Although I’ve worked with this flounder recipe once before, this time it didn’t look or taste anything like that of last December.

Last night I almost burnt the bed on which the fish was to lie inside the oven. If knowing your way around mistakes is a sign of a mature cook, I may now have stepped out of my apprenticeship.

My recovery involved tossing some more wine and a splash of water into the hot cooking pan before adding the flounder to the scary brown stuff inside; we were both very lucky that the thin onion and lemon slices hadn’t quite reached the carbon point.

The plate was delicious, in a way of course that neither of us could have anticipated.

• one thinly-sliced organic Mexican lemon from Chelsea Whole Foods Market and one thinly-sliced 4 ounce fresh red onion from Jersey Farm Produce arranged at the bottom of a 9-by-13-inch enameled cast iron baking pan, dotted with 2 tablespoons of butter, 1/2 of  cup of white wine and a few tablespoons of cold water added,  sprinkled with 1 teaspoon of chopped thyme from Stokes Farm, seasoned with local sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, baked inside a 400º oven until the onions are soft and translucent, about 40 minutes [my near-burnt pan might have been the consequence of my having sliced everything too thinly, and/or not including  enough liquid], the pan removed and two flounder fillets (7 ounces each) from American Seafood Company arranged on top, seasoned with salt and pepper, a few sprigs of thyme laid on top, and the fish basted with the liquid on the bottom, the flounder baked until just opaque and cooked through, maybe 15 minutes, and arranged on the plates with the lemon and onion

• eight small Costata Romanesco zucchini from Windfall Farms, sliced lengthwise into pieces about a quarter of an inch thick, dried, tossed inside a bowl with a little olive oil, 2 finely-chopped garlic cloves from Stokes Farm, sea salt, and freshly-ground black pepper, then pan grilled, turning 2 or 3 times, on top of a seasoned 2-burner ribbed cast iron plate, arranged on an oval platter, sprinkled with torn spearmint from Stokes Farm and more olive oil, allowed to rest for a few minutes while the fish was prepared (the squash tastes wonderful at any temperature)
• slices of a great table bread, introduced to avoid letting the sauces excape, Philadelphia’s Lost Bread Company ‘table bread’, whose productions we are fortunate to be able to buy in the Union Square Greenmarket
• the wine was an Oregon (Willamette Valley/Dundee Hills) white, Oregon Pinot Blanc 2016, ordered directly from Erath
• the music was the album, ‘Jacob Druckman: Lamia’, Gil Rose conducting the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, with Lucy Shelton

It was delicious. but we we both got a pepper scare with our initial bites: The little yellow capsicum had been described as sweet and juicy (“citrusy sweet’, the sign said), and I neither heard nor saw any mention of heat, so when I was looking around for something to add to a good artisanal pasta last night I zeroed in on these little ones.

For one reason or another, the capsaicinoids soon became much less of a problem than our first taste had suggested they would be. Introducing some good bread to the table relieved the pressure initially, and we were able to sit back and enjoy the dish – and taste a good wine.

• half a dozen garlic scapes from Norwich Meadows Farm, sliced into one-inch sections, heated over a moderate flame in a little olive oil inside a large antique copper pot before adding 8 or 9 sliced ‘Bon Bon’ peppers from Campo Rosso Farm, sautéeing them until they had softened and begun to caramelize, adding one thinly sliced fresh habanada pepper near the end of that time, also from Campo Rosso Farm, and then stirring in the green section of a scallion stem from Alex’s Tomato Farm in Chelsea’s Down to Earth Farmers Market on 23rd Street, and tossing in 9 ounces of very good Campania pasta, cooked al dente (Afeltra 100% Grano Italiano Biologico Pasta di Grannano IG.P. Artigianale rigatone from Eataly Flatiron) with almost a cup of pasta water, the mix stirred over a high flame until the liquid had emulsified, one chopped yellow heirloom tomato from Norwich Meadows Farm and some chopped epazote from TransGenerational Farm mixed in, the dish arranged inside shallow bowls, a little olive oil drizzled around the edges, and more epazote sprinkled on top
• slices of an extraordinarily fine loaf of bread, ‘Seedy Grains’ (wheat, spelt, rye, and barley organic bread flours; buckwheat; oats; flax sesame, sunflower, and pumpkin seeds; water, and salt) from Lost Bread Company
• the wine was a California (grapes from both Suisun Valley and Sonoma) rosé, Evangelos Bagias Three Graces Rosé of Pinot Noir 2018, from Naked Wines
• the music was Charpentier’s 1688 tragédie en musique, ‘David et Jonathas’, William Christie conducting the Choir and Orchestra of Les Arts Florissants

I’m leading with an image of the main course, even though it had been preceded by an appetizer, only because the image of the former is a little splashier.

