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The Feast of Seven Fishes

Dr. Teeth

By Dr. Teeth
in Cooking

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rotuts

rotuts

Posted
Posted

A friend of mine ( the second half of the WHPS )

 

went to a 7 Fishes dinner , at Woods Hole restaurant , Water Street kitchen   sorry , some fuzziness w his pictures 

 

image_67152641.thumb.JPG.27584bc8a0cce82172e3976a4155b310.JPG

 

Menu

 

I tried to place the pics in the order of the Menu ,, as they were not labeled.

 

no pic , Vodka & Salmon , as far s I can tell

 

image_67203585.thumb.JPG.4eba0c43656993b3b452063cb275fa30.JPG

 

probably , by elimination , the Fried Oyster Caesar

 

image_67178241.thumb.JPG.f8863ae0c8e2e375724fa866599ea0c7.JPG

 

the Soup

 

image_67200001.thumb.JPG.4d9b3d772043144288da4293a777bb4a.JPG

 

the ravioli

 

image_67181057.thumb.JPG.5a93872d2b9b1567e3368a6934e7a858.JPG

 

the doughnut.

 

no pic :  the tempura.

 

he said it was excellent.

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Allura

Allura

Posted
Posted

We went out this year. Bittersweet because my father is currently in the hospital (although he'll be transferred to acute rehab today or tomorrow). He'll be ok, and he insisted we keep our reservations at an Italian near my parents. Apparently I'm the only one who didn't take pictures of their food! But a lobster/crab cake to start, salad, and then halibut crusted with panko over a spinach/lobster risotto. Cheesecake for dessert. It was really good. 

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Joanna G. Hurley

"Civilization means food and literature all round." -Aldous Huxley

  • 11 months later...
Dr. Teeth

Dr. Teeth

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted

Seven Fishes time again.   Literally my favorite food day of the year.   
 

Basic format for me is cold apps, hot apps and then a seated dinner, usually just pasta and a salad.   Goal is for folks to be about 60% full before they sit down.   I used to do a baked fish course after pasta, but folks were usually just full (We do a lot of apps)
 

Plan for this year:

Smoked Oysters (every year)

Seafood Salad w/ shrimp, squid, scungilli (every year)

Cocktail Shrimp (every year)

Some sort of smoked fish on bread thing (wife makes, I stay out of the way)

 

hot apps:

Baked stuffed clams ( every year)

Grilled Octopus (guests are bringing)

Elusive second hot app.   
 

ceasar salad

stuffed squid (oldest sons pasta choice)

 

Looking for help with the second hot app.   I’ve tried a fair number of things over the years.   Crab dip, mushroom caps stuffed with crab, salt cod brandade.   Nothing has really felt right.   We have a couple of picky eaters among our guests, but they will both eat anything with crab in it and I feel the need to have everyone get enough to eat.  Ideal would be both having seafood and being recognizable as Italian, but I can be flexible to an extent.   If possible, I’d rather not fry anything ( too last minute and messy) 

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gfweb

gfweb

Posted
Posted

@Dr. Teeth A dip of some sort.  Crab and artichoke?  Or just artichoke...after all, Worcestershire is from fish.

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liamsaunt

liamsaunt

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Dr. Teeth said:

Seven Fishes time again.   Literally my favorite food day of the year.   

Looking for help with the second hot app.   I’ve tried a fair number of things over the years.   Crab dip, mushroom caps stuffed with crab, salt cod brandade.   Nothing has really felt right.   We have a couple of picky eaters among our guests, but they will both eat anything with crab in it and I feel the need to have everyone get enough to eat.  Ideal would be both having seafood and being recognizable as Italian, but I can be flexible to an extent.   If possible, I’d rather not fry anything ( too last minute and messy) 

 

What about something with the bay scallops that are in season this time of year?  They are pricy but you do not need a lot.  One year I did a scallop served in a scallop shell with a mornay style sauce on it.   It looked very pretty.  Or, this might be too messy, but you could look at Mario Batali's recipe for calamari "Sicilian lifeguard style."  It's really easy to make, you can do the sauce in advance, and it's delicious.  You could serve it in a shooter cup.  You could also swap in shrimp or scallops for the squid if you wanted.

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Alex

Alex

Posted
Posted

@Dr. Teeth How many diners?

"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

 

A king can stand people's fighting, but he can't last long if people start thinking. -Will Rogers, humorist

Dr. Teeth

Dr. Teeth

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted (edited)

Only 10 diners.   But traditions being what they are, it would be nice to be able to easily scale it up and down.

 

ive done some things with a Mornay sauce before, including crab pizza.   Got tired of struggling with the pizza oven on the back porch in December.   Legal used to do a seafood casserole in a jack Mornay with sherry.   Theirs usually had scallops, but I liked the idea of being flexible on the seafood.   Bought some ceramic crab shells (which are a thing in Maryland or were in the 60’s) but they were a bit small for what I was thinking.   I think they were usually for crab imperial

 

edit: spellchecker 

Edited by Dr. Teeth (log)
donk79

donk79

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, C. sapidus said:

I wonder if crab ravioli is a thing?

It's a thing, but often shouldn't be.  

 

@Dr. Teeth, am I correct that blue crab is your crab of choice?

