I was nattering with the mongers and wasn’t thinking much about the quantity of fish being drawn from the low tub nestled in the ice. I ended up with a pound of fish, a little more than I would normally buy, but the flounder was so terrific that both of us were very happy the number was a little generous.

The vegetable was equally delicious, an especially sweet and tender batch of young collards from some of my favorite farmers.

 

• six flounder fillets (exactly one pound) from P.E. & D.D. Seafood, seasoned with salt and pepper on both sides, coated lightly with well-seasoned flour (I used North Country Farms Stone Ground Whole Wheat Flour), then submerged in a shallow bowl containing a mixture of one egg from Millport Dairy, a little whole milk, and a pinch of salt, allowed to stay submerged until the vegetable had been cooked and the remaining ingredients for the fish prepared, then removed from the bowl, placed inside a heavy enameled cast iron pan with 2 or 3 tablespoons of olive oil, on top of some chopped fresh oregano from Stokes Farm, a small amount of crushed, dark, dried heatless Habanada pepper acquired fresh from Norwich Meadows Farm, and some chopped scallions (with their green sections), fried over a brisk flame until golden, barely two minutes for each side, removed and arranged on the plates, 2 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons of organic lemon juice added to the pan, along with a little salt and pepper, cooked over low heat for less than a minute, stirring, before being poured over the fillets, and a small amount of ‘Bull’s Blood micro beet’ from Windfall Farms scattered over the top
• three quarters of a pound of loose young collard greens from Race Farm, stemmed, cut in a very rough chiffonade, then braised in a heavy pot in which crushed garlic from S. & S.O. Produce Farms had been allowed to sweat with some olive oil, the dish finished with salt, pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil
• the wine was a California (Napa Valley) white, Matt Iaconis Chardonnay Napa Valley 2015, from Naked Wines
• the music was the album, ‘An Enchanted Being – Music Of Ileana Pérez Velazquez‘, the choice being a response to our having just finished watching Steven Soderbergh’s ‘The Argentine’, the very topical first half (the second being, ‘Guerrilla’), of the political epic duology, ‘Che’, and it had moved us profoundly; we did not want to leave yet

I’ve been working with the same very simple recipe for years, but this was probably the richest, and even the most colorful version yet.

I have no idea why. The only real changes last night were, one, that the meat came from a Pennsylvania Deutsch [sic] farm I’ve come to respect hugely for all of its produce, but which I’ve never seen offer this fresh pork chops. They were delicious. The second novelty, an a happy circumstance, may have been my ability to use, as the other major ingredient to the recipe, a very sweet local lemon grown by David Tifford of Fantastic Gardens of Long Island.

There was also the fact that I included one of the last fresh habanada peppers of the summer, and it clearly made a taste (and visual) impact, but this wasn’t the first time I had included one in this recipe.

The potatoes were no less delicious, and I imagine that was at least partly because of the appearance of more of that heatless, bright floral pepper, but in a very different guise.

• two fresh 11-ounce pork chops from Millport Dairy Farm, thoroughly dried, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, seared quickly on both sides inside a very hot, heavy enameled cast-iron pan, one small, fresh floral-scented heatless orange habanada pepper from Norwich Meadows Farm, chopped, scattered on the top surfaces before half of a sweet local lemon from Fantastic Gardens of Long Island was squeezed over them, after which the lemon was left on the surface of the pan between the chops, which were then placed in a 425º oven for about 14 minutes (flipped halfway through, the pepper pieces repositioned on the surfaces, the lemon squeezed over the top once again and once again replaced in the pan), the finished chops removed from the oven and arranged on 2 plates, some ‘Bull’s Blood micro beet’ from Windfall Farms arranged at one end, some of the pan juices (a far more generous amount had accumulated than ever before, largely, I imagine, because of the juiciness of the lemon) poured over the top of the chops, the remainder poured into a sauce boat for use at the table
• I added a small amount of my homemade quince chutney to the plates after the photograph above was taken; it was as wonderful as it had been in several recent meals, but it’s sweetness really wasn’t really necessary for this one
• wonderful nutty fingerling potatoes from a friend’s garden, ‘Lower Hayfields’, in Garrison, New York, halved, tossed with a little olive oil, chopped fresh rosemary and sage, both from Phillips Farm, a small amount of crushed, dark, dried heatless Habanada pepper, acquired fresh from Norwich Meadows Farm, sea salt, and freshly-ground pepper, spread, cut side down, onto a large Pampered Chef unglazed ceramic pan, roasted at about 400-425º [ideally 375º, but the pork required 425º] for maybe 15 minutes, or until the potatoes were both tender and slightly browned
• the wine was a California (Sonoma) white, Scott Peterson Rumpus California Sauvignon Blanc 2015, from Naked Wines
• the music was André Campra’s 1712 opera, ‘Idoménée’, William Christie conducting Les Arts Florissants

