A complete fish dinner: shrimp, clams, swordfish

We had my brother and Donna over last night for a complete fish dinner.

Here's the dinner menu:

Chunks of parmigiano and a glass of cold, crisp wine
Shrimp salad on a bed of lettuce
Clams sauté with French toasted bread
Swordfish basically Sicilian style
Sliced pineapple

For the shrimp salad:
The rosy pink shrimp salad was served on a bed of iceberg lettuce, shaved carrots, shaved red cabbage, a quartered tomato and red thinly cut onion rings.(For the shrimp mix: clean and devein shrimp and boil unpeeled quickly with onion, celery, garlic, and a carrot. Cool, peel, and then add: a little olive oil, some mayonnaise, diced celery and onion, salt, pepper) top with paprika.

For the clams:
Toast 8 thick slices of French bread and set aside--two per platter. Wash the clams well several times in ice cold water. Let sit for awhile and rinse again.

Place in a fry pan on high heat to open. Remove them from the broth, and pass the broth through a sieve with a paper towel. In the same rinsed and dried huge fry pan, add hot pepper, garlic and olive oil...when the garlic was golden, add the clams, broth a hit of vino (Pinot Grigio because that's what we were drinking...and it;s always a good idea to cook with the wine you're drinking) and chopped cilantro.

Hint: NEVER add salt to clams or mussels , if made as a "zuppa" (broth).

For the swordfish:

a little smidgen of olive oil
a little bit tomato
a little shot glass of vino
a little piece of sliced onion
a little minced clove of garlic
a few teaspoons of some capers,
a handful of black olives,
a smattering of cilantro.
(And a partridge in a pear tree!)

Instructions:
Salt and pepper the fish--may use garlic powder, if desired.

Heat the olive oil and cook the fish a few minutes on each side. Remove and add the onions, garlic and fry till golden. Add vino--only about 1/2 a glass. Add tomato. Cook down. Add the juices of the fish. Turn off and add: capers, olives (I use the squiishy Greek ones and pit them...always pit olives! and cilantro. return the fish and simmer.

Don't overcook it. Fish doesn't need a lot of cooking...I implore you. Poke it with a fork for doneness!

Make sure you take your time serving each dish, or the company will not be able to finish the meal! After the dinner--take a longer break, and then serve the fruit.

A little discussion of LEFTOVERS

I had huge pieces of fresh swordfish, one piece was leftover. Today with that piece I will make a pasta sauce and serve with linguini or spaghetti.

For Christmas I made very large ( as in almost the size of a lb lobster) stuffed tails with clams, scallops and shrimp. I had two tails leftover. I removed the stuffing and made an omelet adding, onions and zucchini. With the lobster I cut the tails into medallions and made a pasta sauce to die for, and definitely smack the lips! this topped fettuccine. Delectable! Oy vey, I had a person at the table who did not eat fish. In which case, you reserve some of the plain tomato sauce for their pasta...Problem resolved.

More on LEFTOVERS...

One night in the cold west, I made piccadillo. Can't remember if I've written about this dish, but basically it's chopped meat in sauce made with sofrito, and then you add raisins and olives for a sweet and savory taste.

The leftover piccadillo served as the stuffing for empanadas...

Okay, okay, okay--I"ll check back to see if these recipes : piccadillo, stuffed lobster, and empanadas are in the archives...if not--I'll post them...eventually. Unless someone's dying for these, writes and implores me to post them, posthaste.

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Now can anyone solve this problem about posting blogs??? I had a full tool bar with colors and highlights,the ability to change sizes and fonts, Bold, Underline and Italics...it has disappeared. So if anyone knows how to get it back, a la Sherlock Holmes, I'll be indebted to you...you may even get an invitation to dinner, though I will not pay for airfare. Sorry, folks.

Have a super-duper, scrumptious Sunday!

