I’d never cooked with burdock before, and I’m not certain I did the right thing with it last night, but it was interesting. The ‘chips’ proved to be a little more difficult to get right than all the other roots I’ve prepared this way. I’m just going to have to do more research before I try out this operation again.

The image of freshly-cut burdock root seen below seems to suggest that Willow Wisp Farm, while it’s located (just inside) northeastern Pennsylvania, may be a part of the ‘Black Dirt Region’ conventionally associated with New York’s Rockland County and New Jersey’s Sussex County. I’m going to try to remember to ask Greg Swartz, the farmer, next time I stop by his stand in the Greenmarket.

• one 14-ounce tuna steak from Pure Vida Seafood, rinsed, dried, cut into 2 pieces, the ‘tails’ the cut created pinned back onto the rest of the steak sections with toothpicks, seasoned on both sides with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, then rubbed, tops and bottoms, with a mixture of a tablespoon of a wonderful dry Sicilian fennel seed from Buon Italia that had been crushed in a mortar and pestle along with a little dried peperoncino Calabresi secchi from Buon Italia, pan-grilled above a medium-high flame (for only a little more than a minute or so on each side), finished on the plates with a good squeeze of the juice of an organic lemon from Whole Foods Market, finished with a bit of olive oil drizzled on top, some micro red amaranth from Windfall Farms arranged at one end
• two burdock roots from Willow Wisp Farm (20 ounces before trimming), scrubbed clean and surfaces scraped with a knife, their roots cut into thin rounds tossing them, as they accumulate, into a bowl of cold water in which some lemon juice had been squeezed (in order to keep the now-exposed surfaces of the roots from discoloring), drained when all had been cut, dried on a kitchen towel before being placed inside a dry bowl and tossed with a couple tablespoons of olive oil, sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper, and 2 small pieces of dried orange/golden habanada pepper, crushed finely, the chips arranged, separated from each other, inside 2 seasoned ceramic Pampered Chef pans and roasted at 450º for about half an hour, depending on their thickness, until they were at least a bit crunchy
• one tablespoon or more of olive oil was heated over medium heat inside a high-sided heavy antique copper pan, then one sliced stem of spring garlic from John D. Madura Farm added, along with 2 small dried peperoncino Calabresi secchi, and a quarter to a half teaspoon of whole coriander seeds, the small mix cooked for about 30 seconds to a minute, or until the garlic was both slightly softened and becoming fragrant, the heat turned down to low and 10 ounces of loose baby rainbow chard from Alewife Farm gradually added and stirred until wilted, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-chopped pepper, and arranged on the plates to be finished with a little olive oil
• the wine was a California (Lodi) rosé, Karen Birmingham Sangiovese Rosé Lodi 2017, from Naked Wines
• the music was the album, ‘Melomania – String Quartets By Women Composers’

At the time I had decided, for a couple of reasons, not to do a post about the dinner in they had appeared last week, but these locally-foraged wild mushrooms are so gorgeous that I’ve decided I had to at least publish an image of them, as they looked in the Greenmarket before I brought half a pound of them home with me.

They’re called ‘pheasant back’ [Lat. cerioporus squamosus], but they’re also known as ‘dryad’s saddle or ‘hawk’s wing’, and all of these names seem appropriate.  Until I saw them on a table at the Windfall Farms stand in the Union Square Greenmarket on Wednesday I had never heard of them. While there I also snapped this picture of another wild mushroom, one which I didn’t buy that day, but which I’d cooked before, the ‘wine cap’ [Lat. stropharia rugosoannulata], a name that seems equally as right as that of its neighbor on the table.

This isn’t my regular lunch, but I would like to make it pretty regular, especially because both the ‘bread’ and the green were celebrating spring foraging by including 2 different wild green things.

