At our holiday feast, we throw in the towel a couple of fish short of mark

TODAY'S FIRST FISH: Lobster Bisque from Costco Wholesale in Teterboro with a pinch of Aleppo red pepper.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

After I gave up meat and poultry, the Italian-American Feast of the Seven Fishes has always been my idea of a great celebratory meal.

OK. So I took a little liberty, serving the feast on Christmas Day instead of Christmas Eve.

And both me and my son just didn't have room for the Sixth and Seventh Fish -- organic whole-wheat pasta with sardines and anchovies.

And if purists insist that I shouldn't have had lobster twice, I offer up the egg-white omelet I had for breakfast today -- stuffed with wild Alaskan smoked sockeye salmon and reduced-fat Swiss cheese.

SECOND AND THIRD FISH: Salads of fresh-cooked live lobster and canned wild Alaskan pink salmon, both dressed with fresh lime juice, Dijon mustard and seasonings. 

$8.99 A POUND AT SHOPRITE IN PARAMUS: I boiled three live lobsters weighing a total of 3.95 pounds for 12 minutes, and used the tender claw, knuckle and tail meat to make the lobster salads.

FOURTH FISH: A Maryland-style jumbo lump crab cake, with a spoonful of basil pesto, both from Costco.

TRADER JOE'S STUFFED LOBSTER HALF: We had only one frozen crab cake left so I served my son a frozen item from Trader Joe's in Paramus, a shell stuffed with lobster, crab and langostino.

FIFTH FISH: Live Prince Edward Island Mussels, also from the Paramus ShopRite, cooked quickly in a covered pot with chicken broth, sesame oil, sake, fresh tomatoes, and chopped garlic, sweet pepper, celery and scallion.

SIXTH AND SEVENTH FISH: Our final course in today's Feast of the Seven Fishes was supposed to be leftover organic whole wheat pasta spirals (ShopRite) with Moroccan sardines (Fattal's in Paterson) and fresh spinach, dressed in Trader Joe's Puttanesca Sauce, which is made with anchovy paste. This is a portion I had on Friday night.

Eating in or out, Feast of the Seven Fishes is always the right choice

Fresh-water carp cooling their tails on the fish counter at the H Mart in Fort Lee, below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I'm lucky to eat an Italian-style Feast of the Seven Fishes maybe once a year.

But since I gave up meat and poultry more than five years ago, I usually enjoy a variety of fresh, heart-healthy seafood every week -- fresh, dried or from cans.

If you're concerned about mercury, concentrate on such small fish as sardines and anchovies, which are easy to incorporate into pasta sauce, and avoid large predators, including Chilean sea bass and giant bluefin tuna.

A fish salad with canned light skipjack tuna, pink salmon, sardines and chickpeas -- dressed with fresh lime juice, Dijon mustard, cumin and other spices -- makes a great snack or sandwich.

Most of the ingredients can be found at Costco Wholesale in Teterboro.

Whiting and Alaskan pollack, two cousins of cod, are widely available fresh or prepared at Korean supermarkets.

Pollack also is used in fish sticks and other items at Costco Wholesale.

If you prefer fresh fish, the Teterboro Costco usually offers fillets of cod, haddock and flounder, all wild; as well as wild whole red snapper or farmed branzino from Greece.

Costco also carries antibiotic-free Atlantic salmon fillets.

You can find wild-caught Gulf Shrimp at Whole Foods Market in Paramus ($14.99 a pound when on sale), and sometimes at H Mart.

Unlike Fairway Market in Paramus, the fish-counter workers at Whole Foods will gladly devein large wild shrimp.

A refrigerated case displays sashimi, fish eggs and other raw items opposite the main fish counter at the Korean supermarket in the Linwood Plaza shopping center on Fletcher Avenue in Fort Lee.

A tray of sliced raw salmon and other fish was $21.99.

You can't beat two eggs over easy, broiled whiting and terrific home fries at the Golden Grill, 1379 Queen Anne Road, Teaneck (a bargain at $7 with toast), and don't forget to accent your breakfast with Cholula Hot Sauce from Mexico, below.

Whole fresh whiting from the Fort Lee H Mart ($4.99 a pound), seasoned and pan-fried at home, go well with organic quinoa, organic diced tomatoes and garlic cloves; and sauteed cabbage and sweet peppers.

A center spine makes whole whiting and bigger whole King Whiting easy to eat.

