We owe a good part of the two meals we enjoyed on Sunday, the proteins in particular, to the Plain People of eastern Pennsylvania, and, specifically, John Stoltzfoos and his family who operate Millport Dairy Farm in Lancaster County.

The day had begun with a breakfast which included both their eggs and their bacon. The picture below shows micro scallion from Two Guys from Woodbridge tossed on top of everything after the mixed herbs had been sprinkled on the eggs, but it was taken before dollops of the middle-eastern-style seasoning, L’eKama‘, the toast, or the thick bacon were added to the plate.

Dinner was a meal in which John’s family’s beef (pastured, grass-fed, like their chickens) was a featured attraction, along with some great vegetables.

• one 14-ounce New York strip steak from Millport Dairy, dried, pan-grilled to medium rare, drizzled with a squeeze of lemon and a little olive oil, purple micro radish from Windfall Farm scattered on top
• black cherry tomatoes from Berried Treasures, slow-roasted with a generous amount of dried Italian oregano from Buon Italia, olive oil, and two halved organic garlic cloves from Race Farm
• broccoli rabe from Alewife Farm, wilted in olive oil flavored with bruised garlic from Race Farm, seasoned with salt and pepper, divided onto 2 plates and drizzled with more olive oil
• the wine was a California (Sonoma) red, Jim Olsen and Tom Shula Pickberry Merlot 2014
• the music was ‘Clouds of Forgetting, Clouds of Unknowing’, by John Luther Adams, and we listened to it on a CD from New World Records, not to go retro, but mostly just because we could, and also because we just wanted to make sure the CD player still worked, since we have thousands of disks.

We started with a simple course of salume…

• slices of La Quercia Lomo (which turns out to be not just a Spanish thing, viz. lonza di maiale stagionata) from Whole Foods, drizzled with a very small amount of a very good olive oil, Campania D.O.P. Penisola Sorrentina ‘Syrenum’
• arugula from Alewife Farm, dressed with the same oil, Maldon salt and freshly-ground black pepper
• slices of an ‘olive demi baguette’ from Hot Bread Kitchen in the Greenmarket

 

…and finished with a simple course of pasta.

• 10 ounces of Afeltra pasta di gragnano fusilli con buco from Eataly, cooked al dente, served with a simple fresh sauce which began with 3 minced cloves of garlic from Race Farm added to a bit of olive oil insiode a large enameled cast iron pot with at least 2 cups of tender garlic scapes from Berried Treasures Farm, cut into 2-inch lengths, sautéed for 3-4 minutes, part of one Chinese cucumber from Norwich Meadows Farm, sliced into bite-size pieces, sautéed in olive oil in a separate pan until lightly browned added to the pot, then a little butter and most of the juice of one organic lemon added to the pan, the drained pasta tossed in, along with the zest from that same lemon once the butter had melted and a little chopped peppermint from Lani’s Farm, everything stirred over low heat, during which time some reserved cooking water was added to help emulsify it, seasoned with salt and pepper, and scattered with purple micro radish sprouts from Windfall Farms

 

• the wine throughout the meal was an Italian (Umbria, Orvieto) white, Castagnolo Secco Classico Superiore ‘Barberani’ 2014
• the music was Q2 Music, streaming, and included Esa-Pekka Salonen’s ‘Five Images After Sappho’, with Dawn Upshaw, which can be heard here

The picture looks great, but it doesn’t tell everything.

The ingredients, and the recipes too, were excellent, but I’ll be honest: I made two blunders in the cooking process, although neither was much of a disaster, even a culinary disaster.

The hake fillet was pretty thick, thicker than those I normally have, and I underestimated the time it would require to cook. I had separated it into 2 pieces after I thought it was done, and they were already on the plates before I realized I was premature, so I quickly flipped off the garnish and returned them to the pan for another minute or so, replacing the micro scallions when they were returned.

The vegetables were also less than perfectly cooked, since I had let the chopped turnip, sautéed ahead of the others, get too carbonized, somewhat compromising enjoyment of the larger mix. The solution would be to simply pick out the more charred pieces, and it almost worked.

• one 13-ounce hake fillet from Pura Vida Fisheries, dredged in seasoned flour and dipped in a beaten egg from Millport Dairy, sautéed in butter along with a handful of marjoram leaves from Stokes Farm, drizzled with lemon juice and the pan juices that remained, sprinkled with some beautiful micro scallion from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• ten or so small purple Hinona Kabu turnips from Tamarack Hollow Farm, scrubbed, cut into small pieces, sautéed in olive oil inside a large enameled cast iron pan, followed by segments of a small fennel bulb, and cut some stems, from Stokes Farm, segments of a Chinese cucumber from Norwich Meadows Farm, and part of a small red Calabrian pepper, finely chopped, from Campo Rosso Farm, all cooked until beginning to caramelize, then seasoned with salt and pepper, sprinkled with chopped parsley from Keith’s Farm and chopped fennel frond, arranged on plates and drizzled with olive oil
• the wine was a Spanish (Rueda) white, Naia D.O. Rueda 2014, from Verdejo old vines
• the music was Q2 Music, streaming