Around the Shabbat Table (7 page)

About 12 large cabbage leaves, washed (you can use slightly imperfect or dark green outer leaves)

Soft lettuce leaves, endive, or radicchio, for lining plates

PREPARE
the fish balls: in a small saucepan, bring 1 cup lightly salted water to a boil. Add the carrots and parsnips, and simmer until the vegetables are very tender. Drain, reserving the cooking water, and transfer the vegetables to a food processor. Put the matzoh meal in a small bowl and stir in
¹
⁄
₃
cup of the reserved cooking water. Let this mixture sit so that the matzoh meal can soften as it soaks in the liquid.

WARM
the oil in an 8-inch skillet. Add the onions, sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper, and sauté, stirring, over medium heat until soft, shiny, and just beginning to color palest gold, 8 to 9 minutes. Don't let them brown. Transfer the onions and any oil remaining in the skillet to the food processor. Add the shallots and the chopped dill to the food processor and puree until fairly smooth. Transfer the mixture to a large wooden chopping bowl or a wooden chopping board. (Don't wash out the food processor if you are grinding your own fish.) If your fish is not ground, put it, about 2 teaspoons salt, and
¹
⁄
₈
teaspoon pepper in the food processor and pulse just until the mixture is chopped fine, but not pasty. Add the fish to the wooden bowl or board. (If you are using preground fish, add it now, seasoned with salt and pepper.) Add the matzoh meal mixture. Beat the eggs and yolks in a bowl until thick and lemon-colored. Using a hand chopper or cleaver, work the eggs and lemon juice into the fish mixture, a little at a time. (Hand-chopping at this point incorporates air into the mixture, making it lighter and fluffier than pulsing in the food processor.)

TEST
for seasoning. Poach a teaspoon of the fish mixture in lightly salted boiling water for a few minutes. Taste and, if needed, add additional salt and pepper. Chill the fish mixture, covered, for at least 1 hour or up to 4 hours. It will be easier to mold and the fish balls will be fluffier.

WHILE
the fish is chilling, combine the ingredients for the dill-horseradish mayonnaise. Cover and refrigerate.

STEAM
the fish balls: you'll need a large, wide pot such as a 5- to 6-quart Dutch oven or heavy casserole with a tight-fitting lid, and a rack that stands at least 2 inches high. (A simple round cake rack works well. If it is not high enough, set it over 2 custard cups or empty tuna cans in the pot.) Fill the pot with water to a depth of 1 inch.

LINE
the rack with a layer of cabbage leaves. Form the fish mixture into 16 ovals, using a scant
¹
⁄
₄
cup for each, wetting your hands with cold water, if needed to work the sticky mixture. Depending on the variety of fish used, the mixture may be very soft but will firm up as it cooks and, later, as it chills. Bring the water in the pot to a boil. Gently put as many ovals on top of the cabbage leaves as will fit comfortably in a single layer without touching. Place a sprig of dill on each fish oval. Top the fish with another layer of cabbage leaves and cover the pot tightly. Turn the heat down to medium and steam for 20 to 25 minutes, until the ovals are completely cooked through at the center. (When steamed in raw cabbage leaves, the fish will probably take closer to 25 minutes; when steaming the second batch in the now-cooked cabbage leaves, it will probably take about 20 minutes.) Line a platter with some of the cooked cabbage leaves and carefully put the cooked fish on top of them. Using additional cabbage leaves as needed, cook any remaining fish ovals in the same way, transferring the fish as it is done to the cabbage-lined platter. Remove and discard the dill sprigs from all the ovals, and cover with a layer of cooked cabbage leaves to keep them moist. Let everything cool to room temperature. Wrap the platter with plastic wrap and chill the fish until cold.

FOR
best flavor, serve the fish chilled but not icy cold. Remove the fish from the cabbage leaves and arrange attractively on platters or individual plates lined with lettuce, endive, or radicchio, and accompany with the dill-horseradish mayonnaise.

COOK'S NOTE:
I like a combination of half salmon and half red snapper or lemon or grey sole. And I've made a terrific, plush-tasting gefilte fish with half Chilean sea bass and half flounder. Or use your own or your fishmonger's favorite mixture. Avoid very strong-flavored fish like bluefish or mackerel. Be sure to use a combination of fat and lean fish.

MOROCCAN FISH WITH CHICKPEAS AND SAFFRON-LIME AIOLI

yield:
4 TO 6 SERVINGS

When I first tried this dish, I loved the classic Moroccan flavors, but somehow it seemed as if I were tasting each one separately:
chickpeas
, fish, and heady spices, disparate notes that didn't quite harmonize for me. Then I whipped up a batch of Cheater's Aioli—jarred mayonnaise flavored with saffron and lime—folded it into the pan juices, and a lovely melody was born.

