Another day, another Feast of the Seven Fishes

I had my first two fishes at breakfast on Christmas Day with a steaming portion of Jamaican ackee and salted codfish, accented with Valentina Mexican Hot Sauce and served with Korean seaweed-and-fish-cake roll, above.

I'm never without Valentina Salsa Picante (Black Label).

BY VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

The traditional Italian Feast of the Seven Fishes is usually served on Christmas Eve, but why should I limit myself?

On Christmas Day, when the meat eaters in the family prepared a big meal of goat, oxtail and rice and peas with coconut milk, I improvised a Feast of the Seven Fishes from leftovers and what I had on hand.

I ate dishes with salted codfish, fresh Atlantic cod, yellowfin tuna, pink salmon, smoked wild salmon, wild jumbo shrimp, sardines and anchovies.

My first dish was at breakfast and my last was at dinner, and for a snack I had a forkful of canned fish salad with crunchy celery (yellowfin tuna, pink salmon and sardines dressed with Dijon mustard, lime juice and ground cumin).

For lunch, I had an appetizer portion of leftover wild shrimp cooked in spicy green salsa, both from Mexico.

A second lunch appetizer was leftover fresh Atlantic cod that I prepared Tuesday night with basil-and-tomato pasta sauce and added extra-virgin olive oil, onions, garlic, capers and olives. I used a recipe for a monkfish dish I helped prepared on Dec. 16 at a Chef Central workshop in Paramus, where I was among a dozen customers preparing a Feast of the Seven Fishes under the guidance of three chefs.

After lunch, I had roasted salt-free almonds dusted with cinnamon and Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese, and drank a glass of Nebbiola D'Alba, a red wine from Italy.

Eventually, I got to the salad course, adding more Parmigiano Reggiano and smoked wild salmon from Costco Wholesale to organic spring mix, and dressing them simply in extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

A few hours later, I used leftover sauce with a couple of small pieces of Atlantic cod to prepare organic whole-wheat pasta shells from Whole Foods Market with a can of drained and rinsed anchovies, another of Moroccan sardines and a half-bottle of leftover Dress Italian tomato-and-basil pasta sauce in the refrigerator.

On Tuesday, the snowy fresh cod fillets from Iceland needed nothing more than fresh lime juice before I put them in the bubbling sauce, covered the pan, turned up the heat and cooked them for about 10 minutes. The fish was firm and flaky.

Slap in the face for Jerry's Gourmet & More

The Record's report today on free samples at food stores omitted any mention of Jerry's Gourmet & More, but included several stores that are far less generous than the Italian specialty store in Englewood, where you can eat free cheese, bread, olive oil and even imported prosciutto to your heart's content.

The newspaper also ran a photo of the olive selection at Fairway Market in Paramus, under a bold headline: "HERE, TRY SOME!" Unfortunately, the olives are the one item in Fairway you can't sample; at least that has been my experience at the Harlem store, which posts stern warnings to that effect. I called the Parmaus store and left my number to find out if the policy is the same in New Jersey. (In any case, I buy my olives at Fattal's in Paterson, where most of them cost $2.99 a pound v. Fairway's $6.99 a pound.)

The Record listed several stores that give out far fewer samples than Jerry's, including Trader Joe's, Whole Foods Markets, Williams-Sonoma and Chef Central, an expensive cookware store. The article also didn't mention Balthazar Bakery in Englewood, where I sampled three items on a visit last Saturday.

Jerry's give-aways are out every day and usually include salami, sweets, bread, toast, olive oil and a dozen cheeses or cheese spreads. One Friday, I was surprised and pleased to see a tangle of expensive prosciutto di Parma near two of the cheese samples. Delizioso!

I don't think The Record spurned Jerry's because it may not advertise much in the newspaper (the market is well-known among food lovers). No. This is just another example of how little The Record's staff knows about the food scene in North Jersey. (See earlier post, "A poor job of food journalism.") 

Jerry's Gourmet and More, 410 S. Dean St., Englewood; 201-871-7108.