Feast of the Seven Fishes

Maybe it’s because we’re in the middle of a “The Sopranos” marathon, I’ve been thinking of the Italian American Feast of the Seven Fishes. LaVigilia is a meal that lasts until midnight, the symbolic awaiting of the birth of the baby Jesus.

Our old neighbor, Tammy, did spectacular feasts! She’d have fried shrimp and calamari, scallops and lobster tails, clams and mussels. Even the year they had the kitchen fire, we still managed to have quite a memorable meal (my favorite was the soft-shell crabs in a spicy marinara sauce). Plus, there were firemen!

The menu for the feast is best executed for groups than for just two people, because it can be a little labor intensive. Bon Apétit did a menu last year that’s worth a look, as a starting point. I think I would the Spanish version of spaghetti with calms and use fideos in a garlic broth with a green goddess dressing. Their menu includes a salmon dip, squid, shrimp, clams, and a stew.

Epicurious has another great menu from Mario Battali that includes cod, clams, shrimp, eels, mussels, and anchovies.

Saveur has what looks like a retro menu of Italian American classics. Lobster Fra diablo and shrimp scampi are recipes deeply ingrained in Americana at this point. Other fish in this collection include cod, sardines, calamari, sole, and branzino.

Delish invited Lidia Bastianich to give ideas for a great vigilia, and she has cod, calamari, shrimp, mussels, lobster, swordfish, and a fritto misto—which like the stews and salads allow you to incorporate more than one fish in each course.

The Italian Chef has several choices from antipasti to first and second courses, including a seafood risotto and a stuffed lobster.

There are no rules, so you could potentially make an evening out of seven different appetizers, if it strikes your fancy. Food and Wine offers seven small dishes. As always, I find their choices pretentious and impractical, but you may find something to amuse your palate there.

Eating Well features a lemon-garlic marinated shrimp that includes precooked shrimp, but scroll down and you’ll find an extensive collection of recipes that aren’t quite as cynical: clams casino with Canadian bacon and Parmesan, caviar-stuffed new potatoes, five-spice scallops in the appetizer section alone.

Rachael Ray tends to get on my nerves, but not everything she makes can be dismissed. I give her credit for including puttanesca on her feast menu. Frankly, if you just check out the seasonal vegetable side dishes, it would be worth the side trip to her site.

For those with vegan inclinations, there’s a menu for you as well. Good luck with that!

Finally, Food52 has scoured the Net and offered exactly seven recipes that are one more alluring than the next: from crab beignets with aioli dipping sauce to the olive oil poached fish!

Cooking the feast can be pricy, but not all dishes require expensive ingredients. I remember the first time I attempted a modified (or perhaps mollified) version of the feast, I had just discovered what I thought was an adorable recipe, Balzac’s Sardine Pâté, which consisted of mashing a sardine with ½ to 1 tablespoon of butter and seasoning with lemon juice and pepper. If it was good enough for Honoré… If times are not quite that lean, then I recommend the David Lebovitz version instead.

Whatever dishes you may choose, I hope you can have a lovely meal with people you love as you wait to celebrate the metaphorical birth of Christ, the coming of Santa (or the last-minute, frantic wrapping of the gifts ritual), or the umpteenth midnight showing of “A Christmas Story.” 

Happy holiday!

Some Like It Spicy

One of the exciting prospects about the coming year, according to data collected by the National Restaurant Association, is an increase in spicy foods and African and Middle Eastern flavors. In terms of restaurants and available foodstuff, Brooklyn is setting the trends with already established businesses. For those of you not in the 'hood, or those who want to check it out at your own pace in your own kitchens, I offer four distinct spice blends that will be making the rounds in the national palate in 2016...

Harissa

If you want to get ahead of the curve, start with a bite of harissa (the Food Goddess has a Board for that!). In fact, we started the year with harissa! Harissa basically is a paste consisting of smoked chile peppers, garlic, olive oil, and spices found in Northern Africa and the Middle East. 

Harissa is sold already prepared, but I always want you to try to do it for yourself because you can control the ingredients that go into it. 

