Once I got going with specialness, bringing home a super shellfish appetizer from the Greenmarket (where, incidentally, seafood always wild game, except for the delicious farmed trout from Dave Harris’s Max Creek Hatchery) the idea of a main course of grilled quail (delicious, but actually almost always ‘farmed game‘, when it comes to the experiences of most of us) seemed pretty natural.

The little birds didn’t come from our local Greenmarket this time, but they did arrive from our local Eataly, via our own little local home freezer.

• six smoked scallops (a total of 7 ounces) from Pura Vida Seafood Company arranged on a shallow bed of lettuces, a combination of red leaf buttercrunch from Fledging Crow and some flat leaf red salanova lettuce from Lucky Dog Organic Farm, the greens dressed with a good Greek olive oil (Demi, from the Peloponnese, Laconia, Vellesa, a bit of Columela Rioja 30 Year Reserva sherry vinegar, some sea salt, from P.E. & D.D. Seafood, and freshly ground black pepper
• slices of a 7-grain boule from Citarella
• the wine with the scallops was a French (Savoie) white, Jean Perrier et Fils, Vin de Savoie Abymes Gastronomie 2018, from Flatiron Wines

The main course was almost as simple to assemble as the first, and equally delicious.

• four partially-boned (a tweak that’s always a treat for cooks and diners) farmed quail, weighing just over one pound together, from Buon Italia in the Chelsea Market, rinsed, dried on paper towels, rubbed with sea salt and a judicious amount of crumbled dried Itria-Sirissi chili, pepperoncino di Sardegna intero, also from Buon Italia (I don’t remember now, over a week later, whether I also included any seasoning pepper), placed breast-side-down over medium-high flames on top of a heavy 2-burner seasoned cast iron ribbed pan, a number of sprigs of fresh thyme from Keith’s Farm scattered over each, grilled for about 5 minutes, then turned over and, ensuring that the thyme branches were now resting on top of the thyme, grilled for another 5 or 6 minutes, served on the plates with a squeeze of an organic California lemon form Chelsea Whole Foods Market, and a drizzle of olive oil
• garnished with micro red kale from Windfall Farms

• thirteen and a half ounces of delicious, surprisingly sweet and tender greenhouse-grown green Romano beans/flat green pole beans from Tiogo Orchards that had been briefly parboiled inside a large stainless steel IKEA pot purchased from Peter Hoffman after his Savoy restaurant had closed, then set aside inside a bowl and, when the quail was being grilled, reheated in a cast iron pan with a little olive oil, seasoned with local sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, tossed with winter savory from Stokes Farm, finished on the plates scattered with zest from an organic Whole Foods Market California lemon
• the wine with the main course was a French (Bordeaux) red, Patrice Grasset Bordeaux 2016, from Naked Wines
• the music was Lully’s 1686 tragédie en musique, ‘Armide’, Philippe Herreweghe directing the Collegium Vocale and La Chappel Royale

Still working on that summer heirloom tomato thing, now heading toward mid-December.

• six beautiful 2 or 3-ounce orange/red ocean perch fillets [aka redfish, or rose fish] from Paul at the Pura Vida Seafood stand in the Union Square Greenmarket, rinsed and dried, both sides brushed with 2 tablespoons of olive oil mixed with a total of little more than one teaspoon, combined, of chopped Keith’s Farm rocambole garlic and a section of one thinly-sliced very small Willow Wisp Farm scallion, seasoned, also on both sides, with local P.E. & D.D. Seafood sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, placed inside an enameled cast iron pan and broiled, skin side up, 4 or 5 inches from the flames, or until the surface had become crisp and the fish cooked through, finished on the plates with some olive oil that had been heated inside a small antique enameled cast iron porringer over a very low flame for about 3 minutes along with 2 salted, rinsed, and filleted Sicilian anchovies from Eataly that had been rinsed and filleted, the perch sprinkled with marjoram from Willow Wisp Farm, garnished with micro red Russian kale from Windfall Farms, and served with organic California lemon halves from Whole Foods Market on the side
• a small amount of Winterbor kale from Savoie Farm that remained from a bunch prepared for an earlier meal, washed in several changes of water, chopped roughly, wilted in a little with olive oil in which one garlic clove from Chelsea’s 8th Avenue Foragers Market, flattened, then sliced in half, was allowed to heat until pungent, the greens seasoned with salt and pepper, drizzled on the plates with fresh olive oil
• one windowsill-ripened orange heirloom tomato from Eckerton Hill Farm, cut into 4 slices horizontally, sprinkled with salt and pepper, warmed over a medium flame inside a small copper skillet, sprinkled with lovage from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• the wine was an Italian (Marche/Matelica) white, Verdicchio di Matelica D.O.C., from Philippe Wines
• the music was a Boston Early Music Festival performance of Lully’s 1675 tragédie en musique, ‘Thésée’

