I don’t really know what was inside the pasta other than shrimp, since Buon Italia didn’t include a list of the ingredients on the package, only on the shelf, and I didn’t realize that until I arrived home.  I’m going to try to remember to look the next time I’m there.

• prezzamolata di gamberi from Buon Italia, with a sauce of thinly-sliced garlic from Norwich Meadows Farm heated in olive oil, one tiny fresh red pepper from Roots to River Farm, finely-chopped, ‘Mountain Magic’ cherry tomatoes from Norwich Meadows Farm, salt, pepper, and chopped Tarragon from Stokes Farm

 

The dessert was a small plate of fruit and cheese.

• two Bartlett pears from Locust Grove Fruit Farm, and thin slices of  ‘Barden Blue’ and ‘Rupert, from Consider Bardwell, both cow cheeses
• the wine was a California (Central Valley) white, JC van Staden Pinot Grigio 2014
• the music, streamed on Spotify, included a good part of violinist/composer Todd Reynolds’ 2CD composite album, ‘Outerborough‘, which features a number of genre-crossing composers

We hadn’t eaten meat in 9 days, although that was certainly no hardship for us.  After enjoying a small duck breast, from Long Island or Pennsylvania, on October 22, we had feasted, in succession on Long Island eel; ‘Hudson River prawns’; zucchini-filled pasta made 2 blocks away; penne with local Romanesco; and New York-local-waters-sourced mackerel, crab cakes, scallops and Grey Triggerfish.

We broke our inadvertent fast last night with some delicious pork chops from upstate NY.  The duck and pork recipes have been among my favorites for a long time, but I’ve added some new choice ones from among the meals which those two dinners bracketed.

• two 8-ounce bone-in loin pork chops from Flying Pig Farms, thoroughly dried, seasoned with salt and pepper, seared quickly in a heavy enameled cast-iron pan before half of an organic lemon was squeezed over them and left in the pan, which was then placed in a 400º oven for about 14 minutes (flipped halfway through and the lemon squeezed over them once again), removed from the oven, sprinkled with chopped tarragon from Stokes Farm, and the pan juices spooned over the top
• eight ‘Mountain Magic’ tomatoes from Norwich Meadows Farm, added to the pan in which the chops had roasted after they had been removed, stirred in the juices until warm, seasoned with salt and pepper, sprinkled with Gotham Greens Rooftop packaged basil from Whole Foods
• Brussels sproutsfrom Van Houton Farms, tossed with salt, pepper, and some olive oil, and roasted in a 400º oven for about half an hour
• the wine was a California (Napa) white, Matthew Iaconis Napa Valley Chardonnay 2014 (in a Burgundy style, it’s Matt’s wine, and it comes from Naked Wines)
• the music was Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9, Claudio Abbado leading the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, only months before the conductor’s death

Nice picture.

This was also just about a perfect meal, for the cook and the diner, but to be totally honest, I have to quickly add that it gets that salute only by the standards and means of a modest kitchen and a quite-ordinary competence.

Also, it was the child of necessity, or more exactly, the happy outcome of a glitch in plans which is not unusual. On my trip to the Greenmarket on Friday I was disappointed once again in not finding John Dory fillets (they had sold out much earlier).  I’ve become accustomed to the need for adjusting to whatever might be available in the fish stalls (or those of any other venders) at the time I arrive, which is often well past the hour when the most [exciting?] fish may have been scooped up by its fans.

When I stopped by Pura Vida Fisheries this Friday at about 1:30 in the afternoon, Paul suggested triggerfish fillet.  I don’t think I had ever eaten it before, and I’m certain I hadn’t cooked it.  Apparently even the Grey triggerfish is somewhat rare this far north.  Perhaps because its habitat is along rocks along the shore, where it dines on shellfish (yum!), it’s not really fished commercially, but this is the time of year it’s most likely to be found, usually by anglers.

