Feast of the Seven Fishes

There is a southern Italian tradition of having seven fishes for dinner on Christmas Eve. I am still unclear to the significance seven fishes specifically. Some explanations are that it symbolizes the 7 sacraments or the 7 days of the week, but there doesn’t seem to universal agreement on this. Recently, I’ve been curious to try the tradition myself.

My friend Sam, who is Indian, doesn’t have any personal traditions around Christmas Eve, so she was into following the ritual, especially since her husband is of Italian descent and she loves fish. Last year when we cooked up the feast, it was extremely elaborate with multiple courses all in involving fish – the most involved being a salt baked sea bass. This year as she has a young baby and I was working on Christmas Eve, we decided to try and make it simpler. Our brilliant shortcut was to make cioppino, an Italian fish stew. I found a recipe that had a total of 6 fishes in it, so all we needed was one more fish dish.

The weekend before Christmas I made a trip to the Italian market in Philadelphia. I can’t say the food is sourced locally or sustainably at the market place, but it sure is an authentic experience to the City. My favorite shop is Claudio’s. The place, especially the smell of the cured meats, brings me back to living in Venice. Many other people had the same idea I did, as the line both to order and pay snaked through the entire store and backed out the front door. We decided to go for it as we had already made the trip down there. It was an experience – all types of people were there from housewives from New Jersey, a young Italian couple, to food lovers like me. I knew they carried marinated fresh anchovies which are a thousand times better than the canned ones. Anchovies on toast would constitute our seventh fish. In addition to anchovies I bought mushroom bullion cubes, panettone, Italian marscapone and ladyfingers (for making tiramisu). I was happy as a clam.

Once we had the seven fish determined, the rest of the menu was figured out quickly.

Appetizers: sautéed mushrooms with marscapone on polenta rounds + anchovies on bruschetta with an herb paste

Salad: mixed greens with fennel, pomegranite seeds and oranges

First course: butternut squash ravioli with a walnut cream sauce

Second Course: Cioppino

Dessert: Assorted cookies and gelato

Sam agreed to take on the cioppino and my mom handled the dessert. Making the ravioli filling a day in advance was helpful too. I was thrilled to have the Market on Main Street in Manayunk finally open and even more impressed that they carried everything I needed for the meal – except for wonton wrappers for ravioli. Too bad the shop wasn’t there the four years I was living in Manayunk!

The appetizer course was pretty easy to assemble. I found a cylinder of pre-made polenta at the market so all I had to do was slice it, then brush them with olive oil before broiling them in the oven until golden. While the rounds were cooking, I sautéed and assortment of mushrooms – chantrelles and baby shitakes – in olive oil, butter, garlic, a dash of wine, and some salt. Towards the end, I added chopped thyme and sage. When the rounds were browned, I spread marscapone on them and topped it with the sautéed mushrooms. They were a big hit.

For the anchovy toasts, I bought Italian green sauce (herb paste) in a tube from the market, spread that on bruschetta toasts and topped with a marinated anchovy (or not for the vegetarians in the crowd).

I did a little research online for various ideas around squash ravioli and walnut cream sauces. Here’s what I cobbled together. For the filling, roast a medium butternut squash and a sweet potato. The latter helps absorb some of the water in squash in addition to adding flavor. Next scoop out the cooked innards into a bowl and mash together with some sautéed shallots or onions (about 1/2 cup), nutmeg, a pinch of cayenne, and salt. Brush each side of wonton wrapper with egg yolk and place a spoonful of filling in the middle and pinch closed the edges. When ready cook in salted, boiling water for 3 to 4 minutes.

For the sauce, I toasted 1 1/2 cups of walnuts and then ground them coarsely in a food processor. In a sauce pan heat a stick of butter with 3/4 cup of cream and some salt and pepper,. Cook down at a low heat. When thickened slightly, add the walnut powder, a pinch of nutmeg, and some cracked pepper. Serve over the cooked ravioli with grated parmesan on top. The dish is very rich, so 3 or 4 raviolis per person would be fine for a big dinner like this. The recipe will make enough for 40 -50 ravioli, so you can freeze the uncooked ravioli for future quick meals.

The recipe for the cioppino came from All Recipes online. Sam read through the reviews and incorporated some of the suggestions, like adding clam juice and cooking the crab and cod in bigger chunks so they don’t break down too much in the soup. We were all pretty full by the time this course arrived, so there were certainly leftovers. It was delicious and would make a great, hearty meal all on it’s own!

Maybe next year I’ll try and simplify even further.

Apple Cornbread Mushroom Stuffing with Bacon

This year I attended a potluck Thanksgiving. When asked what I wanted to bring, I knew it had to have apples in it. The friends with whom I was staying during my transition back to Berkeley, have a very abundant apple tree in their back yard. We had pots full of recently picked apples. I decided to make an apple cornbread dressing. with ingredients like grains, nuts, meat, vegetables, fruit and herbs, stuffing can be a whole meal by itself.