It was a straightforward version of my usual treatment of sea scallops, and the vegetables were also pretty simply cooked.

• eighteen Hampton Bays sea scallops (14 ounces total) from American Seafood Company, rinsed, dried very thoroughly with paper towels then placed in a paper plate to prevent condensation, seasoned with local Long Island sea salt from P.E. & D.D. Seafood and freshly-ground black pepper, grilled briefly (90 seconds on each side) in a very hot enameled cast iron pan, finished with a squeeze of juice from a Whole Foods Market organic California lemon, and a drizzle of Greek olive oil, ‘Demi’, produced in Laconia, Velles, in the Peloponnese, purchased from John at the 23rd Street Greenmarket last summer, arranged on the plates with a sprinkling of micro scallion from Two Guys from Woodbridge of Windfall Farms
• half a pound, maybe more, of scrubbed unpeeled Chieftain potatoes from Keith’s Farm, boiled, drained, dried inside the still-warm vintage Corning Pyrex Flameware blue-glass pot in which they had cooked, halved, rolled inside the pan with a little olive oil and one very finely chopped fresh Brazilian yellow wax pepper, further seasoned with salt and pepper, tossed with a little fresh thyme from Keith’s Farm
• some Winterbor kale from Savoie Farm in the Union Square Greenmarket, the leaves stripped from their stems, washed in several changes of water, chopped roughly, wilted in a little with olive oil in which 2 garlic cloves from Chelsea’s 8th Avenue Foragers Market, flattened, then sliced in half, were allowed to heat until pungent, the greens seasoned with salt and a pinch or so of dried Itria-Sirissi chili, pepperoncino di Sardegna intero from Buon Italia, drizzled in the plates with fresh olive oil
• the wine was a California (Dry Creek Valley/Sonoma) white, Ferrari-Carano 2018 Fumé Blanc from Philippe Wines
• the music was Jordi Savall’s ‘Mare Nostrum’ (time to hear it again, since we’d last heard the recording in 2018), with music of the Christian, Muslim, and Jewish cultures which were in dialog across the Mediterranean from the middle ages into the early modern era

It was to be a pasta evening, and I found a Food52 recipe, ‘Pasta with Gorgonzola, Radicchio, Walnuts, and Orange’, that really appealed to me, and then I happy to reailize I had virtually all of the ingredients called for, with one near exception being that almost the main one: The formula asked for gorgonzola (“or other mild blue cheese”); the cheese I had bought earlier in the day only suggested the special pleasures of that description, but, since I already knew it had a bit of blue in it, and that it definitely wasn’t shy, I went with it. The other exception was my little mandarins, which substituted for the prescribed orange.  I did not finish it with either Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano Reggiano cheese,

• the pasta was an Afeltra 100% Grano Italiano Biologico Pasta di Gragnano IG.P. Artigianale rigatone from Eataly Flatiron; the small treviso came from Campo Rosso Farm; the cheese was ‘Drumm’ a funky cow cheese, from Bobolink Dairy & Bakehouse; the parsley was from from Phillips Farms; and the Satsuma mandarin was from Whole Foods Market
• the wine was an Italian (Trentino-Alto Adige/Sudtirol) white, Pinot Grigio, Cantina Bolzano 2018, from Astor Wines
• the music was an album of Colin Matthews chamber works

Warm comfort, on a December evening, drawn from a cold earth and a still colder sea.