But then we both noticed that there were only two left inside the pan resting on the the ice, and they turned out to weigh only about 8 ounces altogether.  I decided that wasn’t quite enough for the two of us at dinner, so I added 6 large sea scallops to my ‘catch’, and added it to the fillets already on ice inside my insulated bag. I would sort out the menu later.

The meal I assembled, of two courses, each featuring some great seafood, was otherwise very minimal in both outline and execution, allowing the quality of some very fresh ingredients to star without any distractions.

There was another first last night:  I used my new [previously-owned] tin-lined copper au gratin pan for the very first time, employing it here to sauté the Triggerfish fillets.  I have never cooked with copper pans, and I didn’t buy it for display (I leave that to the seasoned-polished cast iron).  I loved the copper thing, finding it, at least in this outing, most remarkable for the speed with which it heated.

• six sea scallops from Pura Vida Fisheries, rinsed, dried, slit almost all of the way through horizontally, where they were stuffed with a mixture of 6 leaves of Gotham Greens Rooftop packaged basil from Whole Foods, one medium-size clove of garlic from Norwich Meadows Farm, salt, and pepper, all of which was chopped together very finely before enough olive oil to form a paste was added, the stuffed scallops then rolled around on a plate with a little more olive oil, pan grilled about 2 minutes on each side, removed to plates, lemon juice and olive oil drizzled over the top
• eight very ripe, very sweet cherry tomatoes from Stokes Farm, washed, dried, halved, heated for a minute in a small, low, ancient Pyrex bluish-glass pan, seasoned with salt and pepper, added to the plates with the scallops

While Scallops are a familiar presence on our table, the Grey Triggerfish doesn’t even make it to our fisher-owned market stands very often, but now I know that it’s a great treat when it does.  I wrote above that this fish hangs out around rocks, and so, in addition to a great texture unlike anything else I can think of, it has an attractive, quite subtle, rather sweet taste, with a finish suggesting crustaceans.  It does indeed. Lovely.

Because it involved no elaborate preparation, the second seafood course followed the first with a minimum of delay. Nice.

I ended up inventing a recipe for the Triggerfish myself, because I had found nothing useful in any of my cookbooks, in my files, or anywhere on line.

• two 4-ounce fillets of Triggerfish from Pura Vida Fisheries, rinsed, dried, seasoned with salt and freshly-ground black pepper, sautéed in olive oil over medium-high heat for only about 90 seconds on each side, removed to warm plates, drizzled with a little fresh lemon, sprinkled with chopped lovage from from Tamarack Farm and drizzled also with olive oil and/or the oil remaining in [yes, here the tin-lined copper!] pan
• the most delicious, juiciest cavalo nero, or lacinato kale, that I’ve ever tasted, from Tamarack Farm, braised with olive oil and one split clove of garlic from Norwich Meadows Farm, which had previously been barely colored in the oil
• the wine was a Spanish (Vallalodid) white, Vevi Rueda 2014
• the music was the entirety of ‘Barbary Coast‘, Red Light New Music’s wonderful first album

 

The dinner was something of a improvisation for that evening, using ingredients I had just found hanging around the kitchen (except perhaps for one very deliberate move, ahead of time, to defrost some frozen crab cakes).  That may explain why, in the end, there was a lot going on with this entrée, but it was pretty tasty nevertheless.

