fennel/chili-coated tuna; roasted potatoes; rapini; cheese

Another anniversary!

At least partly because we’re living in the mythical state of sin, we celebrate not one, but five anniversaries: our meeting, the ‘magic meal’, declarations of love, exchange of rings, and happy-ever-after cohabitation.

It’s a series that stretches from 4/27/91 to 1/6/93, and since they don’t show up chronologically within a single year (unless we find a way to make every year last slightly more than 20 months), there will always be some confusion as the dates come up. This meal marked the anniversary of the first, the night we met, but only days before we had celebrated one that had occurred a year after the one we observed last night.

Fortunately the meal turned out almost as well as the event 27 years back.

  • one Yellowfin tuna steak (just under 16 ounces) off of Scott Rucky’s fishing vessel, ‘Dakota’, from Pura Vida Seafood Company, halved, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper and rubbed, tops and bottoms, with a mixture of dry Sicilian fennel seed from Buon Italia that had been crushed in a samll mortar and pestle with a little dried peperoncino Calabresi secchi, also from Buon Italia, pan-grilled above a brisk flame (for barely a minute on each side), finished on the plates with a good squeeze of the juice of an organic lemon from Whole Foods Market and some Whole Foods house Portuguese olive oil, garnished with micro scallions from Two Guys from Woodbridge

  • ‘Magic Molly‘ fingerling potatoes (this time barely 7 ounces) from Mountain Sweet Berry Farm, washed, scrubbed, left unpeeled, dried, sliced lengthwise, mixed inside a bowl with a little olive oil, sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper, a piece of crushed dried orange/gold habanada pepper, and 2 stems of very fresh rosemary leaves from Stokes Farm, roasted at 375º for abour 25 minutes, garnished with some beautiful micro red mustard from Two Guys from Woodbridge

  • most of a large bunch of broccoli rabe (aka rapini) from Migliorelli Farm, wilted in a little olive oil inside a large antique high-sided tin-lined copper pot in which 2 small sliced spring garlic stems from Windfall Farms had been heated until slightly softened, the greens seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, divided onto the plates and drizzled with more olive oil

It’s now too late in the year to find mature garlic heads from the last one from our local farmers at the Greenmarket, but fortunately fresh alternatives have already begun appearing. Last night was the first time I had ever substituted fresh for dry in preparing greens, and the result was very very tasty.

There was a small cheese course, and because it had charmed me in the main course, I decided to throw in some of the micro red mustard.

  • ‘Manchester’ goat cheese from Consider Bardwell Farm
  • micro red mustard from Two Guys from Woodbridge
  • dried Italian figs from Buon Italia in Chelsea Market