,

It was a surprisingly wonderful tripling (used in the sense of ‘pairing’, but with 3 elements instead of 2).

The pollock had come first, picked up earlier in the day at the Greenmarket. That evening I pared down the possibilities for a vegetable and selected the last of our Campo Rosso radicchio. Then, because I was afraid that those two might make for a pretty light meal, I looked around in my [figurative] potato bin for a suitable starch.

It turned out they played well together very well, the flavor of each informing that of the other two.

The fish was a delicious as ever, and it remains a favorite of mine, and its lack of general popularity baffles me. The chicory I had was a particularly delicious variety of a plant I’ve come to love more and more, and I may finally discovered the secret to to pan-grilling this vegetable (a very hot surface). Finally, while the small potatoes I used (one of  my favorite varieties) had started out looking a bit shriveled from age, I suspected that would mean they’d taste even better than usual (my suspicions were confirmed; the real surprise was that the boiling process totally revived their youthful skins).

• one 15-ounce pollock fillet from Pura Vida Seafood in the Union Square Greenmarket, rinsed, dried, seasoned with salt and pepper and placed in a buttered baking dish, spread with a mixture of some soft butter, zest from a local lemon from Fantastic Gardens of Long Island, and the scissored mostly-whiter part of one baby leek from Norwich Meadows Farm, baked 15 minutes at 350º, removed to the plates, spread with the cooking juices and sprinkled with a small number of salted capers which had earlier been rinsed, drained, and dried before they were briefly heated in a little olive oil, finished on the plates with a colorful micro sorrel from Two Gus from Woodbridge
• six Carola potatoes (yellow flesh, creamy) from Max Hatchery, boiled, drained, dried in the pan, halved, rolled in the clear pyrex pan, seasoned with Maldon salt and freshly-ground black pepper
• one radicchio variegato di Castelfranco from Campo Rosso Farm, rinsed under running water, cut into quarters and patted dry with a paper towel to remove excess water, the surfaces of the cut sides coated lightly with olive oil by being placed and turned on a shallow plate lined with it, and, making sure a grill pan is quite hot, the wedges placed in it, cut side down for 30 seconds, turned onto the other cut side for another 30 seconds, and finally the rounded, uncut side, then removed from the pan and drizzled with a dressing assembled with one salted anchovy, rinsed thoroughly and filleted, crushed in a small mortar, teaspoon of white wine vinegar and less than 2 tablespoons of olive oil added and stirred in, plus a little fresh juice from the Fantastic Gardens lemon mentioned above, some chopped parsley [and/or another herb] stirred in just before serving
• the wine was a California (Sonoma) white, Scott Peterson Rumpus California Sauvignon Blanc 2015, from Naked Wines
• the music was Alfred Schnittke’s Sympnonies No. 7, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Tadaaki Otaka