Thinking About Christmas Eve & Baccalá

The question has been raised and lowered by many as to why we continue to produce and eat salted cod when there is no longer the need for it.  I guess part of it is tradition, and part of it is that salted and air-dried cod have different flavors and textures than fresh cod.  No matter how much soaking and delicate cooking you do, preserved cod never quite gets back to its original form.  Maybe that distinction is reason enough to continue the process.  

I didn't grow up with the tradition of eating strictly seafood on Christmas Eve...sometimes I wish I had but now I get to celebrate that way with Nicole's family.  I particularly look forward to cold Baccalá Salad, tossed in a lemony vinaigrette with crunchy vegetables and olives.  It wouldn't be the same with fresh fish, which would likely fall apart and turn to mush, whereas baccalá maintains its firmness.  So there you go.   

The feast, although very prominent among the most traditional of Italian-American families, is not necessarily celebrated throughout Italy.  It's more of a southern thing, which makes sense since most of us here trace our routes back to Il Mezzogiorno.

The dish featured here is Baccalá alla Napoletana, or in the style of Naples.  I've only made it with salted cod a couple of times, more often than not going for fresh cod since I can.  This isn't necessarily a must-have at Christmas, but it would certainly not be out of place at such a feast.    

Bell peppers, roasted, with onions, tomatoes and capers make for a familiar flavor profile throughout the southern parts.  As does fish lightly coated in flour and fried.  

This recipe is similar to others from Tuscany south that serve the fish in some variation of tomato sauce, but here the roasted peppers stand out, their smokiness and syrupy sweetness defining the dish.

I've been using chickpea flour rather than wheat for a long time because it's healthier and imparts a bit of earthiness to the fish, along with extra goldiness.  Either way, the light coating of just flour makes for just a thin crust, not too crunchy but enough to add some additional texture to the outside of the fish.  

The flavors are clean with little to no saturated fat.  Light enough for Summer, yet warming enough for any time of year, including the holidays.  

Serves 6

6 sweet red, orange or yellow bell peppers

3 medium onions, sliced

1 32 oz. can San Marzano Tomatoes

2 Tablespoons capers

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

3 lbs. fresh cod or salt cod, cut into individual portions

1 1/2 cups all purpose or chickpea flour

Vegetable Oil for frying

Salt & Pepper to taste

Optional: fresh Flat Leaf Parsley to garnish

If using salt cod, place it in a large container with cold water and soak it for 2 to 3 days, changing the water twice daily.  Drain and dry.  Carefully remove any bones or skin.

Roast the peppers on the grill until charred on all sides.  Place in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap for 15 minutes.  When cool enough to handle, peel off all the skin and remove the seeds, preserving as much liquid as possible.  Take the flesh and cut into strips.

In a large frying or saute pan heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat.  When it's shimmering add the onions and toss to coat with the oil.  Turn the heat down to medium low and let the onions cook slowly, covered if need be so they get nice and brown without the edges burning too much first.

Separate the tomatoes from their juices and cut them into strips.  When the onions are nicely browned and soft, add the peppers and their juices, the tomatoes and their juices, and the capers.  Let the sauce cook for 10 to 20 minutes at a low boil to meld the flavors.  Season to taste with salt and pepper and leave simmering while you fry the fish.

In a heavy pot add the vegetable oil to a depth of 1 1/2 to 2 inches and bring it to medium heat, or 375 degrees.  Get a sheet pan ready with absorbent paper to drain the fish.  

Place the flour in a shallow dish big enough to dredge the fish fillets.  Salt and pepper the fish pieces, then dip them in the flour, turning to coat all over.  Shake off the excess flour and put them on a baking sheet.  You will probably need to fry in a couple to a few batches, so before each batch dredge the fillets once more just before going into the oil.  Fry for 4 minutes, then flip and fry another 4 minutes until they're golden brown, maintaining the heat of the oil at medium.  When they are finished frying, remove them to the pan with absorbent paper and season with a little more salt.  

Once they're finished, place the fried fish in the pan of sauce and cook at a simmer for 5 to 10 minutes on top, then garnish with parsley and serve hot.

Potato Gnocchi 101 With Julia, Sandra & Nicole (And Gina Showed Up Just In Time For Dinner)

There are lots of types of gnocchi, another one of those ubiquitous Italian hunger killers; made, for instance, from taters, bread, ricotta or semolina, with names like canederli, gnoche and pisarei (means little penises).  They are loosely considered pasta, being made mostly with carbs and dressed with sauces, but the variations comprise their own genre really.

One of the first things in our lesson was to get Jules and Sand pronouncing them correctly...nyoke-o (singular) or nyoke-ee (plural).  Saying it wrong is nothing to be embarrassed about; I've been mispronouncing Jojoba for a year or so now, for instance.  

