Month: March 2018

speck, arugula; spaghetti, lemon, fava greens, parmesan

Tuesday was the official first day of spring, but until these greens appeared in the Union Square Greenmarket on Friday, I wasn’t quite feeling it.

We really celebrated the equinox yesterday, after an antepasto which only looked springy.

While the Speck, a dry-cured, lightly smoked ham, isn’t specific to any season, the pasta it introduced was, as it came garlanded with fava greens.

The first course almost came as a kit.

  • four ounces of Citerio Fresco prosciutto from Whole Foods Market, drizzled some Frankies 457 Sicilian olive oil, the gift of a friend, arranged at the edge of a spray of baby arugula from Windfall Farms, dressed with the same oil, Maldon salt, and freshly-ground black pepper
  • slices of an organic multigrain baguette from Bread Alone

The pasta was assembled almost as easily.

  • a few loose handfuls of fava greens from Campo Rosso Farm, washed, drained, and gradually added to a pot more than large enough to hold half a pound of cooked pasta (I used a large enameled cast iron pot in this instance) in which a 3 cloves of Keith’s Farm Rocambole garlic had already been heated and softened a bit, the greens stirred and allowed to wilt only slightly before stirring in some lemon zest and maybe a little lemon juice, then 8 ounces of cooked and drained Afeltra 100% grano italiano spaghetti, produced in Gragnano, from Eataly Flatiron, added and stirred over medium-high heat with some of the reserved pasta cooking water, arranged inside low bowls and finished with some olive oil, grated Parmigiano Reggiano Hombre from Whole Foods Market, and freshly-ground pepper to taste.
  • the wine was an Italian (Campania) white, Fiano di Avellino, Ciro Picariello 2015, from Astor Wines
  • the music was Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, ‘From the New World’, Andris Nelsons conducting the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra

basil-stuffed scallops; roasted treviso, thyme, balsamic

I love this recipe for scallops, even if I sometimes think I should leave these little fanned-shell mollusks to show on their own, skipping the garlic and herb.

And I’m crazy about any radicchio, in fact, any kind of the chicories. There are so many ways to enjoy radicchio in its various guises, but oven roasting is way up there, and it’s a routine which can be pursued pretty much without any stress. Also, if the vegetable happens to be finished sooner than the rest of the entrée, it’s just as good served room temperature.

  • 12 sea scallops (12 ounces) from Pura Vida Seafood, rinsed, dried, slit horizontally with a very sharp knife almost all of the way through, stuffed with a mixture of basil from Gotham Greens via Whole Foods, one medium-size clove of Rocambole garlic from Keith’s Farm, sea salt, and black pepper, all chopped together very finely and removed to a small bowl where just enough olive oil was added to form a paste, the stuffed scallops then rolled around on a plate with a little more olive oil, drained, then pan grilled in an enameled cast iron pan for about 2 minutes on each side, removed to 2 plates, finished with a squeeze of organic lemon from Whole Foods Market and a drizzle of olive oil
  • slices of a scrumptiously-earthy organic multigrain baguette from Bread Alone

Fortunately the often brilliant color of a radicchio isn’t it’s only appeal, since much of it disappears after it has been cooked; this is an image of the pan just before it was slipped into the oven:

  • one somewhat-larger-than-medium head of Treviso radicchio from Tamarack Hollow Farm, rinsed, drained and wiped off, cut lengthwise into 6 sections, arranged one cut side up on a Pampered Chef unglazed ceramic oven pan (after securing the leaves with toothpicks and/or string), covered with thyme branches from Whole Foods Market, seasoned generously with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, drizzled with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, baked in a pre-heated 400º oven for 10 minutes or so, turned to the other cut side and returned to the oven for around 8 minutes, arranged on the plates and drizzled with a very small amount of balsamic vinegar
  • the wine was an Italian (Campania) white, Falanghina ‘Campi Flegrei’, Cantine Farro 2016, from Astor Wines
  • the music was Handel’s [1713?] opera seria, ‘Lucio Cornelio Silla’, Fabio Biondi conducting Europa Galante

crab cakes, tomato salsa, mizuna; grilled leeks, habanada

These crab cakes never fail to please, and last night they also looked pretty spectacular.

When I think about preparing crab cakes, specifically the ones made by Dolores, the wife of local fisherman Phil Karlin, of P.E. & D.D. Seafood, I often forget just how delicious they are. That changes each time, with the first bite.

On Wednesday evening, there was an additional treat, some New Jersey leeks, which I served grilled.