• one delicious individual ramp and Asiago cheese focaccia from a wonderful bakery institution with wonderful breads reflecting many different cultural traditions, Hot Bread Kitchen
• a handful of wild dandelion from Berried Treasures dressed with some Frankies Sicilian olive oil, Maldon salt, and freshly-ground black pepper
• the music was Counterstream radio/New Music USA, streaming

I was about to write that this quick pasta dish with many local ingredients also happens to be vegan, but then I remembered that the excellent NYC spaccatelli around which it was assembled included an unusual, local, ingredient, Asbury NJ buffalo milk.

The other remarkable thing about this dish is what appears, from the picture, to be a very generous amount of toasted pine nuts; their numbers are actually something of an optical illusion, and they’re only lying on the very top.  I can’t deny however, since the market price for this delicious Italian ingredient varies a great deal, that I’ve always been at least a little sensitive to those fluctuations when I’m deciding whether I’m going to use them in a dish, and how many.

• two sliced spring garlic stems from John D. Madura Farm on Long Island and 2 whole dried peperoncini Calabresi secchia from Buon Italia heated in a tablespoon or so of Whole Foods Market house Portuguese olive oil inside a large, heavy, antique high-sided copper pan over moderate heat, stirring, until the garlic had softened, the zest from a whole organic California lemon from Whole Foods Market mixed in, followed by stirring in half of a one-pound package of New York City pasta, Sfoglini‘s spaccatelli (local organic durum semolina and organic hard red wheat flour, New Jersey Riverine Ranch water buffalo milk, local water), picked up at the water buffalo farmer’s stall in the Union Square Greenmarket, that had just finished cooking until barely al dente, before 1/4 of a cup of reserved pasta cooking water was added to the pan and cooked over moderately low heat, tossing until combined well and the sauce had emulsified, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, then, after the heat was turned off, most of 2 handfuls of tender red baby mustard from Lani’s Farm in New Jersey tossed in and around at the last moment, just before the pasta left the pan and was arranged in shallow bowls, where the remaining mustard was added around the edges, some toasted pine nuts, or pinoli [I’ve always thought they were from northern Italy, from a weather-vulnerable monoculture, which allowed me to understand the wild price changes, and for the purpose of this post, I’m going to assume these were, although I don’t really know, and now it seems unlikely to me] tossed on top, finished with a bit of olive oil drizzled around the outside of the pasta
• the wine was a Portuguese (Lisbon) white, Dory Branco 2016, from Garnet Wines    
• the music was the Anna Thorvaldsdottir album, ‘In the Light of Air’, performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE)

Fortunately the outside temperature was in the low 50’s all evening, because everything in this meal was cooked inside a pretty hot oven.

The more ecocentric part was that all 3 were inside the stove at the same time, cooking at exactly the same temperature.

The steak was delicious, juicy, and of a good modest portion; the potato cultivar potatoes was new to us, and a real treat; the asparagus was, well.., asparagus, especially as it was keeping company with ramps and thyme.

• two 100% grass-fed 6-ounce tri-tip steaks from Greg and Mike at the Sun Fed Beef/Maple Avenue Farms stall in the Union Square Greenmarket, brought to room temperature, dried, seasoned with freshly-ground black pepper, seared on both sides inside a smaller oval enameled cast iron pan, sprinkled with sea salt, then roasted in a 425-450º oven for 6 or 7 minutes, or, advisedly, until just beyond medium-rare with this cut, removed to 2 plates, where they were allowed to rest for a few minutes after a bit of juice from an organic Whole Foods Market lemon had been squeezed over the top, plus some sliced spring garlic from from Norwich Meadows Farm and chopped lovage from Two Guys from Woodbridge, ending with a drizzle of olive oil

• a few ‘pink pearl potatoes’ (10 ounces) from Berried Treasures Farm, halved lengthwise, tossed with a little olive oil, sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper, fresh pineapple sage (salvia elegans) leaves from Stokes Farm, and a small amount of crushed golden/orange home-dried habanada pepper, arranged cut side down on a medium Pampered Chef unglazed ceramic pan, roasted inside the same 425-450º oven for 20-25 minutes, arranged on the plates accompanied by some beautiful micro red mustard from Two Guys from Woodbridge

