More Greenmarket friends: the Karlins

Every cookbook that tries to explain how to prepare seafood, starts with an order "find a good fishmonger you can trust." The sad truth is that there aren't many of them. Another sad truth is that people expect fish to cost LESS than meat, and while some of it is, those are the fish that take more time to prepare, or have stronger tastes, or are just harder to cook (GEE! Just like beef). Add to this the fact that when fish doesn't taste good, or is badly prepared, it REALLY doesn't taste good. Then we all get the warnings, and scares every day about how (pick the fish) is on the verge of extinction, we shouldn't be eating it, and soon, the only fish that will be acceptable to eat will be jellyfish. So with all of this, what is anyone supposed to do.

Back to basic principles: find a good fishmonger. I would add: try to find one who
also catches the fish that he or she sells.

Even in NYC, finding good fresh fish is not easy. Unless you have a good fish guy. And that's where the Karlin clan comes in.

We first met Wade Karlin, one of the sons, at our local farmers market. And, let me confess that we "saw" Wade, okay, we WATCHED Wade, before we bought anything. In fact, we WATCHED both Wade and his brother, Phil Junior ("Philly" as his dad calls him) before we bought anything. It is rare to find two young men who are so nice, so pleasant, so smart and did I say handsome? When you find yourself waiting for Saturday so you can buy fish, you know, pardon the pun, you're hooked.

What we learned, in time, is that the brothers represented the family well. Phil Sr., who I refer to as "the Poseidon of Montauk," is the father. Dolores is his wife, Carl is his grandson, and then there are assorted other family members and friends whom we've met over time like "Aunt Jan," and Mercedes. I LOVE these people. Aunt Jan reminds me of someone you just want to go out and drink with. In fact, ALL of the clan make me feel that way. Or cook for, or cook with, or just spend time with. With the hue and cry of the "decline of family values," watching this family work together is a joy. IF there is family drama, we've never seen it.

The Karlins are the kind of people whom the "experts" should speak to when trying to find out what to do about fisheries, oceans, etc. Here you have a father, his sons, and his grandson, all making a living out of the sea. Do you think for one minute that Phil Sr. is going to do anything to damage the future livelihood of his family? Talk to him for ten minutes. If you can get ten minutes, because he's always busy. His fish is so good, there's always a line. At both the stand at our market and at the big one at Union Square. Yet, regardless of the line, Dolores stops to chat with us, to take special requests, to do anything she can - including giving us eggs from her chickens. The biggest, reddest eggs you have ever seen. The last dozen she gave us all had double yolks. How does it happen? "They eat lobster. I have chickens who turn up their nose to crab" she says. And, I would add, that's their loss, because the crabcakes that Dolores makes are so good, I stopped making them.

So with good product, what do you do? The answer is, as little as possible. My general "recipe" for cooking a white fish fillet, like blackfish, or cod, or monkfish, or anything like that, is this: preheat the oven to 375. Put some oil on the bottom of a baking dish, put the fish in the baking dish, sprinkle it with salt and pepper, and put some fresh herbs on top. Use milder ones, like thyme or basil or parsley. Pour in a little white wine if you like, and bake it for fifteen minutes.

If you want something a little more complex, and tastier, buy a whole fish. They clean it for you. And you basically do the same thing, just salting the cavity, and perhaps putting some lemon in it. You do have to deal with the head and tail, and the bones, but you know what? Your fish will be tastier.

This is a recipe that I made a couple of days ago. Phil had some wonderful looking whole flounder, and I was fortunate enough to get two with their roe. That doesn't always happen.

I made a stuffing of some dried mushrooms I had soaked for fifteen minutes, in hot water, and then chopped, mixed with some breadcrumbs from leftover bread, salt and olive oil. Then what I did was I used a sharp knife, to cut a flap between the skin of the flounder, and the flesh. This is very easy to do, if you let your knife do the work. If it stalls, don't fight it. Move to another place. The knife will tell you where to go. I shoved this stuffing under the skin, and poured some white wine in the pan, and then baked the whole thing at 375 for fifteen minutes.

It was GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD.

There will be more fish recipes coming as the Karlins bring in what's local and fresh, but this should keep you busy for a while. If you want another one, check the recipe in the preceding blog, and you'll find a great pasta sauce with fish.