I went to the internet to get a general idea of ingredients, proportions and steps in stuffing recipes. I noticed a quite a few called for eggs. I guess they help hold the ingredients all together like a soufflé, but that wasn’t the consistency I was looking for.

I decided to use boxed cornbread to cut down on time and because I’ve never been that happy with my homemade cornbread as it always tends to be too dry and somewhat flavorless. I’ve always liked Jiffy box cornbread for the end product and its simplicity, but when I looked at the ingredients this time, I was discouraged. Lots of chemical ingredients I couldn’t pronounce (breaking 2 of Michael Pollen’s food rules) and it has lard in it. I wonder how many vegetarians know that. I was making a portion of the batch for vegetarians so that wouldn’t work out. I decided to give Trader Joe’s cornbread mix a try – it still had unrecognizable ingredients, but not as many, and it is vegetarian. However it turned out way too moist and sweet for a savory, stuffing dish. I ended up drying out the cubes in the oven. Next time I will make my own, dry cornbread!

Cornbread tends to be pretty crumbly, so in order to have some shape in the dish, I included French bread that I got from nearby Acme bakery.

For more inspiration I went to one of the local produce markets, Monterey Market. After being in Philadelphia for four years, I was blown away at how much locally grown produce is available this time of year and how cheap it was. 3 bunches of celery for $1 and organic, spinach for $.69/lb! I like how the market labels every product with its origin, including the state. I was lured by all the varieties of mushrooms and decided to include wild chantrelles from Oregon in my dish.

Here’s a recipe based on what I made (not totally exact as I didn’t take measurements). It serves about 12 – 16 as a side dish

1 box of baked cornbread for an 8x8 pan – cut into cubes and dried out

1 baguette – cut into cubes and dried out.

1.5 onions diced

3 –4 stalks of celery diced

olive oil or butter (or both)

1/2 lb to 3/4 bacon – chopped

1 lb of mushrooms, roughly chopped

white wine to taste

3 to 4 apples – peeled, cored and chopped

1/2 c toasted, slivered almonds

vegetable broth (about 2 cups, but use your discretion, depending on how moist you want your stuffing)

chopped herbs – sage, thyme, parsley

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375. Fry the bacon until cooked. Drain on paper towels and save some of the lard for use later. In a separate pan, sauté the onions in some butter or olive oil until soft, add the celery and apples until soft. Then add the mushrooms, which cook quickly, some white wine floor flavoring, the sage and thyme, and more butter or oil if needed. Cook down until the mushrooms are starting to get soft and tender. In a big pot, put in some of the lard (optional for more flavor) and heat until liquefied. Then add the rest of the cooked ingredients and bacon. Stir in all the bread cubes and mix. Add vegetable broth to moisten the mixture – should be moist but not liquidy. Then add the toasted almonds and chopped parsley. Add salt and pepper to taste. Transfer to a glass or ceramic baking dish and bake until crispy – about 30 minutes.

The bacon and lard can be omitted if you want to make a vegetarian option.

The next morning we scrambled some of the leftover stuffing into eggs for breakfast. I guess that’s like adding the eggs I saw in some of the recipes online that I initially was dubious about!

Turkey Drive

The weekend before Thanksgiving, Robert’s men’s group, EBNOM, (The East Bay Nation of Men) held their annual turkey drive at the Neighborhood House of North Richmond. For 20 years they have been organizing this volunteer effort where they raise money and labor to provide Thanksgiving dinners for families in need. The locations of the drive vary with last two being held at the senior center. For as little as $15 they are able to provide dinner for a family of four. This is due in large part to the connections to food vendors that several of the organizers have. Given the current economic climate, this year I have been looking more actively for ways to help out my community, so I eagerly agreed to donate money and time.

We arrived before 8am in the morning and I was tasked with coordinating the effort to divide the fresh produce equally for 500 families. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many potatoes and yams in one place! There were 25 boxes of sweet potatoes and 70 – 50lb bags of potatoes! I was glad to see that they were giving away some fresh produce rather than all boxed and canned goods. There was also some fresh broccoli and onions, just not enough for all 500 bags. It definitely seemed like a daunting task – to evenly divide so much food – but we were armed with a room full of willing participants and quickly got an informal assembly line going.

Often around this time of year, the discussion about the difference between sweet potatoes and yams comes up – as it did for us. Varying explanations are offered, with most thinking the color is what differentiates them. However, according to the North Carolina Sweet Potato Commission what we call yams, orange sweet potatoes, are actually just a different variety of sweet potato. Apparently there are several hundred types of sweet potatoes! Technically, a true yam is rough and scaly and typically imported from the Carribean. We started using the term yam in order to differentiate the orange ones grown in the south.*

In the large hall there were cans of cranberries, corn and green beans, boxes of stuffing of stuffing, and bags of fresh Acme bread. The turkeys were a little late in arriving because one of the men had truck troubles - he eventually found another working truck. It was quite impressive seeing the full truck back in with the delivery of 500 turkeys. Before giving out the meals around 10am, the volunteers and staff gathered in one large circle to give thanks; for the donations, for the organizing help and for all the good things and people in our lives.

