In the Hands of a Chef (31 page)

MAKES 4 ENTRÉE SERVINGS

1½ pounds fresh sole fillets

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

About ½ cup unbleached all-purpose flour for dredging

About ¾ cup extra virgin olive oil

4 shallots, thinly sliced

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

¼ teaspoon hot red pepper flakes

2 tablespoons raisins, soaked in 6 tablespoons dry Marsala or dry sherry

2 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted

¾ cup freshly squeezed orange juice

1 teaspoon champagne vinegar

2 ounces flat-leaf spinach, trimmed of thick stems, washed, and dried

1.
Preheat the oven to 200°F. Place a platter in the oven while it warms.

2.
Season the sole fillets with salt and pepper and dredge in the flour. Shake off any excess flour. Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in each of two large sauté pans over high heat. You’ll have to cook the fish in two batches, adding additional olive oil with the second batch. Sauté the sole on the first side for 3 minutes, then flip and cook on the other side until just done, 1 to 2 minutes; it should be golden brown and just cooked through. Transfer the fillets to the platter in the oven as they finish cooking.

3.
Add the shallots to one of the pans (set the other pan aside). Lower the heat to medium, and cook until tender, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until aromatic, about a minute. Add the red pepper flakes, the raisins, with the Marsala, and the pine nuts and bring to a boil. Add the orange juice and bring to a boil, then remove from the heat. Whisk the remaining ¼ cup olive oil into the orange juice to create an emulsion. Whisk in the vinegar and season with salt and pepper to taste.

4.
Add the spinach to the second pan and cook over high heat, tossing, until it wilts, a minute or two. Season with salt and pepper.

5.
To serve, spoon the sauce over the sole. Garnish the platter with the wilted spinach and serve immediately.

S
mall exquisitely sweet scallops are
caught off the coast of Massachusetts and available only during the late fall and winter. The fact that I can get them for only part of the year helps preserve their special status for me. Their sugary sweet flavor makes them a dynamite partner to root vegetables or citrus fruit. This recipe sauces the scallops with pan juices flavored with tangerine and cooked celery, then pairs the seafood with a celery root salad.

Be sure to peel the muscle—the white strip that runs down the side—off the scallops before sautéing (it’s easy). Don’t add the scallops to the pan until it’s really hot, and then leave them alone. If you disturb them while they’re searing, they’ll release their moisture, and they’ll steam instead of searing.

MAKES 4 ENTRÉE SERVINGS

½ cup Mayonnaise (page 13)

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon minced shallots

¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

Kosher salt and freshly ground white pepper (if you only have pre-ground white pepper, use freshly ground black pepper)

1 small celery root, peeled, sliced very thin, and cut into matchsticks

¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 bunch scallions, white part and the first inch of the green part only, cut into ½-inch pieces on the diagonal

3 stalks celery, peeled and chopped into ½-inch dice

2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

⅛ teaspoon anise seeds

2 tangerines, skin and membrane removed, cut into segments over a bowl to save the juices

1 ¼ pounds bay scallops, tough muscles removed

¼ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1.
Mix the mayonnaise, mustard, shallots, and 2 tablespoons of the lemon juice together in a small bowl. Season with salt and pepper. The mayonnaise should be assertively seasoned. Add the celery root and toss well. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or until ready to use. (You can make up to 12 hours ahead.)

2.
Heat ¼ cup of the olive oil in a small sauté pan over medium heat. Add the scallions, celery, garlic, and anise seeds, season with salt and pepper, and cook until just tender, about
3
minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside.

3.
Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large sauté pan over high heat. Season the scallops with salt and pepper. When the oil is hot but not quite smoking, add the scallops in a single layer, leaving a ½-inch space between them so they don’t steam (you may have to use two pans or cook them in two batches). Cook, without moving the scallops, on one side only, until they are golden brown, about 2 minutes. Toss the scallops once, then transfer to a large plate.

4.
Add the tangerine juice from the segments to the pan and reduce to a glaze. (This will happen very quickly.) Add the cooked celery mixture, the remaining 2 tablespoons lemon juice, the parsley, and the tangerine sections to the pan. Toss until heated through, about 30 seconds, then remove from the heat.

5.
Put a spoonful of the celery root salad in the middle of each warmed plate. Distribute the scallops evenly around the celery root. Spoon the vegetables and the pan juices over the scallops and serve.

S
kate has a satisfyingly firm
texture without being chewy, a delicious sweet taste, and it’s affordable. In this country, it’s considered a trash fish, with a small amount diverted to devotees and upscale restaurants. Europe, especially France, happily snaps up the rest. Skate’s lowly status is just fine with me. With seafood regularly commanding prices that make rib-eye steaks seem a bargain, it’s a special pleasure to find great taste at a modest price.

