almost the definition of a rich dish (with a fresh spicy green as foil)

 

A significant part of this meal was composed of leftovers, and that explains the quirkiness of the order of courses. Also, my heart was in the bruschetta; the pasta was essentially an afterthought.

I was able to extend our enjoyment of the squab another night by putting together the makings of a   bruschetta.  It all got a little confusing during the process because I had also decided to prepare a rich broth with the necks and the gizzards; because of the late hour, I ended up doing both at the same time, and there was a duplication in the remaining ingredients of the chopped liver and the stock.  There was lots of, ‘which pan does this go into?’

The stock I made, almost as important as what the squab contributed, as a rich pâté, to the first course of this meal, will stretch these birds still further, to at least to one more visit.

Finally, I can’t say enough about the importance of the goose fat to this meal, to that of the night before, and to those that are yet to come. Thank you Michelle.

• a little goose grease, the gift of a friend, heated until hot in a small non-reactive pan, in this case a vintage Corning Pyrex Flameware blue-glass pot, the heat turned off, and two squab hearts from the birds enjoyed the night before, halved, and two livers seared for 30-45 seconds or so, removed from the pan, which was returned to the heat and sliced shallots from Phillips Farm, chopped thyme from Stokes Farm added to the goose fat and cooked for a brief minute or so, a bit of cognac introduced to deglaze the mix, boiled down for a minute or two, or until the alcohol has evaporated, removed from the pan, seasoned with a bit of salt and finely-ground pepper, and finely chopped together with the liver an heart pieces, a small amount of zest from a very small lemon/lime citrus fruit from Fantastic Gardens, spread on top of two pan-toasted slices of Grand Daisy Pugliese Pane from Whole Foods (there should probably been some chopped thyme or parsely on the top of the pâté, and I should have first rubbed the toast with cut garlic cloves, but I forgot to do both in my rush)
• cress from Max Creek Hatchery, dressed with good olive oil, lemon/line juice from the same tiny fruit, salt, and pepper
• the wine was an Italian (Sicily) red, Tenuta Rapitlà Nero d’Avola Campo Reale 2013

• Rana ‘Ravioli Caprese Duet‘ (two colors and two fillings: tomato mozzarella and basil pesto) from Eataly, boiled for about 2 minutes, stirred into a bowl with a sauce, prepared in a small non-reactive pan, with a little olive oil, chopped garlic, half of one pepperoncino, 4 large-ish Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods, halved, spicy arugula from Keith’s Farm, torn, finished by tossing with some ricotta Liuzzi Angelini from Eataly
• the wine was an Oregon white, A to Z Oregon Chardonnay 2013
• the music throughout was the continuing WQXR annual 10-day, year-end Bach Festival

Is it still ‘Kassler‘ even when it’s not entirely German? I’ve made a working-executive decision: It is.

The only thing I worry about when I prepare a meal with smoke pork chops without heating them inside some Sauerkraut is whether they will be juicy. I’ve come up with the solution: keep them covered, and even the tiniest bit of liquid will do the trick.

They were definitely juicy last night.

And so were the vegetables.

• a small amount of frozen rendered goose fat, the gift of a friend, that I had mixed with some juices from a dinner of which included squab bruschetta in which I had used it, heated inside a heavy, medium-size tin-lined copper skillet, where it had softened the chopped white sections of a scallion from Phillips Farms, the green section reserved for later, after which 2 smoked loin pork chops from Schaller & Weber were added, the pot covered with a universal copper lid, kept above a very low flame (just enough to warm the chops through, as they were already fully-cooked), turning the meat once, then, near the end of the cooking time (I went 8 minutes this time), the green parts of the onion, which had been set aside earlier, now also sliced, added for a minute or so, the pork removed, arranged on the plates, brushed with a little garlic oregano jam from Berkshire Berries, and sprinkled with both the white and green onion pieces
• red mustard from Norwich Meadows Farm, wilted in olive oil in which 3 cloves of Keith’s Farm Rocambole garlic had been gently sautéed until they had begun to brown, finished with sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil
• six ‘Pinto’ potatoes from Norwich Meadows Farm, scrubbed, boiled, unpeeled, in generously-salted water until barely cooked through, drained, halved, dried in the still-warm vintage Corning Pyrex Flameware blue-glass pot in which they had cooked, tossed there with 3 tablespoons of Organic Valley ‘Cultured Pasture Butter’ [12 grams of fat per 14 grams, or each tablespoon, of butter], seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, arranged on the plates, sprinkled with chopped parsley from Eataly, some toasted homemade breadcrumbs scattered on the top
• the wine was an excellent German (Pfalz) white, Becker Family Pinot Blanc, 2013, which our local purveyor at the time, Appellation Wines, was kind enough to special order for us when we asked them
• the music was Handel’s 1737 opera, ‘Berenice’, with Alan Curtis conducting Il Complesso Barocco