Dukkah

The Egyptians have a dip/sauce/condiment that is absolutely divine. It is a deceptively simple thing, a blend of toasted nuts and seeds that elevates food to ridiculous levels. Dipping bread into dukkah will make you moan. You can cook with it as well, and create a lovely crust on meats and even fish.

I read somewhere that it was a great desert food because it kept even after a few days out, and combined with olive oil and flatbreads, made for a good meal.

Check out the new Board with dukkah recipes (start with this basic recipe and then go wild!).

Baharat

Baharat literally means “spice” in Arabic, and it is a blend used throughout the Middle East. Recipes vary by region, but generally include pepper, cumin, and whole cloves. 

There’s a recipe here and a couple of dishes you may want to try.

Baharat Panko Crusted Albacore Tuna

Koshari (Egyptian rice, lentils and macaroni in spicy tomato chile sauce)

Spicy Ground Beef with Baharat, Mint, and Cilantro

Berbere

Chef Marcus Samuelsson has a recipe for the Ethiopian spice blend. The blend is used for seasoning and frying meats and especially stews/curries. There are dozens of wats with berbere as a base.

You may try any of these recipes:

Spicy Ethiopian Lentils (misr wat)

Ethiopian Chicken Stew (doro wat)

Ethiopian Mushroom Sauté (ingudai tibs)

~*~*~*~

I encourage all to look up other recipes. I love to do themed brunches and dinners, but if you prefer to try international cuisines one dish at a time, that’s cool too! 

Roasted Turkey Legs

We had a really low-maintenance Thanksgiving this year.

All I made for dinner was two turkey legs. That was the extent of my effort. (Mom did make a sweet little pumpkin pie and made a vanilla-flavored whipped cream the first night and orange-flavored last night).

The advantage of living with a woman who provides holiday cookies and candies and sometimes seasonal breads, is that people want to feed you. One of our neighbors told us she would be sending us a large platter with foodstuff – the Puerto Rican Thanksgiving care package. She sent roast pork shoulder, fresh baked ham, rice with pigeon peas, a macaroni salad, mashed potatoes with gravy, and yams.

I did serve some the green bean salad that was in the fridge, but we’d made that for Monday night’s dinner.

We started the day late and had cookies for breakfast. I took the meats and made sandwiches for a later afternoon sandwich. I kept the side dishes for dinner and it was perfectly portioned for two.

Dry Brine
I dry brined the legs in a tablespoon of sea salt, and a teaspoon of freshly cracked black pepper overnight.

Method

I preheated the oven to 500-degrees F and washed off the salt mixture off the legs. After I patted them dry, I rubbed about 1 ½ tablespoons of softened unsalted butter on each leg, and stuffed the rest of the butter under the skin (which I loosened slightly).

A cup of lemon juice infused water in the roaster pan did not really gather a lot of liquid, but there was enough to baste the legs and top the gravy over the potatoes.

I added garlic powder and a little Cajun seasoning to amp it up a little bit. The temp went to 350 shortly after the legs went in the oven. It roasted in a foil tent for about half an hour, then uncovered for 15 minutes; turned and roasted on the other side for about 40 minutes. The last 10 minutes the temp went up to broil, but I didn’t move the legs under the broiler. I made sure I got an internal temp of 160.

* Times will vary with legs. I rarely make them so I use a thermometer to make sure I'm safe. 

Compound Butter

You can cream about ¼ cup of unsalted butter with minced parsley, salt and pepper to taste and a dash of lemon juice. This compound butter can be spread over the skin to help season it and to crisp up the skin under the broiler. A couple of dots of Sriracha for color will not hurt it.

It was delicious and the meat was juicy and spicy. Better yet, no leftovers for weeks and very little clean up! Low-maintenance.

Thankful.

Alternative (Skinny) Chips

The moment the leaves start turning a golden hue and falling off the trees (at least here in the mid-Atlantic and northeastern states), and temperatures start to go down, waistlines are threatened.

It starts with Halloween, then reaches a frenzied horror on Thanksgiving (the mother of all gluttonous holidays), and barrels through December (Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa) and on to New Year’s celebrations.

Anecdotally, the average American is said to gain 7 to 10 pounds for the holiday season. About ten years ago, a report in the New England Journal of Medicine revealed that the truth was less impressive – in terms of girth – and the average weight gain between Thanksgiving and Christmas was more accurately 1 to 2 pounds.

