Maybe I was thinking just steak and okra would be too white-bread.

In any event, I had this big beautiful yellow/orange heirloom tomato which was aching to be a part of this meal, so I decided to turn it into a salsa. It became a problem when I added some jalapeño, even a really, really small amount of jalapeño, to a mix that wasn’t going to be heated (and chopped very finely, which I later found had only added to the problem, because it made it almost impossible to spot and remove the offending source of heat).

Neither of us is afraid of a little capsicum, but the salsa, while it suggested it would have been very interesting had it been more tamed, turned out to be almost impossible to enjoy. I eventually managed to pick out pieces of tomato that showed no sign of any pepper bits, but I was sorry we both missed the kind of refreshing salsa that would have been a spicy exclamation point for the meal.

I think that biting directly into a pepper obviously gives a much more concentrated dose of the chili oils, and cooking them with other ingredients would spread them through a dish more evenly, reducing the impact because the oil would have been distributed throughout a much larger volume of food.

• two thick picanya cuts of steak (10.8 ounces each) from Sun Fed Beef in the Union Square Greenmarket, defrosted, brought to room temperature, seasoned on all sides with sea salt and a generous amount of freshly-ground black pepper, seared for less than a minute on the top, thick, fat-covered side inside a dry oval heavy enameled cast iron pan, then the 2 long sides cooked for 4 or 5 minutes each and the ends briefly seared, removed from the pan at the moment it had become perfectly medium-rare (checking with an instant-read thermometer), arranged on warm plates, a bit of juice from an organic Chelsea Whole Foods Market Mexican lemon squeezed on top, followed by a drizzle of a little Portuguese olive oil, a Whole Foods’ house brand, scattered with garlic flowers from Alewife Farm and chopped summer savory from Lucky Dog Organic Farm, allowed to rest for about 4 minutes before being served

• twelve ounces or so of small (mostly) green okra from Campo Rosso Farm, sautéed over a high flame inside a very large enameled cast iron pan in a little bit of olive oil along with 3 tiny dried peperoncino Calabresi secchi from Buon Italia, seasoned with local sea salt
• one large yellow/orange heirloom tomato from Eckerton Hill Farm cut into relatively thin wedges, mixed gently inside a medium bowl with a very small part of a fresh jalapeño pepper, very finely cut, one fresh sliced habanada pepper (the first of the season) from from Campo Rosso Farm, a bit of sliced fresh red onion, salt and pepper, a pinch or so of cumin seed, a good squeeze of lemon, and a little olive oil, allowed to rest until the steak and potatoes were ready to be served, at which time they were joined by some chopped fresh epazote from TransGenerational Farm, arranged inside low black bowls and scattered with micro red amaranth from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• the wine was a Portuguese (Duriense/Douro-Porto) red, Ramos Pinto Duas Quintas 2014, from Garnet Wines
• the music was Johann Christian Bach’s 1772 opera, L’Endimione, Bruno Weill conducting the Cappella Coloniensis

 

The very fine basic recipe runs like a reliable thread through every appearance of this delicious dish I’ve been calling, ‘Bluefish Greek style’, but slight variations in the ingredients always make it seem new. It also seems to taste better every time, and I don’t think anything more can be asked of a recipe.

