The winds calmed down along the coast this week, so I received another flounder this Thursday from Walking Fish. I also picked up a small bag of arugula from the farmer's market Saturday morning. This evening's task was to figure out a way to combine the two. It rained all day in Durham, so I didn't want to stand over a grill. Recipes for flounder are hard to come by in my Italian cookbooks, so I called an old friend who grew up fishing in the ocean. He recommended I fillet it, then season it with bread crumbs and pan fry it.
In order to take his advice, I had to first learn how to fillet a flounder, so I turned to YouTube and viewed two how-to videos - one crude but informative clip and another that was more thorough but less entertaining.
The two narrators give essentially the same directions, so I tried it myself. A few minutes later I proved I'm not quite ready to try it on while bobbing up and down on a boat, fighting the wind and holding the still-flapping fish steady, but I did manage to get rid of the bones and skin and still keep most of the meat.
After sprinkling salt and pepper on each side of the fillets, Shefali dusted them with flour and pan fried them in butter and oregano while I boiled a pound of pasta and tossed it with a simple sauce of garlic, olive oil, crushed red pepper, white wine, lemon juice and the arugula.
In all, the fish turned out great, but pairing it with spaghetti wasn't the best decision. The pasta stretched the arugula pretty effectively, and would work well on its own or with a grilled meat, but if I were to do this one again I'd likely use the greens in a salad.
Showing posts with label flounder. Show all posts
Showing posts with label flounder. Show all posts
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Walking Fish Delivery 1
Two years ago, graduate students at Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment partnered with fishermen on the North Carolina coast to develop a way to bring fresh seafood to Durham residents. The result: Walking Fish, a community-supported fishery and quite possibly the coolest thing to hit Durham since Crash Davis.
Every other Thursday, leaders of the cooperative drive to the coast and pick up shares of the fresh catch from local fishermen and fisheries, then drive back to Durham to the Sarah P. Duke Gardens parking lot and deliver the seafood to shareholders from all over town.
Shefali heard about the program last fall. She also learned that it has become so popular that the shares sell out within a few hours. Tired of listening to me complain about living two hours from the beach but having to buy seafood flown in from Ecuador and Indonesia in our local grocery stores, she signed us up to receive two pounds per delivery the moment winter shares became available.
I picked up our first share last Thursday. A graduate student sitting behind a collapsible table in the parking lot looked up my name, then turned to another student wearing rubber gloves and standing in the bed of a pickup truck. He opened a huge cooler and pulled out one Southern Flounder in a clear plastic bag.
While I was waiting in line to pick up my catch, I listened to other members complain about flounder's bland taste and lack of versatility. I'd cooked flounder fillets in a simple tomato broth once before, but this fish was only headed and gutted. I did a lot of fishing growing up, but never learned how to fillet. This summer in Minnesota my dad gave me a crash course on a walleye, but I wasn't about to try it on such a thin, bony fish.
I decided to cook it whole, the same way I prepare Red Snapper on the beach. I scaled the fish with a butter knife, then scored both sides by making quarter-inch incisions about six inches apart on each side, dusted both sides with salt and pepper and let it rest for a few hours. That night, I lit my grill, wiped the grates with a paper towel soaked in vegetable oil (to prevent sticking), and rubbed olive oil all over the fish. I grilled each side on medium heat for about eight minutes each, carefully using two spatulas to flip it.
After I took it off the grill I let it rest for a few minutes, then cut an incision across the top and bottom of each side. These incisions, coupled with the scores I cut before grilling, made it possible to scoop out fillets with a spatula. It's a very delicate procedure - one I messed up a couple times and ended up picking pieces of flesh with my hands and transferring to a plate - but it removed the bones far better than I could have with a fillet knife. (For more info about grilling whole fish, check out Cooks Illustrated.)
We topped the fish with a simple salmoriglio sauce (lemon, garlic, parsley or basil, salt, pepper and olive oil) or a tomato and parsley relish, and ate it with sauteed zucchini and roasted potatoes.
Every other Thursday, leaders of the cooperative drive to the coast and pick up shares of the fresh catch from local fishermen and fisheries, then drive back to Durham to the Sarah P. Duke Gardens parking lot and deliver the seafood to shareholders from all over town.
Shefali heard about the program last fall. She also learned that it has become so popular that the shares sell out within a few hours. Tired of listening to me complain about living two hours from the beach but having to buy seafood flown in from Ecuador and Indonesia in our local grocery stores, she signed us up to receive two pounds per delivery the moment winter shares became available.
I picked up our first share last Thursday. A graduate student sitting behind a collapsible table in the parking lot looked up my name, then turned to another student wearing rubber gloves and standing in the bed of a pickup truck. He opened a huge cooler and pulled out one Southern Flounder in a clear plastic bag.
While I was waiting in line to pick up my catch, I listened to other members complain about flounder's bland taste and lack of versatility. I'd cooked flounder fillets in a simple tomato broth once before, but this fish was only headed and gutted. I did a lot of fishing growing up, but never learned how to fillet. This summer in Minnesota my dad gave me a crash course on a walleye, but I wasn't about to try it on such a thin, bony fish.
I decided to cook it whole, the same way I prepare Red Snapper on the beach. I scaled the fish with a butter knife, then scored both sides by making quarter-inch incisions about six inches apart on each side, dusted both sides with salt and pepper and let it rest for a few hours. That night, I lit my grill, wiped the grates with a paper towel soaked in vegetable oil (to prevent sticking), and rubbed olive oil all over the fish. I grilled each side on medium heat for about eight minutes each, carefully using two spatulas to flip it.
After I took it off the grill I let it rest for a few minutes, then cut an incision across the top and bottom of each side. These incisions, coupled with the scores I cut before grilling, made it possible to scoop out fillets with a spatula. It's a very delicate procedure - one I messed up a couple times and ended up picking pieces of flesh with my hands and transferring to a plate - but it removed the bones far better than I could have with a fillet knife. (For more info about grilling whole fish, check out Cooks Illustrated.)
We topped the fish with a simple salmoriglio sauce (lemon, garlic, parsley or basil, salt, pepper and olive oil) or a tomato and parsley relish, and ate it with sauteed zucchini and roasted potatoes.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)