FARMERS' MARKET FISH FEAST

Yesterday Meena made a quick trip to the farmer’s market while I was chillin’ out, maxin’ and relaxin’ on the couch during the USA Redeem Team game. She left with a desire to pick up a few fishes and some veg that would make up dinner for last night. And she came back with a bounty, friends.

At first, I was concerned with her choice of flounder given our previous misadventures with the flaky white fish, but I think we came up with a solution that worked for us in the end. A little ingenuity and our fishes were, in the end, quite delicious.

Meena also picked up a few lovely sea scallops and I seared them off and included the following:
- white peach
- nori
- apple cider vinegar
- sesame oil
- garlic
- sambal oelek
- sea salt
- black pepper

It was a pretty solid starter. The scallops got a great sear and the dry and wet nori concoctions I whipped up were solid. The wet version used the oil, vinegar, garlic and sambal oelek to make a little base that mixed with the peaches. I put too much vinegar in and that was in the end, a touch overpowering, but the idea was right. The dry nori was just that … dry nori broken up and sprinkled over the top. And it was good!

The main course was the flounder and it was done two ways in the same breading mixture. One was pan fried in a little olive oil. The other was baked under a broiler. Both were good … one was a little more crisp, one was a bit more dry. I’m sure you can figure out which was which. At any rate, the breading included:
- chili sauce
- panko
- flour
- salt
- old bay seasoning

I just ran each fillet through the chili sauce to make sure stuff would stick then threw them in a plastic bag with the rest. Then I fried off some and baked the rest (I have a small kitchen, so it was more out of necessity than simply choosing to diversify). Pretty simple and in the end, quite delicious. There was a bit of sweet from that chili sauce (your standard variety sweet chili sauce found in every Asian section in every grocery everywhere), salt from the breading and that lovely, flaky, non-fishy flavor from the flounder.

Meena also made a lovely corn and tomato salad that brought the whole thing together. She included:
- sweet corn
- heirloom tomato
- gorgonzola
- sea salt
- black pepper
- olive oil

Awesome. So awesome I’m taking the rest for lunch today!