I routinely forget how delicious, and easy to prepare, sunchokes are.  While my neglect of this wonderful native American vegetable may have something to do with a residual conservatism about food sources, helianthus tuberosus not having any place in my understanding of the European kitchen, the original inspiration for these meals, it may be that it was the sometime name, ‘Jerusalem artichoke’, because it had seemed bogus to me for so long, that has been responsible for my overlooking their unique pleasures.

• one 18-ounce Delmonico steak from Millport Dairy Farm, dried, pan-grilled to medium rare, divided into 2 pieces, drizzled on the plates with a squeeze of local lemon [sic!] from Fantastic Gardens of Long Island and a little olive oil, finished with a sprinkling of purple micro radish from Windfall Farms
• a mix of sun gold tomatoes from Stokes Farm and varicolored cherry tomatoes from Norwich Meadows Farm, slow-roasted with a generous amount of dried Italian oregano from Buon Italia, olive oil, and a large garlic clove from Stokes Farm, halved
• sunchokes (about 12 ounces), their small ‘rootlings’ removed, trimmed, scrubbed, sliced very thinly (1/8 inch, but they probably didn’t have to be that thin), tossed with barely a tablespoon of olive oil (I think the small amount is somewhat critical to ensuring maximum crispiness), sea salt, and freshly-ground pepper, spread in one layer onto 2 Pampered Chef unglazed ceramic pans (a single pan wasn’t enough, since they had been cut so thinly and should show a lot of surface), sprinkled with thin slices of 2 small sliced [formerly green onions, or fresh white onions, seen in the picture above] from Berried Treasures, roasted at 425º for about 35 minutes, chopped habanada tossed on the tubers near the end (they could be heated a little first), or until they were brown, tender, and crispy on the edges, then dusted with dried fennel pollen from Buon Italia, and shuffled around in the pans with a wooden spatula
• the wine was a California (Napa) red, Ken Deis Napa Valley Merlot 2015
• the music was Beethoven’s ‘Fidelio’, Colin Davis conducting the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Bavarian Radio Chorus, with Ben Heppner, Deborah Voigt, Matthias Hölle, Günter von Kannen, Thomas Quasthoff, Michael Schade, Elizabeth Norberg-Schulz, Andreas Schulist, Wilfried Vorwold, et al.

Orange here.

It has nothing to do with the freakish coloring of a certain monster abroad in the land these months. I would prefer not to have to look at it under any circumstances, and in particular staring up at me from the breakfast table. Nevertheless, I have noticed that various shades of orange have been appearing very prominently in a number of the meals described here lately [whose ingredients all come by their colorings naturally – Ed.].

The color may not have been more prominent, at least until now, than in this Sunday breakfast.

• six eggs and and 4 thick bacon slices from a package of ‘ends’ I had cut by hand at home, both ingredients from Millport Dairy; around a dozen sun gold heirloom tomatoes from Stokes Farm, halved, and not cooked; one very small ‘red wing’ onion from Keith’s Farm, finely sliced; one chopped no-heat Habanada pepper from Norwich Meadows Farm; Maldon salt and freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper; parsley from Norwich Meadows Farm and rosemary from from Phillips Farm, both finely chopped; purple micro radish from Windfall Farm, and a superb aromatic seasoning blend called L’eKama
• the toast was made on my ‘Camp-A-Toaster’ [see this post] and the bread used was a day-old, Orwasher’s multigrain, seeded baguette purchased the previous afternoon at Chelsea’s Down to Earth Farmers Market, cut in rather short segments along its length, each sliced in 3 horizontal layers
• normally we choose some classical piece of ‘sacred’ music as an allusion to the traditional (Christian) cultural Sunday, but this day we went with a complete performance of Wagner’s shortened 1843 version of his ‘Rienzi, der Letzte der Tribunen’, chosen for its symbolism in our current political moment, our struggle to retain a freedom Rienzi hoped to win for his 14th-century Roman compatriots

Wintry and earthy, but first a little sun and sea.

