It’s a magnificent fish.

Oily or fatty fish is richer in flavor than other finned seafood, ‘fishy’, meaning it has a stronger flavor of the sea (I love the sea), an extremely healthy choice, usually sustainable, and often relatively inexpensive. Fresh is essential, and very fresh, as these 2 fillets were, can be awesome.

Mackerel needs almost nothing but seasoning to complete it, but introducing an acid can raise it to an ethereal level. I usually pick some kind of good tomato, usually along with some citrus, almost always the celestial lemon.

• two very fresh and very perfect 8-ounce Spanish (aka ‘Atlantic’) mackerel fillets from American Seafood Company, washed, dried, brushed with olive oil, seasoned with local sea salt from P.E. & D.D. Seafood and freshly-ground black pepper, pan grilled on a large, 2-burner cast iron grill pan over high heat for a total of about 6 minutes, skin side down first, then turned over half way through, then removed, arranged on the plates and dressed with a salsa assembled just before grilling the mackerel, consisting of 8 ounces of small halved ‘honeydrop’ heirloom cherry tomatoes from TransGenerational Farm tossed into a small bowl with a teaspoon or more of rinsed and well drained Sicilian salted capers (halved, since these were large), half a tablespoon of juice from a Whole Foods Market organic Mexican lemon, a pinch of sea salt, a bit of black pepper, and some pungent very fresh epazote leaves, also from TransGenerational Farm, finished with more epazote sprinkled on top

• roughly 12 ounces of pinto potatoes from Norwich Meadows Farm in the Union Square Greenmarket, scrubbed, boiled whole and unpeeled in heavily-salted water until barely cooked through, drained, halved, dried in the still-warm large vintage Corning Pyrex Flameware blue-glass pot in which they had cooked, a tablespoon of Whole Foods Market house Portuguese olive oil added, seasoned with sea salt and black pepper, mixed with a little chopped lovage from Keith’s Farm, arranged on the plates and tossed with a little more of the herb
• the wine was an Oregon (Willamette Valley/Dundee Hills) white, Oregon Pinot Blanc 2016, ordered directly from Erath
• the music was Rameau’s 1748 opera, ‘Pygmalion’, performed by the Apotheosis Orchestra, conducted by Korneel Bernolet

There were two courses, and it was a two fish meal, maybe more than two.

The first course might have included more than one species of white fish..

• a composed smoked fish salad, or pâté, using local fish caught by Phil Karlin of P.E. & D.D. Seafood Company, whose wife, Dolores is the one who makes it, more than likely consisting of more than one kind of white fish that had been smoked by a colleague; mayonnaise; red onion; and celery (the salad was perfectly seasoned), served on slices of a rich, loaf of ‘Table Bread’ from Philadelphia’s Lost Bread Co. that had been toasted over an open gas flame on our ‘Camp-A-Toaster’ only seconds before it arrived on the table

• some watercress from Lucky Dog Organic Farm, dressed with Badia a Coltibuono, Monti del Chianti olive oil from Chelsea Whole Foods Market, juice from a Chelsea Whole Foods Market organic lemon, sea salt, and freshly ground black pepper

..but the second clearly featured a single fish, Spanish mackerel.

• fourteen ounces of Spanish mackerel (2 long fillets) from Pura Vida Seafood, washed, dried, brushed lightly with olive oil and seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, pan grilled over high heat for 7 or 8 minutes, the skin side down first, turned over half way through, removed and arranged on the plates with a salsa consisting of 8 ounces or so of delicious, perfectly ripe cherry tomatoes from Stokes Farm, “The Best Cherry Tomatoes” (they really are, and almost as good when they’ve been grown in the greenhouse as they well be in the summer), that were halved, tossed with a tablespoon of Whole Food Market’s Portuguese house olive oil, a little more than a teaspoon of Sicilian salted capers (first well rinsed and drained), half a tablespoon of lemon juice, salt, black pepper, and some chopped fresh oregano from Phillips Farms, garnished on the plates with a little more oregano

