We hadn’t seen our friends in years; they were visiting from London and Norfolk, and they were coming to dinner. I wanted to serve something fine, but I didn’t want to spend all of my time in the kitchen once they arrived.

The solution seemed obvious: To start there’d be a good salumi on plates with some excellent greens, and we would end with some very good cheeses. The main course would almost certainly have to be fish (to show off our local bounty and its quality, and because I wanted it to require little heat, because the weather was so very mild), and it would also have to be very simple and quickly assembled.

Grilled tuna, of course.

My plans were confounded early in the day by the fact that I arrived too late at the Greenmarket: the tuna was already gone.  Seeing nothing that would be a good substitute, I headed south, because of the logistics, to Citarella rather than The Lobster Place, while knowing that if need be, I would have the latter as a fallback.

All of which is to say is that, while the tuna was delicious, and from the northwest Atlantic waters, it was not purchased at the Greenmarket, directly from the fisherman or his colleague. I had to tell that to our friends, while extolling the otherwise locavore character (except for the Speck) of the the meal we were sharing.

The meal began, after a taste of whole wheat Mario Fongo grissini stirati and mixed black olives from Buon Italia, with a light course of salumi.

• thinly-sliced Alto Adige Speck from Eataly, each piece rolled around the tines of a fork and put on a plate, drizzled with some very good olive oil, accompanied by upland cress from Alewife Farm, seasoned and dressed with some good oil and drops of local hot house Lisbon lemon from Fantastic Gardens of Long Island
• to accompany the Speck and greens we had an Eric Kayser ‘baguette monge’ to tear into
• the wine was a New Mexico (Sierra County) sparkling, Gruet Blanc de Noirs 

The main course was assembled pretty quickly after we had finished the salumi and cress, because I had started boiling the potatoes the moment before we sat down to the first.

• two 10 or 11-ounce tuna steaks from the Village Citarella, each halved, their tops an bottoms rubbed with a mix of a generous amount of dry fennel seed and one crushed medium-to-large dried Itria-Sirissi chili, peperoncino di Sardegna intero from Buon Italia, ground together, additionally seasoned with salt and pepper, then pan-grilled for only a little more than a minute and a half on each side, finished with a good squeeze of a Lemon grown locally by Fantastic Gardens of Long Island, and a drizzle of olive oil [the recipe is from Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers, found in ‘Italian Easy’; Recipes from the London River Cafe‘]
• red Norland potatoes from Lucky Dog Organic Farm and John D. Madura Farm (these potatoes are especially sweet by March), scrubbed, boiled in salted water unpeeled, halved, tossed with olive oil and chopped wild garlic from Lani’s Farm, sprinkled with chopped lovage from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• a few handfuls of delicious green and purple-colored flat-leaf Winterbor kale from Tamarack Hollow Farm, sautéed in olive oil in which 4 medium cloves of garlic from John D. Madura Farm had first been allowed to sweat and begun to brown, seasoned with salt, pepper, and a dash of olive oil
• the wine with the tuna, potatoes, and kale was a Portuguese (Dão) white, Casa de Mouraz, Dão Blanco ‘Encruzado’ 2013, from Flatiron Wines & Spirits

The cheese course followed after we had lingered a bit following the main.

• the cheeses were Consider Bardwell’s ‘Experience’, a pasteurized cow cheese; their ‘Manchester’ goat cheese; and an adaged goat cheese from Vermont Creamery, ‘Coupole‘, purchased at Citarella while I was there for the tuna
• the breads with the cheeses were thin slices of potato bread (Balthazar’s ‘Potato Fendu’) from Whole Foods, toasted; and slices of Eric Kayser’s ‘Baguette Monge’ which remained from the first and second courses
• the wine with the cheese was a Spanish (Valladolid) white, Martinsancho Rueda Verdejo 2014

 

• the music throughout the meal was our own conversation

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‘

Note to self: This was a wonderful, wonderful dish, and I would not hesitate to serve it, or some version of it, to any guest, even as a main course; also, it was a beautiful convergence of necessity and availability.

