Author: james

dinner, July 18, 2009

eggs_knoll_krest_farm

I assembled a simple, very inexpensive meal last night using ingredients found in the refrigerator for the first course (including sliced air-dried beef remaining from the night before, and some hard-crusted two-day-old bread).  The radishes  had come from the Greenmarket, and I was able to include their tops (which usually have to be tossed out unless they are very fresh) in the second course.   I finished the frittata on the top of the range before we sat down to the appetizer, letting it rest for a few minutes, so I ended up serving it when it was barely warm, the flavors just coming into their own.

I had managed to minimize heat build-up in the kitchen on a warm evening.   I didn’t use a recipe;  the assembly of the frittata was inspired by what I had found in Union Square.   It was really, really delicious, with no little thanks to the wine (an Italian rosé). The success of this simple frittata began with my being able to use some very fresh farm eggs, and was secured by the happy and delicious contest between the sweetness of the onions and the bitterness of the  greens.

  • thin-sliced bresaola with leaves of radicchio, both dripped with some excellent Sicilian olive oil (Omero, purchased from Cola’s, a neighborhood restaurant) and lemon, accompanied by sliced red radishes, and served with toasted Pugliese bread
  • an open frittata (in a huge cast-iron pan) which began with the sauteing of sliced torpedo onions, followed by the addition of torn radish tops and red-stem dandelions, which quickly wilted, and finally a pouring of six fork-whipped Knoll Krest Farm eggs which had been mixed with some grated Pecorino, a sprinkle of red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper
  • wine:  a Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, Cantina Zaccagnini Cerasuolo rosé 2008

dinner, May 15, 2009

red_stem_baby_kale(the center bunch joined us for dinner;  the egg seems to have escaped from the vendor’s cartons)

  • roasted chick peas
  • Yellowfin Tuna steak (from Grenada, via Whole Foods, and on sale Friday) generously-covered with mixture of crushed fennel seeds and crushed dried chiles, briefly seared on a grill pan and finished with oil and lemon – very easy, and an awesome success [see “Italian Easy:  Recipes from the London River Cafe“];  accompanied by red spring onions from the Greenmarket, grilled and dotted with balsamic vinegar; and baby red kale [see pic above, which includes one egg, in representation of another product sold by this farm], also Greenmarket produce, wilted in a covered pan with oil and bruised garlic
  • wine:  Maison Louis Latour Pinot Noir 2007 (although a Spanish white, a white Rhone or a Chardonnay might have been a better choice because of the spices on the tuna)
  • PJ Madison‘s “Bourbon Vanilla” gelato-style ice cream topped with the best rhubarb sauce I’ve ever tasted [Amanda Hesser in the Times, adapted from Anne Willan]:   a very simple composition of thinly-sliced rhubarb from Maxwell’s Farm stand at the Greenmarket, covered in a still-warm white wine syrup which had been infused with crushed cardamom pods and Darjeeling tea, then refrigerated  [the rhubarb is also excellent on top of a slice of very good pound cake, or angel food or sponge cake – and just about anything else!]

dinner, May 14, 2009

  • roasted chickpeas accompanied by mixed Spanish olives
  • grilled lamb steak (Whole Foods) finished with oil, chopped thyme and lemon;  accompanied by roasted potato “chips” (Biintje, from Bill Maxwell’s farm at the Union Square Greenmarket) tossed first with oil, crushed oregano and dried thyme;  and grilled red spring onions finished with drops of balsamic vinegar
  • wine:  Chateau la Fagotte Haut-Medoc 2005, gift of a friend
  • kumquats

dinner, April 27, 2009

It ended up as a fine anniversary dinner, but because of my forgetfulness it was almost a non-event.   On the afternoon of April 27 I was thinking of putting together a pretty simple meal, and already had some good organic sauerkraut and sausage.   Then I was reminded, by the other interested party in the relationship, that it was one of our five anniversaries (I used to transcribe all of their dates into my pocket calendar at the beginning of every year, but I’ve become much less dependent on written reminders over the years).

Barry and I had met eighteen years earlier to the day.  Ooops.

I decided we could stay with the German theme and still be festive if I only added a few extras.   Still thinking simple Teutonic, I came up with the idea of a raw beet salad (raw, in order to minimize the heat in the kitchen on an unseasonably-warm day), and when I picked up a bunch at Whole Food I found that the excellent condition of their organic tops meant I also had the ingredients for some braised greens.

