Porgy is far too little appreciated.  I suspect a reputation for boniness (not entirely deserved) might have something to do with it, helping to make it more than ‘reasonably priced’, one of the least expensive finned seafood in the market.  Maybe it’s the unassuming or clumsy name, but then the name ‘scrod’ isn’t very elegant either, and it’s extremely popular in New England.

• four porgy fillets (a total of one pound) from Blue Moon Fish Company, patted dry, seasoned with salt and pepper, sautéed in 2 1/2 tablespoons of melted butter, along with spring garlic from Norwich Meadows Farm which was brushed over the fish, occasionally, for 2 or 3 minutes, the fillets carefully flipped, the heat reduced to low and the pan covered for two minutes, then uncovered and a mix of chopped herbs (here chives, mint, thyme) added to it, with the basting continuing for another minute or so
• cherry tomatoes from Toigo Orchards heated with olive oil in a separate pan for a few minutes minutes, seasoned, and finished with chopped savory
• Cavolo Nero from Migliorelli Farm, briefly wilted with olive oil and two garlic halves which had first been heated in the oil
• the wine was a California white, David Akiyoshi Chardonnay Clarksburg 2013
• the music was Messiaen’s ‘Éclairs sur l’au-delà’, his last completed work

Sometimes it may actually be better late than ever.

I arrived at the Greenmarket well after 1 o’clock on Monday, where I discovered that PE & DDSeafood had sold out of everything but swordfish (one steak left), tuna, and scallops.  I had intended to pick up one of the less expensive items, but they had already been snapped up.  Now able to forget about frugality, I asked for ten large scallops (about three quarters of a pound in this case).  After exchanging a bit of banter about the fish, and the singularity of customers unfamiliar with the ways of the market, as I bid Carl and Delores goodbye, I found myself holding a beautiful little silver, clear-eyed fish wrapped in a plastic bag. Delores, who had pressed the Porgy into my hand, explained that she had found it hiding under the ice alone, well after she had sold out the rest of its school chums.

She added that it had been both gutted and scaled, a labor, as I reflected later, of astonishing generosity for a fish which could be bought so modestly.  I thanked her and promised that I would give it a good (if temporary) home.  I think the meal described here shows I did pretty well by the little Porgy, and it also shows the fortuitousness of my late arrival at the Greenmarket.

My added bounty meant that I would have two seafood courses for dinner.  The image at the top shows the stars of each prior to their being put onto an enameled, cast iron grill pan at different points of the evening.  The image immediately below is of the finished first course, which was an approximation of grilled whole fish à la Grecque (note that the little fish didn’t take to a proper filleting).  The final image is of the second course, which included the scallops, plum tomatoes, and mustard greens.

• one three-ounce whole porgy, rubbed with a mix of chopped garlic from Norwich Meadows Farm, red onion from Phillips Farm, and fresh oregano from Central Valley Farm, along with lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper, basted several times while pan-grilled, finished with a bit of the reserved mixture, then boned and placed on a bed of arugula from Migliorelli Farm dressed with olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper
• slices of Il Forni bakery’s ‘Pane di Sesamo’, from the West Side Market

• scallops from PE&DD, stuffed with and rolled in a mixture of wild wood sorrel from Bodhitree Farm, finely-minced garlic from Norwich Meadows Farm, part of a very finely-minced red Thai pepper from Norwich Meadows Farm, olive oil, salt and pepper, then pan-grilled, finished with a drizzle of a bit of lemon and brushed with olive oil
• Green Sausage tomatoes from Norwich Meadows Farm, sliced in half, placed face down on a plate spread with salt and pepper, then dried somewhat and placed in a hot grill pan, turned once, removed, finished with a bit of olive oil and white balsamic vinegar
• lacy purple mustard greens from Lani’s Farm, wilted with oil which had warmed a halved clove of bruised garlic from Norwich Meadows Farm, finished with a drizzle of oil
• the wines were French and Spanish whites, a bottle of Château Gaillard Val de Loire Touraine Sauvignon Blanc 2013, and part of a bottle of Ipsum Verdejo 2012

The meal was delicious (also, no Porgy bones!), but this is is a pretty dull presentation. I could easily have addd a red tomato, at least, or any of the parti-colored cherry tomatoes sitting on the windowsill only a few feet away, but we can see that I didn’t.  Or would it have hurt to add some parsley for the bare spot on the plate (especially since I think of parsley as vegetable)?  Maybe next time.

• three-ounce Porgy fillets from PE & DD Fish, pan-seared in a bit of butter along with sliced scallions John D. Madura Farms, along with some salt, then basted several times with the the scallion butter, and, after turning the fish over, basted some more, now with the scallion butter to which a mix of chopped herbs [6 herbs in this case] had been added at the time the fish was flipped, continuing until the Porgy was cooked through (the recipe was slightly modified from one written by Melissa Clark)
• Japanese eggplant from Bodhitree Farm, first cut in half, then scored, the cut side spread with a mixture of olive oil, finely chopped garlic, and fresh oregano from Central Valley Farm, seasoned, then pan-grilled (the excellent recipe is pulled, unaltered, from Mario Batali)
• a Burgundy Sauvignon Blanc (yup), from Auxerre, Saint-Bris Sauvignon 2012. from Jean-Marc Brocard

Pollock is another fish that deserves far more respect than it gets, even these days, and even on its home shores.