Chestnuts and red cabbage, or more precisely, chestnut pasta and red cabbage. But first there was octopus. I’ve served both of these dishes before, but never anywhere near each other. Last night however, looking around for something to lighten a sturdy pasta, at least with some proximity in time, I pulled a thin package of sliced octopus carpaccio out of the refrigerator and went on to wash, try, and tear the bit of arugula I found inside the crisper.

I had first decided it would be a pasta meal, and had almost immediately zeroed in on one of the several earthy Sfoglini varieties sitting in the larder closet. Unusually for me, I had very few vegetables to go with any of them. I did have one very small red cabbage, and while it’s not the first thing that comes to mind when anyone thinks of pasta, one of the Sfoglini available was a chestnut fusilli, and I had combined the 2 ingredients once before.

After a modest serving, we decided we wanted to go on to a third course, knowing the remaining pasta would be just as good reheated on another day, and aware that we had some great cheeses, and some especially attractive bread for toast to accompany them

The meal went this way.

• octopus carpaccio (sliced, pressed octopus), less than 3 ounces altogether, from The Lobster Place, drizzled with a little juice from a tiny lemon grown locally by David of Fantastic Gardens of Long Island, and a little drizzle of a very good olive oil
• delicious arugula from Keith’s Organic Farm, washed, trimmed, dried, dressed with Moaldon salt, freshly-ground pepper and the same lemon and oil poured over the octopus
• an Orwasher’s multigrain, seeded baguette (it may be a new product) purchased that afternoon at Chelsea’s Down to Earth Farmers Market

 

• eight ounces of Sfoglini chestnut fusilli (organic semolina flour, chestnut flour, water) cooked until al dente in a large pot of salted water, some of the water reserved near the end before it was drained, added to a large enameled cast iron pot in which earlier one thinly-sliced red onion from Stokes Farm had been softened in a couple tablespoons of ‘Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter‘, to be followed by one large minced garlic clove from Stokes Farm, stirred until fragrant, 3 or 4 rosemary branches from Stokes Farm tossed in and heated for a minute or so, more butter added at that point, followed by about half a pound of cored and thinly-sliced red cabbage from Tamarack Hollow Farm, all stirred well then cooked, covered, for about 15 to 20 minutes, or until tender, with a few tablespoons of balsamic vinegar poured in near the end of the cooking, followed by the addition of one chopped heatless Habanada pepper form Norwich Meadows Farm, everything stirred again, the pasta now added to the cabbage, and some of the reserved pasta water introduced into the sauce in stages while the mix was stirred above a low flame to keep it moist, then portions transferred to shallow bowls and served with freshly-grated Parmigiano Reggiano Vacche Rosse from Buon Italia sprinkled on top

 

• a cheese course of 3 Consider Bardwell Farm selections, ‘Manchester’, a medium-hard goat cheese‘, Experience’, a pasteurized, somewhat soft cow cheese, and ‘Pawlet’, a medium-hard cow cheese, served with toasts made from the same Orwasher’s multigrain, seeded baguette served with the first course

 

 

• the wine throughout was an Italian (Toscana) white, Prelius Vermentino Toscana 2015, from Chelsea Wine Vault
• the music was Wagner’s ‘Das Rheingold’, a 1967 performance with Herbert von Karayan, the Berliner Philharmoniker, and an amazing cast: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (Wotan), Robert Kerns (Donner), Donald Grobe (Frohe), Gerhard Stolze (Loge), Zoltán Kelemen (Alberich), Erwin Wohlfahrt (Mime), Martti Talvela (Fasolt), Karl Ridderbusch (Fafner), Josephine Veasey (Fricka), Simone Mangelsdorff (Freia), Oralia Dominguez (Erda), Helen Donath (Woglinde), Edda Moser (Wellgunde), Anna Reynolds (Floßhilde)

I’ve only myself to blame for not being more creative more often. Much of the time I start dinner so late there’s not enough time left to think about or execute a new plan for familiar ingredients. This was one of those times, but fortunately I had other items on hand to make a familiar entrée at least a little quirky.

Unusual, by recent practice, absolutely no micro greens were needed to add visual or taste excitement to anything that reached the plates last night.

It was all pretty luscious.

