Christmas Eve Fried Fish

You cannot go wrong with fried fish

I would recommend any white fish for frying.  My fish of choice would be true cod or, if you are very lucky to have it, halibut.  If you can get it, wahoo fries up wonderfully.  Haddock works.  Of fresh water fish, walleye is an excellent choice.  But you could do this with catfish and get great results.  Dust the filets with flour, coat with egg, dredge in Italian bread crumbs (season them to taste).  Pan fry the filets in about a half inch of very hot peanut or grape seed oil (both have hight smoke points, which make them very good for frying).  Remove when golden and then drain on a paper towel.  Serve hot, with lemon, salt, and garnish.  

Arancini: Italian and Sicilian Christmas Eve Rice Balls

Here is a basic recipe.  This is one that can be improvised.

Here is a more elaborate recipe.  

A few basics: Use the best rice you can get.  A short grained risotto rice like Aborio is what you want.  In a pinch do not let perfect be the enemy of good:  You can use any short grain rice.  Asian sticky rice will work well.

For Christmas Eve it is typically done vegetarian, although I would not leave out cheese and butter (and egg is essential).  I typically prepare the rice with real saffron, let it cool completely (I usually prepare about a pound, dry, the night before so it can get cold).  Then, just before cooking, I add egg yokes to the rice I am going to cook right then, along with grated mozzarella and Romano cheese.  I mold rice balls and then dip them in the egg whites, followed by rolling the balls in Italian bread crumbs (seasoned or unseasoned, your choice).

When I have a plate full, I fry them in hot grape seed or peanut oil, until crispy brown as shown above. Then they are transferred to the oven.  You can season the rice anyway you want.  Try different types of cheeses and seasoning.  The rice is essentially an empty canvas (the saffron just lightly seasons it).  Personally, I like arancini simple (some like to dip these in marinara sauce, but I like them as shown above).  You want to make these in small batches and serve while hot.  

The Waitresses: Christmas Wrappings

Is ocean acidification threatening oysters?

A Totten Inlet Virginica

“As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their faint metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture, and as I drank their cold liquid from each shell and washed it down with the crisp taste of the wine, I lost the empty feeling and began to be happy and to make plans.”  Ernest Hemmingway, A Movable Feast

I am a skeptic about man made Global Climate change (especially the Al Gore panic on the issue). I share the views of Bjorn Lomborg: I believe it is real (in that temperatures are going up) and I believe there is a man made component to CO2 increase in the atmosphere.  But I also know it is affected by a variety of other factors which are at a minimum just as important as the man made factor and some even more important (such as sun fluctuation).  To spend literally trillions of dollars to address this (which is what some are proposing) is not prudent or wise.

The ocean acidification issue, however, is a problem.  I do not know enough if the issue Taylor Shellfish is facing is truly man made climate change caused acidification or some other factor contributing to what is being experienced in Totten Inlet, but I know ocean acidification is a real issue:

Ocean acidification. The really, really short version is that as carbon dioxide levels increase in the atmosphere, a lot of this CO2 gets absorbed by the oceans, basically turning them into seltzer. CO2 makes water more acidic (just like your seltzer is slightly tarter than tapwater), and this acid eats away at the alkaline shells of shellfish. Not a big deal (yet) if you’re already full sized, but if you are a baby oyster, just growing your first microscopic shell, acidic water can make it impossible for you to do that. This is beginning to happen all over the world’s oceans, and it’s a huge, huge problem, possibly bigger than the problem of extra CO2 in the air. Here’s a good source for the long version. Anyway, the problem seems to be just beginning to hit the shellfish industry, and for whatever reason, the Totten Inlet Virginicas were the canaries in the coal mine. 

After suffering massive seed mortality for a couple of years, Taylor has gotten better at buffering the problem; two years in a row, their TIVs have made it all three years to market size, meaning (cue the trumpets) TIVs are back on the market! They can primarily be found around Seattle, Toronto, and New York; elsewhere, it’s spotty. Grab them–savor them–when you find them. You will have about two years; then, another gap, because the ocean acidification problem reared its head again with this year’s babies... 

I have had TIV and they are as good as people say they are.  

Oysters worth traveling for...

In A Half Shell is a very good blog for the oyster aficionado.

International oysters worth traveling for...

Here are tasting logs from the east coast, west coast and international.

How to have oysters shipped to your home (in case you don't live near an oyster growing area, or want to try varieties not available where you live).  

Ella Fitzgerald: It Came Upon The Midnight Clear

Phil Spector Christmas: A Christmas Gift To You (Parts 2 and 3)

Sleigh Ride by the Ronettes, Marshmellow World by Darlene Love, I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa by the Ronettes, Rudolph by the Crystals, Parade of the Wooden Soldiers by the Crystals, Please Come Home by Darlene Love, Here Comes Santa Clause, Bob B. Sox and the Blue Jeans, Silent Night by Phil Spector and all the artists involved.