Steak and potatoes.

Local beef and potatoes might be expected in a winter farmer’s market, but there was also chard – from eastern Pennsylvania – and this was early March.

• one thick grass-fed New York strip steak (15.5 ounces) purchased from John Stoltzfoos at his family’s Millport Dairy Farm stall in the Union Square Greenmarket, brought to room temperature, dried, grilled inside a small cast iron closely-ribbed pan (seasoned on both sides only after each had been seared) over a medium-high flame, until medium rare, cut into 2 servings, each sprinkled with a little juice from a local lemon grown by Fantastic Gardens of Long Island, followed by a little chopped rosemary from Eataly and a drizzle of olive oil, the steak allowed to rest a very few minutes before being served
• one Carola potato (it was the only one left) from Max Creek Hatchery, scrubbed, left unpeeled, cut into 8 wedges which were tossed in a small bowl with a little olive oil, one unpeeled garlic clove from John D. Madura Farm, salt, pepper, and a section of a home-dried heatless, orange/gold Habanada pepper (purchased fresh from Norwich Meadows Farm last fall), arranged on a small Pampered Chef unglazed ceramic pan, roasted at about 375º for about 20 minutes, or until the potatoes had softened and begun to color, arranged on the plates, sprinkled with homemade breadcrumbs (browned a little earlier in a little olive oil with a pinch of salt), a small amount of cut lengths of chives from Phillips Farm arranged on top
• rainbow chard from Eckerton Hill Farm, wilted in a little olive oil in which some small garlic cloves from Trader Joe’s had been heated, finished with a squeeze of juice from the same local lemon used on the steak, some crushed dried dried Itria-Sirissi chili, peperoncino di Sardegna intero, from Buon Italia
• the wine was a California (vineyards from throughout the state) red, Matt Iaconis California Red Wine 2015, from Naked Wines
• the music was Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, his ‘Harmonia artificioso-ariosa, partitas No. 1-7’, performed by Jeanne Lamon conducting Tafelmusik

Some of our plates are looking a little brighter these days, like spring, if not summer.

It helps that I can find great tomatoes, almost local (from Maine, near Skowhegan, and pretty ‘green’), all winter long.

I chose this ‘tomato butter’ treatment for the fish last night because it can be prepared pretty quickly, and because, not needing a breading, it doesn’t involve several extra bowls and processes; also, it ends a delicious recipe.

There were other vegetables as well.

• two 8-ounce flounder fillets from American Seafood Company, lightly seasoned, cooked with the flesh side down for about 2 minutes in olive oil and butter inside a heavy enameled cast iron pan over medium-high heat, turning once and cooking for another minute or so, placed on the plates, a couple of spoonfuls of ‘tomato butter’ [see below] arranged down the center of each fillet, finished with a sprinkling of halved lengths of chives from Phillips Farm
• tomato butter, begun by cooking one finely-chopped small shallot from Norwich Meadows Farm inside a small pan with 2 or 3 tablespoons of melted butter until the shallot was slightly soft and fragrant, letting the flavored butter cool slightly before being poured over 4 ounces of Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods, cut into eighths, adding 2 tablespoons of a mix of almost each of the fresh herbs on hand, chopped (red thyme from Phillips Farm, mint, sage, and Italian parsley from Eataly), the mix seasoned with salt (I usually add a few drops of good Spanish Rioja wine vinegar, but did not do so this time)
• a handful of ‘French Breakfast’ radish greens from Eckerton Hill Farm, wilted in olive oil in which 2 small garlic cloves (very much not local: from Argentina, via Trader Joe’s, but it is March, and I hadn’t put up any preserves last year) had been allowed to sweat for a bit, the greens seasoned with salt, pepper and a bit more olive oil
• four banana fingerlings from Norwich Meadows Farm, scrubbed, left unpeeled, boiled in well-salted water, drained and dried in the warm pot, rolled in butter, salt, pepper, and one chopped spring garlic from Norwich Meadows Farm, scattered with some micro purple radish from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• the wine was a California (Lodi) white, David Akiyoshi Reserve Chardonnay 2015
• the music included brilliant works by 2 women, Kristin Norderval’s album, ‘Aural Histories’, and Olga Neuwirth’s ‘Lost Highway’, and with that report for March 8, we will note that every day is Women’s Day!