• sixteen ounces of delicious ‘new potatoes’ [immature potatoes, probably ‘red thumb’ in this case, harvested by pulling out the young tubers by hand, leaving the plant itself in place] from Norwich Meadows Farm, boiled with a generous amount of salt until barely cooked through, drained, halved, dried while still in the still-warm vintage medium size Corning Pyrex Flameware blue-glass pot in which they had cooked, rolled around inside the pot in a little more than a tablespoon or so of Whole Foods Market house Portuguese olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper, garnished with micro red ribbed dandelion from Windfall Farms
• a small handful of tiny first-of-the-season purple snow peas from Norwich Meadows Farm, sautéed inside a small blue Pyrex Flameware skillet in a little olive oil, sprinkled with a little lemon zest, tossed with spearmint from Phillips Farms and seasoned with salt and pepper

• the wine through both courses was a California (Suisun Valley and Sonoma) rosé, Evangelos Bagias Three Graces Rose of Pinot Noir 2018, from Naked Wines
• the music throughout the meal was the album, ‘Terpsichore, Apotheosis de la Danse baroque’, music by Jean-Féry Rebel and Georg Philipp Telemann, performed by Jordi Savall and Le Concert des Nations

There’s no real connection between the first and second courses of this meal, other than the fact that the first directly preceded the second, and the second directly succeeded the first.

The appetizer was merely assembled.

• a container of grilled artichokes with mint leaves and oil, from Eataly, divided onto 2 plates, served with a modified mayonnaise which started with Sir Kensington’s, plain, Classic Mayonnaise (made by ex-Brown students, with headquarters in SoHo), to which I added half that amount of Sir Kensington’s Dijon Mustard, a bit of juice from a Whole Foods Market organic lemon, a pinch of turbinado sugar, a very small amount of finely-chopped Rocambole garlic from Keith’s Farm, a bit of chopped micro chervil from Two Guys from Woodbridge, and a pinch of Maldon salt, garnished with some more, still whole, micro chervil
• slices of a sesame baguette from Bread Alone Bakery

The main course actually had to be cooked.

• two 9-ounce Spanish mackerel filets from Pura Vida Seafood, washed, dried, brushed with olive oil, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, pan grilled on a seasoned cast iron double-burner grill pan over high heat for a total of about 6 or 7 minutes, first skin side down, then turned half way through, removed, arranged on the plates and dressed with a salsa that had been assembled just before, consisting of 7 ounces of a mix of (mostly) heirloom tomatoes from several local farms, chopped roughly or halved, tossed into a small bowl with a teaspoon or more of rinsed and drained Sicilian salted capers, half a tablespoon of juice from a Whole Foods Market organic lemon, a pinch of sea salt, and a bit of freshly-ground black pepper, the salsa garnished with some pungent basil buds from Windfall Farms
• two crookneck yellow summer squash from Windfall Farms, cut into 2-cm rounds, sautéed in a little olive oil for a few minutes over a medium-high flame inside a large antique high-sided heavy copper pot, turning once, until both sides were well on their way to being caramelized, near the end of that time part of a length of a stem of fresh shallot from Tamarack Hollow Farm, cut into one-cm sections, was added and stirred into the squash sections until softened, the pan removed from the flame, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, the vegetables placed inside a bowl where the they were tossed with a few pitted kalamata olives, one small finely-chopped red aji dulce pepper from Eckerton Hill Farm, a little lemon juice, and chopped ‘blue licorice’ (aka Korean mint, or Indian mint) from Lani’s Farm
• the wine was a New York (Long Island) rosé, Wölffer Estate Rosé 2017
• the music was Lully’s 1683 tragédie en musique, ‘Phaéton’, Christophe Rousset conducting Les Talens Lyriques and the Chœur de Chambre de Namur

I love silver, and especially the silver skin of Spanish mackerel (also really like those yellow dots).

