Cod, Sausage, and Fennel Cioppino

The latest edition of Fine Cooking magazine arrived a few days ago and one of the first recipes I saw was for a Cod, Sausage, and Fennel Cioppino.

That's all fine and good, but there is only one cioppino - it is Crab Cioppino - made with Dungeness Crab. I'm a San Franciscan. I know these things.

That being said, it's cold outside and I had all the ingredients in the house to make the recipe. I've created worse culinary sacrileges in my life - and the recipe did sound intriguing... Into the kitchen I went...

I freely adapted the recipe, adding a lot more wine, garlic, carrots, bell pepper and I switched out the fennel seeds for fennel pollen - I had it in the cupboard. I used a can of diced tomatoes and some seasonings in place of the marinara. I also added a hefty amount of hot sauce, since Nonna wasn't going to be eating it.

Cod, Sausage, and Fennel Cioppino

adapted from Fine Cooking

  • 6 oz. sweet Italian sausage, casings removed
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 1 small bulb fennel, trimmed, cored, and thinly sliced
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 carrot, sliced thin
  • 1 bell pepper, chopped
  • 1 tsp fennel pollen
  • 1 cup dry red wine
  • 2 cups bottled clam juice
  • 1 can diced tomatoes
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • hefty pinch crushed red pepper flakes
  • 1 lb. skinless cod pieces, cut into 1-inch chunks
  • hot sauce, to taste

Break up the sausage and cook over medium-high heat. Add the onion, fennel, carrot, bell pepper, and garlic, and cook, until the vegetables begin to brown and become tender - about 6 minutes.

Add the wine and bring to a boil.  Add the clam juice, diced tomatoes, oregano, fennel pollen, and pepper flakes, and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer until the vegetables are very tender, about 10 minutes.

Add the fish and cook until the fish is cooked through - about 5 minutes.

Season to taste with salt and pepper and add hot sauce, as desired.

It wasn't Dungeness Crab, but it wasn't bad by any means. The broth was really rich and flavorful and every ingredient just complimented the next. A perfect meal for a snowy day - and no crab shells to deal with!

I can see more of this, this winter!

 

 


Orecchiette with Fennel and Tuna

We were watching Jacques Pépin - one of my most favorite chefs - the other night when he came up with an Orecchiette with Fennel and Tuna that just sounded outrageous. It was just so simple I knew I had to make it.

I have been a fan of his since his first TV show 20-whatever years ago. What I really appreciate about him is his candor in how his cooking has evolved. He talks about how, when he was younger, he would be looking for more ingredients, more garnishes - ways to really take something over the top, his adapting from classic French to production cooking at Howard Johnson's, and today, it's about simplicity. Less ingredients, less fuss... letting a few quality ingredients speak for themselves.

That is something I can totally relate to. I did mom-and-pop restaurants, a Navy aircraft carrier, 1000 room hotels, and a 99 bed hospital. Once upon a time, I loved to cook classic French with all the sauces and 527 steps to create a simple dish. Now, it's more rustic Italian or rustic French. Simple foods that speak volumes simply because of their simplicity. Even my desserts have toned down. I'm much more interested in canning things from the garden - making liqueurs and hot sauce. Not taking any of it seriously.

Tonight's dinner is a classic example of that concept.

Armed with a bag of organic Orecchiette from Puglia, I set out to do it justice. And while I was at it, I baked a loaf of my favorite bread from Puglia! I had the biga in the 'fridge...

Orecchiette with Fennel and Tuna

adapted from Jacques Pépin

  • 1/2 lb Orecchiette
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 1/2 cup pine nuts
  • 1 medium fennel bulb, thinly sliced
  • 1 bell pepper, cut into thin strips
  • 1/2 cup raisins
  • 3 cloves of garlic,  minced
  • 1 6oz can of tuna (packed in oil, preferred)
  • 1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
  • 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
  • Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Start cooking orecchiette.

In a large skillet, saute onion in olive oil until translucent. Add pine nuts and cook until they begin to lightly brown and are fragrant.

Add sliced fennel and stir or flip pan until fennel is on bottom and pine nuts on top. Add a bit of pasta water. Cover, and cook about 3 minutes.

