Dec 19
Avocado and Salmon Feast Pie & Our Xmas traditions
This is another Festive dish. A pie that can be prepared in advance, placed in the fridge and served the day you need it. These are the kind of meals I want to have in my table during the Christmas holidays :D
Here in Catalonia, we celebrate the following holiday days:
the 24th at night called Nochebuena/Nit de Nadal—>> We enjoy a wonderful dinner and then we make the log shit (sorry, I’ll explain later what that means). The kids climb over the chair and say a Christmas Poem. The adults give them a tip :D;
the 25th called Navidad/Nadal—>> We have a Fantabulous lunch with the family and sing and drink a lot. The traditional meal is the Christmas broth with chickpeas and meat balls and a roasted turkey or chicken; (there can be many more traditional dishes depending on where you live).
the 26th called San Esteban/Sant Esteve—>> Another amazing lunch done with Navidad leftovers. The traditional meal is Canneloni (in Catalonia);
the 31st at night called Fin de Año/Cap d’Any—>> Basically the same you do, I guess, Fastuous dinner and drinks and dancing;
the 1st of January at lunch time called Año Nuevo/Any Nou—>> Again, basically the same you do… dealing with an elephant’s hang over and another fastuous lunch;
and finally the 6th at day time called Dia de Reyes/Dia de Reis—>> A good meal celebrating that the 3 Magic and Wise kings have left lots of gifts to the kids that have been good during the year :D
From all these celebrations, this year, I have 3 Festive lunches at my house: San Esteban, Año Nuevo and Día de Reyes… that’s why I’m going nuts trying to assemble and prepare the menus for these days.
Here in Catalonia and starting the beginning of December, we have a log inside the house, called Tió, half covered with a warm blanket that the kids have to feed with peels of oranges and nuts and small treats. They leave the food for the Tió at night in front of it and next morning the log has eat it all! The purpose of this feeding is that the night of the 24th the log will shit presents to the kids. All the kids in the house have to beat the log with a stick and sing a special song while beating it, each time the blanket gets lifted there will be some gifts for the kids!
One of the songs (Barcelona one) goes like this:
Caga tió ,
caga turró
d’ametlles i pinyó
i si no cagues,
et fotré un cop de bastó!
Each region, village, part of Catalonia has its own. This one means:
C’mon and shit Tió,
shit some turrón
made of almonds and pine nuts
and if you don’t shit
I’ll beat you with this stick!
And here, patient readers, is the ingredients list and recipe:
I’m sending this over to Val from More than a Burnt Toast as she wanted to know how traditional Xmas celebrations were in other world countries :D
Merry Christmas FOODIE BLOGGERS AND READERS (I shouted here) ;D. Boleta and Tió also wish you the best♥!
Recipe
For 4 servings: 150 grs of smoked salmon in thin slices, 3 ripe avocados, 1 slice of fresh wild salmon, 2 lemons, 4 gelatin leaves, 1 green onion, 2 teaspoons of tabasco, some extra virgin olive oil, thick sea salt, some black olives, 1 egg.
- Peel the avocados, use a blender to grind their meat and add the juice of one lemon, after it's blended, add a jet of oil. Chop the onion and add to the avocado. Also add the tabasco and reserve.
- In a bowl with some cold water place the gelatin leaves. Then place a pot in the heat with two tablespoons of water and when it starts heating add the gelatin outside the heat. Stir and when they dissolve pour into the avocado mixture. Place in the fridge.
- Cut the fresh salmon and take the spines away. Or better ask your fishmonger to cut and clean the salmon in small dices for you. Marinate with the other lemon juice, some salt and black ground pepper. Reserve outside the fridge.
- Meanwhile take a mold, place some transparent kitchen film inside it and put the smoked slices in the bottom and walls. Then, pour half the avocado paste, then the marinated salmon dices and the other half avocado paste. Seal with some more smoked salmon slices and place in the fridge for at least 4 hours.
- You can have it the day after perfectly well :D
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Comments
What wonderful traditions! I love salmon and avocado… I bet this dish is delicious together!
Hahahaha…. is that Tio? But he’s so small! How can he s— all those presents! =D
Ah Dios Mio! Now I know what ‘tio’ is and I have to say that is the craziest tradition I ever heard of…so funny! I will never forget it. P.S. The avocado/salmon pie looks good.
Thank you for sharing your traditions over the coming holiday period Nuria. Being prepared is definitely the way to be.
