zesty dolphin with habanada; minutina; currant tomatoes

It’s a super fish, its flavor and texture poised between the most interesting of the rich oily seafood and the most delicate of white-fleshed varieties. I love it.

  • four fillets (a total of one pound) of skinned local dolphinfish from Pura Vida Seafood (aka orata, or dorade, or, in the US, commonly attached to the Hawaiian name, ‘Mahi-Mahi’, which I really try to resist), dry-marinated for 30 minutes or so with more than half a tablespoon of zest from an organic lemon from Whole Foods Market, half a tablespoon of chopped summer savory from Lani’s Farm, sea salt, and freshly-ground black pepper, seared in a little olive oil inside a heavy oval vintage copper fish pan for about 2 minutes, skin side up, then turned over, the second side seared for another 2 minutes, the heat lowered and the pan loosely covered with aluminum foil for a minute or two, which was then removed, and some thin-ish slices of Japanese scallion from Norwich Meadows Farm and a bit of chopped fresh habanada pepper were introduced and very briefly sautéed along with the fish, which was then removed from the pan, along with the allium and the habanada, and arranged on the plates, the now richly-savory pan juices poured over the top of the fish, and some bronze micro fennel scattered on its side

  • a large Strauss of minutina from Norwich Meadows Farm, washed, drained, then barely wilted (it was cooked perfectly this time, and that’s actually very hard to do with this delicate thin green), in a bit of olive oil inside a large antique high-sided copper pot above a low-to-medium flame, seasoned with salt and pepper, finished on the plates with a drizzle of olive oil and a squeeze of lemon