• one 16-ounce cod fillet from P.E. & D.D. Seafood Company in the Union Square greenmarket, washed and rinsed, carefully halved, placed in a platter on a bed of coarse sea salt, with more salt added on top until the pieces were completely covered, then set aside while a bed of potatoes was prepared for them by slicing lengthwise (to a thickness of roughly 1/4″) a pound of potatoes, a mix of red thumb and la ratte from Norwich Meadows Farm, 6 ounces each, plus 4 ounces of purple Peruvian from Tamarack Hollow Farm, tossing them inside a bowl with a little olive oil, sea salt, a freshly-ground mix of black pepper, and a pinch of smoked serrano pepper from Eckerton Hill Farm, arranging the potatoes, overlapping, inside a well-seasoned 9″ x 12″ La Tienda rectangular terra cotta cazuela, or glazed ceramic oven pan, cooking them for 25 minutes or so in a 400º oven, or until they were tender when pierced, but not quite fully cooked, then the cod fillets, having already been removed from the platter and their salt covering, thoroughly immersed in many fresh changes of water to bring down the saltiness, drained and dried (the soaking process somehow gives the fish more solidity, which can be easily felt while it’s being handled it at this point; it’s also weird how this Marc Bittman recipe totally turns inside out the ancient tradition of salting cod, which is an ancient response to the desire to preserve seafood over long periods and great distances), placed inside the pan on top of the potatoes, drizzled with a little olive oil, sprinkled with black pepper, the pan then returned to the oven for about 8 or 9 minutes (the exact time depends on the thickness of the fillets), or, again, until just cooked through, the fish carefully removed with a spatula (or, better, 2 spatulas), along with as much of the potatoes as can be brought along with each piece, everything arranged as intact as possible on the plates, including any potatoes remaining onthe pan, the servings garnished with micro scallion from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• the greens cut from one bunch of breakfast radishes from Eckerton Hill Farm wilted in olive oil in which one  large halved rocambole garlic clove fromKeith’s Farm had been allowed to sweat in a little olive oil for a bit, seasoned with salt, pepper and a bit more olive oil
• the wine was an Italin (Piedmont) white, Gavi ‘Vecchie Vigne’ Francesco Rinaldi 2018, from Astor Wines
• the music was Mozart’s ‘La FInta Giardiniera’, René Jacobs conducting the Freiburgh Baroque Orchestra

It was a delicious meal, including the pork chops, although they had delivered a lesson on the importance of proper doneness in meat: Despite my extreme familiarity with the simple recipe, they were at least slightly overdone this time*.

• two boneless heritage pig pork chops (a total of 1.04 lbs) from Flying Pigs Farm/Maple Ridge Meats, seasoned on both sides with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, plus a very small amount of crushed hickory smoked Jamaican Scotch bonnet pepper from Eckerton Hill Farm, seared quickly in a heavy oval enameled cast-iron pan, one halved California organic lemon from Chelsea Whole Foods Market squeezed over the top of each, after which the lemon was left in the pan between them, cut side down), the chops placed inside a 400º oven, flipped halfway through, the lemon half squeezed over them once again and again replaced on the bottom of the pan, a small piece of finely chopped fresh yellow aji dulce pepper sprinkled on top of the pork at the time they were flipped, then roasted for a total of about 15 minutes altogether [*which was a little too long in this case, maybe because the chops thinner than usual], removed from the oven and arranged on 2 plates, the few juices that remained poured over the top of each, the pork garnished with micro scallions from Two Guys from Woodbridge

