NEW YORK — “Fish at Rosh Hashanah?” asked a friend when I suggested bringing poached striped bass to her house for a New Year’s celebration. “Isn’t fish for Passover?”
Until marrying into a family from Trieste, Italy, I believed the same thing. But my husband soon introduced me to a lemony bass, a traditional appetizer enjoyed in Italy during both Passover and Rosh Hashanah.
While every holiday should begin with lighting candles, blessings over bread and wine, and partaking in fish, says culinary ethnographer Eve Jochnowitz, today many American families skip the fish.
Perhaps it’s because Lower East Side bubbes became the brunt of too many jokes for keeping live carp in bathtubs. Or because the pale flavor of jarred gefilte fish simply underwhelms the tastebuds.
But there are historical and religious reasons to serve fish at holidays throughout the year, including Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
Both Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews customarily ate fish on Shabbat and other holidays because it is a good omen to fulfill the Lord’s commandment to Abraham “to be fruitful and multiply” like the fish in the sea.
“In the ancient world, fish symbolized fertility, abundance and prosperity,” says Jochnowitz, who teaches a class called “Historical Approaches to Jewish Food” at the New School in Manhattan. “It was therefore auspicious to delight in fish during Sabbath meals.”
Rosh Hashanah in particular is concerned with fertility and prosperity in the coming year, explains Rabbi Gil Marks. For this reason, fish and foods bearing seeds are excellent choices on menus.
Marks, who is also a chef and the author of “The World of Jewish Entertaining,” said the ancient custom of displaying the head of a fish on the Rosh Hashanah table was a sign for the coming year to be rosh, meaning head, to progress or move ahead.
In many countries, fish is a staple at Rosh Hashanah. Alsatian Jews dine on sweet and sour carp, German Jews savor a similar dish flavored with gingersnaps. Indian Jews flavor fish with curry or wrap fillets in lettuce leaves. Turkish and Greek Jews simmer their holiday fish in sauces made from tomatoes, plums or prunes.
Among Egyptian Jews, bellahat, or ground fish balls with tomato and cumin, “is known as a Rosh Hashanah dish,” says food writer Jayne Cohen, author of “The Gefilte Variations” (Simon and Schuster, 2000). Requiring no poaching in broth, these fish balls are so easily prepared that her 15-year-old daughter often makes them. Given the recipe by Corinne Rossabi, an excellent home cook raised in Egypt, Cohen calls it a spicy alternative to gefilte fish.
“One thing I look forward to at Rosh Hashanah is shopping for ingredients for bellahat at my local market,” she says. Made with a riot of tomatoes, the dish is in sync with Rosh Hashanah’s affinity for produce loaded with seeds as part of the holiday’s symbolism of fertility and abundance.
And there is yet another alternative for people willing to pay the price of convenience.
“Although I’ve never seen it, caviar might be an interesting custom to start at Rosh Hashanah,” says Marks, with a chuckle. “Why not?”
EGYPTIAN GROUND FISH BALLS WITH TOMATO AND CUMIN
Adapted from “The Gefilte Variations” by Jayne Cohen
Serves 8
Fish Balls
1-1/2 lbs. skinned and filleted flounder, haddock, cod, scrod, sole, hake, sea bass, snapper or grouper
1/2 cup matzah meal
2 large eggs
1 Tbs. minced fresh garlic
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. cayenne
olive oil for frying
Sauce
2 cups canned whole tomatoes with their juice, seeded and chopped
2 Tbs. olive oil
juice of 1 large lemon
salt and pepper
Cut fish into 1-inch pieces. In a food processor, puree them with matzah meal, eggs, garlic, salt, cumin and cayenne until mixture is smooth. Transfer the puree to a large bowl and refrigerate it covered for one hour. With moistened hands, shape the mixture into 16 slightly flattened logs, using a scant 1/4 cup for each. Transfer them as they are formed to a sheet of wax paper. Heat 1/4 inch of oil over high heat in a large, heavy skillet until it is hot but not smoking. Add the fish balls in batches and fry, turning them once until pale golden. Transfer balls to paper towels.
Wipe out the skillet. Add the tomatoes and their juice, olive oil, lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. Cook over high heat for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes break up and the sauce is thickened. Add the fish balls and simmer the mixture over low heat, covered for 15 minutes, turning fish balls once or twice. Remove the skillet from the heat and allow fish to cool in sauce.
Line a platter with lettuce. Arrange fish balls on them, and spoon sauce over fish. Sprinkle with parsley or cilantro, and accompany with lemon wedges. Serve the fish chilled or at room temperature.
Tips on fixing a fresh catch
NEW YORK (JTA) — To make sure the fish you serve at your High Holy Day celebration is fresh and attractive, here are some tips:
*Purchase fish at kosher markets. Nonkosher purveyors may co-mingle crustaceans among fish with scales, rendering them traif.
*A fresh fish should actually smell sweet, not “fishy.” Fish with the odor of cat food is too old to be sold.
*When preparing recipes calling for ground fish, ask the market to fillet and chop the fish.
*When buying boned fish, ask to see the fish before the purveyor fillets it. Look for clear eyes. Cloudy sunken eyes indicate a deteriorating fish.
*Raw fish must be refrigerated. During preparation, do not leave it on the counter any longer than necessary, especially on hot days.
*Wash utensils thoroughly after they’ve touched raw fish.
*To ensure success in recipes calling for a jellied broth, add a package of plain vegetable gelatin to simmering liquid.
*Serve fish on an attractive platter garnished with lettuce, parsley sprigs, steamed carrot slices or cherry tomatoes.