If you’re looking for a decadent dinner theme or an excuse to build your own seafood tower, look no further!
The Feast of the Seven Fishes is a traditional Catholic Italian American dinner typically served on Christmas Eve. My husband and I are neither Italian nor Catholic – but we are seafood lovers, and the Italians have never strayed us wrong on food.
Note: Seven is not binding. In fact, we like to think of seven as a minimum, not a ceiling.
My husband is an excellent cook and this is his favorite meal to make. This year he went all out with caviar, lobster, mini sweet shrimp, sashimi, and more.
First Course: Sardines and Cockles
As our guests arrived, they were greeted with a spread of interesting Lucas small sardines and Island Creek cockles served with fresh baguette and sourdough, a festive butter tree, and maldon salt. If you and your guests have never had this dish, I recommend spreading a generous amount of butter on nice bread, arranging the sardines or cockles on top, and then sprinkling with maldon salt.
We also had a selection of cheese, meats, olives, crackers, and sweet nibbles. See video above for ideas on expanding your Feast of Seven Fishes with nibbles to greet your guests. I can’t pass up any excuse to put together a bonkers cheeseboard.
Second Course: Caviar and Roe
For our second course, we brought out the caviar board. We served three types of caviar (white sturgeon from Island Creek, OM kaluga hybrid, OM ossetra) and a lovely salmon roe. We provided two different potato vessels for eating the caviar –(1) smashed baby potatoes, roasted with olive oil and garlic until crispy, and (2) potato chips. Simply top the potato vessel of your choice with some crème fraîche and adorn with caviar.
Third Course: Tuna Sashimi and Mini Sweet Shrimp
This was one of my favorite dishes of the evening. Jeff sourced really nice ingredients, and every bite was special. Mini sweet shrimp coated in potato starch and then flash-fried with ginger and garlic. Sushi-grade tuna sliced thinly. Seaweed salad and nori sheets. If you are in the DC area, we like shopping at Rice Market.
Fourth Course: Lobster Chowder
This was tied for my favorite dish of the evening with the previous course. We had pre-made a coconut, clam, and cod chowder with lemongrass aromatics. The day of, we heated the broth and added in a generous portion of lump lobster claw meat. For the final touch, we served garnished with fresh chives.
Fifth Course: Whole fish and crab fried rice with uni
For the final savory course, we served whole branzino roasted with lemon slices and dill with fried rice jam-packed with fresh uni and lump crab meat. Served with crispy Brussels sprouts.
Sixth Course: Dessert
We had way too many desserts. My friend made an amazing boiled orange filo dough cake, and then others brought small fancy 2-3 bite desserts. To ensure it deserved a spot at the fish feast, we adorned the plate with sour fish candies. 😉
Beverage Pairing
We served the Old Saint Nick, the Holly Jolly Rum (view this page for recipes), and the Bubbles and Berries during the first few courses, then nice red wine and sake (Suigei Tokubetsu Junmai) during the main courses, and finally amaro with dessert.