*

• seven small 2-ounce bluefish fillets from Pura Vida Seafood Company in the Union Square Greenmarket, rinsed, rubbed with olive oil and a little Columela Rioja 30 Year Reserva sherry vinegar, seasoned with local Long Island sea salt from P.E. & D.D. Seafood and freshly-ground black pepper,  placed inside an antique 13″ tin-lined low-sided copper pan, sprinkled liberally with a very pungent dried Sicilian oregano from Buon Italia and a bit of finely chopped jalapeno pepper from our local Foragers Market, covered with thin slices of most of a medium size fresh red onion from Quarton Farm, thin slices of a ripe red heirloom tomato from Eckerton Hill Farm, 9 pitted Kalamata olives from Flatiron Eataly, and very thin slices of a Mexican organic Whole Foods Market lemon, the pan placed inside a 425º oven and baked for maybe 8 minutes [the fillets were quite small], the fillets arranged on the plates and garnished with micro red amaranth from Two Guys from Woodbridge [I had bought a few ounces of feta cheese to include on top of the bluefish, but then I forgot to add it]
• two different kinds of young potatoes, the 3 ‘white potatoes’ from Jersey Farm Produce that I had remaining and 8 or so ‘red potatoes’ from Lani’s Farm, boiled, unpeeled, with a generous amount of salt until barely cooked through, drained, the white potatoes quartered, dried while inside the still-warm vintage medium size Corning Pyrex Flameware blue-glass pot in which they had cooked, rolled around there in a little Whole Foods Market house Portuguese olive oil and some chopped summer savory from Lucky Dog Organic Farm
• the wine was a California (Lodi) white, Evangelos Bagias Lodi Chardonnay 2018, from Naked Wines
• after dinner I had a liqueur, a glass of L’Anisetta Meletti, straight; Barry had a rye whiskey
• the music was Mozart’s ‘Die Zauberflöte’, Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting theChamber Orchestra of Europe and the RIAS Kammerchor in a magnificent performance graced with a beautifully engineered recording on @DGclassics

 

*Where’s Waldo? can you find the soft shell blue crab in the picture?

I don’t cook every night, and not even every time we eat at home. We’ve usually ordered pizza on those nights, but it’s always very good pizza, rotating among several favorite ovens.

On Thursday we had been at a performance in south Williamsburg until fairly late, but not too late to order a home delivery as we were returning on the M train (during the connectivity window crossing the East River).

• the pizza was one of our favorites, the very juicy ‘Broccoli Rabe and Sausage’, from our small neighborhood emporium, Rocco’s Pizza Joint.
• the wine was a Portuguese (Alentejano/Alentejo) white, Esporão Alandra Branco 2018, from Garnet Wines
• the music was Counterstream Radio/New Music USA, streaming

 

[the second image, of Rocco’s interior, is from Yelp]

These images, and especially the plates, are still looking a little pink, since I haven’t yet fixed the wiring on the 100-year-old overhead fixture in the breakfast room (I turn up the light at dinner only for the photographs), so I’m using a 100-year-old gooseneck lamp in the interim, which apparently has a rosy reflector.

• twelve good-sized sea scallops (16 ounces total) from American Seafood Company, rinsed, dried very thoroughly with paper towels, 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 medium size square enameled cast iron pan [I think not hot enough this time, since the grill marks are a little subdued], finished with a squeeze of juice from a small Mexican organic lemon from Chelsea Whole Foods Market, then a scattering of garlic flowers from Alewife Farm and a drizzle of Whole Foods Market house Portuguese olive oil, arranged on the plates with a sprinkling of micro red amaranth from Two Guys from Woodbridge placed at the side

• three medium Japanese eggplant (10 ounces total), also from Alewife Farm, each halved lengthwise and scored with a very sharp knife, brushed all over with a mixture of a little olive oil, 2 finely-chopped garlic cloves from Stokes Farm, a pinch of super-pungent dried Sicilian oregano from Buon Italia, local sea salt and black pepper, pan-grilled on an enameled cast iron ribbed pan above a brisk flame, turning twice, adding more of the material from the marinade the second time, then arranged on the plates and sprinkled with a combination of torn mint [peppermint?] leaves from Alex’s Tomato Farm and chopped lovage from S. & S. O. Produce Farms, drizzled with a bit of more olive oil
• the wine was a Portuguese (Minho) white, Soalheiro Allo Loureiro Alvarinho 2016, from Garnet Wines
• the music was Handel’s 1713 opera, ‘Lucio Cornelio Silla’, Fabio Biondi conducting the ensemble Europa Galante

It was a pasta night, but there was a first course, because I had thought the rigatoni I had in mind would be relatively insubstantial, although in the end that seemed not to be the case; but also because we love Principe porchetta.

