Blown away

I Stopped at Ahearn's on the way home today.  I am

usually drawn to the dry sea scallops immediately, but 

I also scanned the fish case for some nice fin-fish fillets.

At first I thought I saw frogs' legs, which are certainly

good but not typical of Ahearn's offerings.  I looked

more closely and was thrilled and inspired to see

blowfish!  Of course I asked if they were local, which

they were not (Maryland), but where do the best

crabs come from?  Along with a half pound of

scallops, I got a half pound of blowfish bodies.  The

spine, tail, and dorsal fin were still included, but 

otherwise there were two beautiful loins on each fish.

First I cooked the scallops with a scant amount of 

oil on high heat, removed them to a dish on the side...

added some more oil to shallow fry, lowered the heat 

to 2/3, dredged the blowfish in flour, and fried both sides 

until crisp and brown.   

I had some leftover sticky, Japanese sweet rice which

I mixed with scallions, sesame seeds, sesame oil and

a touch of bacon fat, and snow peas which I boiled

quickly and tossed with oyster sauce.  At the table, I 

drizzled sweet chile sauce over the fish and scallops,

and had a couple beers to wash it all down. The fish was 

mild, sweet and super easy to pry away from the backbone.

No pesky pin-bones to deal with, just two perfect bites per

fish. I kept the presentation simple in honor of a good friend 

of mine who scoffs at over-decorated plates.  What

really matters is flavor, texture, and proper doneness,

all of which were well-achieved. Promise.

P.S.- the tails were crunchy and delicious.  Eat some today.