Posted on 12/05/2019 4:41:20 PM PST by Jamestown1630
Not being a great meat-eater, I’ve always been intrigued by the Italian-American tradition of the ‘Feast of the Seven Fishes’ - the Christmas Eve dinner consisting of seven different fish dishes.
I like seafood very much, but have had a hard time coming up with my ‘dream meal of seven’. One thing I’ve always wanted to try are Portuguese Codfish Balls (Bolinhos de Bacalhau), which I believe I first saw in an episode of the ‘Two Fat Ladies’.
These seem to be usually made from rehydrated salt cod (the dried cod can be found in ethnic stores as well as many American supermarkets), but they can be made from fresh fish, as well. They are balls of the flaked fish, held together with mashed potatoes and egg, and deep fried.
Here, from 'Spruce Eats', is a recipe using fresh fish:
https://www.thespruceeats.com/portuguese-codfish-balls-2743408
And from ‘The Portuguese American Mom’, one using the dried fish:
http://www.theportugueseamericanmom.com/codfish-cakes-bolinhos-de-bacalhau/
Another fish dish is something that I’ve recently found at Lidl – they have several prepared/frozen ‘convenience’ items that I think are very good, and I really liked a salmon with a spinach stuffing, wrapped in puff pastry: I went looking for a from-scratch recipe, and found one at ‘Home Made Italian Cooking’:
https://www.homemadeitaliancooking.com/salmon-in-puff-pastry/
Please post your favorite family Christmas food traditions - or your favorite seafood recipe!
(The painting at the top is 'Adoration of the Shepherds', by the Spanish Baroque painter Bartolomé Esteban Murillo.)
-JT
Those sound yummy.
It’s been awhile, only a couple of times since I got the recipe but they are delicious. I might roll some in coconut too.
WHITE CHOCOLATE HAYSTACKS
METHOD Melt/stir smooth/creamy in st/steel bowl over simmering water,
12 oz (340g) coarse-chp good quality white chocolate (burns easily.) Offheat
add 1/2 c (75g) roasted peanuts, 1 1/2 c thin pretzel sticks broken into 1 1/2"
pieces, stir well/coat.
FINAL Spoon onto parchmented sheetpan. (If too runny, refrigerate 10 min).
NOTE: Store airtight; refrigerates several weeks.
Those look good but peanuts are a no-no. I normally make my toffee which I have posted here before. It’s fun going through those old recipe cards.
No problem.......replace peanuts.......with any number of things.
- cardboard box cut into star shapes (use a star cookie cutter template)
- fabric remnants - country looking print fabrics
- old buttons - stick glue - craft glue
- fishing thread or nylon thread for hanging as ornaments
A STEP BACK IN TIME
My husband was forced to eat baccala at Christmas as a child. In the immortal words of Men on Film: hated it!!!! Now he won’t touch cod even to make a nice fishcake.
On the tv show “Chopped,” lutefisk is sometimes used in the ingredients. Everybody hates it!
Hello, dear Liz!
A very merry Christmas to you.
Thank you, Liz; and Best Wishes to everyone in our FR ‘cooking family’.
The past year was good to us, despite all of the discordant noise in politics. May the next year bring even More Winning!
Maybe liking it is just a matter of having grown up with it.
Merry Christmas, Miss M!
Same to you, Miss J!
...with a stocking stuffer suggestion for the bakers on the thread.
Same to you, dear Cov!
LOL!
Merry Christmas, Cov!
I’d like to wish everyone on this lovely cooking thread a very Blessed Christmas/Holiday season and a very Blessed 2020.
Merry Christmas, Silent Gypsy.
Every weekend, I view all of the new ‘youtubes’ of the folks to whose channels I’ve subscribed. One of them is Bill Still, who recently posted something to think about, at Christmas and in the Winter.
I’ve stood at Valley Forge in the dead of Winter, experienced the frozen ground and relentless, biting wind - and doing so, one can’t help but think of what our forefathers endured, and how many of them died for the sake of a revolutionary and truly progressive ideal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRkK9R6_9pw
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