A lot of potato gnocchi are dense, heavy-in-the-stomach pellets of dough with not that much discernible potato.  Usually that means the preparer has continued adding flour to the dough during kneading and forming because they're worried about the structural integrity and their ability to stand up to boiling water.

A good potato gnocco though should be light and tender so that when you put it in your mouth you need not push it to your molars to chew, but rather press it against the top of your mouth with your tongue so that it disintegrates, allowing you to really taste the potato and feel its starchiness on your tongue.  That's what my wife said.  

The best advice I've gotten on potato gnocchi was from a Piedmontese chef in Italy who told me to peel and rice the potatoes as soon as possible without burning yourself, spreading them out in an even layer on a work surface.  This allows maximum steam to be released, drying them out, which in turn means less flour will be needed to make the dough come together because of the lower water content.  The rule will also work for sweet potatoes or squash if those are the bases you're using.    

A nice and easy thing about most gnocchi too is that, unlike flour pastas, there's very little muscle needed for kneading and forming the dough .  Making and cooking the shapes is a quick process, especially with a couple bodies.  Sure, it may take time to get the proper technique for a bella figura, but as long as it floats, it's good eating.

Potato gnocchi often have ridges for holding on to sauce, courtesy of a special wooden board, but the tines of a fork work well too.  Julia and Sandra had a little trouble at first rolling the dough off their thumbs, but with some well floured hands and some time they got it...then the 3 bottles of Prosecco kicked in and the learning curve flattened out.  

You can form a first batch and boil them to test their integrity...if they hold up and come afloating after a couple minutes, they're good to go.  If not, add flour little by little to firm them up slightly, but don't go overboard.  A basic tomato sauce is a good accompaniment, slightly sweet and acidic, or butter and olive oil with grated cheese for a quicker, simpler alternative.

For our lesson/dinner I wanted something substantial though, a one dish meal kind of thing, so I made a beef brisket meat sauce as you can see.  It had a kind of stracotto (well cooked in Italian, their version of pot roast) aspect to it, with a base of tomato and some red wine, the meat shredded and chopped into tasty morsels.

Is it the prosecco or the thought of boiled potatoes?

Serves 6

For the Gnocchi Dough:
3 lbs. potatoes (Idaho, Russet, Yukons will all work)
2 eggs
1 1/2  to 2 cups all purpose flour
A couple pinches of salt

For the Meat Sauce:
1 2 1/2 to 3 lb. beef brisket, cut into 4 or 5 pieces
2 onions, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, finely diced
1 bay leaf
4 cloves (the spice)
1 cup dry red wine
1 32 oz. can San Marzano Tomatoes, pureed
1/2 tube of tomato paste
1 to 2 cups low sodium beef broth
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
Parmigiano Reggiano

Make the meat sauce a day or several hours in advance.  Salt and pepper the chunks of meat aggressively on both sides, leaving the layer of fat on the top of the brisket intact.

In a dutch oven heat a tablespoon or so of olive oil on medium heat, and when shimmering, add the beef, being mindful not to overcrowd the pan.  Let the beef seer several minutes until golden brown, then flip and do the same for the other side.  Remove to a platter and set aside.

When all the beef is seared, add the onions to the pan and deglaze to pick up all the brown bits.  Reduce the heat to medium low to sweat the onions and prevent browning, adding the garlic at this point.

Cook for 5 to 10 minutes, then add the cloves and bay leaf, and turn the heat to medium high, cooking another 2 minutes.

Add the wine and let it cook until almost evaporated, further deglazing if need be.  Add the tomato paste and let it cook 2 minutes until it turns a rusty color.

Add the beef broth and then tomatoes and bring to a boil, add the meat back and lower the heat to a simmer.  Cover and cook for 3 to 4 hours, flipping the meat a couple times and stirring occasionally, until the beef is very tender and pulls apart easily.

Remove the meat from the pot, discarding the layer of fat.  When cool enough to handle, chop into small, bite-sized pieces, small enough to dress the gnocchi properly.

Return the meat to the pot and cook another 15 to 20 minutes to meld the flavors, then season to taste with salt and pepper and turn off the heat.

To make the gnocchi, put the potatoes in a large pot in one pretty even layer, and cover by a couple inches with water.  Bring to a boil and cook another 20 to 30 minutes until the potatoes are easily pierced with a knife.  Drain and as soon as possible peel the skin and pass them through a ricer onto a work surface, spreading them out as much as possible.  Alternatively, you can use a potato masher, but a ricer is ideal for texture.

Once the potatoes have cooled so there is no visible steam coming off, add the eggs, flour and salt to the potatoes and bring together into a ball, then begin kneading it gently like bread or pasta dough.  Do this until it's cohesive and the ingredients are evenly distributed.  Take a hunk out of the dough and roll it into a long cylinder, about 1 inch in diameter.  Cut off pieces every inch or so and flour them lightly.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it abundantly.

