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.

My Italian pasta boat comes in at Whole Foods

Organic Italian whole wheat pasta shells from Whole Foods Market in bottled marinara sauce with sardines, anchovies and organic kale.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

My Italian pasta boat finally came in, and today, I once again found those wonderful imported organic shells at Whole Foods Market in Paramus.

A bargain at $1.39 for a 16-ounce box, they are sold under the store's 365 Everyday Value label.

I turned them into a quick dinner with bottled Victoria Marinara Sauce (40 ounces), canned sardines and anchovies, and Earthbound Farm Organic Kale.

I added a few ounces of extra-virgin olive oil, red-pepper flakes and dried Italian seasoning to the sauce, in addition to the canned fish.

The store didn't have the shells in stock on Nov. 29, the day after Thanksgiving.

When I cooked the entire pound in boiling water tonight, I drained the pot after about 12 minutes, not the 14 to 15 minutes listed in the directions on the box.

I added another dimension to the dish with grated Pecorino Romano, a reduced-fat sheep's milk cheese from Costco Wholesale.

I transferred the drained shells to the bubbling sauce in another pot, and they continued to cook as I folded in about 6 ounces of the triple-washed baby kale leaves.

After two small portions of the pasta, I had a salad of Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix, organic baby kale, Campari tomato and cucumbers.

I drank Don Simon Shiraz from Spain, a smooth red wine with a screw top sold at Whole Foods for $3.99 a bottle.

Breakfast goes swimmingly

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The pink salmon is called the smallest of the true salmon. It has less oil than others.

I've been eating a breakfast sandwich for many years -- smoked wild salmon, sardines or canned fish salad between toasted, whole-grain bread or stuffed into pocket bread, spread with pesto or hummus and garnished with lettuce and tomato.


Now that  I've been advised to cut down on bread and pizza to lose weight, I continue to eat fish for breakfast with a slice of bread or none at all. A favorite breakfast is a canned fish salad with sweet and hot peppers, onion, Dijon mustard, ground cumin and lemon juice. You'll need:


1. Two 7-ounce cans of Genova-brand Yellowfin light tuna in olive oil (Costco) or other solid light tuna.

2.Two 6-ounce cans of wild-caught Alaskan pink salmon (Costco) or one large can or other pink salmon.


3. Two cans of Al Shark-brand Moroccan sardines in vegetable oil (Fattal's Bakery, Paterson) or other sardines, with or without skin and bones.


4. Sweet and hot peppers, and a medium onion.


5. Dijon mustard and ground cumin (Fattal's Bakery) to taste.

6. Two lemons.


To make less salad, use one can of each fish. I've made this salad with Alaskan red salmon, but I have not seen it on sale at ShopRite, Fairway Market or anywhere else for a long time, so I've switched to the lower-cost pink salmon, the smallest salmon. You could also add a can of anchovies, if you're a fan of them, as I am.


Empty all of the cans into a large bowl, with all of their liquid, to avoid a dry salad. Mash with a fork or large spoon. Add chopped sweet and hot peppers, chopped onion, fresh lemon juice and the other ingredients, and combine well.

For breakfast this morning, I placed a mound of the salad on a plate with red-leaf lettuce, sliced tomato sprinkled with za'atar thyme mixture (Fattal's Bakery), stewed tofu with red pepper sauce (H Mart), kimchi and a toasted slice of Kirkland-brand 100% whole-grain bread (Costco).


Enjoy.

Keep your hands off the fruit, please

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Costco shoppers are by and large a weird bunch, and watching them during my once- or twice-a-week visits to the Hackensack warehouse store isn't amusing. Why does saving money bring out such bad behavior?


Their frenetic driving in the parking lot may be familiar to you, but they're lazy, too, leaving those big shopping carts up against parked cars rather than walking the carts a few steps to keep them  out of the way.


Now, their behavior inside the store is deteriorating. Never mind that fickle shoppers will abandon their selections almost anywhere except where they found the items, including under the checkout counter, perishable food or not. Just look over the carts employees fill with rejects near the first registers.

I've also started to notice that some shoppers open packages of produce and seem intent on examining every tomato, orange, strawberry and even blueberry. True, I hate to buy produce and discover soft or moldy pieces, but the store's return policy is so generous, you can always get your money back. The other day, my wife ate two imported tangerines she bought at Costco, said they weren't sweet and asked me to return them for a refund, which I did.


To me, opening produce and touching it is taboo. I plan to speak to the store managers next time I'm there.


Good buys at Fairway Market


The sales flier from Fairway Market in Paramus is heralding "club store pricing" on 8,000 grocery items every day. Here are examples: Florida Natural orange juice (64 ounces), two for $5; Kozy Shack rice pudding (six pack or 22-ounce tub), $1.99; and Barilla pasta, 80 cents. Among specialty items, a three-liter tin of Fairway extra-virgin olive oil is $14.99.

