Flounder

It was a wonderful dinner no restaurant would dare serve. It was too simple, but it was delicious.

I got a filet of flounder just under half a pound from The Fishery. I squeezed some lemon juice onto it, sprinkled some Celtic sea salt, floured it lightly and put it in the skillet where the high-heat sunflower oil was shimmering and cooked it 2 minutes on one side and 1 minute on the other. Served it with brown rice cooked with a little butter and salt and a wedge of lemon. Accompanied with a Cote de Provence rose (last of our summer stock).

The fish was fresh, moist, with all those subtle, mild flavors a white fish can offer, and the brown rice complemented it with that nutty saltiness. A restaurant would have had to gussy it up with a red pepper sauce or something to lend a little color to the plate and to justify the price of an entree. In fact, I recently had a great flounder in a restaurant (Pesce?) but mine was, in all modesty, much better.

I've loved flounder since I discovered it in Hamburg, where one of the regional specialties is Scholle Finkenwerder Art (with a bacon sauce). But it doesn't really need the bacon to shine. I often have a fish night when Andrea has an evening meeting because she is less fond of fish than I am. I'm not ready to join my pescavore friends because I like meat too much, but a meal like this makes me want to keep up my fish nights.