It was a very orderly affair – the people in line were patient and the volunteers organized. As not all of the families spoke English, interpreters were available to help out. Lots of enthusiastic kids were both picking up meals and helping give out the items. People signed up in advance for a free meal; however there was still enough for others who hadn’t pre-registered after those with tickets picked up their meals. We were done just before noon. Seeing all the happy faces and meeting so many enthusiastic people made me feel like I was gaining more than I was giving. I definitely plan to participate next year.

* This discussion is reminiscent of how we came to call bison “buffalo” since they looked liked similar creatures to the ones the settlers had in Europe – but once it was discovered that they are very different and new term, bison, was needed – but by then the word buffalo stuck and we still use the term interchangeably in North America.

Fried Green Tomatoes

No produce item says summer to me more than tomatoes. The other day I was picking some in my friend, Sam’s, backyard garden where I noticed an abundance of green tomatoes. I collected a dozen or so of the unripened tomatoes to take home with me to make fried green tomatoes. They are so quick and simple to make with many variations on how to make them. I personally really like using corn meal that I mix with a variety of seasonings, usually including something spicy, like cayenne. This time I used garlic powder, hot paprika (great for adding color as you can be generous with the portion without burning your mouth off), and a mixed seasoning that Sam got my in New Orleans called “Slap Ya Mama”. It’s a mix of cayenne, salt and black pepper. I sliced the tomatoes, dredged them in a beaten egg, and then the corn meal with the spices. They were fried in a thin coating of peanut oil. Alternatively you can bake them to make it less caloric, but I have always preferred them fried. You could also use olive oil, but I like how you can cook at a higher heat with the peanut oil. It lets you flash fry them so they brown without becoming too soft. They only take a minute or two each side to get browned and crispy.

I served them with some local goat cheese with herbs spread across the top. The creaminess of the goat cheese is offset nicely by the heat and tanginess of tomatoes. Their sourness reminds me of tomatillos. Sam tells me that they don’t hold their shape when fried, but I am tempted to still try and create a Mexican twist on the southern fried green tomato. My meal also included diced watermelon with mint and a cold beer from the Philadelphia Brewing Company while the next day I had the fried tomatoes with some watermelon gazpacho. "Tomatoes Two Ways" – a popular trend on Top Chef – serving one item multiple ways. Both meals were refreshing and simple – particularly good for the extra hot summer we have been experiencing.

Watermelon Gazpacho

Gazpacho is one of those dishes that I haven’t quite acquired the taste for but believe I should as it typically uses such fresh, healthy ingredients. So occasionally I try it to see if my palette has changed. Recently my mother and I ate at Silk City Diner which I heard about from a friend in California! She saw it featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on the Food Network. As it was a hot day and we were sitting outside on the festive patio, I was inspired to try their watermelon gazpacho. Yum! What I don’t normally enjoy about traditional gazpacho is the acidity and the feeling that I am eating watered down tomato sauce. The sweetness from the melon balanced out any acidity. The soup was thick and smooth with chunks of crab meat providing some additional texture and brininess. The following weekend at the farmer’s market, they were carrying striking, yellow and orange striped heirloom tomatoes and seedless watermelon, so I decided to attempt to make the soup for myself and friends coming to dinner that night. Also available that day were cucumbers and red peppers – some of the other typical gazpacho ingredients.

A quick internet search produced a myriad of recipes. How do I chose???? I started with an image search since I knew what I wanted it to look like. Finally I started with a recipe from chef Tyler Florence, in part because he called for some heat using chiles. I made some changes in the herbs and base ingredients, like using mint as the herb and lime in place of vinegar since I thought it would go well with the sweetness of the melon. Here’s my revised version.

1 large heriloom tomato, diced and seeded (most recipes suggest seeding, not sure it’s necessary).

1/2 jalepeno

1/2 red pepper, diced

2 cups of diced watermelon

juice from 1/2 a lime

1/4 olive oil

2 tablespoons minced red onion

1/2 cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced

2 tablespoons chopped mint

salt and peper to taste

1/4 crumbled feta

In a food processer, puree all ingredients together except 1/2 the watermelon, 1/2 the mint and the feta. After pureeing add in remaining watermelon cubes and serve topped with the rest of the mint and crumbled feta. This recipe comes out thick and creamy because the oil acts like an emulsifier. The watermelon cubes add texture while the saltiness from the cheese plays well against the sweet melon.

My dinner guests were Michael and his friend, Javier, who was visiting from Barcelona. I was a little nervous serving a variation on gazpacho to a Spaniard, but the recipe was a hit with both. Javier had never had a watermelon gazpacho before and Michael declared it was the best gazpacho he’s ever tried. Perhaps next time I will attempt to make a traditional gazpacho – you never know what you might like, especially when using the freshest ingredients.