Uncover and add bell peppers. Cook a few minutes and add the garlic. Continue cooking and add the tuna and raisins.

Cover, again, and cook until vegetables are tender - just a few more minutes.

Drain pasta and stir into fennel. Stir in parsley and cheese.

Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper, as desired.

This really is stellar. I have to admit I was unsure of the canned tuna, but it totally made the dish. We both ate our fill - and then some. And... there's plenty left over for a couple of lunches.

So thanks, Jacques! I may just have to dust off a couple of your cookbooks and see what else I can come up with! The countdown to retirement is on - and the key word is simplicity!

 


Shrimp, Veggies, and a Loaf of Bread

There's more food coming into the house right now than is going out. Time for some creative cooking!

Clearing freezer space is pretty important for the next few months. We don't - intentionally - have a freezer in the basement. Having the one freezer attached to the refrigerator keeps me focused on what I have and what needs to be used. It's bad enough that I can pack that sucker to within an inch of its life. I can't even imagine the type of frozen-food-packrat I'd be with another freezer. It's a frightening thought, indeed.

This is better. It makes me think. Two of my mom's continual adages to me were look it up and figure it out. Looking things up has gotten infinitely easier with the advent of the world wide web. And even easier easier with a handheld device capable of searching the world in nanoseconds.  I don't use my phone for phone calls. I use it to look up things just like mom told me to do. It sure beats the World Book Encyclopedia!

Figuring things out was something I needed to learn at a very young age. Rumor has it I was a pretty impatient little tyke. I remember my Aunt Katherine - she was my great uncle Tommy's mother, born in Boonton, New Jersey in 1882 - telling me "when a string is in a knot, patience will untie it."  To this day, when I start getting impatient about figuring something out, that's my cue to stop, sit back, and look anew. Aunt Katherine was the impetus for a couple of firsts for me... Hers was the first funeral I went to in 1956, and going to her funeral was the first time I flew in an airplane - from Bakersfield to Sacramento on United Airlines. The things we remember...

But back to figuring things out...

I planned a clean-out-the-refrigerator dinner just to give me room for things to come. It's time for a good cleaning and cleaning is always easier when there's less stuff to move around. Victor is great at utilizing leftovers and such for lunches, snacks, and his mom's dinners on the nights I work late, so after tonight, it's looking properly barren.

I pulled a bag of shrimp out of the freezer and emptied the vegetable bin of a partial head of cauliflower, a large watermelon radish, green and yellow zucchinis, the fresh purple beans, onions, garlic, and artichoke hearts I had opened yesterday and then then changed my mind about using. And asiago cheese. And lots of fresh herbs from the garden. And white wine.

It really was a quick throw-together dinner - I cooked the veggies on top of the stove and when they were about 2/3 done, I stuck the pan under the broiler to give them some color. I added the shrimp, set it back in for a few minutes, and then stirred in the herbs and the cheese.

Perfection.

And while all that was going on, I made a loaf of bread.

The bread should have been more of a rounded loaf, but I got carried away doing a website and forgot about it outside in Mother Nature's Proofing Box. It really rose huge. I slid it into the oven and it collapsed - but came back as a thin wide loaf. It is really excellent!

It's a take on the Pistachio Bread I made a while ago.

So... Veggies cleared out, refrigerator cleaned, freezer getting emptied for fruits of the garden, fresh bread and another storm hitting right now. That means more green tomatoes down, tomorrow...

Maybe time for a Green Tomato Pie.

 

 


Shrimp and Grits - Mexican-Style

July 1st. Independence Day weekend. 241 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

My, how times have changed.

We live 21 miles from the Liberty Bell and the Constitution Center. 2 miles from Valley Forge. The entire area is steeped in history and lore. And the Founding Fathers must be spinning in their graves, today.

When you go to the Constitution Center and visit the Liberty Bell, you hear the words of the Declaration of Independence, the words of The Constitution.

It's a great show of the ideals we have sought for in these United States.

