Dinner at Home

Category: Starters

  • Rustic Pork Rillettes

    Rustic Pork Rillettes

    Rustic Pork Rillettes With Crusty Bread

    This is a recent Rachel Allen discovery with is great for lunch with some fresh bread but could also be a good starter for an informal rustic dinner party menu and the added bonus it it is really cheap to make but is delicious and impressive. Perfect for the credit cruch dinner party! You need to plan ahead as it needs to cook for 5 hours and cool but it should keep for a few weeks. Don’t be shy about making a full batch – initially I made a half batch and the whole lot went over one weekend.

    Don’t worry about how fatty the meat looks as this will all melt away in the cooking leaving a course pate texture. In fact, the fattier the better and you need the belly pork boneless with the rind (ask your butcher to cut it off and pop it in the bag for you). Fresh nutmeg is a must – you could invest in a fab nutmeg grinder as a treat but there are many on the market.

  • Juicy King Prawn and Chorizo Skewers

    Juicy King Prawn and Chorizo Skewers

    Juicy King Prawn and Chorizo Skewers

    These are so simple to prepare but taste totally delicious – the juicy prawns with the sweet paprika in the chorizo sausage work really well together and can be served as canapes on cocktail sticks. You could also  throw them on the barbecue in the summer. The secret to this is getting really good quality prawns – the best I have found are at Farmfoods – Jumbo Raw King Prawns 2 packets for £12 with 600g in each. I use Tesco’s Finest Chorizo Ring.

    I tend to put the prawns in the marinade the night before but a couple of hours should be enough.

  • Tasty Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

    Tasty Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

    Tasty Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

    This is a really tasty quick lunchtime treat if you have half an hour spare. Equally it works well as a dinner party starter served on a slice of toasted ciabatta with some fresh rocket. Don’t feel you need to adhere religiously to the recipe – I tend to use whatever we have in the fridge (although our fridge seems to be pretty well stocked most of the time!) Feel free to use ham instead of bacon, cheddar instead of gruyere etc and if you don’t have the chorizo it will still be tasty. If you can’t get Portobello mushrooms ordinary field mushrooms are a good substitute.

  • Prawn Toast

    Prawn Toast

    Prawn Toast

    This is great as nibbles or even a starter. It is very simple, easily prepared in advance but does need frying at the last minute. Serve in triangles or bite sized pieces. This is enough to make 3 slices of bread so enough for 4 for a starter and maybe 6 as nibbles.

    You will need a food processor to blend the mixture. The bamboo shoots come in a tin from the Supermarket and the rest can be used in any type of stir fry to add crunch.

  • Italian Bread with Garlic Dip and an Olive Oil Dip

    This recipe for is just hot bread with two dips – a roasted garlic one and a balsamic, olive oil one.