One fish, two fish … seven fishes for Christmas

By John Kessler
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Posted: Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2012

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Holiday Seafood Stew

1 medium leek, white part only, diced and rinsed

1 medium yellow onion, diced

2 large garlic cloves, minced

1 (14-ounce) can roma tomatoes, crushed with their juice

1 dozen farmed littleneck clams, well rinsed

2 pounds farmed mussels, debearded if necessary

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup dry white wine

1 (8-ounce) bottle clam juice

1 large pinch saffron, seeped in 1/4 cup hot water

12 ounces red snapper, skin on, cut into four pieces

4 squid tubes, cut into 1/4-inch ringlets, and 4 sets of tentacles

1/2 pound medium-large (21-25 count) shrimp, peeled, deveined and partially butterflied

3 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley

1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon

DICE the onions and leek. Mince the garlic and cover with a bit of oil so it doesn’t dry out. Squish the tomatoes with their juice into bits. Soak the saffron in a small heatproof bowl.

PULL the beards off the mussels. Soak the mussels and clams in cold water for 30 minutes, then drain. Peel and devein the shrimp. Cut the squid and poke your finger in its cavity to make sure the clear cartilage is gone.

HEAT a large, table-worthy Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the oil, then the leeks and onions. Cook 2 minutes, just until the vegetables are translucent. Add the garlic and stir until fragrant. Turn heat to high. Add the wine and bring to a boil; reduce by half. Add the clam juice, saffron and crushed tomatoes. Add the clams and mussels and cover the pot. Check in 4 minutes to make sure the mussels are open and the clams are opening. Season with salt and pepper.

REDUCE heat to medium; the liquid should be at an active simmer. Push the mussels and clams to the side and add the fish fillets to the center. Cover and cook for 3 minutes. Open and carefully push the fish fillets to the side. Add the shrimp and squid and give them a stir just until they start to turn opaque. Turn off heat and cover pot. Taste and adjust seasoning before serving.

YIELD: 4 servings. To double it, make it in two pots.

The first time Ian Cox’s family attempted the Christmas Eve Feast of the Seven Fishes, a beloved Italian tradition, they prepared seven full-sized entrees.

“We couldn’t eat them all, we got so full,” said Cox, a manager at the Wrecking Bar Brewpub in Atlanta. “So over the years we fine-tuned it. Now it’s more like seven tapas dishes spanning the globe. We always do raw oysters, and there’s usually a tuna tartare in there.”

Beth Hamilton, a stay-at-home mom in Atlanta, gets around the seafood surfeit by constructing her annual Feast of the Seven Fishes out of seven varieties of seafood.

“So if we have a seafood gumbo or soup with several different kinds of fish in it, then we count them all. Someone even suggested we do cupcakes decorated with Swedish Fish for dessert.”

Hamilton’s family began preparing the feast with good friends to create a tradition for their kids growing up.

“We love the symbolism of it,” she says. “The seven fishes represent the seven sacraments of the Church, and the number seven is revered in the Bible.”

The funny thing is that neither Hamilton nor Cox is Italian. The even funnier thing is that many Italians have no idea what you’re talking about when you bring it up.

“I don’t know any Italians who prepare it,” says Riccardo Ullio, the Atlanta restaurateur who owns Sotto Sotto and Fritti in Inman Park. He polled Italian friends in Atlanta and couldn’t find one who had made the meal.

However, the tradition, which originated in Southern Italy as a way of observing Lenten-style abstinence from meat, is widely observed among Italian-Americans in the Northeast and freely adopted by seafood lovers throughout the country.

It makes perfect sense, too.

A carefully prepared fish dinner on a winter night has a special kind of opulence. It is hearty without being overbearing – an indulgence that won’t try to outdo the eggnog. I like to make a seafood dinner on Christmas Eve because I know the next day will involve a full turkey dinner, a plum pudding and far too much wine.

Often I prepare this seafood stew, which borrows a little from cioppino and a little from bouillabaisse. It is incredibly easy to throw together and has a finished flavor that’s grand beyond its ingredients.

It only contains five fishes, however. You could start, as we like to, with some oysters on the half shell or smoked salmon with crackers. That gets you up to six fishes. Caesar salad, with its all-important anchovy, could pull you over the finish line.

Or you’ve always got those Swedish Fish cupcakes.

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