It was a warm evening.

The first course never got anywhere near a stove.

I was very fortunate in the greens I had been able to bring home from Union Square on Friday: They were a perfect, spicy foil to the headiness of the smoky pork.

None of the elements of the second course spent more than a few minutes on the top of the range.

I had constructed the meal around the second course, a beautiful piece of fresh wild salmon that I was determined to cook without using the oven, and the rest of the meal had to go with the same proviso. Fortunately there were no taste sacrifices anywhere along the line.

• thinly-sliced Alto Adige Speck from Eataly, each piece rolled around the tines of a fork and put on a plate, drizzled with some very good olive oil from Campania, accompanied by a handful of semi-wild flowering cress from Lucky Dog Organic Farm dressed with the same oil, a little white balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper
• slices of a She Wolf Bakery sourdough baguette

 

• the salmon was prepared in a manner slightly modified from this interesting Melissa Clark recipe, using one fresh wild 14-ounce sockeye salmon fillet from Whole Foods, marinated in the refrigerator in a covered dish for about 4 hours while coated on both sides with a mix of light brown turbinado sugar, sea salt, freshly ground tellicherry pepper, freshly ground allspice, freshly ground nutmeg, and the zest of half of an organic lemon from Whole Foods, after which the fish was rinsed, patted dry, brought to room temperature, oiled generously, and cooked on an enameled grill pan, flesh side down, removed, dusted with dried Pollen Ranch Dill Pollen, sprinkled with chopped fresh dill from from Bodhitree Farm, drizzled with olive oil and served with lemon wedges, organic, from Whole Foods
• two Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods, sliced, mixed with olive oil, salt, pepper, and chopped basil from Tamarack Hollow Farm
• flat green pole beans from Norwich Meadows Farm, blanched, drained and dried, then reheated in oil, mixed with chopped red-tinged Japanese scallions from Norwich Meadows Farm, and finished with salt, pepper, and chopped lovage from Bodhitree Farm

There were cherries, from Kernan Farms.

• the wine was a California (Lodi) rosé, Karen Birmingham Rosé Lodi 2015
• the music was Q2 Music, streaming