The pasta would have satisfied a vegan; the antipasto was a different story.

• four ounces of Principe Italian uncured roasted porchetta rolled in pancetta from Chelsea Whole Foods Market
• a very generous handful of baby arugula from from Lucky Dog Organic Farm, dressed with Whole Foods house Portuguese olive oil, local Long Island sea salt from P.E. & D.D. Seafood, freshly ground black pepper, and a sprinkling of white balsamic vinegar
• slices of ‘table bread’ from Lost Bread Company

The main course, as I hinted above, was quite simple, but far richer than I had expected; I credit the ‘wild’ tomatoes for that effect.

• a pasta sauce assembled by heating and softening half a dozen Norwich Meadows Farm garlic scapes, cut into one-inch lengths, in a little olive oil inside a large antique copper pot over a medium flame, adding some crushed dried espelette pepper from Alewife Farm, tossed with 10 ounces of a Setaro Torre Annunziata Napoli Penne Rigatoni from Buon Italia in the Chelsea Market that had been cooked al dente and drained, almost an entire cup of its cooking water added and stirred over a high flame until it had emulsified, the pasta arranged in shallow bowls before roughly 4 ounces of fantastic, sweet tiny ‘wild’ tomatoes (‘Matt’s Wild Cherry’) from Central Valley Farm were scattered on the top, garnished with garlic flowers from Alewife Farm, and a little olive oil drizzled around the edges

 

• the wine throughout was an Oregon (Willamette Valley) white, Chris Baker Willamette Pinot Gris 2018, from Naked Wines 
• throughout the meal we listened to music streaming on Counterstream Radio/New Music USA, including a new discovery for us, the composer Martin Boykan

It was delicious, the tuna possibly the best either of us had ever had, and I think it was a pretty sturdy Mediterranean meal, even if the description hadn’t occurred to me until we had sat down to enjoy it. The recipe is from Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers, found in their book, ‘Italian Easy’; Recipes from the London River Cafe‘.

• two thick 7-ounce tuna steaks from P.E.&D.D. Seafood Company, rinsed, dried, tops and bottoms seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, brushed or ‘paved’ with almost 2 tablespoons of a mix of a generous amount of incredibly wonderful dried Semi di Finocchietto Ibleo (wild Sicilian fennel seed harvested in the Iblei Mountains), from Eataly Flatiron and a little dried peperoncino Calabresi secchi from Buon Italia in the Chelsea Market, both first crushed together in a porcelain mortar and pestle, then pan-grilled above a medium-high flame for little more than a minute or so on each side and finished on the plates with a good squeeze of the juice of an organic Mexican lemon from Chelsea Whole Foods Market, a scattering of garlic flowers from Alewife Farm (a touch which has become a thing for me over the last few days, but it’s not a bad obsession) and  a drizzle of Chelsea Whole Foods Market Portuguese house olive oil

• Artichokes Provençal Style, also (mostly) following a recipe from Mark Bittman, which began with the preparation of more than a dozen one-ounce artichokes, among the last from a box at the Union Square Greenmarket stand of Alewife Farm that day (removing the outer leaves, trimming the stem, cutting off the top third, and slicing in half lengthwise) while a little olive oil and 2 fresh garlic cloves, smashed first, their skins then removed, from Alex’s Tomato Farm in the 23rd Street farmers market were heated inside a large antique copper pot over low heat, and when the oil had begun to sizzle, adding a handful of pitted oil-cured black olives, the leaves from a few branches of fresh rosemary from Stokes Farm, a pinch of sea salt, and the artichoke halves (cut side down), the heat raised a bit and the chokes moved around until they had browned, at which time roughly 11 ounces of tomatoes, a mix of ‘the best cherry tomatoes’ from Stokes Farm and one chopped ‘beefsteak tomato’ from Jersey Farm Produce, also in the 23rd Street market, were added, along with a splash of water, and everything cooked, with the pot covered for part of the time, until the artichoke halves were tender, the dish seasoned to tastes, some chopped fresh parsley, again from Stokes Farm, added, served with more of the herb sprinkled on top, for garnish and served [NOTE: it can also be served at room temperature, which makes this recipe convenient for many occasions]
• the wine was a Spanish (Castilla Y Leon/Bierzo) white, Abad Dom Bueno Godello 2017, from Garnet Wines
• the music was Vincenzo Bellini’s 1830 opera, ‘I Capuleti e i Montecchi’, Fabio Biondi conducting Europa Galante

