It’s beautiful, and the recipe I used this time let me keep the skin on, but then the steak had to end up on the plates skin side down, so there was that.
- one beautiful section of salmon fillet, a piece of a wild, almost rainbow trout-like flanked, bright red fleshed, 16-ounce Copper River sockeye, fresh, never frozen, MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) certified (the story is complicated), a delight from Chelsea Whole Foods Market, placed unseasoned, skin side up, inside a heavy enameled cast iron pan in which a little more than 2 tablespoons of a rich butter (Organic Valley ‘Cultured Pasture Butter’, now almost the only one I ever use) had been allowed to heat until the foam began to recede, the fish then placed inside a 425º oven until barely cooked, or about 8 minutes, flipped over after 5, removed, arranged on the plates, sprinkled with some local Long Island sea salt (P.E. & D.D. Seafood/Phil Karlin’s own), freshly-ground black pepper, chopped fresh dill from Stokes Farm, and the tiny flower buds of a blossoming onion from Norwich Meadows Farm, allowed to rest for a couple minutes before serving
- two small red spring onions from Mountain Sweet Berry Farm, sliced, heated in olive oil inside a heavy large antique high-sided tin-lined copper pot until softened, several small Korean cucumbers from Campo Rosso Farm, chopped into one-inch sections, added and sautéed until beginning to brown on each side, seasoned with salt and pepper and garnished with lovage from Keith’s Farm
- two handfuls of beautiful red-vein tender spring spinach from Norwich Meadows Farm, washed in several changes of water, drained, very gently wilted (not reduced too far) inside a heavy small antique copper pot in a little olive oil in which one large clove of spring garlic from Michisk’s Farm in Flemington, NJ, quartered, had first been allowed to sweat, seasoned with salt, black pepper, drizzled with a little organic lemon from Whole Foods Market, and a bit more of the olive oil
- the wine was a German (Mosel/Trier-Saarburg/Longuich) red, Thomas Schmitt 2015 Private Collection Estate Bottled Qualitätswein Pinot Noir, from Copake Wine Works
- the music was Eötvös’ extraordinarily rich 2013 opera, ‘Paradise Reloaded (Lilith)’, discussed here on Opera News