• two bright white and deep green ‘roses’. or bunches of bok choy (also known, here and elsewhere, as bok choi, pak choi, pak choy, pok choi, or ‘small white vegetable’) from Campo Rosso Farm, washed, sliced into roughly one-inch sections, wilted inside a large vintage, heavy tin-lined copper pot in a tablespoon or so of olive oil after 2 halved Keith’s Farm rocambole garlic cloves had already been heated there until they had begun to brown, the cabbage cooking process starting with the thickest sections of this wonderful brassica chinensis, that is, those closest to the root ends, the vegetable removed from the flame while the stems were still a little crunchy, finished on the plates seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, and drizzled with a little more olive oil
• one large green-become-yellow heirloom tomato from Eckerton Hill Farm, seasoned on both sides with salt and pepper, gently heated in a little olive oil inside a copper skillet for a couple of minutes, arranged next to the chops and sprinkled with chopped lovage from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• the wine was an Italian (Veneto) white, Pra, Soave Classico ‘OTTO’ 2018, from Flatiron Wines
• the main dinner music was from the ‘British Music Collection’ series, an album of works by Colin Matthews, whose music is absurdly underrepresented in programming today, at least in the U.S., with Oliver Knussen conducting the London Sinfonietta, and after that we listened to Alexander Goehr’s ‘Symphony in One Movement”, Op. 29 

Same salumi as yesterday, but different greens, bread.

• thin slices of the second half of a delicious, 4-ounce Jacöterie ‘Italian Style Salami’ soppressata crafted with pasture raised pork from Walnut Hill Farm in Ancramdale, NY
• arranged with well washed leaves of arugula from Norwich Meadows Farm dressed with a small amount of good Greek olive oil, Demi, from the Peloponnese (Laconia, Velles), a 23rd Street Greenmarket purchase late last summer, from John, a member of the family that grows the olives and makes the oil, also some local (Long Island waters) P.E. & D.D. Seafood sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, and a squeeze of organic California lemon from the Chelsea Whole Foods Market
• the bread was half of a rosemary ‘epi’ (pain d’epi, aka ‘wheat stalk bread’), remarkably evocative of good homemade bread, that I had bought from Bobolink Dairy & Bakehouse on Friday

The simply grilled small mackerel fillets were terrific, especially with the salsa I could accompany it with, thanks to the some small grape tomatoes sitting on the windowsill that I had bought several days earlier.

• eight small Boston mackerel fillets (16 ounces) from Pura Vida Seafood, washed, dried, brushed with olive oil, seasoned with local sea salt from P.E. & D.D. Seafood and freshly-ground black pepper, pan grilled on a large, 2-burner cast iron grill pan over high heat for a total of about 5 minutes, skin side down first, turned over half way through, removed, arranged on the plates, where they were accompanied by/under a simple salsa, assembled just before grilling the mackerel, of 7 ounces of small halved heirloom golden cherry mid-December, mid-New Jersey farm tomatoes from Eckerton Hill Farm tossed into a small bowl with a teaspoon or more of rinsed and well drained Sicilian salted capers, half a tablespoon of juice from a Whole Foods Market organic California lemon, a pinch of sea salt, a bit of black pepper, the mackerel and the salsa garnished with micro scallion from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• twelve ounces or so of red thumb potatoes from Norwich Meadows Farm, scrubbed unpeeled, boiled, drained, dried inside the still-warm vintage Corning Pyrex Flameware blue-glass pot in which they had cooked, halved, then rolled inside the pan with a little olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, tossed with lovage, again from Two Guys from Woodbridge

 

• the wine throughout the meal was an Italian (Marche) white, Tenuta Ugolino, Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Piaole 2018, from Flatiron Wines
• the music throughout was Rameau’s 1749 pastorale héroique, ‘Naïs’,  György Vasheygi conducting the Orpheus Orchestra and the Purcell Choir

There was no fresh fish, and I hadn’t thought far enough ahead to arrange for a meat. I had assumed I would put together a meal using a dried pasta and something from the pretty broad ready choice of possible ingredients, but when it came close to dinner, I hadn’t come up with anything.

One of the prepared filled pastas I had recently brought home from Buon Italia was looking it would be delegated, and it was, becoming a very simple entrée.

So it was an accidental meal of sorts, but a very good one, especially with the delicious  artisanal sausage and beautiful local lettuce that became an antipasto.

