New Year’s Eve dinner: chefs’ recipes for a festive menu for less than 15 euros

The second New Year is approaching and it is possible to secure it with a limited budget! To impress your guests without breaking the bank, four talented and imaginative chefs share tips and recipes. Our well-priced holiday menu ranges from appetizers to desserts. Get out of smoked salmon, caviar, foie gras and other oysters, think first of what you have in your pantry – preserves (vegetables, anchovies, sardines, fruit), spices, coffee, jams… – these everyday ingredients that quickly become precious allies to embellish your New Year’s Eve dinner. At the market, all you have to do is choose some affordable festive products that can be twisted in a festive way: scallops, avocados, exotic fruits. The icing on the cake, some products, such as bread, can be eaten throughout the meal, just be creative. Here are four recipes that inspired us and that everyone can easily adopt to imagine their own menu at the age of 31 like a chef.

Apollonia Poilâne: as a sweet and savory appetizer, french toast with eggnog

As an aperitif, star baker Apollonia Poilâne shares her signature and infinitely adaptable recipe for eggnog French toast with us. “There are many advantages to choosing bread to imagine an aperitif. First of all, since bread is an anti-waste ingredient, you can use the bread from the day before or the fresh bread of the day and extend its consumption after New Year’s Eve. What changes is the way of cooking it because when fresh it must first be dried in the oven for this recipe. What I also appreciate is that with these French toast cubes it is possible to satisfy the whole table with a multitude of versions: fish, meat and even 100% vegetable. »

To prepare this crunchy aperitif to be enjoyed with a crémant, just take the heel of the bread from the day before, cut into cubes and dip it in the zabaglione made with an egg, a little milk, or possibly a vegetable drink, a dash of rum and some spices from the sideboard: nutmeg, pepper and ginger or even curry. The cubes are then pan-fried with a touch of fat to give them a nice golden color and crisp, then served hot plain or garnished with toppings. So there is something for everyone! Vegetable version, we add a pinch of lemon marmalade and a leaf of fresh spinach to the bread, meat version, a piece of terrine works wonders on this spiced bread. We can also imagine it with a sour cream and a piece of smoked trout, fish roe or a dressing of sardines mixed with Espelette pepper.

Budget: €1/person

Ingredients for 6 people

• leftover bread
• Sugar (150g
• 6 egg yolks
• 50 cl of milk or a vegetable drink
• 1 pinch of nutmeg
• 1 pinch of fresh ginger
• 6 cl of rum (optional)

Recipe

In a saucepan, heat the milk with the spices without boiling.

In parallel, mix the egg yolk and sugar. Then add the hot milk without ceasing to mix until you obtain a homogeneous mixture with the consistency of custard.

Dip the croutons in the zabaglione then fry them in a pan with a little fat to brown them.

Anthony Denon, Executive Chef Le Burgundy Paris: appetizer, avocado brioche, coffee dressing

To continue, Anthony Denon, executive chef of Le Burgundy, chooses to prepare individual brioche avocados served warm with coffee dressing and fresh herbs. The brioche is made very simply at home. “It’s an easy recipe to make, but has little impact. After baking, remove the top of the brioche pastry to reveal the avocado half. An unexpected and surprising appetizer!

Budget: €4/person

Ingredients for 6 people

• 600 g of T55 flour
• 1 egg
• 250 g of milk
• 100 g of fresh cream
• 100 g of sugar
• 25 g of melted butter
• 10 g of brewer’s yeast
• 10 g of salt
• 3 lawyers

coffee seasoning

• 20 g of coffee beans
• 80 g of pine nuts
• 3 envelopes of neutral oil
• 1 pinch of fleur de sel

Green seasoning

• 1 bunch of parsley
• 2 envelopes of neutral oil
• 2 teaspoons of horseradish pulp
• 1 tablespoon of white vinegar

Recipe

Prepare the brioche dough by mixing the first 8 ingredients, leave to rest for an hour at room temperature. Peel then cut the avocados in half, blanch them for 10 seconds in boiling water and cool them quickly in ice water.

Prepare the coffee dressing by mixing the coffee, pine nuts, neutral oil and fleur de sel, set aside.

Prepare the green dressing by eliminating the previously washed parsley, add the horseradish pulp, the neutral oil and the vinegar.

Place a little coffee seasoning in the center of each avocado half and cover them completely with the brioche dough, seam side down. Sprinkle with the cornmeal and let rise for 20 minutes. Then on the pan covered with a sheet of lightly greased parchment paper, place the avocado halves in their batter and bake at 175°C for 20 minutes. Before serving, score the top of the brioche and remove it. The half avocado is then visible in its half pastry shell.