• one pollock fillet (18.25 oz) from American Seafood Company in Chelsea’s Down to Earth Farmers Market, rinsed, dried, cut into 2 sections, seasoned on both sides with sea salt and freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper, placed inside a buttered tin-lined copper oval baking dish, spread with 2 tablespoons or so of softened Organic Valley ‘Cultured Pasture Butter’ that had been mixed with zest from half of an organic lemon from Whole Foods Market, 3 sliced ramp bulbs from Berried Treasures, and a large pinch of crushed golden/orange home-dried Habanada pepper from Norwich Meadows Farm (acquired fresh last season), baked at 350º for about 20 minutes, or maybe a little more, because they were thick, removed to 2 plates, spread with the cooking juices (of course the amount of juice will depend on the amount of butter used) and sprinkled with a small number of salted capers along with the tiny bit of olive oil in which they had earlier been heated briefly after being rinsed, drained, and dried, the pollock finished with a garnish of small (almost micro) nasturtium leaves from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• half a dozen cucumbers of 2 different kinds from Norwich Meadows Farm (I was unable to learn the names of these varieties), halved crosswise, then quartered lengthwise,  dried, sautéed inside a large cast iron pan in a little olive oil over a fairly high flame until they began to color, and then joined by spring shallots from Alewife Farm and some sliced fennel stems, remaining from 2 baby fennel bulbs from Central Valley Farm that had been incorporated into an earlier meal, everything sautéed until beginning to caramelize, when sea salt and freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper were added, and then a large handful of golden cherry tomatoes from Windfall Farms, which were rolled around with the rest of the vegetables until warmed through but still whole, served on the plates sprinkled with some chopped fennel fronds, garnished with Genovese basil from Windfall Farms, and drizzled with olive oil
• the wine was a California (Lodi) white, David Akiyoshi Chardonnay Lodi 2016, from Naked Wines
• the music was the album of Thomas Adès’ music, ‘Adès: Tevot, Violin Concerto, Couperin Dances’, Simon Rattle, Thomas Adès, and Paul Daniel variously, conducting the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain

It’s not really much “like lobster”, as some would have it, but it is a sweet fish, in more than one sense.

I’ve written a bit about tilefish in an earlier post.

It’s difficult to imagine that it was once included within that hoary commercial seafood classification, ‘trash fish’, along with, among others species I would now consider delicacies, like sea robin, dogfish, and even redfish, hake, and porgy.

These 2 fillets were my first choice at the fishmongers’ on Friday.

I was reluctant to turn on the oven on a very warm night, and I didn’t want to use any of the preparations that are my usual alternatives to roasting. I looked around on line and found this simple and very delicious recipe, making only a few alterations.

The polenta included in the photograph accompanying the recipe would have been very nice, but I had some vegetables to bring out last night.

They were: some very deep green and very fresh okra, the very last little basket at the stand where I found it (also, the only okra I saw that day and the only okra I’ve seen so far this year); and a small amount of beautiful rainbow chard that I had washed and rinsed 2 days earlier, before realizing I had more than enough for that night’s meal.

I also had some slightly eccentric additions I wanted to add to the tilefish: the last of the garlic flowers I had enjoyed scattering on top of so many things for at least a whole week; and a package of near-micro nasturtium leaves I had picked up that day.

• two 9-ounce tilefish fillets from Pure Vida Seafood, washed, rinsed, patted dry, sprinkled lightly with sea salt and freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper and set aside; 2 tablespoons of butter and part of one small dried dried peperoncino Calabresi secchi from Buon Italia heated over medium heat and one whole garlic clove from Norwich Meadows Farm allowed to roast in the warm butter for a few minutes, until it started to color (I found the butter beginning to color just before the garlic did, but that didn’t present a problem) and then removed, the tilefish fillets added to the pan flesh side down and cooked, still over medium heat, for maybe 2 minutes, allowing them to also brown, after which they were flipped over and 2 tablespoons of chopped spring shallots from Alewife Farm were tossed in, the butter mixture spooned over the fish (I usually find it easier to use a silicone basting brush), after which the pan was covered with aluminum foil for about 2  minutes and removed, the juices once again spooned or brushed over the the fillets until they had browned and been cooked through (perhaps for another 2 minutes), when they were removed to the plates, sprinkled with lemon zest (of an Organic lemon from Whole Foods Market) and a little lemon juice, a bit of garlic flowers scattered on top, chopped lightly, and some rather small nasturtium leaves from Two Guys from Woodbridge draped across the middle of the fillets
• okra from Oak Grove Plantation, sautéed over a high flame in a large enameled cast iron pan with a little olive oil, seasoned with sea salt
• a portion of a bunch of rainbow chard from Echo Creek Farm, the larger part of which had already been made a part of this meal 2 days earlier, wilted in a little olive oil in which 2 halved garlic cloves from Norwich Meadows Farm had been heated, then seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper and drizzled with a little olive oil, served in small oval bowls to the side of the plates
• the wine was an Italian (Campania) white, Terredora Falanghina 2016, from Garnet Wines
• the music was the album, ‘Musick For Severall Friends’, a compendium of seventeenth-century English music by the composers John Wilson, Christopher Simpson, Johann Schop, Henry Butler, and Matthew Locke, with Mary Springfels directing the Newberry Consort