hello old friends

It had been almost 5 years since I had cooked octopus. It had been an occasional treat for a number of years before that; it was probably my enthusiasm for local ingredients that has caused me to neglect it since.

Yesterday my enthusiasm for octopus overcame the locavore in me.

I had been unable to purchase or enjoy any seafood yesterday because of our schedule; today (Tuesday), because there is no greenmarket offering fish anywhere in Manhattan at least, I headed for The Lobster Place in Chelsea Market, hoping to find something which not available from the fishers who sell their catch in Union Square.

I bought 4 small Spanish octopuses (yes, they had been previously frozen, but so is all the wild salmon available to us on the east coast, and that doesn’t stop me). Unfortunately the rich ocean life of the northwestern Atlantic does not include octopus, and I’m very fond of octopus.

I prepared them much as I always had in the past.  They were delicious, as always.

• four baby octopuses (in 2 sizes, totaling 12 ounces) from The Lobster Place in Chelsea Market, marinated for about an hour and a half in chopped garlic from John D. Madura Farm, oil, local lemon zest and juice from Fantastic Gardens of Long Island, crushed dried red pepper, dried Italian oregano and sea salt, then drained, pan-grilled whole on high heat for an average of 4 minutes on each side, finished with a squeeze of the same lemon, olive oil and fresh chopped oregano from Stokes Farm
• red Norland potatoes from Lucky Dog Organic Farm (very sweet at this time of the year), scrubbed, boiled in salted water unpeeled, halved, tossed with olive oil and chopped wild garlic from Lani’s Farm, sprinkled with purple radish micro greens from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• the wine was an Italian (Umbria) white, Santa Cristina Umbria 2012 [the link is to the 2014 vintage] from Philippe Liquors
• the music was works by Esa Pekka-Salonen, from the album, ‘Meet the Composer-Conductor‘

salad days

I went to our neighborhood Lobster Place on Monday because I had learned, from the Union Square Greenmarket app, that our neighborhood fish monger usual to that day would not be there this week. Their booking out gave me an excuse, if one were needed, to pick up a few baby octopuses that had flown into New York all the way from Spain (or, more likely, from the waters of the Spanish Protectorate in Morocco, if not those of Morocco itself). Our huge distance from their place of origin should be a caution, if not actually a prohibition of their purchase, but I will occasionally overcome my scruples and briefly broaden my carbon footprint in order to enjoy the delicacy: we really, really love octopoda, and it’s not like there are any swimming within thousands of miles of New York.

The meal was delicious.

All of this brings me to the subject, or rather one of the subjects, of this delicious dinner, which we enjoyed the following day.

While I was at the Lobster Place on Monday I thought also of picking up a container of some kind of seafood I might use as a part of a special salad supper the next day (bonus: no hot stove). Crab meat had first come to mind, but once I was at the shop I saw that my choices were broader than I’d imagined.

Crawfish! I decided it would be Louisiana crawfish, and I’d probably prepare it in some kind of simple remoulade.

Eventually I assembled 2 other salads as well.

Everything was a little red.

• seven ounces of cooked and cleaned Louisiana crawfish from The Lobster Place, in the Chelsea Market, served as a remoulade, using this very easy and delicious recipe that I found on line when I was rushed that evening, and fortunately I already had everything I needed, except for the scallions, for which I just substituted chopped small spring leeks from Neversink Organic Farm, arranged on a bed of some well-washed leaves of a small head of spring purple romaine lettuce from from Echo Creek Farm of Salem, NY, in the Saturday Chelsea Farmers Market (on the north sidewalk of 23rd Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues), lettuce dressed with a little olive oil, Maldon salt, freshly-ground black pepper, and a squeeze of lemon, the salad garnished with micro sorrel from Two Guys from Woodbridge [Note: there was no capsicum to be found anywhere in the meal: the remoulade was delicious, but it could have used at least a little hotness, if only to salute the crawdaddies’ origins; a little chili pepper would not have been out of place in any of the other parts of the meal, particularly since it was a hot summer day, and evening]
• one awesome sweet ‘Badger Flame’, beet from Norwich Meadows Farm, washed, scrubbed, dried, and sliced as thinly as I could, layered inside a low bowl with a little Whole Foods Market house Portuguese olive oil, Maldon salt, freshly-ground black pepper, and chopped summer savory from Alewife Farm, stirred gently and arranged on the plates where they were garnished with spring shallot blossoms from Keith’s Farm
• two dozen very ripe, very sweet grape tomatoes from Alex’s Tomato Farm, halved, mixed inside a small bowl along with a little olive oil, salt, pepper, 3 chopped spring red onions, a few drops of white balsamic vinegar, garnished with chopped fennel fronds from Alewife Farm
• slices of a wonderful Balthazar sourdough rye, purchased that afternoon from Schaller & Weber
• the wine was a California (Santa Lucia Highlands/Monterey County) rosé, 99 Barrels Derek Rohlffs Santa Lucia Highlands Rosé, from Naked Wines
• the music was Michael Haydn’s only opera, ‘Andromeda e Perseo’ (1787), Reinhard Goebel conducting the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Cologne Vocal Ensemble