Family, business and charitable work have been occupying our focus for the past two months, but now it is time to get back to cooking, writing and posting. The other night, to kick off the fall season,we decided to cook some fish inside the house, rather than on the grill. With no preconceived idea, other than indoor cooking, I visited our local fishmonger to see what was in that day’s catch.  The grey sole was fresh and looked good, so I bought four small fillets, each weighing about 1/4 pound.

Now, how to prepare it? Sole lends itself to many preparations, but I noted some Maine crab-meat in the case and thought that would make a good base for stuffing, and to add a little variety, maybe some shrimp. Since I did not feel like cleaning, deveining and cooking the shrimp myself, I ordered a 1/4 pound of the cooked shrimp.

Having made a decision on the fish and the base for the stuffing, the next step was to see what was in the pantry that could finish the dish. I knew that we had breadcrumbs, as well as wine in which to poach the fish, and that the refrigerator held the staples of lemon, butter, parsley and garlic, so after picking up a bunch of asparagus at the fruit and vegetable market I headed home.

The parsley in the refrigerator proved to be limp and flavorless, but all of the other ingredients were there. Looking around the garden, I saw that there was still some fresh oregano and thought that could substitute for the parsley. The spice rack revealed hot Hungarian paprika, which not only adds spice but color, and…celery seeds! I had never used celery seeds and have no idea why I had bought them in the first place, but I thought that they could nicely round out the stuffing and they did, as you will see after you have tried the quick and easy Fillet of Sole Stuffed with Crabmeat and Shrimp.