• eighteen or so fairly thick asparagus spears from John D. Madura Farm, plus the white sections (the green leaves were removed) of 10 or so young ramps from Lucky Dog Organic Farm, a handful of thyme branches from Stokes Farm, a little more than a tablespoon of olive oil, a little sea salt, and a bit of freshly-ground black pepper, all rolled along the surface of a large Pampered Chef unglazed ceramic pan, which was placed at the bottom of the hot oven for about 20 to 25 minutes, with, near the end of that time, the reserved green ramp leaves, roughly-sliced, thrown onto the top and, with a wooden spatula, pushed around the asparagus and ramp bulbs a little before they had quite finished cooking, the vegetables removed to the plates and drizzled with 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 the album, ‘Charles Wuorinen: Chamber Music For Violin, Piano And Harpsichord’ 

Yesterday I had come across a particularly fetching photograph of a Strammer Max (if you’re fond of eggs, there are actually many fetching photographs), so today I decided to essay this German breakfast classic for the first time, substituting its ham and eggs approach for our usual Sunday bacon and eggs (which always boasts a number of extras, both rotating and new). Both versions include toast, but the German tradition is much more straightforward (or ‘plain’? I promised myself not to say more bland) than my own embellishment of the classic American formula, meaning it eschews almost all of the varying herbs, spices, and seasonings that I usually add to the basic bacon and eggs thing, to keep it exciting week after week.

I still couldn’t just leave it alone, so today I added some chopped Frühlings-Knoblauch (Eng. spring garlic), and wilder Löwenzahn (Eng. wild dandelion), neither unknown in German lands, but perhaps not normally a part of Strammer Max, in addition to the very German Petersilien (Eng. parsley).

Even though I expect to be manipulating this simple Rezept beyond recognition on future Sundays, when it’s likely to evolve into something neither German nor American, but certainly at least a little ‘brown’, I’m going to remember the original inspiration.

Note: this Sunday mid-day meal is almost always both breakfast and lunch for us, and it’s followed only by dinner.

• four thick slices of Twelve Grain & Seed bread from Bread Alone, fried on both sides in several tablespoons of butter inside a large (13 1/4″) seasoned, cast iron pan and removed to a warm oven, a little more butter added to the pan and 6 Americauna chicken eggs from Millport Dairy Farm cracked into it and fried until their whites had almost not set, while at the same time 6 thin slices of smoked Whole Foods Market ham, that had first been brought to room temperature, were placed on top of the browned bread (2 ham slices on 2 of the bread slices, and one laid across half of each of the 2 other pieces), some torn wild cress arranged on top of the other halves of those pieces, the cooked eggs arranged on top of the ham, 2 eggs on each of 2 of the pieces, one on each of the other 2
• there were small cups of horseradish pickles from Millport Dairy Farm at the sides of the plates, a touch that was definitely more German than American – or even Wagnerian.
• the music was Francesco Feo’s 1734 (ca.) oratorio, ‘San Francesco di Sales’, Fabio Biondi conducting the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester

It was a pink interlude between a meal of white fish and one of red meat (to come on Sunday). I would have prepared a pasta dish on Saturday, except that I’ve managed to accumulate a few green vegetables that really would work better with a fish or meat entrée than with a pasta.