I went easy on the trimmings for this latest breakfast/lunch, at least compared to some of my more recent approaches.

• there were 6 eggs plus 4 slices of thick bacon from Millport Dairy Farm; toast from a loaf of French sourdough Levain from Bread Alone; arugula from Lani’s Farm, dressed with a good olive oil, maldon salt, freshly-ground pepper and a few drops of white balsamic vinegar; chopped scallions from Norwich Meadows Farm; a mix of several chopped herbs already on hand; more Maldon salt; more freshly-ground black pepper; a bit of a crushed heatless, orange Habanada pepper from Norwich Meadows Farm which I had dried, dark, and nearly carbonized last month; and, on the side, a small jar of L’eKama, and another containing some very-finely-chopped, very hot, tiny fresh pepper from Eckerton Hill Farm that I had infused in a little olive oil
• the music was a somewhat [jolly?] early (1836) Wagner operetta [sic], ‘Das Liebesverbot’, Robert Heger directing the Austrian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Austrian Radio Chorus, with Heinz Imdahl, Willy Friedrich, Kurt Equiluz, Anton Dermota, Christiane Sorell, Ludwig Welter, Hilde Zadek, et al., being streamed by Yle Klassinen [from the album notes: “..the premiere was a catastrophe and the second performance was canceled when only three people showed up and some of the cast began punching one other.” (so happy he wasn’t discouraged)]

 

This dinner was pretty simple, very straightforward, both for the ingredients and, at least for me, their treatment.

The second thing I think worth mentioning is the fact that that this does not look like a December meal: Everything on that table that is fresh (fish, vegetables, herbs, fruit, cheeses [actually, only 3 of the 4], and the bread) came from local farmers trading in the Union Square Greenmarket during the last few days. Only the salt, pepper, olive oil, fennel seeds, dried pepper, and the wine (out of the picture) were not local.

Even the wine we chose might be considered out of such with the season: It was a rosé, one which we have enjoyed a number of times, although normally in warmer months than this one.

 

• one 12-ounce tuna steak from American Seafood at Chelsea’s ‘Down to Earth Farmers Market’ (one block west of us on 23rd Street), cut into 2 pieces, tops and bottoms rubbed with a mixture of a tablespoon of dry Italian fennel seed and a little crushed dried Itria-Sirissi chilis (peperoncino di Sardegna intero) from Buon Italia, the two having been ground together with mortar and pestle, the surfaces of the tuna additionally seasoned with salt and pepper before they were pan-grilled for only a little more than a minute or so on each side and finished with both a good squeeze of the juice of some tiny local lemons from Fantastic Gardens of New Jersey and a drizzle of olive oil
• ten or 12 cherry tomatoes from Alex’s Tomato Farm, in Carlisle, NY, purchased that day at Chelsea’s ‘Down to Earth Farmers Market’, halved, rolled in a little olive oil above a low flame, seasoned with salt and pepper, arranged on the plates next to the tuna and sprinkled with leaves removed from a Full Bloom Market Garden basil plant from Whole Foods, torn
• flat green pole beans from Norwich Meadows Farm, blanched, drained and dried, then reheated in a heavy cast iron pan with olive oil in which 3 chopped thin scallions from Norwich Meadows Farm had first been softened over a low flame, then finished with salt, pepper, and chopped winter savory from Stokes Farm

There was a cheese course.

