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.

Ginger Ice Cream

The month of July has flown by.  There were so many 90-plus degree days that it was difficult to enjoy the outdoors.  During one of those many hot days, I made ginger ice cream, using this recipe from the November 1998 issue of Epicurious Magazine.

Ginger Ice Cream

Yield: Makes about 1 quart 4 large egg yolks 1/2 cup sugar 1/4 cup coarsely grated peeled fresh gingerroot 2 tablespoons water 2 cups half-and-half 1 cup heavy cream 1 teaspoon vanilla 1/2 cup crystallized ginger* *available at some supermarkets and specialty foods shops. In a large bowl lightly whisk yolks. In a 3-quart heavy saucepan cook sugar, fresh gingerroot, and water over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes. Add half-and-half and bring to a simmer. Add hot half-and-half mixture to yolks in a slow stream, whisking, and pour into pan. Cook custard over moderately low heat, stirring constantly, until a thermometer registers 170°F. (Do not let boil.) Pour custard through a sieve into cleaned bowl and stir in cream and vanilla. Cool custard. Chill custard, its surface covered with plastic wrap, until cold, at least 3 hours, and up to 1 day. Finely chop crystallized ginger. Freeze custard in an ice-cream maker, adding crystallized ginger three fourths of way through freezing process. Transfer ice cream to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden. Ice cream may be made 1 week ahead.

The ice cream was delicious.  It was a little spicy for our littlest guy, but our oldest daughter loved it.  Boy, I will miss having her around when she goes off to college in less than three weeks.

The amazingly versatile tofu noodles

A couple of days ago, I had lunch with a colleague at Lao Beijing in Chicago's Chinatown.  In case you are not aware, celebrity chef Tony Hu owns a bunch of restaurants and they are also quite good.  Lao Beijing has some terrific vegetarian choices that we sampled that day.

We ordered the vegetarian buns as soon as we sat down, because those take 25 minutes to steam.  Then we ordered sauteed Chinese squash (絲瓜) and tofu noodles sauteed with vegetables.  Unfortunately they did not have Chinese squash and we switched to deep fried eggplant instead.  The eggplant turned out to be surprisingly good, crunchy and flavorful thanks to a spicy chili sauce.  I had never had tofu noodles before and came away amazed by this versatile food item.

Tofu noodles is, obviously, made from tofu, and is therefore low carb.  It is a little chewier than the rice noodle, and tastes light like a rice noodle.  Being a tofu product, it picks up the flavors from the sauce or soup it is cooked in.  Our tofu noodle dish was lightly flavored and full of fresh vegetables.

I looked up the product afterwards and found that it comes in all kinds of shapes, and while low carb and low calorie, has a nice 10% calcium content.  I love expanding my repertoire of food all the time, and am glad to have found this little treasure.

Every day cod and green beans

In Chinese cooking, we refer to homemade meals as "simple every day meals" (家常便飯). At my house, our every day dishes (家常菜) consists mostly of stir fry dishes.  Thanks to our trusted Zojirushi rice cooker, I usually put the rice on timer, and then make the stir fry as soon as I get home.  Sometimes to save time, I would chop the vegetables and slice the meat in the morning.  And occasionally when I am very short on time or if I am out for the evening for work or community events, I would make the stir fry ahead of time and have one of the children re-heat the food at dinner time.  My youngest child is my usual side-kick for re-heating these days.

In addition to a rice cooker with timer, my other organizational aid is simply a list on the fridge which has the menu for the week all planned out (based on whatever groceries I bought on sale from Peapod that week).  Here is a picture of this week's menu.  Note that on Sunday I hadn't thought through to Saturday yet.  :)

And a closer look:

These days I have a non-vegetarian and a vegetarian choice for each day because my oldest child is completely vegetarian and I am semi-vegetarian.

So yesterday was one of these "every day meal days", which was great, because Monday's roast pork turned out to be a bigger production that a week day meal should be. (More about that on another post.)  Here is the recipe, quick and simple.  Make sure there is plenty of hot white rice to go with it. Jasmine rice from Thailand works best.

Every Day Cod and Green Beans

1 pound cod fillets, cut into bit sized pieces, about 1 inch by 0.5 inch each
1 pound green beans, trim the top and bottom of each stalk and cut into pieces 1.5-2 inches long
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon corn starch
1 tablespoon cold water

Put cut green beans in a skillet.  Cover with cold water.  Then cover the skillet and heat the water to a boil.  Turn the heat down and simmer for 1-2 minutes, or under the green beans are just tender.  Do not overcook.  Drain the green beans in a colander and set aside.

Heat up the oil and quickly stir fry the chopped garlic until just brown.  Add the cod fillets, stir fry until the cod just turns from translucent to opaque (again try not to overcook.)  In the mean time, make the gravy by mixing the soy sauce, sugar, starch, and cold water.  It should be just a very light brown roux.*

Add the green beans to the cooked cod.  Add the roux and mix together quickly.  The sauce should just thicken a little with the heat to a glistening golden color.

Plate and enjoy with the cooked rice.

*This light brown sauce, my friends, is the essence of Cantonese cooking.  Play around with the proportions until you find a mix that suits your taste.  After almost 35 years of making this roux (獻汁)，I go by look and smell, so the proportions listed above are approximate.