 

This is when cooking gets pretty exciting. I wanted to find something which would demonstrate the tastiness of a pretty special ‘leftover’, and make it a full meal, and I knew I would not have much time to prepare a late supper after returning from a concert in Brooklyn.

The ingredient I had on hand amounted to 2 cups of a very savory broth which remained from the preparation of veal tongue in a dinner enjoyed last week.  My idea was to turn it into a hearty soup, with the addition of one of the tiny pasta shapes I’ve often seen, but have never used, like ditalini, tubetti, or acini di pepe.  I wanted the pasta to have been made in Italy, and artisanal, but I was at Whole Foods, and didn’t have time to go to either of the shops where I usually find the imported dry pasta I use. I was about to give up when I saw a neat little box with a cellophane window displaying beautiful rice-like shapes. It was orzo. I was charmed, and I was certain I could work with it.

I had no idea it would be so easy, and fun, requiring even less attention than its more common rival, risotto made with rice.

Both before and after cooking it looks very much like rice (specifically, long-grain rice, which isn’t really suitable for risotto), and it’s cooked very much the same as risotto, yet with virtually no stirring.  But it tastes like good pasta.

I love pasta, and rice, and now I love orzo, and I’m looking forward to the next time I have some good homemade stock on hand (I only used half of the box last night).

• two tablespoons of rich ‘Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter‘ melted in a heavy, enameled cast iron pan (with a cover) over medium-high heat, 1 cup of Whole Foods brand Italian pastificio organic orzo stirred in, sautéed until lightly browned (some of the pasta will be more brown than the others, which only makes the finished dish more attractive), 2 cups of strained tongue stock (remaining after a veal tongue had simmered in onion, parsley root, celery root, carrot, bay leaf, peppercorns, and spice cloves) stirred in and brought to a boil, the pan covered and the flame reduced to a simmer, the stock absorbed (about 15 minutes), checking at the beginning to be certain the pasta has not stuck to the bottom of the pan, half of a cup of good Parmesan cheese, grated, and about a fourth of a cup of chopped lovage from Two Guys from Woodbridge added and stirred in, seasoned with salt and freshly-ground pepper, transferred to bowls and sprinkled with ‘Hong Vit‘ micro Asian purple radish greens, also from Windfall Farms
• the wine was an Oregon (Willamette) red, Montinore Estate Pinot Noir 2013, from Appellation Wine & Spirits [both of those links are to a 2014 vintage]
• after a concert of music by Olivier Messiaen, Pierre Boulez, George Benjamin, and Oliver Knussen, it seemed right that the table music was from a recording of the 2008 Musica Viva Festival; the box set includes work by Karlheinz Stockhausen, Karl Amadeus Hartmann, Jörg Widmann, Matthias Pintscher, Iannis Xenakis, James Dillon, Beat Furrer, Giacinto Scelsi, Rebecca Saunders, and Kaija Saariaho

Great night.

 

The entrée was unanticipated: I had gone to the Greenmarket stand of our friendly Vermont cheese makers to buy one of their new ‘experimental’ cheeses, but when I arrived Peter showed me some quite small frozen pork tenderloins, and I couldn’t pass them up.

Consider Bardwell produces absolutely wonderful goat and cow cheeses, and a certain amount of meat from the farm has become increasingly visible at the market. It’s all been first rate, but this was the first time I had taken home any of their pork, and it was equally delicious.

