Jumbo shrimp: It’s an archetypal oxymoron, but no less delicious for being a classic. There were also a lot of them this time, a bounty which would have been unlikely on our table had Jean Claude Frajmund not been offering them at a very good price on Saturday (he was in a hurry to close his stall in the Union Square Greenmarket that afternoon).

Did I mention that they were also local? Eco Shrimp Garden has been bringing its harvests to the New York area since 2015. Their produce is extremely fresh excellent whole shrimp which begin as Pacific White Shrimp postlarvae which Frajmund sources from Texas and Hawaii. They’re then raised in Newburgh, New York, on the side (in fact, inside) of the Hudson River, in chemical-free saltwater tanks using sustainable practices.

[note: I had difficulty manipulating 2 huge pans on the limited area of the range top, so the okra ended up less charred, and therefore more al dente, than I would have preferred; I will have to remember to pick a more appropriate vegetable side the next time I have to use a 13.5″ pan for the star of the entrée]

• one teaspoon of chopped rocambole garlic from Keith’s Farm heated inside a (13 1/2″) seasoned cast iron pan over a very low flame until the garlic had colored nicely, then one finely-chopped no-heat Habanada pepper from Norwich Meadows Farms added and pushed around with the garlic, followed by a pinch of Spanish saffron (DO La Mancha from Antonio Sotos), one dried chipotle pepper from Northshire Farms in the Union Square Greenmarket (unpunctured and left whole), and almost a heaping teaspoon of freshly-ground cumin seed added, all stirred for a minute or two, after which 19 ounces (13 by count) of Hudson Valley farmed shrimp from Eco Shrimp Garden were added (their shells all cut with a kitchen shears along their backs from head to tail, to ease shelling once they were served), seasoned with salt and pepper, the heat brought up a bit and the shrimp cooked until firm, turning twice, served on 2 plates with a generous squeeze of lemon, finished with a generous number of chopped stems of fennel blossoms from Lani’s Farm

• twelve ounces or so of small green okra, including a very few purple that were purple (but not the yellow string bean that strayed into the picture above), from Lani’s Farm, sautéed over a high flame inside a very large enameled cast iron pan in a little bit of olive oil and 2 dried  peperoncino Calabresi secchi from Buon Italia, seasoned with sea salt
• the wine was a California (Lodi) white, F. Stephen Millier Angels Reserve Pinot Grigio Lodi 2017, from Naked Wines
• the music was the album, ‘Works For Violin by George Antheil, Johanna M. Beyer, Henry Cowell, Charles Dodge, Ruth Crawford, David Mahler, Larry Polansky, Stefan Wolpe’, performed by Miwako Abe, violin, and Michael Kieran Harvey, piano

I’ve done it before, in fact more than once: This shrimp recipe is an awesome treat each time.

The vegetable accompaniment has always been a tomato something. The flavors are a brilliant match, and the colors are as well (which is not always a good thing, but there are a lot of flavors moving around inside these 2 dishes).

That’s where I went again tonight.

• one teaspoon of chopped Rocambole garlic from Keith’s Farm, heated inside a heavy (13 1/2″) cast iron pan over a very low flame until the garlic had colored nicely, a pinch of Spanish saffron, one whole dried chipotle pepper from Northshire Farms in the Union Square Greenmarket (do not squish it), one crushed section of a dried orange-gold habanada pepper, and a teaspoon of freshly-ground dried cumin seed from Eataly added, all of it stirred for a minute or two, then 14 ounces (12 count) of Hudson Valley farmed jumbo shrimp from Eco Shrimp Garden (cut all along their backs, from head to tail, for ease of shelling later, but I’m not convinced that actually makes it any easier) added, seasoned with salt and pepper, the heat brought up a bit, and the shrimp cooked until firm while turned twice, then served with a generous squeeze of lemon, garnished on the plates with micro fennel from Windfall Farms [the micro greens are my addition to Mark Bittman’s terrific recipe, and may seem like overkill, but they really work with the other flavors, and they also look pretty good]
• a bit of one thick scallion from Alex’s Tomato Farm, sourced at the Saturday 23rd St Greenmarket, and one small pink onion (“I like to call them rosé onions”, says Tyler, the farmer/owner of Alewife Farm, in the Union Square Greenmarket), both moderately sliced, heated slowly inside a large, high-sided tin-lined copper pot until softened, then one large heirloom tomato, sliced, slipped into the pan and barely heated, still above a low flame, a generous amount of torn basil from Stokes Farm, sea salt, a pinch or two os sugar added and stirred in, a generous amount of torn basil from Stokes Farm, sea salt, a pinch or two of sugar added and also mixed in, the tomatoes served with pinches of fenugreek that I had purchased from Nirmala Gupta’s ‘Bombay Emerald Chutney Company‘ at Chelsea’s Down to Earth Farmers Market on 23rd Street, and garnished with some additional (uncooked and finely-sliced) parts of the scallion and the pink onion used earlier sprinkled on top, along with more of the basil [NOTE: the additional basil wasn’t added until after the photo above was taken]
• a She Wolf Bakery Baguette (60% organic roller-milled white flour, 40% farmer-ground half-white organic stone-milled high-extraction flour, natural leaven, kosher salt, yeast)
• the wine was an Italian (Langhe) white, Nino Costa – Roero Arneis 2016, from Manley’s Wine & Spirits, 35 8th Avenue
• the music was a great 1991 recording of Handel’s 1733 opera, ‘Orlando’, Christopher Hogwood conducting the Academy of Ancient Music, with David Thomas, Arleen Augér, Catherine Robbin, Emma Kirkby, and James Bowman