• two crab cakes from PE & DD Seafood (ingredients: crab, egg, flour, red & green peppers, garlic, salt, pepper, breadcrumbs, mayonnaise, milk, celery, parsley), heated in a heavy iron pan, 3 to 4 minutes to each side, sprinkled with fresh fennel seed from Lani’s Farm, and drizzled with a little olive oil, served on a bed of three different colors of heirloom tomatoes from Berried Treasures, chopped, which were combined with salt, ground black pepper, part of one tiny, finely-chopped fresh hot red pepper from Roots to River Farm, and chopped fresh oregano leaves from from Rise & Root Farm
• one medium radicchio from Lucky Dog Organic Farm, quartered lengthwise, placed in an unglazed ceramic oven pan, drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper, roasted at 400º for about 12 minutes, turning once, finished with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, and scattered with shavings of Red Cow Parmesan cheese from Eataly
• portions of the core of the three small Romanesco broccoli we had enjoyed two nights ago, along with sections of their upper cores, sautéed – in steps – in olive oil (along with two small squashed cloves of garlic from Norwich Meadows Farm, which had earlier begun to turn brown), until the vegetable was tender, seasoned with salt and pepper, a small amount of water added and then emulsified with the remaining oil
• the wine was a Slovenian (Vipava) white, Guerila Vipavska Dolina Pinela 2012, from Appellation Wines & Spirits
• the music* was, in succession, an August Klughardt piano quintet from 1884, several pieces by Pascal Dusapin, including an extraordinary virtuoso trombone concerto, ‘Concerto for Trombone “Watt” ‘, and some amazing piano pieces of Franz Liszt (the very modern, ‘Nocturne for Piano, S 203 “Schlaflos, Frage und Antwort”‘ was a huge surprise to me), performed brilliantly by Andre Watts  for the evening

*Note: If you click onto this link, and if you have a Spotify account, you can see our entire playlist for the evening.

 

We’re both very fond of Mackerel, even when we are unable to bring it home.  It’s become a very popular fish on our table, so popular that I’m going to have to come up with more alternatives to this excellent, and very simple Sicilian-inspired recipe from Michael White.

 

• ten small Boston mackerel fillets from Blue Moon Fish Company, washed, dried, brushed with olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, pan grilled over high heat for six minutes or so, turning once, transferred onto two plates and completed with a very simple salsa of halved small red cherry tomatoes from Stokes Farm completed minutes before starting the fish, a mix of olive oil, salted capers which had been rinsed and drained, some finely-sliced fresh garlic from Norwich Meadows Farm, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and a bit of finely-chopped hot peppers from several greenmarket farms
• two small Japanese eggplants from Lani’s Farm, split lengthwise, scored, brushed with a mixture of oil, finely-chopped early garlic from Norwich Meadows Farm, and fresh oregano from from Rise & Root Farm, then seasoned with salt and pepper and briefly (they were very small) pan-grilled, turning once
• some fennel stems, left in the crisper after I had roasted the bulb a few day ago, trimmed, rolled in a little olive oil, salt, pepper, finely-minced garlic, pan-grilled until tender, then tossed with fennel fronds and torn peppermint leaves from Phillips Farm
• the wine was an Italian (Sardinia) white, La Cala Vermentino di Sardegna 2013
• the music was from streaming Q2, and included Arvo Pärt’s ‘Tabula Rasa’, as well as the Finnish composer Jaakko Mäntyjärvi‘s remarkable, ‘Canticum Calamitatis Maritimae‘

I’ve decided to call it, or at least file it under ‘broccoli’, rather than ‘cauliflower’, but it doesn’t really matter what I call it. Romanesco is very beautiful, and very tasty.

I think most people, when they first come across a head of this vegetable, have trouble believing it’s actually a natural form (in this image it looks quite unreal, or at the very least, magnified a zillion times). I think that was also my own experience, but once I was convinced there was nothing fake about them, I’ve found it difficult to avoid taking one home whenever I see them.   The food photographer Laura Anderson has described Romanesco as “The helical cruciferous vegetable, which looks like the lovechild of cauliflower and broccoli with some alien DNA thrown in…”.

Also, we note that it’s definitely chartreuse, a color which is not actually that common in the vegetable world.

a gathering of small Romanesco on the table at Lucky Dog Organic Farm

 

The recipe (which I halved) on which I based the meal was published in New York magazine over ten years ago, and it was attributed to Sara Jenkins; the source of the ingredients is described below.  I improvised by adding some diced fresh hot peppers.

