crab cakes, tomato-mint-chili salsa; asparagus with thyme

crab_cake_asparagus

The Greenmarket-sourced crab cakes were as wonderful as always, and they hit it off with the radish micro greens; the salsa was a little different from so many earlier versions, and the ingredients somewhat more eccentric; and I think the addition of thyme sprigs worked pretty well with the excellent roasted local asparagus, shown below before it went into the oven.

asparagus_thyme_roasted

  • two crab cakes from PE & DD Seafood (the ingredients are crab, egg, flour, red & green peppers, garlic, salt, pepper, breadcrumbs, mayonnaise, milk, celery, and parsley), heated in a heavy copper pan, 3 to 4 minutes to each side, served on a salsa composed of 6 Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods, which had been chopped and combined with salt, freshly-ground black pepper, a bit of homemade French Basque piment d’Espellate we had purchased in a small town north of Baie-Comeau, Quebec last year from the producer’s daughter, some dried Itria-Sirissi chili, peperoncino di Sardegna intero from Buon Italia, chopped peppermint from Lani’s Farm, some chopped stems of ramps from Berried Treasures, the crab cakes finished with a sprinkling of radish micro greens from Two Guys From Woodbridge
  • eighteen asparagus spears from Phillips Farm, trimmed, the stems of the larger stalks peeled, then rolled, along with a handful of thyme sprigs, in a little more than a tablespoon of olive oil and a little sea salt, roasted at 425-450º for about 15 to 20 minutes, removed to two plates, the juice of an organic lemon squeezed over the top
  • the wine was an Oregon (Willamette) white, Scott Kelley Pinot Gris Willamette 2015
  • the music was Mozart’s Divertimenti Nos. 10 and 11, Sandor Vegh directing the Camerata Salzburg