Ahi Tuna Puffs - Empadas de Atum

This fish stuffed pastry was introduced to me as an appetizer or first course many years ago. Finding the puff pastry is easy, it’s usually fairly inexpensive and making the fish filling couldn’t be too hard, so we decided to give it a try with some frozen Ahi tuna steaks. The fish filling was a little improvised and mostly based around the white wine sauce, but it turned out well enough to share it with you. As the saucy fish filling is the part that takes the most time and attention, you can always make a bit extra for warming up later. 

Ingredients:

Olive Oil

Salt

Pepper

Chili peppers- dried 

Onion- ½ - ¾ of one, minced finely

White wine

Garlic- minced or pressed, to taste 

Bayleaf- dried 

Parsley- ¼ cup fresh and minced, or less to taste

Tomato sauce- a small amount, a ½ cup or so

Tuna steak- we used 2 good sized ones

Puff pastry

Feta Cheese

Parmesan Cheese

Egg - for brushing on pastry 

Start the olive oil and add the onion, garlic, bay leaf, salt and pepper. Add enough tomato sauce to give some color to the mix and spice it up with some dried chili peppers. Add some white wine and let it simmer for a bit. 

Depending on the kind of pastry you find, remove it from the freezer and follow the appropriate thawing instructions. The shells we used needed about an hour for defrosting and then required an initial baking of about 20 minutes at 425ºF (220ºC). Once the pastry is done, remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes. Carefully remove the little lid (found on the shell type) and it’s ready for stuffing. If you get the traditional flat sheets of puff pastry, you do not need to do an initial baking and can form an attractive envelope or turnover style shape around the fish stuffing. 

Put the thawed (or fresh) fish in to the boiling sauce and let it cook until the fish starts to flake apart 

and you are able to combine it well with the sauce. Add some more white wine to help develop a good texture. Continue to let it simmer until the fish has become part of the sauce. 

Your best friend here is the white wine, which allows you to simmer the stuffing for the time needed to give it flavor while still maintaining a moist yet hearty consistency that will hold up well in the pastry. It should be dry enough to stuff the pastry but saucy enough that it still can maintain moisture after being baked in the shells. 

Stuff the pastry with the fish sauce and add a little bit of feta (or your personal favorite) cheese and pepper before putting back on the little pastry top. After all the puffs are stuffed brush some beaten egg on their tops. Add some parmesan and bake at 425ºF (220ºC) for around 20 minutes and serve with a nice green salad. Yum.  

The nights selection: 

Back onto our favorite IPA’s, we chose the the Hop Ottin’ IPA from Anderson Valley Brewery Company. It’s a first choice both on tap and at the supermarket. Strong and with a huge bouquet, just like we like it. We can’t wait to go to Anderson Valley to visit the magic labrotory and enjoy a tasting. The found that the last The Dø album “Both Ways Open Jaws”, goes well with both the meal and the beer. We can’t stop listening to it since it came out worldwide in the end of 2011. This French/Finnish duo, was already was part of our playlist with their debut album “A Mouthful” and now they’re back on heavy rotation. Enjoy!

Kale Soup à la Californian-Portuguese

My mom is a saver of things, and this is usually something I might complain about, but in this case it's a good thing. The inspiration for this recipe comes from the Caldo Verde recipe in the Diamond Jubilee cookbook circa 1973. My grandfather, Fernando, was associated with the S.P.R.S.I., and the ladies of the organization created the book as a fundraiser. It's chock full of all sorts of good classic American and Portuguese (a lot of them Azorean) recipes. It is obvious that these ladies were all sorts of awesome, with “recipes for kindness” and “household hints” included in their offerings. I would be thrilled to sit at any one of their 1970's tables. They may not have known that kale was a “super-food”, but they knew it was good stuff. And so, we bring their recipe to the here and now, and of course, update it just a little bit. 

This soup is a staple at our house, and in the appropriate season, sees the table almost once a week. This is the first time (after many years!) that onion was added to the recipe and it was definitely a nice addition, but it is also great without any. The original version calls for linguiça, choriço or any seasoned and smoked sausage, but I've ALWAYS used soyrizo. We've tried a few different brands and the Trader Joe's one is both tasty and priced very well. We really like the flavor and appreciate the lack of limp nodes and salivary glands, like in the traditional beef varieties. Sometimes fake is good. 

Ingredients:

1 good sized bunch of kale. Our favorite is dino.

1/2 package of soyrizo (or 4oz of linguiça or other sausage)

3 medium-sized potatoes (about 1lb) peeled and sliced to 1/4 inch rounds

6 cups (or a wee bit more) good water

2 tsp salt

1/2 cup olive oil (you can use less, of course)

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Optional: 1 medium onion, sliced finely

Serves 4-6

Wash the kale under cold running water. With a sharp knife cut along the stem on both sides and discard it.This takes a little bit of time, but it's worth it. Bunch the trimmed leaves together and cut them into the smallest strips possible. Set aside. 

