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Feast of the 7 fishes


matt770
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My parents and some in-laws are coming here for Christmas Eve so my wife gets the cooking duties. Normally at home in CT we would have a traditional Polish meal, but my wife decided to change it up and honor my stepdad, who is Italian. I'd never heard of the 7 fishes until she mentioned it and I'm looking forward to it. He has no idea what we're planning so it will be a neat surprise.

 

I'm curious to know what traditional dishes you I-talian Huddlers have for this meal.

 

We're doing:

cod cakes

jumbo shrimp stuffed with crab meat (counts as two fishes)

bacon-wrapped scallops

lobster bisque

linguine with clams

cedar plank salmon

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My parents and some in-laws are coming here for Christmas Eve so my wife gets the cooking duties. Normally at home in CT we would have a traditional Polish meal, but my wife decided to change it up and honor my stepdad, who is Italian. I'd never heard of the 7 fishes until she mentioned it and I'm looking forward to it. He has no idea what we're planning so it will be a neat surprise.

 

I'm curious to know what traditional dishes you I-talian Huddlers have for this meal.

 

We're doing:

cod cakes

jumbo shrimp stuffed with crab meat (counts as two fishes)

bacon-wrapped scallops

lobster bisque

linguine with clams

cedar plank salmon

 

What a grat idea for Christmas eve. :tup:

 

:wacko: I would not wrap the scallops in bacon, as the tradition involves the abstinence of meat and milk products... so if your stepdad is a traditionalist your bisque may be out as well! We used to have cod balls :second grade giggle: in tomato sauce as one of the dishes.

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My parents and some in-laws are coming here for Christmas Eve so my wife gets the cooking duties. Normally at home in CT we would have a traditional Polish meal, but my wife decided to change it up and honor my stepdad, who is Italian. I'd never heard of the 7 fishes until she mentioned it and I'm looking forward to it. He has no idea what we're planning so it will be a neat surprise.

 

I'm curious to know what traditional dishes you I-talian Huddlers have for this meal.

 

We're doing:

cod cakes

jumbo shrimp stuffed with crab meat (counts as two fishes)

bacon-wrapped scallops

lobster bisque

linguine with clams

cedar plank salmon

 

Not Italian, but I like the tradition so much I adopted it a few years ago and will be doing it again on Saturday night (although I haven't even started thinking of a menu yet)

 

Last year, some of the dishes were:

 

Dungeness Crab Bisque with a Crawfish Boulette

Grilled Octopus Salad topped with roe

Stuffed Squid - I made a shrimp & scallop sausage to stuff the squid and baked in tomato / vodka sauce - treated as the pasta course

Definitely salmon, but I don't remember how I prepared - good chance it was planked.

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:wacko: I would not wrap the scallops in bacon, as the tradition involves the abstinence of meat and milk products... so if your stepdad is a traditionalist your bisque may be out as well!

Definitely not a traditionalist, scallops with no bacon could actually make him angry. The man eats, that's what he does. But, I better tell my wife about this, she wouldn't want to screw up the tradition. Thanks for the heads up!

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We do it every year

 

This year we did

 

Mini hot butter lobster rolls

Spicy squash soup with crab

Tuna poke

Clams casino

Shrimp popaltini with white bean sauce

Grilled scallops

Salmon with pesto and pistachios

 

We do a traditional seven fishes on even years and non traditional like above on odd years

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My neighbor is an awesome older Italian guy. Every year he sends me a big plate of his Christmas Eve Italian fish oriented meal. He serves it cold like a fish salad

 

Shrimp

Scungili

Bacala

Cod

scallops

 

and 2 kinds of filets but I am not sure what type of fish they are. Its delicious

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this sounds like it could be awesome.

 

every year we have steamed shrimp

steamed clams

broiled lobster tails

breaded smelts

pasta

 

:wacko:

 

I'll get the recipe from my sister in law and post it up, very easy, very very tasty, and for planning purposes you can do it the day before, because executing the feast of the seven fishes can be somewhat chaotic in the kitchen.

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Puréed Butternut Squash Soup with Ginger

Either chicken or vegetable broth can be used in this recipe.

INGREDIENTS

• 2tablespoons unsalted butter , or the same amount of vegetable or olive oil

• 1medium onion , 3 medium shallots or 1 medium leek (white and light green parts only), chopped

• 2tablespoons dry sherry or white wine

• 1butternut squash , medium (about 2 1/2 pounds), halved, seeded, peeled, and cut into 1/2-inch cubes (about 5 cups) (we usually buy pre-cut stuff from trader joe's that cuts down prep time considerably)

• 2cups low-sodium chicken broth or low-sodium vegetable broth

• 1teaspoon table salt

• Ground white pepper

• 1teaspoon ground ginger

• 3/4 - 1cup whole milk

• 2teaspoons minced fresh chives or minced parsley

INSTRUCTIONS

1. 1. Heat butter or oil in large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion; sauté until golden, about 5 minutes. Add sherry and squash; stir-cook until sherry evaporates, about 30 seconds.

2. 2. Add stock, salt, pepper to taste, and ginger to saucepan; bring to boil. Reduce heat to simmer; cover and cook until squash is tender, about 15 minutes.

3. 3. Ladle squash mixture into blender. Add 3/4 cup milk; blend until very smooth. Return soup to saucepan; cook over low heat until warmed through. If soup is too thick, stir in additional milk to thin consistency. Adjust seasonings. (Soup can be refrigerated for 3 days and reheated just before serving.)

4. 4. Ladle soup into individual bowls. Top with lump crab meat and serve.

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So how was it?

Really good. I talked my wife into doing the traditional cod balls with marinara instead of the cod cakes and they came out awesome. No bacon with the scallops. Best dish was definitely the cedar plank salmon, people were making noises normally reserved for the bedroom...my mom and my wife both don't like salmon and they were raving about it. Best of all my stepdad really appreciated the gesture and kept telling us about his mom's cooking back in the day. :wacko:

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