FISKEFARSE - SYTTENDE MAI

This is the last transfer from my now defunct Latelife Recipes. I kept this one for today - Syttende Mai. The Seventeenth of May is Constitution Day in Norway




FISH PUDDING or FISKE BRÖD - FISKEFARSE – FISKE GROT

To celebrate Syttende Mai over the years I’ve ordered fish pudding from Scandinavian Specialties in Brooklyn, fairly pricey what with the shipping added, but great!. And I’ve attempted to make it myself. It didn’t always turn out so well, but it dawned on me that the recipe should be made with cooked white fish.  I’d always tried it with raw fish, and blending that wasn’t always easy. So: my final recipe!  I hope! – This is as it was made Syttende Mai 2011, and it was very good. Almost like a soufflé. The fish had texture and the slices didn’t seem as custardy as what we’d had commercially made, but the flavor was divine, if I do say so myself.

Though this recipe makes much more than two seniors might want for one meal, the resulting loaf, sliced, freezes extremely well. For a breakfast, my husband loves a slice –or several – fried in butter and served with eggs any style. The sauce recipe is for just two, but it can be multiplied for as many as will be dining with you the night you prepare it.   

Preheat oven to 350, put a kettle of water on to boil.

Fish Mixture

In food processor, blend until smooth:

   ¾ lb. cooked white fish – cod is best

   ½ Cup ½ and ½

Then add:

   Another ½ Cup ½ and ½

   ¼ cup potato flakes

   2 eggs

   6 Tblsp softened butter

   1 tsp salt     

   ½ tsp pepper   

   pinch of fresh grated nutmeg

Butter one large or two small loaf pans, coat with unseasoned breadcrumbs. Butter two pieces of foil that will cover the pans. Pour half of mixture into each pan, and cover with the foil.  Place pans in larger roasting pan.  Just before putting them in the oven, pour the boiling water into the roasting pan around the loaf pans.

Bake 60 minutes or until knife comes out clean. 

Serve sliced with shrimp sauce

Shrimp Sauce

for two – prepare as for a white sauce

   ½ Tblsp butter   

   ½ Tblsp flour   

   ½ cup milk    

   1 tsp sherry 

   pinch of salt

then add

   4 or so large (26-31) shrimp cut into pieces

WARM TUNA SALAD FOR TWO

This, my own concoction, is a delicious, quick, and different kind of salad.  It is hard to find 6 oz. cans of good tuna these days, and I am now on the last of my hoard from Price Chopper in Pittsfield Massachusetts. I suppose the 5 oz. size will have to do once that last, sacred can is gone.  Perhaps we might even want to have a can each.

Warm Tuna Salad For Two

1 15.5 oz. (or similar size) can of Great Northern, cannelloni, or other white beans, drained and rinsed

1 6 oz. cans tuna, drained and broken into large chunks

2 ¼” slices off a large red onion, cut slices into thirds

1 small tomato, cut into thin wedges

¼ cup olive oil

3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste on top of the tomato

Pour olive oil into a medium frying pan and begin to heat it on a medium heat.  Add the beans and onions and warm them through for just a few minutes. Add the balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper to taste. 

Divide beans and onions into two bowls, topping them each with half of the chunks of tuna, and half of the tomato.

PAPAS ALIÑAS FOR TWO

As will be my practive until I have them all transferred, here's another recipe from Latelife Recipes. This one is a keeper.

PAPAS ALIÑAS - Adapted from Saveur 9/99

Potatoes & Tuna (aliña means dressed)

This is a tapas bar standard from Sanlúcar de Barrameda and, with three large potatoes and about the same other ingredients along with parsley sprinkled on top, was meant for 6-12 diners as part of a tapas meal. I made two potatoes for the two of us as our whole meal.

2 large white potatoes

1 (milder!)* regular to small yellow onion, coarsely chopped (no scallions!) not too much onion!

¼+ cup olive oil

¼+ cup red wine vinegar (or cider vinegar - no balsamic!)

salt

1 6oz can solid white tuna in water, drained

Boil potatoes until the skins just break and potatoes are very tender. Drain. (Original called for potatoes to be peeled now, but we like the skins) Cut into chunks. Salt the potatoes.

Machine blend or vigorously whisk oil and vinegar. Pour over the potatoes, add the chopped onion, and toss them gently.

Potatoes will absorb the dressing while they are warm. Portion out the potatoes on to two plates.

Arrange flaked tuna on top of the potatoes, and sprinkle with fresh chopped parsley if desired. (chopped tomato is good too.)

Note - I've been making this regularly since 1999.

Tuna now comes in 5 oz. cans, not 6 (or even the 7 I remember. Why couldn't they just leave the same size and raise the price?!) The original recipe was for white potatoes, but I have used reds and small russets too. When I say no balsamic vinegar or scallions I mean it! I've tried them at one time and they were not right for the recipe.

* did you know that the flatter the onion the milder it will be? So if you have only a pointy onion be sure, after you have chopped it, to rinse the pieces under water in a sieve.

SEAFOOD AU GRATIN

Here's the third transfer post from my Latelife Recipes. I posted it last May, and I find this recipe especially good for two in the summer when I can use the toaster oven. Again, this is a BY the Numbers recipe.

This is seafood au gratin for two – or one, or three, or eight!

Preheat oven to 400º (can use toaster oven for just two portions)

For each person

1 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp white wine – or maybe cognac for shrimp

½ tsp minced garlic or some sliced fresh garlic

¼ to ½ pound of seafood: cod, black grouper, mahi mahi, 

         scallops,  shrimp, whatever you have

2 or 3 crackers – depending on size

1 Tbsp grated parmesan or romano

Melt butter in tiny pot, adding wine and garlic.

Butter the au gratin dishes and put in the seafood, then pour sauce over each. Bake for 10 minutes or until seafood is opaque.

Meanwhile, for each person smash 2 or 3 crackers in a plastic bag. Add and mix in the grated cheese. 

When seafood is done, remove dishes from the oven. Turn on the broiler. Sprinkle each dish with its portion of crackers and cheese. Return the dishes to the oven and watch and remove them when the tops are nicely browned.

Today is Syttende Mai - the seventeenth of May, Norwegian Constitution Day - so I had to post a seafood recipe. It's not exactly a Norwegian recipe, but I know one Norwegian-American who loves this.