Steak and potatoes, and tomato too. Also the return of the ramp.
- two 7-ounce dry-aged grass-fed Angus beef sirloin tip filets from Greg and Mike at the Sun Fed Beef/Maple Avenue Farms stall in the Union Square Greenmarket, brought to room temperature, dried, sprinkled on both sides with a generous amount of freshly roughly-ground black pepper, placed on a very hot cast iron grill pan for just about 9 minutes, turning twice, salting each side after it had been been turned, removed and arranged on the plates, finished with dabs of mosty-thawed ramp butter that I had put into the freezer almost 2 months ago, using small, first-of-the-season woodland ramps from Lucky Dog Organic, part of an organic lemon from Whole Foods Market, and some Organic Valley ‘Cultured Pasture Butter’
- fourteen ounces of Red Gold new potatoes from Berried Treasures Farm, washed, scrubbing lightly, boiled in well-salted water, drained, dried in the still-warm vintage glass pot, rolled in a little olive oil, seasoned with Maldon salt and freshly-ground black pepper, garnished with micro red basil from Two Guys from Woodbridge
- two medium plum tomatoes from Stokes Farm, halved, the cut sides generously seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, pan-grilled above a medium-high flame, face down, for a couple minutes, turned and grilled briefly on the other side, finished with a dab of olive oil and a bit of balsamic vinegar
- the wine was a Portuguese (Dão) red, Quinta da Pellada Dac Red Blend 2014, from Garnet Wines
- the music was Bruce Brubaker’s January, 2018 album, ‘Codex’