The kitchen was in chaos only moments before I snapped this picture.

I had to do some unexpected trimming of the 2 fish filets (brought home as butterflied wholes) and then change my plans on how I was going to cook it, both at the last moment, and it was already late in the evening.

I did some quick thinking, which unfortunately did not include a plan for keeping the kitchen and dining area from getting pretty smoky, decided on a relatively carefree vegetable and treatment of that vegetable, then whipped out my large steel oval fish pan.

The peppers were scrumptious, even if I didn’t have time to prepare the herb I had wanted to use with them, and instead tossed in a bit of one that remained from breakfast the day before.

The whiting was delicious, even if most of the crispy skin I was aiming for stayed in the pan. I think whiting may not be the ideal candidate for this operation, or else I hadn’t succeeded in drying the skin enough. The vinaigrette on which it rested was a brilliant way to appreciate the flavor of the fish (and the texture of the skin as well, if all had gone better last night).

• two butterflied whiting filets (20 ounces total, before trimming) from P.E. & D.D. Seafood, washed, drained, trimmed of the remains of their fins, each then separated into 2 filets, since their wholeness had now been compromised by that operation, prepared mostly along the lines of this recipe, seared inside a very hot well-seasoned steel pan, resting on a lemon-basil vinaigrette prepared more or less like this one, and garnished, somewhat exuberantly, with micro chervil from Two Guys from Woodbridge

• a number of sweet ‘Bulls Horn’ yellow-green peppers and very sweet ‘Love Apple’ red peppers from Alewife Farm, each cut once lengthwise, the seeds and membranes removed, sautéed over a high flame until slightly caramelized, and one sliced red scallion from Berried Treasures Farm, a finely chopped small Aji Dulce pepper (not hot) from Eckerton Hill Farm, a small chopped section from a serrano pepper (hot) from Central Valley Farm, and a pinch of crushed dried golden/orange habanada pepper (pungent, but not hot at all) added near the end, the mix tossed with sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper and sprinkled with some budding marjoram from Stokes Farm, arranged on the plates and served with a drizzle of olive oil
• the wine was a California (grapes from the Sacramento River Delta with a small amount of Viognier from Lodi, I think) white, Miriam Alexandra Chenin Blanc California 2017, from Naked Wines
• the music was Rameau’s 1749 pastorale héroïque, ‘Naïs’, Gyorgy Vashegyi conducting the Purcell Choir and the Orfeo Orchestra

Look, no tomatoes!

They’ve been a part of virtually every meal this month, and the last, but it didn’t occur to me to include them last night. I was thinking we’d have a cheese course later, and I wanted to keep the entrée down to 2 elements; I knew there would be some color even without tomatoes; and I thought that the lettuce I would be including, plus a micro green, would add a sufficient element of freshness themselves.

And yet there was tomato, although only as a very subtle addition to the self sauce created by the pork.

I love both this special vegetable, and the pork, as well as the recipes I used for each, but the entire entrée was even more successful than I had expected. In the case of the chops, the simple addition of even the small amount of rendered heirloom tomato juices I had, remaining from an earlier meal, may have made all the difference.

The beets were an extraordinary new sweet variety we’ve enjoyed before, using the same recipe, and even though I ended up roasting them longer than I wanted to, they were still delicious. Horseradish is a blessed thing.

