3 easy and economical recipes from Laurent Mariotte for a festive menu!

To Christmas, we love spending hours at the table and indulging ourselves with good food! You can treat your guests very well without necessarily taking out the stuffed turkey or even the foie gras. And it’s not Laurent Mariotte who will say otherwise! He shares you 3 recipes for the holidays ! In his show, Petits Plats enquilibre, the columnist reveals tasty, easy and economical dishes. watercress soup, citrus and spiced chicken, chocolate logst… You’re going to put the small dishes in the big ones without breaking the bank.

Find out, without further ado, how you should go about it!

Starter: watercress soup from Laurent Mariotte

Video by Matilda Campos

Ingredients :
For 4 people

• 1/2 liter of milk
• bouquet garni
• 1/2 clove of garlic
• bread
• 1 bunch watercress

The preparation :

👨‍🍳 For this tasty starter, brown the milk, garlic, bouquet garni and bread in a saucepan.
Then put your watercress in hot water.
Tip: to keep the watercress green, leave the lid off when cooking.
Take out your watercress and cool it.
Mix your watercress then mix your sauce.
In a deep plate, put your sauce in the bottom then put in the grill to brown. 👨‍🍳

All you have to do is pour your soup and serve!

Main course: chicken with citrus fruits and spices from Laurent Mariotte

Video by Matilda Campos

Ingredients :
For 4 people

• 1 free-range chicken cut into 8 pieces
• 1 grapefruit
• 1 orange
• 1 lime
• 2 tablespoons orange marmalade
• 50 cl chicken broth
• 100g gingerbread
• 5 cl cider vinegar
• grape seed oil
• fine gray salt
• ground pepper

The preparation :

👨‍🍳 To prepare your Christmas chicken, start by preheating your oven to 160°C.
Peel your citrus fruits and set them aside.
Pour grapeseed oil into your pan and brown the pieces
of chicken.
Remove to a plate then add the orange marmalade and let caramelize.
Deglaze with cider vinegar and citrus juice then reduce by half.
Add the gingerbread into pieces, the thighs and the chicken wings in the casserole, pour the broth. Cover and bake for 45 minutes.
Finally add the chicken breasts.
Continue cooking for about 15 minutes, still covered.
Place the citrus quarters on the poultry and cover with the sauce. 👨‍🍳

Voila, your delicious holiday poultry is ready to be tasted! Something to treat you without breaking the bank!

Dessert: chocolate-praline log from Laurent Mariotte

Video by Matilda Campos

Ingredients :
For 6 persons

• 10 spoon cookies
• 15 cl of water
• 3 tablespoons of water
• 10 cl of maple syrup
• 1 g agar agar
• 25 cl of cream
• 150g 70% dark chocolate
• 100g milk chocolate
• 100g hazelnuts
• 100g sugar

The preparation :

👨‍🍳 To make this log without cooking, start by boiling the water, maple syrup and agar-agar.
Then put the sugar and water in another saucepan to make a syrup.
Add the hazelnuts, cook, stirring, until caramelized.
Remove the hazelnuts on a sheet of baking paper, loosening them as much as possible.
Keep a few hazelnuts for the decoration and mix the rest with a robot cutter.
Bring the cream to the boil and pour over the two chocolates combined in a bowl. Mix with the spatula to create the emulsion.
Stretch a cling film on your work surface and double it.
Soak the biscuits in the syrup, press them and arrange them in a row of 6 on 3 levels to make a rectangle. Wrap the whole thing in film and gently pass the rolling pin over these cookies to flatten them.
Pour more than half of your cooled ganache over the cookies and spread with a spatula.
Cover with homemade praline.
Fold the lower edge of your log using cling film and form a sausage.
Roll up the whole, tighten the ends and store in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
Remove the film, cover the log with the remaining ganache and decorate with whole caramelized hazelnuts. 👨‍🍳

You have just prepared a superb log without cooking, your guests will love it!