Striped Bass

Today I made one of the most perfect, gorgeous, luscious pieces of fish I have ever eaten. Most likely the best pieces of fish I've ever cooked. And it took a few mere minutes of effort.

Admittedly, the quality of the fish was like, 80% responsible. I was lucky enough to get striped bass fillets the store had gotten that day. As instructed by an article in the NYT Magazine a few years ago (clipped and carefully saved by my mom), I dusted the skin with Wondra flour. Wondra flour is this super-cool, uber-fine four that looks like cocaine, or something. In a hot pan with olive oil and butter, I placed the fillets skin side down. After that lovely intial sizzle, those damn fillets started curl up! But...but... the NYT article specifically said NOT to score the skin!

(This is the point in the dinner preparation that my mom comes in to the kitchen to see what I'm doing. The exact moment I start to worry, she wants to see how it's going, and I respond with "I don't know, it's all eired but maybe it's supposed to be like that I don't know I'm sure it's fine I did everything right I swear oh my god stop looking at me!")

And somehow the fillets chilled the hell out, layed back down, and decided they were ready to flip over. And damn, they could not wait to be flipped. That gorgeous stripped skin had no intention of sticking to the pan. insteaad, it crisped up like a strip of bacon without slipping off the fillet.

This fish was gorgeous. The Wondra flour is like some molecular gastronomy triumph. You wouldn't guess it was flour that did this to the skin. It's morelike some supernatural shimmering glaze than a breading. As I cut bite-sized pieces off the fillet, the skin still refused to slip off the fish. The effect was simillar to tempura, but still light and not remotely greasy. We had the fish with spinach and roasted fingerling potaotes.