This month: Lots of Fishes!
I hope that everyone enjoys a peaceful and inspiring Christmas season.
-JT.
“Lutefisk is a Scandinavian food tradition that was imported to the United States. As a Christmas delicacy, it is even more popular in the U.S. than it is in the Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland.”
There ya go.
We have Hangtown Fry (scrambled eggs with fried oysters) and a salad on Christmas Eve. We also put out cheese and cookies and candy for snacking.
Christmas Day breakfast is sausage rolls, candied bacon, shirred eggs, and orange rolls, then later we have a traditional English roast beef dinner with horseradish sauce, roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, and Brussels Sprouts. Dessert is mince tarts and plum pudding with Brandy hard sauce.
One Christmas we visited my Italian in laws in MA & for Christmas Eve there was a glorious spread of seafood. It was heaven!
the ‘Two Fat Ladies’.
My Dream Team! I wish I could afford a set of their DVDs. The cheapest I can find it is like $50!
Love them so much! Whenever I grill Venison or Bear steaks, I use their Blackberry sauce and it’s terrific with either.
I will share two favorites:
Smoked Salmon
- Prepare a salmon fillet. Remove skin and pull pin bones.
- Dry cure mix:
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
Plastic wrap and heavy-duty aluminum foil
- Dry the salmon with paper towel. Place on plastic wrap and cover both sides with the dry cure. Wrap up tight and refrigerate on a sheet pan to catch any juices. You can use another sheet pan with weight to effect a more dry and more cured fillet. Cure 24 hours.
- Fire up your smoker with your favorite wood and raise to a steady 150 degrees.
- Rinse the fish thoroughly and dry well.
- Place on smoker rack so smoke and heat can surround the fillet.
- Cook to 120 degrees. This temp will give you the texture and doneness of lox. A temperature of 130 degrees will begin to produce flakes. Any more and you may as well eat canned tuna! :)
Fathead Pizza
For low carb and keto - enjoy a good pizza!
I will begin by telling you - adjust the proportion of cheese and almond flour until you get the texture you want. More almond flour will produce a more bread like dough. Less almond flour will produce a more crispy crust.
Put 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds and stir. Repeat as needed to get a warm gooey ball of cheese. Don’t get too hot; you have to handle it.
To your gooey ball of cheese, add one cup almond flour on top of cheese then add one whole egg. If you put the egg first, you will get undesirable chucks of cooked egg. Mix by hand until you have a formed ball of dough. You will be pleasantly surprised the first time with the result.
Put ball of dough between two sheets of parchment and roll out to 1/4” or so thickness. Remove top parchment sheet and dock the dough with a fork.
Bake on bottom parchment paper on a sheet at 350 until golden brown. Remove from oven at let cool. Lot of leeway here in doneness preference. It’s your pizza!
When cool, top with you favorites and bake at 350 to desired crispness.
As a long time keto eater, I was a huge skeptic at first based on many disappointments with keto breads and pasta. I will say Fathead Pizza will not disappoint. Remember to adjust the amount of almond flour to get the mouth feel you prefer. More bread like or more crispy.
Go crazy. Cut out a square of golden brown fathead crust, put a schmear on it and some of your lox!
Anyway, I saw this recipe and thought it looked good for the cold weekend coming up ... this was adapted from a recipe by Ina Garten & I love her recipes so that's a double 'good cook' reason to try this:
Bonus link ... Alaska From Scratch 20 most popular recipes from 2012 .... yup, it's been a few years, but they all look delish & keeping with the "fish" theme, there are salmon burgers & salmon tostadas among the favorites:
FRUITCAKE RECIPE
1 cup water,
1 cup sugar,
4 large eggs
2 cups dried fruit,
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup brown sugar
lemon juice
nuts
1 gallon whiskey
Sample the whiskey to check for quality.
Take a large bowl.
Check the whiskey again to be sure that it is of the highest quality.
Pour 1 level cup and drink. Repeat.
Turn on the electric mixer.
Beat 1 cup butter in a large fluffy bowl.
Add 1 tsp. sugar and beat again.
Turn off the mixer.
Break two eggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit.
Mix on the turner.
If the dried fruit gets stuck on the beaterers, pry it loose with a drewscriver.
Sample the whiskey to check for consisticity.Next, sift 2 cups of salt.
Or something. Who cares.
Check the whiskey.
Now sift the lemon juice and strain your nuts.
Add one table. Spoon. Of sugar or something.
Whatever you can find.
Grease the oven.
Turn the cake tin to 350 degrees.
Don't forget to beat off the turner.
Throw the bowl out the window.
Check the whiskey again.
Go to bed.
Who likes fruitcake anyway?
Brown up two pounds of hamburger and set aside. I drain it so it was not too greasy.
One bunch of celery, chopped.
Three carrots, chopped.
Two onions, chopped
Saute in bacon fat until tender.
Add in one can of tomato paste and four cloves chopped garlic. Continue to saute stirring for about 90 seconds to two minutes. It will burn so do not leave it unattended.
Add back in the hamburger.
Add a quart of beef broth.
Add a 28oz can of fire roasted diced tomatoes.
Add two teaspoons of hot paprika.
Add two teaspoons thyme.
Add two bay leaves.
Two tablespoons Worcestershire sauce.
Two beef bullion cubes.
Two cups of red wine.
Simmer covered for about an hour.
Check for flavor and make any adjustments you like. Fish out the bay leaves at this point. I usually add a tablespoon of adobo sauce for some heat but since last night was company so I left it out.
Add in a pound of egg noodles. You can also use spaetzle. I recommend the spaetzle but I had no time to make it yesterday so wide egg noodles it was.
The noodles will absorb the sauce and be delicious.
Let cook until the noodles are done.
Serve with a salad and crusty bread. I put a bowl of sour cream on the table for those who like to mix it in.
Something for those who need respite from the Christmas rush.
A site to browse for cooking blogs:
https://blog.feedspot.com/home_cooking_blogs/
Christmas eve with Mr. T and his family has always been seafood.
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.
I’d like to wish everyone on this lovely cooking thread a very Blessed Christmas/Holiday season and a very Blessed 2020.
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?