I used to think it was autumn that was the most blessed season for vegetables, but moving through the unfolding surprises of spring, especially since they follow a season that has to be described as semi desert, I might have to reconsider that thought.

Onion buds, for starters, and there will be more of that sort of thing coming up.

• twelve sea scallops (12 ounces) from P.E. & D.D. Seafood, rinsed, dried very thoroughly with paper towels, seasoned with local sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, briefly grilled (90 seconds on each side) in a medium size square enameled cast iron pan, finished with a squeeze of juice from a Chelsea Whole Foods Market organic lemon, then a scattering of a fabulous spring treat, the tiny bursting seeds inside a blossoming onion from Norwich Meadows Farm, and a drizzle of olive oil

• fifteen ounces of Magic Molly purple potatoes from Tamarack Hollow Farm, boiled in well-salted water, drained, dried in the still-warm vintage Pyrex glass pot, rolled in a little olive oil, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, garnished with chopped dill from Stokes Farm

• a large bag (9 ounces or so) of beautiful red-vein tender spring spinach from Norwich Meadows Farm, washed in several changes of water, drained, very gently wilted (that is, not reduced too far) inside a large, very heavy, high-sided tin-lined copper pot in a little olive oil in which one large clove of spring garlic from Michisk’s Farm in Flemington, NJ, quartered, had first been allowed to sweat, seasoned with salt, black pepper, drizzled with a little organic lemon and a bit more of the olive oil
• the wine was a French (Corsica/Vin de Pays de l’Ile de Beaute) rosé, Domaine Poli Niellucciu – Rosé 2018, from 67Wine
• the music was the really wonderful album, ‘Sonatas and Other Interludes: Pedja Muzijevic’, chosen because we had just returned from his performance in a concert, ‘Bach Dialogues’, at the Dimenna Center for Classical Music: Mary Flager Cary Hall, another of his brilliant programs incorporating music from different centuries

Steak. It takes all kinds. In the past I have generally favored cooking the kinds generally favored by others, with a very few exceptions for unusual cuts, but I honestly think it’s out of a preference for the neatness of a steak, both in its appearance on the plate and in the slicing of it. For these and for other reasons, like tenderness, which is absolutely not a priority for us, this means the cuts that are the most expensive.

I’ve been learning about some of the alternatives.

If it’s going to be about taste, there will have to be some side trips, with rewards well beyond the cost savings.

On Saturday it was time for a chuck steak. Actually the nomenclature, if not the cut itself, was a little more complicated than the familiar, often snubbed cut that the name suggests. It was a ‘boneless top blade steak’, something like a flat iron steak. That afternoon at our neighborhood Chelsea’s Down to Earth Farmers Market, I purchased the last piece of meat, of any kind, that Christopher Novak of Abundance Acres Farm had left. We discussed the cut (unfortunately most of what I thought I was learning at the time I’ve since forgotten, but I was impressed, enough that, although I didn’t really have to buy anything that day, I went home with a large steak (s’okay, there were no smaller ones).

I was told it was perfectly alright to cook it more or less dry, almost like any other steak. I checked on line, and was reassured, by this site and a few others.

• one 20-ounce Hereford-Angus breed boneless top blade steak from Abundance Acres Farm, located in South Arabia (don’t bother trying to Google ‘South Arabia’), Montgomery County, New York State, 5 miles north of the Mohawk River and 5 miles south of the foothills of the Adirondacks, at Chelsea’s Down to Earth Farmers Market, which is set up on Saturdays one block east of us in the spring through the fall, defrosted, brought to room temperature, both sides sprinkled generously with sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, one chopped spring garlic clove from Michisk’s Farm in Flemington, NJ, and a squeeze of juice from a Chelsea Whole Foods Market organic lemon, placed inside a heavy oval enameled cast iron pan already made hot over moderately high heat, in half a tablespoon of butter, a little less olive oil, and 2 whole cloves of the same garlic, sautéed 2 to 3 minutes on each side, or an internal temperature of 120-130º [because of the nature of the cut, it might be advisable to extend the cooking time, but only a bit, to come closer to ‘rare’], more lemon juice squeezed onto the steak just before it was removed from the heat, when it was allowed to rest, lightly covered, for at least 4 minutes before being transferred to the plate on top of a bed of leaves from one small head of radicchio (‘Italian chicory’), probably a variegata radicchio di lusia from Eckerton Hill Farm

