This was really superb pork, but then so was everything else on the plate. And yet this was still March, and we were in the midst of a pandemic.

Barry and I live very well, with the help of others, and we will survive, with the help of others, even in the midst of our current deep, physical social isolation

• two bone-in pork chops from Flying Pigs Farm, seared, squeezed with lemon, roasted, garnished with micro celery
• four baby fennel bulbs from Norwich Meadows Farm, tossed with olive oil, balsamic, roasted, arranged with softened chopped spring garlic, black olives, fennel fronds
• two Italian heirloom tomatoes from Shushan Farm, halved, placed inside the pan with the chops near the end of their cooking, sprinkled with chopped thyme
• I didn’t record the wine or the music

There was a lot of red, and off-red, but, in our defense, it was Valentine’s Day.

The color began, even before any of the food had arrived, when I put this Transvaal native Gerbera daisy and its red-painted ancient iron cachepot on the table (like almost everything else connected to the meal, the plant had come from the Union Square Greenmarket).

The first course was arranged around some very fine locally-produced dried beef.

• slices of a really extraordinary deep red-colored local bresaola from a 94-year-old business in our neighborhood, Salumeria Biellese (4 ounces), purchased from Flatiron Eataly, drizzled with a small amount of Trader Joe’s excellent Italian Reserve extra virgin olive oil described as “unfiltered, unrefined, and cold pressed”
• arugula from Phillips Farms and wild cress from Lani’s Farm (I didn’t have quite enough of either alone, so I used all that I had remaining of each, allowing necessity to improve the the salume’s compliment), drizzled with the same olive oil, seasoned with Maldon salt and freshly-ground black pepper
• slices from a loaf of Philadelphia’s Lost Bread Company’s ‘Seedy Grains’ (wheat, spelt, rye, and barley organic bread flours; buckwheat; oats; flax, sesame, sunflower, and pumpkin seeds; water, and salt)
• the wine was a California (Sonoma), sparkling rosé, W. Donaldson Rosé 2015, from Naked Wines

With at least one eye on the holiday, the idea for the main course had begun with a pair of pink smoked pork chops, also locally-sourced.

• chopped sections of one celery stalk from from Phillips Farms, some of the tender leaves reserved for the end of the warming-up process, softened over a low to moderate flame in a tablespoon or so of Organic Valley ‘Cultured Pasture Butter’ that had been heated inside a heavy medium size tin-lined copper skillet, two 8-and-a half-ounce smoked loin pork chops from Flying Pigs Farm added, the pot covered with a universal copper lid and 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 (about 7 minutes, I would say), a few more thin slices of celery added for a minute or so, the chops arranged on the 2 plates and the celery leaves that had been set aside earlier, now chopped, sprinkled on top, finished with a topping of a bit of horseradish jelly from  Berkshire Berries [I got too excited at this point and added more jelly than I should have]
• micro red chard from Windfall Farms, arranged near the chops as a garnish for the plate

• fifteen ounces of red turnips from Norwich Meadows Farm, scrubbed, peeled, and cut into half-inch-thick slices, tossed with olive oil, sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper, and a generous amount of fresh rosemary leaves from Phillips Farms, roasted inside a large Pampered Chef unglazed ceramic pan for about 30 minutes at 425º
• sunflower sprouts from Windfall Farms
• the wine was an Australian (South Australia/Mount Lofty Ranges/Adelaide Hills) red, Lucy Margaux Pinot Merlot (PM*) 2017, from Copake Wine Works

*referring to the unusual Pinot Noir and Merlot blend

 

• the music throughout the meal was the 1856-1858 Berlioz epic opera, ‘Les Troyens’, John Nelson conducting the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, with Hanna Hipp, Cyrille Dubois, Frédéric Caton, Jérôme Varnier, Joyce DiDonato, Stèphane Degout, Agnieszka Slawinska, Marie-Nicole Lemieux, Richard Rittelmann, Michael Spyres, Bertrand Grunenwald, Philippe Sly, and Jean Teitgen

Using what has long been my standard recipe, I can arrange pork chops with fixings appropriate for any season of the year, from farms and waters in the New York City area. On Sunday it was time for an autumn take.

I’m reading an unintended smiley face on the squash.

Also unintended, I ended up looking at a colorful golden chain after squeezing every wedge of a terrific heirloom winter squash onto a single oven pan (necessity here the mother of an accident, not invention).

• two 9-and-a-half-ounce blade pork chops from Flying Pigs Farm, rinsed, thoroughly dried, seasoned with sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper, and a part of one crushed dried red shishito pepper from Lani’s Farm before being seared quickly in a heavy enameled cast-iron pan, half of a large organic Whole Foods Market lemon squeezed over the top (the lemon then left in the pan between them, cut side down), the chops placed in a 400º oven for about 13 minutes altogether (flipped halfway through, the lemon squeezed over them once again and replaced on the bottom of the pan), removed from the oven and arranged on 2 plates, some of the juices that remained in the pan poured over them, the remainder transferred to a glass sauce boat and placed on the table