Trying to distinguish the sheep from the goat.

I enjoy the occasional innards, and kidneys may be my favorite, but last night was the first time I had prepared (or eaten, for that matter), goat kidneys. I have to say they weren’t much different from, and at least as good as, those of their fellow bovids.

What was different, making the dish more enjoyable than ever, was the fact that, I think for the first time ever, I had some dry Marsala in the house, so I was able to prepare the kidneys exactly as I had always wanted to (I normally use a white wine). The sauce was even more delicious than it looks in the picture.

Making a note to the cook: if there’s going to be sauce, think twice before excluding potatoes from the meal; fortunately this time I had exactly the small number I wanted on hand, four fingerlings not needed for a previous meal.

• four goat kidneys, totaling 8 oz, from Consider Bardwell Farm, sautéed in butter (in this case in a tin-lined copper pan) until brown all over on the outside but still very rare in the center (about 4-5 minutes, turning every minute or so), removed and kept warm while introducing into the pan one large sliced garlic clove from Healthway Farms & CSA, cooking it for one minute, adding just under a quarter cup of Florio Fine (dry) Marsala, and reducing the wine by half over high heat, quickly slicing the kidneys in the meantime, removing the pan from the burner and slowly swirling into it 2 tablespoons of chilled butter, salt, and pepper, returning the sliced kidneys and all of their juices to the pan, sprinkling sauce and kidneys with chopped parsley from Eataly, then carefully warming the sauce over very low heat for a minute or two to warm them without allowing the sauce to simmer, arranging the sauced kidneys on 2 plates and scattering some micro purple radish from Two Guys from Woodbridge on the side
• four Red French fingerlings (less than 8 ounces) from Race Farm, halved lengthwise, tossed with a little olive oil, salt, pepper, rosemary leaves from Whole Foods, a little chopped sage from Eataly, and a small amount of crushed orange-gold home-dried habanada pepper (acquired fresh last season from Norwich meadows Farm), arranged cut side down on a small Pampered Chef unglazed ceramic pan, roasted at about 375º for 15 0r 20 minutes, sprinkled with cut chives from Phillips Farm
• most of one bunch of collard greens from Phillips Farm, stripped of most of their stems, torn into small sections, washed several times and drained, transferred to a smaller bowl very quickly, in order to retain as much of the water clinging to them as possible, braised inside a heavy oval enameled cast iron pot in which 2 halved garlic cloves from from Healthway Farms & CSA had first been allowed to sweat in some olive oil, finished with salt, pepper, a little crushed dried Sardinian pepperoncino from Buon Italia, and a drizzle of olive oil

There was a small cheese course.

• the cheeses all from Consider Bardwell Farm, were, from the bottom,‘Manchester’ goat milk, ‘Bark’ cow cheese (“bloomy rind pasteurized, wrapped in spruce bark”, and aged in Brooklyn), and ‘Barden’ blue cow cheese
• slices of a delicious small, seedy baguette, ‘Mediterraneo’ from Eataly
• the wine through this part of the meal was a wonderful California (Clarksburg) red, David Akiyoshi Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Clarksburg 2014

We ended with some delicious small Satuma mandarins.

• the music throughout was various pieces by violinist, composer, and héros de la république, Joseph Boulogne, Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745-1799), ‘Le Mozart Noir’, performed by Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra under the direction of Music Director Emerita Jeanne Lamon

1788 portrait of Saint-Georges by William Ward, after Mather Brown, mezzotint on laid paper, now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

I came across an old printout for this recipe minutes before I began to cook dinner tonight [I had probably transcribed it from this site, but I took some liberties with its text]. Since it was a little more time-consuming than most of my treatments I use for this great fish, it meant that we ate a little later than either of us had hoped we would, but the meal was really so extraordinary that, I think, neither of us minded very much.

I mean, it was really really delicious.

Especially as I think about it now, I imagine it has more than a little bit of Basque – or Spanish – in it, so the wine the house sommelier pulled out of the rack, a Galician Albariño, wasn’t just a good pairing, but also pretty ‘right’ for the meal.

The fish was hake, a species much loved in Spain, and with good reason, and the roasted vegetable dish included potatoes, leeks, olives, garlic, lemon, dried no-heat habanero peppers, and a Basque piment.