Punch up your pasta sauce 

I don't have the time or inclination to make my own pasta sauce, especially when there are such great bottled sauces available at Fairway Market and Costco at low prices. But I do add a few things to my bottled sauce to make it really special: olive oil, dried Italian seasoning, dried garlic and crushed red pepper. 

Still, my sauce isn't complete without adding a can of anchovies, including oil (and capers, if any), and boiling it until the fish and anchovy taste disappear, leaving behind a distinctive, robust flavor. I'm not sure why, but the sauce with anchovies is not salty at all (I don't salt my pasta water, and use as little water as possible).

Last night, I added a can of anchovies to a little more than half of a 32-ounce bottle of Fairway tomato-and-basil pasta sauce ($3.49), and added about half a package of al dente fusiloni (oversize corkscrews from Italy that I buy at ShopRite). Delicious. And  I love to have crusty bread to soak up the sauce left on the plate.

Getting more fish in your diet

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Here is something my friend Sue brought to my attention from The New York Times. We've been eating fish and seafood non-stop since taking a meatless pledge weeks ago. 

Tonight, we had excellent lobster ravioli from Costco and the last of the fried fish my wife brought back from Jamaica, and Sunday night, I prepared spinach egg noodles from Corrado's with a homemade tomato sauce filled with anchovies and leftover red snapper and sardines (as in sardines with steamed rice).

Click on the following link for a sardine-and-Swiss chard recipe and other advice: Getting more fish in your diet

Another fish jumps into the salad

I continue to tweak my no-mayonnaise canned fish salad, this time by adding anchovies and fresh lemon juice in addition to pickled lemons (recipe follows). See previous posts, "Cleopatra's tuna-sardine salad" and "Way better than tuna salad."

I combined Alaskan red salmon, albacore tuna (two cans), spicy Moroccan sardines and anchovies, with their oil or water to keep the salad moist. I added a small red onion (diced)  and three small pickled lemons (minced), plus juice from a large lemon. I also added a half cup or more of powdered cumin. Diced celery would be great, too.

The pickled lemon and the spicy oil from the sardines came through, but I couldn't taste the anchovies. I'm still getting the heart-healthy benefit of their Omega-3 fatty acids, which is found in all the fish I used. You could even invite a fifth fish -- salted cod -- to join the party.

If you miss the mayo, I suppose you can spread some on your sandwich bread or toast, but I prefer pesto, hummus or my own low-fat organic yogurt cheese. Feel free to add organic greens and sliced tomatoes with za'atar spice mixture or even sliced cheese, such as Trader Joe's yogurt cheese with jalapenos.

Four-fish salad

1 can of Alaskan red salmon (about 15 ounces)

1 can of albacore or light tuna in oil or water

1 can of Moroccan or other sardines

1 can of anchovies with or without capers

3 small pickled lemons, minced


1 small red onion, diced


juice of one large lemon or more to taste

powdered cumin to taste

Add the fish with their liquid to a large bowl and mash with a fork. Add the other ingredients. You can find the pickled lemons, za'atar and cumin in a Middle Eastern market, such as Fattal's at 975 Main St. in Paterson (973-742-7125) or Sahara Stores at 242 S. Summit Ave. in  Hackensack (201-487-7222).

Cooking for one is no fun

For the past three days, I have been eating black fettuccine with tomato sauce, wild-caught shrimp and arugula that I prepared Sunday night (recipe follows). It's delicious, of course, but with my wife and son away, I am rediscovering how difficult it is to cook for one.

When I was single, I put aside Sunday evenings to cook that day's dinner and four meals for the week ahead. I might roast a chicken and prepare a pound of pasta, diving them into five meals and supplementing them with salad and bread. Friday nights were for takeout and Saturday nights were for my only restaurant meal of the week.

Now that I am married, we cook our five meals individually (until I'm left alone and resort to my old methods).

Black fettuccine for seafood lovers

1 pound wild-caught shrimp

1 can of anchovies in oil

black squid-ink fettuccine, 12 ounces to 16 ounces

1 32-ounce jar of Fairway Market pasta sauce, any variety

large bunch of arugula or basil

red-pepper flakes

dehydrated garlic chips or chopped fresh garlic to taste

Italian seasoning

extra-virgin olive oil

Boil water for pasta, add extra-virgin olive oil to a sautee pan. In a separate pot with lid, heat sauce, anchovies in oil, garlic and Italian seasoning.

Devein and shell shrimp, and season with red-pepper flakes, salt and ground black pepper. Sautee until shrimp curl up and turn pink, turning once. Don't overcook.

The handmade pasta I bought took three to four minutes to cook al dente.

Add drained pasta, shrimp and roughly chopped arugula or basil to pot with sauce and, using tongs, mix well.

Serve with salad, good bread and red wine. Serves four.

Preparation tip: No matter how well I wash arugula, some grit always seems to stay behind. So the next time, I will use fresh basil and plenty of it. You will not taste the anchovies, which dissolve, but they will give your sauce a new dimension.

Image by nhanusek via Flickr