Today marks the beginning of the Lenten season, a time when Christians observe the liturgical year from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday. During Lent, it's said that you should participate in fasting or giving up certain types of luxury as a form of penitence. So our intentions of the day ended up less than intended.
A typical day in the life of us... started the day with three girls at the dentist by 7:30 am. After a trip to Krispy Creme and dropping them off at school, our days began. Work ended early with a trip to the hair dresser (a luxury I'm not giving up)... followed by picking up soccer kids in the carpool, dropping them off at home...picking Hannah up and taking her to swimming...going to Indian Hills for teacher conferences for Elie...back home to get Elie and Katy....off to pick up Hannah from swimming... to arrive at St. Francis for Ash Wednesday service...only to realize mass started at 7:00pm...30 minutes too late... Katy started crying... Hannah was shouting to leave...I finally cracked and race out of church. Not a very good start to this religious season...
Katy calmed down as I mentioned chocolate muffins and microwave popcorn that we were going to pick up at the store. We arrived home to a house filled with a wonderful aroma of our Brazilian dinner that I had given Andy the responsibility to deliver on. And tasty it was. He made a wonderful dish called Moqueca, a traditional seafood stew in Brazil and Brazilian Pao De Queijo, little cheese bread. Originally from the beautiful state of Minas Gerais, they are made with a farmer's type of cheese.
Moqueca – Brazilian Seafood Stew
INGREDIENTS
Soup
1 1/2 to 2 lbs of fillets of firm white fish such as halibut, swordfish, or cod, rinsed in cold water, pin bones removed, cut into large portions or 1 to 2 lbs.un-cooked shrimp.
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup white rice (optional)
1 3/4 cups boiling water (check your rice package for the appropriate ratio of liquid to rice for the type of rice you are using)
1 teaspoon salt
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 Tbsp lime or lemon juice
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil
1 cup chopped spring onion, or 1 medium yellow onion, chopped or sliced
1/4 cup green onion greens, chopped
1/2 yellow and 1/2 red bell pepper, seeded, de-stemmed, chopped (or sliced)
2 cups chopped (or sliced) tomatoes
1 Tbsp paprika (Hungarian sweet)
Pinch red pepper flakes
1 large bunch of cilantro, chopped with some set aside for garnish
1 14-ounce can coconut milk
METHOD
1 Place fish pieces in a bowl, add the minced garlic and lime juice so that the pieces are well coated. Sprinkle generously all over with salt and pepper. Keep chilled while preparing the rest of the soup.
2 Back to the soup. In a large covered pan (such as a Dutch oven), coat the bottom with about 2 Tbsp of olive oil and heat on medium heat. Add the chopped onion and cook a few minutes until softened. Add the bell pepper, paprika, and red pepper flakes. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. (At least a teaspoon of salt.) Cook for a few minutes longer, until the bell pepper begins to soften. Stir in the chopped tomatoes and onion greens. Bring to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes, uncovered. Stir in the chopped cilantro.
3 If you are planning on serving the soup with rice, start on the rice. Bring a couple cups of water to a boil. Heat one Tbsp of olive oil in a medium saucepan on medium high heat. Add the chopped 1/2 onion and cook, stirring, until the onion is translucent. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds more, until the garlic is fragrant. Add the raw white rice and stir to coat completely with the oil, onions, and garlic. Add the boiling water. (The amount depends on your brand of rice, check the package. If no amounts are given, add 1 3/4 cup of water for every cup of rice.) Stir in 1 teaspoon of salt. Bring to a simmer, then lower the heat, cover, and let cook for 15 minutes, after which, remove from heat until ready to serve with the soup.
We didn't serve this with rice, just the rolls which was plenty of starch.
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg 1 cup tapioca starch
1/4 cup farmer’s cheese
1 T Parmiggiano Reggiano cheese, grated
1/2 tsp salt
for topping (optional) fresh rosemary leaves, chopped kosher salt
Add all ingredients, except those for the topping, into a blender. Blend very well at full speed, stopping a couple of times to scrape the surface of the blender’s cup, making sure no bits of tapioca starch are left unmixed.
The mixture will be a little thinner than pancake batter. Pour the batter in mini-muffin tins, to no more than 3/4 of their capacity, as shown here. The recipe makes 24 little cheese breads.
Add a little bit of salt and rosemary on top, place in a 400F oven, and cook for 20 minutes.
What a great meal for a crazy mixed up night. The flavor of the stew was fantastic and the bread was like eating popovers. Seriously solid stuff.
Back to the lenten season... My dear friends Al and Jody shared a really funny thing from their son, Max who has been studying lent at school. I laughed with tears when I read it. So now I ponder, what kind of sacrifice am I going to give to this lenten season... Elie is giving up gum... not sure about Katy. Hannah may be giving up her phone if she doesn't lose the teenage attitude (sorry H..had to zing you)... me, I will try not to eat sweets, maybe. Or beer, crazy, or chips. More importantly is what I can do to be a better person. Be nicer. Have more patience with my teenager. Unexpected kindness. That is what I'm going to strive to do for others during this lenten season. Because, really, true happiness is found in helping others and making other people's lives richer because of kindness.
Happy Is.
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