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

It was wonderful.

And it tasted as spectacular as it looks.

Interestingly, it was assembled with huge portions of serendipity.

The first thing I did at the Union Square Greenmarket yesterday was buy the second-last bunch of the first asparagus I had seen this season, inside the first farmer’s stall just inside the entrance.

My next stop was the fishmonger’s, where I picked out 2 beautiful fillets of very fresh flounder, the perfect size for a meal for two, and also for the large oval steel pan that I would be using for the first time ever.

I hadn’t intended to buy mushrooms that day, but I wanted to show Joe Rizzo of Blue Oyster Cultivation pictures of what had become of the ones I had picked up last week (seen in this meal and this). There I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw what he had on the table that day.

These pink oyster mushrooms had to become a part of the meal I was assembling in my head. Joe told me a lot about them, including the fact that the color turns slightly brown when cooked, and that they should be cooked longer than other mushroom varieties normally require. What he didn’t tell me was how extraordinarily delicious they were, or that they would end up tasting a bit like, and looking much like, cooked shellfish (lobster, or, better, crawfish), at least when prepared with the recipe which became my next happy chance.

Tomatoes too!

Pierre Franey was a legend while he lived, and even in death (he died in 1996, at 71, shortly after suffering a stroke while giving a shipboard cooking demonstration aboard the QE2). He seems to have had a way of making superb meals accessible to home cooks, and this particular (undated) recipe, ‘Flounder Filets With Mushrooms and Tomatoes’, which I found while searching ‘flounder’ and ‘mushrooms’, would support that proposition.

Finally, I had a decent supply of spring ramps to recreate a recipe for asparagus that I had used a year ago, and just the right amount of firm, ripe sort-of-local tomatoes (substituting for Franey’s “4 ripe plum tomatoes”) to assemble his entrée, plus a few extras for the whole, like spring garlic, herbs, a micro green garnish, all of it from the bounty of local farmers at the Greenmarket.

The plate looks both traditional and modern, and that pretty much describes what the meal tasted like. Is it French? Where does it fit in the chronology of culinary fashion? The questions are interesting, but not really very important, although I think that with a very few refinements, and if the size of the entrée were hugely reduced until it occupied only the center of the plate, it could pass for haute cuisine (par un amateur). But then I’d have to prepare more courses.

• *this is my slightly-altered arrangement of Pierre Franey’s original recipe: 3 ounces of pungent pink oyster mushrooms (aka ‘pleurotus djamor‘, or ‘pink flamingo oyster mushrooms’) from Blue Oyster Cultivation, “cut into small cubes” (Franey), added to a large antique, high-sided copper pot in which one tablespoon of olive oil and one tablespoon of butter had been heated, sautéed over medium high heat until cooked medium brown (I’m acknowledging Franey’s admonition to “cook briefly”, but apparently these particular mushrooms have to be cooked beyond the stage most others would, or they will have a sour taste), 2 teaspoons of chopped spring garlic from John D. Madura Farm mixed in and softened but not browned, followed by 8 Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods Market, each cut into 8 pieces, one tablespoon of juice from an organic Whole Foods Market lemon, 2 sprigs of thyme from Stokes Farm, some sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste, the pot removed from heat and kept warm while two rinsed and drained 7-ounce flounder fillets from P.E. & D.D. Seafood, first seasoned on both with salt and pepper, were dipped, both sides, onto a platter spread with 4 or 5 tablespoons of black sesame seeds (I had no tan seeds in the spice cupboard, and as it turned out, for both taste and aesthetic reasons, I’m glad I didn’t), laid inside a very large, seasoned 17-inch steel vintage oval skillet*, over high heat without crowding, once another tablespoon each of olive oil and butter had been heated but not allowed to smoke, the fish cooked over high heat, turning once, “until fillets and seeds are lightly browned on both sides” (this is the catch if you’re using black seeds, so I could only use my judgment here; I probably cooked them only 4 minutes, but the time would vary depending on the thickness of the fillets), arranged on 2 plates and partially covered with the reserved warm sauce that I then sprinkled with chopped parsley from Phillips Farm, the fillets themselves garnished with micro scallions from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• *some 18 or so asparagus from Central Valley Farm (10 to 12 ounces total), of various sizes, plus the white sections (green leaves removed) of an equal number of early-season ramps (the bulbs grow larger as their short season advances through the spring) from Mountain Sweet Berry Farm, along with 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, roasted in a 425º oven for about 25 minutes, but toward the end of that time the reserved green ramp leaves, roughly-sliced, were thrown onto the top and pushed around a bit just before the asparagus and ramp white sections had finished cooking, and when all was cooked the asparagus mix was removed to 2 plates and drizzled with juice from an organic Whole Foods Market lemon
• the wine was a California (Sonoma) white, Matt Iaconis Chardonnay Napa Valley 2016, from Naked Wines
• *the music was a  magnificent performance of Schubert’s Piano Quintet in A major, D. 667 ‘The Trout’, with the performers Anne-Sophie Mutter, Daniil Trifonov, Hwayoon Lee, Maximilian Hornunz, and Roman Patkoló (these players obviously really like doing this, and they’re very, very good at it)

 

*

here’e another, closeup shot (couldn’t decide which image to use, so I uploaded both)

It was great.

