food & dining
Fabulous Flounder
I recently rediscovered the joys of
flounder. This fish is a blank canvas of del-
icate deliciousness, although it is often
overlooked as bland or plain. Flounder
cooks quickly and is extremely versatile.

The mild flavor makes it a good
“entry-level” fish for kids and people
reluctant to try seafood, but it can soar
into levels of sophistication with the
right preparation.

Last week, I bought two flounder fil-
lets at the farmers market from the fish-
erman who comes in every Sunday from
Barnegat Light with his fresh catch. As
it happened, the fillets were quite large
and, as a result, covered two nights’
worth of dinners.

In the past, I had been reluctant to
save fish for more than a day, thinking
that it would lose freshness and appeal,
but having spoken to several reputable
fishmongers, I learned that dabbing the
CHAIRS - KAREN & BILL KRAMER
fish with a paper towel to remove excess
moisture and then wrapping it tightly
with cellophane and sealing it in a bag
or container in the fridge for a day or
two (or the freezer for longer) is a great
way to keep the fish if you can’t use it all
on day one.

The recipes below span the spec-
trum of simple to sophisticated. The
pan-fried flounder hearkens back to
childhood, when this was standard
fare at dinners out with my family.

Breaded and crispy, it reminded me
why I liked it so much as a kid and
made me wonder why I haven’t made it
in decades. The second recipe delivers
a more sophisticated flavor, integrating
chopped capers and white wine into
the dish, but it is not so outre that it
won’t appeal to most people.

These recipes can be adapted to
many different types of mild white fish
— sole, tilapia, grouper, mahi mahi,
fluke, et cetera. Just be mindful of the
thickness and adjust the cooking times
for thicker fish.

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Mary & Nathan Relles
Karen & Bill Kramer
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and Lynne Ferman
Barbara & John Rosenau
Jenifer & Michael Thomas
S tacey & D avid Weiss
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JUNE 2, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
Pan-fried, Breaded Flounder
Serves 2
The dry-wet-dry method of bread-
ing is a little clunky and makes for
additional dirty dishes, but you can’t
beat the results. If the fillets are large
and seem like they will be hard to
coat and flip, just cut them in half for
more manageable pieces.

2 flounder fillets, approximately 4
ounces each
2 tablespoons flour
Sprinkle of salt and pepper
1 egg
½ cup seasoned breadcrumbs
¼ cup canola oil (approximately)
Lemons to serve
Set up 3 shallow bowls side by
side. In the first, mix flour with salt and
pepper. In the second, lightly beat the
egg. In the third, place breadcrumbs.

Dry the fish with paper towels, and
dredge it in the flour mixture, then
the egg, then the breadcrumbs to
coat thoroughly.

Heat the oil in a skillet; it should be
about ⅛-inch deep — this is a “shal-
low fry” method. The oil is ready to
cook when a breadcrumb dropped
into the pan sizzles.

Carefully place the fillets in the
pan and let them cook for about 2
minutes, then carefully flip. Cook the
other side for another two minutes
or so. The fish is done when both
sides are crisp and golden brown
and, when cut, is white and opaque
throughout and flakes easily.

Place the fish on a plate lined with
paper towels to absorb the oil. Serve
immediately with lemon wedges.

Flounder with Capers, Onions
and Wine
Serves 2
I was looking for inspiration in my
refrigerator on how to dress up the
flounder for dinner. I stumbled upon a
jar of jumbo capers, which I bought for
a recipe and promptly forgot about.

The capers added some interest
and flair and offered a good use of an
ingredient that sat around for ages. If
capers are not your thing, skip them
or swap out another savory item in
their place; try olives, artichokes or
sundried tomatoes.

A note: Jumbo capers are milder
in flavor, so if you use the little ones,
reduce the amount as indicated below.

2 flounder fillets, approximately 4
ounces each
1 small onion, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
¼ cup jumbo capers, coarsely
chopped or 2 tablespoons small
capers ¼ cup white wine or broth
Heat your oven to 275 degrees F.

In a large ovenproof skillet, heat the
oil, and sauté the onion with the salt,
pepper and capers until softened.

Add the wine, bring it to a boil and
then reduce it by half.