• two 8-ounce bone-in loin pork chops from Flying Pig Farm, thoroughly dried, seasoned with salt and pepper and seared quickly in a heavy enameled cast-iron pan before the 2 halves of a small Whole Foods Market organic lemon was squeezed over the top (then left in the pan between them, cut sides down), the chops placed in a 425º oven for less than 14 minutes (flipped halfway through, the lemon halves squeezed over them once again and replaced), removed from the oven and arranged on plates, some of the pan juices, that had been mixed with tomato juices inside a heavy glass sauce boat, spooned over the top, the sauce boat placed on the table to be available during the meal, the pork garnished with micro red mustard from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• a number (but less than a pound) of not-very-large ‘Badger Flame’ beets from Norwich Meadows Farm [more here] trimmed, washed and scrubbed, cut into wedges, tossed in a bowl with roughly 2 tablespoons of olive oil; 3 halved cloves of Rocambole garlic from Keith’s Farm (I should have kept them unpeeled), a generous amount of oregano buds from Norwich Meadows Farm, sea salt, and freshly-ground pepper to taste, covered loosely with foil and baked for 20 minutes or so inside a 400º oven, after which the foil was taken off, the beets turned on another side and roasted for 25 minutes longer, or until they were tender, when they were removed from the oven and arranged on 2 plates on top of the well-washed outer leaves of a head of purple romaine lettuce from from Echo Creek Farm of Salem, NY, in the Saturday Chelsea Farmers Market (on the north sidewalk of 23rd Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues), a little olive oil and drops of a good Spanish Rioja vinegar drizzled on the beet segments and the lettuce, but with the greens also sprinkled with salt and pepper, the beet salad finished with some horseradish root from Gorzynski Ornery Farm freshly grated on top [note that the recipe mostly follows one on page 36 inside the hard copy of the excellent book of simple kitchen formulae, ‘Italian Easy’; Recipes from the London River Cafe‘]

There was a cheese course, which I did not photograph

• ‘Pawlet’ cow cheese and ‘Manchester’ goat cheese, both from Consider Bardwell Farm, and Riverine Ranch buffalo milk brie
• a mix of several kinds of raisins (colors and sizes) from Trader joe’s Market
• thin toasts of a sturdy She Wolf Bakery sourdough ‘miche’

 

• the wine throughout was an Austrian (Lower Austria) white, Erdenlied Riesling 2016
• the music was Purcell’s 1691 ‘semi-opera’, with a libretto by John Dryden, ‘King Arthur’, Trevor Pinnock conducting The English Concert

We like vegetables so much, that I’ll even load them up on dishes where they wouldn’t normally be much featured; many appear there as miniatures, or in dried form. This time, while it was only a late breakfast, on the plate were fresh tomatoes, a little bitter green, one small scallion, a tiny sweet pepper, a micro mustard, and 2 ‘budding herbs’.

Worth noting: All 6 yolks made it to the plates with their integrity uncompromised (the yolks remained whole), and I wish I knew what I did to get the feathered edges of the whites to caramelize, and be so delightfully crispy (I did add a little butter to the pan before breaking the eggs into it, since there was very little bacon fat left after the bacon was removed, but that’s pretty much what I usually do).

• the meal was an assemblage which included 4 thick strips of bacon and 6 eggs (3 Americauna* and 3 standard), all from Millport Dairy Farm, 2 heirloom tomatoes from Alewife Farm, a bit of puntarelle from Tamarack Hollow Farm, sliced red scallion from Berried Treasures Farm, budding marjoram from Stokes Farm, budding basil from Windfall Farms, one small sliced aji dulce pepper from Eckerton Hill Farm, micro red mustard from Two Guys from Woodbridge, and toast from a terrific She Wolf Bakery Miche
• the music was Bach’s Mass in B minor, performed by Philippe Herreweghe conducting the Collegium Vocale Gent 

 

* in the picture, the egg to the lower left is an Americauna

It was one of those times when the amount of seafood was going to be either too little or too much. At first I decided to just go with the rather small piece of flounder, and make up the difference with an additional vegetable, but then I went back to the fishers’ stall and asked for a half dozen scallops, to make a first course.

Barry and I were both glad I did, because, while the flounder was very fresh and very good, the scallops, prepared very plainly, were really exceptional.

• six one-ounce scallops from American Seafood Company at Saturday’s Chelsea’s Down to Earth Farmers Market on 23rd Street, from American Seafood Company, washed, drained and very thoroughly dried on paper towels (twice), generously seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, pan grilled for about 90 seconds on each side, arranged on the plates, finished with a squeeze of organic lemon from Whole Foods Market and a good Campania olive oil (Lamparelli O.R.O.), then sprinkled with fresh dill flowers from Alewife Farm
• two red tomatoes, one larger heirloom from Alewife Farm and a smaller, different varietal from Eckerton Hill Farm, sliced, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, warmed inside a shallow copper pan, finished with some budding basil from Windfall Farms
• slices from a Sullivan Street Bakery ‘Pugliese’

The main course was a little more complicated, but still very easily put together.

