My apologies for missing my November column, something I can blame on my vintage 68-year-old lower back problems (and that’s the end of that discourse).
My Aunt Zina Lasmanis was the daughter of the last pastry chef for the czar of Russia, and I’d promised my editor the recipe for her carrot cake for this month’s issue. The problem was, I couldn’t find it. I searched online for a rustic ethnic Baltic version and got bamboozled – it was a recipe for disaster. Therefore I am unable to share with you an entertaining tale about winter travel in horse-drawn sleds across the Siberian wilderness. (And about the dangers of such journeys without matches amid starving Tundra wolves.)
Instead, I’ll share my recipe for a dish with fish!
(SID HOELTZELL © MIAMI 2022)
Ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille.
The holidays are coming and the fish are getting fat. The Feast of the Seven Fishes is a tasty Italian American Christmas Eve tradition that I experienced only once and have always remembered. Seafood is my go-to comfort food so this redo column is about a quick and flavorful dish that delights me every time.
After screwing up the carrot cake recipe I scrambled to console myself and make my deadline. I called up Fresh Florida Fisheries on Red Road and the friendly voice at the other end of the line told me about a delivery of Boston flounder, something I grew up on. The timing was especially apropos because I had just attended my 50th high school reunion. Everyone has shrunk (I’m still 6′ 5″) and gained a few pounds under a few well-earned wrinkles, and we all had memories to share. Here’s one I recall every time I put bait on a hook.
My father would work his second weekend job refinishing teak on large Chris-Craft boats at the Manorhaven Marina in Port Washington, N.Y., so my brother and I tasted the salt life early fishing off the docks while he sanded and varnished to make that extra “Christmas” money. We were responsible for catching the flounders, “snappers” (baby schooling bluefish) and occasional tommy cods. Our biggest fear was the headpiece chunk of alien-looking sandworm biting those pincers into our fingers while baiting the hook. We loved it.
Back in those days, my parents would let my older brother and I go off solo on road adventures. The only rules were “Do not talk to strangers!” and watch out for each other. We’d be gone on all-day fishing trips that made the family proud. Perry and I used to grab our Rollfast Cruisers and pedal 7-8 miles to the Long Island Lighting Company power plant – LILCO to the locals. The trip was downhill most of the way and torturous uphill pedaling back home with buckets of sloshing flounder hung over the handlebars. We found a way to sneak onto a platform built around the brick-walled plant where warm water would pump out from cooling pipes into the bay. Dropping our lines into that spot with a muddy bottom, we always scored small yet delicious, mostly 2-pounder flounder. Now the current legal size is 18.5″ with a four-per-person limit, the result of overfishing as seen all over the world.
(SID HOELTZELL © MIAMI 2022)
Simple ingredients for one of the Seven Fishes dishes.
Eventually we got caught trespassing. But using clandestine trading skills and a few flopping fresh flounder, we secured our “honey spot.” That summer into fall of 1965 was superb and productive. The feeling of a huge Paralichthys dentatus, or summer flounder, on the fishing line brought out our competitive nature, so we’d tail notch to see who could have bragging rights over dinner. Our mother was the trouper because she had to clean the fish. She was very clever because she saved the guts to bury under her rosebushes. I must say we had the most fragrant blooms in town – go figure!
The excitement of frying up the day’s catch is something you have to experience. Tasting the real “catch of the day” expands flavor logarithmically. In later years I often went fishing with my friend Gil Novick. A fearless diver, Gil grew up on being fed beef, pork, chicken and french fries. The man refused to eat the fish and lobster we caught so he was always giving it away.
(SID HOELTZELL © MIAMI 2022)
A culinary trinity of peppers, chives and shallots present a riot of color.
One day I sliced some perfect mahi fillets we’d caught, little “fingers” that I dredged in cornmeal and flour and then sautéed in butter over high heat. Before then I had never seen Gil eat any fish, let alone in such volume – but he chowed down, commenting, “It was so fresh it didn’t have a fishy taste.” To this day he will only eat same day-caught mahi fingers. The point I make is that fresh-caught fish cooked on the day has such a delicate, true taste.
