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Grilled Trout with Fried Chickpeas, Escarole and Tomato
November 06, 2012

Mile End Deli

Grilled Trout with Fried Chickpeas, Escarole and Tomato

Nancy Matsumoto

When you make the trip to Mile End, you’ll probably want some smoked meat and matzo ball soup, or for brunch, a house-made bagel and schmear or the breakfast sandwich. Yet Mile End’s other options — those that aren’t artisanal elevations of classic deli fare — are equally delicious. We fell for this crispy and delicate grilled upstate trout served with fried fresh chickpeas, grilled tomatoes and escarole. The refreshing pool of yogurt swirled with preserved lemon was so good it fooled us into thinking it was sour cream. What pulls the dish together, though, is the unctuous vinaigrette that coats the greens, in which schmaltz (rendered chicken fat) replaces oil. In “The Mile End Cookbook,” co-author Noah Bernamoff writes, “If I had to pick a single food or ingredient that embodies what we do at Mile End today….It’d have to be the schmaltz,” which they make daily and use liberally. Even this dish, which seems so of the farm-to-table moment, harks back to Mile End’s roots in the kitchens of Eastern European exiles.

Mile End Deli

97A Hoyt St
Brooklyn, NY
11217
WebsiteMenu
Price
$$
Tags
Fish
Neighborhood
Boerum Hill