New Year Recipes

Cooking time —
Complication —

The New Year table always surprises us with abundance and variety. First of all, it’s champagne. Glasses filled in to edges with sparkling wine, are raised under a peal of bells and a cherish wish is bound to come true. The New Year night is quite long, so the table should be served with both good drinks and good appetizers and dishes. The Russian salad (Olivier) is a traditional dish which any family can’t manage without. For sure we can step aside this tradition and allow ourselves some ‘gluts’. For example, mutton leg, avocado with prawns and lots of other dainties.

Mutton leg with lemon and thyme

This is an advice from Elena Molokhovets’ book “Gift to young housewives”: “If they guest unexpectedly arrived and you have nothing cooked, descend to the cellar, take a mutton leg and do this and that”.

You’ll need:
1 mutton leg (2kg),
2 lemons,
1 bunch of thyme,
2 tbsp butter,
1 kg Cherry tomatoes (on the branch),
2-3 red peppers,
Some small carrots,
6 small red onions,
Some olive oil,
200 ml white wine,
Salt and ground pepper to your taste

How to cook:
Stir the citron, half of the bunch of thyme, garlic, salt and pepper in a pan.
Stir the greenery with butter and half-lemon juice.
Put the mutton leg into a frying pan.
Take a sharp knife and make small cuts in the meat, then cover the meat with the mixture.
Peel the onion, halve it and put around.
Wash the tomatoes on the branch, then put them with carrots and peppers around the meat into the frying pan.
Add the rest of thyme and sprinkle with salt and ground pepper.
Add wine and olive oil.
Put into the oven heated to 220 degrees for 15 minutes. Low the heat to 150 degrees and leave for 2 hours.
After it, increase the temperature to 220 degrees and leave for another 20-30 minutes, so that mutton leg is covered with crust but remain soft inside.
Take out from the oven. After 10-15 minutes you can cut the meat and serve it at the table sprinkling with sauce remained after cooking.

Avocado with prawns

You’ll need:
12 Royal prawns,
150g smoked salmon fillet,
1 tea spoon dried thyme,
500ml water,
1tbsp lemon juice,
100 ml cream (33% fat),
Salt, white ground pepper,
Frise lettuce for dressing.

How to cook:
Boil 500 ml water, add salt, pepper and thyme, put the prawns and boil for 2-3 minutes.
Halve the avocado along, take out the seed, sprinkle with lemon juice. Grind the salmon fillet and then stir the minced fish with cream in a mixer.
Fill in the avocado halves with salmon mousse, top with prawns.
Dress with Frise lettuce.

Gratin

Ingredients:
Two medium potatoes,
100 ml fat cream,
100 ml milk,
2 cloves of garlic,
Bay leaf,
A piece of butter,
Nutmeg,
Salt,
Ground black pepper,
Any solid cheese to your choice.

How to cook:
Grease the heatproof pan with butter and pressed garlic.
Prepare potatoes in advance, slice it (like for chips) and put the first layer tightly (like fish scales).
Add salt and ground nutmeg.
Pour with fat cream (at least 20%).
Sprinkle with grated cheese.
Then arrange 4-5 layers more (sprinkle each layer with the milk)
Top with abundant layer of grated cheese and cream.
Put for 40-45 minutes into the oven heated to 180 degrees.
You’ll see a nice crust on top (by the way it’s the gratin) and a fantastic layering cutaway, feeling a tender taste of cream and aroma of nutmeg…

Courabier

Ingredients:
500 g wheat flour,
250 g butter,
100 g sugar powder,
1 egg white,
For dressing:
60 g apricot jam.

How to cook:
Add 1-2 tbsp flour into the butter and stir until a puffy paste, then add sugar powder and stir again.
Add the egg white and go on stirring.
Then add the rest of the flour in portions and make a dough. It should be puffy, soft, flexible and easy-forming; not tight.
Using a pastry bag, make camomiles on the pan out of the dough.
Before baking put the apricot jam in the centre of each camomile.
Bake the Courabier biscuits at the t 200-220 degrees C until the golden colour.

Bon appetite!