Feast of the Seven Fishes for Christmas Eve (cream, Italian, noodles)

[5-all]

I've been fortunate to be invited to the feast of seven fishes a few times. Lots of good dishes. Smelts every time. One very simple but tasty fish dish was oranges cut in disks and with an anchovy fillet across each orange slice. The contrast of the sweet juicy orange and the salty anchovy was what made it taste so good.

[Wilson513]

Smelts are the bomb.

Finish cleaning the gut, discard anything that has been nibbled on, soak them in milk, dry a bit on the rack or on paper towels. Shake violently in a bag with flour, salt and pepper, fry in Crisco Oil at 350F not letting the temperature drop more than 10 degrees.

Salt like french fries and enjoy.

My father made these for Sunday breakfast every week.

[Nanny Goat]

I remember cleaning the squid w/ my mother and the cod soaking in water for awhile before it was used--a day or two. That was strange to me as a kid.

[Lodestar]

My very Scandinavian family ate lutefisk for Christmas Eve. It's codfish cured in lye. You have to soak it well so you don't poison everybody. It comes out of the oven like fish jello and you pour a very lot of melted butter or cream sauce on it to make it palatable. Guess that's a celebration of very humble beginnings and hard times.


Since all the elders are gone now many times I have made a gratinee of lobster, shrimp, crab and scallops to substitute. I serve it with wide buttered poppy seed noodles and lots of lemon.


One winter I stayed over Christmas in Mexico and my landlords from Italy invited me to their Christmas Eve celebration. At midnight they served a large planked salmon.


Here's something I never heard of until just this year when I was browsing the web - stargazey pie. It explains an illustration I remember from a book of fairy tales I had as a child and was always puzzled by.





I can hardly!


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargazy_pie

[5-all]

Originally Posted by Lodestar

My very Scandinavian family ate lutefisk for Christmas Eve. It's codfish cured in lye. You have to soak it well so you don't poison everybody. It comes out of the oven like fish jello and you pour a very lot of melted butter or cream sauce on it to make it palatable. Guess that's a celebration of very humble beginnings and hard times.


Since all the elders are gone now many times I have made a gratinee of lobster, shrimp, crab and scallops to substitute. I serve it with wide buttered poppy seed noodles and lots of lemon.


One winter I stayed over Christmas in Mexico and my landlords from Italy invited me to their Christmas Eve celebration. At midnight they served a large planked salmon.


Here's something I never heard of until just this year when I was browsing the web - stargazey pie. It explains an illustration I remember from a book of fairy tales I had as a child and was always puzzled by.





I can hardly!


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargazy_pie

That is a memorable pie. Reminds me of four & twenty blackbirds baked in a pie.

[jlawrence01]

Originally Posted by Wilson513

Smelts are the bomb.

Finish cleaning the gut, discard anything that has been nibbled on, soak them in milk, dry a bit on the rack or on paper towels. Shake violently in a bag with flour, salt and pepper, fry in Crisco Oil at 350F not letting the temperature drop more than 10 degrees.
.

Do you buy them headed and gutted?

I have never saw them in Cincinnati but they were a staple in Detroit and throughout Michigan and Ontario.

[Mattie]

Th Feast of 7 Fishes was not a tradition in my Irish family, but as an adult, I've been invited to several with Italian friends. Clam sauce over pasta, crab cakes, fried flounder, lobster tails, yum!

[Gerania]

Originally Posted by Mightyqueen801

Sounds delicious. I have never experienced that, although I know lots of Italian people who did the seven fishes thing on Christmas Eve.

An old friend was married to a guy with an Italian mother. The friend didn't eat fish, so on the way to her MIL's every Christmas Eve, her husband would stop on the way to get her Burger King so she would have something to eat.

My Italian mother-in-law usually had three. She wasn't crazy about seafood. She wouldn't eat most shellfish, didn't really care for lobster, wouldn't eat squid. There's not much left.

[elhelmete]

Loved when my Italian neighbors would have me over for this. Except the eel. No eel.

[Wilson513]

Originally Posted by jlawrence01

Do you buy them headed and gutted?

I have never saw them in Cincinnati but they were a staple in Detroit and throughout Michigan and Ontario.

Yea, they come headed and gutted. Try Lukens in Findlay Market.