Month: January 2017

  • sea perch and anchovy sauce; carrots with thyme, oregano

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    It’s a beautiful fish, with a delicate red skin, although the color mostly disappears with cooking. New York venders (and restaurants?) sometimes call it ‘redfish’, but usually it’s ‘sea perch’ or ‘ocean perch’, even if it bears little resemblance to the fresh water perch I grew up with around the Great Lakes.  The brilliant color of its scales…

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  • steak, gorgonzola butter, micro radish; fingerlings, herbs

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    While there was both a primo and a secondo, it was still a very low-stress meal to prepare, probably helping to explain why it turned out so totally delicious.   The first course was very simple. a small amount of leftover celeriac pasta from Tuesday, arranged in shallow bowls with a little upland cress from Two…

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  • sautéed garlic-herb-marinated Squeteague; collards, garlic

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    This is a wonderful fish, and the simple recipe I used last night allows its own virtues to be fully savored. The image immediately below is of the fillets in the marinade, and the bowl of uncooked washed and cut greens). two 7 1/2-ounce fillets of Squeteague (aka ‘Weakfish’ or Sea/Ocean Trout) from American Seafood Company, marinated for…

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  • penne, celeriac, alliums, Speck, chives, parsley, Parmesan

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    It was to be one of those intervals between nights which featured meat or fish, and it was going to be either a frittata or a pasta. The decision was made shortly after I began burrowing around in my vegetable inventory. There I found a tidy cache of celery root, and not much more. Looking around on the internet,…

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  • knusprige Schweinshaxn; Kartoffelklöße; Blaukraut

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    [aka crispy pork knuckles, potato dumplings, red cabbage]   Somewhere, while doing research for this meal, I came across a reference to a Bavarian proverb intended to reassure a cook worried about how large a knuckle to use: ‘‘S is ned, wia grous’ s is, aba wia guad’ s is.‘, it goes, at least as I translated it…

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  • beet fusilli, onion, celery, chilis, bread crumbs, tiny arugula

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    We love the innovative pastas, often with locally-sourced-ingredients, produced by Brooklyn’s Sfoglini Pasta Shop, and this beet fusilli was no exception, but, and it’s entirely to their credit, I’ve come to the conclusion that the ‘flavored’ products especially can best be appreciated with a minimum of additions. This also makes them ideal as a quickly-prepared and impactful primo.…

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  • mushroom pasta, celery, leek, habanada, pinoli, arugula

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    We had planned to go out to dinner with visiting relatives this night, but after the exertions of the Women’s March they had begged off, pleading fatigue. There was no time to pick up the ingredients for a substitute, but fortunately I had a package of very good pasta in the freezer, which I try to…

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  • grilled whole porgy, mint, chive, parsley, lemon; red kale

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    I don’t often cook a whole fish. I’m very comfortable with cooking these wonderful creatures, but a whole fish still seems a little scary. Actually, after the experience of this meal, I realize that it’s the process of filleting that may be the most frightening part. There’s also the thing about how I ended up…

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  • sülze; gemüsesuppe [headcheese; vegetable soup]

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    It was a very German meal, for no particular reason. Thinking about it retroactively however, I could say there was the relationship between the date (the eve of an installation of a proto-fascist regime in Washington) and the historical memory which recalls the food culture of the nation which was the last one to pass over that line. It…

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  • roasted squid, oregano, chili, habanada, lemon; pak choy

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    It was like they’d known each other all their lives; the cephalopods and the pak choy got along famously last night, after only a few minutes of acquaintance, er, ..prep. Anything fresh and green is hugely appreciated at farmers’ markets in January, so this beautiful vegetable must have gone fast. It was almost mid-afternoon when I arrived at…

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