Month: March 2016

broiled sea perch with anchovy; roast radishes, with greens

Shuynkyo_radishes

red radishes

 

red_fish_2_plate

red fish

 

red_perch_radish_stuff

I know that only some of the red survives the cooking processes; it’s the taste that keeps me coming back.

  • four fillets of red sea perch (a total of just over a pound) from American Seafood Company, brushed with olive oil and some chopped wild garlic from Lani’s Farm, seasoned with salt and pepper, then broiled 4 inches from the flames for about 4 minutes until the skin was crisp and the fish cooked through, sauced with a bit of olive oil in which 2 rinsed, filleted salted anchovies from Buon Italia were heated until they had fallen apart, the fish finished on 2 plates with a drizzle of local lemon from Fantastic Gardens of Long Island, and chopped lovage from Two Guys from Woodbridge
  • Shuynkyo radishes from Lani’s Farm (which describes them as ‘hot and sweet’), some of the greens cut off and set aside (I had already used a certain portion earlier, and, surprisingly, after this meal there were still some remaining), scrubbed, most of them halved, tossed in a little olive oil with salt, pepper, and rosemary leaves, arranged in a ceramic pan on the stove top where they were cooked over high heat until some at least had lightly browned in spots, placed in a 425º oven for about 15 minutes, removed, returned to the range, a little butter stirred in, and the greens which had been reserved earlier, now roughly chopped, tossed into the pan and cooked until barely wilted, finished with juice from the same local lemon used on the fish  [note: next time I will cook the greens separately, since, in this process, they ended up pretty much negating the crispness the radishes had arrived at earlier]
  • the wine was a California (Sonoma) white, Jacqueline Bahue Carte Blanche Sauvignon Blanc Sonoma Valley 2015 from Naked Wines
  • the music was various concertos by Antonin Reichenauer,  Marek Stryncl directing Musica Florea

artichoke pasta with spring scallion, chile, cress, parmesan

Foglie_al)Carciofo

We had just come back from a staggeringly beautiful performance of Heiner Goebbels’ production of Louis Andriessen’s ‘De Materie’, and it was about 10:30, so dinner had to be quick. I also thought that it had to be minimal (that would have seemed advisable tonight even if we had all the time in the world).

Also, Barry loves artichokes in any form.

The music choice was a cinch: Bach, and, arguably, at his most minimal, a performance of ‘The Well-Tempered Clavier’.

breaded swordfish, oregano, wild garlic; greens; tomatoes

swordfish_in_marinade

the swordfish steak sections marinating

 

swordfish_tomaotes_radish_greens

and on the plate with the vegetables

 

Shunkyo_radish

which included the greens from one of these radish bunches

 

I had intended to roast both radishes and radish greens as the vegetable for this meal, but the mild weather gave me second thoughts: I was not anxious to have the oven heat up the kitchen, so I ended up cooking only (some of) the greens, braising them on top of the stove (reserving the remainder for another time). I substituted some colorful fresh (hydroponic) tomatoes, in the form of a salad, for the radish roots, which will be a part of another meal.

  • one swordfish steak (off of Scott Rucky’s fishing vessel, ‘Dakota’, out of East Islip, Long Island), from American Seafood Company in the Union Square Greenmarket), trimmed at the stand by the vendor’s owner, Glenn, cut into two pieces at home, marinated for about half an hour in a mixture of olive oil, chopped fresh oregano from Stokes Farm, and finely-chopped wild garlic from Lani’s Farm, drained well and covered with a coating of dried homemade bread crumbs, pan-grilled above a fairly high flame for about 3-4 minutes on each side, removed, seasoned with salt and pepper, sprinkled with a little local lemon juice from Fantastic Gardens of Long Island, a little more wild garlic, then drizzled with olive oil before serving
  • a few quartered Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods and two larger quarterd (or maybe ‘sixth-ed’) yellow tomatoes from Shushan Valley Hydro Farm, mixed with a good Umbrian olive oil (Luciana Cerbini Casa Gola) from Buon Italia, a squeeze of Lisbon lemon, also from from Fantastic Gardens of Long Island, and a little chopped lovage from Two Guys from Woodbridge
  • radish greens from a large bunch of Shunkyo radishes from Lani’s Farm wilted in a large cast iron enameled pan in olive oil in which one large halved garlic clove from Whole Foods had begun to color, seasoned with salt and pepper
  • the wine was an Italian (Sicily) white, Corvo Insolia 2013 from Philippe Wine in Chelsea, located about 50 yards from our front door
  • the music was various concertos by Antonin Reichenauer

emmer reginetti with cabbage, garlic, anchovy, chile, bay

emmer_reginetti_cabbage

a fantastic dish, and assembling it could hardly have been easier; try it!