As you listen and watch, you realize how far short we have been in attaining these goals and ideals. You realize that "We, the People..." really only meant white male landowners back in 1776. Women, slaves, and common laborers weren't included - and Native Americans were really excluded - to the point of near-extinction. Like George Washington chopping down the cherry tree, much of our history has been based upon myth.

We've never really been as good as we've said we were, but it seemed that even as we were falling short of those lofty ideals, we were still working towards them. It seemed.

241 years later we see just how a government can make a mockery of those founding words. How they can be blatantly ignored while waving the flag in support of them.

The Fourth of July. A day of barbecues and fireworks. A day we should be celebrating our history and reaffirming our commitment to the ideals we have always wanted to stand for. Instead, our politicians will be telling us how great we are as they try and take away health care. How great we are as they try and take away every social safety net we have ever had. How great we are as they give even more money to themselves and their corporate masters - from the meager wages of all of us who are purported to be free. How great we are as they continue to drive wedges between us.

What we all should be doing is reading the Declaration of Independence. Actually reading it and seeing how it relates to the United States, today.

Scroll down after tonight's dinner and read it!

It's interesting to note that Shrimp and Grits pretty much originated in South Carolina - one of the original 13 colonies. Grits came to us from the Muskogee preparation of corn. Shrimp was cheap and plentiful. It was lowcountry food. Fast-forward to the 1980s. It went upscale.

Today, you find it everywhere in the USofA. There are hundreds upon hundreds of recipes. Noted southern food maven Nathalie Dupree wrote a cook book with 80 different Shrimp and Grits recipes. It's everywhere.

A dish that has Native American and African Slave roots is celebrated as American food. A blending of cultures making something uniquely American. It's amazing that we can enjoy the foods of so many cultures and have such disdain for the people who created it. Mr. Spock would call it illogical.

Tonight's Shrimp and Grits was an illogical blending of a Southern staple with Mexican spices - a further blending and celebration of cultures. And it was damned good, too.

The concept came from Fine Cooking magazine. The end result was solely what we had in the house.

Shrimp and Grits - Mexican-Style.

Shrimp:

  • 3 tbsp chopped chipotles in Adobo
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 2 tsp fresh oregano
  • juice of 2 limes
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 tsp annatto
  • 1 lb shrimp

Place all ingredients except shrimp in blender and puree. Pour over shrimp and marinate a couple of hours.

Remove from marinade and cook in a lightly-oiled hot skillet just 'til cooked through.

Serve over grits.

Grits:

  • 2 cups milk
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 cup grits
  • 6 oz goat chevre with honey and jalapenos
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • S&P, to taste

Bring milk and water to a boil with a bit of S&P. Slowly add grits, stirring all the while. Lower heat and continue cooking according to the type of grits used. When cooked, remove from heat and stir in chevre and 2 tbsp butter. Check for seasoning and add additional salt or pepper, as desired.

To serve:

Place grits on plate and top with shrimp. Sprinkle with chopped green onion, if desired.

Properly spicy. We cleaned our plates.


And now, here is the promised copy of the Declaration of Independence: Read it.

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

 

 

 

 


Involtini di Sogliola al Limone

I have learned so much from watching cooking shows on PBS. Back in a former lifetime where I worked a Monday-Friday job, we would turn on the cooking shows on KQED and have them going all day long as we did chores or whatever. I have a ragged copy of The French Chef, numerous books from Lidia and Jacques Pepin, and even a bread whisk I got from the The Bread Monk. The best part of watching the PBS shows is they really are any-man programs. Anyone really can make the stuff they're creating with a bit of effort and practice.

Heck, I have a cooking and baking background, but I haven't cooked professionally since 1978. I continued to work in kitchens, yes, but other than the occasional jumping in when there was a need, my duties were generally elsewhere. The cooking shows bring technique forward that I had forgotten, or have shown me a new and better way to do something I've done for years.

Tonight's dinner was an impulse-buy at the grocery store based on a Lidia Bastianich show a while back - Involtini di Sogliola al Limone - Rolled Lemon Sole. It's a Sicilian dish of seasoned breadcrumbs placed on a thin fish fillet, rolled, and baked. Pretty easy, pretty basic. My impulse-buy fish, however, was not thin sole fillets - it was thick cod fillets.

