This rather French (yay France!) preparation for flounder turned out better than ever tonight, and I’ve worked it many times before; the vegetables were equally delicious.

• four flounder fillets (3-ounce or more each) from Blue Moon Seafood, sautéed in olive oil and butter over high heat until golden brown (2-3 minutes on the first side, 1-2 minutes on the other, served with a tomato butter composed a little earlier by melting some ‘Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter‘ and adding one chopped shallot from John D. Madura farm, cooking it until softened and fragrant, removed from the heat, allowed to cool for 2 or 3 minutes, then tossed with half a dozen sliced Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods, seasoned with salt, some chopped fresh lovage from Bodhitree Farm, and a few drops of red wine (Chianti) vinegar
• fresh English peas from Eckerton Hill Farm, shelled, boiled briefly in salted water, drained, transferred to another pan and dried over low heat, stirred with butter, a pinch of sugar, sea salt, and freshly-ground Telicherry pepper, served with chopped wild mint from Berried Treasures
• the wine was a French (Anjou) white, Château Soucherie Coteaux Du Layon Vendange à La Main 2014
• the music was Counterstream radio, streaming

One of these days I’m going to get the ‘turning once’ down pat. In the meantime, the plates often end up looking a little bit rough around the edges.

• two flounder fillets from P.E. & D.D. Seafood, sautéed in olive oil and butter over high heat until golden brown (2-3 minutes on the first side, 1-2 minutes on the other, served with a tomato butter composed earlier by melting some ‘Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter‘ and adding one chopped shallot from Mountain Sweet Berry Farm, cooking it until softened and fragrant, removed from the heat, allowed to cool for 2 or 3 minutes, then tossed with quartered/sixth-ed Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods, seasoned with salt, and chopped fresh oregano from Stokes Farm added, along with a few drops of red wine (Chianti) vinegar
• young, tender broccoli rabe from from Migliorelli Farm, wilted in olive oil flavored with bruised garlic from Whole Foods, seasoned with salt and pepper, put on two plates and drizzled with more olive oil
• the wine was a California white, F. Stephen Millier Angels Reserve Chardonnay 2014
• the music was two symphonies by Aulis Sallinen, No. 3 and No. 5,  Ari Rasilainen conducting the Rheinland-Pfalz State Philharmonic Orchestra

While the fish was delicious, once again the sauce did not thicken as it should: I’m assuming it was because I had forgotten about, or was chary of, quickly boiling the mix of pan juices and Crème fraîche (but only until slightly thickened).

• two flounder fillets from American Seafood, placed in a tinned copper au gratin pan skin side down, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground pepper, dotted with 2 tablespoons of butter, a modest amount (less than 1/4 cup) of white wine poured over the top, placed in a 375º oven for 10 minutes, removed onto 2 plates, some of the juices introduced into a separate small pan containing about a fourth of a cup of a good room-temperature Crème fraîche, then boiled quickly until slightly reduced [or should have been boiled, and not just heated, as I did this time], a handful of baby sorrel from Windfall Farms and some chopped parsley from Eataly stirred into the pan (the parsley to ensure that the sauce would not be only the olive drab color of sorrel once it’s been cooked), the sauce spooned over the fish
• tiny La Ratte potatoes from Berried Treasures, scrubbed, boiled in salt water, drained, dried in the pan, rolled in a little butter, seasoned with salt and pepper, sprinkled with parsley from Eataly
• four Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods, halved and heated in a small tinned copper pan, seasoned with salt and pepper, sprinkled with chopped fresh oregano from Stokes Farm
• the wine was a California white, David Akiyoshi Reserve Chardonnay Clarksburg 2014, from Naked Wines
• the music was Pfitzner’s sublime opera masterpiece, ‘Palestrina’ (incidentally, never performed in the US), Kirill Petrenko conducting the Frankfurt Opera And Museum Orchestra*, with Richard Cox, Frank van Aken, Johannes Martin Kränzle, and Claudia Mahnke

 

*a historical note, from the orchestra’s site: “Oper Frankfurt’s orchestra came into being towards     the end of the 18th century. It received its unusual name because it was also the orchestra that gave concerts for the “Frankfurter Museum”, an institution founded by culturally minded people in Frankfurt in 1808, when Louis Spohr was chief conductor of the, still young, orchestra.”

