This was another easily-assembled meal, and one which is always regardless of what subtle variations I’ve made to the basic recipe.

Brussels sprouts always seem to be a great accompaniment, even for fish.

• two 8-ounce swordfish steaks off of Scott Rucky’s fishing vessel, ‘Dakota’, out of East Islip, from Long Island’s American Seafood Company stall in the Union Square Greenmarket), marinated for about half an hour in a mixture of olive oil, chopped fresh oregano from Stokes Farm, a tiny bit of crushed dried Sicilian pepperoncino from Buon Italia, and a very small amount of a very thinly-sliced small red onion from Phillips 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, removed to the plates, sprinkled with a little local lemon juice from Fantastic Gardens of Long Island, sprinkled with purple radish micro greens from Windfall Farms, and drizzled with olive oil
• small Brussels sprouts from Hoeffner Farms, tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper, spread, without touching each other, onto a large, well-seasoned Pampered Chef oven pan, then roasted in a hot oven (400º) for about 20 minutes until slightly browned and crisp on the outside (they taste surprisingly sweet, and a bit nutty), finished in the pan with a small splash of balsamic vinegar

 

• the wine was a Spanish (Rioja) white, Muga Rioja Blanco fermentado en barrica 2015
• the music was Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck‘s fully ‘reformed‘ 1779, opera, ‘Iphigénie en Tauride‘, performed [here the full-length recording] by Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre

This was the first fully-prepared meal I have been able (allowed) to put on the table since cutting off the tip of my index finger in a kitchen accident on the 7th, and I relished every bit of it.

In preparation, I went to the Greenmarket the day before, fairly late, as I had only to pick up a vegetable; I already had everything else I would need for the next day, whether I ended up deciding on meat (frozen Greenmarket pork) or fish (frozen Greenmarket crab cakes).

I picked one of the last fresh bunches of greens, purple mustard, reminding myself how good it was to still be able to enjoy such a treat near the end of December.

The meal, I had decided, should still be pretty simple, since I would be wearing a latex glove on my right hand to protect a bandage. In fact, like the one I had pulled off two days before, it could actually have been assembled with that hand behind my back. I’m just glad I didn’t have to.

• two thick 9-ounce pork chops from Tamworth pigs from Grazin’ Angus Acres (heritage Tamworth pigs), thoroughly dried, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, seared quickly on both sides inside a very hot, heavy enameled cast-iron pan, 2 pieces of a floral-scented heatless orange habanada pepper from Norwich Meadows Farm that I had dried this fall, placed on the top surfaces before half of a sweet local lemon from Fantastic Gardens of Long Island was squeezed over them, after which the lemon was left on the surface of the pan between the chops, which were then placed in a 425º oven for about 14 minutes (flipped halfway through, the lemon squeezed over the top once again and once again replaced in the pan), the finished chops removed from the oven and arranged on 2 plates, some pea shoots/sprouts from Windfall Farms arranged around them, some of the pan juices poured over the top of the chops, the remainder poured into a sauce boat for use at the table
• purple mustard greens (well, at least the pot liquor was purple-ish) from Norwich Meadows Farms, wilted in a little live oil in which one clove of  garlic from Stokes Farm, halved, had been allowed to sweat, seasoned with salt and pepper and finished on the plates with a drizzle of olive oil
• pickled red beets from Millport Dairy Farm

 

• the wine was a California (Sonoma) white, Scott Peterson Rumpus California Sauvignon Blanc 2015, from Naked Wines
• the music was Boris Ivanovich Tischenko’s Symphony No. 8, and his Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Orchestra, with soloists Mila Shkirtil, Mezzo-Soprano; Chingiz Osmanov, Violin; and Nikolai Mazhara, Piano, with the St. Petersburg State Symphony, Edward Serov conducting

I had managed to cut off the end of my most important digit while using a mandoline to put this meal together 11 days ago. Knowing something had gone wrong, I immediately pressed index finger and thumb together very firmly and finished preparing the potatoes before I stopped to check the damages. They were considerable, but the meal was terrific, even if I have to assume that I was literally a part of it.

I’ve had to keep the wound dry and I was told it could not be covered with a latex glove until it had totally closed and was pretty secure, so making dinner, even washing the dishes of a made dinner, has been out of the question until, well, yesterday.

On Friday I was told that I would probably be told Monday that I was now free to do stuff in the kitchen, and that’s what happened, but that day was my birthday, and we dined out with friends Michelle and Felix, at Faro, in Bushwick. No kitchen for me that day.

But I had actually jumped the gun, a little, the night before.

I had not prepared a real meal in 11 days, but on Sunday I was determined to do something very easy that might also include a lot of perishable vegetables I had around that were about to go beyond their natural expiration date.