• three very small heads (they were pretty cute) of Romanesco broccoli from from Lucky Dog Organic Farm, two small heads of garlic from Norwich Meadows Farm, a handful of Kalamata olives, a few capers, one salted anchovy fillet from Buon Italia, 9 ounces of Afeltra Penna Rigata from Eataly, a few tablespoons of bread crumbs I made in my kitchen, and a surprising amount of finely-chopped hot peppers, of various hues, from several greenmarket farmers
• the wine was an Italian (Tuscany) white, Villa Antinori Toscana 2014
• the music was Q2 Music streaming, specifically, ‘Generation XYZ: 24-Hour Marathon of Composers Age 40 and Under‘, which the station had repeated

I love zucchini flowers, but I refuse to do any deep frying at home, so most of the time I have to sit on the sidelines when I encounter the ingredient in a market.  That’s why I was so excited last week when I came across Luca Donofrio latest fresh pasta innovation at Eataly, fiori di zucca-filled ravioli. I had to put off a purchase that day, but resolved to return when I did not already have a commitment to ingredients for a different meal.

Late Sunday afternoon I braved the crowds of tourists (and home cooks) inside that spectacularly successful food emporium, and managed to bag (box) some of the pasta.

I didn’t want to upstage the star ingredient, so I thought seriously about how I would ‘dress’ the pasta with a sauce. Most of the decision was made as soon as I spotted a very small plastic bag inside of our refrigerator of what I believed were two ‘yum yum’ peppers.  I had thought they had disappeared earlier within a mix of tiny parti-colored bell peppers.  If they actually were yum yums, they were the peppers the young man at the Union Square market stall had described as sweetly flavorful, but when I tasted a tiny sliver of one, raw, I decided they should not be added without some caution (they were far more hot than sweet, at least until introduced into the sauce and the ravioli, but they were certainly flavorful.  They made the dish far more sophisticated than it would have been otherwise, and the taste of the fiori di zucca survived.

You never know about peppers, I’ve learned, or at least I never know about peppers.

NOTE: The image above does not include the freshly-ground black pepper and grated Parmesan cheese added to the top of the pasta after we had tasted the dish, and after I snapped the picture.

• twelve ounces of fiori di zucca-filled ravioli from Eataly and a sauce which began in a shallow pan with olive oil, sliced garlic from Norwich Meadows Farm which was warmed in the oil, finely-chopped yum yum peppers from Berried Treasures Farm added just before the vessel was removed from the heat, and fresh oregano from Rise & Root Farm (Union Square Greenmarket) added before the cooked, drained pasta was turned into the sauce pan, where some of the reserved pasta water was added and emulsified, the mix arranged in two bowls and minutes later sprinkled with freshly-grated Red Cow Parmesan cheese from Eataly
• the wine was an Italian (Tuscany) white, San Quirico Vernaccia di San Gimignano 2014
• the music was Jean-Philippe Rameau’s ‘Dardanus’, performed by Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre, Choeur des Musiciens du Louvre

Our prawns may not have come dressed in elegant long claws, but they had excellent taste.

I expected the shrimp would taste very fresh, and they definitely did.  On the other hand, I expected that, because of the circumstances of their origin, they might lack the complicated flavors of shrimp harvested in the wild.  I was wrong; these jumbo Hudson Valley shrimp from Eco Shrimp Garden in the Union Square Greenmarket were intense, and absolutely delicious.  The recipe itself was a major player, in spite of, or because of its very elegant simplicity.

For almost 20 years, or ever since I first opened my first, and the original River Cafe cookbook, ‘Rogers Gray Italian Country Cookbook’, I had only been able to dream of assembling one particular recipe I had found there, ‘Mazzancole ai Ferri‘, or, ‘Grilled Langoustine with Fennel and Chile Sauce’ (I was even dazzled by the photograph on the facing page, although it was a black and white image). At first the obstacle was that I had no idea where I was going to find Langoustine in New York City, and even when they began to appear in upscale fish shops years later, I couldn’t bring myself to pay the price, which was always something like $35 a pound.