The image below shows the vegetables just prior to being put into the oven, but it was taken before the olives, the final seasoning with salt and pepper, and the last drizzle of olive oil was added.

• the white and lighter green sections of 3 leeks from Phillips Farm, trimmed, halved lengthwise, thoroughly washed free of dirt, kept intact as possible; 10 ounces of red French fingerlings from Race Farm, halved lengthwise; 10 pitted black oil-cured olives from Buon Italia, roughly chopped; 2 teaspoons of the zest of a local lemon from Fantastic Gardens of Long Island; 2 garlic cloves from Healthway Farms & CSA; a few pinches of both orange-gold and dark homedried Habanada pepper; sea salt; and freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper, and altogehter one half of a teaspoon of a homemade French Basque piment d’Espellate purchased in a small town north of Baie-Comeau, Quebec 2 years ago from the producer’s daughter, all arranged on the surface of a sheet of aluminum foil (I’d use parchment paper the next time), sealed at the edges, and roasted in a 475º oven for between 25 and 30 minutes
• one 15 1/2-ounce hake fillet from P.E. & D.D. Seafood, halved, brought to room temperature beginning when the vegetables were being prepared, washed, dried, seasoned with sea salt, freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper, and another half teaspoon of the piment d’Espellate, seared with a very little olive oil inside a tin-lined oval copper pan, 3 to 5 minutes each side, beginning with the flesh side, removed, arranged on 2 plates and sprinkles with chopped parsley from Eataly
• the wine was a Spanish (Galicia) white, Lolo Albariño Rias Baixas 2013, from Chelsea Wine Vault
• the music was Handel’s 1744 opera, ‘Hercules’, Marc Minkowski
  directing Les Musiciens du Louvre and Le Choeur des Musiciens du Louvre

Because we were to be in Connecticut all day for the opening reception of William Powhida’s first museum show, ‘After the Contemporary‘. I had made no plans for Sunday dinner. One of the advantages of living where we do is the availability of stores with excellent makings for a last-minute meal, and that’s how I was able to pull this one off.

The salumi, the hearty bread, and the house-made filled pasta were all purchased 2 blocks away from our home after we had been dropped off, steps away, by the party bus that had taken us to Ridgewood and back.

• slices of Tanara prosciutto 24 months, from Eataly, wrapped around the tines of a large fork, arranged on 2 plates, drizzled with a good Campania olive oil (Lamparelli O.R.O.), garnished with a bit of chopped parsley from Eataly and chopped scallion from Norwich Meadows Farm, served with slices of a fantastic, very sturdy ‘Mediterraneo pane‘, again from Eataly (whole wheat and whole rye flours; pumpkin, sesame, poppy, sunflower, and flax seeds; millet and faro)

• spinach Pansotti Liguri from Luca Donofrio‘s fresh pasta shop inside Eataly (it’s a Ligurian thing, also very likely a seasonal, specifically Lenten thing), served with a simple sauce composed of 4 slices from each of 4 Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods gently heated in olive oil inside a large enameled cast iron pan, plus salt, freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper, chopped red thyme from Phillips Farm, transferred to shallow bowls, a bit of chopped wild garlic from Lani’s Farm scattered on top, then garnished with a very small amount of freshly-grated Parmigiano & Reggiano Bonat 5 anni from Buon Italia
• the wine was an Italian (Piedmont) white, Villa Sparina Gavi 2015, from Chelsea Wine Vault
• the music was Domenico Cimarosa’s 1792 opera, ‘Il Matrimonio Segreto’, Gabriele Bellini conducting the Orchestra of Eastern Netherlands

I had gone to my favorite Greenmarket cheese stall for cheese; I came home with veal chops (Consider Bardwell makes cheese from the milk of their own animals, and baby boy cows are rather unhandy for the purpose).

I forgot about the cheese.