 

 

• barely two ounces of fresh tagliatelle from Eataly’s (Luca Donofrio), boiled until al dente, tossed with a sauce composed of one chopped spring onion, including some of the green stem, and parts of one red and one yellow ‘cloud pepper’ from Norwich Meadows Farm, which had been heated together in olive oil until softened, sprinkled with homemade breadcrumbs which had been browned in a cast iron pan
• the bread was from a loaf of Eataly’s ‘rustic classic’

 

• four 3-and-a-half-ounce flounder fillets from P.E. & D.D. Seafood, sautéed in olive oil and butter over high heat until golden brown (2-3 minutes, then 1-2 minutes on the other side, served with a tomato butter made by melting some ‘Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter‘ and adding one chopped shallot from Whole Foods, cooking it until softened and fragrant, removed from the heat, allowed to cool for 2 or 3 minutes, then tossed with quartered Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods, seasoned with salt, and chopped tarragon from Eataly added, along with a few drops of red wine (Chianti) vinegar
• micro arugula greens from Lucky Dog Organic served on a small pool of very good olive oil
• I had used more butter than I should have in the ‘sauce’, so I was happy to have more of Eataly’s excellent rustic bread on the table
• the wine through both courses was a super-delicious Spanish (Galicia) white, Benito Santos Egrexario de Saiar Albariño 2014
• the music, also throughout the meal, was by the much-neglected Johann Adolf Hasse, his magnificent baroque opera, ‘Cleofide‘, performed by William Christie and the Cappella Coloniensis, with Derek Lee Ragin, Emma Kirkby, Dominique Visse, Randall K Wong, Agnès Mellon, and David Cordier  (NOTE: I shivered at the beauty of the music of the Aria, ‘Dov’e se affretti’, and especially Derek Lee Ragin’s performance, in Act III Scene 9); the entire opera can be heard here, on Spotify; also, by the way, unlike Kirk McElhearn, in the review linked to above, I liked the recitatives, but then, I’m pretty German; and I didn’t miss the tenors and bases at all)

Because flounder, or any of several related species found within New York waters, is such a great dining fish, because it’s so freely available, extraordinarily fresh, from our local fishermen, but also because, for many months of the year, we’re also fortunate to live with a huge bounty of tomatoes, I end up rearranging this basic recipe over and over again. And it seems to get better each time. But, just as important as any of those considerations, there’s the fact that it’s a very simple and very quickly-prepared entrée.

• two 6 or 7-ounce Long Island waters flounder fillets from P.E.&D.D. Seafood, lightly seasoned, cooked in a pan over high heat for a few minutes, turning once, then placed on plates, a couple of spoons of ‘tomato butter’ [see below] placed on top
• tomato butter, made by cooking, until slightly soft and fragrant, a tiny amount of shallot from Norwich Meadows Farm in a generous amount of butter, then letting the flavored butter cool slightly before being poured over three different small, fresh, very ripe heirloom tomatoes from Norwich Meadows Farm, chopped, then combined with a tablespoon of tarragon, chopped, from Stokes Farm, and seasoned with salt, pepper, and a few drops of red wine vinegar
• arugula, from Ryder Farm, dressed simply in some good olive oil, lemon, Maldon salt, and freshly-ground black pepper
• the wine was a California (Sonoma) white, Scott McLeod, Chardonnay Russian River Valley 2014 
• the music was the album, ‘Time Curve – Music for Piano By Philip Glass and William Duckworth‘, performed by Bruce Brubaker