• the cheeses were, from left to right in the picture, ‘Herve Mons’ Ovalie Cendrée (Poitou-Charentes) goat cheese from Whole Foods; Consider Bardwell Farm’s ‘Reconsider’, which is a one-time event: a cow cheese finished in their ‘Manchester’ goat cheese cave; Consider Bardwell Farm’s ‘Dorset’ cow cheese; and a yet-untitled Consider Bardwell blue goat cheese
• thin toasts from a French sourdough Levain from Bread Alone

 

• the wine throughout the meal was a California (Lodi) rosé, Karen Birmingham Rosé Lodi 2015
• the music, before, during, and after the meal, was Mozart’s 1775 opera, ‘La Finta Giardiniera’, René Jacobs directing the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra

Most of these things are some of my favorite things. I’m familiar with the fish, the olives, the peppers, the seasonings, the herbs, the lemon, and the micro beets, but before yesterday I had never touched a cardoon stalk. Now I can imagine Cynara cardunculus ending up joining them.

I’ll be looking for this uncommon Mediterranean vegetable on my next visits to the Greenmarket, since I’ve now assembled a small library of recipes I’d like to try out.

For several years I’ve been enjoying local citrus fruit from David Tifford’s greenhouse at Fantastic Gardens of Long Island, but I don’t think I’ve ever published an image of them; this is what the modest display looked like on Friday at the Union Square Greenmarket.

• two 7 1/2-ounce Tautog or Blackfish fillets, prepared mostly as described in this recipe by Melissa Clark, but substituting cayenne pepper and Spanish paprika (dolce) for the Aleppo Syrian red pepper it specified. I also used Gaeta olives rather than the kalamata Clark mentioned, and I added one chopped habanada pepper when I was adding the olives; the fish was from Pura Vida Fisheries, the fresh sage was from Phillips Farm, the olives from Buon Italia, the juice from local lemons (2 kinds) from David at Fantastic Gardens of Long Island, the ‘Bull’s Blood micro beet’ from Windfall Farm (this time I placed it at the side of the plate rather than on top of the fish)
• one stalk of cardoons from Norwich Meadows Farm, prepared mostly in the manner described on this site, drained after they had been parboiled, cold water over them, drained again and dried on paper towels, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-crushed black pepper, brushed on both sides with a little olive oil, and arranged on a medium unglazed seasoned ceramic oven pan (Pampered Chef), placed in a 425º oven for about half an hour, sprinkling with 3 chopped small scallions from Norwich Meadows Farm near the end of their cooking, removed when they had begun to caramelize [I had used too much olive oil which inhibited their ability to do so), served with a sprinkling of chopped parsley, also from Norwich Meadows Farm

 

• the wine was a California (Napa) white, Sin Fronteras Chardonnay Napa 2015 from Naked Wines [note: we love the name, ‘Sin Fronteras‘, more than we can say]
• the music was the remainder of Glück’s Alceste’, which we had begun listening to two nights before

One of the most exciting – and satisfying – things about assembling a frittata is the freedom you have to put things into it. This could encourage a penchant for cleaning out the refrigerator, but usually without sacrificing the success of the frittata itself (because of the extreme adaptability of the basic formula); that’s what happened this time.

• it was a bell pepper frittata, and the preparation went somewhat along the lines of the one shown in this post, but once you’ve cooked a few frittatas, anything like a detailed recipe seems pretty unnecessary, if not useless; for this one I used 12 ounces of small particolored sweet peppers from Norwich Meadows Farm, garlic from from S. & S.O. Produce Farms, one small leek from Tamarack Hollow Farm, one shallot from Norwich Meadows Farm, bits of 2 small hot peppers (one yellow and one green) from Eckerton Hill Farm, 8 eggs from Millport Dairy Farm, a couple tablespoons of whole milk from from Trickling Springs Creamery via Whole Foods, rosemary from Phillips Farm, marjoram and winter savory from Stokes Farm, thyme from Keith’s Farm, 3 small celery stalks and their greens from Norwich Meadows Farm, Piment d’Espelette from the French Basque (purchased in a small town north of Baie-Comeau, Quebec from the producer’s daughter), a bit of gremolata first prepared for this meal, and ‘Bull’s Blood’ micro beet from Windfall Farms
• the wine was a Spanish (Rueda) white, Bodegas & Viñedos Neo Primer Motivo Verdejo Rueda 2015
• the music was Bohuslav Martinů, ‘Concertino for Piano Trio and String Orchestra’, H. 231, and ‘Rhapsody-Concerto (Memorial to Lidice)’, H. 232

