We have just entered Advent, celebrated Thanksgiving, and are now headed into the holiday season with all our favorite foods ahead of us. So we want to keep our menus tasty but also healthy without including too many rich heavy dishes at this time.
Fish is perfect for right now. Not only because of its nutritional value but also because it’s so convenient, fast and easy to cook during these busy days when time is at premium. Here at the convent we include fish weekly in our meal planning and prepared in this Mediterranean way it appeals to many. We often serve it with fresh kale which is still growing in our garden and continues to provide us with many healthy benefits through the winter months.
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Baked Mediterranean Fish
SERVINGS2people
|
COOK TIME10-20mins |
PREP TIME20mins |
READY IN30-40 mins |
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Heat oil in medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, red pepper, celery and anchovies. Cook stirring often, until lightly browned.
- Add wine and garlic and simmer for 30 seconds. Stir in olives, oregano and lemon zest.
- Season with 1/8 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon pepper and capers. Season fish with the remaining salt and pepper.
- Arrange the fish in a single layer in a pie pan or baking dish. Spoon the vegetable mixture over the fish and give a light sprinkle of red pepper flakes. Bake uncovered, until the fish is just cooked through, 10 to 20 minutes.
- Divide the fish into 2 portions and top with vegetables and their juices.
Years ago when I was just a teenager one of my jobs in my father’s restaurants was to type up the daily menus. Some of the menu items have stuck in my mind more than others, as favorites of those who regularly ate there. Welch Rarebit was one of them, (Perhaps because I liked it so much myself). In any case, I sometimes feel sad that it seems to have disappeared from the memory of people my age and is completely unknown to a lot of others. Although usually served over crispy toast I have often used it in other ways as well, so for Thanksgiving I thought I’d like to incorporate it into a vegetable side dish. So I came up with this Welch rarebit Cauliflower.
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Welsh Rarebit Cauliflower
SERVINGS8people
|
COOK TIME40mins |
PREP TIME20mins |
READY IN1hr |
Ingredients
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan over low heat, melt the butter and whisk in the flour. Cook, whisking constantly for 2 to 3 minutes, being careful not to brown the flour. Whisk in mustard, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper until smooth. Add beer and whisk to combine. Pour in cream and cheese, whisk until well combined and smooth; this will take 4 to 5 minutes. Add hot sauce.
- Place a steamed whole head of cauliflower in deep serving dish, pour rarebit over it and top with homemade golden buttery toast crumbs (crumble two slices of white bread – sprinkle lightly with oil and brown in 400 degree Fahrenheit oven about 5-10 minutes), crispy bacon bits, and red pepper flakes.
- Garnish with fresh herbs or other vegetables as desired.
I love fall — just the smells hanging in the air fills me with a sense of adventure. Woody smoke, apples, root vegetables, leaves burning…it is all there beckoning us to pay attention. The other day, the Sisters were given a very generous donation of pumpkins from a local nursery. It was a beautiful sight seeing them lining our walk in all different shapes and sizes. Being the thrifty sort and hating to see anything go to waste, I knew we must use these not just to beautify our property, but to eat before they went bad. When I got the call that a lunch was needed to feed our community of 200 people, I knew just the thing – homemade pumpkin soup – Delightful! We set about cutting the pumpkins into large chunks, roasting them in the oven, and then transferring them to our skillet where we turned it all into a yummy creamy pumpkin soup. When we were all done, we still had pumpkins left over! (It felt a bit like the feeding of the 5000!). I remembered that a friend, returning from Italy, had brought me a wonderful recipe of a whole, roasted pumpkin layered with ham, sautéed vegetables and cheese. It’s a perfect recipe to try at this time of year, especially with Thanksgiving just around the corner.
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Pumpkin stuffed with Vegetables and Cheese
SERVINGS6-8people
|
COOK TIME1 hr30 min |
PREP TIME30min |
READY IN2hr |
Ingredients
Instructions
- Wash the pumpkin
- Preheat oven to 375°
- Cut the head of the pumpkin, making an incision horizontally about 2 inches down from the stem
- Place the top back on the pumpkin, wrap it in tin foil and place in a preheated oven for about one hour or until the pumpkin is almost fork tender.
- Remove from oven, let it cool slightly and remove the seeds. With the spoon, gently remove some of the flesh from inside the pumpkin and reserve.
