whiting baked with leeks, bacon, sage; roasted fingerlings

King_whiting_leaks_fingerlings2_

Winter fish: Delicious, and an excellent accompaniment to a cold February evening, this meal felt and looked custom-ordered for the very cold weather outside, but the fish was actually the only ingredient that wasn’t already waiting inside the kitchen.

  • two sliced leeks from Eataly and one ounce of chopped bacon from Millport Dairy tossed with a third of a cup of olive oil, placed in a non-reactive pan and roasted for 10 minutes before a teaspoon or more of chopped sage, also from Eataly, was added [thyme is an alternative, and in fact the herb specified in the original recipe] along with 1/4 of a cup of white wine, the pan returned to the oven for 20 more minutes, before the leek mixture was topped by two halves of a nearly one-pound fillet of King Whiting (Silver Hake) from Pura Vida, which was drizzled with a tablespoon or so of olive oil, the pan again returned to the oven and left there until the fish was cooked (about 10 more minutes), when it was removed and garnished with more chopped sage (or thyme, if using)
  • red fingerling potatoes from Berried Treasures roasted with rosemary from Stokes Farm, tossed with a small amount of micro arugula greens from Lucky Dog Organic
  • the wine was a California (Sonoma) white, ROX Scott Peterson Sonoma Coast Chardonnay 2014 
  • the music was Telemann’s ‘Flavius Bertaridus’, with the Academia Montis Regalis conducted by Alessandro De Marchi