Our very own shrimp: local (Newburgh, NY), fresh (not frozen), sustainable (farmed), safe (purest water, natural nutrients), environmentally sound (small footprint), and delicious.

I just checked, and I realize that last night it had been the better part of a year since we had been able to enjoy Jean Claude Frajmund’s wonderful local shrimp, the harvest of his Eco Shrimp Garden. Incredibly delicious then, they seemed even better this time, although it may be that I now had some experience under my belt. The experience includes both research and practice in dealing with the difficulty of shelling shrimp, especially when they area as fresh as his, after they have been cooked in their shells.

But the shrimp was also “sort-of-Spanish”, and the wine definitely was.

I had been inspired by and persuaded to try Mark Bittman’s simple recipe, ‘Last-Minute Sort-Of-Spanish Shrimp’, last year. This is my November, 2016 post. Last night I headed for it again.  His full, entertaining discussion of its origins appears here.

It’s a wonderful recipe, really very simple, and substitutes can be used for ingredients not on hand.

The image of raw shrimp just below is from this older post.

The baby fennel, purchased yesterday was photographed at the farmer’s stall.

The tomatoes in the photograph below are on our breakfast room windowsill (only the deep red cherry tomatoes were incorporated into this meal).

The next two images were captured during the cooking process, the shrimp in a very large cast iron pan just after they had been turned the first time, the vegetables in a slightly smaller copper pan just after I had added the tomatoes.

• one teaspoon of chopped garlic from Berried Treasures Farm, heated inside a (13 1/2″) cast iron pan over a very low flame until the garlic had colored nicely, a pinch of Spanish saffron, one whole dried chipotle pepper from Northshire Farms in the Union Square Greenmarket (do not squish it) and a teaspoon of freshly-ground cumin seed added, all of it stirred for a minute or two, then 13 ounces (14 count) of Hudson Valley farmed shrimp from Eco Shrimp Garden (cut all along their backs, from head to tail, for ease of shelling later) added, seasoned with salt and pepper, the heat brought up a bit, and the shrimp cooked until firm while turned twice, served with a generous squeeze of lemon, garnished with parsley from Keith’s Farm, finished on the plates with purple micro radish from Two Guys from Woodbridge [the micro greens are my addition to Mark Bittman’s recipe, and may seem like overkill, but they really work with the other flavors, and they are gorgeous]
• a handful of baby fennel from Alewife Farm, trimmed at the top, stems and bulbs cut into 3 cm lengths, sautéed over medium high heat along with one roughly-chopped garlic from Berried Treasures, one small Grenada seasoning pepper from Eckerton Hill Farm (the best flavor of a habanero, with a fraction of the heat), and a teaspoon of Italian fennel seeds, until the fennel began to color, the heat lowered, the pan covered, cooked for another 5 or more minutes, the cover removed and 7 or 8 halved Black Cherry tomatoes from Berried Treasures Farm added, stirred, allowed to soften just a bit, the pan set aside until the shrimp had been cooked, divided onto the plates and garnished with the chopped fronds of the fennel
• the wine was a Spanish (Rioja) white, CVNE Cune Monopole, Rioja Blanco 2015, from Flatiron Wines
• the music was 3 concertos by Franz Josef Haydn and Leopold Hofmann

I had learned from the Union Square Greenmarket app that there would be no fish sellers there Saturday (almost certainly because of the extreme cold), but I figured if I got there early enough, I might still be able to buy some local (Newburgh, an indoor aquaculture farm) shrimp for dinner that day.  I also had to pick up some fresh vegetables for meals over the next 3 days, so the walk in the bitter cold and snow was going to be worth it anyway.

I was lucky with the entrée search, and came home with some”colossals”, just about the last of Jean Claude’s stock that day.

The first course, dominated by slices of an Italian smoked ham, made the meal something of an odd surf ‘n turf event, but the fact that there was also a strong smoky aroma and taste in the main course (a  smoked pepper) brought it all together.