• twelve ounces of small red thumb fingerlings from Tamarack Hollow Farm, halved lengthwise, tossed with a little olive oil, sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper, and a pinch of powdered home-dried habanada pepper, placed cut side down on a large Pampered Chef unglazed ceramic pan, roasted at about 375º for 20 minutes or so, arranged on the plates, cut spruce tops from Violet Hill Farm sprinkled on top

• about 10 ounces of purple sprouting broccoli from Campo Rosso Farm washed and drained a couple of times in fresh cold water, chopped roughly, sautéed or wilted over a low flame until the stems had softened by gradually being added to a heavy medium size antique copper pot in which one large chopped Michisk’s Farm spring garlic clove had first been heated until it had softened and become fragrant, seasoned with salt and black pepper and drizzled with a little olive oil
• the wine was a red (Côtes du Rhône) red, Jean-Louis Grande Réserve 2017, the gift of our friends Robert and Andrei, visiting from Berlin
• the music was the album, ‘Hilda Paredes: Señales’, with the Ensemble Signal

I think our breakfast plates actually are looking a little more minimal lately.  While this may be a desirable trend, the downside is that I might begin to lose interest in cooking eggs for breakfast if I leave little room for my imagination.

The picture below probably includes everything seen on the plate in the first one, except for the bacon, eggs and toast themselves. I snapped it for my own use, to record what was included, and so be able to write this post more easily; only much later did I decide to include it in this post.

• the ingredients included 6 fresh eggs from pastured chickens and 4 slices of bacon from pastured pigs, all from Pennsylvania’s Millport Dairy Farm in the Union Square Greenmarket, the eggs, while they were being fried, seasoned with a newly-introduced local Long Island sea salt (P.E. & D.D. Seafood/Phil Karlin’s own), freshly ground black pepper, and a dry seasoning called L’ekama from Ron & Leetal Arazi’s New York Shuk, sprinkled with dill from Stokes Farm; 8 very ripe tomatoes, ‘The Best Cherry Tomatoes’ from Stokes Farm, heated gently in a small enamel-lined cast iron porringer then rolled in a French sea salt, pepper, and thin slices of scapes from Cherry Lane Farms, sprinkled with some cut spruce tips from Violet Hill Farm; a garnish of micro purple radish from Windfall Farms; and toasts of ‘Whole wheat Redeemer Bread’ (simply ‘Redeemer wheat’, water, salt) from Lost Bread Co.
• the music was assembled after my own heart, to use an expression common while I was growing up but which I didn’t quite understand until after it had virtually disappeared, the album, ‘Venecie mundi splendor: Marvels of Medieval Venice’ (“Newly recorded in the bright acoustic of the Cenacolo of San Giorgio Maggiore Monastery in Venice, La Reverdie brings together, for the first time, musical compositions written c. 1330-1430 in honor of the Venetian Doges, or Venice itself.” – excerpted notes from the album)

Ahhhh.

Even if for some reason the mussels themselves were claimed by another, the diner who got the the soup would be the winner. There’s nothing like mussel broth. Nothing.

Before the dinner itself we enjoyed a refreshing, fascinating natural wine with some breadsticks from Buon Italia.

• the wine was the sparkling version of a very refreshing New York (piquette), Piquette Traminette, from Wild Arc Farm 

The main, and only, course consisted of local mussels and the things that were enjoyed with them. The image below is of the inside of the pot before the bivalves were added, and just before the butter had completely melted.

In a dish like this the vegetables are clearly as important as the mussels, and here all were excellent, and from local farms.

