Hello and welcome back to The Shitshow Room! It has been an extremely hectic few weeks with the year-end rush of news clamoring to get in. As usual, we are all at max capacity. Can we finally drop the check on the US Presidential Election? Sure, Biden won the majority of votes from the Electoral College on Monday. (A result that was clear more than a month ago.) Why do I have a terrible feeling that that table is going to order another round of drinks? I wish I had sold an Election 2020 Advent Calendar where every day there is a new, wacky Trump lawsuit and a Biden victory.
Desperate to squeeze as much drama as possible out of the waning days of the Trump presidency, the normally boring Electoral College vote felt like a cross between Election Night and the time-zone roll call of countries celebrating on New Year’s Eve but without the fireworks and champagne.
I cried when I watched Sandra Lindsay, a Queens critical care nurse, the getting the Covid-19 jab, and I cried when the death toll from the virus hit 300,000 in the US. To quote SNL’s Kate McKinnon, “It's just like the light at the end of the tunnel has showed us how stinky and bad the tunnel is.”
I have been thinking a lot about mass trauma and grief and this STAT piece by Todd Purdum is definitely worth reading. As is this one about long-term post-Covid symptoms by my wonderful former colleague Nidhi Prakash. And this is an absolute delight.
The virus is raging throughout the country and the Debate About Summer Vacations that turned into the Debate About Thanksgiving is now, of course the Debate About Traveling for Christmas.
Craig and I traditionally have done Christmas Eve at his mom’s place in New Jersey. It’s a big ol’ Feast of the Seven Fishes affair where we basically spend the day eating various seafood dishes and complaining about full we are only to eat some more. It’s delicious (and very Instagramable.)
This year, we are are working out a “Seven Fishes/Swap the Dishes”-deal with Craig's mom and uncle where we will each make a few of our usual things and do a contactless food transfer. I would like to do it at some random drop point along NY/NJ state line so it takes on the feel of an illicit caper.
A few years ago, we took over the preparation of a seafood salad that Craig’s grandmother, and then his mother, made each year. It is, as the food people say, A Project. But it also is absolutely worth it. We’ll still be making the seafood this year and you can too! Check it out:
Christmas Eve Seafood Salad 🐙🦑🍤
This is something we make the night before because it is a tad labor and time intensive with the steeping of the seafood in small batches and the cooking of the octopus, but it is completely worth the effort.
INGREDIENTS:
For the Court Bouillon
2-3 quarts water
½ onion, coarsely chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
4 stalks of celery, chopped
1 head of garlic, cut horizontally
½ orange, zested
4 bay leaves
20 whole white peppercorns
Coriander seeds, pinch
Fennel seeds, pinch
2 stems fresh basil
3 springs fresh thyme
Salt
Dry white wine
White wine vinegar
For the Seafood
3 pounds of large shrimp, cleaned, peeled and deveined - cook whole
2 pounds squid - cleaned with all cartilage removed. Cut tubes into rings and tentacles in half.
2 pounds of baby octopus, cleaned (Note: Can use large if cannot find small ones, but the baby octopus is easier to work with - see separate cooking instructions at end.)
*Olive oil and a few cloves of crushed garlic and a few springs of thyme to place octopus in when done cooking.
For the Salad
3 stalks of celery, diced
2 bell peppers, seeded and diced
Handful of kalamata olives
4 slices of jarred roasted red peppers, chopped
2-3 vinegar peppers or pepperoncinis, chopped (jarred)
1 tbsp fresh thyme, chopped
¼ cup fresh basil, chopped
¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped
For the Salad Dressing
Juice of 1 fresh lemon
¼ cup of vinegar from the pepperoncini/vinegar pepper jar
Good quality olive oil
Salt and pepper
PREPARATION:
Bring water to a boil in medium/large sized pot with lid. I use a dutch oven. Add onion, celery, garlic, orange zest, bay leaves, peppercorns, coriander, fennel, thyme, and basil. Simmer for 20 minutes with lid ajar. Add generous amounts of salt, white wine, and vinegar to taste. Simmer for additional 20 minutes and strain. This can be done days ahead and refrigerated.
Bring the bouillon to a simmer and steep shrimp and then squid in small batches in the court bouillon for no more than 3 minutes. (I tend to do a couple tests with a single shrimp or piece of squid to perfect the timing. Start it at 2 minutes and see how it tastes, then add a few seconds here and there until it is cooked. Then start the batches.) Add cooked shrimp and squid to bowl. Do the octopus last. If you are using cleaned baby octopus, you can add to the bouillon and cook until tender, about 45 minutes. It could take longer depending on the size. Cut in half and add to bowl with other seafood.
If you are using large octopus: Cut the head off the octopus and simmer rest in a separate pot of salted water for 15 minutes. Then strain and place the octopus in bouillon and simmer for about 90 minutes. (Your mileage may vary depending on the size. Remove from pot and peel off skin and trim ends. Cut legs in pieces on the bias and place in olive oil with garlic and thyme.
While you are cooking the octopus, assemble salad ingredients and place in a large bowl. Add the seafood. Drizzle with olive oil, add some of the lemon juice and vinegar. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix and adjust the lemon juice/vinegar/olive oil. Refrigerate.
Recipe provided by Frances Incarnato and Mary McNerney
SIDEWORK: Thank you for reading The Shitshow Room! You can sign up for The Shitshow Room for free, but if you if you do decide to become a paying subscriber, $5 a month (or $50 a year), I will be donating half the proceeds each month to a few charities that help struggling food-service workers and Americans experiencing food insecurity. I will let you know when we make a donation, how much it is, and who we are helping. Our next round of donations will go to New York Common Pantry. We have previously supported No Kid Hungry and World Central Kitchen!
Follow me on Twitter: @lisatozzi or email: lisatozzi@gmail.com