Remove the pan from the heat,
spread the mixture to the edges and
place the fillets in the pan. Spoon the
onion mixture over the fish to coat,
and place it in the oven. Bake the fish
for 15 minutes or until it is opaque
throughout and flakes easily. Serve
immediately. JE
Photo by Keri White
KERI WHITE | SPECIAL TO THE JE



arts & culture
Frustrating ‘Beauty Queen’
Still Hooks You In
JARRAD SAFFREN | STAFF WRITER
N etflix’s “The Beauty Queen of
Jerusalem,” which debuted on
May 21, can be seen as a lot of
things: a portrayal of Spanish Sephardic
Jews, of Jerusalem before it was Jewish
again or of the evil eye and its implica-
tions, among other possibilities.

But really, it’s a whole lot more Jewish
than all of that. For “The Beauty Queen
of Jerusalem,” at its core, is about a char-
acter straight out of a Philip Roth novel: a
man, Gabriel Ermoza, played by Michael
Aloni, who cannot seem to overcome his
domineering mother, Merkada Ermoza,
played by Irit Kaplan.

And over the first two episodes, his
inability to do so takes on the entertain-
ment quality of a car wreck or a melt-
down on reality television: You just can’t
look away.

Throughout these early episodes of the
series, which is based on a novel by Sarit
Yishai Levy, you root for this handsome
and capable dude to take control of his
own life. As I leaned forward on the edge
of my couch, I found myself shouting in
my mind.

Take control of your father’s shop!
Go marry the Ashkenazi girl you
really love!
Leave this constricting little village
environment, and all of its small-minded
biases and pressures, for the land of the
free in America!
Just go, man! Go!
But Gabriel Ermoza does not go. He
stays; he listens to mother; he remains a
good boy.

And you hate him for it.

Yet you also empathize.

Does a man not have a responsibility
to his mother, family and community?
Would it not have made him even less of
a man if he had just upped and left?
You even sympathize, too.

Merkada has the audacity to blame
her son for the death of her husband/his
father, who died the morning after he
learned that Gabriel was cavorting with
his Ashkenazi lover. Then she pushes him
to marry the family’s lowly shop cleaner,
who is Sephardic like them, because she
claims that Gabriel’s father told her to do
Netflix’s “The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem”
that in a dream.

The son considers leaving for the
United States, but is told by another
member of the community that, if his
father wished for him to marry this
woman, he would have sons that would
grow strong. What would you do in that
situation? Would you defy all the people
in your community who are telling you
to listen to your dead father?
Gabriel is a victim, in a sense, though
not one without agency.

It is he who decides to listen to his
mother’s kooky and manipulative logic. It
is he who chooses the comfort of his own
world over the frontier spirit of America.

It is he who tries to make a deal with the
devil, by marrying the shop cleaner Rosa,
played by Hila Saada, a woman who he
does not love, in exchange for strong sons.

It is Gabriel who fails to transcend
his mother, the arbitrary responsibilities
of his world and, ultimately, his cursed
fate. God put him in a situation and gave
him a chance to decide, as God does in
the Jewish faith. Yet Gabriel chose to let
others decide for him.

The show makes a point of lingering
on the tragic elements of the character’s
cursed existence. During the births of
his first two children, Gabriel is shown
running around and praying toward the
sky for a “male heir.” But as the series
makes clear with flash forwards to the
character’s middle-aged life, his prayers
are never answered.

In those flash-forward scenes, the son
seems doomed to repeat his fate from
generation to generation.

When Rosa is not satisfied with
Gabriel’s punishment of their daugh-
Courtesy of Netflix
ter Luna, played by Swell Ariel Or, for
staying out late, Rosa forces Gabriel to
inflict a stricter punishment. The hus-
band listens, taking his daughter into
her bedroom to be whipped by a belt. Yet
once in there, he allows his daughter to
take control, pretending to whip her by
hitting the bed as she cries out in con-
trived agony.

It is, of course, not a problem that
Gabriel listens to his women. It is a prob-
lem that, in the case of his mother and
wife, he listens to people who want to
override his agency.

The most frustrating part of the Gabe
experience is that he seems capable of
so much more. As a young man, he’s
handsome enough to attract two differ-
ent women. As a middle-aged man, he’s
successful enough to buy his daughters a
hot new record player.

But at every crossroads moment of his
life, he gets out of his car and switches
seats with the passenger.

The cycle is frustrating enough to
make you want to watch the last eight
episodes. JE
jsaffren@midatlanticmedia.com JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
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