• one thick 13-ounce flounder filet, also from American Seafood Company, placed inside an oval tin-lined copper au gratin pan, skinned side down, the top surface spread with a mixture of one tablespoon of zest from a Whole Foods organic lemon, one teaspoon of a pungent dried Sicilian oregano from Buon Italia (where it’s sold dried and still attached to the stem), one teaspoon or more of balsamic vinegar, three fourths of a tablespoon of olive oil, almost a teaspoon of lightly-crushed black peppercorns, a quarter to a half of a teaspoon of sea salt, and most of one finely-chopped Rocambole garlic clove from Keith’s Farm, baked for just under 15 minutes in a 350º oven, removed, cut into 2 pieces and arranged on the plates, drizzled with some juice from the lemon which supplied the zest earlier, garnished with micro chervil from Two Guys from Woodbridge

• four small Turkish eggplant from Norwich Meadows Farm, cut horizontally into 3 or more slices, mixed with a little olive oil, one large chopped Rocambole garlic clove from Keith’s Farm, sea salt, and freshly-ground black pepper, pan-grilled on an enameled cast iron ribbed pan over a brisk flame, turning once or twice, some sliced red scallion from Berried Treasures Farm and 5 or 6 pitted and halved Gaeta olives added near the end, everything tossed inside a bowl with chopped ‘blue licorice’ (Korean mint/Indian mint) from Lani’s Farm, then arranged on the plates and drizzled with olive oil
• one small green tomato, also from Norwich Meadows Farm, halved, seasoned with salt and black pepper, pan-grilled in the same as the eggplant, arranged on the plates near the flounder, drizzled with a littel olive oil

 

• the wine was a French (Savoie) white, Domaine Labbe, Abymes Savoie, 2016, from Flatiron Wines
• the music was Handel’s 1724  opera seria, ‘Tamerlano’, Trevor Pinnock conducting The English Concert

There’s no real connection between the first and second courses of this meal, other than the fact that the first directly preceded the second, and the second directly succeeded the first.

The appetizer was merely assembled.

• a container of grilled artichokes with mint leaves and oil, from Eataly, divided onto 2 plates, served with a modified mayonnaise which started with Sir Kensington’s, plain, Classic Mayonnaise (made by ex-Brown students, with headquarters in SoHo), to which I added half that amount of Sir Kensington’s Dijon Mustard, a bit of juice from a Whole Foods Market organic lemon, a pinch of turbinado sugar, a very small amount of finely-chopped Rocambole garlic from Keith’s Farm, a bit of chopped micro chervil from Two Guys from Woodbridge, and a pinch of Maldon salt, garnished with some more, still whole, micro chervil
• slices of a sesame baguette from Bread Alone Bakery

The main course actually had to be cooked.

• two 9-ounce Spanish mackerel filets from Pura Vida Seafood, washed, dried, brushed with olive oil, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, pan grilled on a seasoned cast iron double-burner grill pan over high heat for a total of about 6 or 7 minutes, first skin side down, then turned half way through, removed, arranged on the plates and dressed with a salsa that had been assembled just before, consisting of 7 ounces of a mix of (mostly) heirloom tomatoes from several local farms, chopped roughly or halved, tossed into a small bowl with a teaspoon or more of rinsed and drained Sicilian salted capers, half a tablespoon of juice from a Whole Foods Market organic lemon, a pinch of sea salt, and a bit of freshly-ground black pepper, the salsa garnished with some pungent basil buds from Windfall Farms
• two crookneck yellow summer squash from Windfall Farms, cut into 2-cm rounds, sautéed in a little olive oil for a few minutes over a medium-high flame inside a large antique high-sided heavy copper pot, turning once, until both sides were well on their way to being caramelized, near the end of that time part of a length of a stem of fresh shallot from Tamarack Hollow Farm, cut into one-cm sections, was added and stirred into the squash sections until softened, the pan removed from the flame, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, the vegetables placed inside a bowl where the they were tossed with a few pitted kalamata olives, one small finely-chopped red aji dulce pepper from Eckerton Hill Farm, a little lemon juice, and chopped ‘blue licorice’ (aka Korean mint, or Indian mint) from Lani’s Farm
• the wine was a New York (Long Island) rosé, Wölffer Estate Rosé 2017
• the music was Lully’s 1683 tragédie en musique, ‘Phaéton’, Christophe Rousset conducting Les Talens Lyriques and the Chœur de Chambre de Namur

I had no idea what I was doing until I did it.