The skin of skate is inedible, like sharkskin, but I’ve never seen it sold with the skin still on. Because skate have no kidneys, they require careful handling after being caught, or the urea secreted through their skin can contaminate the flesh of the “wings, “ the edible part of the fish, with ammonia. Always ask to smell skate before buying it. It should smell absolutely clean, or of nothing at all. Soaking skate in a solution of water and lemon juice will purge it of any ammonia, but why bother? I’d rather wait for the next batch.

A delicate cartilage frame fans through a skate wing, with edible fillets both above and below it. The flesh should be translucently pinkish white to rose. Once cooked, the flesh is fork-tender and slides off the cartilage. This classic French preparation of sautéed skate with brown butter and capers, the first way I ever tasted it, remains my favorite. Before you make the sauce, line up your ingredients in little bowls where you can easily reach them. Read through the instructions several times
before
you start cooking. The sauce isn’t difficult, just speedy, with little time between each of the steps, and you won’t want to waste time wondering where you put each of your ingredients.

MAKES 4 ENTRÉE SERVINGS

Four 8-ounce pieces skate wing (cartilage left in)

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

3 tablespoons clarified butter (see page 111)

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter

1 large shallot, minced

½ to 1 teaspoon finely chopped rinsed anchovy fillets, according to taste

4 teaspoons capers, rinsed

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, plus 4 sprigs for garnish

1 lemon, cut into 4 wedges

DO AHEAD:
Clarify the butter (see page
111).
Clarified butter enables you to cook the skate at a higher temperature than you would if you used whole butter.

1.
Season the skate pieces on each side with salt and pepper—skate is naturally salty, so go lightly. Heat the clarified butter in two large sauté pans over high heat until quite hot. (If you have a sauté pan large enough to hold all of the skate pieces with at least 2 inches of space between them then, you can use it.) Add the skate and sear on the first side until golden brown and cooked a little more than halfway through, about 5 minutes. Do not move the fish before the first side is well seared, as it will stick to the pan. Flip and cook on the other side until done, about another 4 minutes. If the fish browns too much before it’s cooked through, lower the heat to medium-high. Set aside in a warm spot while you make the sauce.

2.
Add the whole butter to one of the pans and cook over high heat until it starts to foam. Immediately add the shallot and cook until it is golden and the butter is a pale hazelnut brown, only a minute. Add the anchovy, capers, and lemon juice. The butter should foam again. Remove from the heat, season with salt and pepper, and add the parsley.

3.
Quickly put a piece of skate on each plate. Pour the brown butter over the fish. Add a lemon wedge and parsley sprig to each plate, and serve immediately.

T
his is a jazzy little
recipe that is both simple to prepare and equally good served warm or at room temperature, like certain Spanish tapas or Greek meze. The hot-and-spicy part of the recipe comes from an old Spanish technique for preparing eels. Stuffing a little sorrel inside the squid was my idea. I can’t cook squid without peering down the mantles (the “tubes” or bodies, minus the heads and tentacles) and thinking,
Hmmm … something ought to be cooked in there.
Sorrel is a lovely green herb with a decidedly citrus accent, a good partner for hot and spicy flavors. The bread crumbs add texture. Don’t be apprehensive about cleaning squid—most squid is already cleaned soon after it’s caught, leaving minimal work for the consumer. Just make sure you buy squid large enough to contain a teaspoon or so of sorrel—the mandes need to be at least 2 and preferably 4 inches long—or you’ll be stuffing them with tweezers. This recipe can easily feed six or even eight if you serve it over pasta.

MAKES 4 ENTRÉE SERVINGS

2 pounds (cleaned) small squid (see Squid Notes)

2 tablespoons chopped fresh sorrel (remove tough stems before chopping)

1 cup extra virgin olive oil

8 garlic cloves, sliced paper-thin 8 small dried hot red peppers or ½ teaspoon hot red pepper flakes

Kosher salt

½ cup slightly dry coarse bread crumbs

2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1.
Make sure no cartilage, viscera, sand, or ink remains inside the squid mandes. If the translucent skin is still on the mantles, scrape it off with a sharp knife. Rinse out the mantles. If it is still attached, remove the beak—the balllike thing—from the center of the tentacles.

2.
Stuff a teaspoon of the chopped sorrel into each mantle.

3.
Heat the oil in a large sauté pan over high heat. When it’s almost smoking, add the squid, garlic, and hot peppers. Cook, tossing constantly, for 1 minute, or until the squid turns white. Scoop the squid, garlic, and peppers onto a platter and toss with salt.

4.
Add the bread crumbs to the oil and cook until toasted. Season with salt and sprinkle over the squid. Sprinkle with the parsley and serve.