• one fifteen-ounce fillet of previously-frozen Pacific coho salmon from Chelsea Whole Foods Market, rinsed, the skin removed by the cook, seasoned on both sides with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, the former flesh side [CORRECTION: this should have read “the former skin side”, and in fact this time I incorrectly pressed the mixture on the flesh side] pressed with a mixture of ground coriander seeds, ground cloves, ground cumin, and grated nutmeg, sautéed in a little olive oil over a medium-high flame inside an heavy antique oval tin-lined copper pan over medium-high heat, the spice-coated side down, for 2 minutes or so, then turned over and cooked for another minute or 2, finished on the plate with a little squeeze of organic lemon from Whole Foods Market and a drizzle of a good olive oil, garnished with micro scallion from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• sixteen or so very small unpeeled Norland Red potatoes from Norwich Meadows Farm, scrubbed, boiled unpeeled with a generous amount of salt inside a large vintage Corning Pyrex Flameware blue-glass pot until barely cooked through, drained, dried inside the large still-warm vessel in which they had cooked, tossed with a tablespoon or so of olive oil, sprinkled with sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper, some sliced spring red onion, also from Norwich Meadows farm, and garnished with those farmers’ bronze fennel
• one bunch of tender early broccoli rabe, or rapini, from Migliorelli Farm, washed and drained several times, trimmed and very roughly chopped, and, with much of the water still clinging to the greens, wilted with olive oil inside a large enameled cast iron pot in which one large spring garlic stem had been heated in a little olive oil until softened, finished with sea salt, freshly-ground pepper, arranged on the plates and drizzled with more olive oil
• the wine was a Portuguese (Alentejo) white, Aiesoporão Reserva White 2105, from Garnet Wines
• the music was the album, ‘Eastern European piano music’, with Alexei Lubimov playing piano concertos by Gubaidulina, Ustvolskaya, Górecki, and Pelécis, Heinrich Schiff conducting the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie

While we were in the middle of this meal last night I tweeted, “omg, just discovered fish, because that’s very much what it seemed like while I was enjoying these extraordinarily delicious little fillets.

Always trust your fishmonger. When you suspect a suggestion, or at least a hint, might be on its way, don’t worry about being steered toward the less interesting or more problematic choices. Listen carefully and be prepared to go for with the counsel, even if you might have had something else in mind for dinner that night.

That’s pretty much how I picked the fish for this dinner.

I was looking over the extensive inventory at Pura Vida Seafood on Friday and, as usual, I had started making a selection by mentally dismissing any fish I saw that I had prepared recently. Then I spotted 2 unfamiliar names written with a grease pen on one of the plexiglass fish case lids: They were advertising 2 kinds of flatfish. Both looked familiar to me, but their names, ‘daylight flounder’ and ‘blackback flounder’, did not.  Of course I had to know more.

To make the story short, Paul told me that the one or two-ounce daylight flounder (more often called ‘sand dab’) fillets were both firmer and more tasty than the larger – and more costly – blackback, which I’ve learned since is also known as ‘wInter flounder’ (I haven’t been able to find ‘daylight flounder on line). I was 99% sold. My only concern was whether a portion for 2 people would fit inside a single oven pan, if I chose the smaller (and thinner) fillets. I decided I’d probably be safe if I bought only 12 ounces, so that’s where tonight’s dinner began.

Oh, yes, Paul was right about both the firmness and the flavor, and the bounty of fresh spring vegetables that I found elsewhere in the Greenmarket meant these little fillets would be at their very best that night.

The daylight flounder turned out to be a perfect fish, of its kind, and also the centerpiece of a great, great meal. While it may seem like there was a lot of fuss in the preparation of the flounder, almost all of it was for lining the pan: The fish itself needed only a breading and a brief sauté.

Even the preparation of the vegetables, fiddlehead ferns and grape tomatoes, was pretty uncomplicated.

Two important supporting players were ramps and spring red onions.