I started with the chorizo, picked out the cucumber, and then the potato, but because the cucumber was small and because I had no idea when I would use a potential third vegetable if it wasn’t in this dinner, 2 mild peppers were also tabbed, almost at the last moment.

The table welcomed a bit each of Spain, New York City (Yorkville and Chelsea), India, Vermont, Venezuela, Pennsylvania, New York’s Orange County, Connecticut, New Jersey, New Mexico, the Rhineland, and seventeenth-century France. The meal had no dominant ethnicity, but the plate looked pretty interesting, and it was all very tasty.

• four links of ‘Spanish Style Chorizo’ from Schaller & Weber’s Yorkville store, pan-fried inside an oval enameled cast iron pan, served with an apricot mustard from Dixon Farm Stand in the Chelsea Market
• one 6-ounce ‘Poona Kheera’ cucumber (a variety sometimes labelled, less accurately, as a ‘Sikkim cucumber’), from Norwich Meadows Farm, sliced unpeeled into rounds 2 cm thick, sautéed in a little olive oil inside a medium antique high-sided copper pot over a medium-high flame, lightly-sprinkled with salt each time (I should have allowed the pieces to begin carbonizing, but I was otherwise distracted), adding a few 2 cm-thick slices of a fresh bulbous shallot from Tamarack Hollow Farm and most of an aji dulce pepper (not hot) from Eckerton Hill Farm more than half way through, seasoned with freshly-ground black pepper, arranged on the plates, garnished with fresh dill buds from Willow Wisp Farm
• small red skinned new potatoes from Willow Wisp Farm, boiled in well-salted water, drained, dried in the still-warm large vintage Pyrex glass pot, rolled in a little olive oil, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, tossed with basil buds from Windfall Farms and garnished with bronze micro fennel from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• two Anaheim peppers from Oak Grove Plantation seared in a little olive oil inside a small vintage seasoned cast iron pan until they had blistered, sprinkled with sea salt and black pepper
• the wine was a German (Pfalz) red, Ein Liter Rhodt, Stefan Meyer 2015 (a blend of Portugieser, Saint Laurent and Dornfelder), from Astor Wines
• the music was Lully’s 1686 tragédie en musique, ‘Armide’, Philippe Herreweghe directing the Collegium Vocale and La Chappel Royale

We’ve been big fans of pimientos de padron for more than a decade, later including Shishito peppers, their east Asian cousins, in the same category.

The excellent Pollock is a very different thing, and in its case our modest fan club only goes back about 18 months, but we’re as fond of it as we are of the peppers. Curiously, the American general public’s awareness of the beauties of our genus pollachius is today roughly at the same level as the peppers were to us, and, I would say, to many others, when we first tried them in 2007: Most people are something of a state of ignorance about Pollock, mostly because they never hear about it.

I decided that was a respectable excuse for including the two in the same meal.

• a couple handful of Shishito peppers from Alewiife Farm, washed, drained, dried, then sautéed over medium high heat in a broad cast iron pan for a few minutes, stirring, then salted and served on plates, more, Maldon salt added
• slices of a sesame baguette from Bread Alone Bakery (they’ve decided to put the sesame inside, apparently to reduce defections of the seeds)

The pollock showed up for the main course.