• two 6 or 7-ounce pork tenderloins from Consider Bardwell Farm, dried, rubbed all over with a mixture of chopped garlic from John D. Madura Farm, chopped sage from Eataly, salt, and pepper, very quickly sealed over a medium-high flame in a copper au gratin pan, placed in a 450º oven for about 6 minutes, the pan removed to the top of the range, the pork put onto warm plates, some scissored wild garlic from Lani’s Farm scattered into the pan over medium heat, along with 2 halved Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods, all quickly stirred around a bit in the juices with a small flat-end wooden spatula, the tomatoes then arranged on the plates and sprinkled with chopped oregano from Stokes Farm and the pan juices drizzled over the roasted pork [that’s a very old flat wooden toothpick in the picture; it held down the thin end flap of the tenderloin while it was cooking]
• Yukon Gold Potatoes from Norwich Meadows Farm, scrubbed, cut (unpeeled) into half-moon shapes, tossed in a little olive oil, chopped thyme from Forager’s, 5 garlic cloves, unpeeled (to prevent them from buring) from John D. Madura Farm, salt, and pepper, then roasted, uncrowded, in an unglazed ceramic pan at 425º for about 25 minutes, potatoes and garlic removed and tossed with chopped lovage from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• the remainder of the small store of tender collard greens I had picked up from Norwich Meadows Farm a few day ago and used with the duck breast, washed, drained, then braised very lightly (they were very tender) in a heavy pot in which one halved garlic clove from Norwich Meadows Farm had been allowed to sweat in some olive oil, the dish finished with salt, pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil
• the wine was a Spanish (Valladolid) red, Bodegas Rejadorada Reja Toro 2014
• the music was, during the earlier part of the meal, that of a tragic (dead at 18, in 1715) collector, commissioner and composer of music, Johann Ernst Prinz von Sachsen-Weimar, his ‘Complete Violin Concertos’, and, later, a work completely unrelated, Nathan Davis’ magnificent 21-minute piece, ‘On The Nature of Thingness’ (2011), played by the International Contemporary Ensemble [ICE] 

an extraordinary dish, also one of the simplest, and least expensive to make

 

I came across this recipe some time ago, and have enjoyed it a number of times since.  I found it in the New York Times, where it was described as adapted by Sara Dickerman from “The Herbal Kitchen,” by Jerry Traunfeld.  The biggest challenge for most home cooks may be locating the fresh lovage, but it’s worth it, wherever that hunt may take you.

It’s a brilliant formula, and extraordinarily delicious.

The easy part: There’s very little preparation necessary for any of the (few) ingredients, and everything goes into the pot at once, after which dinner is ready in little over 5 minutes.

• two pounds of mussels purchased that day in the Union Square Greenmarket from Pura Vida Seafood, lightly-scrubbed and de-bearded where necessary, then combined in a large heavy enameled cast iron pot with two cups of Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods, halved, half of a cup of good white wine (a South African, specifically, Western Cape/Constantia, white, Klein Steenberg Sauvignon Blanc 2015 from our local shop, Phillippe Wines), a few tablespoons of chopped shallot from John D. Madura Farm, three tablespoons of rich ‘Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter‘, a generous amount of freshly-ground black pepper, and 2 or 3 tablespoons of coarsely-chopped lovage from Two Guys from Woodbridge, everything steamed over high heat for a few minutes, served in shallow bowls with a sprinkling of more chopped lovage, accompanied by an Eric Kayser ‘baguette monge’
• the table wine was a Portuguese (Bairrada) white, FP Bical & Arinto Vinho Branco, a 2013, from Chelsea Wine Vault
• the music was Mozart, ‘Le Nozze Di Figaro’, Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, with Dorothea Röschmann, Anna Netrebko, Ildebrando D’Arcangelo

sweets

 

This is supposed to be a plate of savories, and I definitely don’t have a sugar tooth, but, when it comes out of the ingredients naturally, I get ‘sweet’. The dry marinade for the duck, which is itself inherently sweet, included just a pinch of natural sugar, the greens may have been the sweetest I’ve ever tasted, and the potatoes were (at least partly), well, sweet potatoes, and the micro greens were amazingly sweet.

Yum.

