And while we’re on the topic of Spring Veg, here is another recipe to whet your appetite… risotto, asparagus, wild garlic (ramps, ransom, German: Bärlauch) and shrimp. Resfreshing and actually quite light, creamy and fresh and spring-like. I really really have this thing for ramps (here are all the recipes from last year) so I have to make the most of the very very short season… only a few weeks. Dinner tonight.
And yet another lucky foodie idea: eating fish on New Year’s Eve/Day. I’ve heard many different reasons why fish is supposed to be lucky — everything from that the scales look like coins (wealth), that they swim in schools (abundance) and that they swim forwards (moving ahead). New Englanders (and people in Scandinavia, Italy, Brazil, etc) are known to eat the (sacred) cod … more on cod some other time. Some people advocate that is it because of cod that the world is what it is today — bit of a stretch in my opinion, but whatever. In Germany, there is the tradition of Silvesterkarpfen (New Years Carp), but also herring (also a Polish tradition) is an option.
Me? Well, I don’t have any carp or herring, but I love smoked salmon, so here we have a quick appetizer of smoked salmon with dill mascapone, on homemade knekkebrod. The Knekkebrod is a cracker like bread (no fat or leavening) with sunflower, sesame and flax seeds. Yummy like this or even just with a schmear of cream cheese.
I love chowders. I think that they are some of the most comforting food around and definitely a food that I eat a lot in the winter. My father makes a great New England Seafood Chowder (here is the recipe) on which this Fish Chowder is based.