• two 8-ounce white-fleshed pollock filets from American Seafood Company, rinsed, dried, halved, and seasoned on both sides with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, placed skin side down inside a buttered oval tin-lined copper gratin pan, spread with a mixture of softened unsalted Organic Valley ‘Cultured Pasture Butter’ that had been mixed with zest from most of an organic Whole Foods Market lemon, a little chopped, almost mature Rocambole garlic from Keith’s Farm, slices of a section of one young red onion (something like a red scallion) from Berried Treasures Farm, a bit of a finely-chopped aji dulce pepper (with a mild, smoky flavor, and sweet, not hot) from Eckerton Hill Farm, the fish baked for about 15-17 minutes at 350º, removed to 2 plates, the little bit of cooking juices that had accumulated poured over the top, and a teaspoon or so of Sicilian salted capers, which had first been rinsed, drained, dried and heated briefly inside a small antique enameled cast iron porringer in a bit of olive oil, scattered while still warm on top of the fillets, along with the oil in which they had been heated, the pollock finished with a garnish of what looks in the image like green fireworks ‘brocades’, but was actually only sprays of dill flower buds from Willow Wisp Farm

• something of a mélange of heirloom (and other?) tomatoes from Eckerton Hill Farm, some of them sliced, heated in a little olive oil inside a medium high-sided antique copper pot, seasoned with salt and pepper, sprinkled with some extremely pungent basil buds from Windfall Farms
• there were more slices of the same Bread Alone Bakery baguette, to help with enjoying the 2 sauces on the plates
• the wine was a California (Central Coast/Santé Ynez Valley) white, Rick Boyer Santa Ynez Valley Dry White Blend 2017, from Naked Wines
  by Rick Boyer
• the music was Christoph Willibald, Ritter von Gluck’s 1777 opera, ‘Armide’,  Marc Minkowski conducting Les Musiciens du Louvre 

Licorice-d cod.

The only thing about this meal that was not familiar was one of the herbs that found its way into it, with some help from Lani’s Farm.

‘Blue licorice‘, is what the little sign read, but it wasn’t blue, and it didn’t look like anything I knew that was associated with one of my favorite flavors. I looked it up right there, while standing in front of its little bucket.

What I learned from a quick scan allowed me to imagine using it in preparing the cod filet I had bought moments before.

And that’s what I did, although I played it safe by including the more conventional parsley in the mix.

• a very fresh cod fillet (19 ounces) from P.E. & D.D. Seafood, divided into 4 portions, 2 larger, 2 smaller (cutting 2 portions of the same size would have been almost a geometric impossibiity, because of the shape of the filet), dredged lightly in a seasoned, coarse, stone-ground local flour, from the Blew family of Oak Grove Mills Mills, that I had purchased in the Union Square Greenmarket, then dipped into a mixture of one beaten Americauna chicken egg from Millport Dairy Farm into which a cup of a combination of chopped Italian parsley from Keith’s Farm and ‘blue licorice’ (agastache rugosa, aka Korean mint or Indian mint) from Lani’s Farm, before being placed in a mix of olive oil and butter (one tablespoon of each) over a medium-high flame, sautéed inside a heavy oval vintage copper pan, turning once, for a total of about 7 or 8 minutes, drizzled with juice from an organic Whole Foods Market lemon and garnished with bronze micro fennel from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• two halved tomatoes (a large yellow heirloom from Eckerton Hill Farm and a smaller red one from Norwich Meadows Farm) seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, pan-grilled, arranged on the plates, sprinkled with some torn leaves of Gotham Greens Rooftop basil from Whole Foods Market

• some incredibly sweet small white ‘freshly-dug’ new potatoes from Campo Rosso Farm, washed, scrubbing lightly, boiled in well-salted water, drained, dried in the still-warm vintage glass Pyrex pot, rolled in a little olive oil, tossed with slivers of a red scallion from Berried Treasures Farm, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, garnished with oregano buds from Norwich Meadows Farm
• the wine, a gift from an artist acquaintance, Ryan Weston Shook, who had designed its label (and that of other wines from the same winemaker), was a California (Monterey County) white, Au Jus, 2015 Monterey County Chardonnay
• the music was Handel’s 1733 masterpiece, the opera seria, ‘Orlando’, René Jacobs leading his B’Rock Baroque Orchestra Ghent, Bejun Mehta in the title role

We were anxious to find a good day for enjoying the second of the 2 racks of lamb I had gotten from Walter Adam‘s farm stall in the Union Square Greenmarket 3 months ago, although I hadn’t expected it would happen during a New York August. What made it possible was a new split-system AC that turned out to be fully up to the challenge of an oven set at almost 500º. I didn’t even work up a sweat; it was an impressive performance (referring to the unit).

