I won’t make extravagant claims about its visual aesthetic, but I will say that this was an incredibly delicious meal, and that was something of a surprise, since while I was preparing it I thought I was merely emptying the ice box and the cupboards prior to our leaving the city for five days.
I’ve already written about both the quality and the elegant utility of these superb crab cakes.
I also always think of these small, lightly-breaded savory patties as a perfect excuse for serving two or three interesting vegetables, and at least as many fresh herbs, especially since they require absolutely no preparation themselves.
- crab cakes from PE & DD Seafood (ingredients: crab, egg, flour, red & green peppers, garlic, salt, pepper, breadcrumbs, mayonnaise, milk, celery, parsley), heated in a heavy iron pan, 3 to 4 minutes to each side, sprinkled with ramp fruit (yup, ramp fruit, or maybe ‘seed pods’, or ‘bud heads’) from Berried Treasures which had been sautéed in the small cast iron pan along with the crab, served on a bed of a fresh tomato sauce composed of a single large golden heirloom tomato from Stokes Farm, chopped and combined with salt, pepper, and basil leaves torn off of a plant (Full Bloom Market Garden, Whately, Ma.) brought home from Whole Foods
- one bunch of agretti (which grows along the sea, and is a great accompaniment for seafood) from Tamarack Hollow Farm, washed, trimmed, the larger stems removed (although, as it happened, not sufficiently, stems, as Barry has observed, being the bones of good vegetables) then boiled for about 15 minutes, drained, set aside, later heated in olive oil and arranged on plates, where it was squeezed with lemon juice and given a drizzle of olive oil
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early red onions from Tamarack Hollow Farm, washed, halved lengthwise, rolled in seasoned olive oil, pan grilled, then dusted with torn tarragon leaves from Stokes Farm
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the wine was an Oregon white, Montinore Estate Willamette Valley Pinot Gris 2014
- the music was streamed from Q2, and it included works by Donnacha Dennehy, Magnus Lindberg, Peteris Vasks, and Peter Schroeder