The halibut taco on the bar menu at North End Grill is the best fish taco I’ve had since moving away from San Diego. It’s nearly a perfect fish taco, and now that summer weather is here, the bar area has been opened up to the outside. With the water nearby and a nice breeze, you can almost pretend you’re in San Diego. Almost. Regardless, I’m going to be there all the time.

A couple of big, beautiful black sea bass filets from Blue Moon Fish, just out of the oven. With fish this good, simple is better. These were seasoned with salt and pepper and dusted with Wondra flour, cooked skin side down for a few minutes, flipped, and finished in the oven for a few more minutes. This technique is great for producing delicious, crispy skin.

A few tips: 1) make sure the fish is as dry as possible before seasoning. 2) Use Wondra flour—this technique comes from La Bernadin, I believe, and really works well. 3) Press the fish firmly into the pan when it first goes in to keep the skin from curling. 4) Finishing in the oven instead of on the stove top takes the skin to the next level of crispiness without drying out or overcooking the flesh.

Flounder fillet, seared scallops, and sautéed ramps. Last night I was busy watching the Yankees come back from 9-0 down to destroy the Red Sox. Too busy to do much work in the kitchen, anyway. It worked out, because my greenmarket haul from the morning included Lani’s Farm ramps and scallops and flounder from Blue Moon Fish. Less than ten minutes start to finish was all that was needed for this delicious, ingredient-focused meal.

Pan-seared tilefish with cauliflower risotto. 

I saw this photo of scallops with cauliflower risotto posted by rightupmyalley a couple of weeks ago and it immediately put me onto a cauliflower risotto kick. I couldn’t find a recipe that I wanted, so I pieced together this Cauliflower Risotto recipe that, for me, works really well with fish and scallops and also chicken or pork.

The tilefish marks the return of Blue Moon Fish to the NYC Greenmarket scene—one of the most welcome signs of spring. I hadn’t actually tried this particular fish before, but cooked barely through I found it to be sweet, slightly firm, not the least bit oily, and really delicious.

Fried blowfish. Northern puffer, actually. Blue Moon Fish had these out, and I love trying all of the random sea creatures they have for sale from time to time. Turns out these things are really good—just quickly fry them in some bread crumbs and serve with whatever sauce you like. There’s a spine going down the middle, but each side peels off easily. The flavor is pretty mild, not fishy like many little fish or gamy like frog legs, which they sort of resemble. I’d recommend giving these a try if you find them available.

Pan-roasted swordfish with seasoned butter. For a very good but simple fish dinner, take a high quality swordfish steak (like this one from Blue Moon Fish), pan roast it 3-4 minutes on high heat on one side, flip, and roast in a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes. Next, transfer the fish to a plate, and add butter plus whatever seasonings you like and mix over heat until the butter is melted. Here I used parsley, spring garlic, lemon zest, and black peppercorns. Spoon some of the mixture and butter over the fish and serve.

Quick flounder dinner at home. With a great piece of flounder from Blue Moon Fish and some greenmarket veggies in hand, I set out to make a really quick but tasty dinner. This took 20 minutes start to finish not including time for the oven to preheat. The carrots were mixed with olive oil, salt, pepper, and thyme, and roasted at 450 for 15 minutes. Then, I dredged the flounder in a flour, salt and pepper mixture, dipped it in egg, coated with Panko, and cooked for a few minutes per side. While the fish cooked I made a gremolata using fresh spring garlic. It was all washed down with a very nice Russian River Valley Pinot from Williams Selyem.

Lightly battered pan-fried flounder with roasted maple-dijon Brussels sprouts and butter poached new potatoes. Flounder isn’t something I’m usually jumping at the chance to eat, but everything that comes from Blue Moon Fish is so good I like to rotate through their various offerings. This was simple and delicious—it’s hard to go wrong with basic preparations of fresh fish and in-season local vegetables.

Swordfish involtini alla Siciliana more or less from Mario Batali’s Babbo cookbook and crispy roasted rosemary potatoes. If I was a judge on Iron Chef and Mario made this for me, I would probably say that it didn’t highlight the quality and flavor of the Swordfish enough. But, since swordfish wasn’t the secret ingredient and we weren’t in kitchen stadium, I’ll just say it was really good. The fish was delicate and delicious and the sauce was quite nice. If I were to try this again, I would crisp up the bread crumbs in the rolls prior to adding to the pan.

Really easy whole blackfish from Blue Moon roasted with potatoes, carrots and lemons.  Don’t need to try to hard with fish this good!