Filleting a 5-pound flounder yields some very thick slabs. Most of the packaged “frozen” flounder fillets are quite a bit thinner and smaller than what I used for this recipe, for which I employed a fold-over rather than a simple roll with the shrimp stuffing. The final look is something Gordon Ramsay would certainly call me out on. Look at the image of the final plated dish and you’ll notice an “abbondanza” of shrimp stuffing pouring out the sides. I love stuffing; there can never be enough. I also threw some leftover stuffing in the buttered baking dish, and that delivered well.
(SID HOELTZELL © MIAMI 2022)
Sweatin’ veggies.
Look, the end product could have been a bit neater but – like the seven fishes – there are seven deadly sins and that day I caved in to gluttony. I have only one life to live, and while I may sometimes cook a little large I savor every morsel and eat what’s on my plate. In fact, I’ve have been known to lick that plate in public. Good cooking to you, and I hope you’ll soon be smellin’ what I’m tellin’.
Happy holidays to all!
CHEF SID’S SHRIMP-STUFFED FLOUNDER
Servings: 2
My chosen side dish was steamed broccolini draped in a sautéed onion cream sauce, a simple treat that’s easily thrown together.
INGREDIENTS
For fish:
· 1 1/2 sticks salted Kerrygold butter
· 1 small red, yellow or orange bell pepper, chopped
· 1/2 box chives, finely chopped
· 1 shallot, finely chopped
(SID HOELTZELL © MIAMI 2022)
Fresh, clean shrimp ready to be turned into stuffing.
· 6 large raw, peeled and deveined shrimp, chopped into small coarse pieces (about 1/2 cup)
· 1 egg
· 1 heaping tablespoon Duke’s mayonnaise
· 2/3 cup spiced panko crumbs
· 2 pounds fresh flounder fillets (thick ones fold; small thin ones can be rolled)
· Paprika
(SID HOELTZELL © MIAMI 2022)
I always pinch each shrimp’s tail to squeeze out every briny morsel – waste not, want not!
· 2 lemons (one for squeezing over fish, one for zesting)
For broccolini:
· 2 servings broccolini
· 1/2 white onion, thinly sliced
· 1/2 cup sour cream
· 1/4 cup heavy cream
PREPARATION
· To prepare stuffing, lightly sweat/sauté red pepper, chives and shallot in dollop of butter; remove from heat and let cool.
· In bowl combine cooled veggie mixture, shrimp, egg, mayo and panko crumbs; set aside.
· Generously butter baking dish with a good, thick layer and set aside.
· A note before preparing the fillets: Thick fillets work with a fold-over method and some toothpicks; thinner, smaller fillets can be one revolution rolled around a smaller amount of stuffing.
· Preheat oven to 350) F; pat dry fillets, fill with shrimp stuffing and either fold over or roll. Like I said, I go all in with a big thick layer of stuffing that spills out the sides. A real slosh of stuffing!
· Melt remaining butter and baste filled fillets, then sprinkle with paprika.
· Bake fillets about 20 minutes max; the stuffing will cook well and when the flounder begins to flake you’ll know you’re there. Do not overbake!
· While fish is baking, caramelize onions, add sour cream and heavy cream to pan and reduce a bit until think; steam broccolini and set aside.
· Plate baked fish and broccolini, pour onion sauce over the latter and serve! And to accompany the meal, I highly suggest a fine chardonnay (though all I had chilled was a pinot grigio, and that worked out just fine).
Sid Hoeltzell is an award-winning Miami-based commercial food and beverage photographer and former "MasterChef" contestant. He has completed more than 450 commissioned works for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, teaches food photography seminars and is a preferred fine art photographer for Christie's, Sotheby's and private collections.
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(SID HOELTZELL © MIAMI 2022)
Stuffed, folded and headed for the oven
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(SID HOELTZELL © MIAMI 2022)
Hot, juicy and flaky, with a mouthwatering waterfall of stuffing spilling out from the sides.
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(SID HOELTZELL © MIAMI 2022)
Mixing up a creamy onion sauce for my broccolini side.