• two small veal loin chops from Consider Bardwell Farm, dried, rubbed with olive oil, salt, and freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper, brought fully to room temperature, seared inside a small tin-lined copper pan, both sides then rubbed with crushed two crushed garlic from Healthway Farms & CSA and a little crushed dried orange-gold Habanada pepper (acquired fresh last season from Norwich meadows Farm) before they were roasted in a 375º oven for about 7 or 8 minutes, turning once, and allowed to rest for a few minutes after being drizzled with the pan juices, a squeeze of lemon, some olive oil, scattered with finely-chopped wild garlic from Lani’s Farm (it’s mild, but I should have restrained myself a little more in doling it out) and some chopped sage from Eataly

• baby Napa cabbage from Lani’s Farm, washed, trimmed, sliced once lengthwise,  then crosswise in 2-inch sections, wilted in olive oil along with half a dozen crushed juniper berries, the greens then seasoned with salt and freshly-ground black pepper, and drizzled with a little more olive oil
• the wine was an Italian (Veneto) red, Dal Maso Monte Mitorio Tai Rosso Colli Berici 2014
• the music was the 1966 section of the album, ‘Music From The Once Festival 1961-66‘

Mostly because we’ve been running around during New York art fair week, I haven’t been to the Greenmarket in 5 days. Also, I haven’t bought any fish in 8, but we’ve still had to eat, and we’ve done pretty well, with the help of a great pizza one night.

I had thought about going to Union Square on Friday, even if the time I’d spend would eat into our window for visiting NADA New York. Then, late the night before, I did some calculations and decided I still had enough good stuff on hand to put together decent meals on the 2 evenings I’d be able to cook at home before Monday, when I would definitely be able to make it to the market.

Last night we enjoyed one of the 2 packages of frozen crab cakes I had been keeping for such an eventuality, and, aside from some beautiful local (Maine) outsize cherry tomatoes with which I could assemble a salsa,  I also had a decent selection of root vegetables to choose from.

Fresh herbs are one of the things I miss most during the winter months, but there are a surprising number of opportunities to pick up some of them in the Union Square market. I found these beautiful thyme bunches, leaves with purple-red undersides, and definitely a sturdy feel to them, but no less pungent than their summer cousins.

I’m no botanist, so I can claim no authority on the designation, but I labeled my photograph of the thyme, ‘winter thyme’, because, well, who knew there was such a thing?

There’s a reason winter vegetables have always been so popular in the winter (well, aside from their virtues otherwise: Most roots (and brassica as well) are pretty sturdy, and they can be stored for longer periods than most people expect. I bought the radishes I roasted yesterday on the first of February, just over a month before.

• 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 inside a oval heavy enameled cast iron pan, 3 to 4 minutes to each side, served inside a ring of salsa which was composed of 7 chopped Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods, combined with salt, freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper, a bit of a powdered seasoning blend with the proprietary name, L’eKama, a small amount of chopped celery heart from Foragers Market, chopped red thyme from Phillip’s Farm, chopped parsley from Eataly, one chopped scallion from Norwich Meadows Farm, the crab cakes then finished with a sprinkling of the green stems of the scallion, chopped, with more chopped parsley sprinkled on the salsa
• black radishes from Norwich Meadow Farm, scrubbed, peeled, cut into wedges, tossed with a little olive oil, salt, freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper, rosemary leaves from Whole Foods Market, separated from their stems, and one crushed piece of dark home-dried Habanada pepper, roasted inside a large Pampered Chef unglazed ceramic pan, at 400º for 20 or 25 minutes
• the wine was a California (grapes from the Sacramento River Delta with a small amount of Viognier from Lodi) white, Miriam Alexander Chenin Blanc 2014
• music was selections from The Once Festival 1961-66, which included work by Robert Ashley, Roger Reynolds, and others

No Habanada was asked to participate in this dish, which is extraordinary.

Actually, the heatless highbred pepper might have been welcome, since the only unusual ingredient was the mild taste of wild garlic (it’s now spring!).

So it was like a night off.

What it did contain was 8 ounces of Afeltra Pasta di Gragnano penne rigate from Eataly, half of a bunch of roughly-chopped wild garlic from Lani’s Farm, chopped red thyme from Phillips Farm, halved Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods, salt, freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper, olive oil, and grated Parmigiano-Reggiano Vache Rosse from Eataly

There was a first course of La Quercia Speck Americano (an American ‘applewood-smoked prosciuto’), from Whole Foods, and baby arugula from John D Madura Farm, dressed with a good Campania olive oil (Lamparelli O.R.O.) Maldon salt, Tellicherry pepper, served with slices of pain au levain from the Bread Alone stand in the Union Square Greenmarket

• the wine throughout was a California (Lodi) white, Karen Birmingham Sauvignon Blanc Lodi 2015
• the music throughout was Hanns Eisler’s 1938 ‘Pieces (5) for Orchestra’, and his 1940 ‘Kammersinfonie, Op. 69’, both with Max Pommer
  conducting the Leipzig Chamber Music Society

I wrote yesterday about my obsession with Habanada peppers. Later that same day I had a chance to remind myself just why.

