crab cake, tomato salsa; grilled leek, habanada, arugula

crab_cake_leek_arugula

These were crab cakes with trimmings. The pictures probably betray the fact that when I put this meal together color may not have been the least consideration.

 

The image below is of the grilled leeks after some heated Habanada pepper had been scattered on top, and before they were divided onto the plates.

leeks_habanada

I had picked out the salsa tomatoes from this group one week earlier; one had become almost red by last night, the other had totally retained its greenness.

tomatoes_tamarack

  • two crab cakes from PE & DD Seafood (the ingredients are crab, egg, flour, red & green peppers, garlic, salt, pepper, breadcrumbs, mayonnaise, milk, celery, and parsley), seared/heated in a cast iron pan, 2 to 3 minutes for each side, served on 2 plates on a bed of a salsa composed of 2 roughly-chopped heirloom tomatoes (one green and one deep green with some reddening) from Tamarack Hollow Farm, a pinch of turbinado sugar (infused over time with a vanilla bean), the sugar only because these were mid-November tomatoes, sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper, a bit of finely chopped medium-hot chocolate cherry pepper from Oak Grove Plantation, a little olive oil, some sauce left from an earlier pollock dinner, and topped with a scattering of micro beets from Windfall Farms
  • arugula from Keith’s Organic Farm, dressed with Maldon salt, freshly-ground black pepper, a very good olive oil, Campania D.O.P. Penisola Sorrentina ‘Syrenum’, and a drizzle of lemon juice
  • three small leeks from Willow Wisp Farm, split lengthwise, rolled in olive oil, salt, and pepper, pan-grilled, combined with one chopped heatless Habanada pepper from Norwich Meadows Farm which had been warmed in olive oil inside a small pan, and arranged on the plates, a little bronze micro fennel from Two Guys from Woodbridge scattered over the top
  • the wine was a California (Central Coast) rosé, Keith Hock Central Coast Rosé 2015, from Naked Wines
  • the music was Haydn’s ‘La Vera Costanza’, Antal Doráti conducting the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, with Jessye Norman, Helen Donath, Claes H. Ahnsjö, Wladimiro Ganzarolli, and others