Feast of the Seven Fishes

As a member of the Union League Club of Chicago (www.ulcc.org), I get their wonderful newsletter full of events and activities every month.  Every December, they would have the Feast of the Seven Fishes.  I haven't had the chance to participate, but was always curious about the feast and its origins.

So this year, I decided to look up the origin of the feast and see just what these seven fishes are all about.  It turns out that the feast is an Italian tradition, or rather an Italian American tradition, probably originating from Southern Italy, in Naples or Sicily, but is little known in the northern regions.  The feast, also known as La Vigilla (the Vigil), is celebrated on Christmas Eve.  The Catholic tradition is to fast (or abstain from meat) to anticipate the birth of the baby Jesus on Christmas Day.  The fast would end after Holy Communion during Midnight Mass.

Since meat cannot be eaten during the fast, fish or seafood is served instead.  The exact origin of the number seven cannot be ascertained.  It could be that it signals the seven days of creation, or just that the number seven tends to symbolize perfection elsewhere in the Bible.  But some families extend the number of dishes to 11 or 13.  Thirteen symbolizes Jesus and the 12 apostles, and eleven is this group minus Jesus and Judas.

Mario Batali has a wonderful Feast of the Seven Fishes menu, with videos, on the Epicurious website:
http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/holidays/christmas/batalisevenfishes

So on Christmas Eve, I headed out to my neighborhood grocery store, a Treasure Island, and bought a piece of wild salmon, a nice thick tuna steak, a very nice small piece of lemon sole, and half a pound of shrimp.  Then I paused.  There weren't other fresh cuts of fish that were appealing.  So I headed over to the frozen section and bought a pound each of frozen mussels, bay scallops, and squid.

I made my version of the seven fishes by putting all the frozen seafood in a soup.  This was a cheat both because making seven dishes was too much for our family (with five people at the moment, since the oldest girl is in college.)  But it was also because I wanted to be sure that the frozen seafood wouldn't taste too out-of-place with the other dishes that use fresh fish.

Here's what I did with the soup:

Hearty Seafood Gumbo

2 small russet potatoes, peeled and diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 small onion, peeled and diced
1 lb. mussels
1/2 lb. frozen bay scallops
1/2 lb. frozen squid
1 12-oz. can tomato paste
2 cups water (or broth)
2 tsp Worcester sauce
1 tsp Tabasco sauce
1 bay leaf

In a medium sized sauce pan, saute onion and then potatoes, carrots, scallops, and squid.  Cook until just tender.  Add tomato paste and water.  Bring to a boil.  Add mussels.  Add Worcester sauce, Tabasco sauce, bay leaf.  Let everything simmer for about 20 minutes.

While the soup was simmering, I made a risotto, adding the  salmon, cut into small pieces after the risotto has finished simmering and closing the lid for about 5 minutes.  Then mix the salmon in with the risotto (which was only mildly flavored by the vegetable broth it was cooked in.)

The lemon sole was briefly marinated in a lemon-parsley marinade with a very tiny bit of salt and baked in a 375 degree oven for about 15 minutes.

By the time the sole went into the oven, the soup was done, and the risotto was almost done.  The tuna steak was then marinated briefly in olive oil, soy sauce, freshly grated ginger, and a tiny bit of brown sugar, and then pan seared.

Everything ended up being done about the same time.  The tuna was a tad over-cooked while I got the table ready, but overall, it was a great Seven Fishes feast, done in less than an hour prepping plus cooking time.