Pasta with Fontina and Walnuts

"The discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a new star."
~~Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, The Physiology of Taste


Pasta with Fontina, walnuts and sausage

Ingredients:
6-8 oz. of Fontina, grated
1 cup of walnuts
1 cup of white wine (whatever you’re drinking…)
6 Italian sausage links
1 lb. of short pasta
2 tablespoons of grated parmigiano

You may use a combination of fennel, sweet or hot sausages. I found some interesting sausage in Tony Caputo’s Market and Deli in Salt Lake City so I bought 6 links: two Barolo, two Porcini mushrooms and cheese and two Calabrese. I also bought the Fontina.

Directions:
Skin and fry the meat in a large fry pan
When well cooked, add the vino

In a large warmed serving bowl disperse ½ of the grated Fontina, ½ cup of the walnuts, and ½ of the sausage and wine.

Add the hot drained pasta to this and top with the rest of the ingredients.
Mix well and serve

Another way to make this dish is the way I ate it in Val D’Aosta, and that’s with added cauliflower! Heavy yes, but delish and filling on a cold night.
A good idea to have a Grappa afterward to digest it!

Broccoli soup

A gal named Jo has made a few comments and I wanted to respond--but couldn't just hit the reply button...

Hi, Jo! glad you're enjoying these blogs...

Since you're going to try cauliflower soup...try broccoli soul as well..
Use butter and onions, shallots or scallions or a combination of all for a base.

Cook the broccoli in salted water or broth to cover--bullion cube will work too, just watch the salt when seasoning...then mush and smush it all up in a blnederand add the cream, or half and half or a combination of milk and cream.

Will be on later, I hope with another holiday recipe...

New Year's Day: Lentil Soup

New Year’s Day 2009

"One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well."

-- Virginia Woolf


Ingredients for Hearty Lentil Soup

(Serves 6-8 people abundantly)


1 lb. lentils, washed and sorted
1 lb of pork filet
1 lb of lean ground beef—
1 small package of small carrots, sliced fat
1 sweet potato, cut small
1 yellow fleshed potato, (may use white), cut small
1 yanga, as in very large onion, chopped
1 small bunch of celery hearts with leaves, chopped
1-2 zucchini, quartered
1-2 garlic cloves, minced
½ glass white wine
broth or water—as much as it takes…4-6 cups or so
Hot pepper, if desired
3 slices of thick-cut bacon
Salt to taste—use less if you use bullion cubes or broth.
1 17 oz can of tomato sauce –or 4 fresh tomatoes, skinned
2 tablespoons of flour (to roll the meatballs in)

You may make this without the meat…and it’s very delish!

In a hug pot, heat some olive oil and fling in the cut up pork and brown.
When just about finished, toss in the cut up bacon and fry till desired crispness. Add wine, and let the alcohol burn off.

Add the lentils and broth to cover, and then bring to a boil. For 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and let them rest for an hour…in the meantime you are cutting the other veggies, and making the tiny meatballs.

I make tiny meatballs with seasoning, breadcrumbs and grated cheese—no eggs, no onions, no bread. Easy, fast and yummy for soups. Roll in flour.

When the lentils have rested, add more water or broth. Turn heat to medium, and dump in all the veggies…when the veggies are done to your liking, add the meatballs to the soup and cook for about 10 minutes. Turn the soup off and serve with fresh bread or bruschetta. Or do what I did. I made it the day before and then heated if for dinner so I wouldn’t be “cooking” for New Year’s…merely heating up the warm and wundebar soup.

We had a brunch of bagels, cream cheese and lox with capers and tomatoes and onions for garnish. I had made a tomato pie, which I just reheated and voilà! New Year’s brunch! An excellent meal. Felipe opened champagne. Everyone was free to take a walk, a nap, go shopping, watch football, and in the evening before dinner we saw the movie Traitor. I recommend it. The acting was superb.
I must say, you can check out my recipe for tomato pie—but I’ve altered it and like it better…(see achieves)
The oregano and the basil I put on top of the tomatoes…and the onions I no longer use raw—but wilt them in butter…scrumptious!