The basic treatment of this flounder is one I’ve often repeated, using various kinds of flatfish, but this time the real variation was my decision to include in the pan a single mahogany heirloom tomato I didn’t want to see ripen any more than it already had.

• flounder fillets from Pura Vida, rinsed, dried, sprinkled on both sides with a bit of good white wine vinegar and salt, coated with flour, sautéed on both sides in more than just a small amount of olive oil, with one roughly-chopped mahagony -colored heirloom tomato from Berried Treasures introduced near the end of the cooking time, then everything removed from the pan, which was then wiped dry, a mixture of butter, lemon juice, lots of chopped wild wood sorrel from Bodhitree Farm, and a smaller amount of chopped parsley from Paffenroth Gardens added to the pan (the parsley was added to present  the sauce with a bright green appearance, rather than the olive drab which is characteristic of sorrel when it’s been heated), warmed, then poured over the fillets and the pieces of tomato
• tiny new potatoes from Mountain Sweet Berry Farm, boiled then finished with olive oil, salt and pepper, and chopped lovage from Windfall Farm
• minutina from Bodhitree, wilted in olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper
• the wine was a Chilean white, Tres Palacios Maipo Valley Reserve Chardonnay 2013

I haven’t found a more satisfying recipe for veal or lamb kidneys since coming across this one decades ago, thank you Julia.  I try to tell myself it’s sort of Italian, because most of my inspiration these days comes from the Italian kitchen.  I think the description of the cooking process, paraphrasing (in fact, simplifying) that published in Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”, should explain why I long ago abandoned France for Italy in these things.

• lamb kidneys, from Arcadian Pastures in the Union Square Greenmarket, sautéed in butter until brown on the outside but still very rare in the center, removed and kept warm before adding chopped shallots from Phillips Farm into the pan and cooking them for one minute, adding lemon juice and white wine, reducing the liquids thus combined over high heat, quickly thinly-slicing the kidneys in the meantime, removing the pan from the burner and slowly adding a mixture of equal parts butter and dijon mustard, returning the sliced kidneys and their juices to the pan and briefly warming them in the sauce, finally sprinkling them with chopped parsley from Paffenroth Gardens (whew); the original Julia Child recipe is shown here
• red skin new potatoes (maturing for a couple of months at least in our crisper drawer) from Mountain Sweet Berry Farm, cut unpeeled as for fries, tossed with olive oil, chopped thyme from Stokes Farm, unpeeled garlic cloves from Garden of Spices Farm, salt, and pepper, spread onto a ceramic oven pan and baked at 450º for twenty minutes, finished with chopped parsley from Paffenroth Gardens
• a mix of radish greens from Keith’s Farm and purple kohlrabi greens from Norwich Meadows Farm (and a few strands of carrot tops that were hangers-on in the kohlrabi greens), braised with garlic cloves from Garden of Spices Farm,, finished with salt, pepper and olive oil
• the wine was a Washington state red, Bell Tone Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 from Vinewood Creek Vintners

This has become another recipe favorite of ours.  It’s from Mark Bittman.  It’s even more attractive for being amenable to the use of most any firm white fish as its star.

• monkfish from Blue Moon Fish, roasted on top of thinly-sliced German Butterball potatoes from Keith’s Farm which had already been roasted in a very generous amount of olive oil, along with fresh bay leaves from West Side Market and Kalamata olives from Whole Foods
• cavolo nero, also from Keith’s Farm, served as a contorno in a separate small bowl, braised with garlic from Norwich Meadows Farm, finished with a drizzle of olive oil
• the wine was  an Italian white, le Salse, Verdicchio di matelica 2013 from Flatiron Wines

I call this a night off.

• fresh tomato paste-infused ‘caccio e pepe’ ravioli from Eataly, finished with sections of red, yellow and maroon heirloom tomatoes from Berrried Treasures, olive oil, more black pepper, crushed chiles, and chopped lovage from Windfall Farms (the photo was snapped before I had drizzled a bit of olive oil on the dish, which added visual highlights and its own seasoning, and helped emulsify the pasta water at the bottom)
• the wine was a Northern Italian white, Filippi Castelcerino, Soave DOC Colli Scaligeri 2012