My family’s not Catholic but my mom was raised Catholic so she is big into “fish on Fridays” during Lent. Not so much for religious reasons - but for the fish!
Our town has a coupla large Catholic churches, a Polish restaurant and a VFW that all host fish fries during Lent.
Today my folks went to the VFW and got us dinners - 2 large pieces of fish, a handful of fries, white bread with butter and a little tub of coleslaw. Oh and of course a tub of tartar sauce.
I am not a fish eater by any means. I can’t stand it. But fried fish smothered in tartar sauce I can handle. So I gratefully gobbled mine up.
I didn’t have fish tonight. But here are a couple of recipes I like and use often.
1 wild salmon fillet
Soy Vay Very Very Teriyaki sauce
Put the salmon fillet skin-side down on aluminum foil. Score the fillet laterally at intervals of about one inch. Score the fillet once down the thickest part. Pour Soy Vay Very Very Teriyaki on it. Wrap the foil around it annd put it in a 375º oven. Open the foil for the last few minutes.
2 Tilapia fillets
Chopped yellow onion
Roma tomato, sliced and the slices cut in half
Minced garlic
Capers (a teaspoon or so)
Olive oil
Salt & pepper
Heat the oil in a pan. Sauté the chopped onions with the garlic until translucent. Add the tomatoes, capers, salt and pepper. Add the tilapia fillets. Cook the fish until it’s done, turning once. Serve with the onions/tomatoes/capers on top.
In fact, the traditional disciplinary requirement is “you can’t eat meat”, not “you must eat fish”. So last night for dinner I had toasted cheese and tomato sandwiches and a salad.
I recently found out that I’m allergic to seafood, after my first time eating crab. I’d always gotten a little muzzy-throated after eating breaded shrimp, but I always just figured it was the breading scratching my throat. But, nope, I’m allergic. My doctor also advised me against eating any fish, so I don’t get to eat my mom’s beer-battered cod* during Lent anymore. wails It’s so good, too! Crispy and golden and a little yeasty/earthy from the beer in the batter. And she always makes onion rings and baked potato wedges to go with it. And some sort of delicious dessert.
My family’s not religious either. Dad was raised Catholic and Mom was raised Lutheran, so we just keep with the right foodstuffs at the right times of the year. For this reason, I feel very comfortable with the chicken tenders I had for dinner. But that doesn’t mean I don’t still miss Mom’s cooking. I can’t wait for spring break to come this year.
[sub]*This is also made difficult by the fact that I’m two and a half hours away from home at school right now, but if I could run across the state every Friday night for the next month, I would. It’s that good.[/sub]
I’ve never heard of anyone being allergic to fish. Crustaceans (crabs, shrimp, lobsters), yes. But fish? Have you ever suffered any ill effects from eating fish? If not, your doctor may be being over-cautious. Maybe you should go to another doctor for a second opinion?
Oh, if you’re allergic to shellfish you might be allergic to iodine. Remember that when you donate blood. I always tell the phlebotomist that I’m not allergic to iodine, and then when she swabs my arm with the Betadine solution I say, ‘Wait. Did you say iodine? :eeK: Yes, I’m horribly allergic! [Wait for reaction] Just kidding!’ It’s usually good for a laugh.
Eggs for breakfast – pancakes for lunch – two McDonald’s Filet-o-fish for supper (for $3) - have I mentioned I’m cheap.
Normally I do better, but I missed Ash Wednesday this time around because of crazy scheduling.
