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
Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah and Happy New Year to all my cooking thread friends. Had a holiday tip I wanted to share. Someone was talking about making pannetone. The only times I eat it are when it goes on clearance because it makes the BEST French toast. Sliced thick is heavenly and somehow it is complimented perfectly by an apple chicken sausage I like to buy to go with it. Top with some real maple syrup and it’s a delicious breakfast. So after the holidays when you see it marked down try it you’ll love it.
It makes a good breakfast/brunch ‘strata’ dish, too:
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/panettone-french-toast-casserole-3363719
OK gosh ooey gooey. Sounds delicious. I bookmarked it. Thanks.
COUNTRY ANGELS
Materials needed: One 4 1/2" X 7 " piece of unbleached muslin which will be the body One 2 1/4 " X 3 " piece of unbleached muslin for wings (NOTE: for country look, tear fabric to fray it.) Polyester fiberfill for the head (tiny 3/4 " ball) Raffia for the halo Red fabric or felt for the heart
DIRECTIONS
Step 1. For the head and body, fold one long edge of the 4 1/2" X 7 " muslin down 1 1/2" and place the fiberfill ball between the layers of muslin at the center of the fold. Using a doubled thread tie tightly under the fiberfill to form the head and pull up the head.
Step 2. Now some arms. The arms are merely knots. Pull up and tie one corner and knot close to the head. Repeat for the other arm.
Step 3: Cut out a small heart and glue it or rough stitch it on.
Step 4: Halo is raffia or Spanish moss wrapped around finger to form a ring, rolled off of into halo. Stitch (or glue) the halo to the back of the head.
Step 5: For the wings, take the remaining 2 1/4" X 3 " piece of muslin and make tiny fan-folds from the long edge to long edge. Tie tightly in the center with a doubled piece of thread. Sew or glue the wings in place on the back of your angel.
Step 6: To make your angel an ornament, tie a piece of ribbon or jute (jute keeps the rustic look) to the angel's back.
The candy trees are easy to do-----attach assorted candied fruit slices to inexpensive styrofoam tree shapes.
Well, the Christmas Sauce is well underway, and here’s what I spied.
First of all, you can’t do this in exactly the same way, unless you have home-made sauce. My husband’s family always make their own, and it winds up much ‘looser’ than a jarred sauce that you will buy in the supermarket.
The Family make two kinds – one that they designate as ‘sauce’, which has herbs, onion and garlic in it; and one that they call ‘puree’, which only contains tomatoes, onion, and a little salt.
Husband uses the ‘puree’ for the Christmas Sauce; the value of this is that the original ‘wateriness’ of the sauce allows it to be cooked-down over a long period when used, so that the flavors of the added meats develop well; and then you season it to taste. If you try this with store-bought sauce, you’ll have to alter the seasonings, and cook it for far less time.
Today, he used six quarts of the plain ‘puree’ for these amounts of meat:
3 lbs. Chuck Roast, silver skin and excess fat removed, cut into 1-inch chunks.
3 lbs. Sweet Italian Sausage, also sliced into 1-inch chunks.
About 12 inches of a Pepperoni stick, sliced about ¼ inch thick, and then each ‘coin’ cut in half.
Brown off all of the meats in batches, in a big frying pan, starting with the Sausage - because that will need to cook longest.
Put 6 quarts of sauce in an 8-quart stock pot, add the seared meats, and put one or two ladles of the sauce in the hot frying pan, to scrape up all of the ‘fond’ , and add this to the stock pot.
If you are using store-bought sauce, you’ll have to determine and regulate your seasonings; but for the Family Puree, he adds
1 heaping tablespoon of dried Basil
2 tsps. each Dried Oregano and powdered or granulated Garlic
No salt – if needed, that comes at the end, and to taste.
Ours has been going for about five hours now, and we’ll turn it off at about seven hours. We’ll heat it thoroughly tomorrow, an hour or so before we are ready to eat.
Another thing that they like at Christmas is
Oranges in Sweet Italian Dressing:
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup red wine vinegar
½ cup olive oil
salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, dried basil, dried oregano to taste
Shake well to mix
Pour over oranges sliced ½” thick. Cut a slit in the rind of each round to allow easy separation. You separate the meat of the orange from the rind with your teeth – so this is a ‘hand’ food :-)
(that seemed sort of strange to me, but he says it’s ‘Finger Lickin’ Good!’. I imagine you could peel the orange before slicing, but he says that is NOT the Family Way!)
Merry Christmas to all,
JT
Thanks for the luscious orange salad recipe.
Visiting there, one marvels at the expansive gardens of Italy. Oranges loom large.
It is said .....in Italian households, children are allowed a bit of wine but the glass is topped off with orange soda.
Thank you, Jamestown1630! It seems to me that Sweet Italian Sausage will make anything taste better! :)
Layer in glass server, Italian rum cake Italian vanilla custard,
supremed oranges, topped with bruleed meringue (or top with
mounds of whipped Chantilly cream and slivered almonds)
I was allowed to have a little wine when my father made Chicken Cacciatore. There wasn’t usually wasn’t wine in the house, except when our Jewish grocer sent us a bottle of Manischewitz at the holidays - Daddy was a Vodka man.
I didn’t like wine much...but it felt quite grown-up to be allowed to drink it.
It certainly makes my life better.
We have so much sauce left over, though; and after tomorrow, it’s back on the Low Carb wagon for us. So, we’ll have lots to freeze for the future.
Someone sent us a big box of pears for Christmas, so we’re going to try poached pears for the first time tomorrow. The classic way of doing them seems to be with white wine, but we’re going to use this Martha recipe, and poach them in apple cider and spices:
https://www.marthastewart.com/341355/poached-pears
Sounds like you might have enough pears to also try a spiced red wine for the poached pears.
Have had both, I favor the spiced red. Plenty of recipes to choose from. IIRC, Martha Stewarts was very good, but there are others.
Enjoy!
I will look for it - Thanks, and Happy New Year!
A question for people who have made Rumtopf. My wife is taking a new medication which doesn’t allow her to have alcohol so I will have a lot of Rumtopf left over at the end of the holiday season. Can I use the leftovers as a starter for next year’s batch or should I give it all away and start fresh?
I don’t have any experience with Rumtopf - though it sounds wonderful.
Hopefully someone here will have some knowledge to share.
OVEN-BAKED SALMON / EASIEST SAUCE EVER / Makes 4-8 servings / Do not freeze
SAUCE Add 8 oz (tubful) of water to 8 oz tub cream cheese with chives and onions in microwaveable dish.
Micro til it just starts to bubble. Add a little pepper.
SERVE over baked salmon......add a shower of fresh chives.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.