• one 14-ounce duck breast from Hudson Valley Duck Farm, its fatty side scored by a very sharp knife with cross-hatching, sprinkled with a mixture of salt, crushed telicherry peppercorns, and a bit of turbinado sugar (which had been infused in over time with a vanilla bean), the breast left standing for about an hour before it was pan-fried over medium heat with a very small amount of fat which had been rendered by thick bacon from Millport Dairy, removed when medium rare (cutting it into the two portions at that time to be certain) finished with a squeeze of organic lemon, sprinkled with scissored wild garlic from Lani’s Farm, chopped lovage from Two Guys from Woodbridge, and drizzled with a bit of olive oil
• Japanese sweet potatoes from Race Farm and russet potatoes from Keith’s Farm, about one pound altogether, all cut as frites, tossed with olive oil, salt, and a dozen rinsed and dried sage leaves from Eataly, arranged without crowding in a large pan, and roasted (no turning necessary, since it was a well-seasoned, unglazed Pampered Chef pan) at about 400º for about 25 minutes, finished with a sprinkling of some purple radish micro greens from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• about half of the small store of tender collard greens I had picked up from Norwich Meadows Farm, washed, drained, then braised very lightly (they were very tender) in a heavy pot in which one halved garlic clove from Norwich Meadows Farm had been allowed to sweat in some olive oil, the dish finished with salt, pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil
• the wine was a French (Languedoc) red, Domaine Ledogar La Mariole Carignan Corbières 2013 (produced by Les frères Xavier et Mathieu Ledogar)
• the music was Yle Klassinen, streaming

wild garlic, a treat anytime, but in the Greenmarket, in February?

 

I could say that l just about built this meal around the wild garlic I had picked up at the Greenmarket on Monday, but I have to admit that my fondness for tilefish also had a lot to do with what I served that day.

• two 9-ounce tilefish fillets from American Seafood, prepared pretty much along the lines of this Melissa Clark recipe, replacing the scallions specified in her instructions with a dozen tiny wild garlic plants (bulbs and stems) from Lani’s Farm, and, for the herbs, a combination of fresh parsley (Eataly), thyme (Forager’s), lovage (Two Guys from Woodbridge), sage (Eataly), and oregano, cooking the fish in a copper au gratin pan, aluminum foil for a cover, and both a small brush and a spoon to spread/ladle the wild garlic butter over the fish
• absolutely the sweetest potatoes I can remember ever having tasted, 6 ‘red potatoes’ from Lucky Dog Organic Farm, scrubbed and boiled, unpeeled, halved, tossed with sweet butter, salt, pepper, and chopped parsley from Eataly
• mizuna from Lani’s Farm, very slightly wilted in a pan in which 2 halved garlic cloves from John D. Madura Farm had first been allowed to brown slightly in a little olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper and drizzled with a bit more oil
• the wine was an Oregon (Willamette) white, Kings Ridge Oregon Pinot Gris 2014
• the music was Handel’s ‘Rodelinda’,  Alan Curtis conducting the Orchestra/Ensemble, Il Complesso Barocco, with Marie-Nicole Lemieux, Simone Kermes, Marijana Mijanovic,
  Steve Davislim, Sonia Prina, and Vito Priante

The meal, at least for us, combined the familiar, the not-entirely-unheard of, and the prettty new.  Kielbasa has often shown up on our table, mizuna has made a few appearances, although in different forms, but, while I’ve roasted kohlrabi, and braised its greens, I had never pan-roasted it before.

The recipe I followed for the kohlrabi came pretty straight from Martha Rose Shulman in the New York Times.

• a one-pound link of spicy pork kielbasa from Tamarack Hollow Farm, boiled in one piece
• three purple kohlrabi from John D. Madura Farms, cut as fries, seasoned with salt and tossed with some coarse stone-ground flour, spread onto a slightly-oiled (2-3 tablespoons) large cast-iron frying pan (in 2 batches, if necessary to avoid crowding), fried over a medium-high flame for about 5-6 minutes, or until browned, turning once, removed, dried on paper towels, tossed with ground cumin, served sprinkled with some ‘Hong Vit‘ micro Asian radish greens from Windfall Farms
• mizuna from Lani’s Farm, very slightly wilted in a pan in which 2 halved garlic cloves from John D. Madura Farm had first been allowed to brown slightly in a little olive oil, then seasoned with salt and pepper and served drizzled with a bit more oil
• the wine was a French (Rhône) red, the gift of a friend, Belleruche Côtes-du-Rhône 2012 (this particular vintage used 70% Grenache and 30% Syrah)
• the music was Q2 streaming

in the beginning

let the waters..be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear

 

