How did you cook dabs, or how were they cooked for you when you had them?
Long time ago. I probably dusted them with cornstarch and sauteed in butter.
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Thanks.
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@fooddabbler you need to share your wisdom with the What’s For Dinner group. Your meals sound spectacular.
No pressure, of course! Just saying!
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Thanks @digga. As you’ll know, I’m weak and flattery will get you everywhere with me. Keep this up, and I’ll let you sit a safe social distance from uni watching him watch me eat.
I don’t post on the cooking boards much because I try to limit my posting time. Every minute spent posting is a minute lost to eating.
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Dabs didn’t come our way until Friday, which is our assigned pickup day. Here they are in mild harissa, with cilantro and chive blossoms scattered on top.
The effect was more summery and herby than I expected. A happy improvisation.
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Lovely!
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Both the fillets yesterday and the whole fish (on my 3-week rotation) were “red fish” a name that I believe is used for a few different fish species. The whole fish count as “small” which means they do not come gutted. I had forgotten that, and by the time I had finished cleaning all five of them I had to abandon my original plan of blackening them. Instead, I gave them a 20 minute bath in mirin, soy, rice-vinegar, slivered ginger and scallions, then roasted covered for 30 minutes at 400. Made stock as usual with the bones.
I’m freezing the fillets for later use – I miscalculated and began a fridge defrost of some ground wagyu that I need to use today.
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I wish my miscalculations involved wagyu.
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I froze this week’s red fish so that we could enjoy an add-on purchase of stuffed clams.
While these arrived frozen, they were only recently so, judging by the tenderness of the chopped clam and the agreeable texture of the stuffing (not gummy as prepared stuffed clams so often are). Expect much more carby stuffing than clam.
Now and then I’m a sucker for a baked stuffed seafood meal. This worked. Green salad made with the first lettuce from our CSA share counteracted the stuffing.
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A little off topic but if baked stuffed seafood is a favorite, there is now a lobster truck in
Middelton MA, right across from Richardson ice cream.
I think this is the 2nd week, and on the menu is a lobster stuff quahog. It was excellent.
Good stuffing and lots of lobster. $7.99 each
The butter poached lobster roll was also good.
Worth a stop, they have picnic tables and plenty of parking.
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Delightfully topic-adjacent is what I’d call this. Thanks for the tip!
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Great pix, as always, young berry of solanum lycopersicum (squared).
While you wuz freezin’, I wuz de-frostin’, and I panfried the redfish fillets Bombay style. This is such a simple, yet delicious way to do fish, ubiquitous in middle class families in Western India, that it astounds me that Indian restaurants in the U.S. don’t offer it. You dust the fillets in a mix of turmeric, cayenne, and salt, and let them sit for 15–20 minutes. Then heat a neutral oil till it shimmers and panfry for a few minutes on each side. The ideal cut for this is a steak, where the bone holds the whole thing together and keeps the center moist, but skin-on fillets work well too.
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Today it was the Another Day of the Pollock (previous 2020 Pollock here).
[What kind of movie would Pollack have made of that?]
With heightened tensions on the Indo-Chinese border I decided to make an Indo-Chinese meal. I made a paste of besan, turmeric, kashmiri chilli powder (Indian), plus potato starch and the absolutely fantastic mala spice mix from Fly by Jing, then coated the Pollock (cut into chunks) and thinly sliced potatoes in it. I eventually semi-deepfried these in a neutral oil, then dusted the product with more of the mala spice.
I made a bread to accompany, a cross between a laccha paratha and a scallion pancake. The basic technique is the same in both cases: roll out the dough very thin, spread with fat (chicken fat for scallion pancakes plus chopped sacllions, ghee for laccha), roll up the round into a thin, layered cylinder, coil the cylinder into a disk, flatten, then roll out again. I used left-over saag (from a Saturday chicken-saag dish) for the filling, and fresh pistachio oil from California for the fat. The end result was, if I may say so myself, not inedible.
A bit of a rich meal, so I cut it with finely chopped cucumber soaked a bit in rice wine vinegar and soy, then mixed with drained yogurt, coarsely ground black pepper, and a little black salt.
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@fooddabbler every morsel you describe sounds delicious. An inspired meal, making the most of the blank canvas you were presented!
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In all honesty, part of the blame goes to that mala spice mix.
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You totally win the Day of the Pollack, in perpetuity. Your preparation sounds incredible. The next time you see some odd character peering into your kitchen window, taking notes intently as you cook, that will be me. 
Do you have any of the other Fly by Jing spices or condiments, or just the mala spice? Call me intrigued.
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Dear Intrigued,
In principle I have everything they make (which is not very many things) in that I’ve paid for one or more of each item, but after Sam Sifton raved about them in the NYT they ran out of chili crisp and other items. I have the mala spice I mentioned, some dry red chillies (harvested in Chengdu in November 2019) and some excellent dumpling sauce with a hefty kick. I have three jars of chili crisp on back order, sichuan peppercorns, and 3-year aged doubanjiang. They say they should start shipping them in late June, or so.
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The Intrigued One thanks you. I may need to jump on that pre-order train too.
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IN SPAIN, as well as the Mediterranean countries, fish and shellfish have their specific seasons.
Many fish are veered towards colder waters, during the spring and summer months.
Clams, oysters, mussels, langoustines = Norway Bay Lobsters or in Spanish “cigalas” or Italian, “Scampi”.
These shellfish are netted off the long Brittany coastline …
Langostinos ( large prawns ) and calamar and squid (sepia / seppia in italian) are netted off the coasts of Portugal and Galicia and Mallorca.
SWORDFISH AND AMBERJACK (called RUBBER LIP GRUNT FISH = American name ) are caught off the coast of Sicilia and Mallorca.
So, a large variety of finned fish are not available until September in Spanish Waters due to heat factor.
We also have alot of “rock fish” which is netted WILD and amazing. The most famous, hails from ROTA, CADIZ, AND IS CALLED " URTA" and in English: RED BANDED SEA BREAM … This is baked with a bed of potatoes and strips of fresh red capscium bell pepper, White wine, a Little onion or leek and a Little garlic. RAY FISH is found in our Waters as well … NOT SKATE.
MONKFISH is also common during this season … called RAPÉ in Spanish.
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