At least the vegetables observed both the look and the warmth of the season (the colors were right, and only one of the 2 asked to borrow any heat at all).

• one 18-ounce rack of baby lamb from Shannon Brook Farm, trimmed (removing the ‘bark’, or skin covering the fat; cutting off all excess fat; ‘Frenching’, conservatively, and cleaning the ribs of all meat and fat; removing the rubbery tendon that runs along the spine; cutting out the chine altogether), cut into two 4-rib sections, seasoned generously with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper and the oven lit and set to 475º (reduced to 375º once the lamb was put into the oven), one tablespoon of olive oil heated inside a small heavy, enameled cast iron pan until hot but not smoking, the lamb placed inside to brown, the arced, bone side down first, followed by all the other surfaces in turn, for about one minute per side, removed and all sides but the ends rolled in a shallow bowl which held a mixture of one fourth of a cup of whole yellow mustard seeds [less than 2 tablespoons would actually be enough] and 2 teaspoons of Sicilian fennel seeds, both toasted together inside a large vintage seasoned cast iron skillet over medium heat until they had become fragrant, at which time they were immediately transferred to the bowl in which the lamb was to be rolled, in order to cool slightly, the meat now returned to the pan in which it had been seared, from which most of the fat had been poured out, transferred to the oven (now set at 375º), roasted until a thermometer inserted into the center of the lamb registered 135º, or medium-rare, or roughly 20 minutes [I left them in the oven a bit too long this time, although there was still some red when they were first set onto the cutting surface], removed from the oven and the pan, allowed to stand at least 10 minutes, each of the 2 sections cut into double chops, arranged on the plates and drizzled with Whole Foods Market house Portuguese olive oil, finished with a garnish of micro red mustard from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• two ‘Opalka‘ plum, or paste tomatoes from Eckerton Hill Farm, halved, dried thoroughly, placed cut side down on a plate sprinkled with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, pan-grilled and finished with a dab of olive oil and a bit of balsamic vinegar,
• more puntarelle, or cicoria di catalogna, from the tied bundle I’d purchased from Tamarack Hollow Farm, prepared as they had been the first time, meaning thoroughly washed, the leaves separated and placed inside a large bowl of ice water where they were allowed to sit outside the refrigerator for about an hour, or a little more, drained and dried (using a kitchen towel), placed inside the now emptied and dried bowl, and some of the vinegar mixture that was prepared but not used a few days earlier poured over it, the greens seasoned very lightly with sea salt, and a tablespoon or so of olive oil added, along with freshly-ground black pepper, the salad mixed or tossed at the last minute and arranged on the plates
• the wine was a California (El Dorado) red, Matt Parish Pilot Hill Gang El Dorado County Red Blend 2016, from Naked Wines
• the music was Haydn’s ‘Die Jahreszeiten’ (The Seasons), Philippe Herreweghe conducting the Orchestre des Champs-Elysees and the Collegium Vocale Gent

It was all good. It also wasn’t really breakfast time any more, by the time we enjoyed it, even in the terms of our own late-eating habits.

• from Millport Dairy Farm there was thick bacon and Americauna chicken eggs (with thinly-sliced new shallot stems from Tamarack Hollow Farm, fresh oregano buds from Norwich Meadows Farm, and bronze micro fennel from Two Guys from Woodbridge, home-dried habanada pepper and fresh oregano buds from Norwich Meadows Farm; there was also a mix of small tomatoes from Alewife Farm with sliced red scallions from Berried Treasures Farm and Gotham Greens Rooftop basil from Whole Foods, and, finally, lightly-toasted slices of 2 different breads (polenta boule and twelve Grain & Seed bread, both from Bread Alone
• our Sunday music was the album, ‘In Paradisum, The Music of Victoria and Palestrina‘, performed by the Hilliard Ensemble