• thin slices of half of a delicious, 4-ounce Jacöterie ‘Italian Style Salami’ soppressata crafted with pasture raised pork from Walnut Hill Farm in Ancramdale, NY
• arranged with leaves of red leaf buttercrunch lettuce from Fledging Crow Vegetables, the greens dressed with a small amount of good Greek olive oil, Demi, from the Peloponnese, Laconia, Velles, a purchase from John, a member of the family that makes it, at the 23rd Street Greenmarket, some local P.E. & D.D. Seafood sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, and a squeeze of organic California lemon from the Chelsea Whole Foods Market
• thin slices from a loaf of Homadama bread (wheat, corn, water, maple syrup, salt, slaked lime) from Lost Bread Co.

the wine was an Italian (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) white, Pinot Bianco, Pierpaolo Pecorari 2016, from Astor Wines

• nine ounces from a frozen package of a gorgonzola and walnut panzerotto, from Buon Italia, made by Tradizioni Padane Srl of Gottolengo Brescia, briefly boiled in a large amount of well-salted water, introduced into a large antique copper pot in which sliced cloves of Keith’s Farm rocambole garlic had been heated until fragrant in a little olive oil, tossed, along with a very small amount of reserved pasta cooking water, the remains, broken up, of a small head of Radicchio Variegato di Castelfranco from Campo Rosso Farm, seasoned with salt and pepper, served garnished with micro nasturtium from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• the wine was an Italian (Pedmont/Alba) red, Barbera d’Alba, Produttori di Govone 2016, from Astor Wines

 

• the music throughout the meal was Mendelssohn’s, his 1837 Piano Concerto No. 2  and the 1824 Symphony No. 1, Kristian Bezuidenhout on fortepiano, and the Freiburger Barockorchester, Pablo Heras-Cas directing

The 4 or 5 rows of colors and textures look great here, but I decided to also include a low angle detail image.

 

Even under ordinary circumstances it’s difficult to resist the aesthetic and taste appeal of sea bass fillets, but when they’re on sale, as they were on Wednesday, it’s virtually impossible.

This is also a very easy fish to cook. In this case it was merely seasoned with salt and pepper and briefly sautéed in a combination of butter and oil. The mushrooms that accompanied it were prepared after the fish had been cooked, although using the same pan, with the juices that remained.

• two 8-ounce Black Sea Bass fillets from American Seafood Company, washed, dried, seasoned on both sides with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, sautéed for 2 to 3 minutes over a fairly brisk flame with butter and a little olive oil inside a large, vintage thick-copper oval long-handled pan, skin side down, then turned over and the other side cooked for about the same length of time, removed when done and arranged on 2 warm plates (I had them inside the oven, set to its lowest temperature, but if left outside an oven they should at least be covered a little to retain their warmth),

then, with 2 tablespoons of butter added to the pan, 5 ounces of beautiful chestnut mushrooms from Gail’s Farm stall in the Union Square Greenmarket, cut up, mostly into 2, maybe 3 pieces each, sautéed, stirring, until lightly cooked, seasoned with sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper, and a pinch of a hickory smoked Jamaican Scotch bonnet pepper from Eckerton Hill Farm and my last fresh habanada pepper of the season, chopped, from Alewife Farm), a couple tablespoons of chopped parsley from Phillips Farms, and a tablespoon and a half of the juice of an organic California Whole Foods Market lemon, the mushrooms stirred some more, everything in the pan then spooned onto the plates to the side of the fish (the skin of the bass is too beautiful to cover up)

