Lenten Recipes: Week 5: Simple Caprese Salad

1. Wash, core, and slice 4-5 large vine-ripened tomatoes.

2. Slice 6-8 ounces of (buffalo-milk) mozzarella cheese.

3. On the intended serving platter, build alternating overlapping layers of cheese and tomato

4. Season with salt and freshly cracked black pepper

5. Drizzle with olive oil, and optionally (lightly) with balsamic vinegar, preferably aged in oak

6. Scatter whole leaves of Italian basil throughout the salad

7. Serve

(Credit to the Wikimedia Commons)

Lenten Recipes: Week 4: Kale, Butternut Squash, Feta and Golden Raisin Salad with Classic Mustard Vinaigrette

1. Break down and roast 1 butternut squash according to the procedure found here

2. Wash and spin one bunch of kale (or pat thoroughly dry if you don’t have a salad spinner)

3. Roughly chop 2 handfuls of walnuts

4. Crumble 3 ounces of feta from an 8-ounce block (never buy pre-crumbled feta; pure-sheep feta is best, then sheep-goat, then pure-goat; cow feta is not recognized as legitimate feta)

5. Add golden raisins to taste

6. Make a vinaigrette according to this procedure, making changes as you wish to suit your tastes

7. Combine ingredients

8. Toss

9. Serve

Lenten Recipes, Week 3: Simple Pasta Puttanesca with Tuna

1. Place the contents of one can of tuna into a saucepan.

2. Begin to cook the tuna, seasoning it with paprika, garlic powder, salt, and pepper.

3. Either make a tomato sauce from fresh using this recipe or use a jarred sauce.

4. Slice as many olives as you’d like (and/or use capers) and place them in the sauce, being careful not to oversalt the sauce if using a jarred one.

5. Prepare a long pasta according to the package’s instructions and drain when al dente.

6. Combine the sauce and the pasta in the larger of the two pans.

7. Serve, without garnishing with cheese. Italians in general never mix cheese and fish (or seafood in general). 

 

(Photo credits to the Wikimedia Commons)

Lenten Recipes, Week 2: Oven-Roasted Salmon Filet with Dijon-Mayonnaise Sauce

1. Line an oven-safe dish with aluminum foil and preheat your oven to 350 Fahrenheit.

2. Mix together 1 part water, 3 parts mayonnaise, and 2 parts Dijon or whole-grain mustard.

3. Season with salt, freshly ground black pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder.

4. Pat dry 1 salmon filet piece per person, and season with freshly ground black pepper.

5. Place salmon pieces on foil skin-side-down, and then spoon over soy-oyster glaze.

6. Place in oven. Remove after 25 minutes.

7. Serve with rice and vegetables as desired.

Lenten Recipes, Week 1: Simple Soy-Oyster Glazed Salmon

1. Line an oven-safe dish with aluminum foil and preheat your oven to 350 Fahrenheit.

2. Mix together 1 part water, 2 parts soy sauce, and 2 parts oyster sauce.

3. Taste this to see if more salt is necessary. If so, add it. If the sauce is too salty, dilute it with more water.

4. Season this liquid with garlic powder and onion powder, and with freshly ground black pepper.

5. Pat dry 1 salmon filet piece per person, and season with freshly ground black pepper.

6. Place salmon pieces on foil skin-side-down, and then spoon over soy-oyster glaze. Add sesame seeds to glaze if desired. 

7. Place in oven in middle rack. Remove after 25 minutes.

8. Serve with rice; the rice should finish in the amount of time it takes to cook the salmon.

Upcoming changes

Things are going to get very fishy on here in the next few weeks—literally. Practicing Catholics 14 or older who are medically able to do so are bound by liturgical laws not to eat the meat of warm-blooded animals on the 7th Wednesday before Easter (Ash Wednesday) and every intervening Friday (until and including the last Friday before Easter, Good Friday).  It is out of this liturgical law that the custom that Catholics eat fish on Fridays, especially during the season of Lent was created. Furthermore, Catholics who are at least 18 and who have not yet turned 60 who are medically able to do so are told to have 3 meals such that the two small meals do not equal or surpass the large meal on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

Since I definitely fit both categories (I’m 21 and healthy: this means that I’m older than 14, and I’m older than 18 but not yet 60) and you may also be in at least one of these categories, especially if you are Catholic, you will notice a number of changes coming to the content and difficulty level of the dishes being posted here between now and mid-April. This coming Friday, up until (and including) April 8, every recipe will contain fish. The recipes will all be shorter, simpler, and will all be designed to have smaller portion sizes. In addition, there will not be any recipes posted on Friday, April 15, but at least one recipe will be posted instead on Saturday night, April 16.

Beginning Friday, April 22, portion sizes will increase back to normal, and, if the dish is a main course, the protein will no longer necessarily be fish. Recipes will return to their normal complexity.