Main courses for New Year - 5 luxury dishes

Main courses for the New Year! Have you promised to cook dinner on New Year's Eve, but aren't sure what to make? We've had a cooking marathon of luxury dinners this Christmas and have had time to test five dishes that are suitable for New Year's Eve.

Main dishes for the New Year - five suggestions

Here are five tips for main courses for the New Year, from mussels to lamb fillet. Of course, we are also curious about your best tips! We haven't decided what we'll be eating on New Year's Eve this year.

1. pasta vongole

I (Helena) first ate pasta vongole in Amsterdam many years ago, and when I returned home, I was excitedly talking about this dish that we just must cook. By now, we've eaten it in restaurants a bunch of times and cooked it ourselves. The Vongole mussels are relatively small, but their flesh is firm and delicious. Together with the pasta and seasoning, this is a really good and luxurious main course for New Year's Eve.

You need (2 servings)

• 0.5 kg vongole mussels (one net)
• One shallot
• 1-2 cloves of garlic
• 1-2 dl of white wine
• A little olive oil
• 2 tomatoes
• Fresh parsley
• Chilli spice
• Salt and pepper
• Spaghetti (preferably extra thick)

Do the following

1. Wash the mussels thoroughly and make sure the shells are closed. Discard clams that are open.
2. Finely chop the onion and garlic. Roughly chop the parsley.
3. Scald the tomatoes and remove the skins. Cut into pieces.
4. Heat a pan with olive oil. Fry the onion and half the garlic in the oil.
5. Add the mussels and just over half the wine. Cover and simmer over a low heat for about five minutes, or until the shells have opened.
6. Heat another pan with oil. Add the garlic and chilli seasoning and fry gently.
7. Add the chopped tomatoes and pour over the rest of the wine. Leave to cook for a while.
8. Mix the mussels and their juices with the tomato sauce. Season with salt and pepper and stir in the chopped parsley.

Serve as follows

Mix the mussels with freshly cooked spaghetti (preferably extra thick). Serve with a good white wine.

2. Gratin with lobster and halibut

When we visited Halifax In Canada in 2012, we ate fantastic seafood gratins in restaurants, which almost always included lobster (they seemed to have an abundance of lobster). Back in Sweden, we started googling recipes for lobster gratin, only to realise that such recipes hardly exist here. So we improvised a bit and created a dish that works well as a New Year's Eve main course.

You need (2 servings)

• One lobster (frozen and thawed is fine)
• 200g halibut (or other white fish with firm flesh)
• Some mushrooms
• A piece of leek
• Margarine or oil for frying
• Cooking cream
• Chives
• 1-2 tbsp lobster stock
• Salt and pepper

Ingredients for mashed potatoes

• Potatoes
• One egg yolk
• Milk
• A little nutmeg

Do the following

1. Cut the potatoes into large pieces and boil them. (If the skin is fine, you don't need to peel it).
2. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Place the fish in a baking dish and bake it for about 10 minutes.
3. Clean the lobster.
4. Cut the mushrooms and onions into large pieces. Fry the vegetables in margarine or oil in a frying pan.
5. Once the potatoes are cooked: using a spoon or potato masher, mix the potatoes with an egg yolk, butter and some nutmeg. Carefully pour in some milk, until you get the desired consistency.
6. Portion out the mashed potatoes along the edges of the gratin dish.
7. Place the fish and lobster in the centre of the gratin dish.
8. Pour the cooking cream into a bowl (enough to cover the fish in the gratin dish). Mix in the lobster stock and preferably some chopped chives.
9. Pour the sauce over the fish and lobster. Cook in the oven at 200 degrees for 10 minutes.

Serve as follows

The gratin is ready to serve as it is! We chose to add some grated carrots for colour. A glass of white wine goes well with it.

3. Mussels with wedge potatoes

Moules frites, or mussels with French fries, is a favourite and a classic when we travel in countries like France and Belgium. This dish always feels just right! At home in Sweden we have sometimes served the mussels with bread and cheese, but the dish is a little more substantial with jacket potatoes and aioli.

You will need

• 0.5 kg of mussels
• 4 shallots
• 2 cloves of garlic
• A dash of olive oil
• 3 dl white wine
• Fresh parsley
• Salt and pepper

Do the following

1. Scrape and wash the mussels thoroughly. Make sure no mussels are open or broken.
2. Cut the onions into fine pieces and heat a pan with olive oil.
3. Add the mussels. Stir and pour in the wine.
4. Stir in the spices, salt and pepper. Cover and cook the mussels until they open, about 5 minutes.
5. Mix in the coarsely chopped parsley.

