter of a fennel
• A dash of oil
• 1-2 tablespoons of tomato paste
• Half a tablespoon of paprika powder
• A little bit of cayenne pepper
• 1.5 dl of white wine
• Half a litre of fish stock
• 1.5 dl of cooking cream
• Some brandy and port wine
• Salt and pepper

Do the following

1. Peel the crayfish and save the tails for garnish.
2. Peel and cut the carrot, onion and fennel into small pieces.
3. Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the crayfish shells and chopped vegetables and fry for a few minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Add the tomato paste and spices and continue to cook, stirring, for a while longer.
5. Add the fish stock and wine. Bring to the boil and simmer, covered, for 15-20 minutes.
6. Strain the crayfish shells and vegetables from the soup.
7. Reduce the soup to about two-thirds of its volume to give it a stronger flavour.
8. Pour in the cream and bring to a slow boil. Stir occasionally. Let the soup cook gently for 5-10 minutes.
9. Flavour with brandy, port wine, salt and pepper.

Serve as follows

Serve in small appetiser bowls. Place a few crayfish tails in the bottom and decorate with a few on the edge. We also added a few chives to the dish. White wine is a great accompaniment.

2. Oysters

Oysters are another delicious starter for the New Year. While this appetiser is relatively simple and doesn't require much preparation, it doesn't get much more luxurious than this. The most important thing to make sure is that the oysters are really fresh (preferably bought the same day or the day before) and that you know how to open them. You can read more here:

You need (2 servings)

• 6-12 fresh oysters
• Any flavouring (e.g. lemon, tabasco or sambal oelek).

Do the following

1. Open the oysters with an oyster knife or similar.
2. Remove the oysters from the shell.
3. Leave the oysters in their shells. Make sure the liquid is also left behind.

Serve as follows

Serve the oysters in their shells, preferably with lemon or a flavouring. We like a little "sting" like tabasco or sambal oelek.

3. Scallops in pea puree

Scallops in pea puree is a real favourite starter that we have made many times. Scallops are so delicious that they are fantastic delicious and together with this pea puree it is divine. We found the recipe online originally, but now we no longer remember where. The red caviar was not included in the original recipe, but the colour is so wonderful with the red against the green!

You need (2 people)

• 4-6 scallops
• Butter or margarine for frying
• 125 g green peas
• About 1.5 dl of crème fraiche
• Salt and pepper
• Red caviar
• A lemon
• Chives

Do the following

1. Boil the peas and drain the water.
2. Mix the peas with the crème fraiche, some squeezed lemon and some grated lemon zest. Blend with a blender to make a smooth cream. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
3. Divide the cream into two serving bowls.
4. Cut away the hard edge (a white muscle) on one side of the scallops (it can be a bit tough otherwise).
5. Fry the scallops, about 45 seconds - 1 minute on each side. Drain them slightly on a piece of kitchen paper and then place them on the pea puree.
6. Decorate with red rum, chives and perhaps a slice of lemon.

Serve as follows

Serve as a starter in small serving bowls. White wine works well as a beverage.

4. Delicious lobster soup

What could be more New Year's Eve than lobster? This Christmas holiday we have bought two lobsters. We bought one frozen at Willys and one fresh at ICA's deli counter. The fresh one cost twice as much. Which one was the best? The fresh one was very watery and had only a little meat, while the frozen one was super fine. It could be a matter of luck/fortune of course, but still interesting!

Since we had never made lobster soup before, we wanted to look for recipes. We were influenced by several different ones, and among others we were inspired by a recipe from Matgeek where you would flambé the lobster shells. It sounded exciting! Our recipe below is a modification of various recipes we have read. The soup was very good, but it takes long time to cook, so if you plan to make this in the New Year, you need to start very early!

You need (2 servings)

• One lobster (frozen and thawed is fine)
• A little oil for frying
• One shallot
• One clove of garlic
• A carrot
• Half a parsnip
• A quarter of a fennel
• Half a tablespoon of tomato paste
• A little chilli spice
• Half a decilitre of brandy
• 1.5 dl of white wine
• 2 dl of water
• 1-2 tomatoes
• 2 dl cooking cream
• Some chives
• Salt and pepper
• A touch of cayenne pepper

Do the following

1. Split the lobster by slicing straight through the back, and remove the stomach and intestines at the front of the lobster, otherwise it will be bitter. Remove the meat.
2. Peel the root vegetables and onions. Cut all the vegetables into pieces (including fennel and tomato).
3. Heat the oil in a large pan and fry the lobster shells.
4. Add the root vegetables, fennel and onion and sauté to soften the vegetables. Add the tomato puree and some chilli seasoning.
5. Pour in some brandy (we took a nubber glass that we filled 2/3). Place a burning match over the saucepan to flambé the shells. Shake the saucepan while the flames go out.
6. Add the wine, water and chopped tomatoes. Then let the stew cook gently without a lid for an hour.
7. Strain the peel and vegetables. Then bring the soup back to the boil and reduce it to about 2/3 of its volume.
8. Pour in the cream and simmer for a further half hour.
9. Season with salt, pepper and a small amount of cayenne pepper.

Serve as follows

Serve the lobster soup in small plates. Add some lobster meat to the bottom of the plates. As a drink, white wine is suitable, for example, and this is delicious.

More suggestions for New Year's starters

Need more suggestions for New Year's Eve starters? Here are some more ideas for luxurious New Year's starters:

• Mushroom soup
• Split pea or artichoke soup
• Luxurious canapés
• Lobster au gratin
• Prawn cocktail
• Toast Skagen
• Blinis with caviar/salmon roe

What are your best suggestions for New Year's Eve starters?

What are your best suggestions for New Year's Eve starters? What are you planning to eat on New Year's Eve this year?

You might also like:

Oysters - how to open them, tips and facts Main courses for New Year - 5 luxury dishes New Year's celebrations - a New Year's menu with 8 small dishes