The entrée was a pair of simple pork chops. I’d prepared them almost the same way for many years, with slight variations in seasonings, but what pork chops they turned out to be!

I hadn’t been able to locate small chops in the Union Square Greenmarket for months, and at first I was disappointed again when I checked out the butcher display case at Flatiron Eataly on my way home Friday.  There I only found chops weighing almost a full pound, but I went with the alternative suggested by one of the butchers, a pair of thick boneless chops, since they weighed only about 8 ounces each. My prejudice is for cuts which retain the bone, both for the appearance and the taste (although I’ve seen discussions which question whether retaining the bone has anything to do with how good the meat tastes), but our dinner experience last night makes me re-examine it.

This was our first pork dinner since returning from Berlin. I have to say, while we had some excellent meals of pork while there, this was better than any of them (although, to be fair, we never had anything like simple chops). It was also better than any I had prepared in the past myself, using this basic recipe. I can’t account for either of these superlatives.

• two thick 8-ounce tied boneless Berkshire pig Autumn’s Harvest Farm pork chops from Flatiron Eataly, rinsed, dried thoroughly, seasoned on both sides with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, plus a very small amount of crushed smoked dried jalapeño pepper from Eckerton Hill Farm, seared quickly in a heavy oval enameled cast-iron pan, one small halved Mexican 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 for about 13 minutes altogether (flipped halfway through, the lemon halves squeezed over them once again and again on the bottom of the pan), removed from the oven and arranged on 2 plates, the few juices that remained poured over the top of each, the chops garnished with garlic flowers from Alewife Farm
• twelve ounces or so of ‘white potatoes’ from Jersey Farm Produce at our local 23rd Street Chelsea Down to Earth Farmers Market, scrubbed, boiled unpeeled in generously-salted water until barely cooked through, drained, halved, dried in the still-warm large vintage Corning Pyrex Flameware blue-glass pot in which they had cooked, tossed with a little whole Foods house Portuguese olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper and tossed again after adding some scissored fresh dill flowers from Lucky Dog Organic Farm
• one medium head of radicchio from Norwich Meadows Farm, sliced broadly and sautéed until barely wilted inside a large, high-sided tin-lined copper pot with a little olive oil in which half a dozen cut up garlic scapes from Norwich Meadows Farm had already been heated until they had softened, seasoned with salt and black pepper, finished with barely a splash of white balsamic vinegar and arranged on the plates
• the wine was an Oregon (Willamette Valley/Dundee Hills) white, Oregon Pinot Blanc 2016, ordered directly from Erath
• the music was Verdi’s 1847 opera, ‘Macbeth’, Claudio Abbado conducting the Milan Teatro alla Scala Orchestra and the Milan Teatro alla Scala Chorus, with Giovanni Foiani, Shirley Verrett, Stefania Malagú, Placido Domingo, among others

It came as a total surprise to me. I don’t really buy much corn of any kind, but on my first day back at the Union Square Greenmarket after a month away one of the first things I spotted was a striking small stack of huitlacoche-covered ears of organic corn in Tyler Dennis’ Alewife Farm stand.

Huitlacoche, or ‘corn smut’, is an ancient delicacy with a smoky, earthy flavor used to flavor Mexican dishes of many kinds, but I had never seen it before in the wild, so to speak.