• *eight small (one and a half-ounce) ‘daylight flounder’ fillets, as they had been labeled by Paul Mendelsohn at the Pure Vida Seafood stall in the Union Square greenmarket on Friday, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground pepper on both sides, coated lightly with local whole wheat flour from the Blew family of Oak Grove Mills Mills, purchased in the market at an earlier date, submerged in a shallow bowl containing a lightly-whipped mixture of one small Americauna egg from Millport Dairy farm and a fourth of  a cup of Trickling Springs Creamery whole milk (they use glass deposit bottles!) from Whole Foods Market, and a pinch of salt, then allowed to stay in the bowl until the accompanying vegetables had been prepared, and the remaining ingredients needed in the preparation of the fish set out, the little fillets removed from the bowl at that time, placed inside a heavy rectangular enameled cast iron pan in which 3 tablespoons of butter had been melted before several large fresh pineapple sage (salvia elegans) leaves from Stokes Farm, one section of a dried, crushed orange/golden habanada pepper from Norwich Meadows Farm, and 2 sliced spring red onions from  from Norwich Meadows Farm were added, sautéed over a brisk flame until the fish was golden, less than 2 minutes on the first side, one or one and a half minutes on the second, sprinkled with the juice of an organic lemon from Whole Foods Market, transferred onto 2 plates, some micro red mustard from Two Guys from Woodbridge scattered around them
• *six or 7 ounces of fiddlehead ferns (I think they were the first in the Greenmarket this season) from Lucky Dog Organic Farm, washed vigorously in several changes of water until the brown chaff had been removed [this entertaining, slightly droll video, ‘How to quickly clean fiddleheads‘, could be pretty useful if you have a lot of fiddleheads – and more outdoor space than indoor running water], the very end of the stems cut off, blanched for 2 or 3 minutes, drained, dried, briefly sautéed with chopped ramp bulbs from Mountain Sweet Berry Farm and some chopped fresh oregano and thyme, both from Stokes Farm, and finally the ramp leaves, now sliced thinly, stirred in for 30 seconds or so, the mix seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper and finished with a squeeze of juice from a Whole Foods Market organic lemon before being arranged on the plates and drizzled with a bit of olive oil
• *a large handful of small, very sweet grape tomatoes from Kernan Farms in southern New Jersey (Friday was their first day back after this long winter), halved, tossed in olive oil, salt, pepper, a tiny drizzle of white balsamic vinegar, and a little chopped lovage from Two Guys from Woodbridge, served inside small ceramic prep bowls placed on the plates
• the wine was a Portuguese (Alentejano) white, Esporão V Verdelho 2016, from Garnet Wines

• *the music, as we were sitting at the table for some time, was actually 2 full albums, ‘Alarm Will Sound presents Modernists’ and ‘Acoustica’ by Alarm Will Sound/Aphex Twins, as a tiny memorial for Matt Marks, an amazing artist and wonderful human being, whose death was announced earlier that day

Mischling Deutsch.

Sure there was Kassler, but the meal was more ‘free’ German than ‘serienmäßig‘ German.

It was also very allium-y, spring allium-y in particular: Each of the entrée’s 3 elements included a different local mild spring ‘onion’.

The vegetables were superb; both potatoes and chard, like almost everything else, were from the Union Square Greenmarket, and so quite local.

• the chopped white sections of half a dozen ramps from Dave’s Max Creek Hatchery, the green leaves reserved for the end, softened over a low to moderate flame in a tablespoon or so of Organic Valley ‘Cultured Pasture Butter’ that had been heated inside a heavy, medium-size tin-lined copper skillet, after which two smoked 9-ounce loin pork chops from Schaller & Weber were added, the pot covered with a universal copper lid, kept above a very low flame (just enough to warm the chops through, as they were already fully-cooked), turning the meat once, then, near the end of the cooking time (I went for about 8 minutes this time), then the lamp leaves that had been set aside earlier, now sliced lengthwise, added for a minute or so, the pork removed from the skillet and arranged on 2 plates, brushed with a little horseradish jelly [!] from Berkshire Berries
• ten or 11 Pinto (or Pinto Gold) potatoes from Norwich Meadows Farm, scrubbed, boiled, unpeeled, in generously-salted water until barely cooked through, drained, halved, and dried in the still-warm vintage Corning Pyrex Flameware blue-glass pot in which they had cooked, tossed there with a bit of Portuguese house olive oil from Whole Foods Market, and a cuttings from the stem of a spring red onion, also from Norwich Meadows Farm, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, arranged on the plates, sprinkled with chopped bronze fennel, once again from Norwich Meadows Farm
• one bunch of beautiful rainbow chard from Eckerton Hill Farm, wilted in a couple tablespoons of olive oil in which 2 sliced spring garlic stems from John D Madura Farm had first been heated and slightly softened, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, finished with a little juice from an organic Whole Foods Market lemon, and, finally, a drizzle of olive oil

• the wine was a German (Rheingau) white, Rheingau Riesling Trocken, Weinhaus Ress 2016, from Astor Wines
• the music was an album of some of Valentin Silvestrov’s music for piano and orchestra, Alexei Lubimov performing at the piano, with Dennis Russell Davies conducting the Radio Symphonieorchester Wien

 

[image of Weingut Balthasar Ress Weinberge, in Hattenheim, Rheingau, from this Weinhandel site]

The swordfish was beautiful, and very fresh, as were the greens.

