Feast of the Seven (Tinned) Fishes: Part I
Part I today with 3 recipes, part II tomorrow with 4.
Earlier this week my friend Mike and I went to dinner at South Philadelphia’s number one Portuguese-inspired corner bar, Grace & Proper, at an event that could have been designed for me and specifically for me: a feast of the seven fishes, but with tinned fish.
The Feast of the Seven Fishes is an Italian-American dinner on Christmas Eve that moves through seven courses of seven different fishes. Walking through the Italian Market around this time of year I get advertised salted cod baccalà, smelts, and mussels. Some restaurants post prix fixe menus in their windows for their own Feasts. Grace & Proper took a distinctly terminally online white-collar laptop class Zillenial contemporary approach with a tinned fish menu featuring crab, sardines, cod, trout, and so on. It was righteously fun and painfully self-aware.
I adore tinned fish. It is the ideal portable meal: savory, shelf-stable, has some resemblance of nutrition, and feels nicer than a mozzarella cheese stick or some granola bars crushed in the bottom of your back. On my train excursion to San Francisco and back to Philadelphia earlier this year, I packed copious amounts of sardines to eat with rice cakes in what my dad called “military rations.” I eat them with potato chips at my office for an inexpensive (albeit sodium-spiking) lunch. I smear pickled mussels onto croissants from coffee shops, mash sardines with some hot sauce, and of course, cook with them. Anchovy filets add salty richness to pasta sauce; canned salmon and tuna can be done up past a cold salad sandwich; mussels, clams and octopus feel like a special treat.
Today and tomorrow, I will be sending out seven recipes that I have made this past year with tinned fish. It’s less of a feast and more of a Spotify Wrapped yearly recap of what I made with tinned fish. Today’s newsletter has three recipes and tomorrow’s will have four; the first recipe is available for free on each newsletter, while the remaining five will be exclusively for paid subscribers. Tomorrow’s newsletter will also have a tinned fish Q&A to cover some questions I get about my shopping and consumption of tinned fish. Until December 31st, subscriptions are 24% off. Now is the perfect time to get one for all of your tinned fish needs:
If you make anything, tag me @heardchefyeschef on Instagram. Let me know your adoration, your bastardizations, your deepest and darkest culinary secrets. Think of it like a confessional. I won’t share.
Tinned Mussels Ravigote
This ravigote is a cold, acidic sauce that works beautifully with meaty, sweet mussels. Balance these flavors: bright, salty, spicy jalapeño and lemon with creamy butter beans and oil. I used way too much oil in this photo and have adjusted the recipe here to reduce it; you shouldn’t need much more than to generously coat the mussels and beans. Smear with a fork on a good sliced baguette.
Serves 1. Ingredients:
Mussels
1 tin of mussels in olive oil. I used the Patagonia Provisions lemon herb mussels. Do not drain the oil.
½ can butter beans
1 jalapeño, seeded and diced
1 tbsp capers
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp crushed red pepper
1 lemon
½-¾ cup finely chopped parsley
3 tbsp fresh thyme
1 small shallot, sliced
Ravigote Sauce
1 tsp Dijon mustard
½ tbsp honey
2-3 tbsp white wine or champagne vinegar
¼ cup good extra virgin olive oil
Drain the mussels’ oil into a mixing bowl and set the mussels aside. Mix in the ingredients for the ravigote sauce.
In your serving bowl, add the mussels, butter beans, jalapeno, capers, minced garlic, crushed red pepper, thyme, and parsley. Toss everything together until the mussels and beans are coated in the herbs.
Pour the ravigote over the mussels and beans. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Squeeze lemon juice over everything; garnish with shallot and Maldon salt.