  • two crab cakes from PE & DD Seafood (crab, egg, flour, red & green peppers, garlic, salt, pepper, breadcrumbs, mayonnaise, milk, celery, and parsley), defrosted earlier in the day, heated with a drizzle of olive oil inside a heavy vintage seasoned cast iron pan, 3 to 4 minutes to each side, served on a salsa composed of 8 or so chopped Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods, sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper, a bit of a bit of a homemade Basque  piment d’Espellate we had purchased in a small town north of Baie-Comeau, Quebec from the French producer’s daughter, the chopped white section of a scallion from Phillips Farms, much of one small dried pepperoncino Calabresi secchi from Buon Italia, and some chopped mint from Windfall Farms
  • a wreath of baby mizuna from Norwich Meadows Farm, arranged around the salsa, dressed with Portuguese olive oil from Whole Foods Market, sea salt, and freshly-ground black pepper
  • four medium leeks from Phillips Farm, trimmed of their darkest green ends sections, cut in half lengthwise, washed vigorously in cold water to remove any earth while carefully holding the white ends together to keep them from falling apart (this could have been done more easily by cutting only part of the way down through their length), dried, rolled in a little olive oil, sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, and a tiny bit of dried darker golden habanada pepper, pan-grilled over a medium-hot flame for a few minutes, turning until all sides had been scored with grill marks and the leeks softened all the way through, returned to the platter in which they had rolled before grilling and sprinkled with more of the habanada, arranged on the plates, arranged on the plates and sprinkled with a mix of chopped herbs (parsley from Eataly and rosemary, thyme, and sage from Citarella)
  • the wine was an Italian (Campania) white, Greco ‘Giano’, Ocone 2016, from Astor Wines
  • the music was Jordi Savall’s album, ‘The Borgia Dynasty: Church and Power in the Renaissance’,
    with Jordi Savall, Montserrat Figueras, La Capella Reial de Catalunya, and Hespèrion XXI, produced by Alia Vox [a sample here]

steak, thyme/fennel; celeriac/potato/paprika frites; chard

Last night we celebrated Barry’s newly-restored ability – after two successive carpal tunnel operations – to cut his food using both hands.

It was a great steak! The fact that everything else on the plates as well had at least some red in it was purely coincidence.

The fact that the beef was more rare-to-medium-rare than merely medium-rare was also not by design, but fortunately for us this delicious Black Angus cut took very well to that option.

  • a Black Angus rib eye/Delmonico steak (.91 lbs) from Greg and Mike of Sun Fed Beef (Maple Avenue Farms) in the Union Square Greenmarket, brought to room temperature, dried very well, seasoned with a generous amount of freshly roughly-ground black pepper, placed on a very hot cast iron pan grill for just about 10 or 12 minutes, turning twice, salting each side after it had been seared, removed and arranged on the plates, a little juice from an organic Whole Food Market lemon squeezed on top, sprinkled with some chopped fresh thyme from Citarella and dried Sicilian organic wild fennel pollen from Buon Italia, drizzled with a little olive oil and garnished with purple micro radish from Two Guys from Woodbridge

  • eight ounces of celeriac from Norwich Meadows Farm and about the same weight in medium size German butterball potatoes from Norwich Meadows Farm, scrubbed, peeled, and cut into crescent wedges, tossed inside a large bowl with a little olive oil, a half teaspoon of Spanish paprika picante, a small crushed section of medium-dark dried habanada pepper, sea salt, and freshly-ground black pepper, spread onto a medium-size Pampered Chef unglazed ceramic pan [the image above was taken at that moment], roasted at 400º until brown, crispy on the edges, and cooked through
  • a small amount of red chard from Citarella (some of the leaves had unaccountably frozen in the crisper, so I had first removed those sections, which accounts for the small portion), wilted in a little olive oil in which one halved Rocambole garlic clove from Keith’s Farm had first been heated and slightly softened, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, and finished with a drizzle of Portuguese olive oil from Whole Foods Market and a bit of lemon juice
  • the wine was a California (Los Carneros) red, Sin Fronteras Los Primos Red Wine California 2016, from Naked Wines
  • the music was a modern reconstruction/pastiche of a 1739 opera by Handel, ‘Giove in Argo’, once thought to have been totally lost, Alan Curtis conducting Il Complesso Barocco

bacon and eggs, this time almost ‘straight up’, so to speak

I usually throw all kinds of stuff into what for most folks would be a simple breakfast of bacon and eggs, but this one escaped from the kitchen [relatively] bare-bones.

  • the ingredients on the plate photographed above included thick bacon from Millport Dairy Farm, Ameraucana chicken eggs from Millport Dairy Farm, Cultured Pastured Butter from Organic Valley, a little bit of sliced scallion from Phillips Farms, freshly-ground black pepper, sea salt, plus Maldon sea salt for finishing, part of a crushed dried golden/orange habanada pepper bought fresh from Norwich Meadows Farm last fall, Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ (from Maine, near Skowhegan) via Whole Foods Market, chopped fresh thyme from Citarella, organic dried wild fennel pollen from Buon Italia, pea shoots from Windfall Farms, and toasts of 3 different breads: a ‘Mediterraneo’ (whole rye flour, stone-milled wheat flour, 5 seeds, plus millet and faro) and a ‘rustic classic’, both from Eataly, and a corn rye boule from Hot Bread Kitchen
  • the music was Bach’s St. John Passion, John Eliot Gardiner conducting the English Baroque Soloists and the Monteverdi Choir