A large Futomaki Roll from Maguro Sushi House, 430 Rochelle Ave., Rochelle Park, includes crab, egg, kanpyo (dried shavings of calabash, a gourd), spinach, cucumber and caviar. Also available in the cafe at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, 350 Engle St. (about $8.60).

Slices of Wild Alaskan Smoked Sockeye Salmon, available year-round at Costco Wholesale, can turn a salad into dinner. The smoked salmon also is terrific in an omelet or as a snack when rolled with a slice of reduced-fat Swiss cheese and dipped in Dijon mustard.

Fillet of cod with roasted peppers was the centerpiece of a restaurant-quality takeout dinner from Jerry's Gourmet & More, 410 S. Dean St., Englewood, below. I plated the fish with a wedge of vegetable frittata and broccoli, leaving chicken dumplings and farfalle a la vodka for another family member.

A complete Meal To Go is $7.99 or $5.99 after 4 p.m., if there are any left.

A fresh fava bean salad from another Meal To Go, and pitted olives from Jerry's in Englewood. A 20-ounce container of olives was only $3.99.

Salted codfish or pollack is a staple at our house, and is especially good added to pasta sauce. Here, salted cod, boiled three times and rinsed to cut the sodium content, is paired with fresh ackee, the national fruit of Jamaica, and plated with leftovers. The dish, Ackee and Saltfish, is prepared with sweet and hot peppers, and usually served with boiled green bananas. 

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.

15 humans land bountiful Feast of the Seven Fishes

Monkfish fillets plumping up in tomato puree with garlic, onion, green olives, capers, parsley and basil. In Italian, the dish is called Squadro alla Matalotta.

Editor's note: Chef Central closed in January 2017, but I really enjoyed this night of cooking and eating.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Under the guidance of three chefs on Monday night, a dozen food enthusiasts prepared and then stuffed themselves with the traditional Christmas Eve Feast of the Seven Fishes.

You don't have to be Italian to enjoy this seafood bounty, which included lobster, monkfish, crab, shrimp, mussels, squid and anchovies.

Festa dei Sette Pesci is associated with everything from the seven days it took to create the universe to the seven utterances that Christ made while on the cross to the seven hills of Rome.

We gathered at 6 p.m. in the kitchen at Chef Central in Paramus for a hands-on cooking demonstration and -- after measuring, chopping, marinating and cooking -- sat down more than two hours later to wolf down our food.

Apple-Smoked Prawns with Sauce Remoulade.

Monkfish with two other dishes, Steamed Mussels Marinara and Linguine with Crab in Tomato Tarragon Cream Sauce.

Teams of amateurs

The 12 people who paid $95 each for the hands-on workshop were split up into three teams, each assigned to a chef.

We'd get a recipe and work from the top down or the bottom up, measuring and assembling ingredients in plastic cups on a tray.

In the process, we learned valuable techniques from professionals, including the fundamental of washing our hands thoroughly before we handled uncooked food. 

Preparation and cooking of the seven dishes was timed beautifully, allowing us to dish from pots and pans, eat to our hearts' content and pack up leftovers.

I'll eat my leftovers for dinner tonight.

Calamari Piccanti or spicy squid marinated for about an hour in olive oil, salt and red-pepper flakes and was cooked briefly, yielding unusually tender rings and tentacles.

Sfincione, a style of pizza from Palermo, was covered in chopped anchovies, red onions, toasted bread crumbs, Pecorino Romano Cheese and pizza sauce.

In Italy, Linguine con Grachi in Salsa Speciale or Linguine with Crab in Tomato Tarragon Cream Sauce would be eaten covered with bread crumbs, not shredded cheese, but that's how I wanted my portion.

Lobster is tops

My favorite dishes were Arragosta Arrosto con la Senape e l'Origano or Baked Lobster with Mustard and Oregano, a dish with an assertive flavor; the spicy calamari and the wonderful monkfish fillets. 

The unusual pizza was tasty, but much too filling.

The baked lobster tails were covered with fresh parsley and oregano, and dressed in a sauce of extra-virgin olive oil, butter and Dijon mustard, above and below.

Minor complaints

I would have been very happy without the butter and cream used in a few of the recipes, as well as the remoulade sauce, and was disappointed in the bland conventional linguine.

A better choice would have been organic whole-wheat linguine from Whole Foods Market, which sponsored the workshop and gave each participant a reusable bag for seafood and a coupon.

Another minor annoyance were the flimsy plastic plates and plastic implements we were given to eat with.

Update

My wife enjoyed the leftover pizza, pasta and a couple of smoked shrimp.