• two 7-ounce sea bass fillets from Pura Vida Fisheries, dredged in seasoned flour, then dipped in a bowl with one egg from Millport Dairy Farm which had been whipped with a few tablespoons of chopped parsley from Norwich Meadows Farm, sautéed inside a large oval copper pan above a fairly brisk flame for a couple minutes in a mixture of butter and olive oil, skin side down, turned, left for about one more minute, or until the fish was cooked through (the time varies slightly with the size of the fillets and the height of the flame), the fillets removed from the pan to the plates and sprinkled with a bit of organic lemon, kept as warm as possible, the heat turned off, and a bit of oil and/or butter added to the pan, thin wedges of a small fennel bulb from Lucky Dog Organic Farm which had already  been sautéed until soft in another pan (and combined near the end with one chopped heatless Habanada pepper from Norwich Meadows Farm) introduced into and pushed around in the warm pan along with a generous sprinkling of chopped fennel fronds, the fennel and sauce then drizzled next to and onto the fish, which was finished with a little more, fresh, chopped fennel
• a modest amount of very sweet late-season purple/green collards from Tamarack Hollow Farm, cut as a very rough chiffonade, braised in a heavy pot in which 2 small cloves of lightly-crushed garlic from Race Farm had been allowed to sweat with some olive oil, the dish finished with salt, pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil
• the wine was a California (Lodi) white, F. Stephen Millier Angels Reserve Chardonnay 2014

There was also Schnaps. After the table had been cleared, we decided to listen to the end of the opera we had been enjoying all evening. We poured out the little that was left from a small bottle of a superb Oregon eau de vie that I remembered ws sitting somewhere in the refrigerator door. It was Clear Creek Distillery’s Douglas Fir Brandy, which was inspired by the Alsatian, Eau de Vie de Bourgeons de Sapin [clear brandy of fir buds]. A 2009 New York Times piece, ‘The Pursuit and Pleasures of the Pure Spirit‘, provides the context for the inspiration and production of the distillery’s founder, Steve McCarthy.

• the music throughout was Mozart’s ‘Cosi Fan Tutte’, in a performance of Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, with Miah Persson, Angela Brower, Adam Plachetka, Rolando Villazón, Mojca Erdmann, and Alessandro Corbelli

These were crab cakes with trimmings. The pictures probably betray the fact that when I put this meal together color may not have been the least consideration.

 

The image below is of the grilled leeks after some heated Habanada pepper had been scattered on top, and before they were divided onto the plates.

I had picked out the salsa tomatoes from this group one week earlier; one had become almost red by last night, the other had totally retained its greenness.

• two crab cakes from PE & DD Seafood (the ingredients are crab, egg, flour, red & green peppers, garlic, salt, pepper, breadcrumbs, mayonnaise, milk, celery, and parsley), seared/heated in a cast iron pan, 2 to 3 minutes for each side, served on 2 plates on a bed of a salsa composed of 2 roughly-chopped heirloom tomatoes (one green and one deep green with some reddening) from Tamarack Hollow Farm, a pinch of turbinado sugar (infused over time with a vanilla bean), the sugar only because these were mid-November tomatoes, sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper, a bit of finely chopped medium-hot chocolate cherry pepper from Oak Grove Plantation, a little olive oil, some sauce left from an earlier pollock dinner, and topped with a scattering of micro beets from Windfall Farms
• arugula from Keith’s Organic Farm, dressed with Maldon salt, freshly-ground black pepper, a very good olive oil, Campania D.O.P. Penisola Sorrentina ‘Syrenum’, and a drizzle of lemon juice
• three small leeks from Willow Wisp Farm, split lengthwise, rolled in olive oil, salt, and pepper, pan-grilled, combined with one chopped heatless Habanada pepper from Norwich Meadows Farm which had been warmed in olive oil inside a small pan, and arranged on the plates, a little bronze micro fennel from Two Guys from Woodbridge scattered over the top
• the wine was a California (Central Coast) rosé, Keith Hock Central Coast Rosé 2015, from Naked Wines
• the music was Haydn’s ‘La Vera Costanza’, Antal Doráti conducting the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, with Jessye Norman, Helen Donath, Claes H. Ahnsjö, Wladimiro Ganzarolli, and others