I fiddled with this recipe a little each time I’ve brought it out. It was originally the late Kyle Phillips‘s terrific approach to cod, although it looks like I’ve only used it with hake until last night. I’ve finished it with with various toppings; this time I used fresh fennel flowers, and before that I played around a little more, adding a very special, incredibly delicious, not-really-hot-at-all new orange pepper variety to the pan before introducing the fish.

This one was better than ever, and for most of that I may be able to thank the heatless pepper.

The cod looked like this just before it was removed from the pan.

And these are some very special peppers. Haifa, of Norwich Meadows Farm, told me that she dries them to enjoy all year round; after my experience with this meal, I have to go back to get a stash to do the same.

• one 15-ounce cod fillet from P.E. & D.D. Seafood, handed off to me at noon that day at their Union Square stand by the owner and fisherman, Phil Karlin himself, which I divided expertly into 2 equal portions before they were dredged in seasoned coarse stone-ground flour and dipped in a beaten egg from Millport Dairy, sautéed briefly (about 3 minutes on each side) in butter along with a few sage leaves from Stokes Farm that I had dried over the last weeks, and one finely-chopped small orange (heatless) Habanada pepper from Norwich Meadows Farm, drizzled with about 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, tranferred onto the plates, the juices remaining in the pan distributed over them, followed by a sprinkling fennel flowers from Rise & Root Farm
• yellow zucchini (‘Goldbar zucchini’) from Sycamore Farms and dark green zucchini from Norwich Meadows Farm, sliced thickly, brushed (actually, massaged) with a combination of olive oil, finely-chopped German Hardneck garlic from Race Farm, salt, and pepper, pan grilled, turning once, until cooked though, then arranged on a platter, sprinkled with some chopped ‘Julip mint’ from Keith’s Farm and peppermint from Stokes Farm, drizzled with a little olive oil
• the wine was a California (Santa Ynez) white, Literally Chardonnay California 2013
• the music was an album of music by Roman Haubenstock-Ramati, ‘Mobile for Shakespeare’

I thought this would be pretty much a pro forma meal when I started cooking, but sometimes familiar ingredients and a familiar recipe end up as something uncommonly good, and even spectacularly good.

• one nearly 20 ounce hake fillet from from American Seafood Company in the Saturday 23rd Street market, cut into 4 pieces to make an even division for two servings, dredged in local North Country Farms Stone Ground Whole Wheat Flour that had been seasoned with plenty of sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, dipped into a shallow bowl in which one egg from Millport Dairy Farm had been beaten with a fork, sautéed (“over a brisk flame’, as Kyle Phillips‘ original recipe, for cod, ‘Merluzzo Dorato’, indicates), in more than 2 tablespoons of Organic Valley ‘Cultured Pasture Butter’ that had been scattered with almost a handful of small sage leaves (once fresh, and now almost completely dried) from Keith’s Farm, inside a heavy vintage oval copper skillet for about 7 minutes, turning the pieces half of the way through, then sprinkled with a little over 2 tablespoons of organic lemon juice from Whole Foods Market and any pan juices that remained, arranged on 2 plates, topped with segments of a tiny ear of corn I had found on the counter of Alex’s Tomato Farm in the 23rd Street greenmarket (it had become detached from a larger ear, and was all that remained of the farmers supply of corn when I spotted it) garnished with chopped parsley, also from Keith’s Farm, and served with lemon wedges

The only accompaniment to the hake was an improvisation, assembled from 4 vegetables I had on hand: 2 small fennel bulbs, 5 red scallions, 1 aji dulce pepper, and 4 very ripe heirloom tomatoes, and nothing else, really.

• two small fennel bulbs from Neversink Organic Farm, stems and fronds removed (the stems and most of the fronds kept for another use, some of the fronds set aside for a garnish), cut into wedges, and, with 3 roughly-chopped fresh spring shallots from Alewife Farm, sautéed inside a heavy high-sided tin-lined medium copper pot over medium high heat until the fennel had just begun to color, at which time one finely-chopped section of an aji dulce pepper from Eckerton Hill Farm was a stirred in and heated briefly to soften it, the heat lowered, the pan covered, the vegetables cooked for another 4 or 5 minutes, the cover removed, and 4 very different sizes and colors of heirloom tomatoes from Alewife farm, roughly chopped, added, the heat turned off and the mix stirred to soften them a bit, everything arranged on the plates and garnished with the chopped fronds of the fennel
• the wine was a Greek (Thessaly/Tyrnavos) white, Domaine Zafeirakis Paleomilos Malagousia 2016, from Flatiron Wines
• the music was the album, Ingram Marshall: Dark Waters, and then, while we lingered long at the table, a significant portion of a long (6-hours) piano piece, ‘Alvin Curran: Inner Cities’, performed by Daan Vandewalle

 

This flounder doesn’t look shy, but the colors of its coat betray only some of the complexity of the flavors it inherited from the garlic, herb and vegetables with which it shared a pan.

I no longer use a the original version of this recipe for the treatment of white fish, one in which I’ve incorporated hake, cod, several flatfish varieties, and possibly others in the past, but regardless of what I’ve done to alter it, there’s always magic.

The yellow Romano beans may be the last of the season for us, and it was a good sendoff: They had a great texture, and a surprising sweetness.

• two flounder fillets, 5 1/2 ounces each, from P.E. & D.D. Seafood, seasoned with salt and pepper on both sides, coated lightly with well-seasoned flour (I used North Country Farms Stone Ground Whole Wheat Flour), then submerged in a shallow bowl containing a mixture of one egg from Millport Dairy, a little whole milk, and a pinch of salt, allowed to stay submerged until the vegetable had been mostly prepared and the remaining ingredients for the fish set out, then removed from the bowl, placed in a heavy oval copper pan with 2 or 3 tablespoons of butter, several crushed dried sage leaves from Stokes Farm, one chopped Habanada pepper from Norwich Meadows Farm, and some chopped leek green leaves, fried over a brisk flame until golden, about two minutes for each side, sprinkled with lemon, transferred onto warm plates, some micro beets from Windfall Farms scattered over the top
• yellow Romano beans from Norwich Meadows Farm, briefly parboiled and dried inside the same warm pan, once drained, set aside, reheated while the fish was frying in a cast iron pan, seasoned, finished with chopped lovage from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• the wine was a California (Napa Valley) white, Matt Iaconis Chardonnay Napa Valley 2015, from Naked Wines
• the music was from the album of Per Nørgård’s work, ‘Libra. Rêves en pleine lumière. Kredsløb’, an extraordinarily impressive cycle of