Christmas Day is the traditional turkey lunch with all the trimmings and post lunch Queen’s-speech-nap whilst the Brussels work their way through you!  But in many households, Christmas Eve, is more of a party with more people turning up and feasting at a banqueting table of food for everyone to pick at.

I prefer eating (and drinking) this way as no one can keep tabs with how much you’ve had and let’s be honest, Christmas and excess go hand in hand.

Over the past few years I have spent the Christmas holidays in the Uk and the great thing about this is always the plethora of great Christmas party packs that you can buy at high end food shops.  Unfortunately we do not have the same availability here in Gibraltar, so when creating a spread for a Christmas Eve party you need to use some ingenuity and imagination as well as sticking to your confident repertoire of party dishes.

The easy, fallback position is the typical ubiquitous party food: vol-au-vents, mini quiches and huevos rellenos but unless you want to be swigging from Gaviscon bottles before midnight you may need to veer from the pastry-filled retro 80’s.

As the star of the table; instead of a roasted joint we’ve planned for a Beef Carpaccio which will get a crust kissed with chopped rosemary and spiked black pepper with plenty of rock salt.  Sliced as thinly as possible and served with shards of parmesan and a scattering of rocket leaves, a mountain of lamb chops to be dunked in a mint sauce and a decadent salmon terrine (my personal photos to follow of all of the above as those below are taken from various websites).

We first came across Smoked Salmon Terrines as a pre-packed Christmas Day starter but have not been able to find any in the shops this Christmas.  BUT how difficult could it be to make?  Surprisingly it was very simple to put together.

Smoked Salmon, cream cheese, cream, chives and dill, lemon zest and juice & seasoning.

Smoked Salmon Terrine Ingredients: ·         600g smoked salmon ·         600g cream cheese ·         150ml double cream ·         Zest and juice of a lemon ·         Chives and dill ·         Seasoning

Method: 1st: Line a bread tin or terrine dish with cling film. 2nd: Line the base with a layer of smoked salmon. 3rd: In a food processor, blitz the cream cheese, cream, zest and juice of a lemon, chives and dill.  Season to taste. 4th: Spread a bit of this mixture over the smoked salmon. 5th: Keep making layers, making sure to end with the smoked salmon. 6th: Cover with plastic wrap and place a weight on the terrine – refrigerate overnight.

I know this is going to be special on tomorrow’s banqueting table as earlier I spread the leftover mixture and smoked salmon trimmings over some toast for lunch and it was absolutely delicious.  I chopped some baby prawns into the cream cheese mixture and seasoned well – remember that cream cheese can be very bland and it is this silky quality that makes it a great vehicle to carry strong flavours such as smoked salmon, chives and dill.

I’m sure it will get devoured tomorrow evening!

Merry Christmas

 Gastrorob