3 cups freshly cooked
chickpeas
(reserve about
¹
⁄
₂
cup of cooking liquid) or two 15-ounce cans chickpeas, rinsed and drained

8 large garlic cloves, sliced

1 to 2 teaspoons hot red pepper flakes or 4 to 6 dried red chile peppers, or to taste

4 to 5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

¹
⁄
₂
teaspoon ground coriander

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 pounds fish fillets,1 inch thick (bass, snapper, cod, haddock, or other firm-fleshed white fish)

2 tablespoons fresh lemon or lime juice

1 teaspoon cumin seeds, lightly toasted and freshly ground

¹
⁄
₄
cup chopped fresh cilantro

1 teaspoon grated lime or lemon zest

Optional garnish: cilantro sprigs

FOR THE SAFFRON-LIME AIOLI

Saffron threads

¹
⁄
₂
cup mayonnaise, good-quality jarred such as Hellmann's, or even better, homemade

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1 tablespoon best-quality extra virgin olive oil

1 garlic clove, finely minced

³
⁄
₄
teaspoon cumin seeds, lightly toasted and freshly ground

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Liquid from baking the fish (optional)

YOU
can prepare the whole dish in one pan: a deep 12-inch wide ovenproof sauté pan or cast-iron skillet. Combine the chickpeas, reserved cooking liquid, if using freshly cooked, or
¹
⁄
₂
cup water if using canned, garlic, pepper flakes or hot peppers, 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, the coriander, and salt and pepper to taste. (Alternatively, if you don't have a similar pan, combine the ingredients in a regular skillet or saucepan—you may need a little more liquid.) Simmer the chickpeas over low heat, covered, for 30 minutes, to marry the flavors.

PREHEAT
the oven to 350°F.

WHILE
the chickpeas are cooking, prepare the Saffron-Lime Aioli: crush a pinch of saffron threads into a small bowl. Add 1 tablespoon hot water, stir, then let the saffron soak for about 10 minutes. Press the threads with the back of a spoon to release more color and flavor. Stir in the mayonnaise, lime juice, olive oil, garlic, cumin, and salt and pepper to taste. Let the flavors unfold while you make the fish.

PICK
out and discard the hot peppers, if used, from the chickpeas. Scoop out about half the chickpeas from the skillet and set them aside in a bowl. Arrange the remaining chickpeas evenly in the pan (or if you used a small pan, arrange half of the the chickpeas in a baking pan just large enough to accommodate the fish), and place the fish over the chickpeas in the pan. Sprinkle the fish with lemon or lime juice, cumin, and salt and pepper to taste. Top with 2 tablespoons of the chopped cilantro. Spoon the remaining chickpeas over the fish. Drizzle everything with 2 to 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Cover the pan (or use heavy-duty foil), and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the fish is just cooked through; the exact time will depend on the variety and thickness of the fish. To test the fish for doneness, insert a thin-bladed knife in the thickest part. The fish should be opaque or show a slight bit of translucence, according to your preference.

CHECK
the aioli for seasoning. If desired, thin it out with a tablespoon or so of the cooking liquid from the fish.

SCATTER
the remaining 2 tablespoons of cilantro, the lime or lemon zest, and, if you'd like, some more hot pepper flakes over the fish. I like to stir some of the aioli into the chickpeas and pan liquid, dollop a little atop the fish, and pass the rest separately in a sauce boat. But if you prefer, serve all the aioli on the side. Garnish the platter with cilantro sprigs.

ITALIAN-JEWISH MARINATED FRIED FISH (
PESCE EN SAOR
)

yield:
6 TO 8 SERVINGS

Above the night music, the Venetian skies boom and burst into explosive colors, sending showers of rainbow meteors skittering across the heavens, their shimmering reflections dancing in the inky canals.

It is the
Festa del Redentore
(Feast of the Redeemer), celebrated every July since 1576 to commemorate the end of a plague that had devastated the city. Among the traditional ritual of foods eaten before the blaze of spectacular fireworks is an ancient Venetian-Jewish dish, sole in a sweet-and-sour sauce of onions, raisins, and pine nuts, served cold.

Unlike some Italian-Jewish foods whose name betrays their provenance—
artichokes alla giudia
and several others with a “Sara” or “Rebecca” appended to the title come readily to mind—the Jewish origins of
Pesce en Saor
are not always acknowledged. But culinary historians, both those with an Italian focus and those with a Jewish one, trace the dish to the traditional methods Jews devised to preserve fish for the Sabbath. In Italy, Jewish cooks doused fried fish with hot vinegar, then to counteract the acidic taste, added sweet fried onions, raisins, and sugar. (This pattern—using vinegar or lemon as a preservative, then sweetening to eradicate the resulting sour taste—may explain why so many vastly different Jewish communities throughout the world developed their own sweet-and-sour fish dishes.) A fondness for raisins and pine nuts was acquired in Sicily, where Jews had dwelled from ancient times until they were expelled at the end of the fifteenth century.