Culinary Adventures with Camilla

I had initially planned to share a recipe for baby octopus ceviche appetizer for the Fish Friday Foodies' December event that's coming up this week. But then I decided to save the baby octopus for the salad course and thought I'd make an easy appetizer of marinated seafood with capers, artichoke hearts, and roasted peppers.  Che squisito! Frutti di Mare Marinati is a simple dish of seafood "cooked" by the acid in lemons and tossed with some already prepared veggies. It's so easy, but it requires incredibly fresh ingredients. I usually ask my fish monger which is the best choice for  ceviche  that day. On the day I made this, he offered me big, beautiful prawns, some scallops, and petrale sole.  Ingredients 1/2 pound prawns, peeled and sliced in half lengthwise 1/4 pound scallops, thinly sliced 1/4 C petrale sole, cut into 1 to 2" pieces 6 to 8 fresh lemons, juiced (I used Meyer lemons from a tree in my mom's yard) + more for servi...

This month, the Fish Friday Foodies, with Karen of  Karen's Kitchen Stories , is serving up a virtual  La Vigilia  which is short for  La  Vigilia di Natale . You can read more about that in my round-up I'm sharing for the event at the end of the week. For my sixth course, as a palate cleanser between the savories and dessert, I am offering a  semifreddo . It literally means half-cold...and because I procrastinated till the last possible day to make and post this, my time was short and it was a little less than half-cold. But, according to my taste-testers, it was delicious nonetheless! I love the combination of sage and honey, so I had the Enthusiastic Kitchen Elf pluck a few different sages from his garden for me. Ingredients 3/4 t unflavored gelatin 6 T warm water 1-1/2 C organic heavy whipping cream 3 to 4 fresh sage leaves, thinly sliced 5 T sage honey 3 T organic granulated sugar 1/4 t salt (I used  fleur de sel ) 6 large ...

This month, the Fish Friday Foodies, with Karen of Karen's Kitchen Stories , is serving up a virtual La Vigilia  which is short for La  Vigilia di Natale . You can read more about that in my round-up I'm sharing for the event at the end of the week. But this is what I am offering as my fifth (seafood stew) course: Brodetto. Brodetto was historically made by fishermen in Le Marche with the leftovers of their catch or damaged fish and so included many different types of fish and seafood. Ingredients  serves 6 to 8 2 medium onions, finely chopped 4 large garlic cloves, minced 2 T olive oil 1 red bell pepper, cored and diced 2 California bay leaves 6 C broth or stock (I use organic chicken stock) 1 C clam juice one 15-ounce can crushed tomatoes one 15-ounce can tomato sauce 1 C red wine 1 T hot sauce or 1 t dried red pepper flakes 1 pound wild caught large shrimp, peeled and deveined 1 pound wild caught salmon, deboned and cubed 1 pound squid,...