{"id":4082,"date":"2015-04-28T20:41:14","date_gmt":"2015-04-28T20:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/?p=4082"},"modified":"2015-04-28T20:41:14","modified_gmt":"2015-04-28T20:41:14","slug":"sauteed-flounder-asparagus-ramps-potato-savory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/?p=4082","title":{"rendered":"saut\u00e9ed flounder; asparagus, ramps; potato, savory"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Grass_The_Flounder\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Note to self: scrumptious (the meal).<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The flounder. \u00a0It’s a noble fish – but it’s also a great story. \u00a0They come together in this blogpost basically only because last night’s meal was\u00a0far more successful than the image I took of it*. \u00a0My camera decided to act up, and gave me something with such a fulvous hue I couldn’t even make it right with my (basic) Photoshop skills. \u00a0This morning therefore I thought of another wonderful flounder which\u00a0I could\u00a0use as a stand-in, G\u00fcnter Grass’ beautiful etching of a Baltic flatfish that appear on the cover of the creature’s\u00a0eponymous novel<\/a>. \u00a0I bought the copy\u00a0inside\u00a0the\u00a0dust jacket in this picture some\u00a035 years ago, as soon as I could get my hands on\u00a0the English translation.<\/p>\n

‘The Flounder’ is, among other things, about history, bodily obsessions, gender politics, copulation, and food, and an ocean\u00a0of humor runs through it. \u00a0I thought an image of the cover would be a perfect placement here.<\/p>\n

Yesterday\u00a0was one of our\u00a0anniversaries, and I was hoping the meal I cooked would be worthy. \u00a0I sent a text to\u00a0Barry from the Union Square Greenmarket, showing him the choice of seafood available that day, and he picked the flounder. \u00a0He already had a super Rhineland Pinot Blanc picked out, and\u00a0that\u00a0evening I came up with what I thought would\u00a0be recipes for the fish and vegetable accompaniment that would make\u00a0a sympathetic pairing with the wine. The results were, well, . . . \u00a0very good. \u00a0The fish was superb, subtle, sweet, and succulent, and my\u00a0almost serendipitous combining\u00a0of ramps and asparagus (I had been surprised to find the latter in the market so early in the season, so I had to bring\u00a0some home) offered a gentle, woody\u00a0foil for it. \u00a0A few small boiled potatoes also showed up, for\u00a0texture and for a\u00a0mild savory contrast (also\u00a0for tradition).<\/p>\n

I was surprised that the fillets\u00a0were, for the first time in my experience, very<\/em> easy to turn over, and eventually remove from the pan each in one piece. \u00a0There was also virtually no browning, and yet the fish was perfectly done, and even sweeter, juicier than I ever remember experiencing with\u00a0flounder. \u00a0I may have used a bit more oil (and butter) than I usually do, and I know that I didn’t have the heat up very high when I first placed the fillets in the pan. \u00a0Either or both of those conditions might\u00a0explain that success. \u00a0Oh, there was also the incredibly wonderful – and surprisingly distinctive – flavor of our local lemon, which was responsible for much of the flavor of the sauce.<\/p>\n

We began with champagne, and the evening got even better as it advanced.<\/p>\n