Baccala Salad

I am of Italian heritage. No Christmas Eve is complete unless you are serving a Baccala salad. My uncle was born in Italy and he can't go without having a traditional Christmas Eve dinner. We had to have those seven fishes. On our table growing up we had baccala salad, squidgy salad, shrimp cocktail, linguine with clam sauce and lobster tails. This is the Baccala salad from Rao’s Restaurant which is from the Food Network site.

Baccala Salad
Recipe courtesy Rao’s Restaurant
2 pounds salt cod cut in 3-inch pieces
1 cup olive oil
4 cloves garlic (I sliced them)
1/2 cup lemon juice
2 cups hot and sweet vinegar peppers
1 cup Gaeta olives (I stoned mine)
1/4 cup capers
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Salt and pepper, to taste
Soak cod for 2 to 3 days, refrigerated, changing water regularly. In large pot, bring 6 quarts of water to a boil, add cod and cook until fish breaks off easily. Strain and cool. After it cools, remove skin and bones, if there are any, and break into bite size pieces. In medium saute pan heat oil and saute garlic for 2 to 3 minutes. Cool. In a bowl, add cod, pour oil and garlic over, add lemon juice, peppers, olives, capers, parsley and salt and pepper, to taste. Place in serving platter and serve at room temperature.
Copyright 2012 Television Food Network G.P.

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Roasted Asparagus with Hollandaise Sauce

Thanksgiving, a time to get together with family to eat turkey and roasted asparagus with hollandaise sauce.  This year I contributed a vegetable to my family thanksgiving. I choose to follow in the footsteps of the Barefoot Contessa with her recipe. It was quite easy and definitely flavorful.

This recipe is from the

English: The logo of Food Network. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Roasted Asparagus with Hollandaise
Copyright 2010, Ina Garten, All Rights Reserved
Serves: 8 servings

Ingredients
12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks)
4 extra-large egg yolks, at room temperature
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 pinches of cayenne pepper
2 pounds fresh asparagus
Good olive oil

Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Melt the butter in a small sauce pan. Place the egg yolks, lemon juice, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, 3/4 teaspoon pepper and cayenne in the jar of a blender. Blend for 15 seconds. With the blender running, slowly pour the hot butter into the blender and blend for 30 seconds, until the sauce is thick. (You can leave it in the blender at room temperature for up to 1 hour. If it is made in advance, add 1 tablespoon hot tap water and blend for a few seconds before serving.)

Break off the tough ends of the asparagus and, if they're thick, peel them. Place the asparagus on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, then toss to coat the asparagus completely. Spread the asparagus in a single layer and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Roast the asparagus for 15 to 20 minutes, until tender but still crisp.

Pour the hollandaise sauce over the warm asparagus and serve.

The Hollandaise and the Asparagus are easy to cook. This is a vegetable that is easy to put together and is an elegant addition, and worth serving for Thanksgiving.

Salmon for Dinner from Giada

My dinner tonight thanks to Giada and a sale on salmon at my local Stop and Shop. It has a nice mustardy glaze. I served it with rice made with chicken broth and parsley and a green bean casserole. It can be made in under 20 minutes. It cooks faster than rice.

The salmon was tasty with that mustard flavor. It is very simple and doesn't take long at all to make. 

Here is the recipe. 

Broiled Salmonwith Garlic, Mustard, and Herbs

From Giada's Family Dinners

Serves 6

Ingredients:

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 tbsp. Dijon mustard

2 tbsp. whole-grain mustard

3/4 tsp. finely chopped fresh rosemary

3/4 tsp. finely chopped fresh thyme

1 tbsp. dry white wine

1 tbsp. olive oil

Nonstick olive oil cooking spray

6 (6-to-8 ounce) salmon fillets

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

6 lemon wedges

In a small bowl, mix the garlic, both mustards, rosemary, and thyme. Mix in the wine and oil. Set the mustard sauce aside.

Preheat the broiler. Line a heavy rimmed baking sheet with foil and spray the foil with nonstick spray. Arrange the salmon fillets on the baking sheet and sprinkle them with salt and pepper. Broil for 2 minutes. Spoon the mustard sauce over the fillets. Continue broiling until the fillets are just cooked through and golden brown, about 5 minutes longer.

Transfer the fillets to plates and serve with lemon wedges.

Calories: 405

Fat: 24g

Saturated fat: 4.8g

Fiber: .4g

Sodium: 222mg

If you love salmon and mustard you will love this dish..

Happy 4th of July

Here is a salad I made recently. It is Greek Pasta Salad with Feta and Chicken and it is a recipe by Robin Miller.
Here is the recipe for which I have also linked it to the Food Network where this recipe is posted. (Although this recipe came from the CD Kitchen).

GREEK PASTA SALAD WITH FETA AND CHICKEN RECIPE                                       Serves/Makes:   8

Submitted by: jlows

Ready in: 30-60 minutes   recipe difficulty 3/5 Difficulty:   3 (1=easiest :: hardest=5)

12 ounces ditalini or other pasta	1 teaspoon dried thyme
½ cup reduced-sodium chicken broth	salt and ground black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil	1 pound cooked cubed chicken
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar	1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced
2 cloves garlic, minced	¼ cup chopped fresh mint leaves
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard	½ cup crumbled feta cheese
1 teaspoon dried oregano

 Cook pasta according to package directions.

In a small bowl, whisk together broth, oil, vinegar, Dijon mustard, thyme, salt and pepper to taste. Add diced chicken, green pepper, and mint.

Drain pasta and add to bowl with dressing and chicken. Toss to combine. Cover with plastic and refrigerate until ready to serve. Top with feta cheese just before serving.

My boyfriend loved this recipe but he wanted the feta to be in the salad. The fresh mint, although wonderful did not last very long sliced.  The pasta I used was hard to eat with the other items in the salad.

I made this salad once again but made a few changes that gave this salad a absolutely wonderful flavor. 

1. I used elbow macaroni because it is easy to eat in a macaroni salad with other items (That is what my mother uses) for which I also used 16 oz instead of 12 oz.

2. I added sun dried tomatoes with their liquid which I chopped up a little smaller which about to about 1/4 to 1/3 of a cup

3. I added dried parsley to the recipe and I negated the mint

4. I made twice as much dressing to keep the salad moist

5. I added container of herbed crumbled feta to the pasta salad at the very beginning.

Here is what it looked like...

It had more color, flavor and taste. It was a great hit at the 4th of July party too.

Stay cool on these hot days coming this week and Happy Independence Day!

Cassandra