Month: August 2017

artichoke ravioli, heirloom tomato, olive oil, oregano buds

This was the very best artichoke-filled pasta I’ve ever had. Among its other virtues, there was no ‘ricotta extender’, so the artichoke flavors were not watered down – or buried by the heirloom tomato sauce.

The quality of those tomatoes was also a big factor in the dish’s success.

  • two sliced garlic cloves from Lucky Dog Organic Farm, heated in a little olive oil over medium heat inside a large tin-lined high-sided copper pot until the garlic was pungent, joined just before that moment by part of a dried Habanada pepper, crushed, which was stirred for a minute inside the pot, followed by 2 heirloom tomatoes from Norwich Meadows Farm (one a deep red, the other a mottled orange), roughly chopped, and some chopped fresh oregano flower buds, also from Norwich Meadows Farm, the mix stirred a little before 10 or 12 ounces of house-made carciofi-filled ravioli, boiled for barely 3 minutes before being drained, were tossed into the pot with some reserved pasta cooking water, the pasta carefully stirred with the sauce over medium heat for a while to emulsify it, and when ready, served inside 2 shallow bowls, a bit of olive oil drizzled around the edges [the pasta filling was composed of artichokes; olive oil; cacio de roma, a semi-soft sheep’s milk cheese made in the Roman countryside; parmigiano; anchovy; tomato; parsley; and basil]
  • the wine was a California (Clarksburg) white, Richard Bruno Clarksburg Chenin Blanc 2016, from Naked Wines
  • the music was from the Deutsche Grammophon/DGG album, ‘haydn, “sturm” und “drang”, paris & london symphonies’, the pieces performed by the  Orchestra Of The Age Of the Enlightenment, and the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, Frans Brüggen conducting both

spicy wild coho salmon; tomatillo, red onion, herbs, lemon

The entrée was going to be a pasta or or a frittata, and then I saw the wild salmon inside the display case.

  • one fresh (unfrozen ) 8-ounce wild Coho salmon fillet from Whole Foods Market, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper, the broader two surfaces pressed with a mixture of ground coriander seeds, ground cloves, ground cumin, and grated nutmeg, sautéed over medium-high heat for a few minutes on each side in an enameled, cast iron oval pan, finished on the plate with a little squeeze of organic lemon from Whole Foods Market and a drizzle of a good olive oil
  • wild watercress from Dave Harris’s Max Creek Hatchery in the Union Square Greenmarket, drizzled with a good olive oil, Alce Nero DOP ‘Terra di Bari Bitonto’ from Eataly

The bowl of tomatillos had been resting inside the refrigerator under a paper towel for a while; this seemed the perfect time to break them out. They were still crunchy, and deliciously bittersweet.

  • a decent amount of tomatillo from Lucky Dog Organic Farm, chopped, tossed in a little olive oil with one sliced spring red onion from N.J. Jersey Farm Produce, Inc. in the 23rd Street Saturday Farmers Market; lovage from Keith’s Farm; oregano blossoms from Norwich Meadows Farm; organic lemon zest and juice from Whole Foods Market; sea salt; freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper; and a generous pinch of fenugreek
  • the wine was a California (Sonoma) red, ROX Scott Peterson Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast, from Naked Wines
  • the music was Yle streaming

insalata caprese; fennel-grilled tuna; grilled eggplant, mint

There were to be guests, and there would be 3 courses. The only other instructions I gave myself were to serve local seafood, and to see that everything could be prepared easily enough for me to be a part of the conversation, and their first visit to/tour of our apartment.

We began the evening nibbling on some breadsticks, walking around with glasses of a sparkling wine part of the time.

 

The antipasto was an insalata Caprese

  • the salad was assembled with sliced heirloom tomatoes from Norwich Meadows Farm, arranged on 4 plates, alternating on each with slices of some very fresh ‘mozzarella classica’ from Eataly and leaves of fresh basil plants 100 feet away from the kitchen, inside the garden of our own Chelsea Gardens (can’t get much more ‘local’, but I should have picked a little more this time), sprinkled with Maldon salt and coarsely-ground Tellicherry pepper, drizzled with a great Puglian olive oil, Alce Nero DOP ‘Terra di Bari Bitonto’ from Eataly
  • slices of Rustica Classica from Eataly

 

The main course was dominated (barely, because of the great vegetable with which I was able to accompany it) by some of the freshest and most beautiful tuna steak I had ever put onto the table.

In preparing the tuna I did the same thing I normally do: It’s a recipe would intrude little on the taste of the steaks themselves, and it meant the entire course could be assembled and cooked in about 10 minutes (the vegetables could be done ahead).

  • four 6-ounce tuna steaks from Pura Vida Seafood in the Union Square Greenmarket, rubbed, tops and bottoms, with a mixture of a wonderful dry Sicilian fennel seed from Buon Italia that had been crushed in a mortar and pestle along with a little dried peperoncino Calabresi secchi from Buon Italia, the tuna also seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper before the steaks were pan-grilled above a medium-high flame (for only a little more than a minute or so on each side), finished on the plates with a good squeeze of the juice of an organic lemon from Whole Foods Market, and seved with a bit of micro fennel from Windfall Farms, some olive oil drizzled on top of both the fish and the fennel

 

The vegetables could be, and were, prepared ahead of time – including the grilling  (they taste at least as good at room temperature as they do warm).