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Dr. Teeth

Dr. Teeth

Posted
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Posted

The guests in question are Maryland natives and so mostly eat blue crab.   Or similar.   I’m originally from Boston, so I think crab is what people eat when there’s no more lobster

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rotuts

rotuts

Posted
Posted

@Dr. Teeth  and @donk79 :

 

Ive made crab ravioli , home made pasta etc .  a white wine // light cream sauce 

 

it was excellent .  and , of course , no cheese .  the cream in the sauce was pre-cheese .

 

acceptable w pasta + seafood .

 

and @Dr. Teeth  you are correct :  its lobster up here , no crab.

 

Crab is from CA , the Bay Area , where I grew up .  no lobster there .

 

but there used to be Abalone .

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Dr. Teeth

Dr. Teeth

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted
32 minutes ago, Katie Meadow said:

All the people I know who do a seven fishes dinner say you MUST have eel! Maybe just an old nonna's tale?


Yeah, there are some seafood choices that are more traditional depending on who you talk to: must have eel, or squid, or salt cod.   I don’t really have a reliable source for eel, so I don’t worry about it

Bernie

Bernie

Posted
Posted

A simple white sauce (with cheese) crab mornay with lots of crab meat, baked in the oven. (not quite Italian but add some cherry tomatoes and Italian parsley 😀)

Scalable from 2 to many.

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Be kind first.

Be nice.

(If you don't know the difference then you need to do some research)

donk79

donk79

Posted
Posted
7 hours ago, Bernie said:

A simple white sauce (with cheese) crab mornay with lots of crab meat, baked in the oven. (not quite Italian but add some cherry tomatoes and Italian parsley 😀)

Scalable from 2 to many.

Bernie's suggestion is the way I would go with good Blue Crab.  Some sort of crab imperial.  Or, alternatively, a cream of crab soup.  Just make certain not to overwhelm the crab!

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Rickbern

Rickbern

Posted
Posted

I know this is HIGHLY unusual but my gf has a son in law from Shanghai so I always make squid in black bean (douchi) sauce. Works surprisingly well 

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liamsaunt

liamsaunt

Posted
Posted
On 12/2/2024 at 11:37 AM, Dr. Teeth said:

Only 10 diners.   But traditions being what they are, it would be nice to be able to easily scale it up and down.

 

ive done some things with a Mornay sauce before, including crab pizza.   Got tired of struggling with the pizza oven on the back porch in December.   Legal used to do a seafood casserole in a jack Mornay with sherry.   Theirs usually had scallops, but I liked the idea of being flexible on the seafood.   Bought some ceramic crab shells (which are a thing in Maryland or were in the 60’s) but they were a bit small for what I was thinking.   I think they were usually for crab imperial

 

edit: spellchecker 

 

I have both the old and the new Legal cookbooks, and the recipe for the casserole is in it.  Do you want it?  

Legal used to be such a reliable place for good seafood, simply prepared.  I probably have not eaten there in a decade.  It's terrible now.

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Dr. Teeth

Dr. Teeth

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted
On 12/4/2024 at 1:48 PM, liamsaunt said:

 

I have both the old and the new Legal cookbooks, and the recipe for the casserole is in it.  Do you want it?  

Legal used to be such a reliable place for good seafood, simply prepared.  I probably have not eaten there in a decade.  It's terrible now.

That would be fantastic.   Seafood casserole appeals to me as being flexible being served in a small dish as a hot app or a larger one, looking to the future if the boys don’t come home for Xmas, as a main.

Dr. Teeth

Dr. Teeth

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted
On 12/4/2024 at 10:13 AM, Rickbern said:

The other thing I’m thinking about for this year is piquillo peppers stuffed with brandade. Here’s a charming little recipe and video I looked at last night 

 

https://petespans.co/piquillo-peppers-stuffed-with-salt-cod-puree-pebrots-de-piquillo-farcits-de-brandada-de-bacalla/

I tried a brandade about 5 years back and it fell flat with the family.   May be time to try again.   Salt cod has a big appeal to me.   May try the stuffed peppers as well at some point.   Thanks for the ideas

liamsaunt

liamsaunt

Posted
Posted

Sorry it took me so long to get back with these recipes.  It has been a bit crazy here.  It has been at least 10 years since I have made this casserole, but my note to precook fish referred to the haddock.  I used to leave it in bigger chunks and poach it briefly before tossing it with everything else.

 

IMG_5762.thumb.jpg.968dfd8c727bc011ff88afd25fe89e4e.jpg

 

IMG_5763.thumb.JPG.688c2add1221f447d62d0ae9852c66b5.JPG

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TdeV

TdeV

Posted
Posted

@liamsaunt, thanks for these recipes. I'm interested to try them!

 

I'm also curious about the fried fish coating. Could you please say what goes in the Spicy Variation?

liamsaunt

liamsaunt

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, TdeV said:

@liamsaunt, thanks for these recipes. I'm interested to try them!

 

I'm also curious about the fried fish coating. Could you please say what goes in the Spicy Variation?

 

It's all the ingredients in the original recipe, with the addition of 1/8 tsp. cayenne and 2-3 tsp. Old Bay seasoning.  Doesn't sound very spicy to me, but then again this is a New England cookbook!  😂

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