The cooked sauerkraut demanded some time on top of the stove to work through the flavors, and the salad had to marinate for an equal amount of time.  I had gone to the store early in the evening and had forgotten these requirements until it was almost too late to prepare a dinner we’d be able to consume before midnight.  In the end although I cut the food preparation time a bit short, it didn’t seem to make a difference in the flavors, since everything ended up tasting really good.

I don’t often cook anything resembling a traditional German meal these days.  This is partly because of our current taste in food, which is largely in the tradition of the simpler forms of the Italian kitchen, but also, I think, because it seems to me that the cookery of my ancestors doesn’t usually represent an economical use of kitchen time.  My own kitchen experience began with my investment in a Fannie Farmer Cookbook [small and paperback, both bad ideas for a cookbook] while I was in grad school, but it was  German cooking which seduced me into a life which has always included serious kitchen time.  I thought we had broken up years ago, after I started a relationship with Julia Childs and later a good number of Italian cookbook authors, but every so often I find myself reaching for my old copy of Mimi Sheraton’s “The German Cookbook“, which I purchased in its first, 1965 printing , not long after I had arrived in Providence after a year enrolled at the University in Munich (but mostly sitting about in its wonderful taverns and cafes).

I rummaged through the book for refreshers on an approach for both the sauerkraut and the salad, and I came up with this:

  • pan-grilled Niman Ranch bratwurst with full-grain mustard on the side;  accompanied with a cooked Weinkraut using white onion, juniper berries (I always add more than the recipe suggests), white vermouth and water, thickened with grated potato;  raw beet salad [the brightest, reddest ever!], marinated with a mixture of onion, parsley, sour cream and caraway seeds, finished with a little bottled horseradish which had been drained;  braised beet greens
  • wine:  Petri 2005 Herxheimer Honigsack, Riesling, Kabinett – trocken – Im Holzfass gereift (Pfalz) from Philippe Wines

Thanks, Mimi.

dinner, April 26, 2009

I can’t call this meal a complete success, since I ran into some difficulty in grilling the halibut steak.   I was trying to avoid a preparation which involved heating an oven on an exceptionally warm spring day, so I opted for grilling it.  I thought it had finished cooking, but when I took the steak off the enamelled cast-iron grill pan and tried to cut into it, both to confirm my assumption and to divide it into two equal portions, I realized my mistake.   Then, in trying to remove the cross-shaped bone in the center, I ended up breaking it into a number of different-size pieces which I then returned briefly to the hot pan.  Ugh.

The aesthetics of the presentation (not to mention the condition of the pan I left in the sink) left something to be desired, but the good news is that the deconstructed halibut actually tasted great, and so honored the shared sacrifices of the very-worthy two vegetables which accompanied it.

  • grilled halibut steak from Whole Foods, with chimichurri sauce (oil, lemon, garlic, shallots, red-pepper flakes and parsley);  served with a couple handfuls of really tiny (one-quarter inch to an inch round) potatoes from the Union Square Greenmarket (I think it was the Mountain Sweet Berry Farm stand), quickly-boiled, dried and finished with oil, garlic and chopped rosemary;  and green kale (California, organic) from Whole Foods braised with garlic and oil
  • wine:  NAIA 2007 Rueda (Verdejo) by Jorge Ordonez, from K&D Wine

dinner, April 25, 2009

This one is really simple, really delicious, and can be assembled in minutes.   I bought the meat and the greens at the Houston Street Whole Foods on the way home from the opening at Scaramouche.  It was also done pretty much on the cheap (I figure it cost a total of about $16.50 for the two of us, without wine).

  • remaining slices of white pizza made with ramps and guanciale, gently heated in our tiny microwave for 30 seconds.
  • pan-grilled thick top loin (New York strip) steak on sale at Whole Foods, finished with shallots, parsley and oil;  served with terrific Shushan hydroponic tomatoes purchased in the Union Square Greenmarket on Wednesday, cut, rubbed with salt and pepper, pan-grilled and finished with oil and balsamic vinegar, along with braised organic rainbow chard (California) also from Whole Foods, finished with crushed peppers and salt and pepper.
  • wines:  NAIA 2007 Rueda (Verdejo) by Jorge Ordonez, from K&D Wine with the pizza,  Perrin Côtes du Rhône Rouge 2007 from Manley’s Wines with the entree.

