I did it again.  I mean a recipe that was totally new to me 2 weeks ago.

The first time it was so terrific I knew I’d be back soon. I did it again on Wednesday.

I thought it turned out very well, but although I had followed all procedures pretty much the same as I had the first time, there was a suggestion within our small dinner party that I could have left the monkfish over the flame a wee bit longer.

Still, …

• ‘monkfish with caper butter’ prepared following this great recipe, starting off with 4 monkfish tails (16 ounces total) from Blue Moon Seafood Company, sliced through once horizontally to reduce their thickness for quick cooking, and continuing with local North Country Farms Stone Ground Whole Wheat Flour seasoned with salt, pepper, and ground mustard seed; Organic Valley ‘Cultured Pasture Butter’; shallots from Trader Joe’s Market; Sicilian salted capers, thoroughly rinsed; the juice of an organic lemon from Whole Foods Market; and chopped tarragon leaves from Keith’s Farm
• eight small orange ‘Turkish’, and an equal number of purple (aubergine) ‘Patio Baby’ eggplants, from Norwich Meadows Farm, each cut horizontally into 2 or 3 slices, mixed with a little olive oil, a little finely-chopped garlic clove from Norwich Meadows Farm, sea salt, and freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper, pan-grilled on a large iron plate over brisk flames on 2 burners, turning once, sprinkled with torn basil leaves from Stokes Farm, arranged on the plates and drizzled with a bit of olive oil
• the wine was an Oregon (Willamette Valley) white, Scott Kelley Pinot Gris Willamette 2016, from Naked Wines
• the music was the 2010 Earl Brown album, ‘Synergy’