Fish Stew: For Now or Later

It has been a long time since I spent Christmas Eve in New York with Gran Fran and Joe. My sister is here in San Francisco and we have our own family gatherings, but I do miss Gran Fran's Feast of the Seven Fishes. We do a pretty good job of it, if I may say so myself, out here in SF.

I remember one of the first times she made Boulliabase (which is essentially the same sort of recipe as the below). We drove out to the docks in Long Island and got the freshest shellfish there was. A story for another time, was when we got live Lobsters from the same fishermen and I had to sit in the back of the car with a plastic bag of crawling Lobsters near my feet.

But  I digress. My tale today is about making this stew, and serving it to your friends and family as part of any celebration or just as a weekend treat. You may have noticed, I have a thing for soups. Well, stews rank right up there, so this is another favorite of mine.

Gran Fran always uses the liquor Anisette mixed with vermouth for her version. I don't always have that in my cupboard, so use dry vermouth with fennel seeds. Let me tell you, there is a huge difference. The Anisette has a depth of flavor that you just can't get with my version. But, of course, as I always say, make do with what you have and you'll still end up with a great dish.

When I was home during Thanksgiving, Gran Fran was kind enough to make this wonderful fish stew for me. She let me take pictures while she cooked. I usually cook and shoot everything I post. It was eye-opening to try and work in real-time shots while Gran Fran cooked and not get in her way. We often communicate via yelling (not I'm angry-type yelling, more of an I'm just trying to make my point kind of yelling). And so, you can imagine, that Joe decided to excuse himself from this particular event, hiding out in their office.

In the end, the food was wonderful and I loved being able to document Gran Fran while she actually cooks. When she posts on her blog, I end up cooking the recipes myself here in SF and posting pictures for her. Oh the greatness of technology. But, there is nothing like having a tried-and-true dish made by the person who first served it to you. Mine is always good (and my sister and her husband's versions are great, too), but Gran Fran just adds a certain something.

Make this and add your own personal touches. Except for the method, you can add or subtract any amounts of fish to your liking.

Merry Christmas to you all!

recipe courtesy of Fran Claro, reposted from The Italian Pantry

Friday Night Fish Soup

Serves six

• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cups potatoes, diced
• 1 cup carrots, diced
• 1 cup celery, diced
• 1 cup onions, diced
• Salt
• Freshly ground pepper
• 2 tablespons tomato paste
• 4 tablespoons anisette or other licorice-flavored liqueur
• 1/4 cup dry vermouth
• 2 bay leaves
• Sprinkle of red pepper flakes
• 1 teaspoon dried basil or 1 tablespoon fresh
• 2 quarts boiling water
• 1 1/2 pounds cod fillet, skinned, rinsed
• 3 dozen little neck clams, well scrubbed
• 1 pound mussels, debearded and well scrubbed

1. Warm oliveoil in a pot large enough to hold all ingredients.
2. Add vegetables; sprinkle with salt and pepper.
3. Saute vegetables until golden, about 15 minutes.
4. Add tomato paste;  saute over low heat 10 minutes.
5. Add anisette and vermouth; reduce by half.
6. Add herbs, pepper flakes; cover all ingredients with boiling water.
7. Bring to boil; reduce to simmer.
8. Partially cover; simmer 30 minutes, or until vegetables are tender.
9. Add cod; simmer 10 minutes.
10. Return soup to boil.
11. Add clams and mussels.
12. After 7 minutes, check if shellfish open; remove from shells.
13. Cook shellfish until most open;  discard any that have  not opened.
14. Add shelled seafood to soup.
15. Serve soup with crusty bread.

Chicken Scarpariello: A Gift for Gran Fran

There was a time that I couldn't deal with cooking things that had too many steps. I suppose I just became lazy at some point. Eventually, I came back around to the thrill of the multiple step recipe, that involves measuring cups and spoons and even multiple knives for different ingredients. It dawned on me that Gran Fran just keeps cooking, no matter how much mess, how many pots and pans or how long it'll take. If there is a recipe that needs to be made, she will make it no matter what.

This year, for her birthday,one of my sisters asked me to shoot and make a bunch of Gran Fran's recipes so we could make her a nice little book as a gift. I didn't have much time, only a week and a half, so I tried to choose recipes that would be relatively easy to work through.

A quick look through Gran Fran's blog, revealed to me that many of the recipes, though simple, involve many steps and ingredients. So much for making this project easy. Though it was challenging, due to time constraints (not to mention that Gran Fran planned a last-minute trip that landed mid-deadline, making me stop my work, so as to not ruin the surprise gift that was to come a few weeks later), I really did enjoy working on these recipes.