• one 5 or 6-inch black futsu squash, of the moschata family, from Alewife Farm, scrubbed, halved, the seeds and pith removed, cut into just under one-inch wedges and mixed by hand inside a large bowl with a relatively small amount of olive oil, sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper, and pieces of golden dried habanada pepper, arranged on a large, unglazed, well-seasoned ceramic pan and roasted in the 425º oven on one side for 15 minutes, turned onto the other side and allowed to roast for 10 more minutes, removed from the oven and transferred to a large heavy copper pot in which 3 crushed cloves of Keith’s Farm rocambole garlic and half a dozen large sage leaves, also from Keith’s Farm, had been gently heated  in a bit of olive oil

• one bunch of medium size collard greens from Lani’s Farm, all the larger stems removed, washed 3 times, drained (some of the water retained and held aside to be added, as necessary, while the greens cooked), the larger leaves torn into smaller pieces, braised gently until softened/wilted inside a large, heavy enameled cast iron pot in which 2 cloves of Keiths Farm rocambole garlic 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 California (Lodi) white, Matt Iaconis Lodi Albariño 2017, from Naked Wines
• the music was an album of Telemann Konzerte für Streicher (string concertos) performed by Musica Antiqua Köln

Our favorite chops.

The tomatoes and the collards are pretty fine too.

• two 9-ounce bone-in loin pork chops from Flying Pigs Farm, thoroughly dried, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper and seared quickly in a heavy enameled cast-iron pan before half of an organic lemon from Whole Foods Market was squeezed over the top (the lemon then left in the pan between them, cut side down), the chops placed in a 425º oven for about 7 minutes, then flipped, part of a golden dried habanada pepper, crushed, added, the lemon squeezed over them once again and replaced inside the pan for another 3 or 4 minutes, when 4 Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods Market were added and the pan returned to the oven for about 4 more minutes, when the chops were removed and arranged on 2 warm plates while the tomatoes were turned onto their round sides and the the pan heated on the top of the stove over a medium-high flame until the pork and tomato juices had reduced to almost a syrup and spooned over the chops, which were sprinkled with chopped lovage from Two Guys from Woodbridge, the tomatoes garnished with micro scallions, also from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• collard greens from Norwich Meadows Farm, washed 3 times, drained, some of the water retained and held aside, to be added as the greens cooked if necessary, the leaves and tender stems cut roughly, braised until gently wilted inside a medium heavy vintage, high-sided, tin-lined copper pot in which 2 halved Rocambole garlic cloves from Keith’s Farm had been allowed to sweat over a low flame with some olive oil, finished with sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper, and a small drizzle of olive oil
• the wine was an Italian (Langhe) white, Cagliero Rabel Langhe Bianco 2013 from Astor Wines
• the music was an album of music composed by Orazio Vecchi (1550-1605) that included ‘Amfiparnaso’ (1597), a madrigal-comedy cycle, and ‘The Musical Banquet’ (1597), which is just as the title suggests

For a number of reasons, both of cause and effect, it wasn’t quite a German meal, but it had its pretensions.

• a small amount of a mix of lard and duck fat, stained, which had been kept in the freezer after 2 previous meals, heated over a low flame inside a heavy vintage oval tin-lined copper pan, the sliced white portions of 2 scallions from Phillips Farms, their green parts reserved after also having been sliced, swirled around in it until softened, at which time 2 smoked loin pork chops from Schaller & Weber were added, the pan covered with tin foil and kept above a very low flame (just enough to warm the chops through, as they were already fully-cooked), turning the meat once, and near the end of their cooking time the green scallion sections set aside earlier were sprinkled on top of the chops, the pork was then removed to the plates, their pan juices drizzled on top, some already-softened local garlic oregano jelly from Berkshire Berries brushed on top, and both the white and green sections of the leeks sections divided between them
• German Butterball potatoes from Norwich Meadows Farm, scrubbed, boiled whole and unpeeled in heavily-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, a couple tablespoons of  Organic Valley ‘Cultured Pasture Butter’  [with 12 grams of total fat; American butter almost always has only 11 grams, which makes a surprising difference in both taste and texture], seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, after which the potatoes were arranged on the plates next to the chops and the sauerkraut and sprinkled with homemade breadcrumbs made from the heel of a loaf of Orwasher’s ‘Righteous Corn Rye’ which had first been browned in a little butter with a pinch of salt
• a little more of the lard and duck fat used with the chops heated above a medium-high flame inside a large vintage high-sided tin-lined copper pan, then one small red cabbage added, supplemented by some leaves from a white Savoy cabbage, both cored and thinly chopped, and 2 medium roughly-chopped shallots, all 3 vegetables from Norwich Meadows Farm, cooked, stirring occasionally, until the cabbage had softened slightly (less than 10 minutes), water added as necessary, after which some sea salt was added and a tablespoon each of juice from a little Whole Foods Market organic lemon and local apple cider vinegar from Race Farm in the Union Square Greenmarket, followed by a sprinkling of freshly-ground black pepper, the heat then reduced and the mixture cooked for another 5 or 1 minutes, or until the cabbage was wilted and the shallots softened, the cabbage finished with a few tablespoons of a mix of different raisins and some local gooseberry jam, also from Berkshire Berries, all stirred into the pan
• the wine was a German (Rheinhessen) sparkling white, Fritz Müller Perlwein
• the music was  http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=208605