Enter Hudson Valley shrimp, or rather, Eco Shrimp Garden.  Two weeks ago I began to realize that with a little tweaking of the recipe, I might be able to reproduce the Rogers and Gray dish without destroying our food budget. At the Greenmarket on Friday I picked up ten rather large, translucent, and very beautiful, whole ‘Pacific White’ jumbo shrimp.  They had spent their entire lives in an indoor saltwater facility near the Hudson River, in Newburgh, New York.   On the previous Friday I had learned about the process which had brought them there, had wondered at the ingenuity and the industry of its authors, and was impressed with the clean minimalism of their presentation in the market.

 

The shrimp almost looked as if they were still alive and possibly only in shock at the change in their environment. They had been taken out of their tank early that morning, and of course, they had not been frozen.  Only later at home, while weighing the cooking possibilities, and after I had opened the blue-dust-jacketed book to page 204 and the simple recipe which had eluded me for so long did I notice that the major ingredient was described as, “5 to 6 medium langoustines or large shrimp [my  italics] per person”.

Mazzancolle ai Feri at home?  I was on it.

• ten large, fresh, whole Pacific White jumbo shrimp from ECO Shrimp Garden in Newburgh, New York, purchased in the Greenmarket, grilled for two or three minutes on each side in a pan over a very hot flame, and served with a superb – and superbly simple – sauce composed of chopped fennel stems and fennel fronds, from Norwich Meadows Farm; parts of one tiny red and and one tiny yellow hot pepper from Roots to River Farm (found at the Saturday Chelsea’s Down to Earth Farmers Market on 23rd St.), chopped, after the seeds and membranes were removed; and some lemon juice, all of these ingredients mixed, left alone for 10 minutes or so before adding enough olive oil to make the mix spreadable, then salt and pepper, the grilled shrimp then drizzled with a little lemon juice and arranged with the sauce on two plates, lemon quarters on the side
• one medium fennel bulb from Norwich Meadows Farm, the core removed, cut into 8 wedges, tossed in a bowl with olive oil; three crushed garlic cloves from Norwich Meadows Farm; a handful of thyme sprigs from Phillips Farm; part of one dried peperoncino, crushed; salt; and pepper, then spread onto a ceramic oven pan, roasted at 425º, turning once, at which time a handful of pitted and halved Gaeta olives were tossed onto the pan
• multi-colored small bell peppers from Berried Treasures Farm, halved or quartered, seeds and membranes removed, sautéed over a high flame until slightly carmelized, finished in the pan with the addition of oregano leaves from Rise & Root Farm in the Union Square Greenmarket (Saturday was their last day there until spring) and balsamic vinegar
• the wine was an Italian (Sicily) white, Colle del Mandorlo bianco Terre Siciliane 2013 from Feudo Montini, purchased from Appellation Wine and Spirits 
• the music was ‘Music at the Habsburg Court‘, works of Johann Heinrich Schmelzer and Johann Joseph Fux, Nikolaus Harnoncourt & Concentus musicus Wien

No one should have to wait to enjoy eel until christmas, especially if she or he isn’t really Italian, and doesn’t believe in christmas.  I was almost beside myself when I spotted eel at the Pura Vida Fisheries stand in the Union Square Greenmarket today.  It had been so long since I had last prepared it at home that, as I learned later, that it didn’t show up in this, my more-than six-year-old food blog. I had already picked up a bag of very fresh shrimp from Eco Shrimp Garden, some one hundred feet north of the shallow bucket of eel, but I was quickly reassured by all parties involved in my [gentleman’s] fishing expedition in the Greenmarket that the shrimp, perhaps more so than the eel, could wait another day.

In the past when I had cooked eel, I had stressed out over how I would prepare this exceptional fish, but I decided this time early on that I would go for the simplest preparation possible.  That meant Antonio and Priscilla Carluccio’s version of  ‘Anguilla alla Luciana, a recipe from Naples (thus explaining the meal’s wine pairing) which appears in what I consider the absolutely indispensable, ‘Carluccio’s Complete Italian Food‘.  Of course my decision was not in the least prejudiced by my fulsome affection for bay leaves in virtually any application.