I’ve gone through the simple routine of this recipe many times, once, in a small break with the orthodoxy, even introducing a small pinch of the dried orange gold sort. Last night however, maybe because I had become excited writing about these peppers earlier, I splurged, crushing an entire section into the mix of dry oregano and chili pepper I cast into the pan with the squid before they went into the oven.

It was our best experience yet with a recipe already way up there among our favorites. As always, the Habanada itself remained indiscernible, but it contributed a wonderful complexity and richness to the whole.

• a large rectangular enameled cast iron pan heated until quite hot, its cooking surface brushed with olive oil, and, when the oil was also quite hot, about 15 ounces of rinsed and dried squid from P.E. & D.D. Seafood in the Union Square Greenmarket, bodies and tentacles, arranged in it very quickly, immediately sprinkled with some super-pungent dried Sicilian oregano from Buon Italia, part of a dried Sicilian pepperoncino, also from Buon Italia, and an entire section of a home-dried heatless, orange/gold Habanada pepper (purchased fresh from Norwich Meadows Farm last fall), followed by a drizzle of a few tablespoons of juice from a local lemon from Fantastic Gardens of Long Island, and some olive oil, the pan placed inside a pre-heated 400º oven and roasted for 4 or 5 minutes, removed, the squid distributed onto 2 plates, ladled with their cooking juices after they had been transferred to a sauce pitcher, scattered with a little micro bronze fennel from Two Guys from Woodbridge, and served with halves of another, tiny local lemon-lime served on the side of each plate

• loose “overwintered broccoli rabe” (aka rapini) from Lani’s Farm, wilted in olive oil flavored with one large garlic clove from Healthway Farms & CSA which had been bruised and heated until beginning to color, seasoned with salt and pepper, divided onto 2 plates and drizzled with more olive oil
• the wine was an Italian (Sicily, Palermo) white, Corvo Insolia 2015 from Philippe Wine and Spirits, on West 23rd Street less than one block from our table, a wine which we have often, and have enjoyed just as often
• the music was that of the still-hugely-neglected Swedish composer, Allan Pettersson, his 1976 Symphony No. 13,  Christian Lindberg, Norrkoping Symphony

I’ve used and written about these peppers so often, both fresh, as seen above, when they were available last summer, and now home-dried, that I decided I had to do a special post about them alone, if only to have something to link to.

The Habanada is a highbred pepper which was developed only recently; I think it it’s a very special one.

This paragraph, from a page on the Cornel University Small Farms Program site, is an introduction to their origin story, which, like most such stories, includes a hero:

Habanada is a brand new pepper, the first truly heatless habanero (hence the haba-nada) bursting with all the bright, tropical flavor of the fruit unmasked. Many attempts have been made over the years but none have achieved the fullness of flavor with absolutely zero heat. Their crisp, thin skin has an exotic, floral flavor like no pepper I have ever tasted. From cast-away seed to a signature show-stopper variety, Michael Mazourek has brought this pepper a long way in just thirteen generations.

I’ve encountered Habanadas only at Norwich Meadows Farm, in the Union Square Greenmarket.

When dried, which I did myself in order to extend their season through the winter and spring, at the suggestion of Haifa Kurdieh, who runs the farm with her husband Zaid, they look like this:

I retrieved the darker, very serious looking mahogany-colored batch from the oven just in time; they have more than a hint of smokiness (and, oddly something like an anise scent), in addition to the elements they retain from the original Habanero. The golden orange ones, which were my second try, are somehow both more gentle and more powerfully aromatic; they’re quite perfect, in every way.

This is a close-up of the dried golden orange, just after they came out of the oven:

All three versions have been wonderful additions to many parts of many meals over the last 6 or 8 months. I miss the fresh peppers, but I’ve been using both the darker and the lighter versions more than frequently ever since I dried them last fall, as a quick search will show. They work with everything, meat, fish, eggs, pasta, vegetables. The only difficulty they present, I might confess, is controlling my addiction (and deciding which of the 2 to use in any particular application).