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Oh Christmas Eve
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Our family's tradition is to have a meal of seven fishes (well seafood anyway) on Christmas Eve. But this year, having learned from last year, we're only doing two. What's different is that our friend Bunkey is spending his second Christmas in Iraq.
- Yes, in years gone by, we always started with a soup of white beans and anchovies.
- This was followed by baccala (salted cod) prepared with tomatoes, calamati olives and capers served with toasted polenta wedges or simmered in milk and savories and whisked into soft polenta.
- Clams in a broth with pancetta and leeks
- The pasta dish might be prawns with pancetta and arugala in olive oil and garlic, over spaghetti. Or it might be local tuna in one sauce or another over tagliatelli.
- Always, there would be smelts, deep fried.
- Salmon, baked flank or grilled steaks, served with garlic mashed potatoes
- A firm white fish, maybe sea bass or halibut, baked and served over fresh fava beans cooked in a fish stock
Dessert would almost always be a selection of Italian cookies.
But Bunkey's in the desert, and we can't eat all that fish without him. Well, the anchovies and beans are a must - Dad will make that. And then whatever I can find fresh over at Princeton Harbor. Mom's already bought the cookies. Oh, and cake, chocolate cake, to celebrate my 50th.
Happy Holidays, safe journeys and good eating to all my family and friends wherevever you are this year.
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2 comments
This is a cookbook that will entice your taste buds with simplistic, authentic Italian recipes from the Old Country.
To view all the recipes included within, please click on the link below.
http://eveof7fishes.com/contents.htm
· http://press.teleinteractive.net/index.php/tiapress?author=4 Thank you for stopping by. The menu ideas and recipes in your book look good. Though I was surprised to see meat based recipes for Christmas Eve. Sometimes, when we have a large holiday party on Christmas Eve, and folk are coming who don't enjoy fish, we will make the traditional pork loin fish. ;)
I see that you have a lot of baccala recipes. You must love that nice salt cod.
For those who have never seen a plank of salt cod, it is hard as a rock and usually 18-inches to two-feet long, and maybe an inch thick. When I was growing up, if my paternal grandmother ever said "I'm going to give you a baccala", we kids knew we had crossed the line - because that meant a spanking. Though she would never waste a salted cod, or ever actually hit one of us. :D
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