Using a gnocchi board or a fork, take the inside corner of your thumb and press down gently on the back edge of the dough, then drag it, rolling the dough over until it rolls off the fork.  It should be about a half rotation for the gnocco.  This should leave a dimple on the back end of the gnocco from your thumb, and ridges on the front end from the fork.  Don't press down too hard and crush the dough; just put enough pressure to grab hold and pull it along while impressing the fork on the bottom edge.

Cook a batch of the gnocchi in the boiling water until they float to the surface, 2 to 3 minutes, stirring gently 20 seconds after putting them in.  If they disintegrate in the water add a bit more flour to the dough.  Drain and serve dressed with the meat sauce, garnished with Parmigiano Reggiano.

You can also cook the gnocchi in batches as they're formed, draining them and putting them in a baking dish with enough of the meat sauce to coat.  At this point the gnocchi can't really overcook, and the time sitting in the meat sauce will allow them to absorb the flavor of the sauce to good effect.  Keep the baking dish in the oven on warm until finished.    

I'm available nights and weekends for lessons!

Thanksgiving 2010 Wrap Up

That's your idea of Thanksgiving dinner?!

As always it was a year of eyes writing checks tummies couldn't cash.  We split Thanksgiving with both our families, and even tried to design menus that would allow us to enjoy both meals.  Alas, it was still too much, too fast.  Even with a few hours in between feeding times, Nicole couldn't get halfway through the second dinner, while I managed a serving of dessert #2 before throwing the spoon down.

We made a good effort and we were grateful to have a lot of family around and two takes on the holiday meal.  First off at Nicole's was turkey with all the fixins.  While I won't waver from my opinions expressed in the pre-TG post, I admit the bird smelled real nice while it was roasting away.  Beyond that I got my fill mostly on the sides, with a bit of dark meat thrown in so I could say I had my requisite protein for the sitting.

Nicole made a smooth and earthy potato and celery root soup, pureed, for an appetizer at her family's get together, and we gilded the lily on this one with some truffle olive oil at the finish.  I am fundamentally opposed to truffle oil because I don't think there's such a thing in the true sense, but I will admit that if I closed my eyes and pretended, it did enhance the dish, which was already a very good start to the celebration.

For my part, I spent most of the day before the 25th breaking down ducklings for all the usable meat and a good portion of the rich fat I could get.  It was intended for a duck ragu to be served with fresh fettuccine, but I found that two 5 lb. ducklings only yielded a couple to a few pounds of meat.  After running back out for some mature duck breasts I had plenty with which to make the rich sauce.

Duck has a layer of solid, high quality fat around its lean muscle, and the two separate very cleanly and easily.  However, the fat renders very quickly and is useful for texture and flavor in the meat sauce, so most of it should be included.  I did probably throw away a few pounds of it nonetheless.  I felt like I should have saved the discarded portion and used it another time to make french fries, but I had to stick to the game plan.

With that the focal point of my family's meal, we decided we'd have a soup course first.  Roasted butternut squash soup has become almost a tradition, served with polenta croutons.  It's a beautifully simple recipe of only a handful of ingredients, the oven roasting concentrating the sweetness and flavor before being pureed smooth with homemade vegetable stock.

A soup followed by a rich pasta dish should be enough (especially after turkey, stuffing, casserole, mashes, etc.only a few hours before), but I felt leaving out some sides would make it a little austere for this occasion.  So I chose Brussels sprouts sauteed with American bacon (rather than pancetta as originally intended).  The Brussels are blanched to soften, then blackened on high heat with abundant bacon in it's rendered fat.  The salt and smokiness cut some of the richness and density of the Brussels, so I'm glad I went with it rather than unsmoked Pancetta.

Additionally I felt some kind of potato, mashed or not, was needed, so I also made mashed sweet potatoes with vanilla bean.  I roasted the potatoes whole in the oven rather than boiling (on the same principle as the squash) and then mashed them with just butter and the fresh vanilla.  The potatoes are the perfect sweetness with nothing added, the vanilla adding complexity that makes you wonder if it's dessert time while just a hint of salt rounds it out.

As I alluded to in the pre-TG post, dessert was not my department for this meal, so we stuck with the tried and true trio of pies; apple, pumpkin and super sweet pecan, which did me in.  Ginger ice cream was a new addition though (not homemade), and it offered a degree of palette refreshment and cleansing, a nice finish to the cornucopia. 

The conclusion was that even with the break between meals at each house and the break from tradition in the second sitting, it was too much.  The duck pasta would be a good choice for a Christmas meal, for instance. A simple pasta with vegetable would have done fine for Thanksgiving #2, or literally some salad with shrimp.  But then it would be just like a weeknight meal, which is what I wanted to avoid in the first place.

Recipes to follow...