• one medium head of tardivo, a very special chicory, a beautiful form of radicchio that originated in northern Italy, that I found in the stall of Willow Wisp Farm in the Union Square Greenmarket that same afternoon, prepared by washing it under cold running water, the moisture shaken off, cut into 4 segments lengthwise, and a V-cut made most of the way through the root ends of each, which allowed that dense part to cook more evenly with the remainder, the quarters arranged inside a large Pampered Chef unglazed ceramic oven pan cut side up, covered with a few thyme sprigs from Keith’s Farm, seasoned generously with salt and pepper and drizzled with a tablespoon of olive oil, baked inside a 400º oven for about 12 minutes, then turned over and cooked for some 8 minutes more, turned once more so a cut side is once again facing up, returned to the oven once again, but, this time for only a couple minutes or so, or until the stem ends were tender when pierced with a thin blunt metal pin (my all-purpose kitchen tester), removed from the oven [note: the tardivo can be served either hot or warm]
• the plate was garnished with a row of micro nasturtium from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• the wine was an Italian (Lombardy) white, Lugana, Ca’ Lojera 2018, from Astor Wines
• the music was an album of very early Mozart symphonies, Gottfried von der Goltz conducting the Freiburger Barockorchestra

 

[I had forgotten to photograph the mushrooms last Wednesday, so the image I used here is one I took last May, but of the same variety, and from the same farm, cropped differently]

“A Chicken for Every Pot”

Hoover never said any such thing, although his enthusiastic supporters did include the phrase in in a 1928 campaign advertisement boasting that Republican prosperity had:

‘”..put the proverbial ‘chicken in every pot.’ And a car in every backyard, to boot.”

The Republican prosperity is history, but the attraction of chicken continues to this day, as does that of the car.

For what it’s worth, the chicken part of the phrase probably has its origins in seventeenth century France; Henry IV (le bon roi Henri) reputedly wished that each of his peasants would enjoy “a chicken in his pot every Sunday.” [encyclopedia.com]

While Barry and I don’t yearn for a car in our backyard (we live in the middle of Manhattan, so we don’t have to test our commitment to a small carbon footprint, and our backyard is a garden), but we do find a chicken, or parts of a chicken, in an occasional pot, and the occasion isn’t just a Sunday these days.

• two fresh 8-ounce New York State chicken thighs from Cascun Farms, purchased at Eataly Flatiron (in a preparation partly inspired by Mark Bittman) seasoned on both sides with a local P.E. & D.D. Seafood sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, browned well in two tablespoons or so of Organic Valley ‘Cultured Pasture Butter’ inside a medium size oval enameled high-sided cast iron pot, then covered with aluminum foil (it needn’t be a tight seal), then cooked over medium-low heat, turning occasionally, until the internal temperature was 155-165 degrees, or the juices ran clear when pricked with a fork, which was roughly 15 minutes, transferred to a small oval platter and covered with the foil to keep warm, ideally the platter, or at least the plates, kept inside a warm oven while the sauce was completed, beginning with one shallot from Norwich Meadows Farm, 3 small seasoning peppers, one aji dulce (red) and 2 small Granada (yellow, with the flavor of a habanero, but a fraction of the heat), both from Eckerton Hill Farm were stirred in and allowed to soften a little before about a third of a cup of white wine [Matt Iaconis Napa Valley Chardonnay 2017] was added to the pot, the heat raised to medium high and the liquid boiled until reduced quite a bit, or until it was a of the consistency of a sauce, a generous amount of chopped winter savory from Stokes Farm added and stirred in, the sauce transferred to a glass sauce boat, from which some of it was poured over the chicken, which had now arranged on plates
• the remaining greens from a ‘braising mix’ (young Brassicaceae: kale, collards, mustards, escarole, and dandelion) purchased from Keith’s Farm at the Union Square Greenmarket, mixed together with the leaves left from a bunch of broccoli raab from Lani’s Farm, barely wilted in a little olive oil in which several small rocambole garlic cloves, also from Keith’sFarm, had been heated until fragrant and beginning to soften, seasoned with sea salt, and freshly-ground black pepper
• slices from a small sunflower and flax seed sourdough peasant baguette from Hawthorne Valley Farm
• the wine was a Portuguese (Dão), Niepoort Rotulo Tinto, Dão 2016, from Astor Wines
• the music was Beethoven’s ‘Musik zu Carl Meisls Gelegenheitsfestspiel’, Claudio Abbado conducting the  Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the Berlin Radio Chorus

 

[the image of the Republican political flier is from IowaCulture.gov]