Last night a couple came into the restaurant for dinner. After they had somewhat worked their way into the meal, I approached the table, and asked them if they were enjoying dinner. The gentleman said that his Grouper "Linda" (pecan-crusted grouper with a lump crab and sherry beurre blanc) was very good, and his wife's meal was excellent as well. But what he most noted as being perfectly done was the sauteed vegetables that accompanied his dish. In fact, his comment to me was that he and his wife had not had vegetables that perfectly cooked and seasoned since their honeymoon in Venice, Italy!
Sooooooo what, you say? Well, it just shows like it has countless other times, that if great care is taken in the simple things, great tasting and eye-appealing food is really easy. When we cook, we pay attention to what we are doing. We understand the concept of how the heat of the pan is causing the food in it to react.
I keep saying it over and over, but to cook great food requires just a few basic ingredients and practices. Lets take our sauteed vegetables for example.
Start with FRESH ingredients, and a really HOT pan
Extra virgin olive oil
A little Kosher salt
Fresh ground pepper
Splash of white wine
From there we take some julienned squash, zucchini, red bell pepper and onions, and sautee them for just a few seconds in olive oil. Then just a splash of wine (the wine helps to somewhat steam the vegetables), season lightly with salt and pepper, and away we go! No magic here, just some high heat, and care for what we're doing.
The same principle applies to fish. I am a firm believer in the fresher the fish, the less you need to mess with it.
When we get grouper in for example, and it looks absolutely beautiful, glossy, and smells like nothing but the sea, the first thing that comes to mind is: Grill. Olive Oil, Lemon. No need to mask the thing with a heavy sauce, or even a light butter sauce. I've got a good example of this very dish in the book, "Fresh Fish And Fried Pickles" comming out in early August. It's Grilled Grouper With Roasted Tomatoes, Olives And Feta.
You can check out the photo of it and a couple of really simple recipes at: www.fishnpickles.com
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