That almost didn’t happen however, because the heirloom tomatoes that account for much of the color on the plate in the picture above had already been so ripe when I bought them that afternoon that they didn’t make the short trip home intact. I spite of my best security efforts, they had apparently felt ‘crushed’ (so to speak) inside their plastic bag, and expelled their juices before I arrive home. I made a recovery that evening however, because, while they didn’t have their original integrity, they were delicious.

• one 14-ounce cod fillet from P.E. & D.D. Seafood Company in the Union Square greenmarket, washed, rinsed, and quartered (to arrive at pieces of equal size and thickness for 2 diners), placed inside a platter on a bed of coarse sea salt, with more salt added on top until the cod was completely covered, then set aside while a bed was prepared for them composed of 12 ounces of Adirondack red potatoes from Norwich Meadows Farm sliced to a thickness of roughly 1/4″ and tossed into a bowl with olive oil, salt, black pepper, and a pinch of a dried smoked serrano pepper from Eckerton Hill Farm, the potatoes arranged overlapping inside a rectangular glazed ceramic oven pan, cooked for 25 minutes or so in a 400º oven, or until they were tender when pierced but not fully cooked, then, the cod having already been thoroughly immersed in many fresh changes of water to bring down the saltiness, the pieces were drained, dried, and placed inside the pan on top of the potatoes, drizzled with a little olive oil and sprinkled with black pepper, blanketed with thin slices (or more like pieces) of one red and one green heirloom tomato from Norwich Meadows Farm, the tomatoes seasoned lightly with salt and pepper, and the pan returned to the oven for about 8 or 9 minutes (the exact time depends on the thickness of the fillets), when the cod was removed with the help of 2 spatulas, along with as much of the tomatoes and potatoes as can be brought along with each piece, and everything arranged on the plates as intact as possible
• slices of two very small stalks of celery from Norwich Meadow Farm, together with thicker slices of one green cucumber from Stokes Farm and 3 yellow cucumbers from Alewife Farm, all sautéed in olive oil inside a large antique copper pot until tender, browned, and slightly carbonized, seasoned with salt and black pepper, sprinkled with some of the celery leaves, plus some chopped dill from Lucky Dog Organic Farm

The appetizer had come about because I had some a little sheep milk feta remaining from the night before, and while at the Greenmarket on Monday I was looking around for ideas about how to use it while I when I spotted some shishito peppers.

• a few ounces (10 count) of shishito peppers from Alewife Farm sautéed over medium-high heat in a little olive oil inside a heavy seasoned cast iron pan for 4 to 5 minutes, or until blistered, tossing only occasionally, sprinkled with some local P.E. & D.D. Seafood sea salt and combined gently with a scant 2 ounces of cubed New York Hidden Springs Farm sheep milk feta from Eataly Flatiron, 8 or so pitted and halved Kalamata olives, half a tablespoon of chopped fresh thyme leaves from Stokes Farm, and about a fourth of a cup of olive oil, allowed to marinate at room temperature for at least 30 to 60 minutes before serving
• slices of a loaf of ‘Seedy Grains’ bread (wheat, spelt, rye, and barley organic bread flours; buckwheat; oats; flax sesame, sunflower, and pumpkin seeds; water, and salt) from Lost Bread Company

 

• the wine throughout was a Portuguese (Duriense/Douro – Porto) white, Quinta Do Crasto Branco 2016, from Garnet Wines 
• the music throughout was Ferdinando Bertoni’s 1776 opera, ‘Orfeo ed Euridice’, in a performance with Roberto Zarpellon conducting the Lorenzo Da Ponte Ensemble and the Ferrara Coro Accademia Di Santo Spirito

It was pasta, not a salad, although it has some of the aspects of a ‘pasta salad’, including the fact that the pasta was the only element that was actually cooked.

