Merry Fishmas - by Trevor Joyce
The old Italian tradition of cooking seven types of fish for Christmas Eve seems to get more popular every year; I suppose the social media phenomenon of tinned fish has something to do with that. It’s among the best holiday festivities, in my opinion, so I can’t complain about its popularity. But it can be daunting: seven is a lot, and it’s not even Christmas!
Many folks have realized that the trick is to knock out several fish with one dish. I wholeheartedly agree. The perfect vessel for that, of course, is insalata di mare, a classic Italian seafood salad that usually features shrimp, calamari, scallops, and maybe some conch (scungili, naturally) or mussels. It’s delicious — fresh, clean, laced with lemon juice and parsley — and very suitably traditional.
I like to bend the tradition a bit, though; is that not what they’re made for? My memory of the dish at my grandparents’ house always featured chickpeas, which I think do a great job of bulking things up and adding a nutty, creamy note. The scallops are crudo-like and nearly raw, with just a quick lemon juice cure. This year I dropped in some Vietnamese flavors, namely a splash of Red Boat fish sauce and the pickled carrots and daikon you’d find in a banh mi, which worked fantastically well for crunch and umami.
So, if you’re making this for Christmas Eve or any other occasion, feel free to create your own tradition here. Maybe that’s adding in some chili peppers, or perhaps some of that trendy tinned fish; maybe it involves grilling the calamari, which I suspect would be even tastier. (I’ll be doing this once I have consistent access to a charcoal grill.) The world is your oyster, shrimp, squid, and scallop.
Happy holidays and happy cooking!
Serves 5-6; the vegetables can be prepped up to a day ahead, and shrimp/calamari can be poached a few hours ahead. Scallops should be handled right before serving. Assemble and dress salad right before serving.
Ingredients
1 pound medium shrimp, cleaned and tails removed
1 pound calamari, tentacles included, body sliced into rings
8-10 dry-packed sea scallops
1 can chickpeas, drained
4-5 celery stalks, thinly sliced
1 large red onion, thinly sliced
1 large carrot, julienned
1/2 white daikon radish, julienned
1 large bunch Italian parsley, roughly chopped
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Red wine vinegar
Fish sauce
White or rice wine vinegar (for pickling)
White sugar (for pickling)
For poaching liquid:
1 half onion
2-3 garlic cloves
1/2 celery stalk
Lemon peel
Bay leaf
Black peppercorns
Instructions
Prepare the poaching liquid for the seafood: fill a saucepan with water and add the poaching liquid ingredients, along with a very generous amount of salt. Bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer and cook for 10-15 minutes. You can remove the solids after this if you’d like. For poaching, the temperature should be about 170 degrees F.
While this is cooking, quarter the scallops and cure them with a bit of lemon juice; place them covered in the fridge.
Poach the seafood: start by dunking the shrimp for 3 minutes or so, until they are bright pink and bouncy. Set aside in a small bowl. Then drop in the calamari, letting it cook for no more than a minute; this is key to preventing rubberiness. Run under cold water to stop the cooking and set aside.
Pickle the carrots and daikon: bring water to boil in another small saucepan; once boiling, dunk the carrots for 10 seconds and then run under cold water. Combine with the daikon in a small bowl of water, adding a few splashes of vinegar and a few pinches of salt and white sugar. Let it sit for 10 minutes.
While the carrots and daikon are pickling, assemble the salad. In a large bowl, combine the celery, red onion, chickpeas, shrimp, and calamari. Add the carrots and daikon once they are ready.
Add the scallops, parsley, and lemon zest last. Dress with extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, a small splash of fish sauce, and a generous amount of salt and black pepper. Mix and serve with crusty, garlic-rubbed bread.
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