steak, lemon, lovage; fingerlings, garlic, habanada; collards

Meat and potatoes. And greens.

  • two incredibly delicious sirloin cap steaks (otherwise called ‘culotte’ here, ‘coulotte’ in France, ‘picanha’ in Brazil, or “the part where the cow was poked by ranchers“), from Sun Fed Beef/Maple Avenue Farms in their stall at the Union Square Greenmarket, brought to room temperature, seasoned on all sides with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, seared over a medium-high flame for less than a minute on the fat-covered side [this time, inexplicably, each had 2 fat-covered sides] inside an oval enameled heavy cast iron pan, the open sides cooked for 3 or 4 minutes each, removed from the pan at the moment they had become perfectly medium-rare, arranged on 2 warm plates, drizzled with juice from a local lemon grown by Fantastic Gardens of New Jersey, sprinkled with chopped lovage from Two Guys from Woodbridge, a little olive oil poured over the top
  • about a pound of red thumb fingerling potatoes from Norwich Meadows Farm, halved lengthwise, tossed with a little olive oil, sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper, a bit of crushed light-colored home-dried habanada pepper (originally purchased fresh from Norwich Meadows), 6 or 7 medium-size rocambole garlic cloves from Keith’s Farm (unpeeled, to keep them from burning), the potatoes roasted cut-side down inside a 375º oven on a large very well-seasoned Pampered Chef ceramic pan for about 20 or 25 minutes, arranged on the plates and garnished with red micro chard from Two Guys from Woodbridge
  • one bunch of collard greens from Lani’s Farm, the stems removed, washed 3 times, drained (some of the water retained and held aside to be added, as necessary, while the greens cooked), chopped into smaller pieces, braised gently until softened/wilted inside a large, antique copper pot in which 2 halved cloves of ‘music’ garlic/aka ‘strong neck’ garlic from Windfall Farms had been heated until they had softened, seasoned with salt and black pepper, finished with a small drizzle of olive oil
  • the wine was a surprisingly light, but very sophisticated zinfandel, a California (Mendocino County) red, Les Lunes Venturi Vineyard Zinfandel 2015, from Copake Wine Works
  • the music was a 2011 recording of Wagner’s 1862-1867 comic music drama, ‘Die Meistersinger Von Nurnberg’, Marek Janowski conducting the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Radio Chorus