monkfish on a bed of potatoes; Tuscan cabbage

monkfish_potaotes_bay_olives_cavalo_nero

This meal may be the one I repeat in our kitchen most often.  It’s a Mark Bittman recipe which I cut out of the New York Times 15 years ago (Note: I’ve learned to use only about two thirds of the suggested amount of olive oil;  any more than that and you’ll probably find the potatoes swimming in it at the end).  The formula can be prepared with many different kinds of fish, basically any white fish.  Bittman:  “Monkfish works very well . . . . But other fillets will give similar results, including red snapper, sea bass, pollock, wolffish, even catfish.”  I make one other alteration to the recipe:  While I almost never peel potatoes anyway before cooking, I definitely do not when preparing this dish.

  • monkfish tail from P.E.&D.D. Seafood, and black oil-cured olives, roasted on the top of a bed of sliced and seasoned German Butterball potatoes from Mountain Sweet Berry Farm which had been roasted previously in a generous amount of olive oil along with 15 or so fresh bay leaves from Westside Market
  • cavalo nero from Northshire Farm, wilted with olive oil along with garlic halves from Migliorelli Farms which had first been heated in the oil
  • The wine was a Portuguese white, DAC, Dão 2013