The baked egg dish I whipped up with one hand tied behind my back (never touched anything with my injured finger) turned out super, and it did virtually empty the shelves.

I’m not sure I’m remembering everything that went into the mix, which I baked in the oven at 375º for about half an hour, but it certainly included olive oil; 4 or 5 small scallions from Norwich Meadows Farm; a few ounces of Colameco’s uncured diced pancetta from Whole Foods; torn arugula from Lani’s Farm; a few tablespoons of organic heavy cream; one tiny hot yellow pepper from Eckerton Hill Farm; 8 eggs from Millport Dairy Farm; 15 cherry tomatoes from Alex’s Tomato Farm, Carlisle, NY, at Chelsea’s [Down to Earth] Farmers Market; salt; pepper; black oil-cured olives from Whole Foods; finished with some Hong Vit micro radish and a very small amount of pea shoots/sprouts, both from Windfall Farms, scattered on top once the eggs had been plated; a small jar of an aromatic seasoning blend called L’eKama placed on the table with the eggs

This hearty ‘fish and potatoes’ dish has been one of our favorites ever since I saw the Mark Bittman recipe in the Times in 1999 (By the way, I’ve learned to use only about two thirds of the suggested amount of olive oil;  any more than that and you’ll probably find the potatoes swimming in it at the end).  We never tire of the dish, and only partly because it can be prepared with so many different kinds of fish, basically any white fish. In Bittman’s list, “Monkfish works very well . . . . But other fillets will give similar results, including red snapper, sea bass, pollock, wolffish, even catfish.”

The fish has to be absolutely fresh, as it certainly was here, and it helps when the olives are the right kind (ideally, black, oil-cured, like those commonly labelled ‘Moroccan’), and when the potatoes end up slightly crisp on the edges (I almost never peel potatoes anyway, and certainly not for this recipe).

• the thick 14-ounce hake fillet was from American Seafood Company in the Greenmarket; the potatoes were Red Norland, from Norwich Meadows Farm; the black oil-cured olives from Buon Italia; the 15 Sicilian bay leaves from Buon Italia
• the beautiful purple Winterbor kale, from Tamarack Hollow Farm, was wilted in olive oil where one garlic clove from S. & S.O. Farm, lightly-crushed and cut into 4 segments, had been heated and allowed to begin to color
• The wine was a California (grapes from the Sacramento River Delta with a small amount of Viognier from Lodi) white, Miriam Alexandra Chenin Blanc California 2015, by Alexandra Farber
• the music was Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s ‘Medee’, William Christie directing Les Arts Florissants

I had picked up a Sardinian pasta, ‘Malloreddus’, a while back, but hadn’t figured out what to do with it.  Last night I decided to pull it out of the larder anyway. I still hadn’t worked out a recipe, but while looking around on line, I saw something about a traditional treatment involving a mint and pecorino cheese sauce.

I had the ingredients, and it sounded minimal and respectful of what I had assumed – correctly as it turned out – would be the rather subtle saffron flavor of the pasta.

It was lovely; a delicious macaroni and cheese.

I have two to add 2 notes to this recipe:

1. The suggestion, ‘pecorino’ didn’t specify what kind of ewe’s milk cheese was to be used. It was only after slowly heating pieces of my grating pecorino in the cream and finding it never really dissolved, did I realize I should have used softer form of the cheese, but the solids didn’t affect the flavor or enjoyment of the final dish.
2. I suspected the saffron element of the Malloreddus itself might not be very noticeable, I added some threads from my own stock in the spice cabinet; I could have used a little more for even better effect.

• eight ounces a local pasta, Sfoflini Malloreddus, cooked al dente, drained, mixed with a sauce which had been prepared by heating 3 or 4 ounces of a young (ideally) pecorino from Whole Foods, cut into small chunks, inside a small saucepan with about half of a cup of heavy cream until the cheese melted, and kept warm while the pasta was cooking, then, just before mixing, a generous amount of torn leaves of peppermint from Alex’s Tomato Farm at Chelsea’s ‘Down to Earth Farmers Market’ added to the pecorino cream, pasta and sauce seasoned with freshly-ground black pepper (the saltiness of the cheese makes any additional salt unnecessary)

And then, because we hadn’t yet had our fill of cheese, we had, cheese – and fruit.

• bosc pears from Terhune Orchards, and, left to right in the picture, ‘Herve Mons’ Ovalie Cendrée (Poitou-Charentes) goat cheese from Whole Foods, Consider Bardwell Farm’s ‘Danby’ cow cheese, and their (unnamed) blue goat cheese

 

• the wine throughout was an Italian (Sardinia) white, La Cala Vermentino di Sardegna 2014
• the music thoroughout was Handel’s ‘Deidamia’  Alan Curtis directing Il Complesso Barocco