Thick cod fillets do not stuff and roll.

Of course, I did not check any of this until I had made the breadcrumbs, buttered the baking dish, and was all ready to put them together. Our rolled fish became fillets topped with breadcrumbs, but otherwise cooked as the recipe stated.

Ya need to be flexible.

And I have to tell ya, the fish came out great! It was perfectly-lemony, the breadcrumbs had tons of flavor, and the contrast between the crunch of the crumbs and the tender fish was perfect.

Simple fried potatoes and a saute of radicchio and spinach with a drizzle of fig balsamic finished the plate.

I now want to make this with the right fish just to see how it comes out, so... stay tuned...

Involtini di Sogliola al Limone

Lidia Bastianich

  • 1⁄2 cup bread crumbs
  • 1/2 cup grated grana padano cheese
  • 1/4 cup chopped Italian parsley
  • 2 lemons - 1 zested and juiced, 1 thinly sliced
  • 2 tsp dried oregano
  • 6 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 1 cup dry white wine
  • 6 skinless fillets of sole - about 1 1/2 lbs
  • 2 tbsp capers, drained

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Toss together the breadcrumbs, grated cheese, parsley, lemon zest, and oregano in a bowl. Drizzle with 4 tablespoons of the olive oil, and toss until the crumbs are evenly coated with the oil.

Coat the bottom of a 9-by-13- inch Pyrex baking dish with the softened butter. Arrange the lemon slices in one layer on the bottom of the baking dish. Pour in the lemon juice and white wine. Lay the fish on your work surface, and press the crumbs into the top of the fish.

Starting with the short side, roll each fillet up with crumbs on the inside, and secure closed with toothpicks. Arrange the fish in the baking dish, and scatter capers in the open spaces. Sprinkle any leftover crumbs over the fish, and drizzle with the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil.

Place the baking dish on the bottom rack of the oven, and bake until the fish is just cooked through, about 20 minutes.

 


Dover Sole

There'll be bluebirds over
The white cliffs of dover
Tomorrow
Just you wait and see

There'll be love and laughter
And peace ever after
Tomorrow
When the world is free

Vera Lynn sang those words in 1942 as the bombs were falling on Britain. Interesting choice of lyrics, since there are no bluebirds in Europe. Poetic license or alternative facts? You be the judge.

Tonight's dinner was brought to you by the waters under those white cliffs... Or, more accurately, from the waters off the west coast of the USofA. It seems that most Dover Sole sold in the US is actually Pacific Sole. Who knew? At least it was wild-caught.

But regardless of where it came from, it was rather tasty. I did a really simple flour/egg/flour/egg dredge and dip and then a saute in butter. It only took a couple of minutes.

After the fish came out, into the pan went some minced leeks. Then a splash of white wine - along with lemon juice and lemon zest, capers, parsley, and another pat of butter - because, well... butter. It was a bit of a mashup between a meunière and a picatta. About as simple and basic as one could get.

Rice and asparagus. As I said... simplicity.

And speaking of simplicity, here's Vera Lynn singing the White Cliffs of Dover in simpler times when the whole world was at war.

 

And on a somewhat different note, earlier today, our new Mr. President said "We have to start winning wars, again..." As a person who has - unlike Mr President -  gone to war, this is what I have to say to that:

 

 

Instead of winning more wars, we really need to stop starting them in the first place.  #RESIST


Friday Fish

Going to a Catholic School in the '50s and early '60s, Friday Fish was an absolute. That was every Friday - not just the Fridays during Lent. In theory, of course, Catholics are still required to abstain from meat on Fridays, but can eat meat if they do another sacrifice or good deed in its place. Back when I was a kid, the US church was liberal in its politics and very conservative in its rules. Today, the politics are conservative and the rules have been liberalized.

Go figure.

But those Meatless Friday Dinners of my youth... My mother wasn't a huge fish fan - other than fried shrimp or petrale sole - so our meatless meals rarely were seafood. She made a great tuna salad mixed into iceberg lettuce, but fish sticks and all of the other fish portioned things of the day were not on our plates. I actually grew up not knowing who Mrs. Paul was. I also never had boxed macaroni and cheese - mom made her own - and it was awesome!