I have no experience cooking Mexican dishes, but I do appreciate unusual ingredients, and remembering that pasta does as well, I decided I’d marry this precious fungus with an artisanal spaghetti, more or less making up my recipe as I went along.

It was every bit as interesting and delicious as I’d expected.

• nine ounces of an artisanal spaghetti (Pastificio Setaro F. Lli pasta di semola di grano duro, Lavorazione artigianale Torre Annunziata Napoli) from Buon Italia inside Chelsea Market, cooked al dente, tossed with a sauce made by sautéing one minced garlic clove from Stokes Farm and a small/medium spring red onion (picked up from Jersey Farm Produce that afternoon at our very local 23rd Street Chelsea Down to Earth Farmers Market) in a little olive oil inside a large antique copper pot until both had softened, adding a small minced section of a seeded fresh jalapeño chili pepper from our neighborhood Forager’s Market near the end, followed by 5 ounces of fresh huitlacoche cut from a rinsed ear of organic corn from Alewife Farm (I read that the black residue is okay, and in fact it’s the main objective, and that a bit of corn silk remaining is also no problem), plus the few kernels in their more familiar, original form, the fungi cooked slowly for about 10 minutes, or until soft, after which a little dried Sicilian oregano, dried Sicilian wild fennel seed, and some crushed smoked dried serrano pepper from Eckerton Hill Farm were added and the mix allowed to continue simmering for a couple of minutes, the drained spaghetti then tossed in and mixed with the sauce, some of the pasta water added and everything stirred over a medium-high flame until the liquid had emulsified, seasoned with sea salt to taste, the now-finished dish arranged in shallow bowls and garnished with toasted pine nuts from Buon Italia and chopped fresh parsley from Stokes Farm, a bit of olive oil drizzled around the edges
• the wine was an Oregon (Willamette Valley/Dundee Hills) red, Erath Oregon Pinot Noir 2016, ordered directly from Erath
• the music was Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s ‘Das Wunder der Heliane’, John Mauceri conducting the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Radio Chorus, with Nicolai Gedda, Hartmut Welker, Martin Petzold, Anna Tomowa-Sintow, and others 

Most of the time, a single entrée plate with several different things on it, will offer two or three different experiences, and occasionally even more, but once in a great while, at least in my experience, they will all come together as slightly different aspects of a whole. This is what happened last night, with this wonderful meal.

• one beautiful 11 and a half ounce swordfish steak from Pura Vida Seafood Company, halved, marinated inside a small antique rectangular ironstone serving dish for a little more than 30 minutes, turning once, in a mixture of a few tablespoons of olive oil, much of a teaspoon of a pungent dried Sicilian oregano, which is sold still attached to its stems at Buon Italia, a pinch of dried smoked serrano pepper from Eckerton Hill Farm, and a bit of thinly chopped garlic scapes from Norwich Meadows Farm, after which the swordfish was drained, both sides covered with a coating of homemade dried breadcrumbs and pan-grilled over medium-high heat for 3 or 4 minutes on each side, or until barely cooked to the center, removed from the pan and arranged on 2 plates, sprinkled with a little local Long Island sea salt (P.E. & D.D. Seafood), with some of the chopped green section of the scallion], drizzled with a bit of juice from a Whole Foods Market organic lemon and garnished with scissored garlic flowers from Alewife Farm (those very seasonal flowers were a small part of the preparation, but they make me very happy)

(those very seasonal flowers were a small part of the preparation, but they make me very happy)

• one pound of Red Pontiac new potatoes from Cherry Lane Farms that I had purchased exactly one month before, prior to our 3 weeks in Berlin (so, not so new, but they see to have even improved with ‘age’), boiled with a generous amount of salt until barely cooked through, drained, halved, dried while still in the still-warm vintage medium size Corning Pyrex Flameware blue-glass pot in which they had cooked, rolled around inside in a bit more than a tablespoon of Whole Foods Market house Portuguese olive oil, sprinkled with salt and freshly ground black pepper, garnished with scissored dill blossoms picked just the day before, from Lucky Dog Organic Farm