One of the studies did find that overweight people might gain up to 5 pounds. The danger, of course, is that you have over a month where people – who may already be under stress – also have constant access to more alcohol, snacks, finger foods and appetizers, and desserts, and these tend to pack sugar, salt and serious calorie counts.

These will help you control the salt and sugar content, they contain no preservatives, you’ll be on top of carbs, and none requires deep-frying. You will not sacrifice taste or crunchiness, and it will make for fun and colorful presentations.

 Zucchini Chips

http://www.tablefortwoblog.com/zucchini-chips/

Homemade Apple Chips

http://www.recipe4living.com/recipes/the_best_ever_homemade_apple_chips_topped_with_sugar.htm

Carrot and Broccoli Chips

http://www.tastingpage.com/cooking/carrot-and-broccoli-chips?rq=carrot%20and%20broccoli%20chips

Cinnamon Banana Chips

http://meatified.com/crunchy-cinnamon-banana-chips/

Plantain Chips

http://bakeeatrepeat.ca/plantain-chips-recipe/

Baked Sweet Potato Chips

http://oneteaspoonlife.blogspot.com/2012/02/recipes.html

Baked Pumpkin Chips

http://kirbiecravings.com/2015/10/baked-pumpkin-chips.html

Fall Soups: Stretching the Never-Ending Soup

We tend to wax poetic about soups at The Temple. Soup is our reward for surviving the heat of summer. Fall comes and soup can never be far behind.

Earlier this week we were talking about cooking while poor and I took the stance, as I always have, that peasant cuisine always aims to give both sustenance and comfort.

While we enjoy the soup course and the odd cup-of-soup for lunch as accompaniment to a small sandwich, what we love is soup as a meal. The added beauty, of course, is that it keeps so that you do not have to cook for at least a couple of nights.

SOURCE: http://supermancooks.com/tuscan-peasant-soup/

One of the things that we enjoy most is what we call the never-ending soup. It often starts as a chicken soup and then we’ll add garbanzos or black beans, sometimes carrots or peas; around the third serving, we may add sausage and potatoes, then tomatoes or artichokes. A beef-based soup may turn into a lentil soup.

We used to have a friend who would be horrified by the idea of a soup made almost entirely of leftovers. We could not convince her it was heaven and kept our palate on alert—and every serving came with its own nuanced flavor and shifting aroma.

You can start with a root vegetable soup. Once the veggies are gone and you’re left with just stock, you may begin adding elements to transform it and stretch its existence. Additions may include a variety of ingredients like barley, pasta or rice; beans; sautéed or raw vegetables; or even homemade croutons.

Think of it in the same terms of a good ramen: you cook it for hours (and it does as you add ingredients and heats and reheats and replenishes stock). The flavors deepen as you add toppings: butter, beans, braised or roasted meats, cheese rinds, corn, olives, scallions, ramen eggs!

Credit: Kumamoto kakuni ramen by woinary,

Wikipedia Creative Commons

Sometimes you end up with something that resembles a sancocho without starting out that way (and a good sancocho is not a bad meal in itself either). We used to have a Cuban friend who’d make a giant pot of it for Christmas. It was always perfect. But that’s another story!

SOURCE FoxNews latino. RECIPE: http://bit.ly/1P0v0tt

The addition of lemon juice, olive oil, vinegar, hot sauce will refresh the taste, as will fresh herbs, seeds, bacon…

There is a fantastic soup with five-day permutations over at Serious Eats that we’d like to try out soon because it sounds delicious in every form.

We've had small batches of chicken, beef, and lentil soups. We're ready to commit now!

Also check out the Fall Soups Pinterest board for more!

https://www.pinterest.com/amapolapress/food-goddess-fall-soups/

13 Frightfully Fun Halloween Cocktails

Halloween was relegated to the children many moons ago. Though there are many of us – Wiccan and not – who love the holiday as well. There is something refreshing and transformative about it, beyond the cross-dressing and plain dress-up.