• four Spanish mackerel fillets (a total of about 15 ounces), washed, dried, brushed with olive oil, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, pan grilled on a seasoned cast iron double-burner grill pan over high heat for a total of about 6 or 7 minutes, skin side down first, then turned half way through, removed, arranged on the plates, and a salsa that had been assembled just before spooned on or between the filets, the salsa consisting of 7 ounces of 3 sliced Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods Market and a few ounces of halved red grape tomatoes from Alex’s Tomato Farm in the 23rd Street Saturday Market, tossed in a small bowl with a teaspoon or more of rinsed and drained Sicilian salted capers, half a tablespoon of juice from a Whole Foods Market organic lemon, a pinch of sea salt, and a bit of freshly-ground black pepper, the mackerel finished and a drizzle of the juices that remained from some tomatoes heated for a meal 2 nights before, the salsa garnished with a bit of flowering spring shallot from Keith’s Farm
• the tender greens cut from 2 ‘Badger Flame’ beets from Norwich Meadows Farm (their beautiful roots remain in the vegetable bin for now), gently wilted inside a heavy tin-lined medium copper pot after 6 or 8
  young Rocambole garlic scapes from Keith’s Farm, cut into one-inch sections, had first been allowed to sweat in a bit of olive oil, softening, the greens, once softened themselves, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, arranged on the plates, and drizzled with fresh olive oil
• the wine was a Portuguese (Lisbon) white, Dory Branco 2016, from Garnet Wines
• the music was the album, ‘Le Parnasse Français‘, featuring early-eightenth-century works by Jean-Féry Rebel, Jean-Marie Leclair,  François Couperin, Michel Blavet, Michel Corrette, and Marin Marais, with Reinhard Goebel conducting Musica Antiqua Cologne

I looked for mackerel when I arrived at the fishmonger’s on Wednesday, since I was hoping to introduce some to the cherry tomatoes I’d been husbanding in our kitchen.

I had bought the tomatoes one week earlier, when they were less red, less ripe, less sweet, and I had kept them on a north window sill until they were perfect.

Here’e what they looked like while in the Union Square Greenmarket, still looking more orange than red.

The turnips, which I had purchased the same day I cooked them, were already very sweet. Turnips may not have been the perfect complement for this fish, but it was an interesting conversation.

• fifteen ounces of Spanish mackerel (4 fillets) from Blue Moon Fish, washed, dried, brushed lightly with olive oil and seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, pan grilled over high heat for 6 or 7 minutes, first skin side down, turned half way through, removed and arranged on the plates with a salsa consisting of 8 ounces or so of gorgeous, perfectly ripe cherry tomatoes from Stokes Farm, halved, that had been tossed with 3 teaspoons of olive oil, a little more than a teaspoon of Sicilian salted capers (first rinsed and drained), half a tablespoon of juice from a Trader Joe’s organic lemon, sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper, and some chopped oregano from Keith’s Farm, garnished with a little more oregano
• a handful of Hakurei turnips (or ‘ Japanese turnips’) from Willow Wisp Farm, separated from their beautiful greens, leaving a bit of stem on each, scrubbed and  halved vertically, sautéed inside a heavy medium-size tin-lined high-sided copper pan in a little olive oil, in which one thickly-sliced garlic clove from Keith’s Farm had been softened, until the vegetables had begun to color, then removed and set aside while the washed and very roughly cut greens were introduced to the pan and heated until barely wilted, the turnips returned to the pan and everything seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper
• the wine was an Italian (Tuscany) rosé, Il Rose di Casanova, Casanova della Spinetta, from Philippe Wines
• the music was a great classic recording of Mozart’s ‘Le nozze di Figaro’, Georg Solti conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Opera Chorus, with Thomas Allen, Kiri Te Kanawa, Lucia Popp, Samuel Ramey, Frederica von Stade, Jane Berbié, Kurt Moll, Robert Tear, Philip Langridge, Yvonne Kenny, and Giorgio Tadeo, with Jeffrey Tate, continuo