What are your 7 fishes?

[Big Cuddly Bear]

If you do the Feast of the 7 Fishes, which fish or shellfish do you use?

 

[jeanelle]

We are having crab cakes, fish cakes, scungili salad, fish sauce that has clams, crab, shrimp, and scallops in it, and then lobster tails. We also ordered italian pasteries for dessert.

There is only 3 of us this year so hoping that the hubby cuts back on the amounts that he makes or we will be eating 7 fishes for the entire week.

 

[snapppyd]

As far as I know, sushi platter, clams, mussels, shrimp, scallops, caviar and calamari. We are going to inlaws and that is what we had last year!

 

[ElizK]

If you do the Feast of the 7 Fishes, which fish or shellfish do you use?

I've never heard of this. Can you tell me what it is?

 

[Queen2PrincessG]

I've never heard of this. Can you tell me what it is?

If you google it you can find the answer.

 

[Polyluvr]

We are having shrimp cocktail; baked stuffed clams; shrimp aragonata; linguine w clam sauce; crab legs; stuffed calamari in red sauce; crab stuffed haddock.

 

[Polyluvr]

I've never heard of this. Can you tell me what it is?

Feast of the seven fishes; it's a big tradition for Italians on Christmas eve.

 

[liamsaunt]

I cooked the seven fishes last year. It was a little challenging because my nephew is allergic to crustaceans, so I could not use shrimp, crab, or lobster. Here was my menu:

Clam Chowder (no potatoes)
Cod Cake with Spicy Remoulade
Nantucket scallops on salad greens with lemon vinagrette
Grilled squid on tomato
Oysters Rockefeller
Baked whole branzino stuffed with orange and lemon
Flounder in parchment with white wine buerre blanc

I don't think that was the order I served them in, but those were the dishes. It was a lot of work!

ElizK, the Feast of the Seven Fishes is an Italian tradition. It is served on Christmas eve.

 

[Queen2PrincessG]

We do Lobster, calamari. A spicy peeled shrimp, fried scallops, Baked Cod with Garlic, Linguine with clam Sauce, Octopus salad, Fried Whiting.

 

[auntie]

If you google it you can find the answer.

I'm not sure if you meant your reply to be "snippy"..but that's the way it came across.
It would appear the person inquiring about a tradition they were unfamiliar with was hoping for a reply from the OP.
It is a discussion forum after all.

 

[ElizK]

If you google it you can find the answer.

But that would deny me the opportunity of participating in a thread, and of interacting with friendly people such as yourself!

 

[Brit17]

Here's our menu:

Soup with Cod
Shrimp Scampi over linguine
Stuffed Tilapia
Broiled Scallops
Mussels
Clams
Calamari

 

[ENSOCK]

We do not do this but it sounds like alot of work. Being from Louisiana we have seafood gumbo. Shrimp, crab, oysters and crawfish. That is 4 of 7.

It is so wonderful to hear of others traditions. Merry Christmas!

 

[msjprincess]

crab cakes
crab puffs
shrimp cocktail
shrimp scampi
baked clams
seafood cannelloni
fried calamari

 

[minniebeth]

My family is not Italian, but our tradition from way back is to not eat meat on Christmas Eve, so we kind of adopted the tradition. My immediate family no longer does this, since they don't eat much seafood, so I really, really, miss having Christmas Eve with my famiy because of this meal!

We did things like:
shrimp cocktail or cocktail shrimp tossed in a lemon/olive oil vinagarette with red onion, garlic and parsley
fried calamari
hot baked crab dip
clams and mussels in a homemade spicy tomato sauce ("zuppa") with warm, crusty French or Italian bread
Bakala (salted dried cod) prepared like a cutlet style
Filet of Sole or flounder with a light lemon butter sauce and sauteed spinach

We always had some type of pasta, usually linguini with it as well.

Mmmm....

 

[arminnie]

I'd never heard of this until reading about it here. And I have friends whose parents were born in Italy. Italians were one of the major immigrant groups in New Orleans - but I've never seen any mention of it here.

 

[Queen2PrincessG]

But that would deny me the opportunity of participating in a thread, and of interacting with friendly people such as yourself!

Wasn't meant to be "snippy" just an easy quick answer that might supply a bit more background information other than "It's dinner that Italian-American make/eat during the Christmas holidays." Sorry if that came across as rude.

 

[mjkacmom]

I'd never heard of this until reading about it here. And I have friends whose parents were born in Italy. Italians were one of the major immigrant groups in New Orleans - but I've never seen any mention of it here.

I live in an area populated by Italians (lots of first, second, and third generation), and many people do the 7 fishes. We never did, because I am not Italian (although my children are ), but I was one of the few non-Italians in my town.

 

[LuvOrlando]

I'd never heard of this until reading about it here. And I have friends whose parents were born in Italy. Italians were one of the major immigrant groups in New Orleans - but I've never seen any mention of it here.

This is more of a Sicilian tradition so it has always been very common in NYC, but like everything else it has blended into other groups as the world blended.

I do keep the tradition but I am not so sure what exactly I will be whipping up. So far I am leaning towards Shrimp Cocktail, Crab Dip and Baked clams and maybe some nice Bisquick sausage puffs made with seafood sausage. The main course will probably be a nice Spain - Spanish based green sauce Paella type dish. I can put whatever fish or shellfish I want into something like this... maybe haddock, calamari, shrimp, clams, lobster, tilapia or flounder and a few oysters make sure I hit the #7.

www.dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/recipe-of-the-day-shrimp-in-green-sauce/

I think I may make the sauce tomorrow so i have time to pick something else if this is a failure.

Tyler Florence made an amazing looking puerto rican based rice dish in his Ultimate Pernil show that I think might go well with the green sauce.

www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/pigeon-pea-rice-arroz-de-gandules-recipe2/index.html

If this fails I guess I can always make a side of the already seasoned Arroz rice as a backup.

 

[Big Cuddly Bear]

As the OP, I am not Italian either.... and we're not actually doing 7 fishes, but 4 or 5. I have to get a recipe for octopus salad... that one sounds GREAT!

So far we know we have

1. Conch chowder

2. Salmon Cakes

3. Shrimp with pasta

and most likely we will add lobster or calamari.