{"id":20759,"date":"2019-01-20T18:51:51","date_gmt":"2019-01-20T18:51:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/?p=20759"},"modified":"2019-01-20T18:51:51","modified_gmt":"2019-01-20T18:51:51","slug":"monkfish-roasted-with-potatoes-olives-bay-savoy-cabbage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/?p=20759","title":{"rendered":"monkfish roasted with potatoes, olives, bay; savoy cabbage"},"content":{"rendered":"

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We were entertaining guests from Berlin, one of whom hadn’t been to our apartment for dinner before, at least while we were there (we had exchanged apartments for a month). Neither meat nor pasta could be on the menu.\u00a0I wanted to serve something which we would all appreciate, and which also would allow me to be a part of the conversation even as I was cooking. <\/span><\/p>\n

The monkfish looked terrific at the market that afternoon, and I had a great Mark Bittman recipe<\/a> which by this point I could process blindfolded. Unfortunately the ‘tails’ (the term almost always used to describe monkfish bodies, probably because their heads are disproportionately huge and pretty horrific<\/a> in appearance), were larger, and, more importantly, much thicker than any I had worked with before, their cooking time was way longer than what I had anticipated. Luckily the potatoes were very forgiving about having to endure a longer stay in the oven, and the meal actually turned out well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I did end up learning a couple of useful lessons because of the delay: Consider carefully the surprising\u00a0 mathematics of ingredient sizes, and buy smaller monkfish the next time.<\/span><\/p>\n

We hung out in the breakfast room (the dining room that evening) nibbling on\u00a0our archetypal small spread of breadsticks, roasted chick peas, and\u00a0Fiori di Puglia Taralli al Peperoncino<\/a>, all from\u00a0Buon Italia.<\/a><\/p>\n