Serve as follows

Serve the mussels with wedge potatoes and aioli. Feel free to use one of the first mussels as a "claw" to eat the subsequent ones. White wine works well, but also sparkling wine or beer.

4. Exotic prawn stew

When experimenting with new dishes for Christmas 2020, we wanted to try a main course with prawns. We settled on a prawn casserole from Recipe favourites, which we then modified a little to suit our tastes. We both like some spicy and fruity flavours in food for a change, so this was nice! This dish may not feel quite as exclusive as some of the others, but it is both tasty and easy to make.

You need (2 servings)

• 200 g prawns in shell
• Half a yellow onion
• One clove of garlic
• One red pepper
• A banana
• Half a cup of pineapple
• Lemon
• paprika powder
• Cayenne pepper
• Curry
• Half a decilitre of white wine
• 1.5 dl of cooking cream
• Salt and pepper

Do the following

1. Peel the prawns. Chop the onion and garlic. Rinse and chop the peppers. Peel and slice the banana. Cut the pineapple into smaller pieces.
2. Cook jasmine rice (you can also choose basmati rice, brown rice or quinoa, for example).
3. Fry the peppers in a little butter or margarine, and set aside in a bowl.
4. Sauté the onion and garlic in butter in a frying pan or pot.
5. Add the curry powder and paprika and fry for a few minutes.
6. Add the cream, wine and water. Cook together for a few minutes. Add the peppers, banana and pineapple.
7. Season the stew with salt, pepper, lemon juice and a little cayenne pepper.
8. Add the prawns to the pot and let everything get hot.

Serve as follows

Serve the stew with rice. White wine or beer is suitable as a drink.

5. Fillet of lamb with baked root vegetables

We don't cook meat very often, but if we want to serve a more luxurious dinner, lamb is often the choice. During the holidays, we had our youngest son and his girlfriend over for dinner, and since she doesn't eat fish, it was lamb fillet with baked root vegetables. This time we chose to serve it with Peter's warm "wild sauce" to give the dish a "wild touch", but of course you can choose any classic cold sauce if you prefer. A dish that fits nicely as a main course on New Year's Eve!

You need (2 servings)

• About 300 g of lamb fillet
• Red wine marinade
• Margarine or butter for frying
• Potatoes
• Carrots
• Parsnip
• Whole round garlic
• Olive oil
• Basilica
• Timyan
• Salt and pepper

Ingredients for sauce

• 3 dl cooking cream
• Half an onion
• 6-7 juniper berries
• 1 tbsp game stock
• 1-2 tbsp blackcurrant jelly
• A little cornflour
• Possibly a splash of brandy
• Salt and pepper

Do the following

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.
2. Marinate the lamb fillet in the red wine marinade for an hour or so at room temperature.
3. Peel the root vegetables and cut them into large pieces. Peel the large round garlics and keep them whole. Make sure all the root vegetables are evenly thick so they don't burn.
4. Marinate the root vegetables in a plastic bag with olive oil, basil, thyme, salt and pepper, shaking it around.
5. Bake the root vegetables at 200 degrees for about 45 minutes.
6. Chop the onion and crush the juniper berries. Fry the onion and juniper berries in a small saucepan.
7. Add the cream, game stock and blackcurrant jelly and bring to the boil. If you want a smooth sauce, you can then strain the onion and juniper berries. Heat the sauce again. If you want a thicker consistency, you can add a little cornflour. Add a tablespoon of brandy for extra luxury.
8. Fry the lamb fillet quickly on each side to give it a roasting surface.
9. Bake the lamb with a thermometer at 200 degrees, possibly in a roasting bag. Remove it from the oven when the thermometer reads 50-53 degrees (the internal temperature rises a few degrees after removing the meat from the oven).

Serve as follows

Cut the lamb fillet into slices and serve it with the root vegetables and hot sauce. Red wine works well as a drink, or beer.

More suggestions for main courses for the New Year

Need more suggestions for main courses for New Year? Here you can read more and find even more inspiration:

What are your best suggestions for main courses for the New Year?

What are your best suggestions for main courses for New Year? What are you planning to eat on New Year's Eve this year? Also try checking out Food and drink page