Baptiste Renouard, Ocher restaurant, Rueil-Malmaison: main course, scallop mousseline, parsley mushrooms and truffle mushroom cream

The main course is in the hands of Michelin-starred chef Baptiste Renouard, Restaurant Ochre, who in his own way playfully plays trompe-l’oeil with the scallops. “In this recipe the trick is to use half a portion of scallops. If we normally plan a kilo of shellfish for 6 people, here 500 g is enough because I prepare them in a very fine filling which, after cooking, I cut into medallions to imitate scallops. To make the mousseline, the scallops are mixed with egg whites and cream to form puddings of about 150 g each, which corresponds to the portion for one person, before cooking them. As an accompaniment, we prepare a sauté of Parisian mushrooms and oyster mushrooms and a creamy mushroom sauce flavored with truffle oil which, for the occasion, will cause a sensation. “For the oil, I choose a neutral truffle-scented oil that I use sparingly. »

For seasoned cooks, a small portion of the mushroom soup can be incorporated into the scallop pudding after taking care to mix it and remove any excess liquid. This gives an extra flavor to the medallions and the visual illusion of the truffle. For the topping, sautéed mushrooms garnish the bottom of a dish on which 4 to 5 scallop medallions are placed. A little cream of mushrooms and some chopped and toasted hazelnuts or flaked toasted almonds and the game is done.

Budget: €6/pers.

Ingredients for 6 people

• 500 g of fresh scallops without coral
• 750 g of button mushrooms
• 350 g of oyster mushrooms
• 1 liter of liquid cream
• 5 eggs
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 bunch of parsley
• 50 g of butter
• Sunflower oil
• QS Black truffle oil
• Salt and pepper

Scallop puddings

In a blender, blend the scallops, the 5 egg whites and 350 ml of single cream, salt and pepper. Form small sausages in plastic film of about 150 g each (ie 6 sausages).

Cook in a steamer at 90°C or in a saucepan of boiling water for 12 minutes, taking care to close the foil tightly. Peel off the foil and cut each sausage into 5 pieces.

Mushrooms with parsley

Scallops 500 g Parisian mushrooms and oyster mushrooms. Fry the mushrooms with a drizzle of oil, salt, pepper, add a knob of butter, the garlic and the parsley, chopped at the last minute.

Mushrooms cream

Finely chop the rest of the button mushrooms. In a pan, cook them with a drizzle of oil. Once the vegetation water from the mushrooms has evaporated, add a little butter and cook over low heat. Brown the mushrooms for a long time, then sprinkle them with the liquid cream and 100 g of water, salt and pepper, cook for 15 minutes over low heat, add a drizzle of truffle oil.

Blend with a giraffe (hand blender) or blender.

Dressage

Arrange the sautéed mushrooms in the center of a deep dish, on top of the pieces of scallop flan, then generously pour the mushroom cream to cover the dish and a few toasted hazelnut grains.

Jérémy Del Val, Maison Dalloyau executive pastry chef: for dessert, exotic cut, citrus fruits, meringue, spiced hibiscus jus

For dessert, it’s the turn of the executive pastry chef of Maison Dalloyau to share his recipe with us. “To prepare a fresh and fragrant New Year’s cake I love to use exotic fruits and citrus fruits with which I work as a cook. I particularly appreciate the combination of mango and lychee, which can be chosen fresh or possibly canned. You need 1 mango and a small handful of lychees for 6 people. » The fruits are cut into small 5 mm cubes and placed in a bowl, at the bottom of a deep plate or to create a sensation in a stem glass.

During the service, several alternatives are possible. Arrange a quenelle of mango sorbet or ice cream of your choice on the fruit that has just come out of the fridge and a few pieces of hand-crushed meringue. Add the orange supremes and possibly a little grated coconut. “I like to accompany this ice cream with a Bissap-style spiced hibiscus jus instead of rosé champagne. A drink that can be served as an accompaniment or poured directly over the fruit. The advantage of the recipe is that it can be interpreted in a thousand ways with the fruit of your choice. For those with a sweet tooth, a cup of whipped cream accompanies the dessert.

Budget: €3/person

Ingredients for 6 people

• Bissap spiced hibiscus juice
• 500 g of water
• 100 g of sugar
• 30 g of dried hibiscus flowers
• 1 lemon
• 1 orange
• 5 g of mint leaves (optional)
• 2 cloves (optional)

Boil the water and sugar then add the dried hibiscus flowers, the lemon and orange zest and possibly the mint leaves and cloves. Leave to infuse for 15 minutes then filter. Book well.

Meringue

• 2 egg whites
• 60 g of granulated sugar
• 60 g of icing sugar
• Orange zest or shredded coconut

Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks by adding a small amount of granulated sugar at the beginning, then once they are almost whipped, “mount” them with the rest of the granulated sugar. Gently fold in the sifted icing sugar. Spread on baking paper and dry in the oven for about 1 hour at 90°C. Arrange in cups. Optionally, you can add citrus zest or shredded coconut before cooking.