dinner, April 23, 2009

white pizza with ramps and guanciale

white_pizza_ramps_guanciale_detail

  • home-made white pizza with ramps and guanciale, using frozen pizza dough from Whole Foods, prepared and covered with shredded mozarella, ramps from the Union Square Greenmarket briefly parboiled, with the addition of chopped and slightly pan-warmed fresh guanciale from the Murray’s Cheese located at Grand Central Market, and finished with grated Parmignano-Reggiano before sliding it all into a hot oven.
  • wine:  Venaccia di San Gimignano “Rondolino” 2006 from Philippe Wine

It was the first time I’d ever attempted a pizza of any kind, with any kind or form of dough, and until I had put it into the oven on a previously-heated stoneware pan I thought it was going to be a total disaster.  Instead, I think it may have been the best pizza I’ve ever had.

[est. total cost of meal for two, without wine:  $10.00]

There is a related post on jameswagner.com.

[images by Barry]

dinner, April 10, 2009

If you’re afraid of animal fats, stop here.  But if butter holds no terrors for you, and you like very simple, very good food, read on.

I went to the Union Square Greenmarket yesterday and was very surprised to find that, although the calendar said it was still early April, I was able to collect most of the makings for our next three evening meals, all except the lamb shanks, destined for [Easter] Sunday, which I was able to pick up at Whole Foods later in the afternoon.    Early in the evening Barry and I went off to several gallery openings on 27th street.  When we returned home I still had plenty of time to put together a pretty sophisticated dinner.   I would have been happy describing it simply as, well, . . . sublime, if it weren’t for the fact that it was also exceptionally easy and very quick to prepare.

  • a thick Yellow Tilefish steak (20 ounces) from the Union Square Greenmarket smothered with one whole stick (1/4 lb.)* of melted butter and sprinkled with almost a cup of fresh, seasoned breadcrumbs (using a heal of a loaf of “Organic Seeduction” from Whole Foods, in-house, which I happened to have on hand), placed in a small, oval, Colombian black pottery pan [La Chambra cookware] and baked for fifteen minutes in a hot oven, using Mark Bittman’s recipe “Roast Halibut With Butter and Bread Crumbs”, from his book “Fish” (although I added some chopped fresh thyme after it came out of the oven);  served with the first tender leaves of baby Russian Kale from the Union Square Greenmarket (next time I have to get the farmer’s name), briefly sauteed in oil with bruised garlic cloves.
  • wine:  Petit Bourgeois Sauvignon Blanc 2007 Henri Bourgeois (Chavignol/Sancerre) from Philippe Wines

*

In fifteen minutes, all the butter had completely disappeared.  I had been completely absorbed into the fish and the bread crumbs, but it was clearly a big plus in enhancing the pleasure of the dish.  After all, butter and other animal fats are part of what made classic French cooking great, but because of both real and alarmist health concerns, they are also partly responsible for its relative eclipse over the last few decades.  Also, the recipe was minimal enough to ensure that the natural flavor of this delicious fish was honest and not tricked up.  It helped that I somehow managed to time it perfectly.

dinner, April 9, 2009

  • roasted whole small squid, with tentacles, brushed with oil, then covered with crumbled dried chilies and dried oregano, briefly baked in an enameled, cast-iron pan in a very hot oven with finished with lemon and oil (from “Italian Easy:  Recipes from the London River Cafe“);  served with sauteed young okra with red pepper flakes (major entrée ingredients, and the cheeses, all from Whole Foods)
  • three cheeses:  Zamarano (Castile-Leon, sheep), Nevat de Oveja (Catalunya, sheep), Pata Cabra (Zaragoza, goat), served with thinly-sliced ciabatta toasts (Sullivan Street Bakery, via Garden of Eden)
  • wine:  NAIA 2007 Rueda (Verdejo) by Jorge Ordonez, from K&D Wine

dinner, April 8, 2009

  • top loin steak, grilled, then immediately spread with finely-chopped shallots, oil, lemon and thyme;   served with grilled spring onions finished with a splash of balsamic vinegar and chopped parsley);  also parboiled haricots verts re-heated in oil with a little bruised garlic, then sprinkled with champagne vinegar (all major ingredients from Whole Foods)
  • wine: Marques de Cáceres Rioja Crianza 2005, a gift