Sauteé the onion (if using) in a small amount of olive oil for a few minutes and then add the soyrizo. I use my magic pan (thanks, Aunt Wendy!) for this, which is medium sized. Cook for about 5-8 minutes until onion is translucent and soyrizo begins to crisp. Remove from heat. 

Combine the potatoes, water and salt in a good sized saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and cook uncovered for about 15 minutes, or until the potatoes when tested, can easily be mashed against the side of the pan. Use a slotted spoon, and transfer the potatoes to a bowl and mash them to a smooth puree. 

Pour the cooking liquid from the potatoes into the pan you cooked the soyrizo and onion in. Return the mashed potatoes to the liquid (now in the soyrizo pan) and combine, stir in the olive oil and pepper and bring to a boil over high heat. You could add a litte more salt here if desired but this all depends on the saltiness of your soyrizo/sausage, so be careful. Add the kale and boil uncovered for about 7 minutes. Serve immediately accompanied by just about anything: grilled cheese, crusty french bread, broa or cornbread… it all works.

The nights selection: 

To go with this warming and slightly spicy soup we chose the smooth red blend by Bear Flag. This soup is reliably delicious and so is this wine. It’s a lovely blend of several varietals including Touriga, Tempranillo and Alicante Bouschet.  In addition to tasting yummy, the bottle is a looker! Do yourself a favor and bring some home. 

Our sounds for the night were provided by The Slip, and their 2002 album “Angels Come on Time”. This Indie-Rock, Jazzy-Folk trio from Boston provide some peppy fun with a side of sweet melodies. They have helped us cook many a meal, check em out.

Bacalhau à Zé do Pipo

The rough translation for the name of this recipe would be Barrel Joe’s Style Codfish. This one is a rockstar amongst the hundreds of ways that the Portuguese cook cod and according to a reliable source it came from Porto, in the north of Portugal. My mother has made it since I can remember. According to her, it’s a recipe that can sit and wait to be done and needs plenty of oven time. This makes it a great option when you are serving a lot of people and there are always those who never arrive on time, kind of the opposite of a souffle.

It’s pleases the masses because it has mashed potatoes, and is prettier than normal codfish dishes, which is partially due to the garnish of mayonnaise (my mother’s recipe also adds mustard). This preparation of the codfish truly highlights its best flavors . This time we were cooking for 6 people, so as a true Portuguese I planned enough food for 10 hungry men. For 6 people one tray is enough, but it’s also a good idea to make extra and have food for the next couple of days. You can’t get enough of a good Bacalhau à Zé do Pipo.

Ingredients:

- Salted Codfish (from Norway, Canada or anyplace you can find)

- Onions

- Olive Oil

- Pepper

- Salt

- White wine

- Milk

- Flour

- Garlic 

- Bay leaf

- Mayonnaise

- Mustard

for the Mashed Potatoes:

- Potatoes 

- Milk

- Eggs

- Butter

- Salt

The Cod Code:

- Put the codfish in a large bowl and cover it with water the day before cooking. Try to change the water every 6 hours or so, depending on how thick the pieces of cod are. The soaking will help to rehydrate the fish and get rid of excess salt. Try to use only the central parts so that you have only the main big fishbone. You can save the smaller pieces for another recipe. We will share an appropriate one, soon.

- Cook the codfish in enough milk to cover all the fish, this will depend on the size of your pan. Bring to a boil and reduce heat and let simmer in the milk for half an hour.

- While the codfish is boiling you can get your potatoes cooking and ready for mashing.

- Put the flour and the beaten egg on plates and dredge the codfish before frying in olive oil. Fry on each side for approximately 1-2 minutes until a light crust develops. Set aside.

- Use the olive oil that you fried the codfish in to start cooking the onion. Add garlic, bay leaf, salt, white wine and let it simmer until the onion is cooked.

- Put the codfish in a baking pan (we used two 9x13" ones), cover it with the onion and olive oil mixture and put it in a 200ºC/400ºF oven to bake for about 15 minutes.

- Finish the mashed potatoes mixing, salt, milk, butter and beaten eggs.

- Take the codfish from the oven and cover it with the mashed potatoes adding the mayonnaise and the mustard in a creative way. You will need to know later if the onions and codfish are boiling, so leave a space in the middle of the potatoes so that you can still see it.

- Put the potato-topped codfish in the oven and check after approximately 30 minutes. After you see that the onions are boiling, you will only need to let it cook another 20 minutes before turning it off. It can wait in the oven for a while (just don’t forget about it) and the extra time will help to reduce the onion sauce that surrounds the codfish and improves the flavor of the whole thing. 

The nights selection:

This savory and filling meal requires a full flavored wine so we chose the 2009 Quinta de Cabriz. Blending the varietals of Touriga Nacional, Afrocheiro, and Tinta Roriz, this wine shows all the possible flavors of Dão, one the most interesting wine regions of Portugal. To go with all this, we strongly recommend listening to some tunes by Deolinda, one of the most talented modern Portuguese bands. Their melodies bring new life to traditionally inspired Portuguese music, and their songstress Ana Bacalhau shares her name with our main ingredient, it’s naturally a perfect accompaniment.