squid/conch salad, escarole; roasted squash, seared cod

I always imagine I’m tasting the sea itself with a fresh seafood salad prepared by the wife of one of our local fishermen.

As for the main course Wednesday night, while ‘winter cod’ isn’t a real thing, cod on a wintery night is, and that night it looked like it there really was such a thing as a winter cod.

  • eight ounces of a squid and conch salad (including olive oil, parsley, red pepper, lemon juice) from P.E. & D.D. Seafood in the Union Square Greenmarket, made by Dolores Karlin, the wife of Phil Karlin, the fisherman who was the source of the bounty, the seasoning of the salad adjusted only slightly, with a fresh drizzle of juice from an organic Chelsea Whole Foods Market California lemon, before it was arranged on leaves of escarole from Windfall Farms already dressed with a good olive oil (Renieris Estate ‘Divina’, a Koroneiki varietal), local P.E. & D.D. sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, and a drizzle of lemon juice as well, that had been arranged as a bed for the salad
  • slices of Buck Honey Rye (rye, malted buckwheat groats,oney, water, salt) from Lost Bread Co.

The entrée was assembled more or less from the same simple Mark Bittman recipe I had first used 5 years ago, and then again last December, although this time I added a little dried habanada pepper to the squash. It was at least as good as ever, and, yes, it did feel wintery.

  • I used two 9 or 10-ounce cod fillets from American Seafood Company, whole wheat flour from the Blew family of Oak Grove Mills, 2 quite small honeynut squash (9 ounces each) from Alewife Farm, home-dried habanada pepper from the fresh grown by Norwich Meadows Farm, Columela Rioja 30 Year Reserva sherry vinegar, and micro purple radish from Windfall Farms as a garnish