{"id":8686,"date":"2016-07-16T17:19:38","date_gmt":"2016-07-16T17:19:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/?p=8686"},"modified":"2016-07-16T17:19:38","modified_gmt":"2016-07-16T17:19:38","slug":"monkfish-inguazato-sweet-peppers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/?p=8686","title":{"rendered":"monkfish inguazato; basil-balsamic peppers; the Levant"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"monkfish_inguazato\"<\/p>\n

Turkey.<\/p>\n

The meal\u00a0just happened; there had been\u00a0no plan\u00a0to relate\u00a0to the events of the day. Something\u00a0seriously scary\u00a0was occurring on the other side of the earth\u00a0just as I was mentally assembling this\u00a0meal of monkfish, incorporating 2 tails I had purchased in the Greenmarket just after noon. I was still ignorant of what was going on in Anatolia. But because I liked this scary-looking\u00a0fish, and because Barry and I\u00a0had both enjoyed its treatment in this Sicilian formula several times before,\u00a0I had already decided on a recipe that quite literally\u00a0stretched beyond the European continental littoral, although\u00a0the music programming for the meal came later.<\/p>\n

The news breaking throughout the day, and evening, inevitably formed\u00a0a prominent backdrop to\u00a0our simple plates of monkfish, couscous, and sweet peppers, the recipes and the music relating, although\u00a0at a considerable remove,\u00a0to the geographical, political, and cultural\u00a0environment\u00a0in which a governmental coup was unfolding.<\/p>\n

So, yes, I’m talking about couscous<\/a>, and in this case a rather classic Sicilian dish little known outside la\u00a0Regione Siciliana<\/em>\u00a0(or Rome), which incorporates a wonderful ingredient usually associated only with the cultures of North Africa, and, to a lesser extent, the middle east.<\/p>\n

Which gets us back to Turkey.<\/p>\n

The music, celebrating\u00a0complexity, diversity, and beauty of the culture of the Levant, was<\/em> a conscious decision.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"peppers_Norwich_Meadows_Farm\"<\/p>\n

a farm stand’s colored awnings can\u00a0cast an unworldly\u00a0light on vegetables<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The preparation of the early season peppers \u00a0which I picked up at the market the same day I found the fish may not have been particularly Mediterranean, but I’m very fond of both the taste and the process.<\/p>\n