About that vegetable: Since there’s almost nothing to the cooking of greens, I thought I could take them pretty much for granted, and concentrate on the swordfish, and even the swordfish was also going to be prepared in a way I’ve done many times before.

The fish turned out very fine, and the greens, which were Komatsuna, a Japanese mustard spinach I’d not cooked before, tasted wonderful, but their larger stems were, well, let’s say, not easily chewed. The entire bunch, leaves and stems, had seemed very tender, but should I have stripped off the leaves on at least the larger stems? I would have had time, but it just didn’t seem necessary to me while I was chopping and washing them before their wilting, and how much vegetable would I have left after that if I did? Alternatively, Should I have just cooked them longer? I had the time to do so, since I was preparing them well before I had started to grill the swordfish, but I was thinking about spinach, which is a close relative to these greens, and I didn’t want them to reduce to almost nothing inside the pot before we had a chance to enjoy them.

Because I want there to be a next time, I’ll just have to remember what happened last night, and hope to make some kind of adjustment when I cook this delicious green again.

The swordfish looks something like a veal steak in the picture at the top, which is mostly the doing of a medium-high flame toasting my mixed assortment of homemade breadcrumbs, in which all shades of brown are represented.

But first came a marinade, which gave the steaks a very festive appearance while they were lying on the counter entertaining me for half an hour.

And at the end of their cooking there was a garnish of 2 different herbs, bronze fennel and young spring ramp leaves, but first both had to be washed and dried under a lamp on the counter, where they looked a bit like a botanical drawing.

• two swordfish steaks (9 ounces each) from American Seafood Company), caught on the fishing vessel ‘Sharon G II’, out of Montauk Harbor, halved, marinated on an ironstone platter for more than half an hour, turning once, in a mixture of olive oil, a tablespoon of fresh oregano from Stokes Farm, a small amount of crushed dried peperoncino Calabresi secchi from Buon Italia, and a chopped section of a stem of purple spring garlic from John D. Madura Farm, then drained well, covered on both sides with a coating of homemade dried breadcrumbs, pan-grilled over medium-high heat for 3 or 4 minutes on each side, or until just barely fully cooked all of the way through (think of the texture of a fresh good cheesecake as the goal), removed, seasoned with a little Maldon sea salt, a bit of juice from a Whole Foods Market organic lemon squeezed on top, garnished with chopped bronze fennel from Norwich Meadows Farm and 2 leaves of a ramp from  from Mountain Sweet Berry Farm, washed, dried, and thinly sliced, drizzled with a little Portuguese Whole Foods house olive oil
• thin slices of a loaf of Bien Cuit ‘Rye & Sunflower’, with white and dark rye, and roasted sunflower seeds, from Foragers Market
• one generous bunch of Komatsuna, a Japanese mustard spinach, washed and cut into 2-inch sections, wilted inside a large enameled cast iron pot in which one thick sliced spring garlic stem had first been softened in a couple tablespoons of olive oil, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, drizzled with lemon juice and olive oil
• the wine was a Portuguese (Alentejo) white, Esporao Alandra Branco 2016, from Garnet Wines

There was a sweet!

• a scoop of Limoncello ‘Naturally Flavored’ Italian Gelato from Whole Foods Market, served with ‘Sweet Oat Crisps‘ from Schaller & Weber 

 

• the music throughout the meal was Hans Werner Henze’s first 3 symphonies, Marek Janowski conducting the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra