Month: December 2019

cod roasted with potatoes, smoked pepper; radish greens

Warm comfort, on a December evening, drawn from a cold earth and a still colder sea.

  • one 16-ounce cod fillet from P.E. & D.D. Seafood Company in the Union Square greenmarket, washed and rinsed, carefully halved, placed in a platter on a bed of coarse sea salt, with more salt added on top until the pieces were completely covered, then set aside while a bed of potatoes was prepared for them by slicing lengthwise (to a thickness of roughly 1/4″) a pound of potatoes, a mix of red thumb and la ratte from Norwich Meadows Farm, 6 ounces each, plus 4 ounces of purple Peruvian from Tamarack Hollow Farm, tossing them inside a bowl with a little olive oil, sea salt, a freshly-ground mix of black pepper, and a pinch of smoked serrano pepper from Eckerton Hill Farm, arranging the potatoes, overlapping, inside a well-seasoned 9″ x 12″ La Tienda rectangular terra cotta cazuela, or glazed ceramic oven pan, cooking them for 25 minutes or so in a 400º oven, or until they were tender when pierced, but not quite fully cooked, then the cod fillets, having already been removed from the platter and their salt covering, thoroughly immersed in many fresh changes of water to bring down the saltiness, drained and dried (the soaking process somehow gives the fish more solidity, which can be easily felt while it’s being handled it at this point; it’s also weird how this Marc Bittman recipe totally turns inside out the ancient tradition of salting cod, which is an ancient response to the desire to preserve seafood over long periods and great distances), placed inside the pan on top of the potatoes, drizzled with a little olive oil, sprinkled with black pepper, the pan then returned to the oven for about 8 or 9 minutes (the exact time depends on the thickness of the fillets), or, again, until just cooked through, the fish carefully removed with a spatula (or, better, 2 spatulas), along with as much of the potatoes as can be brought along with each piece, everything arranged as intact as possible on the plates, including any potatoes remaining onthe pan, the servings garnished with micro scallion from Two Guys from Woodbridge
  • the greens cut from one bunch of breakfast radishes from Eckerton Hill Farm wilted in olive oil in which one  large halved rocambole garlic clove fromKeith’s Farm had been allowed to sweat in a little olive oil for a bit, seasoned with salt, pepper and a bit more olive oil
  • the wine was an Italin (Piedmont) white, Gavi ‘Vecchie Vigne’ Francesco Rinaldi 2018, from Astor Wines
  • the music was Mozart’s ‘La FInta Giardiniera’, René Jacobs conducting the Freiburgh Baroque Orchestra

lemon-roasted pork chop, micro scallion; tomato; bok choy

It was a delicious meal, including the pork chops, although they had delivered a lesson on the importance of proper doneness in meat: Despite my extreme familiarity with the simple recipe, they were at least slightly overdone this time*.

  • two boneless heritage pig pork chops (a total of 1.04 lbs) from Flying Pigs Farm/Maple Ridge Meats, seasoned on both sides with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, plus a very small amount of crushed hickory smoked Jamaican Scotch bonnet pepper from Eckerton Hill Farm, seared quickly in a heavy oval enameled cast-iron pan, one halved California organic lemon from Chelsea Whole Foods Market squeezed over the top of each, after which the lemon was left in the pan between them, cut side down), the chops placed inside a 400º oven, flipped halfway through, the lemon half squeezed over them once again and again replaced on the bottom of the pan, a small piece of finely chopped fresh yellow aji dulce pepper sprinkled on top of the pork at the time they were flipped, then roasted for a total of about 15 minutes altogether [*which was a little too long in this case, maybe because the chops thinner than usual], removed from the oven and arranged on 2 plates, the few juices that remained poured over the top of each, the pork garnished with micro scallions from Two Guys from Woodbridge

  • two bright white and deep green ‘roses’. or bunches of bok choy (also known, here and elsewhere, as bok choi, pak choi, pak choy, pok choi, or ‘small white vegetable’) from Campo Rosso Farm, washed, sliced into roughly one-inch sections, wilted inside a large vintage, heavy tin-lined copper pot in a tablespoon or so of olive oil after 2 halved Keith’s Farm rocambole garlic cloves had already been heated there until they had begun to brown, the cabbage cooking process starting with the thickest sections of this wonderful brassica chinensis, that is, those closest to the root ends, the vegetable removed from the flame while the stems were still a little crunchy, finished on the plates seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, and drizzled with a little more olive oil
  • one large green-become-yellow heirloom tomato from Eckerton Hill Farm, seasoned on both sides with salt and pepper, gently heated in a little olive oil inside a copper skillet for a couple of minutes, arranged next to the chops and sprinkled with chopped lovage from Two Guys from Woodbridge
  • the wine was an Italian (Veneto) white, Pra, Soave Classico ‘OTTO’ 2018, from Flatiron Wines
  • the main dinner music was from the ‘British Music Collection’ series, an album of works by Colin Matthews, whose music is absurdly underrepresented in programming today, at least in the U.S., with Oliver Knussen conducting the London Sinfonietta, and after that we listened to Alexander Goehr’s ‘Symphony in One Movement”, Op. 29 

salumi II, arugula; grilled mackerel, salsa; potatoes, lovage

Same salumi as yesterday, but different greens, bread.

  • thin slices of the second half of a delicious, 4-ounce Jacöterie ‘Italian Style Salami’ soppressata crafted with pasture raised pork from Walnut Hill Farm in Ancramdale, NY
  • arranged with well washed leaves of arugula from Norwich Meadows Farm dressed with a small amount of good Greek olive oil, Demi, from the Peloponnese (Laconia, Velles), a 23rd Street Greenmarket purchase late last summer, from John, a member of the family that grows the olives and makes the oil, also some local (Long Island waters) P.E. & D.D. Seafood sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, and a squeeze of organic California lemon from the Chelsea Whole Foods Market
  • the bread was half of a rosemary ‘epi’ (pain d’epi, aka ‘wheat stalk bread’), remarkably evocative of good homemade bread, that I had bought from Bobolink Dairy & Bakehouse on Friday

The simply grilled small mackerel fillets were terrific, especially with the salsa I could accompany it with, thanks to the some small grape tomatoes sitting on the windowsill that I had bought several days earlier.

  • eight small Boston mackerel fillets (16 ounces) from Pura Vida Seafood, washed, dried, brushed with olive oil, seasoned with local sea salt from P.E. & D.D. Seafood and freshly-ground black pepper, pan grilled on a large, 2-burner cast iron grill pan over high heat for a total of about 5 minutes, skin side down first, turned over half way through, removed, arranged on the plates, where they were accompanied by/under a simple salsa, assembled just before grilling the mackerel, of 7 ounces of small halved heirloom golden cherry mid-December, mid-New Jersey farm tomatoes from Eckerton Hill Farm tossed into a small bowl with a teaspoon or more of rinsed and well drained Sicilian salted capers, half a tablespoon of juice from a Whole Foods Market organic California lemon, a pinch of sea salt, a bit of black pepper, the mackerel and the salsa garnished with micro scallion from Two Guys from Woodbridge
  • twelve ounces or so of red thumb potatoes from Norwich Meadows Farm, scrubbed unpeeled, boiled, drained, dried inside the still-warm vintage Corning Pyrex Flameware blue-glass pot in which they had cooked, halved, then rolled inside the pan with a little olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, tossed with lovage, again from Two Guys from Woodbridge

 

salumi, lettuce; gorgonzola/walnut panzerotto, radicchio

There was no fresh fish, and I hadn’t thought far enough ahead to arrange for a meat. I had assumed I would put together a meal using a dried pasta and something from the pretty broad ready choice of possible ingredients, but when it came close to dinner, I hadn’t come up with anything.

One of the prepared filled pastas I had recently brought home from Buon Italia was looking it would be delegated, and it was, becoming a very simple entrée.

So it was an accidental meal of sorts, but a very good one, especially with the delicious  artisanal sausage and beautiful local lettuce that became an antipasto.

  • thin slices of half of a delicious, 4-ounce Jacöterie ‘Italian Style Salami’ soppressata crafted with pasture raised pork from Walnut Hill Farm in Ancramdale, NY
  • arranged with leaves of red leaf buttercrunch lettuce from Fledging Crow Vegetables, the greens dressed with a small amount of good Greek olive oil, Demi, from the Peloponnese, Laconia, Velles, a purchase from John, a member of the family that makes it, at the 23rd Street Greenmarket, some local P.E. & D.D. Seafood sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, and a squeeze of organic California lemon from the Chelsea Whole Foods Market
  • thin slices from a loaf of Homadama bread (wheat, corn, water, maple syrup, salt, slaked lime) from Lost Bread Co.

the wine was an Italian (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) white, Pinot Bianco, Pierpaolo Pecorari 2016, from Astor Wines

 

sautéed sea bass; mushrooms, chili, lemon, parsley; tardivo

The 4 or 5 rows of colors and textures look great here, but I decided to also include a low angle detail image.

 

Even under ordinary circumstances it’s difficult to resist the aesthetic and taste appeal of sea bass fillets, but when they’re on sale, as they were on Wednesday, it’s virtually impossible.

This is also a very easy fish to cook. In this case it was merely seasoned with salt and pepper and briefly sautéed in a combination of butter and oil. The mushrooms that accompanied it were prepared after the fish had been cooked, although using the same pan, with the juices that remained.

  • two 8-ounce Black Sea Bass fillets from American Seafood Company, washed, dried, seasoned on both sides with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, sautéed for 2 to 3 minutes over a fairly brisk flame with butter and a little olive oil inside a large, vintage thick-copper oval long-handled pan, skin side down, then turned over and the other side cooked for about the same length of time, removed when done and arranged on 2 warm plates (I had them inside the oven, set to its lowest temperature, but if left outside an oven they should at least be covered a little to retain their warmth),

then, with 2 tablespoons of butter added to the pan, 5 ounces of beautiful chestnut mushrooms from Gail’s Farm stall in the Union Square Greenmarket, cut up, mostly into 2, maybe 3 pieces each, sautéed, stirring, until lightly cooked, seasoned with sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper, and a pinch of a hickory smoked Jamaican Scotch bonnet pepper from Eckerton Hill Farm and my last fresh habanada pepper of the season, chopped, from Alewife Farm), a couple tablespoons of chopped parsley from Phillips Farms, and a tablespoon and a half of the juice of an organic California Whole Foods Market lemon, the mushrooms stirred some more, everything in the pan then spooned onto the plates to the side of the fish (the skin of the bass is too beautiful to cover up)

  • one medium head of tardivo, a very special chicory, a beautiful form of radicchio that originated in northern Italy, that I found in the stall of Willow Wisp Farm in the Union Square Greenmarket that same afternoon, prepared by washing it under cold running water, the moisture shaken off, cut into 4 segments lengthwise, and a V-cut made most of the way through the root ends of each, which allowed that dense part to cook more evenly with the remainder, the quarters arranged inside a large Pampered Chef unglazed ceramic oven pan cut side up, covered with a few thyme sprigs from Keith’s Farm, seasoned generously with salt and pepper and drizzled with a tablespoon of olive oil, baked inside a 400º oven for about 12 minutes, then turned over and cooked for some 8 minutes more, turned once more so a cut side is once again facing up, returned to the oven once again, but, this time for only a couple minutes or so, or until the stem ends were tender when pierced with a thin blunt metal pin (my all-purpose kitchen tester), removed from the oven [note: the tardivo can be served either hot or warm]
  • the plate was garnished with a row of micro nasturtium from Two Guys from Woodbridge
  • the wine was an Italian (Lombardy) white, Lugana, Ca’ Lojera 2018, from Astor Wines
  • the music was an album of very early Mozart symphonies, Gottfried von der Goltz conducting the Freiburger Barockorchestra

 

[I had forgotten to photograph the mushrooms last Wednesday, so the image I used here is one I took last May, but of the same variety, and from the same farm, cropped differently]