• three quarters of a pound of small squid, bodies and tentacles, from P.E. & D.D. Seafood Company, rinsed, dried, then very quickly arranged in an enameled cast iron pan after its cooking surface had been brushed with olive oil and heated on top of the range until very hot, the cephalopods sprinkled with some super-pungent dried Italian oregano from Buon Italia and one crushed dried pepperoncino, also from Buon Italia, with a good squeeze of lemon juice and some olive oil drizzled over the top, and placed in a pre-heated 400º oven, roasted for four or five minutes
• eight Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods, halved, combined in a small ceramic baking dish with a dozen tiny wild garlic plants (bulbs and stems) from Lani’s Farm, a little olive oil, half of a teaspoon of chopped thyme from Foragers Market, salt, and freshly-ground black pepper, placed ahead of the squid in the same 400º oven for about 20 minutes, removed, placed on a bed of slightly-wilted hydroponic watercress from Two Guys from Woodbridge, sprinkled with more thyme and some chopped parsley from Eataly
• the wine was an Italian (Tuscany) white, Vernaccia San Gimignano Fontaleoni 2014
• the music was from Jordi Savall’s 2-disc set, ‘Christophorus Columbus – Lost Paradises‘,  with Solistas de la Capella Reial de Catalunya, Hespèrion XXI, and Montserrat Figueras

nothing green, and I had some; thought it inauthentic, but probably wrong

 

The picture pretty much describes the robust taste of this dish. Until I had actually served it, I had no idea it would be so rich. We were lucky that we had leaned toward the sturdier side of the red wine spectrum: The pairing was inspired, even if there was some luck involved.

Until the very last moment, and in fact not until I had almost finished simmering the tongue,  I had no idea how I was going to finish it.  I had found a simple and attractive formula for a sauce which involved a lot of (green) olives, a recipe characteristic of Venetian cookery, but it was described as a dish that should be served at room temperature, and that wasn’t what I was looking for that night.  I liked the idea of the olives however, so I went looking for another approach using olives.  While doing so, I accidentally found myself again in the good company of a very familiar (and very much missed) source, Kyle Phillips, with his own recipe, archived here.

I stopped looking further; it’s Kyle’s very simple and absolutely delicious approach which I adopted and describe below, along with the sources of the ingredients I used.

• one 14-ounce veal tongue from Consider Bardwell Farm, scrubbed, simmered for about three hours in fresh water and a mix of aromatic vegetables, herbs, and spices (onion, parsley root, celery root, carrot from John D. Madura Farm, bay leaf, from Westside Market, peppercorns, and two whole spice cloves), removed, the broth strained and reserved, the meat allowed to cool somewhat before removing the skin and the tongue cut crosswise into three-quarter-inch slices, set aside while the sauce was prepared:

in a separate pan, one clove of garlic from John D. Madura Farm sautéed in a little olive oil until golden, removed and discarded, almost two tablespoons of good tomato paste added to the pan and diluted with about a cup of the broth set aside earlier, stirred over heat until mixed, then 12 ounces of pitted and roughly-chopped Kalamata olives added, along with 2 large leaves of Gotham Greens Rooftop packaged basil which I had frozen last summer, and a good pinch of wonderful dried Italian oregano from Buon Italia, salt, and pepper, and then the slices of meat, everything mixed together, the pan covered and simmered over a very low flame for about 20 minutes.

• coarsely-ground cornmeal polenta from Buon Italia in the Chelsea Market, cooked with water and milk (in a proportion of 3 to 1), finished with butter, seasoned with salt
• the wine was a wonderful Argentine (Patagonia) red, Amor Seco Merlot 2014
• the music was Jordi Savall’s ‘Mare Nostrum’ (I had already initiated the long, slow simmering process of the tongue, while we were in the process of watching the second segment of Simon Schama’s ‘The Story of the Jews‘ when I had to head into the kitchen to prepare the sauce and start the polenta, so when it came to choosing our Tafelmusik, it seemed totally right to go with Savall’s album, since it deals with music of the Christian, Muslim, and Jewish cultures which were in dialog across the Mediterranean from the middle ages into the early modern era)