For many, Halloween is the last hurrah before a full season of familial and professional enforced gaiety – whence they drag the vessel of their stress and repository of all the fear and loathing in this world from office party to family gathering in a month-long horror fest of duty and pain they cannot escape without great cost…

It is a high holiday for a great many, but beyond your ideal of religion, philosophy or spirituality, I suggest you take Halloween as an opportunity to relive the fun parts of childhood. Become something or someone else for a few hours. Then partake in a treat or two… (tricks optional: ya freaks!)

1.    Bloody Brain Shooters

http://www.hgtv.com/design/make-and-celebrate/entertaining/bloody-brain-shooter-recipe

2.    Dark & Stormy Death Punch

http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/dark-and-stormy-death-punch

3.    Bleeding Heart Martini

http://www.marthastewart.com/314501/bleeding-heart-martini#Halloween%20Cocktails%20and%20Drink%20Recipes|/275515/halloween-cocktails-and-drink-recipes/@center/1006805/halloween-recipes|314501

4.    Corpse Reviver

http://boozenik.com/recipes/recipe-corpse-reviver-no-2/

5.    Candy Corn Cocktail

http://www.drinkoftheweek.com/drink_recipes/candy-corn/#axzz3nzdARtOm

6.    Pumpkin Spice Margarita

http://realhousemoms.com/pumpkin-spice-margarita/

7.    Embalming Fluid

http://noshingwiththenolands.com/embalming-fluid/

8.    Brain Hemorrhage

http://www.jamesandeverett.com/whatscooking/2012/10/05/halloween-cocktails-brain-hemorrhage/

9.    Black Heart Cider

http://www.paperandcake.com/2013/10/17/take-a-sip-black-heart-cider/

10. Fiery Eyeball

Fiery Eyeball (Courtesy of Andrea Correale)
1 oz. pineapple juice
1 oz. orange juice
1/2 oz. apple brandy
2 oz. light rum
2 oz. dark rum
1 oz. lime juice
1/2 oz grenadine
1 oz. 151 Rum

Chill mixing glasses with ice. Remove the ice and add the juices, brandy, and the light and dark rums. Prepare glass by pouring grenadine around inside of rim and letting it bleed down along the glass. Carefully pour the contents of the mixer into a Tuscany Classics Crystal Martini Glass By Lenox. Float the 151 rum and grenadine. Light the cocktail with a wooden match.

11. Black Magic Martini

http://lasvegasweekly.com/nightlife/cocktail/2012/oct/16/trick-or-treat-tabus-black-magic-martini-better-mi/

12. Creepy Bubbles

http://dabbled.org/halloween-cocktails-creepy-bubble-fun/

13. Candy Bar Martinis

http://www.allparenting.com/my-table/articles/968983/candy-bar-martinis

Don’t forget the Creepy Cocktail Garnishes!

Wonton Wrapper Wonderland

Once upon a time, in my delirious love affair with dim sum, I decided that I would make my own. My first adventure in potstickers was a complete success and we truly enjoyed the appetizer, but it was an awful lot of work for just two people.

Image Source: http://www.topdimsum.com/

Then there were the wonton wrappers. I had a ton left and I had already opened the package. Back then, in ancient times, all I had access to were the round wonton wrappers. But as our Chinatown expanded and stores started popping up closer to the Temple, we also started seeing a variety of wrappers from wonton to gyoza to eggroll and a variety of small buns from many a Pan-Asian background.

Dumpling wrappers or skins are also sold as shao mai, shumai, siu mai, su my and shiu mai. Generally, they are round (disks) and are sold fresh as well as frozen in Asian markets and supermarkets. Wonton skins are thicker and square. Eggroll wrappers are thicker than dumpling wrappers and often larger in area than wontons. If you are interested in distinct differences, you can read about it: here.

Nutella Wontons

Wrappers are stuffed with vegetables and meats or seafood, and may be boiled, fried, or steamed. Usually, they are served with a dipping sauce, or in soup. They freeze well, if you make a batch. In addition to a variety of cooking methods, there are different ways to shape them, and if you’d like to learn how to, you can read and view videos about it: here.

But if all you make are the dumplings you love from your favorite Chinese takeout, you are missing the true versatility of packaged wonton skins (and yes, you can make your own, but most of us do not have that kind of time on our hands).