  • eight small eggplants (5 different kinds, including an orange ‘Turkish’ variety from Norwich Meadows Farm, the others from Alewife Farm), each cut horizontally into 2 or 3 slices, mixed with a little olive oil, a 2 finely-chopped garlic cloves from Norwich Meadows Farm, sea salt, and freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper, pan-grilled on an enameled cast iron ribbed pan over a brisk flame, turning once or twice, sprinkled with chopped peppermint leaves, again from Norwich Meadows Farm, drizzled with a bit of olive oil

 

 

The dessert course was the simplest of all, especially because the really good local (Brooklyn) ice cream was store-bought, and I had made the sauce some days before.

lemon/thyme marinated dolphin, leeks; sautéed cucumber

It’s a wonderful fish; they all are, at least those we’ve figured out make good eating (but, yes, all of the others are wonderful as well).

I had served dolphin 4 times before; each time the fish seemed more delicious than before, and so it was last Wednesday (August 16).

I love cucumbers in any form. This time they were sautéed.

Just about halfway through the meal, there was some unplanned excitement: a stack of 2 large mixing bowls and a sugar bowl came crashing down from the top of the refrigerator. But Barry was saved!  He had been standing directly at the site, fetching cold water, and so he incurred a few minor bruises and cuts on his lower limbs.

After we dressed his wounds, we both recovered and finished a really good meal, waiting until afterwards to clean up the mess.

But dinner really was good.

  • two fillets of local dolphinfish, or orata, or dorade [it appears on this list of local ‘exotics’ with the Hawaiian name, ‘Mahi-Mahi’], about 15 ounces altogether, from Blue Moon Fish, dry-marinated for 30 minutes or so with more than half a tablespoon of zest from an organic lemon from Whole Foods Market, an equal amount of chopped thyme leaves from Stokes Farm, sea salt, and freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper, seared inside a hot heavy, oval copper fish pan for about 3 minutes, skin side up, then turned over, the second side seared for about the same length of time, the heat lowered and the pan loosely covered for a very few minutes with aluminum foil, which was then removed and some thin-ish slices of very small French Leeks from Mountain Sweet Berry Farm and a bit of dried golden-orange habanada pepper were introduced and very briefly sautéed along with the fish before it was removed along with the alliums and the pepper onto 2 plates, the now richly-savory pan juices poured over the top of the fish, a sliced small orange-red heirloom tomato from Norwich Meadows Farm placed as a garnish on each side of each of the fillets
  • white-fleshed ‘Boothby’ cucumbers from Willow Wisp Farm, cut lengthwise, sautéed inside a large seasoned heavy cast iron pan with a little olive oil, over a medium-high flame, turning the cucumbers twice and adding one sliced small spring red onion from N.J. Jersey Farm Produce, Inc., in the 23rd Street Saturday Greenmarket, near the end, sprinkling the cucumbers with sea salt each time they were turned, removed once the cucumbers had begun to carbonize on each side successively, a pinch of fenugreek added just before they were placed on the plates, where they were sprinkled with lovage from Keith’s Farm
  • the wine was a California (Lodi) white, David Akiyoshi Reserve Chardonnay 2015, from Naked Wines
  • the music was from the same album enjoyed the night before, the Deutsche Grammophon/DGG album, ‘haydn, “sturm” und “drang”, paris & london symphonies’, the works performed by the  Orchestra Of The Age Of the Enlightenment, and the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, Frans Brüggen conducting both; this time the works were Haydn’s Symphonies No. 49, 50, and 43

red fife pasta, duck bacon, onion, cardoon, mint; cheese

Thinking about what might be the best way to use the extra, cardoons I had prepared but not used in this meal on Monday, the answer seemed simple: Pasta!

I was concerned about the bitterness of the [thistle stems], as I mentioned in the post describing that meal; I suspected the pasta would dilute most, if not all of it, and it did. And it was good.

  • eight slices (4 ounces) of duck bacon from Hudson Valley Duck Company in the Union Square Greenmarket, cut into 1/4 inch segments, sautéed in a little olive oil inside a large, heavy, high-sided, tin-lined copper pot until the fat began to render, removed, set aside, and replaced in the pot by 2 thick scallions from Alex’s Tomato Farm, in the 23rd Street Saturday farmers market, and a section of a dried orange/gold habanada pepper, heated until the onion had softened, followed by a couple handfuls of cardoons that had been boiled and drained on Monday and placed in the refrigerator, the cardoons sautéed until beginning to caramelize, at which time 9 ounces of Sfoglini red fife blend zucca, cooked al dente, was tossed into the pot, with some of the reserved pasta cooking water, stirred over medium heat until the sauce had been emulsified, chopped peppermint from from Phillips Farms added and mixed into the pasta, which was then arranged inside low bowls, sprinkled with a little more chopped mint, drizzled with olive oil, and finished with a generous amount of freshly-grated Parmigiano-Reggiano Vache Rosse from Eataly
  • the wine was a California (grapes from 3 regions, North Coast, Lodi and Clarksburg) rosé, Evangelos Bagias California Rosé 2016, from Naked Wines

There was also a cheese course.

  • three cheeses from Consider Bardwell Farm: a blue goat; ‘Manchester’, also goat; and ‘Pawlet’, a cow cheese
  • thin toasts from 2 different several-days-old breads, a small Pugliese roll and a classic French baguette, both from Whole Foods Market
  • the wine with the cheese was a California (Lodi) white, F. Stephen Millier Angels Reserve Pinot Grigio Lodi 2016, also from Naked Wines

 

  • the music throughout the meal was from the Deutsche Grammophon/DGG album, ‘haydn, “sturm” und “drang”, paris & london symphonies’, the pieces performed by the  Orchestra Of The Age Of the Enlightenment, and the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, Frans Brüggen conducting both; the symphonies we listened to were Nos. 47, 46, and 26