{"id":17057,"date":"2018-05-13T00:23:35","date_gmt":"2018-05-13T00:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/?p=17057"},"modified":"2018-05-13T00:23:35","modified_gmt":"2018-05-13T00:23:35","slug":"flounder-sage-spring-onion-lemon-fiddleheads-tomatoes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/?p=17057","title":{"rendered":"flounder, sage, spring onion, lemon; fiddleheads; tomatoes"},"content":{"rendered":"

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While we were in the middle of this meal last night I tweeted,\u00a0“omg, just discovered fish, because that’s very much what it seemed like while I was enjoying these extraordinarily delicious little fillets.<\/p>\n

Always trust your fishmonger.\u00a0When you suspect a suggestion, or at least a hint, might be on its way, don’t worry about being steered toward the less interesting or more problematic choices. Listen carefully and be prepared to go for with the counsel, even if you might have had something else in mind for dinner that night.<\/p>\n

That’s pretty much how I picked the fish for this dinner.<\/p>\n

I was looking over the extensive inventory at Pura Vida Seafood on Friday and, as usual, I had started making a selection by mentally dismissing any fish I saw that I had prepared recently. Then I spotted 2 unfamiliar names written with a grease pen on one of the plexiglass fish case lids: They were advertising 2 kinds of flatfish. Both looked familiar to me, but their names, ‘daylight flounder’ and ‘blackback flounder’, did not.\u00a0 Of course I had to know more.<\/p>\n

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To make the story short, Paul told me that the one or two-ounce daylight flounder (more often called ‘sand dab’) fillets were both firmer and more tasty than the larger – and more costly –\u00a0blackback<\/a>, which I’ve learned since is also known as ‘wInter flounder’ (I haven’t been able to find ‘daylight flounder on line). I was 99% sold. My only concern was whether a portion for 2 people would fit inside a single oven pan, if I chose the smaller (and thinner) fillets. I decided I’d probably be safe if I bought only 12 ounces, so that’s where tonight’s dinner began.<\/p>\n

Oh, yes, Paul was right about both the firmness and the flavor, and the bounty of fresh spring vegetables that I found elsewhere in the Greenmarket meant these little fillets would be at their very best that night.<\/p>\n

The daylight flounder turned out to be a perfect fish, of its kind, and also the centerpiece of a great, great meal. While it may seem like there was a lot of fuss in the preparation of the flounder, almost all of it was for lining the pan: The fish itself needed only a breading and a brief saut\u00e9.<\/p>\n

Even the preparation of the vegetables, fiddlehead ferns and grape tomatoes, was pretty uncomplicated.<\/p>\n

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Two important supporting players were ramps and spring red onions.<\/p>\n

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