When James and I bought our beach house one of our intentions was that on Thursday nights we would buy some fresh seafood for me to prepare there while he went out on his whaleboat row and then we would have dinner together when he returned from the sea. We actually pull this off quite infrequently, but last night we managed to make it happen.
Our dinner preparations started with a visit to the fishmonger. Traffic at rush hour wasn't too bad, but was made worse by the fact that we were three cars behind a "texter" at the traffic light in the left-turn lane who was oblivious to the fact that he had a green arrow despite the fact that multiple cars were honking at him. He finally made his turn just as the regular green light came on, the rest of us in line then took our chances going through the light behind him. As it turned out he was going to the same place we were, so we caught up with him at the store, which we we were afraid might be closed because as we approached we saw the parking lot was empty - an unprecedented situation in our experience. The texter pulled up just ahead of us, but did not immediately get out of the car (likely to finish whatever conversation he was in the middle of at the light). I told James to get out fast, so he could beat him inside. No telling what the texter would find to distract himself with once he had his turn at the counter. James headed inside and several other cars then pulled into the lot as well. The texter eventually got out of his vehicle and went inside, too. I waited in the car with our crazy dog and couldn't understand why James was taking so long, so long in fact that someone who went in after him came out ahead of him.
It turned out that there was a new person (a young woman) working at the counter who offered to remove the skin from the salmon filet James had selected, but she really didn't know how. Another employee (a young man) offered to help, but the young woman insisted on trying it herself. Finally an (older, male) employee, one James recognized from our many visits took care of it. Then he had the young woman weigh the filet again "just for this customer" which saved us $3. James also had to make a final statement to the young male employee, admonishing him for calling the other employee a "girl". The young woman, I was happy to learn, also stood up for herself on that one.
Anyway, once James had done his part to smash the patriarchy, we were headed home and I began preparations for the meal, which came from the New York Times Cooking page.
Our indispensable cast-iron skillet was put to good use. First I heated some olive oil and then added a variety of spices (see recipe below). Once the oil was cooked with the spices the filet was placed in the pan, basted with the oil, and then put into a 300 degree oven.
The fish cooked for about 20 minutes, with occasional additional basting. Meanwhile I peeled and diced a cucumber. Once it was cooked the fish was broken into segments and placed onto our official fish platter along with the cucumber chunks. We had ample additional olive oil for dipping the fine bread James had also picked up at the fishmonger.
This was quite delicious. The many herbs and spices, along with the feta cheese (recently purchased from a farmer's market) gave the dish a lot of flavor.
No comments:
Post a Comment