We’re approaching Good Friday, so it’s a great time to ask whether you know why it’s tradition to eat fish on this day.
No doubt most of you will say it’s to mark the death of Jesus Christ, with Christians being urged to abstain from eating the flesh of warm-blooded animals as an act of penance.
And you would be correct.
But we like to keep religion, politics and any other serious issues away from this blog if we can, so we much prefer to look at some of the more-stranger theories why fish is, or not depending on the story, the preferred choice on Fridays (remember fish Fridays at school?).
An absolute cracker is that a medieval pope (sorry, a bit of religion here) made a pact with some of his fisherman buddies to boost their ailing business so he ordered Catholics to eat fish on Fridays during Lent – sounds more like the premise of a John Grisham thriller doesn’t it?
Another goes that Henry VIII, having broken away from the Catholic church (oh no religion and politics now – we’ll stop soon promise!) to be able to marry Anne Boleyn stopped people from eating fish on Fridays as it was considered, well too Catholic.
What he seemingly failed to realise though was that he was living on an island where many people were fisherman, so he was cutting off his own nose (or in his case head?) to spite his face.
Needless to say when he was succeeded by his son Edward VI, fasting days were reinstated by law and the fisher-folk of ye old England were happy again.
The best fish story though, and this one is definitely true, is that the McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish was created by a franchise owner in the USA because he was struggling to sell burgers on Fridays.
Now that’s a fishy tale we can definitely get behind.
Thai green curry with fish balls
Ingredients:
- 75g skinless, firm white fish fillets roughly cut into pieces
- 1 onion sliced
- 3 tbsp ready-made or green curry paste
- One tin coconut milk
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 50g finely sliced galangal
- 3 kaffir lime leaves
- Juice of two limes
- 1 handful holy basil, to serve
- 1 de-seeded, finely sliced, to serve long red chilli
Method:
- Fry the onion in some oil for a few minutes and then add the curry paste. Cook for a few more minutes.
- Pour in the coconut cream. Stir and cook gently for five minutes.
- Add the fish, fish sauce, galangal, sugar, kaffir lime leaves. Cook for 12-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until the fish is cooked.
- Add the lime juice, season then sprinkle with basil leaves and sliced chilli.
- Serve with boiled rice.
About Jane Beesley
Development & Innovations Chef of SK Foods.
Your food. Our Passion.
