Well, that headline was really unnecessary, but while the meal wasn’t about color, it wasn’t diminished by its richness (which, I have to admit, wasn’t entirely serendipitous).

‘Leftover Kasslerbraten‘. The unembellished words don’t begin to describe the awesomeness.

We had begun feasting on this nearly 7-pound roast the first day of this year. We enjoyed its third, and, sadly, its final act, with last Sunday’s dinner.  The second act had been presented shortly after the first, and fully a pound of the roast had remained even after that.  I carefully wrapped that piece, and it rested inside the freezer until this weekend.

To the very end, a superb smoked rib.

• two ribs from a large smoked pork roast which we had first enjoyed with friends on New Years Day 2019, heated for a few minutes in a little butter inside a medium antique copper pot on top of some sliced baby French leek from Mountain Sweet Berry Farm and some chopped baby celery from Norwich Meadows Farm, the chops covered, turned once, and arranged on the plates, covered with the little bit of the juice they had produced, together with the slightly carbonized pieces of leek and celery, a bit of horseradish jelly from Berkshire Berries spread on  top, scattered with some chopped celery leaves

• sixteen ounces of ‘Purple Peruvian’ potatoes from Norwich Meadows Farm, washed and scrubbed, but unpeeled, boiled in well-salted water, drained, dried in the still-warm large vintage Pyrex glass pot, then halved, rolled in a little butter, seasoned with local P.E. & D.D. Seafood salt and freshly ground black pepper, garnished with scissored bronze fennel buds and flowers from Rise & Root Farm in the Union Square Greenmarket

• thirteen and a half ounces of very sweet flat green pole beans (I’ve always called them ‘Romano beans’) from Norwich Meadows Farm, briefly parboiled inside a treasured large stainless steel pot purchased from Peter Hoffman in his Savoy Restaurant, after it had closed, quickly drained, then dried inside the same pot while beans and pot were still warm, set aside in a bowl, reheated in a cast iron pan with a little olive oil while the Kassler was being warmed, seasoned with salt and pepper, finished on the plates scattered with micro lemon balm from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• the wine was actually a cider, a wonderful, very dry New York (Hudson Valley) exemplar, Brooklyn Cider House Bone Dry cider, from the makers’ stand in the Union Square Greenmarket (it’s pretty awesome, and we’re definitely going stock up some more)
• the music was an album which included Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto, Trio, and Romances, in performances of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Joseph Silverstein, with the soloists Joseph Silverstein (Violin), Veronica Jochum (Piano), and Colin Carr (Cello)