- Generously salt and pepper the interior of the pumpkin.
- In a cast iron skillet, heat the olive oil and add the butternut squash and parsnips. Sprinkle with kosher or onion salt and pepper.
- When they are partially cooked, remove from the skillet
- Add onions and peppers to the same skillet, again sprinkling with salt and pepper.
- Once they have cooked a few minutes, add the mushrooms, followed by the zucchini, a few minutes later. Sautéing slightly.
- While the vegetables are cooking, grate your cheese and set aside and slice your ham into thin strips.
- Once the vegetables are prepared, in the cavity of your pumpkin, start layering in this order: ham, baby spinach, assorted vegetables, the reserved pumpkin, swiss cheese, parmesan cheese and repeat – two or three times, ending with cheese.
- Place the top on the pumpkin, place the pumpkin in a casserole dish or cast iron skillet, and return to the oven for about 45 min. or until heated through and cheese is bubbly. Let rest a few minutes and slice when ready to serve.
Andiamo Mangiare!
For a meal, serve this with homemade bread or rolls and a salad.
“Please, could we have Salisbury steak for dinner sometime? My mother made it all the time and I love it.” I found this note on the convent kitchen counter a few days ago.
Now how does one ignore a request like this? Immediately, we set out to find a good recipe for this old favorite, and served it a few nights later. I’m not sure it was exactly like “Mom made it,” but it certainly made the sister who requested it, as well as many others, very happy. We served it with mashed potatoes (as they always do down South), roasted carrots and zucchini.
How long has it been since you served Salisbury steak?
Salisbury Steak
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Salisbury Steak
SERVINGS
|
COOK TIME1 1/4mins |
PREP TIME |
READY IN |
Ingredients
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, combine the beef, black pepper, onion salt, Worcestershire Sauce, bread crumbs and egg.
- Mix well. Shape into 4 equal patties.
- Heat a skillet over medium heat for about one minute, and then add butter.
- Place meat patties in skillet and brown on both sides for about 4-5 minutes each. Remove from skillet and set aside.
- Add the sliced onion to the skillet, right on top of the browned bits.
- Reduce the heat and cook the onions on medium-low heat until the onions turn translucent and brown. Don’t rush this step: Cook the onions low and slow for about 20-25 minutes
- Sprinkle 2 Tablespoons of flour over the onions. Stir.
- Let cook and brown for about 2 minutes. Add 2 cups beef broth. Stir well.
- Raise the heat back up to about medium. Stir well.
- Place the meat patties back in the pan. Cover.
- Reduce heat just a little and let simmer for about 15 more minutes.
- Remove from heat and serve warm.
Risotto is now considered a specialty dish often featured on menus in upscale eating places. It has, however, been a common everyday food in Italian homes for many years. Cooked in different ways to satisfy various tastes, it is almost as popular as pasta in the Mediterranean diet.
It can be prepared as a simple, meatless, light lunch or as an accompaniment to meat or fish for a fuller multi-course meal.
This time of year, spring asparagus especially lends itself to this creamy, cheesy dish to make it an exceptionally flavorful culinary experience.
Asparagus Risotto
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Asparagus Risotto
SERVINGS
|
COOK TIME50mins. |
PREP TIME |
READY IN |
Ingredients
Instructions
- Blanch the asparagus
- In a 3 or 4-quart saucepan, heat 1 Tablespoon butter on medium heat.
- Add the shallots and cook until translucent.
- Add the rice and cook for 2 minutes more, stirring until nicely coated.
- While shallots are cooking, bring the stock to a simmer in another saucepan.
- Add the wine. Slowly stir, allowing the rice to absorb the wine.
- Once the wine is almost completely absorbed, add 1/2 cup of hot stock to the rice. Stir until the liquid is almost sticking to the bottom of the pan.
- Continue adding 1/2 cup of hot stock to the rice at a time, and cooking and stirring until liquid is absorbed each time.
- You will stop adding stock when the rice is tender, but still firm to the bite, about 20-25 minutes.
- With the last ladle of stock, add the asparagus. Turn off the heat. Keep the risotto loose. It thickens a lot while it sits.
- Gently stir in the Parmesan cheese and the remaining 1 Tablespoon of butter. Add onion salt and pepper to taste.