Wow Nuria, thanks for sharing your x’mas tradition. Hope you can relax after all your preparation for the festive lunches.
This is fascinating, Nuria! I’m pretty “up” on a lot of international Christmas traditions because I used to cover world holidays with my 3rd graders many moons ago, but this one escaped me. The pie looks soooooo good!
And maybe I asked this, but is Boleta a Bichon? She’s so cute!
Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo just got home to my parents house last night and got to finally see my sister, and ahk thank you for the ham!!!!!!!!!!!! ahahhahhahahah! she says—you better give me a slice i was so scared going through customs to get this to you! ahhahaha. muchos gracias!! we’ll save it and have it on christmas eve!
Now I’ve heard it all Nuria! That’s definitely a tradition I have never heard before. Is this a log like those used in, say, a fireplace? Too funny …
Oh, and an interesting dish. It seems like a terrine which I have seen in many holiday recipe collections lately but have never tried to make before.
Hola Joelen! Thanks girl, the pie was really good :D.
Hi Ts! Yes it’s that, but you can find them in bigger sizes or smaller. In the origin it was just a log, but nowadays we put them the typical regional hat, paint a face and put some legs… Is the parents wiseness what is needed here to distract the kids while putting some other gifts underneath the blanket ;D
I agree with you Joan… kind of crazy, but so much fun :D :D
Thank you Peter!!!
Thank you Janet!!! Hope your Xmas time is relaxing and joyful too!
Hi Jen! Feels great to feed your Xmas tradition knowledge with this one :D.
Boleta is a poddle. But I hate poddle’s characteristic haircut and I know she looks more like a Bichon.
HaHaHa! Poor thing… I told her it was illegal and that they might take it from her, but I’m happy nothing happened and it got to you save :D, both the ham and your sister… he, he, he.
Having the ham for Xmas at your table is “the proper thing to do”. I hope you and your family enjoy it and have a great Xmas time!
Maria you are right… yes it’s a terrine! Aaaahhhh sometimes the languages make fun out of me!!!!! I thought that pie was correct.
Anyways, Tió is a normal log, yes, one you would use in the fire place, but nowadays you can buy them like you see in the pic, with the traditional hat on and that drawed face. There’s many sizes in the market from the smallest to the biggest!
Have a great Christmas! Sounds like you’re getting into the spirit.
I raelly enjoyed reading abnout all your traditions Nuria and especially about the food surrounding the holidays. I love little Tio:D
I’m thinking Christmas will be more fun in Spain than in the summer…every day’s a feast!
I love the Mousse of salmon and avocado…mimics salmon tartare.
Do we get a Christmas recital, CHica?
Merry Christmas, Nuria!
So yummy! I hope you are going to share more do-ahead ideas!
¡Qué tradición más graciosa! Me encanta que los niños canten esta canción, aqui la palabra “s***” es una palabrota muy mal para que los niños lo dijesen, pero me resulta muy gracioso. España es como mi segunda casa y quiero incorporar más tradiciones españolas con mi familia. Este año voy a traer un plato de jamon ibérico, queso manchego, aceitunas, y chorizo para la nochebuena :) ñumi.
I hope you and your family enjoy lots of log shit and good times! What a funny post. Delicious looking, too!
I’m telling ya…this is some mighty fine eating…mighty fine!
Wow, that salmon avocado pie just looks beautiful and sounds so delicious as well.
Feliz Navidad!
I love all the celebrations that we Latin/Catholic countries have this season. In Mexico celebrations start December 12th and end February 2nd. You can tell we love to party! :D Great recipe my friend and great song. It made me laugh out loud! :-p
That looks delicious! I want to eat it with a nice, toasted onion bialy.
Boleta is sooo cute!
i’m DYING laughing at this! I LOVE IT!!! i’m going to get drunk and look at this again and try to teach my family to sing it! fun times… god i love spain.
Núria, no sabía q eres de Cataluña :) Mi hermano y yo casi nos morimos de la risa al leer esa canción! Me fascina aprender de las diferentes tradiciones!
Tenemos a la esposa de mi primo de visita y ella es de Madrid… le tengo q enseñar tu blog mañana!
Merry Christmas to you and your family and I wish you the very best for 2009!
abrazotes!!
I would have loved to have tried that. Hope you hada wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year.
Thank you so much for your fantastic comments guys!!!!! You make this blog be better day by day, you are my inspiration and my fuel! THANKS♥♥♥