Christmas Eve, Christmas, San Esteban, New Years Eve, New Years and Three Kings … With the beginning of the new month, a lot of parties are approaching that invite you to get together with the family and celebrate around the table.
I don’t know about you, but in my environment, who puts the house does not cook, Who cooks does not collect, who collects does not buy and so on until we are all well organized.
The task of cooking is shared between everyone, so we are always looking for options that are easy to carry, that do not repeat those of the previous year and, above all, that amaze. As the same thing happens to many of you, we want to make your task easier by providing various ideas and options. We hope that, among these 29 Christmas recipes to take away and look great, find yours.
Appetizer recipes
Cold or hot, appetizers are one of the most helpful resources when it comes to contributing our grain of sand at the Christmas lunches and dinners that lie ahead. Among the many appetizer recipes that you will find on Directo al paladar, my favorites are those that shine for their simplicity. The hot ones can be assembled in the absence of baking to taste them freshly made.
Sausage rolls recipe
In a deep and wide container, we crumble the slice of sliced bread and wet it with the milk and half an egg, the other half we reserve to brush the rolls before putting them in the oven. With a fork we crush the bread, add the garlic salt, the Provencal herbs and the mustard. We mix until obtaining a dough. We remove and discard the skin of the sausages and crumble with clean hands, removing any remaining fat that we can find. We add the mixture of bread, milk and spices and mix well. I continue to use my hands for this operation because it is faster and better done, but you can always use a fork. We spread the puff pastry sheet and cut it, widthwise, into three equal strips. We divide the sausage filling between the three puff pastry strips, spreading it along the longest end. Brush the opposite end with the reserved egg and roll the puff pastry strips into cylinders. The egg will act as a glue and the rolls will not open when baked. We cut each cylinder into the number of pieces we want (small, if we are going to serve them as an aperitif, or large if we are going to serve them as a plate). We make two diagonal incisions on each of the rolls, brush them with egg and sprinkle them with sesame seeds. We cover a baking tray with parchment paper and place the rolls on it. We introduce the tray in the lower part of the oven, pre-heated to 190 ºC, so that the base is not raw. After 25 minutes, or when they acquire a golden color, we remove them and let them temper before serving.
Link | Sausage rolls or sausage rolls
More appetizer recipes
Vegetable recipes and vegetables
Vegetable recipes give a huge game and can be introduced into a Christmas menu as a starter or as a side dish of the main course, as long as it is not a vegetarian menu. If you have had to contribute one of these two and you have not yet decided which recipe to choose, we suggest three very different, but very appropriate to take away.
Cold avocado and zucchini cream
- Ingredients: 1 large ripe avocado, 1 zucchini, 1 stick of celery, 1 clove of garlic, 1 green Italian pepper, juice of 1 lime, 1 glass of vegetable broth or water, a little milk or cream, hot paprika to taste, a few parsley leaves, 2-3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, black pepper and salt.
- preparation: Peel the avocado, removing the bone, and chop. Lightly peel the zucchini and cut into half moons. Chop the celery and chop the garlic clove, removing the central nerve. Chop the green pepper, discarding the seeds and internal filaments. Place all the ingredients in a food processor and blend until the desired smooth and homogeneous texture is achieved. Cool until serving time, along with a few drops of extra virgin olive oil and garnish to taste.
Link | Cold avocado and zucchini cream
More recipes of greens and vegetables
Seafood recipes
Fish and seafood recipes have their complication when it comes to adding them to a Christmas menu and having to move them. They are foods that lose when reheated, so it is better to avoid them when hot and opt for recipes in which they are served cold or at room temperature. That there are, eye, and many.
Tomato tartare with tuna rillette recipe
- Ingredients: 1 medium tomato, ¼ lemon zest, 40 g of tuna in canned olive oil, 20 g of natural cream cheese, 1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard, 2 teaspoons of soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil and fresh chives.
- preparation: Peel the tomato, remove the seeds and cut the meat into small cubes. We put them in a colander for ten minutes to release the excess water. We transfer the chopped tomato to a bowl and add the soy sauce, the lemon zest and the extra virgin olive oil. In another bowl we put the drained tuna, the mustard, the cream cheese and the chopped chives, and mash with a fork until making a cream. We place a plate ring on top of the serving plate and put ¾ parts of its height with the tomato tartare, level, fill again to the edge of the ring with the tuna rillete and remove the ring gently.
Link | Tomato tartare with tuna rillete
More fish and seafood recipes
Meat and poultry recipes
If you have had to bring the main dish, it is a sign that your hosts trust you and that you have the skills of a chef. Take the opportunity to show off with a different proposal and stay away from the traditional Christmas turkey. Any of these meat and poultry recipe proposals has strength, personality and is a good option to take away.
Duck breast with currant sauce
- Ingredients: 2 duck breast, 150 g of fresh currants, 225 ml of dry red wine, 225 ml of chicken broth, 15 g of butter, 180 ml of water, 90 g of sugar, salt and pepper.
- preparation: For the currant sauce, we mix the sugar with the water in a saucepan and cook it gently until it dissolves. Then we raise the heat, bring to a boil and add the gooseberries. Cook for five minutes and let cool in the syrup. Meanwhile, in another pot, add the wine, salt and pepper and reduce to medium heat for ten minutes. Add the broth and let it reduce for another five minutes. Add the butter and the currants drained from the syrup (adding a little of it if we see the sauce very thick). Cook everything together for five more minutes and remove from heat. To prepare the meat, we clean the magrets of nerves and greases. We make some cuts in the shape of diamonds in the part of the skin. We put a frying pan on the fire and brown them, starting with the skin side, over low heat for twenty minutes. We remove and discard the fat as it melts. The last five minutes we turn the magrets and let them finish cooking. Finally we season them. Once the time has passed, we wrap them in aluminum foil for five minutes, cut into slices and serve with the sauce.
Link | Duck breast with currant sauce
More recipes for meat and poultry
Sweet and dessert recipes
Traditional sweets are typically craving at this time of year, but they can be too heavy. Among the many options of dessert recipes that we can offer you, we opted for those that are refreshing and bite-sized. Thus, surely they fall and are not forgotten in the tray of sweets.
Lemon bites
- Ingredients: for the base, 225 g of flour, 65 g of brown sugar, 150 g of butter, 1 teaspoon of butter to grease the mold; for the lemon cream, 180 ml of lemon juice, 60 g of sugar, 3 M eggs, zest of one lemon, 180 g of white chocolate for desserts, 1 drop of yellow food coloring (optional).
- Preparation: We grease a square mold with a side of 24 centimeters. In a bowl we mix the flour with the brown sugar, we add the butter in cubes and we are making some crumbs with our fingers. Crush these crumbs at the base of the mold and bake for 15 minutes at 180 ºC. Let it cold down. Meanwhile we prepare the lemon cream, melting the white chocolate for desserts. In a saucepan we mix the eggs, the sugar, the lemon juice, the zest and the coloring and cook, stirring without stopping. Just before it starts to boil, we pour the cream over the melted white chocolate and stir with a spatula until we get a smooth cream. Cover the baked base with this cream and let it warm before storing in the fridge until it hardens. Cut into portions and serve cold with sprinkled icing sugar.
Link | Lemon bites
More recipes for sweets and desserts
More Christmas recipes
Directly to the Palate we love these parties and we have thousands of recipes for you to be sure to hit your Christmas meals.
Don’t miss our special with the 215 best Christmas recipes and 16 special menus. And if you need ideas for specific dishes, here is a good starting point:
Directly to the palate | Starter recipes for a family Christmas
Directly to the palate | Thyme roasted lamb recipe