• five or 6 ounces of thinly-sliced Recla Speck Alto Adige IGP, from Bolzano, purchased at Eataly, drizzled lightly with a very good Sicilian olive oil, from from Agricento, Azienda Agricola Mandranova (exclusively Nocellara olives)
• a few leaves of ‘baby Romano’ (oak leaf speckled lettuce) from Eckerton Hill Farm dressed with the same olive oil, Maldon salt, and freshly-ground black pepper
• slices of a buckwheat baguette from Runner & Stone Bakery

The Speck was followed by a plate of the shrimp and a side of tomatoes and baby leek.

I prepared the shrimp in the same way I had for the 2 years I’ve been enjoying ECO Shrimp Garden’s harvests.

• one teaspoon of chopped Rocambole garlic from Keith’s Farm, heated inside a heavy (13 1/2″) cast iron pan over a very low flame until the garlic had colored nicely, a pinch of Spanish saffron, pieces of one dried chipotle pepper from Northshire Farms in the Union Square Greenmarket (I have always used a whole one, but this time tried the broken pieces of one of the peppers in the package), one crushed section of a dried orange-gold habanada pepper, and a teaspoon of freshly-ground dried cumin seed from Eataly added, all of it stirred for a minute or two, then 15 ounces (10 count) of Hudson Valley farmed ‘colossal’ shrimp from Eco Shrimp Garden (that I had cut the length of their backs, from head to tail, for ease of shelling later, added, seasoned with salt and pepper, the heat brought up a bit, and the shrimp cooked until firm while turned twice [they were delicious, but  slightly overcooked, probably because I had overcompensated for their larger-than-normal size], served with a generous squeeze of lemon, garnished on the plates with chopped parlsley from S. & S.O. Produce and micro scallion from Two Guys from Woodbridge [the micro green touch was my own, after completing Mark Bittman’s terrific recipe, and may seem like overkill, but they worked with the other flavors, and look pretty good]

NOTE: There was more than enough sauce in the end, so I gathered what I wasn’t going to use, allowed it to cool a bit, and swirled it into a couple tablespoons of softened butter, to use as a flavored butter in some future meal.

• one Japanese scallion from Norwich Meadows Farm, washed, dried, sliced lengthwise, then halved, cooked in heated olive oil until wilted, 6 Maine Backyard Farms ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods Market, halved, slipped into the pan and heated briefly, then a generous amount of chopped thyme from Stoke’s Farm, some sea salt, and black pepper added and stirred into the vegetables, served with a little more of the chopped thyme

• the wine was a California (Lodi) white, Karen Birmingham Sauvignon Blanc Lodi 2016, from Naked Wines
• the music was Pergolesi’s 1734 opera, ‘Adriano in Siria’, performed by Romina Basso (Mezzo Soprano), the unbelievably-beautiful voice of Franco Fagioli (Countertenor), Yuriy Mynenko (Countertenor), Juan Sancho (Tenor), Cigdem Soyarslan (Soprano), with Jan Tomasz Adamus conducting the Capella Cracoviensis

It looks like I had forgotten how red-ish shrimp get once cooked, since I the vegetable I chose to accompany them comes with a similar palette, and the touches of green on/under each only emphasized the similitude.

But, color choices aside, they turned out to be a great pairing.

• one teaspoon of chopped garlic from Stokes  Farm heated inside a (13 1/2″) cast iron pan over a very low flame until the garlic had colored nicely, then one finely-chopped no-heat Habanada pepper from Norwich Meadows Farms added and pushed around with the garlic, followed by a pinch of Spanish saffron (DO La Mancha from Antonio Sotos), 2 smaller whole dried chipotle peppers from Northshire Farms in the Union Square Greenmarket (unpunctured, left whole) and a teaspoon of freshly-ground cumin seed added, all stirred for a minute or two, after which 14 ounces (11 by count) of Hudson Valley farmed shrimp from Eco Shrimp Garden were added (I had cut them all along their backs, from head to tail, to ease shelling once they were served), seasoned with salt and pepper, the heat brought up a bit and the shrimp cooked until firm while turned twice, served on 2 plates with a generous squeeze of lemon, finished with purple micro bronze fennel from Two Guys from Woodbridge [both the peppers and the micro ‘greens’ are my additions to Mark Bittman’s recipe]
• one small leek from Willow Wisp Farm, cut lengthwise down the center, rinsed well under cold water (although there was none of the soil usually found between the leaves this time), dried, chopped into small pieces, cooked in heated olive oil until wilted, two dark-red heirloom tomatoes from Cherry Lane Farm, sliced, then slipped into the pan and barely heated, a generous amount of chopped thyme from Keith’s Farm, salt, and sugar added, stirred into the vegetables, served with additional uncooked finely-sliced parts of leek sprinkled on top
• the wine was an Argentinian (Mendoza) white, Santa Julia Viognier Plus Mendoza 2015 from Chelsea Wine Vault
• the music was from a recording of 6 works featuring violin or viola, by Bach and Schnittke, performed by Sarah Nemtanu and Deborah Nemtanu, with Sascha Goetzel conducting the Paris Chamber Orchestra in 4 of the pieces