Feast of 7 Fishes

My wife and I hosted our 2nd annual Feast of 7 Fishes this year. We served a wide variety of fishes, with at least one being local. I tried for more, but had no luck. And we tried this year to think more about the sustainability issue.

I had planned to serve a brandada (salted cod and potatoes), but I think everywhere we looked, cod was on the do not buy list. That was disappointing since it is a very traditional dish for the Feast, but if people keep consuming it like there is nothing wrong, it won't be available that much longer - and that would be a lot worse.

But even without the cod, we had a nice mix of fishes. Pictured on the left is one of our starters - grilled squid with black eyed peas. We were hoping to make it with cranberry beans, but we couldn't find any. But the BEP did fine. We added some celery, red onion and carrots with a simple dressing of olive oil, balsamic vinegar and spices. Pretty simple, quite tasty and it's not tough to find reasonably-priced US squid. They were frozen, but I think the frozen ones grill just fine. Also on the front end of dinner we served up some medium-sized US shrimpies with olive oil and lemon. These marinated in their own juices for a couple hours and were served room temperature. They were a big hit and the marinade was soaked up with some home-made bread brought by one our our guests - thanks Sandy! And to round off our starters, we simply took some black and green olives and marinated them with oil, spices and anchovies. Again, another inexpensive fish to complete our antipasti.

Up next came the primi course - here we served 2 homemade pasta dishes. We did linguine with crab and tomato sauce and we also served a crespelle (sort of like Italian crepes) stuffed with salmon and ricotta cheese. And as you can probably tell with the linguine, I made a little too much. But that worked out OK since I am a big leftover guy. With the linguine, I was pretty psyched since I found some Virginia eggs - Piney River Organics, part of Black Eagle Farm in Piney River, VA - at the SS Whole Foods. I am typically pretty dubious of some of the eggs that are sold as free-range and organic. I still try to buy as local as I can and this was the first time I had seen Piney River. And I was very happy with them; the yolks were quite vibrant with an orange hue ( a very good sign). These eggs helped me make a pretty mean pasta - when I mixed them with my double zero Italian flour. Once done and cooked I combined them with a homemade tomato sauce where I added some nice Virginia crab. I had to look for some local stuff, but it was worth it. I wasn't about to buy Indian or Thai crab. I'm sorry, I just don't trust they adhere to good environmental and worker standards in their catch. Also, I feel we really need to support our local crabbers and oysterman. I certainly hope we can bring back the Bay to what it once was. We definitely have a long way to go, but let's hope we get there.

Our second primi dish was the crespelle. I think after the linguine, it wasn't quite as exciting. But it did go fast, so my assumption is it was well liked. To vary the sauce, I added some cream to my tomato sauce. I didn't want two dishes with the exact same sauce. And this ended up being a pretty easy dish to do for company since I was able to make the crepes a couple days in advance and then the filling earlier in the day. Then all you have to do is fill, and roll up the crepes, top with sauce and throw them in the oven. Will make this again soon, but with a lighter filling.

To finish off the savory courses we served two fish - swordfish and flounder. And similar to the feeling I get when doing three courses in a nice Italian restaurant, nothing can really compare to homemade pasta. Both fish were prepared well - the swordfish was thinly-cut, grilled, in a simple sauce of olive oil and lemon, and the flounder was breaded, baked and topped with almond slices - but to me, fresh pasta always reigns. Also, I think most folks were pretty full when the fish arrived. We also threw together some rosemary potatoes and sauteed mushrooms. Needless to say, no one had room for the fennel and orange salad we had ready to serve to cleanse all the palates.

But there was still room for the various dolci we had, in addition to the copious amounts of red and white wine that were drank, coffee, and of course, some sambuca. It turned out to be a very satisfying and exhausting evening. But we've picked up some pointers for the third Feast. We'll take the best parts of the first two and see if we can find the right mix.

Happy new year.