 

When I manage to put together a meal as delicious – and as simple to duplicate – as this one, I want to broadcast it as well as I can. Mark Bittman’s ‘Pasta with Savoy Cabbage’ recipe is brilliant to begin with, but I was very lucky to have a very special local pasta (with local grains) on hand to substitute for his suggested, and more familiar, “dried pasta, like spaghetti.”

My secret was a package of New York’s own artisanal pasta, by Sfoglini Pasta Shop, specifically, their ‘Emmer Reginetti‘, which I had picked up somewhere recently, although I’m not certain where. For more on the fascinating story of emmer (aka farro), start here.

It was a perfect match for a rather cold evening on one of the first days of spring, especially because the other principal ingredient was a fresh cabbage which had presumably been harvested on one of the last days of autumn, at least 3 months ago.

The miracle of cabbage: It’s what kept many of the poorer folk in northern European climes alive throughout long winters without supermarkets or central heating – or animals or vegetables that were still alive.  But this isn’t our grandmother’s pungent crucifer, as attested by the recipe’s origin in the northern reaches of the Italian peninsula. The presence of bay leaf, anchovy, garlic, chile, and wine produced an aroma – and a flavor – which would awaken the most indifferent eater and please the most fussy gastronome.

I followed Bittman’s recipe pretty much to the letter, except that I used only 75% of its proportions, used a very different pasta, and finished it with a combination of parsley and lovage.

  • my ingredients included the Sfoglini Emmer Reginetti, garlic from Whole Foods, canned salted anchovies from Buon Italia, dried Itria-Sirissi chili (peperoncino di Sardegna intero) from Buon Italia, Italian bay leaves from Buon Italia, a white cabbage from Phillips Farm, parsley from Eataly, and lovage from Two Guys from Woodbridge
  • the wine was an Italian (Südtirol/Alta Adige) white, Alois Lageder Pinot Grigio Dolomiti 2014
  • the music was an album of compositions from composers associated with Venice in the baroque era,  Uri Rom, Antonio Vivaldi, Alessandro Marcello, Giovanni Porta

cod with mushrooms; cress with wild garlic; yellow tomato

cod_mushrooms_tomato_cress

‘Pan-Seared Cod with Mushrooms’: It’s a fascinating recipe, but I have to append a bold note to my copy: ‘do not try this again unless you really do have low-sodium stock.’ I can’t say I wasn’t warned, since the instructions had made it very clear; it’s just that I haven’t yet been able to locate a [good] vegetable stock described as low sodium.

I’ve made 2 adjustments to the original recipe: First, I used a quarter of the amount of mushrooms it suggests, as once before; and second, I used lovage rather than the parsley or chives indicated.  I also could have gotten away with maybe half the stock specified, since I included far fewer mushrooms than the site had instructed.

Once served, at least initially, the cod was more salty than either of us would prefer, but a squeeze of lemon and some good fresh bread (‘rustic classic’ from Eataly, sliced) allowed us to appreciate the food, and the wine, and in the end the salinity seemed to have disappeared.

I’ll still say it’s a good recipe, and not just because it’s something of a novelty, but it probably has to be used with some caution.

  • two cod fillets (totalling 15 oz) from P.E. & D.D. Seafood, prepared roughly along the lines of this recipe, with the changes noted above, using oyster mushrooms from Blue Oyster Cultivation, flakes of dried Itria-Sirissi chili (peperoncino di Sardegna intero) from Buon Italia, vegetable broth made from a concentrate manufactured by Better Than Bullion, ‘Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter‘ from Whole Foods, juice from a delicious, rather sweet lemon grown locally by Fantastic Gardens of Long Island, and lovage from Two Guys from Woodbridge
  • four yellow tomatoes (hydroponic) from Shushan Valley Hydro Farm, halved, seasoned with salt and pepper, pan grilled, then sprinkled with chopped thyme from Forager’s and chopped oregano from Stokes Farm
  • some very peppery wild cress from Lani’s Farm, wilted a bit with olive oil over a medium flame together with finely-chopped wild garlic, also from Lani’s Farm, then seasoned with salt and pepper, and finished with a drizzle of olive oil
  • the wine was an Oregon (Willamette Valley) white, Underwood Pinot Gris 2014
  • the music was Georg Phillip Teleman’s ‘Orpheus’, René Jacobs directing the Academy for Ancient Music Berlin and the Berlin RIAS Chamber Chorus, with Ruth Ziesak, Werner Güra, Maria Cristina Kiehr, Isabelle Poulenard, Axel Köhler, Hanno Müller-Brachmann, Dorothea Röschmann, and Roman Trekel