The recipes I chose all turned out really well, flavor-wise, I think, because of the many layers of flavor. For this Chicken Scarpariello, the hot cherry peppers offset the sweet fennel sausage nicely. The steps are simple, there are just a lot of them. But, the end result is totally worth it.

original recipe from The Italian Pantry, Fran Claro's Food Blog

Chicken Scarpariello

Serves six

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, quartered
• One 4-pound chicken, well rinsed, dried, cut into 10 pieces
• Salt to taste
• Freshly ground pepper to taste
• 1 pound sweet sausage with fennel, sliced into 1/2 inch rounds
• 4 to 7 hot cherry peppers in vinegar, diced
• 1 cup dry white wine or dry vermouth
• 1/2 cup chicken broth

Method:

• Add chicken to pan; sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. 
• Brown chicken thoroughly on allsides.
• Remove chicken from pan; set aside.
• In same pan, saute sausage until cooked through
• To pan, add diced peppers, including seeds; stir.
• Remove sausage andpeppers from pan; set aside.
• Add wine to panand reduce by half; add broth.
• Stir all scrapings from bottom of pan into the wine and broth.
• Return all ingredients to pan; bring to a boil.
• Reduce heat; cover closely.
•  Simmer 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.
• Remove sausage and chicken from pan; set aside.
• Over medium heat, reduce sauce until it coats a spoon.
• Pour sauce over chicken; serve with mashed potatoes.

I Love My Food Processor

Have you ever seen anything so wonderful?

If you've seen my previous posts, you may know that I grew up in a household without a food processor, let alone knives that had any kind of a sharp edge.

I resisted for years, fearful that Gran Fran's paranoia about these machines with killer blades would come true.

Well, I'm glad that I bit the bullet and got myself a new-fangled food processor. It is my new best friend (though that Microplane is coming in a close second).

I never imagined how quickly it could take a ingredients to pulp, soup or otherwise smush lots of stuff together instantly and consistently.

And, so, here are a few of my greatest hits: pesto, no-cook cranberry sauce and mushroom soup.

yum...porchetta

"Next time you visit, we're going to Ave. A and E. 7 St. for genuine porchetta sandwiches at a place called--what else? Porchetta."

This is from an email from Gran Fran regarding where we can get a good version of the much-loved Porchetta of Northern Italy. We went to Italy for a month in 1989 along with a group from my college. Gran Fran was recently unemployed, and had never been to Italy, so she decided to join us.

We arrived in Rome, got on a tour bus and drove into the Tuscan hills. Our accommodations were thanks to a generous convent who rented rooms out to supplement their Honey production-based income. There are a number of hilarious episodes that I can recall, the best of which involved me and a bunch of other girls, fairly sloshed, raiding the nun's pantry well after midnight. Our take? Those little dry toasts you use instead of crackers. Apparently, this was all we were after, which is funny since there were countless containers of delicious honey everywhere.

Both Gran Fran and I love a good piece of roasted pork skin. When we realized that there was a dedicated Porchetta truck twice a week at the outdoor market, I thought our heads might explode from joy. And, a little later in our stay, we figured out that the local Rosticceria offered a pretty good version on a daily basis, as well.

The greatest part about Porchetta, is it's skin. Crispy and salty, roasted to a perfect potato-chip like crunch, it can't be beat. In NY, Ms. Gran Fran proved that she knows her daughter all to well by requesting extra skin on my serving. The server happily obliged and we were thrilled.

Porchetta NYC is a very small place, with only 6 bar stool seats total inside, and a small enclosed bench area outside. It's totally worth the wait for a seat, if you don't want to eat on the run, especially because you get to enjoy the porchetta aroma while you eat. The potatoes are fantastic, and I believe they were cooked in the drippings from the Porchetta. Joy! Crispy and salty (see my description of the skin above) and a perfect texture to go with the meat.

I ordered the Porchetta plate (no bread for me), which came with some great sauteed greens, Kale, I think. The white beans that came with it weren't really my thing, but they definitely had a nice flavor that cut through some of the saltiness of the meat. Oh and the meat! So good, just like the real thing in Italy. I highly recommend a sojourn downtown to get yourself some of this delicious treat.

If you happen to live here in SF, you can find a very good Porchetta (sandwiches or by the pound) via the Roli Roti truck. You may have to wait up to 45 minutes for your food, but it's totally worth it. Make sure to ask for extra pork skin on your sandwich, and maybe ask them to go light on the onions as they sometimes over power the pork-i-goodness.

I have yet to make my own, but have been told this Mario Batalli Porchetta recipe is the way to go. My brother-in-law and I have been talking for years about attempting this, but haven't done it yet.

We have, however, ordered the following Porchetta from ....Costco! I know, it's crazy, but it was really good. If you're interested in having one for Christmas, order it now, they do run out.

In closing, all I can say is, seek out Porchetta wherever you may live or visit. Drop me a note letting me know where other hidden Porchetta gems may live!