Red kidney bean curry

My oldest daughter is a vegetarian and very health-conscious.  She's one of these folks who diligently reads ingredient labels and avoid all bad stuff such as high fructose corn syrup.  That's great for a college-bound kid, except that she doesn't cook.

So I am always trying to come up with new ideas for vegetarian meals so that she doesn't eat yogurt or bread with cheese all the time. This morning I made a red kidney bean curry, inspired by last Sunday's church dinner, at which my wonderful friend Jill made chicken curry, yellow dal, and brown basmati rice for 125 people. Rajma is a north Indian comfort food.  I tried to replicate the traditional taste using what I had on hand. Alas I did not have fresh ginger and had to use ground ginger, but it still came out pretty well.  Here is the recipe:

Red Kidney Bean Curry (Rajma)

1 small onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2-3 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (or chopped fresh ginger, about 2 tablespoons)
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1-15.5 oz can of red kidney beans (light or dark)
1-6 oz can of tomato paste
2 cups water

Using a medium-sized saucepan, saute the chopped onion and garlic (and fresh ginger if using fresh ginger) in the olive oil.  Add ground spices, then the canned beans, then the tomato paste and water.  Bring to a boil and turn to low heat.  Cover and simmer for 15 minutes.  Watch the heat because the bottom of the pan would burn with the tomato paste if the liquid is allow to burn up too quickly.

Sour dough bread

I have been on blogging hiatus for quite some time, mostly because of being busy, but also feeling unmotivated to write.  The past couple of weeks I have been inspired by friends urging me to blog and share the entries, other friends' blogs, and attending a statewide writers' conference with my third child (roughly in that order).

So I am restart this blog and my other blog too Grace Notes in Chicago and am trying to post daily as much as I can.

Here is an easy sour dough bread recipe from King Arthur Floor, as a kick-start to this blog.  Thanks to my friend Theresa, I have been the proud owner of a sour dough starter for a few months and have been diligently feeding and maintaining the starter, as well as enjoying the taste of fresh baked sour dough bread every couple of weeks.  This is an easy recipe because it "cheats" by using yeast, which yields a softer dough and a quicker rise.  Enjoy!

You can view the recipe from King Arthur's site, or read on:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup "fed" sourdough starter
• 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
• 2 teaspoons instant yeast
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 5 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

Directions:

1) Combine all of the ingredients, kneading to form a smooth dough.

2) Allow the dough to rise, in a covered bowl, until it's doubled in size, about 90 minutes.

3) Gently divide the dough in half; it'll deflate somewhat.

4) Gently shape the dough into two oval loaves; or, for longer loaves, two 10" to 11" logs. Place the loaves on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Cover and let rise until very puffy, about 1 hour. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 425°F.

5) Spray the loaves with lukewarm water.

6) Make two fairly deep diagonal slashes in each; a serrated bread knife, wielded firmly, works well here.

7) Bake the bread for 25 to 30 minutes, until it's a very deep golden brown. Remove it from the oven, and cool on a rack.

A tale of two red beans

Today is Super Bowl Sunday and one of the traditions is to have chili on Super Bowl Sunday.  Because our oldest child is mostly a vegetarian, I decided to make both beef chili and vegetarian chili.  The beef chili was a traditional Chili Con Carne.  About 24 years ago I won the chili contest at our neighborhood grocery store using the following, and every time I make chili I vary ever so slightly from it.  The secret ingredient is definitely the teaspoon of cinnamon:

Chili Con Carne

1 pound lean ground beef
2 15-oz cans red kidney beans
1 medium onion
4-5 cloves of garlic
1 15-oz can tomato sauce
 2 teapoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon hot sauce or cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste (I usually don't need this)

Using a little cooking oil or olive oil, saute ground beef, onion, and garlic until cooked.  Add kidney beans and tomato sauce.   Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes.  Add chili powder, cinnamon, and hot sauce or cayenne pepper.  Simmer for another 1 to 1-1/2 hours.  Add salt and pepper if needed.

Top with parmesan cheese, shredded cheddar, and/or sour cream if desired.

The vegetarian version substitutes the ground beef with mushrooms, green peppers, and diced tomatoes.  This time I used sliced white button mushrooms and canned diced tomatoes.

The other red bean dish I made today was a traditional Cantonese red bean dessert soup.  A friend who recently spent several months working in Beijing was over for dinner this past week.  He mentioned that every morning, he buys red bean porridge from a street vendor for breakfast.  That inspired me to make the red bean dessert soup.  I didn't have lotus seeds but had dried orange peel.  Here's the recipe.  It was an interesting harmony and an interesting contrast to have a Chinese dessert made with small red beans and a Tex-Mex American dessert made with the largest of the red beans on the same day.

Here is the red bean soup recipe:

Red Bean Dessert Soup

1 cup small red beans (Azuki beans), soaked overnight and then drained
1/4 cup lotus seeds (optional)
1 dried orange or tangerine peel (optional)
6 cups water
6 tablespoons brown sugar

Boil the water.  Add the red beans, lotus seeds, and orange peel.  Bring to a boil again and simmer for 1.5 hours.  Add brown sugar (may need more or less brown sugar depending on how much water has boiled off.)  The beans should be very tender and the consistency of the soup should be thick.