With its gorgeous pink/red skin, I find it difficult to avoid bringing Sea perch home whenever I see it at a fish seller’s stall in Union Square, especially since it has so many other virtues, beginning with excellent flavor and texture, and including ease of preparation, at least as I have come to know it.

The radishes had come from the Greenmarket a full 2 weeks before and still tasted great. They  are roots, and apparently, not knowing when I would remember they were there, I had wrapped them carefully enough to extend their freshness.

The green vegetable which we enjoyed, described by the people who raised and sold it in the Greenmarket on Monday as ‘overwintered broccoli rabe’, is actually, and very surprisingly, a seasonal vegetable, at least in this new age of high tunnels and artisanal farming to supply fussy city people.

• four 4-ounce sea perch fillets from American Seafood Company, brushed with olive oil and some chopped wild garlic from Lani’s Farm, a bit of crushed dried orange-golden habanada pepper, seasoned with salt and freshly-ground black pepper, then broiled 4 inches from the flames for about 4 minutes until the skin was crisp and the fish cooked through, sauced with a bit of olive oil in which one large rinsed, filleted salted anchovy from Buon Italia had been gently heated until it had fallen apart, the fish finished on the 2 plates with a drizzle of sweet local lemon from Fantastic Gardens of Long Island, and a small number of cut chives from Phillips Farm

here an image of the radishes about to go into the oven

 

• two bunches of breakfast radishes from Eckerton Hill Farm, scrubbed, trimmed, tossed with olive oil, salt, freshly-ground black pepper, and branches of thyme from Eckerton Hill Farm, roasted at 375º for about 20 minutes on a medium-size Pampered Chef pan with, garnished on the plates with a little red wasabi micro radish from two Guys from Woodbridge
• ‘overwintered broccoli rabe’ from Lani’s Farm, wilted with olive oil in which two lightly-crushed and halved garlic cloves John D. Madura Farm had been heated until beginning to color, finished with salt, freshly-ground pepper, a small amount of crushed dried chili (peperoncino Calabresi secchi from Buon Italia), and drizzled with more olive oil
• the wine was a California (Napa) white, Scott Peterson S.P. Drummer Napa Chardonnay 2015
• the music was Erwin Schulhoff’s 1932 opera, ‘Flamen’, John Mauceri conducting the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and the Berlin RIAS Chamber Chorus