So simple, so perfect

For reasons I would not want to repeat, I recently enjoyed a couple of weeks of being cooked for by a consort who was happy to shop and chop and even do dishes if only I would tell him what to make (and not how to clean up). Usually there was no argument. I wanted fish because it was good and light for me as I was getting my feet back under me, and he agreed because it was fast and easy.

It was a lovely respite. I found myself pulling out all my old super-simple recipes and handing them over in the hopes of an early dinner. And he, who normally finds the most complex formula in the most esoteric cookbook when I’m there to help, happily followed them. If he had to make the salad and the vegetable too, speed counted for more than daring.

Coming up with ideas was no problem. These are the kinds of recipes that get us over the Thanksgiving food hangover, when we’ve had our fill of heaviness, and through the next few harried weeks. (Who has time for stewing and braising when there’s shopping to be done and tips to be doled out?)

Oddly enough, many of my favorites have been gleaned from chefs’ vanity books, not the places most frenzied cooks go looking for speedy ideas. But a surprising number have at least one great, adaptable technique, a trick only a chef would know. From Norman Van Aken’s first book, for instance, I learned the secret of grouper: Sear it in oil on top of the stove for two minutes, then finish it in a 500-degree oven. That method works even better with salmon steaks in a cast-iron skillet, with no oil at all. Either is flavorful enough to lie naked on a plate, but you can sauce them with salsa or just a glaze of coarse-grain mustard.

The night Bob walked in with my least favorite fish, red snapper, I remembered an amazing recipe from a Jasper White cookbook, from back when he was at the forefront of the New American movement at Jasper in Boston. All it entailed was dipping the skin side of the seasoned fillets in milk, then dredging it in flour and laying the fillets in hot oil in a covered skillet. The skin turned crusty-crispy while the flesh stayed moist, and all in about seven minutes.

Those fillets were spectacular, but I thought they needed something, a drizzle of tamari or balsamic vinegar at least. Next time my private chef came home with snapper I looked up the actual recipe and saw that it included a scallion puree. Making it adds only another couple of steps but transforms the fish.

Our all-time favorite for mindless perfection is flounder, transformed with a Pierre Franey technique from the tattered “60-Minute Gourmet” cookbook we have had for as long as we have had each other. A combination of mayonnaise and Dijon mustard is brushed over the fillets before you broil them for two or three minutes. It’s like a built-in sauce, and the fish is always super-juicy under the bubbling crust. The original recipe calls for chopped parsley, and sometimes I substitute chives, but Bob has often gone his own way with a few chopped walnuts and some bread crumbs.

So far we haven’t gotten around to one of the best fish-in-a-flash ideas I’ve ever come across, one so impressive I have served it many times at dinner parties when I needed a main course that could be assembled ahead of time and finished without much attention. It uses boneless trout fillets. Sure, they’re farmed, so not exactly flavorful on their own. But the topping of pancetta, shallots, capers and sage spooned over them is so vibrant that you don’t even long for something wild.

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Jasper’s half-crispy fish with green onion puree

Total time: 35 to 40 minutes, including optional sauce

Servings: 4

Note: This is adapted from “Jasper White’s Cooking From New England.” The scallion sauce can be omitted and the fish simply drizzled with soy sauce or balsamic vinegar.

Green onion puree

12 green onions, roots trimmed

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided

1 tablespoon white rice wine vinegar

Salt, freshly ground white pepper

1. Start making the green onion puree about 30 minutes before cooking the fish. Cut the green onions in half crosswise, separating the white part from the green. Place the white halves in a medium saucepan with 3 tablespoons butter and 2 tablespoons water. Simmer very slowly until tender, about 10 minutes. Add half of the green portions (reserving the remaining green portions for garnish) and cook for one minute.

2. Remove from the heat and puree in a blender or food processor. Pass the puree through a coarse strainer into a clean saucepan, pressing on the onions with the back of a rubber spatula. Discard the onion solids remaining in the strainer.

3. Rewarm gently as the fish is cooking, adding a little water to thin the sauce consistency, if necessary. Just before serving, stir in the remaining butter. Season with the vinegar and salt and pepper to taste. Makes one-half cup sauce.

Fish

4 (6- to 8-ounce) fillets red snapper, black sea bass or ocean perch, boned but not skinned

1 cup milk

1 cup flour, seasoned with 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon pepper, 1/8 teaspoon cayenne

1/4 cup peanut oil for frying, or more if needed

Green onion puree

1. Score the skin of each fish fillet, making lines about three-fourths of an inch apart and cutting into the flesh as little as possible. Carefully dip the skin side of each fillet first into the milk, then into the seasoned flour. Repeat. Continue with remaining fillets. Do not get any flour on the flesh side of fish.

2. Pour peanut oil to a depth of one-fourth of an inch into large saute pan (or 2 saute pans) and heat over medium heat. Lay fillets in, skin side down. Cover the pan loosely with a lid or pie tin. The fish should be sizzling. (While skin is crisping, flesh is steaming.) Cook 5 to 7 minutes, until a very sharp knife inserted into the thickest part of fillet pierces easily.

3. Spread the green onion puree over four plates and lay each fillet, skin side up, on top of the puree. Thinly slice the reserved green onions on the diagonal; sprinkle over the fish.

Each serving: 458 calories; 30 grams protein; 10 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram fiber; 33 grams fat; 14 grams saturated fat; 98 mg. cholesterol; 77 mg. sodium.

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Mustard-broiled flatfish

Total time: 15 minutes

Servings: 4

Note: This is adapted from “60-Minute Gourmet” by Pierre Franey.

1 tablespoon peanut or corn oil

8 small boneless, skinless fillets of flounder, sole or sand dabs, about 1 1/4 pounds total

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

2 tablespoons good-quality mayonnaise

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

2 teaspoons finely chopped chives or parsley

4 lemon or lime wedges

1. Heat the broiler to high. Oil a baking sheet that fits under the broiler.

2. Lay the fillets on the baking sheet and season well with salt and pepper. Combine the mayonnaise, mustard and chives or parsley and spread evenly over the fish.

3. Place the baking sheet under the broiler 3 or 4 inches from the heat source. Broil until the topping is golden brown and the fish is just cooked through, about 2 to 4 minutes, depending on the variety of fish. Serve immediately with lemon or lime wedges.

Each serving: 199 calories; 24 grams protein; 1 gram carbohydrates; 0 fiber; 11 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 71 mg. cholesterol; 237 mg. sodium.

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Roasted trout with pancetta and sage

Total time: 20 minutes

Servings: 4

Note: Parsley can be substituted for the sage. You may substitute chopped Nicoise or kalamata olives for the pancetta, but don’t saute them.

4 to 5 tablespoons olive oil,

divided

1/4 cup minced shallots

2 ounces finely diced pancetta or bacon

2 teaspoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon drained

nonpareil capers

1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage

4 boned trout, about 7 ounces each

Salt

Freshly ground black

pepper

Sage leaves for garnish

1. Heat the oven to 500 degrees. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a small saute pan and cook the shallots and pancetta until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Stir in the lemon juice, capers and sage and remove from the heat. Keep warm.

2. Oil a baking sheet large enough to hold all the trout in a single layer. Lay the fish skin side down on the sheet and brush the tops with oil. Season lightly with the salt and pepper. Roast until the fish is just firm, about 5 minutes. Transfer to serving plates and spoon the pancetta mixture over each fillet. Garnish with sage and serve at once.

Each serving: 282 calories; 20 grams protein; 2 grams carbohydrates; 0 fiber; 22 grams fat; 4 grams saturated fat; 93 mg. cholesterol; 202 mg. sodium.