I gently reheated the calamari, mussels and monkfish with its green-olive sauce, and they made a delicious dinner that ended with an organic spring mix salad, which I missed at the workshop the night before. 

Chef Jim Edwards in Chef Central's professional kitchen.

A tray of sauces, fresh herbs and other ingredients.

We had to wear an anti-cut glove when using a knife.

The crab sauce for the linguine contained heavy cream.

The Feast of the Seven Fishes workshop is being given again at 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Wednesday at Chef Central, 240 Route 17 north, Paramus; 201-576-0100. Reservations are necessary. Cost: $95.

A Feast of the Seven Fishes -- just barely

Black Tiger shrimp, above, and a frittata with salted cod fish, below, were two of the courses in a hastily improvised Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Day.

With the meat eaters in the family preparing a Christmas dinner of Cuban roast pork and lamb, I tried to reproduce a Feast of the Seven Fishes with what I had on hand.

A few days earlier, my wife made a canned fish salad with yellowfin tuna, pink salmon and sardines, so I decided to start my seafood meal with that, knocking off three of the seven fish.

My first course: Canned fish salad with Dijon mustard, lime juice and ground cumin.

We had plenty of salted cod fish for a fluffy frittata with whole organic eggs, low-fat milk and shredded Italian cheese, topped with fresh and sun-dried tomatoes, and pesto, and finished under the broiler.

In the freezer, I also had a box of New Zealand Green Lip mussels, which I popped into the oven for about 15 minutes (under the broiler).

Mussels with brown rice, black beans and organic diced tomatoes, and vegetables.

A slice of the cod-fish frittata was my second course, followed by a big plate of mussels, vegetables and organic brown rice with black beans and organic diced tomatoes prepared in an electric cooker.

Rice, beans and diced tomatoes went into an electric cooker at the same time.

I should have stopped there, but to get to seven fishes, I had to have a few jumbo shrimp and a piece of salted mackerel fillet with plum concentrate I found at H Mart, a Korean supermarket, and put in the freezer.

The Feast of the Seven Fishes, which originates in Italy, is usually eaten on Christmas Eve.

I threw together my seafood mini-feast after our plans for a multi-course Christmas dinner for 8 at Lotus Cafe in Hackensack fell through when our guests cancelled.

When I mentioned that plan to another friend, he said it reminded him of "A Christmas Story," a movie about a family that had their Christmas dinner in a Chinese restaurant.

I had never seen the film, so I recorded and watched it, discovering a couple of disturbing scenes (see photos below). 

"A Christmas Story" is a 1983 film based on a Jean Shepherd screenplay. In this scene at a Chinese restaurant, the waiters' inability to pronounce the letter "r" is mocked.

Here, the restaurant owner has just hacked off the neck and head of the duck the family would be having for Christmas dinner after their turkey was eaten by stray dogs.

A modest Feast of the Three Fishes

Image via Wikipedia
Jamaican ackee and saltfish served with cole slaw.

Surrounded by meat and meat eaters, I wan't able to assemble an Italian-American Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve, but managed a more modest three seafood dishes at two meals.


For breakfast on Saturday, my wife prepared ackee and saltfish, a Jamaican dish that combines a soft, bland fruit with meaty codfish and sweet and hot peppers, and a side of boiled green bananas.


Our Christmas Eve meal included six entrees, half of them brought by our guests; organic brown rice cooked with red beans and coconut milk (called rice and peas); two big bowls of salad, based on romaine lettuce and fresh spinach; steamed French green beans, and potato salad.


I'm not eating meat and I'm cutting down on carbs, so I concentrated on large Tiger shrimp, which I marinated in fresh lemon juice and seasonings for a couple of hours before cooking them quickly on the stove; fresh croaker, salad and green beans, eating only a couple of tablespoons of rice and potatoes.


The others had curry goat, chicken in barbecue sauce, jerk pork and a spiral-cut ham in a brown-sugar glaze.


My wife went to H Mart in Little Ferry, then H Mart in Englewood on Saturday before she could find enough whole fresh fish -- a half-dozen small croakers -- but the fishmonger misunderstood her instructions on how she wanted them cleaned, and cut off their heads.


At home, my mother-in-law fried the fish whole, arranged them on a large platter and covered them in onion, green pepper, whole black peppercorns and hot pepper prepared in vinegar.


This preparation is called "escoveitch fish."


We drank sweetened sorrel with ginger and rum, and sparkling apple cider. 


After dinner, I only had room for almonds, chestnuts and dried dates, though our guests had black rum cake with tea or coffee or took some home.