The story behind this meal began about 2 weeks ago, when I stopped by Walter Adam‘s farm stall in the Union Square Greenmarket, mostly to say hello. I didn’t really need any lamb at the time, but I asked him if he carried racks of lamb. He said he couldn’t give me a straight answer because, while he did, and had 2 on dry ice right there, there was a catch: HIs butcher had neither fully trimmed them nor cut through the chines, the latter  making them very difficult to cut and serve, so they were going to  be a very hard sell. He must have suspected I could spare the time for, do the research on, and be up to the task of, a ‘post-butchering’ operation, so he offered me a very good price if I would take both of the 8-ribbed frozen roasts he had on dry ice in his cooler.

I couldn’t resist the opportunity. Also, it seemed a chance to relive my years of home schooling with Julia Child’s books and their meat diagrams.

As the days passed by, realizing the weather might soon be too warm to really enjoy an oven roast, even a short-termer, I started looking for an opportunity to enjoy the challenge and the fruit of the challenge.

Until yesterday afternoon I had no idea how I was going to perform the operation. Originally I thought I’d have to use a small antique   meat saw I own. Searching about on line I was disabused of the notion, but I wasn’t satisfied with any of the advise I did see, and I had almost given up when I came across 2 sites that [only when viewed together] gave me what I needed. The first was this page of the Leiths Cookery School site, but I didn’t understand the chine bone removal part until I watched this video on Martha Stewart’s site.

I was pretty happy with myself.

Most of the recipe I used last night comes from Martha Stewart as well.

• *one 20-ounce rack of baby lamb from Shannon Brook Farm, the weight reduced to sixteen ounces after I had trimmed it (removing the ‘bark’, or skin covering the fat; cutting off all excess fat; ‘Frenching’, conservatively, and cleaning the ribs of all meat and fat; removing the rubbery tendon that runs along the spine; cutting out the chine altogether), then returned it to the refrigerator, from which it was later transferred to the kitchen counter and allowed to come to room temperature, cut into two 4-rib sections, the oven set to 475º (but reduced to 375º when the lamb was put into the oven), seasoned generously with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, one tablespoon of olive oil heated inside a small heavy, enameled cast iron pan until hot but not smoking, the lamb placed inside to brown, the arced, bone side down first, then all the other surfaces in turn, about one minute per side, removed and then all sides but the ends rolled in a shallow bowl which held a mixture of one fourth of a cup of yellow mustard seeds and 2 teaspoons of Sicilian fennel seeds that had been toasted together inside a large vintage seasoned cast iron skillet over medium heat until the seeds had become fragrant, when they had been immediately transferred to that bowl to cool slightly, the meat now returned to the skillet, from which most of the fat had been poured out, and transferred to the oven (now set at 375º0, roasted until a thermometer inserted into the center of the lamb registered 135º, or medium-rare, or roughly 20-24 minutes, removed from the oven and the pan, allowed to stand at least 10 minutes, each of the 2 sections cut into double chops and drizzled with Whole Foods Market house Portuguese olive oil, garnished with micro red mustard from Two Guys from Woodbridge

• *one pound of so of Peter Wilcox potatoes (purple skin, golden flesh) from Tamarack Hollow Farm. scrubbed, skins left on, halved, tossed with a little olive oil, sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper, rosemary leaves from Stokes Farm, a few fresh sage leaves from Citarella Market, and a dusting of dried myrtle (It. Mirto), leaves, from Buon Italia,  arranged, cut side down, on a large Pampered Chef unglazed ceramic pan, roasted at 375º for about 30 minutes, garnished with micro scallion from Two Guys from Woodbridge

• five or 6 ounces of delicious young spinach plants from Migliorelli Farm, the bottom of their root ends removed, washed in several changes of water, drained, very gently wilted (that is, not reduced too far) inside a large, very heavy, antique, high-sided tin-lined copper pot in a little olive oil in which one cut up stem of spring garlic from John D. Madura Farm had first been allowed to soften, the spinach seasoned with sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper, finished on the plates drizzled with a little juice of a Whole Foods Market organic lemon and a bit more of the olive oil
• *the wine was an Italian (Sicily) red, Tenuta delle Terre Nere Etna Rosso 2016, from Garnet Wines 
• the music was the John Luther Adams string quartet, ‘Everything That Rises’

The Mediterranean, host to so many Alliums and Fennels: what a blessed world.

This breakfast was something of a hodgepodge. It was also more easily prepared than most described on this blog, because several of the extras were just sitting by, having already been prepared while I was assembling dinners in the last few days (to wit: the end of a batch of washed and dried lovage; sauté-softened spring garlic; and both the stems and fronds of some bronze fennel)

• the ingredients were 4 slices of Flying Pigs smoked bacon; Organic Valley ‘Cultured Pasture Butter’; Whole Foods Market house brand Portuguese olive oil; Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’, also from Whole Foods Market; chopped lovage from Two Guys from Woodbridge on the tomatoes; Americauna chicken eggs; sea salt; freshly-ground black pepper; spring garlic from John D. Madura Farm, partially-cooked earlier, tossed into the pan with the eggs; both finely-chopped bronze fennel stems and chopped fronds on the egg yolks; wild Sicilian fennel pollen from Buon Italia, also on the yolks; micro scallion fronds from Two guys as a garnish; toasted whole wheat sourdough miche from Bread Alone Bakery

cook’s critique: I can’t be relied upon to deliver fried eggs with all of their yolks intact, and this time 2 of the 6 ran the moment I cracked them into the pan, so next time I may try an end run (look at me, using a sports idiom!), cracking them gently into a bowl and then slipping them into the pan)

• our Sunday music was the ECM New Series album, ‘In Paradisum: Music of Victoria and Palestrina’, performed by The Hilliard Ensemble