Although I might have liked to finally use the ancient Rhode Island eel fork leaning in the corner by our table to catch it, modern urban civilization [New York City] meant that it wasn’t necessary.  My fish dealer had also skinned and cleaned the Anguilliform, an immensely valuable service, from what I understand.

 

 

The fish was incredibly delicious (and, for those who might still be wondering, there was absolutely no yuck or yecch quotient).

• a one-pound skinned and cleaned eel From Pura Vida Fisheries,, cut into three-inch segments and placed, or layered, inside a ceramic baking dish, accompanied by a large number of [ideally fresh] bay leaves and sprinklings of sea salt, placed in a hot, 400º oven for about 30 to 40 minutes, then removed and drizzled with a very little bit of fresh lemon juice and a bit more olive oil
• a few small red new potatoes from Norwich Meadows Farm and a handful of very red radishes, also from Norwich Meadows Farm, each one halved, tossed in olive oil, salt, pepper, and sprigs of thyme from Phillips Farm, roasted on a ceramic pan for about 30 minutes, removed and sprinkled with more (now chopped) thyme leaves
• one very small San Michele cabbage (an Italian Savoy) from Tamarack Hollow Farm, sliced fairly thinly, sautéed in olive oil along with segments of one very small leek from Ryder Farm, removed from the heat, seasoned with salt and pepper and tossed with fresh fennel seeds from Lani’s Farm
• the wine was an Italian (Campania) white, Falanghina Feudi di San Gregorio 2014
• the music was from the Harmonia Mundi album, ‘Venezia 1625‘

 

There was also a cheese and fruit course, with its own twist.  It was not the cheese that was out of the ordinary, at least for me, but the fruit, which I was told by Richard Giles, the Delaware County farmer, was a wild New York grape, one which had not yet learned to be sweet, but they were sure pretty. For anyone interested in such things, each grape contained a single (normal-size seed);  it wasn’t a problem for me, because I alway eat the seeds, even though, until today, I did not know that they were very good for you.

• ‘Rupert’ cow cheese from Consider Bardwell Farm
• ‘Brebis Blanc’ soft (but now hardening) sheep cheese from 3-Corner Field Farm, sprinkled with some chopped thyme from Phillips Farm, the herb remaining from the roasted vegetables
• tiny wild black grapes form Lucky Dog Organic Farm

It looks like winter.

I had no misgivings tonight about lighting the oven to roast the turnips, in spite of the fact that earlier, while we were walking around the far west side near the Hudson, I had complained about mugginess.

Cool evenings: They’re one of the perks of the season.

This meal almost duplicated one I noticed I had put together this past March, but then I guess that sort of thing is inevitable after doing this blog for more than five and a half years.

But I think this time it tasted even better.

• one small duck breast from Pat LaFrieda at Eataly, the fatty side scored with cross-hatching, covered with a mixture of salt, pepper and a bit of turbinato sugar which had been infused over time with a vanilla bean, the breast left standing for about half an hour before it was pan-fried, and finished with lemon, sprinkled with chopped tarragon from Stokes Farm, and drizzled with a bit of olive oil
• Hakurei turnips from Norwich Meadows Farm, cut into half-inch-thick slices, tossed with oil, salt, and pepper, then roasted in an unglazed ceramic pan for 30 minutes at 425º, a small leek from Ryder Farm, sliced in half-inch segments, added half-way through
• several leaves of a small San Michele cabbage (an Italian Savoy) from Tamarack Hollow Farm, layered together on a board and sliced very thinly, then tossed with salt, pepper, and three flattened juniper berries, sautéed in a little butter over medium high heat, stirring occasionally, until the leaves were tender and had begun to brown and (hopefully) crisp slightly at the edges, a drizzle of balsamic vinegar added and the cabbage heated briefly, finished with chopped parsley from Stokes Farm
• the wine was a California (Amador) red, S & A Portuguese-style red wine Amador County 2013, made with Touriga Nacional and Tinto Roriz (aka Tempranillo) grapes
• the music was two clarinet quartets by Franz Anton Hofmeister, No. 1, in A major, and No. 2, in B flat major