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Christmas Starters Recipe in Two Variants

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is a chef, food photographer, cookbook author and blogger.
Here he shares recipes, answers cooking questions and helps with cooking.

My Christmas Starters Recipe I will show you today. 

Looking for a great starter for Christmas Eve?

Then you’ve come to the right place!

Here are the two varieties of appetizer:

–> Crispy prawns in Austrian or Bavarian Filo dough :-). The preparation time is less than 40 minutes.

–> There is also a tip for a vegan or vegetarian version of this Christmas starter.

After all, we want to make everyone happy on hypocrisy night…

Read the article to find out all the tips for relaxed cooking at Christmas from professional chefs.

1. Recipes for Two Christmas Starters

Everything wonderful, two starters in one guide…

let yourself be inspired and conjure up a great starter on the Christmas table.

Summary: Vegan with tofu, who likes to eat the little animals with prawns… Good luck!

Christmas Starters

Cooked, photographed and written down by chef Thomas Sixt.

Servings 4
Calories 351
Preparation Time 25 Min.
Cook Time 15 Min.
Total Time 40 Min.

Guide to prepare Christmas appetizers in two versions with crispy prawns and with tofu.

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Christmas Starters Recipe Image
Christmas Starters Recipe Image © Thomas Sixt

Ingredients

For the Christmas salad

2 pc Oranges (Prepare orange fillets and juice for dressing)
1/4 pc red cabbage finely chopped (planed!)
2 pc Chicory
2 pc carrots
1 pc fennel bulb
1 pc pomegranate (You need only the seeds!)
50-80 ml white vine vinegar
Salt (I use Ursalz or Himalaya salt)
Pepper
brown sugar
Olive oil

crispy prawns and tofu

2 tbsp cornflour
16 pc prawns (or 1 pack smoked tufo)
4 EL sweet chili sauce
1 pack Strudel-Pastry (oder Filo-Pastry)
300 ml Rapeseed oil (for frying)

Wasabi Dip

1 tbsp Mayonnaise (or Soy Cream+Salt+Pepper+Zironen Juice)
1/2 tsp wasabi paste

Equipment

Instruction

Preparation step 1
Orange without fillet
Cut the fillets all around from the fruit. What remains are the fibers of the orange fruit.

Prepare oranges

Peel the oranges and prepare the orange fillets according to the cooking school filleting oranges. Collect the juice in a bowl.

Preparation step 2
Fennel cuts
Different types of fennel cut of all parts of the fennel

Prepare fennel

Clean the fennel bulb and slice it thinly with a slicer.

Preparation step 3
Carrot strips
Cut the carrots into strips

Prepare carrots

Peel the carrot and cut into strips.

Alternatively, use a peeler to remove thin strips from the peeled carrot.

Preparation step 4
Types of cuts for red cabbage salad
You can chop cabbage for the salad in different ways: on the left very finely grated, in the middle finely grated, on the right cut into thin strips.

Prepare blue cabbage

Clean the blue cabbage and grate coarsely or finely with a grater, alternatively cut into very thin strips.

-> For strip cut, please immediately season with a little salt and knead vigorously with your hands.

-> This breaks the cell structure of the cabbage and the cabbage becomes soft.

Preparation step 5
leaf salads
Fresh leaf lettuce prepared in a bowl.

Prepare salad

Remove the leaves from the chicory.

You can also use other lettuce leaves that have a nice, elongated shape.

Wash the lettuce leaves briefly in cold water and dry or spin dry.

-> Have ready for marinating. The cooking school salad wash gives exact information!

Preparation step 6
Pomegranate seeds
Pomegranate seeds in a glass on a black background.

Pomegranate seeds

Cut the pomegranate in half, immerse in cold water and pick the pomegranate seeds.

-> Prepare the seeds laid out dry for serving.

Preparation step 7
Mix the orange juice dressing with the whisk.
Mix the orange juice dressing, slowly stir in the olive oil.

Salad dressing

Mix orange juice with salt, pepper, sugar, vinegar and olive oil to make a dressing.

-> Prepared fennel and vegetables then knead in the dressing and marinate.

Preparation step 8
Cut the smoked tofu
Smoked tofu tastes delicious! © Thomas Sixt Food Photographer

Prepare tofu

Unwrap tofu, dry and cut into 1 cm thick sticks.

-> Have ready for dough wrapping.

Preparation step 9
raw peeled prawns
The raw, peeled prawns on a board.

Prepare prawns

Clean the shrimp and remove the intestines.

-> Put dry ready to wrap in the dough.

Preparation step 10
Mix the cornstarch.
Mixing cornstarch to thicken.

Prepare cornstarch

Mix a little cornstarch with a little cold water.

Preparation step 11
strudel dough
strudel dough for preparing in kitchen.

Dough wrapping

Spread out filo dough or strudel dough and cut 9×9 cm squares.