Fast-forward 55 or so years and here I am cooking scallops and remembering those thrilling days of yesteryear.

They were thrilling, too. There's something to be said for never having had fish sticks or boxed mac & cheese as a child. While mom kinda took our likes and tastes into account, the reality is, we ate what she liked. She was the cook, she made the meals, we ate what she cooked. Or, we didn't, but then we didn't get dessert. Very simple. Very basic. No ambiguity.

It's also funny looking at her cook books from back then and seeing the 'convenience foods' that were used... Today, it would all be considered cooking from scratch and the convenience foods of yesterday way too much work.

How times have changed.

So... somewhere along here I was talking about cooking scallops, tonight. Mom would have liked these - a simple saute in butter and olive oil, some parsley, basil, shallot, white wine, and lemon. Served with white rice and fresh green beans with sliced almonds.

The rice took 20 minutes, the green beans less than 10, and the scallops less than 5.

Quicker than fish sticks. Eat your heart out, Mrs. Paul.

 

 


Three of the Seven Fishes

Merry Christmas Eve - La Vigilia  - The Feast of the Seven Fish.

We're home this Christmas Eve - Nonna is not up to traveling up to North Jersey - so we're doing a bit of a rake on the 7 fish theme.  Three Fish in Puff Pastry.

It's a really simple concept - make a stuffing of crab, shrimp, shallots, celery, and bread crumbs - put it in puff pastry with some fish filets, and bake.

Oh - and it tastes really good.

Since moving east we have gone up to Victor's sister's house for Christmas, and out BIL, Tom, creates a feast. The entire 7 fish, wine, desserts for days... It's a sight to behold. Gastronomic heaven on Christmas Earth.

But it doesn't seem as if we're going to be able to be a part of this, for a while.

Time to institute Plan B.

With only three of us, actually doing 7 fish is difficult when one of the three doesn't eat much fish. I settled on three - crab, shrimp, and cod - mostly disguised.

It was definitely a hit!

I got the basic recipe from AllRecipes.com but switched things around quite a bit - as I usuall do...

Here's the recipe and my changes at the end...

Stuffed Fish in Puff Pastry
allrecipes.com

  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1 cup finely chopped onion
  • 1 cup minced celery
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
  • 8 ounces crabmeat
  • 8 ounces shrimp, peeled, deveined and minced
  • 1/4 cup dry vermouth
  • salt to taste
  • ground black pepper to taste
  • 1/4 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
  • 1/2 cup bread crumbs
  • 1 (17.5 ounce) package frozen puff pastry sheets, thawed
  • 2 pounds flounder fillets
  • 2 egg yolks, beaten

Directions

  1. To make the stuffing: Melt butter or margarine in a large saucepan over a medium-low heat. Saute onion, celery, and parsley until all of the vegetables are just tender. Mix in crabmeat, shrimp, and vermouth. Season with salt, pepper and hot pepper sauce; cook until shrimp is finished cooking (it will be pink). Mix in bread crumbs, a little at a time. When the mixture holds together well, stop adding bread crumbs. Taste and add more seasoning (salt, pepper, and hot pepper sauce) if necessary. Set this mixture aside to let it cool.

  2. Spray a baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray.

  3. Roll 1 sheet of puff pastry onto a flat surface. The puff pastry, once rolled should be about 1/3 to 1/4 inch thick and large enough for you to lay the fish on top of it and still have puff pastry on the sides. Lay one of the fish fillets on top of the puff pastry. Spread the stuffing mixture evenly over the fish fillet. Place the remaining fillet over the stuffing. Trim the pastry around the filets in roughly the shape of a fish. Save the trimmings.

  4. Roll second sheet of puff pastry out to about 1/3 to 1/4 inch thick. Drape second sheet over stuffed fillets, making sure that there is enough of the top sheet to tuck under the bottom sheet of puff pastry. Trim the top sheet of pastry about 1/2 inch larger than the bottom sheet. Brush underside of top pastry sheet with water and tuck under bottom sheet of puff pastry pressing lightly to totally encase the fish and stuffing package. Place the sealed packet on the prepared baking sheet, and let it cool for 10 to 15 minutes.

