I can’t remember the last time I went out on New Years Eve. You’re more likely to find me relaxing at home filled with food, drink, and games too.
I wanted to share my menu for the food I’ll be preparing and eating this New Years Eve with my family. I decided on the menu a few weeks beforehand, and ordered the beautiful menu card from Papier. There are plenty of designs and can be customised so they are tailored to your meal. I chose the Calligrafia Menu where you can order a generic free sample or a custom sample for just £1. These are popular for weddings but work brilliantly for dinner parties too.
New Years Eve Dinner Party – Menu
Starter: Grilled Goats Cheese
I’m a big cheese lover so it will feature heavily in my menu. For starter, I’m serving goats cheese which is lightly grilled so the cheese goes all gooey and the top is given some colour. I’ll also pop some slices of sourdough bread under the grill at the same time. To serve, drizzle balsamic reduction circles around the plate and place the sourdough toast in the centre of the plate. Spread a thin layer of caramelised onion chutney on the toast and very carefully pop the grilled and gooey cheese on top. Add some rocket and serve.
This starter is really quick to prepare so its a great one to remember for your next dinner party. I’ve done a whole blog post on exactly how to make this delicious Grilled Goats Cheese Toast.
Main: Steak and Ale Pie
I’m a huge fan of pies; they’re full of flavour, you can have so many flavour combinations and they can be prepared in advance making them ideal for a dinner party. Particularly in winter for a cosy evening in. My favourite is a steak and ale pie which is cooked low and slow, before topping it with a puff pastry lid. The decoration is the fun part, this one is topped with the letters ‘PIE’ but I’ve also put holly leaves on top of a festive pie, and I’ve also done the letters ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY’ for a birthday pie.
I’ve posted a whole recipe for how to make my favourite steak and ale pie.
Dessert: Salted Caramel Chocolate Pots
This is a new recipe and I’m really pleased with how it turned out. These little chocolate pots are really rich so you don’t need a huge amount. Pop two teaspoons of caramel sauce into each ramekin dish and top with a chocolate ganache mix and leave to set. Top with sea salt and leave in the fridge to set. These work really well for a dinner party because you can make them up a few days in advance and leave them in the fridge until your ready. Again, I’ve written a blog post with the recipe for how to make these Salted Caramel Chocolate Pots.
Cheeseboard
As I said earlier, I’m a huge fan of cheese so no dinner party is complete without a cheeseboard. The trick here is a selection of cheeses (hard, soft, blue and fruity) and to pile as much as possible onto a single board. First, place out the cheeses, add a selection of crackers and then fill in the gaps with fruit and nuts, I used grapes and walnuts, and squash in some prosciutto and salami for the ultimate board.
Drinks:
To accompany the food, I started off by serving Cranberry Mimosas which is cranberry juice topped up with Champagne (prosecco or any other sparkling wine works well too), in flutes but you can do a non alcoholic version of this by adding sparkling water instead of Champagne. I also served sparkling elderflower water as a soft option.
How will you be seeing the New Year in?
Dining Inspiration
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