Delicious Recipe Ideas For New Year’s Eve

Understandably, as this year has been difficult in many ways, most can agree that they can’t wait for 2020 to be over. New Year’s celebrations are going to have a completely different feel this year, as the large majority of us will experience the evening at home, and not spend it at the pub, club or friend’s house. Because of this, you may intend on having close family over for delicious food and drinks (if your tier allows). Now, depending on your preference, there are plenty of dishes to choose from with some requiring more effort than others. Luckily, though, they are all equally as delicious as each other! To help give you some inspiration, we’ve compiled some of our catering team’s favourite dishes, so you have lots of options for New Year’s Eve food for close family and friends.

Go-To Gammon

As it’s traditional for some households, you might want to opt for a boneless gammon joint as part of your banquet. Whether you want to cook a smoked or unsmoked joint, it’s entirely up to you. However, this take on its flavour will make it delicious either way. What you’ll need is:

• A boneless gammon joint.
• A couple of clementines.
• English mustard.
• Ginger beer.
• A few bay leaves.
• An onion.

 

With a deep saucepan at the ready, put the gammon joint in and add the ginger beer, chopped onion and halved clementines, cloves and bay leaves. Add enough water so it covers the gammon, and bring the heat up so the water reaches a gentle bubble. Cover over the pot with either the pot lid or foil and let this simmer away for a couple of hours.

Once this is done, use tongs to remove the joint from the pot and let it sit and cool for ten minutes. You should then preheat your oven to 200 degrees celsius. To prepare the joint for the oven, score the fat and cover the joint in the mixture of mustard and the ginger juice from the pan. Only use about half of the juices. Stud in some of the cloves into the fat, then put it into the over for just over an hour. Make sure to periodically cover the joint in its juices as it’s cooking, so it doesn’t dry out.

This dish is tasty served hot or cold.

Simple Chicken Curry

Chicken curry is one of the more simple but popular dishes, and so it makes it a great idea to cook up for New Year’s Eve. It can be a little difficult to get the flavours right in curries, which is why many choose to use ready-made sauces from the jar. However, with this recipe you can be sure to get the right flavours for an enjoyable dish to share. What you’ll need is:

• A large onion.
• Six cloves of garlic.
• Fresh ginger (around 50g).
• Cumin seeds.
• Fennel seeds.
• A Cinnamon stick.
• Chili flakes.
• Garam masala.
• A tin of chopped or plum tomatoes.
• Chicken thighs or fillets of your choice.
• Chick stock.
• A sprig of fresh coriander.
• Caster sugar (optional).

 

If you have a small food processor, make use of this for preparing these ingredients. If not, aim to finely dice the onion. You need to create a paste with the onion and a few teaspoons of water, which is why using a blender is ideal for this. If you don’t have a blender, you can also grate the onion but note you won’t need to use water if you do it this way.

Next, roughly dice the garlic and ginger and place this into a pan with vegetable oil and the onion. Heat this up on a medium heat. Add the cumin, fennel, chili flakes and cinnamon stick to the pan and allow this to let off an aroma whilst stirring. Add the garam masala, turmeric and tomatoes (and caster sugar if you want). Cook this mixture for around 10 minutes, then add your chicken meat and stock. Allow this to cook until the chicken is cooked. Lastly, season with the fresh coriander.

This simple chicken curry is a staple and can be served with flatbreads and/or basmati rice.

Mexican Chili Con Carne

A chili con carne is an ideal go-to for any night including New Year’s Eve. It’s also great to share alongside your chicken curry dish. This chili con carne dish is so easy to make, it’d be silly to not consider it for your New Year’s eats. What you’ll need for this is:

• Cooking oil of your choice.
• 450g of minced beef.
• A couple of onions.
• A few garlic cloves.
• Chili powder (strength of your choice).
• Ground cumin.
• A tin of chopped or plum tomatoes.
• Salt and pepper.
• Tin of kidney beans.

 

Heat a pan with a tablespoon of oil, add your minced beef, chopped garlic cloves and onions. Let this cook for around 3 minutes. Add your chili powder, cumin, tin of tomatoes and some water and stir. Season with your salt and pepper, and allow this to boil for around 20 minutes. Then add your tin of kidney beans, and allow this to cook for another 20 minutes. Make sure to stir periodically throughout its cooking time.

This simple chili can be served with rice, avocado, tortillas and/or grated cheese for that little extra Mexican touch!

Alternatives

If you don’t fancy cooking on your New Year’s Eve this year, there are some great alternatives for everyone to nibble on such as a meat platter or cheese board. Additionally, you could include a selection of pies and savouries to cover everyone’s appetites. Thankfully, there is plenty of choice when it comes to pies including:

• Pork pies.
• Cheese and onion tray bakes.
• Chicken and mushroom pies.
• Egg and bacon.
• Mince pies.
• Steak and gravy.

 

You could also consider pasties, sausage rolls and quiches which all make great additions to buffets on New Year’s Eve.

We hope you have enough food ideas to utilise for your New Year’s Eve get-together and you have a wonderful New Year’s from all of the team here at Taylor’s Butchers.