{"id":13356,"date":"2017-07-15T01:54:56","date_gmt":"2017-07-15T01:54:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/?p=13356"},"modified":"2017-07-15T01:54:56","modified_gmt":"2017-07-15T01:54:56","slug":"monkfish-caper-butter-tarragon-warm-onion-tomato-salad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/?p=13356","title":{"rendered":"monkfish, caper butter, tarragon; warm onion-tomato salad"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Do this at home. You’ll\u00a0love it.<\/p>\n

It was, literally, a ‘wonderful’ treat. Monkfish is the delicacy the French know as Lotte, the Italians as Coda di rospo, the Spanish as Rape, the Germans as\u00a0Seeteufel\u00a0(the English\u00a0call it Anglerfish, which in fact is what it is).<\/p>\n

It is a very special fish.<\/p>\n

Before I had prepared this particular dish I have to say that I had no idea just how wonderful it\u00a0could be, even though we’ve enjoyed Monkfish\u00a0often in the past, and I’ve also had fun preparing it.<\/p>\n

Where did this recipe\u00a0come from? I didn’t want to turn on the oven on Wednesday, so that eliminated one of my\u00a0favorite routines. Also,\u00a0I wanted to try something other than my usual alternatives, even though\u00a0we had always thoroughly enjoyed what had become our standards over the years.<\/p>\n

I was about to give up the search, through\u00a0my files, my cookbooks, and then on line, when\u00a0I came across a recipe attributed to Florence Fabricant<\/a> that intrigued me for its\u00a0simple assembly\u00a0and for its modest, yet\u00a0slightly odd list of ingredients.<\/p>\n

But I was skeptical about the instruction to coat\u00a0the fish with flour and saut\u00e9ed on only one side, and also for “no more than a\u00a0minute or so”; I had never heard of doing such a thing in preparing\u00a0fish, or meat. \u00a0I double-checked the text elsewhere for accuracy, and the same lines came up.<\/p>\n

I decided to take a chance (even though I made a note to myself that I might have to flip the fish over, and\/or keep it above the flame a little longer). It came together beautifully. Fortunately I had the sense in time to realize the monkfish I had brought home were all about\u00a0twice the thickness of\u00a0those described in the recipe, so I sliced them in half horizontally.<\/p>\n

This is going to become my new favorite monkfish preparation.\u00a0I think that the idea of starting with ground mustard seed is a brilliant touch, and I think I payed a modest homage to it by sprinkling some mustard-colored nasturtium blossoms on top at the very end.<\/p>\n