Christmas beyond the meat binge: why you have to claim the sea bream and cod these holidays

We have a few weeks ahead to prepare the agapes, between Christians and pagans, Christmas and Christmas Eve. And today this gastronomic would want to break a spear for the, somewhat forgotten, piscivorous traditions in the next holidays, in front of the generalization of carnivores. Because the variety is the taste.

There is an undeniable religious element in the choice of ingredients and dishes at this time of year. Centuries ago the Catholic Church imposed the rules of fasting and abstinence (eating less, and that they were neither meat nor its derivatives) to do penance both in Lent - before Easter - and in Advent, the period that ends the day before Christmas. So in the Catholic countries fish was eaten until Christmas Eve dinner.

That tradition is strongly maintained in countries of Catholic majority in Central Europe such as Poland, Croatia or Slovakia, and as part of the fast was relaxing, Christmas Eve dinner became a small feast culminated by a main fish dish.

In many regions of Spain, and for several reasons, the great agape has continued to be Christmas Eve dinner, rather than Christmas lunch, and that already gives us the chance to recover some typical fish dishes that are made, not only that day , but preferably that day. For this chronicler, none of them is better than the Madrid bream , a long time - when the bream was not put at 50 euros at this time - the favorite of many families. On a bed of potatoes and onions it is roasted in the oven, and in the upper part they make incisions to put slices of lemon that prevent the fish from drying out. The result is glorious, and with a good sparkling wine ( cava can no longer be said, because half a dozen appeals have emerged) is a true glory.

In other areas there are similar traditions, such as in Aragón and Castilla la Vieja with garlic cod (with its garlic, green and bell pepper, chilli pepper and a touch of paprika) or in La Rioja with its relative the cod in Rioja (with more fried tomato, which allows to make a substantial sauce along with the pepper). In fact, salted cod is an ingredient of Christmas recipes in several interior European areas where access to fresh sea fish was not possible until the improvement of communications in the second half of the nineteenth century, no doubt the time in the one that other recipes like the bream to the madrileña became popular.

Even by the sea, a country in Europe where dried cod is a fundamental part of the culinary culture is Portugal , and there, just the traditional dish of that festive Christmas Eve is the cooked bacalhau (with potatoes and cabbage, sprinkled with olive oil), one of the most basic recipes among the many of the Portuguese acquis.

It is curious the absence of fishing traditions at Christmas in the country always considered the best cuisine in Europe, France . And there is what developed over time a skillful tradition: the Reveillon , which we could translate by great awakening , which is a dinner held very late, after the mass of the Rooster and, therefore, already in the day of Christmas and with freedom to get fed up with foie gras .

In Italy there is, like the rest of the year, a huge variety of different dishes from north to south and from west to east. Some of the fish that in certain areas are traditionally eaten at Christmas Eve dinner that have their grace and intrigue: thus, in Naples and throughout Campania, the capitone is eaten, previously fried eel and then stewed with muscatel onion and raisins , It is served with polenta (corn puree).

Southern Italy and the islands are very fond of fish, and it shows: in Sicily they usually dine on the 24th a very simple dish: pasta (in this case, bucatini ) with fresh sardines, fennel, raisins, onion and fillets anchovy In Apulia they make some bags of fresh pasta , the pettole , which can be filled in several ways: either with anchovies, tomatoes, capers and oregano, or with prawns, turnip greens and fresh ricotta cheese. And in Calabria it reappears, of course, the desalted cod, which is cooked with broccoli, which is the vegetable that they consider there as theirs.

As we mentioned, where the Christmas Eve dinner based on fish continues to reign is among the Catholic families of Central Europe, and the fish they consume is totally surprising to us, because we hardly know it: it is the great river carp , today in day raised in aquaculture -particularly in Slovakia and the Czech Republic- and that once, it was bought alive and left in the bathtub for several days so that it was cleaning its organism of everything that swallows this fish that lives in the most silty and dirty bottoms from the rivers.

Culinaryly we will not learn much from that, the most widespread Christmas-fish tradition in Europe: neither the carp is very appetizing, nor is it prepared with great grace. There are several recipes, but the dominant one in countries like Poland consists only of cutting it into fillets, macerating it in lemon, flouring and frying it . With salad, vegetables and potatoes it becomes more acceptable ...

More interesting, at the Christmas Eve dinner of the Orthodox Russia, is the culibiac , that pie stuffed - in layers, by the way - of salmon, hard boiled eggs, onions and mushrooms, scented with dill . Of course it would do us an alternative here, right?

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

• The Gourmet
• Gastronomy
• Religion

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