The image is of the entrée resting on the range surface of the old Magic Chef after it had been removed from the oven.  It was just before the real operation actually began.  But it wasn’t so much the filleting that was a challenge, rather it was the inevitable encounter with the bones.  Somewhere through the meal we both decided that it was good to serve whole fish occasionally, for the flavor, the aesthetic, and the experience, but working with fillets was so much more relaxing all around.

One of the fish, along with the contorno, appears (on one of the two large plates which I had to pull out from the bottom of the cupboard) in the photo which follows this description of its preparation:

• well-matured nutty Ruby Crescent fingerlings from Berried Treasures, boiled, drained, dried, and cut lengthwise, placed on oiled parchment paper in an open enameled cast iron casserole as a bed for two seasoned whole twelve-ounce sea bass from Pura Vida stuffed with branches of thyme from Manhattan Fruit Exchange as well as some chopped Kalamata olives and rinsed salted capers, most of which were scattered on the fish and the potatoes along with more thyme, chopped, before the pan was placed in a 425º oven for about twenty minutes, the pan juices serving as a sauce
• kale from Rogowski Farm, wilted with olive oil in which fresh spring garlic, also from Rogowski Farm, sliced, had been heated, then seasoned with salt and pepper, and drizzled with more olive oil
• the wine was a California white, Akiyoshi Chardonnay Sur Lie Aged 2011, from Naked Wines

 

I haven’t gotten this dish down to where I can say it always works out perfectly, even if we’ve always enjoyed it’s seductions, but I’m hoping to get there eventually.  The ideal would be whites just set, yokes still slightly runny, and I’m pretty sure it’s as much about the mass and type of ingredients as it is about the timing.  Part of my problem may be that I keep changing the rules, by which I mean, the ingredients used.

Incidentally, I had intended to add halved or sliced boiled potatoes to the mix this time, which would have made the dish more of a dinner course than it was, but I forgot to do so while I was rushing the light-handed improvising.

• two cazuelas brushed with olive oil, layered with a few leaves of white cabbage from Foragers and one branch of winter kale (including the chopped stem) from Rogowski Farm, both already briefly blanched, drizzled with a little cream, followed by sliced and halved Backyard Farms Maine cocktail tomatoes from Whole Foods, and one slice of Colameco’s uncured Capocollo and three eggs from Millport Dairy broken onto the surface of each, thinly-sliced baby leeks from Rogowski Farm scattered on top, everything seasoned with salt and pepper, and the dishes baked at 375º for about 20-25 minutes, or until the whites were set, which was just before shredded Parmesan cheese was added on top only a couple of minutes before
• slices of Trucio from Sullivan Street Bakery
• the wine was an American red, Pinot Noir, Smoking Loon 2012

…plus that wonderful February surprise, baby leeks.

 

I was at the American Seafood stall in the Greenmarket, looking for something which I had not prepared recently, but also something which was not particularly expensive. Both conditions would be important last night, because once again a commitment would keep us away from the apartment for part of the evening and I wasn’t really going to have much time to make a dinner.

I feel compelled to say that the event was Cynthia Carr’s fascinating illustrated talk about David Wojnarowicz, at the Anthology Film Archives.

I had spotted the pollock fillets almost immediately.  I thought I could remember my earlier encounter with the fish had been a success, but I double checked by using my phone to look at our food blog (it’s actually why the site was created in the first place) before I made my choice.

This time I tried a treatment which was very different from my earlier outings with the great North American pollack.

• smallish German Butterball potatoes from Mountain Sweet Berry Farm, parboiled in salted water until nearly cooked through, drained, steamed dry, halved, and spread in an oven pan with halved Backyard Farms Maine cocktail tomatoes from Whole Foods, both vegetables seasoned with salt and pepper, nestled with two 7-ounce pollock fillets from American Seafood seasoned and wrapped in four slices of Colameco’s prosciutto, the pan then scattered with one sliced baby leek from Rogowski Farm, and drizzled with olive oil [the recipe was basically that of Kate McCullough, via Jamie Oliver)
• Brussels sprouts from from John D. Maderna Farm, tossed with salt, pepper, and some olive oil, and roasted in a 400º oven for about half an hour
• the wine was a South African white, Bayten Sauvignan Blanc 2013

I knew that we did not have much time to put together a meal after returning from another fantastic Target Margin Theater Lab productions tonight, so, planing ahead yesterday, I picked up two very special small steaks from Dickson’s Farmstand Meats on a slushy trip to the Lobster Place in what turned out to be an almost completely deserted Chelsea Market (the storm alerts seemed to have done their job).  I already had several kinds of winter roots at home, and an abundance of fresh January kale (he smiles here), so the meal I planned for what was, after all, a school night, would definitely not involve an overlong process.

• two wonderful boneless chuck short ribs (a total of 15 ounces) from Dickson’s Farmstand, brought to room temperature before being fried on an extremely hot well-seasoned cast iron pan with a few drops of canola oil for a few minutes, turned and seasoned part of the way through, then turned again, removed from the heat and allowed to rest for five or six minutes, while drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with chopped rosemary from John D. Maderna Farm
• one small celery root from Norwich Meadows Farm, and one medium parsnip from Rogowski Farm, both sliced as French fries, tossed with olive oil, salt, and pepper, roasted for about 25 minutes at 400º, with one thinly-sliced baby leek from Rogowski Farm added in the last five minutes
• kale from Rogowski Farm, wilted with olive oil in which thinly-sliced garlic from Migliorelli Farm had been heated, then seasoned with salt and pepper, and drizzled with more olive oil
• the wine was a Chilean white, Pura Fe, Cabernet Sauvignon Maipo Valley 2012

Because of the fairly severe weather conditions yesterday, before I headed down to Union Square and the Greenmarket for fish, I checked the online notice of who was there and who was not.  I learned that there would be no seafood, and in fact that there would be almost no Greenmarket at all, so I headed to the Lobster Place, taking the market news as a sign that for a change it might be a good idea to do something with shrimp, which of course is not a local catch.  When I got to the store I was immediately distracted by a bowl of cleaned baby squid, with tentacles, advertising themselves as Rhode Island natives.  Immediately smitten with both the image and the sign, I decided that the shrimp would have to wait for the next North Atlantic storm.

• pangrattato made from two-day-old Bien Cuit Miche (fermented rye and whole wheat bread) from Foragers, stirred with olive oil in a pan with unpeeled garlic cloves from Lucky Dog Organic and one ‘red hot finger pepper’ from Manhattan Fruit Exchange until the crumbs were crisp and golden, removed from the pan and spread onto paper toweling, the pan then wiped dry; meanwhile Ruby Crescent fingerlings from Berried Treasures and small La Ratte potatoes from Mountain Sweet Berry Farm, boiled, drained, halved and kept warm while preparing the cephalopods, baby (Rhode Island) squid from the Lobster Place, dried, seasoned, then sautéed in the same pan along with thin slices of lemon, turning all once, squid and lemon removed and distributed on plates on top of the potatoes and scattered with the pangrattato and sliced parsley from Eataly    [most of this recipe was inspired by Jamie Oliver’s Calamari in Padella con Limone e Pangrattato, from ‘Jamie’s Italy‘]
• the wine was an Italian white, Filippo Gallino Roero Arneis 2012