  5. While packet is chilling, roll out pastry scraps. From the scraps cut out fins, an eye and 'lips'. Attach cut-outs to chilled package with a little water. Use an inverted teaspoon to make indentations in puff pastry to resemble fish scales but do not puncture pastry. Chill entire package.

  6. While the package is chilling, preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).

  7. Remove the fish from the refrigerator and brush the package with the egg yolks. Measure the thickness of the package at its thickest part. Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) and bake the fish for 10 extra minutes per inch of measured thickness. Test for doneness by inserting a thermometer into the package, when the temperature reaches 140 degrees F (70 degrees C) the fish is finished cooking.

I used shallots in place of onions, omitted the red pepper because Nonna doesn't like spice, increased the shrimp, used a pinot grigio in place of the vermouth, used only 2/3 lb of cod, and didn't form it into a fish.

I placed all of the stuffing on the pastry and then put two fish filets on top.

Reality is,  you could completely eliminate the fish filets or just add chunks to the filling.

It really was good - and something I will make again!


Risotto with Lagostino

It's Monday after Thanksgiving. The holiday is officially over. More or less. The leftover turkey - about a quarter-breast - was vacuum-sealed and frozen, along with an equal amount of smoked turkey breast and the last of the gravy. It will come out in the winter as a pot pie, of sorts. Waste not, want not.

And, as the holiday is officially over, we needed something for dinner that had nothing to do with the flavors of fall. As I was checking cabinets before my weekly shopping trek, I saw a box of Carnaroli rice. Risotto, it is!

Risotto is the perfect clean-out-the-refrigerator dish - absolutely anything can go into it and it's always good. Since I'm in use-up mode, I pulled some lagostino out of the freezer, a leek and a small bulb of fennel from the 'fridge. and 2 bottles of clam juice from the cupboard.

Dinner was set.

We spent the weekend decorating - what used to take one long day now takes three - and a simple dinner was really just what we were looking for.

It's funny that 22 years ago we started early on Black Friday putting up the tree and decorating the entire house - inside, outside, floors, walls, ceiling, trees, bushes, plants - and just kept going until it was all done. Now it's, Meh.. There's always tomorrow. Is Jeopardy on, yet?!? Interesting how age and attitude dictates how things are done... The bulk of it still happens Friday, but we give ourselves the entire weekend to fine-tune everything.

And by Monday, it's time to rejoin the human race and start eating things that don't involve cranberry sauce.

The risotto really was simple - and really good.

Risotto with Lagostino

  • 1 cup arborio, carnaroli, or other risotto rice
  • 1 small leek
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1 small bulb fennel
  • 12 oz lagostino, thawed, if frozen
  • 1 cup white wine
  • 2 cups clam broth
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 cup grated cheese
  • 1/2 cup chopped parsley
  • S&P, to taste

Chop leek and fennel. saute in a combination of butter and olive oil until wilted and starting to caramelize a bit. Add minced garlic.

Add 1 cup of rice and saute until the rice is translucent. Add 1 cup white wine and stir until most of it has been absorbed.

Heat the clam juice and water and add by half-cupfuls, stirring and waiting until it has been absorbed before adding the next.

When rice is just about done, stir in the lagostino and cook until done.

Stir in the cheese and the parsley. Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper, as desired.

This is pretty much my basic risotto - the ingredients change to whatever is around the house, but the proportions pretty much remain constant.

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Here's a preview of the outside...

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Scallops, Pesto, Homemade Bread, and Blueberry Pound Cake

Nonna wasn't here for dinner tonight. That means we get to reach back into our creative minds and do some fun things she probably wouldn't like or be able to eat. Her tastes really are changing and while she's never been what one would call and adventurous eater, she's starting to dislike a lot of things she used to love. I kinda figure what the hell - she's 90 and can eat what she wants - but it does make cooking a bit of a challenge, at times.

So with her not here, we get to be a bit silly in our approach to dinner.