• one not very large head of Romanesco broccoli from Lucky Dog Organic Farm, broken up into florets, tossed with a little olive oil (not too much, to ensure some crispness and a carbonized finish), salt, pepper, and one crushed section of a dark dried habanada pepper, the mix spread onto a Pampered Chef unglazed ceramic pan and roasted at 400º for about 25 or 30 minutes, the outer leaves, trimmed, added just before the broccoli was removed from the oven, the mix stirred and arranged on the plates
• the wine was an Oregon (Willamette Valley) rosé, 2018 Oregon Rosé of Pinot Noir which we had ordered directly from Erath
• the music was a newy-discovered 1718 Neapolitan version of Handel’s ‘Rinaldo’, described as “a pastiche with a Mediterranean allure which Leonardo Leo assembled” 7 years after the premier of the original at the Queen’s Theater in London

It was the first meal I’d cooked in 24 days. We had returned from Berlin on Wednesday, the day before, too late for a visit the Union Square Greenmarket, and naturally there was nothing fresh in the kitchen, so we ordered a good pizza from one of our favorite kitchens.

Our next local market day wouldn’t be until Friday, so I scanned the GrowNYC site for the list of those open on Thursdays, and decided I’d head for Tucker Square the next afternoon. I knew there wouldn’t be any fish there (it’s a much smaller group of producers than that in Union Square), and I couldn’t be sure of what meats would be available, so I moved to the refrigerator the only entrée I had in the freezer.

It was a choice one.

• two previously frozen water buffalo filet steaks or tournedos (under 6 ounces each) from Riverine Ranch in the Union Square Greenmarket, wrapped with strips of fresh pork belly fat obtained from Joseph Ottomanelli, one of the brothers who run their family’s iconic shop on Bleecker Street (I separated the outer, skin layer from the one inch-wide sections on the kitchen counter, and secured the fat with both toothpicks and butcher’s string), dried with paper towels, pressed on both sides with one and a half teaspoons of crushed black peppercorns, sandwiched in wax paper and allowed to rest on the counter for over an hour before they were sautéed in a mixture of butter and olive oil inside an oval enameled cast iron pan for about 3 or 4 minutes each side, removed, seasoned at this point with sea salt and kept warm, the butter, oil, and accumulated meat fats removed from the pan and 2 teaspoons of a sliced ‘camelot’ Dutch red shallot from Quarton Farm added, along with a little butter, and stirred for just a minute, 2 or 3 tablespoons of a good beef stock poured in and boiled down, while scraping up the coagulated cooking juices, until thickened, followed by 2 tablespoons of Courvoisier V.S. cognac, which was also boiled until its alcohol evaporated, and then, off heat, one or two tablespoons of butter stirred nto the sauce (about half a tablespoon at a time), the sauce poured over the filets

• ten ripe sweet cherry tomatoes from Stokes Farm (‘the best cherry tomatoes‘), washed, dried, halved, heated for a minute in a little olive oil inside a small tin-lined copper skillet, seasoned with salt and pepper, sprinkled with fresh thyme from Stokes Farm

• a few handfuls of haricots verts from Stokes Farm, left whole, blanched, drained, dried in the same pan over low-medium heat, shaking, then set aside in a bowl until the steaks were almost finished, at which time they were reheated in a little oil inside a heavy well-seasoned cast iron pan, finished with salt and black pepper, and mixed with chopped parsley from Stokes Farm
• the wine was a French (Bordeaux) red, Châtean La Grolet, Côtes du Bourg 2017, from Astor Wines
• the music was Handel’s 1730 comic opera seria [sic (yeah, comic and serious)], ‘Partenope’, with Riccardo Minasi conducting Il Pomo d’Oro