Lasagna Bites

I used to bake the wonton skins in tiny muffin tins, like open flowers, and then fill them with picadillo and cheese or shrimp and sour cream, or ground sausage and cream cheese, and have delectable tapas in a crunchy and handy little package. It was the ultimate finger food.

Wonton Mozzarella Sticks

Later, it also occurred to me that wonton skins were perfect for homemade ravioli—thank you, Marco Polo!

If you like to mix up your cuisines, you can make pierogis, taquitos, empanadas, a horiatiki salad, and tiny pizzas... You do not need to make savory dishes, either; you can use the wrappers for dessert. You can cut them up and season to taste to make your own nachos/chips or crackers.

Ice Cream Tacos

Heck, if you cut in strips and wrap a tiny weiner and bake it, you'll have a great mummy Halloween treat. 

Add wonton and eggroll wrappers to your freezer staples! 

https://www.pinterest.com/amapolapress/food-goddess-wonton-wrappers/

Check out the Pinterest board for a few recipes ideas and collections on the many delicious things you can do with wonton wrappers. Of course, the board will also include cooking with dumpling and eggroll wrappers.

Cute and Healthy Snacks

When I was a kid, my grandmother’s idea of a snack was often a piece of fruit. It was always something simple and unassuming. This was easy in the pre-school years because I accepted anything that was handed to me and was edible.

After a while, I would pick the tree, climb it and pick my poison! Not that Mami approved of my tomboy fruit picking ways. My choices were mango, guava, for a while we had a jobos tree, and later guineos niños (These pygmy bananas that grow in Puerto Rico and are super sweet). Through the years, depending on the intensity of storms and hurricanes, we also had papaya, soursop and tamarind.

The gent who owned the two-story home across the street was an SVP at Sultana, a Puerto Rican cookie and cracker company that eventually got gobbled up by Nabisco. He’d bring me tins of all sorts of goodies, and I’d enjoy these with cheese, in the afternoons, with a cup of chocolate.

There were no after-school cute sandwich cutouts or anything whimsy. I think she would have thought that was akin to playing with your food, and she did not approve of that.

The idea that you had to make food fun was alien to her. You ate what she put in front of you. There would be no discussion. She did not have patience for people who indulged children into believing they ran her kitchen. She’d have none of that!

Cute on a plate made no sense to her. She was a Great Depression baby and she’d known real hunger. Food, to her, was fuel for life not about cuteness. She did not understand food-related frivolities or junk food, for that matter. She did understand the pleasures of food, mind you. Her favorite delicacy was octopus salad, and she loved her turrón.

The idea of creative bento boxes would never compute, and the obsession the Japanese bring to it where they've created a competitive sport out of making lunch boxes would have thrown her for a loop. But she let me eat school lunches only halfway through first grade. I lost weight because I wouldn't touch half of it (it all smelled of dirty dish water, and tasted of salty dirty dish water to me). She took me home for a homemade meal every day after that.

The snacks she provided for my school day were mostly nutritious and utilitarian. Frankly, I don’t remember my own school snacks much, because I’m still obsessing over the fact that she wouldn’t buy me the lunchbox I wanted (Batman, of course).

I’m also not entirely sure that she would have thought making these snacks was time well-spent, unless she somehow managed to involve me in making them with her. She’d probably try almost anything to get me in the kitchen with her.

We don’t entertain kids around here, but I can guarantee you that I will be making at least two of these snacks for us. After all, being a kid at heart still counts!

Frozen Banana Penguins 

http://www.readingconfetti.com/2014/01/sledding-penguins-frozen-banana-snack.html

Fruit Bugs 

http://littlepageturners.blogspot.com/2010/04/edible-insects.html

Orange Slice Butterflies  

http://almostunschoolers.blogspot.com/2011/05/orange-slice-butterflies.html

Apricot Clownfish 

http://family.disney.com/recipes/apricot-clownfish

Orange Fish 

http://www.canadianfamily.ca/food/a-cute-and-easy-summer-snack-fruit-fish/

Turkey Peppers and Hummus 

http://www.superhealthykids.com/thanksgiving-turkey-peppers-and-hummus/