• a couple handfuls of datterini tomatoes, small, sweet, date-shaped (hence the name), from Campo Rosso Farm, halved, plus one not-large yellow heirloom tomato from Oak Grove Plantation, mixed inside a bowl with a combination of several finely chopped garlic cloves from Stokes Farm, 2 ounces of Kalamata olives, pitted and halved, half an ounce of rinsed salted capers, and 3 salted anchovies (rinsed and filleted), sea salt, and freshly ground black pepper, all of which had already been crushed together inside a mortar and pestle, a few tablespoons of pasta cooking water added, and then a generous amount of chopped epazote from TransGenerational Farm, then everything tossed with 9 ounces of Afeltra spaghetti chitarra from Eataly Flatiron cooked al dente and drained, the mix arranged in shallow bowls and topped with some excellent crumbled local Hidden Springs Creamery sheep milk feta from Eataly Flatiron, a little olive oil poured around the edges, garnished with micro red amaranth from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• the wine was a Portuguese (Douro/Duriense) white, Quevedo Family Alvarinho 2018, from Naked Wines
• the music was Gluck’s 1779 opera for the French stage, ‘Iphigénie en Tauride’, Marc Minkowski conducting Les Musiciens du Louvre and Chorus of Les Musiciens du Louvre

Maybe I was thinking just steak and okra would be too white-bread.

In any event, I had this big beautiful yellow/orange heirloom tomato which was aching to be a part of this meal, so I decided to turn it into a salsa. It became a problem when I added some jalapeño, even a really, really small amount of jalapeño, to a mix that wasn’t going to be heated (and chopped very finely, which I later found had only added to the problem, because it made it almost impossible to spot and remove the offending source of heat).

Neither of us is afraid of a little capsicum, but the salsa, while it suggested it would have been very interesting had it been more tamed, turned out to be almost impossible to enjoy. I eventually managed to pick out pieces of tomato that showed no sign of any pepper bits, but I was sorry we both missed the kind of refreshing salsa that would have been a spicy exclamation point for the meal.

I think that biting directly into a pepper obviously gives a much more concentrated dose of the chili oils, and cooking them with other ingredients would spread them through a dish more evenly, reducing the impact because the oil would have been distributed throughout a much larger volume of food.

• two thick picanya cuts of steak (10.8 ounces each) from Sun Fed Beef in the Union Square Greenmarket, defrosted, brought to room temperature, seasoned on all sides with sea salt and a generous amount of freshly-ground black pepper, seared for less than a minute on the top, thick, fat-covered side inside a dry oval heavy enameled cast iron pan, then the 2 long sides cooked for 4 or 5 minutes each and the ends briefly seared, removed from the pan at the moment it had become perfectly medium-rare (checking with an instant-read thermometer), arranged on warm plates, a bit of juice from an organic Chelsea Whole Foods Market Mexican lemon squeezed on top, followed by a drizzle of a little Portuguese olive oil, a Whole Foods’ house brand, scattered with garlic flowers from Alewife Farm and chopped summer savory from Lucky Dog Organic Farm, allowed to rest for about 4 minutes before being served

• twelve ounces or so of small (mostly) green okra from Campo Rosso Farm, sautéed over a high flame inside a very large enameled cast iron pan in a little bit of olive oil along with 3 tiny dried peperoncino Calabresi secchi from Buon Italia, seasoned with local sea salt
• one large yellow/orange heirloom tomato from Eckerton Hill Farm cut into relatively thin wedges, mixed gently inside a medium bowl with a very small part of a fresh jalapeño pepper, very finely cut, one fresh sliced habanada pepper (the first of the season) from from Campo Rosso Farm, a bit of sliced fresh red onion, salt and pepper, a pinch or so of cumin seed, a good squeeze of lemon, and a little olive oil, allowed to rest until the steak and potatoes were ready to be served, at which time they were joined by some chopped fresh epazote from TransGenerational Farm, arranged inside low black bowls and scattered with micro red amaranth from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• the wine was a Portuguese (Duriense/Douro-Porto) red, Ramos Pinto Duas Quintas 2014, from Garnet Wines
• the music was Johann Christian Bach’s 1772 opera, L’Endimione, Bruno Weill conducting the Cappella Coloniensis