I had scallops thawing and went to La Cucina Italiana website for a bit of inspiration. The site is in Italian - I use the Google translate - and one of the first recipes I saw was for an appetizer with a halved scallop and a quail egg on a brioche toast. Earlier today, my sister who knows how much I love eggs on things had posted a picture of a sweet potato hash with a poached egg on top that she made. It had me drooling on my keyboard. When I saw the scallop and quail egg appetizer, I knew I had a great idea for dinner.

I made a loaf of Pepper and Cheese Bread this afternoon and knew a couple of thick slices of that toasted would sit in for the brioche. Whole scallops for halves, poached eggs for quail eggs, and dinner was set. Almost. I wanted something to take the toasted bread up a few notches... Victor's Pistachio Pesto was the clinching ingredient.

It was really simple. I sauteed the scallops in a bit of olive oil and butter, added a splash of white wine, a squeeze of lemon, and a pinch of salt & pepper. They went on top of the toasted bread I liberally spread with homemade pesto. The scallops went on the plate and the egg went on top. I chopped some pistachios for garnish but forgot to use them. Oh well.

The bread was a take on a recipe I've made before.

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Pepper Cheese Bread

  • 1 pkg active dry yeast
  • 1 cup warm water
  • 1/3 cup cream
  • 3 1/2 cups flour
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 1/2 cups shredded cheese
  • 1 or more hot peppers, minced
  • 1 egg

Mix yeast with water and cream to proof. In a stand mixer, add half the flour and begin to mix. Slowly add the grated cheese, the peppers, and the rest of the flour, mixing until it all holds together. Continue mixing for about 10 minutes or until a firm, smooth dough is made.

Form into a ball, rub a bowl with oil, coat dough, cover with a clean kitchen towel, and let rise until doubled.

Punch down, turn out to counter, and form it into a loaf - round, long, or braided.

Place on a baking peel liberally coated with corn meal. Cover, and let rise until doubled.

Preheat oven with baking stone to 375ºF (190°C).

When dough has risen, brush with an egg. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until nicely browned and hollow-sounding when tapped.

Cool on wire rack.

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And just because, Victor made dessert - a Blueberry Pound Cake.

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Blueberry Pound Cake

  • 1 cup butter
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • pinch salt
  • pinch nutmeg
  • 1 cup sugar
  •  1 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 1/2 cups blueberries
  • demerara sugar

Preheat oven to 325°F (160°C).

Mix dry ingredients and set aside. Cream sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

Slowly add dry ingredients and mix just until combined. Stir in blueberries.

Spread into a standard loaf pan and sprinkle with demerara sugar.

Bake 55-65 minutes. Cool about 15 minutes in pan and then remove to cool completely on rack.

My stomach is smiling!


Tuna Steaks and Garden Bounty

Dinner was easy to pull together, tonight. The green bean salad was already made, the pesto was already made... all I had to do was boil water and put tuna on the grill. Both were pretty easy.

I chopped some lemon thyme, oregano, and parsley from the garden and rubbed it on the tuna with some olive oil. The pennette, I just tossed in a pot.

Nonna ate around the beans but loved the tomatoes. Fresh tomatoes are still one food she really enjoys. We'll see how she feels about them after the summer onslaught!


Pasta con le Sarde alla Siciliana (Sicilian Pasta with Sardines)

Makes 6 servings:

  • 500 g of pasta
  • 500 g of cleaned and boned sardines
  • 50 g raisins soaked in warm water
  • 50 g pine nuts
  • 1 packet of saffron
  • 1 large chopped onion
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • salt & pepper
  • 500 g of fresh wild fennel
  • 1/2 glass of white wine
  • 1 teaspoon of salted capers chopped

In a frying pan fry the chopped onion with some oil, then add the sardines, and if need some more olive oil, taking care to turn them often because they have to stick together’

Fry for about ten minutes, then add pine nuts, capers, raisins and saffron and mix well.

Add the wine and let evaporate a little, finally you should add the chopped fennel that has been boiled in salted water first for a few minutes.

After having drained the pasta, garnish your beautiful dish.

Buon Appetito !