• a little more than two and a half pounds of mussels, purchased from Pura Vida Seafood in the Union Square Greenmarket early that afternoon, scrubbed, and de-bearded where necessary, combined in a large heavy enameled pot (a ‘dutch oven’ in fact) with over two cups of halved cherry tomatoes from Stokes Farm that are appropriately named, ‘The Best Cherry Tomatoes’, a little more than half a cup of a good white wine, a Rhône/Costières de Nîmes) white, Château Saint-Cyrgues Costieres de Nîmes Blanc 2017, a few tablespoons of chopped ‘camelot’ Dutch red shallot from Quarton Farm, 4 tablespoons of Organic Valley ‘Cultured Pasture Butter’, about a quarter of a teaspoon of crushed Calabresi peperoncino secchia from Buon Italia in the Chelsea Market, a generous amount of freshly-ground black pepper, and a few tablespoons of some coarsely-chopped lovage from from Keith’s Farm, the pot then covered and its contents simply steamed over high heat for a few minutes, arranged in shallow bowls, along with the wonderful pot liquor, and sprinkled with a little more lovage
• served with slices of Lost Bread Co.’s very sturdy ‘Seedy Grains’ (wheat, spelt, rye, and barley organic bread flours; buckwheat; oats; flax sesame, sunflower, and pumpkin seeds; water, and salt)
• the wine was a French (Rhône/Costières de Nîmes) white, Château Saint-Cyrgues Costieres de Nîmes Blanc 2017, from Copake Wine Works

 

• the music throughout was the album, ‘Elena Ruehr: OKeefe Images’, a triptych of works inspired by paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe, performed by Jennifer Kloetzel, cello, with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project conducted by Gil Rose

I think of the fairly simple pasta courses I scatter between more serious or composed meat and fish entrées as something like ‘intervals’ between acts, but they’re usually at least as satisfying as what would normally be called more main event dinners.

As this one was.

There was also a simple antipasto this time.

• five bocconcini, from Flatiron Eataly, divided onto 2 oval plates, that had already been mixed with olive oil, crushed dried red pepper, dried oregano, and dried basil (I don’t know why I didn’t buy the plain version and season it myself, unless I was thinking of how I used to buy them regularly in the 80’s and early 90’s from a shop in Little Italy, Piemonte Ravioli)
• slices of ‘Whole wheat Redeemer Bread’ (hard red redeemer winter wheat, water, salt) from Lost Bread Co. out of Philadelphia, via the Union Square Greenmarket
• the wine for the first course, purchased at Foragers, was a Spanish (Castilla-La Mancha) white, a verdejo, Friend and Farmer White Wine, from Foragers Market Wine

The main, or second course was almost as straightforward.

• two broadly sliced garlic scapes from Eckerton Hill Farm, plus a bit of crushed smoked dried jalapeño pepper, also from Eckerton, and a pinch of dried habanada, all heated in a little olive oil inside a large antique copper pot until the garlic had softened, before 8 ounces of a locally-sourced and locally-produced artisanal pasta, a ‘Jerusalem Artichoke Fusilli’ from Norwich Meadows Farm which incorporates their own sunchokes (the name I like to us when I can, since neither Jerusalem nor the artichoke has anything to do this these native American tubers), cooked only until al dente, then drained, and tossed into the pot along with almost a cup of the reserved cooking water, where the pasta was stirred over high flame until the liquid had emulsified, a handful of pitted Greek kalamata olives added to the mix before some of the pasta was divided into 2 shallow bowls where some chopped fresh dill from Stokes Farm was scattered over the top, finished with some homemade breadcrumbs, mixed with a little salt, that had been toasted in a small cast iron skillet
• the wine for the second course was a New York (Hudson River) red, Cabernet Franc – Bruynswick Vineyard, 2017, from Wild Arc Farm

 

• the music throughout the meal was the album, ‘François Joseph Gossec: Symphonies’, performed by Concerto Köln