-> Turn shrimp/tofu in cornstarch, then place in sweet chili sauce, then wrap individual tofu fries or individual shrimp in the dough.

-> Brush the edges from the dough with cornstarch water and close the rolls well.

-> Get ready for deep frying.

Preparation step 12
Mix the wasabi foam or wasabi cream.
Prepare wasabi cream or wasabi foam with cream or soy cream and wasabi from the tube.

Mix dip

Mix the wasabi dip. Prepare cold plates.

-> Apply the wasabi dip to the plates with a brush.

Preparation step 13
deep fry fat for home made french fries heat in pot
Heat frying fat in a pot

Frying

Deep fry wrapped shrimp or tofu and then place on a paper towel ready.

Preparation step 14
Christmas Starters Recipe Image
Christmas Starters Recipe Image © Thomas Sixt

Serve

-> Marinate leaf lettuce with vegetable salad, place in a colander, drain and arrange.

-> Place chicory in a star shape.

-> Place shrimp rolls or tofu rolls on the plate in a star shape.

-> Decorate with the pomegranate seeds and serve quickly.

Wish you a good appetite and a wonderful Christmas!

Video

Cousine

2. Nutritional Values

3. Crispy Shrimps in a Dough Coat as Christmas Starters

In most supermarkets you can buy Filo pastry ready to go.

What is Austrian Filo pastry? Bavarian Filo dough?

I answer this question quickly: It is strudel dough… That makes shopping easier!

You can prepare the crispy shrimps with filo dough or strudel dough.

Use raw shrimps! You can recognize the cooked shrimps by their red colour.

They are only second choice.

Wrapping shrimps in dough is the same as I explain a paragraph further on the tofu.

Maybe I can seduce you to tofu without antibiotics?

Delicious appetizer ideas for Christmas: Shrimps or prawns in a crispy cover. Alternatively tofu crispy coated. Both served on a winter salad with orange juice dressing. Additives: Pomegranate seeds and wasabi dip… The eye eats along and the sausages remain cold this year…

4. Vegetarian Variant Christmas Starters

In the introduction I promised you a vegetarian or vegan variant of this starter.

Use smoked tufo instead of shrimps or prawns.

I like the strong smoked tofu better than normal tofu.

Smoked tofu is such a wonderful thing.

The smoked tofu reminds me of my grandfather’s smoking chamber:

cohabitated black, smelling like beech, taste explosion.

Smoked tofu in filo pastry really delicious?

Cut smoked tofu french fries from the whole piece.

Place the tofu fries in some cornflour, then in sweet and sour chili sauce.

Yes, really, I mean this devil stuff from the China-Shop!

Sweet-sour together with smoked taste is a taste-bomb!

Now just wrap it in the dough.

That’s a bit of a mess in good German named “Kleckserei”, but it tastes great!

Cut the smoked tofu
Smoked tofu tastes delicious! © Thomas Sixt Food Photographer
Cut the smoked tofu sticks
You can cut tofu into sticks and use it as a veggie substitute for sausages.

5. Vegetables and Salad for Christmas Starters

Crispy tofu and crispy prawns are my favourite dishes on a Christmas salad.

I use fennel, orange fillets, red cabbage, carrot strips and pomegranate seeds to match the season.

Chef’s tip:

Cut or plane the ingredients relatively finely, this gives the perfect mouthfeel at the end. 🙂

Please do not plane pomegranate seeds, that would be a massacre!

Again from the front: plane fennel and red cabbage finely.

Prepare the carrot strips with the kitchen grater or with the economy peels.

Cut the pomegranate open and soak the tasty red seeds in cold water.

Fennel cut
Ways you can cut fennel.
Carrots cut types
Carrot types of cut for salad
Pomegranate seeds
Pomegranate seeds in a glass on a black background.
Orange fillets
Orange fillets on a plate.

6. Salad Dressing Dip Tip for Christmas Starters

My tips for the salad dressing for Christmas and the extended taste kick:

61 Christmas Salad Dressing

Use .orange juice as a base for your salad dressing.

When preparing the orange fillets, there is always some orange juice left over.  

Orange juice + white wine vinegar + sugar + salt + pepper and olive oil makes a delicious Christmas salad dressing!

Prepare lemon juice honey dressing
Salad Dressing

6.2 Wasabi Kick Dip

Christmas and Hypocrisy Night is not a boring sausage dinner this year!

The Wasabi Dip bangs the taste buds into the universe.

Mix the Wasabi paste with some mayonnaise and the Wasabi Dip is ready. Better …vegan?

Just use soy cream instead of mayo.

Please don’t forget salt, pepper and lemon juice!

Christmas is coming soon, prepare this starter to bring joy to the Christmas table.

7. More Ideas for Christmas Cooking

Comments, Cooking Questions and Answers

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