Thanks to @vineyardseafood — the Martha’s Vineyard Seafood Collaborative’s Instagram account — I learned this weekend that the black sea bass season has begun. By Saturday night, we had four filets in our fridge. (No, we did not catch them.)

Bottom-feeding black sea bass are in the same family as grouper; they have rich, white, tender meat thanks to their diet of crustaceans. (You should see their teeth!). Maybe you’ve eaten them whole and deep-fried in a Chinese restaurant, but you’ll most likely find skin-on filets at the seafood market.

That skin —which needs to be slashed before cooking to prevent the filets from curling — helps hold the rich flesh together. I like the sear-roast method for cooking sea bass: brown the skin side first, flip, and pop the pan in a hot oven to finish cooking.

Last summer I used this technique to make Sear-Roasted Black Sea Bass with Ginger-Garlic-Lime Butter and Roasted August Vegetables. It’s a lovely all-in-one dish, nice for four people. And you can certainly make those roasted vegetables in July, too, with or without the fish!

But this weekend I wanted to go super-simple, and the garlic I’d just harvested from my garden was calling out to me. Fresh garlic is lovely – juicy and fragrant without the bitter edge that comes with age. Lydia Fischer (@gardenfarmmv) had hers at the market last week, and I see that Morning Glory has begun harvesting theirs. (The variety pictured is Music.)

There’s only one problem with this recipe for Black Sea Bass with Fresh Garlic-Lemon Butter. It’s so tasty, and we are such piggies at our house, that the two of us ate the entire 1 ¼ pounds of fish. Granted we only had a salad with it, but honestly.

If you’d like to stretch your fish dollars a little further than we did, I recommend serving it with rice.

Green Rice would be nice. Gingery Fried Rice perhaps. Or even Curried Rice Pilaf. 

No sea bass? Have Roast Cod Pepperonata tonight.

Or even Swordfish with Summer Salsa. (I see @northtaborfarm was first to the market with ripe cherry tomatoes. I have Sungolds beginning to ripen. Woo-hoo!).

Things got even sillier (in the consumption department) at our house this weekend. I asked my partner to pick up blueberries on a foray into the once-quaint village of Edgartown that is now the Vineyard equivalent of Times Square, and he returned with several pints of blueberries “on special.”

It’s sweet that he is a discount shopper, but it meant that we were now in possession of loads of blueberries that had become overripe about five minutes before he walked into the grocery store. No matter, we'd just have to eat a lot of berries fast. We started with a Berry Clafoutis for brunch (though it could have been dessert.) These easy oven custards are so adaptable.

Then we moved on to making our favorite Blueberry Rustic Tart.

Finally, I made a Simple Blueberry Sauce by simmering berries with a bit of sugar and water until reduced. I added some lemon juice and a pinch of cinnamon. At first I thought it was too sweet, but once refrigerated (cold dials back sweetness), it was near perfect on ice cream. I think about 1 tablespoon of sugar per cup of berries is about right, and I adjusted the recipe accordingly.

We did not go so far as to make a Blueberry Meringue Cake. But if you have an air-conditioned kitchen and a special celebration coming up, go for it.

And I'll see you on Instagram. Follow us @cookthevineyard if you haven't already!
 

P.S. Not in the mood for making your own treats? Visit one of three new bake shops in Edgartown (go EARLY!): Atria Café, Little House Bakery, and Iggy's Bread.