Two Simple Fish Appetizers: Foodie Friday

My heritage is Southern Italian and I have passed on the tradition of celebrating "The Feast of the Seven Fish" on Christmas Eve to my family. The seven fish represents the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church. Play stump the Catholic with your friends of this faith by seeing if they can name all seven sacraments without Googling them. Some of them are pretty tricky.

Every year on Christmas Eve I make a meal that consists of seven fish... and let me tell you my kids count! I have designed my menu to be more child friendly then when I was growing up. I will not be serving eels in a red sauce or fish heads soup etc... Over the next few weeks I will be sharing with you some of the dishes I make for this feast.

Tonno Tuna Appetizer

by Diane Balch

This is a great appetizer that you can throw on the table in minutes. You can keep the ingredients for it in the pantry and serve it over any type of lettuce you have on hand.

Tonno Tuna Appetizer Ingredients

Preparation Time: 5 minutes Serves: 4 - 6

Ingredients:

1 5 ounce jar Tonno Tuna in olive oil
1 12 ounce or larger jar of Fancy Giardeniera pickled vegetables
1 head of Romano lettuce
1 pinch of Fleur de sel or another sea salt

Directions:

1) Arrange lettuce leaves on a large platter.

2) Drain vegetables and then put them in the center of the platter.

3) Drain tuna and plop it out whole on to the vegetables.

4) Sprinkle the tuna with sea salt.

5) Serve whole leaves of lettuce topped with bits of vegetables and tuna.
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Shrimp Cocktail

by Diane Balch

To make shrimp cocktail tastier and less expensive I recommend buying the shrimp frozen and making your own cocktail sauce.

Frozen shrimp is usually several dollars cheaper per pound than so called "fresh shrimp". When shrimp is caught it is usually frozen, so what you buy as "fresh" is most likely thawed out fish. Besides the price of frozen shrimp, keeping it in the freezer means you don't have to use it the day you buy it.

Buy uncooked but deveined shrimp. I prefer jumbo or large for shrimp cocktail. Don't buy it cooked because then it has been defrosted and refrozen. It usually tastes over cooked when I have bought it this way.

Shrimp Cocktail Ingredients

Preparation 15 minutes Serves: 4 - 6

Ingredients:

1 to 2 pounds of large or jumbo frozen shrimp uncooked and deveined

1/2 cup of ketchup

1 teaspoon or more of fresh horseradish

1 lemon cut into wedges

Directions:

1) Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add shrimp and cook them until they become opaque. Approximately 5 minutes. Drain and chill covered in the refrigerator.

2) While the shrimp is chilling mix the ketchup and horseradish together. Taste and add more horseradish if you like your sauce spicier. Chill sauce also. Cut lemons into wedges.

3) About 15 minutes before you are ready to serve the shrimp remove their tails. Arrange shrimp around the lip of a bowl filled with ice, center the cocktail in the middle and garnish the plate with lemon wedges.

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