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Since we would be heading out to the Jewish Museum afterward, I suppose this hearty Sunday breakfast could be called ‘unorthodox’, in light of the title of the museum’s current show of that title.  That same afternoon we were also able to visit some of the rooms of the permanent exhibition, which I can heartily recommend…

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looking a bit like emeralds mounted on silver, but much more rewarding   I’ve prepared John Dory, which I’ve described as “aka le Poisson de St.Pierre, Pesce San Pietro, Petersfisch, Heringskőnig, Zeus Faber, or ‘the-funny-shiny-one with-the-sourpuss-face’”, at least 3 times since initiating this blog. Each time I assembled it a little differently, but the fish itself has always retained…

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The pasta itself was the star here. It was fresh cavatelli, from Eataly, where its making was overseen by Luca Donofrio, Eataly’s pastaio. The recipe for the sauce, in this combination a rich and complex complement to a surprisingly earthy plain pasta, was a slight re-imagining of Mark Bittman’s ‘Pasta With Garlic, Tomatoes and Anchovies‘. two roughly-chopped spring garlic from…

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I could say the meal was all about micro ‘Bull’s Blood’ beet greens, but that wouldn’t be quite accurate.   In fact I had decided on the two pollock fillets first, and then I spotted the purple ‘greens’ across the way.   Whatever. But the plate sure was pretty. two 8-ounce pollock fillets from from American Seafood, seasoned on both sides…

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pedigree: San Marzano, Italian San Marzano, Italian San Marzano D.O.C.   Gorgeous. I love tomatoes, in any form, and I think I know what to do with them, in any form, but what do I know about the competing claims of the many serious (read, ‘high-end’) producers of tomatoes canned for cooking? I’m beginning to think that I may really…

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almost over the top, at least by my measure   I rarely include a cream sauce in any of my cooking, and in fact the finishing touch on these scallops was not actually a cream sauce, but a ‘composed butter’ which included fish juices, herbs and wild garlic, a small remainder from this earlier meal, kept frozen in a ramekin until now.…

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Sweet.   There were two courses, first, a salumi with greens… Two ounces of La Quercia Salame Americano, from Eataly, arranged on plates, drizzled with with a little Casa Gola olive oil, accompanied by small leaves of arugula from Norwich Meadows Farm, which had been dressed with the same oil, juice from a local hot house Lisbon lemon (Fantastic Gardens…

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I was a very simple thing, and it welcomed a certain number of ingredients I already had sitting around in the kitchen, but it tasted delicious.  Surprisingly, it also boasted the texture of a soufflé, and who does soufflés any more? The basic recipe comes from Joyce Goldstein, and is described in detail here, but, just as when I…

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before (Paul displaying his own purchase)..   ..and after (my display of our dinner)   I was introduced to this terrific fish today on one of my regular visits to one of the fish stalls in the Union Square Greenmarket, Pura Vida Seafood.  I’ve learned to pay attention to what Paul tells me, and this is another of…

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looks like a flattened bouquet   Yes, it definitely looks like I had a lot of greenery on hand, but I think I managed to disguise some of its volumes with a little judicious mixing with other elements of the meal. And this wasn’t just ordinary greenery, as it included upland cress, wild garlic (bulb and…

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