bauernwurst; boiled potato, micro mustard; peppers, basil

German-isch again.

Well, actually it was more than just, “-isch”. It was pretty German, but with Mexican and French touches in the wine and the music.

  • four links of Schaller & Weber Bauernwurst (a smokey pork and beef sausage, with pepper, garlic and marjoram), heated inside an oval enameled cast iron pan until the skin had blistered, served with a classic German mustard, Löwensenf Medium (and, not in the picture, a luscious German pepper pickle, Hengstenberg 1876 Red Pepper Steak Sauce, both purchased at the same Schaller & Webber store, which has been located for almost 80 years in what was once the Manhattan German community of Yorkville 
  • ten or 12 ounces of small sweet and delicious Pinto (or Pinto Gold) potatoes from Norwich Meadows Farm, boiled with a good amount of salt in the water only until barely cooked through, drained, halved, dried while inside the large, still-warm vintage Corning Pyrex Flameware glass pot in which they had cooked, a tablespoon or so of butter added, seasoned with a bit of Maldon salt and freshly-ground black pepper, sprinkled with toasted home-made breadcrumbs and garnished with micro red mustard from Two Guys from Woodbridge
  • one pale yellow Hungarian pepper from Stokes Farm, cut lengthwise into quarters, and 2 aji dulce peppers (not hot) from Eckerton Hill Farm, the seeds and membranes removed from both, sautéed over a high or medium high flame inside a large, heavy, antique high-sided copper pot until slightly caramelized, one medium fresh habanada pepper from Alewife Farm added near the end, seasoned with sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper and tossed with leaves of a basil plant from Two Guys from Woodbridge, torn, and served with a drizzle of olive oil
  • the wine was a California (Napa) red, Macario Montoya‘s Sin Fronteras El Mechon California Red Blend 2017, from Naked Wines
  • the music too was, in a way, sin fronteras, since it celebrated an event that “..culminates in a grand procession of the Human Race, dancing and singing in praise of Liberty. [without frontiers]”; it was ‘Le Triomphe de la République ou Le Camp de Grand Pré’, by Francois-Joseph Gossec, performed by I Barocchisti, conducted by Diego Fasolis