A pretty glorious meal.

I’m probably most comfortable with Italian-oriented cookery, and its modern emanations, but when I return to one of my earliest enthusiasms, German cooking (which began in the early-60s in Germany and was later encouraged by Mimi Sheraton and her 1965, ‘German Cookery’), both the ingredients and the process seem totally familiar, and the results are usually very good.

Last night we enjoyed one of the very, very good results.

While I took many liberties with some classics, the meal remained basically pretty German, including that its culture was the specific source for both the pork and the beets (Pennsylvania German), and the wine and the music (Frankish German).

 

• three small leeks from Tamarack Hollow Farm, mostly only the white portions (the better green, upper sections reserved), sliced once lengthwise, rinsed (these needed very little) and swirled around for a minute in a small amount of butter (in the past I have also used bacon fat or duck fat, alone or in various proportions) which had been heated inside a round tin-lined copper pan before adding 2 smoked loin pork chops [‘Kassler‘], from an Amish family farm in Pennsylvania which sells its produce at the Union Square Greenmarket as ‘Millport Dairy‘, a Pyrex glass cover added immediately and the chops kept above a very low flame (just enough to warm them, since as smoked meat, they were already fully-cooked), turning the chops once, and, near the end of the cooking time, the green parts of the leeks set aside earlier added and stirred about, the pork removed, plated, brushed with a horseradish jelly from Berkshire Berries, the pork then drizzled with the juices, including the the leek segments
• fourteen ounces of some quite small purple-top turnips tiny white purple-top turnips from Gorzynski Ornery Farm, scrubbed, but not peeled, cooked briefly (4 minutes, or until lightly browned in spots) over moderately high heat inside a large enameled cast iron pan in a little butter before a fourth of a cup of good chicken stock was added, along with several sprigs of thyme and a small pinch of sugar, the pan covered, and the turnips cooked until they were tender (only about 15-20 minutes in this case, and the stock had already reduced by then to a slightly-thickened sauce), the thyme removed seasoned with salt and pepper and sprinkled with chopped parsley from Norwich Meadows Farm
• a rich, spicy quince chutney, remaining from this dinner
• small side dishes of pickled red beets from Millport Dairy Farm
• the wine was a German (Franken) white, Weingut Schmitt Kinder Gutswein Silvaner Trocken 2014, from Chelsea Wine Vault\
• the music was [most of] Glück’s Alceste’, John Eliot Gardner conducting the English Baroque Soloists and the Monteverdi Choir, with Yann Beuron, Dietrich Henschel, Anne Sofie von Otter, Joanne Lunn, et al., to be continued another evening

Two different kinds of mushrooms in two 3 days is something of a record on our table. I would be using these magic fungi more often, but I’m not yet used to thinking of how they might go with other parts of the meals I put together.  When I can, and I see some beautiful mushrooms in front of me, I happy to take them home.

But his time the mushrooms came first; I came up with the rest of the dinner much later.

• twelve ounces of Rana fresh whole wheat tagliatelle, purchased from their very beautiful pasta station in Chelsea Market only an hour before, served with a sauce using blue oyster mushrooms from Blue Oyster Cultivation in the Greenmarket (see the image below), prepared pretty much according to this simple recipe, halved, but adding 2 elements to it: one chopped fresh habanada pepper just after the cream was introduced, and purple micro radish from Windfall Farms; the source of the other ingredients were red onion (instead of the yellow specified) from Norwich Meadows Farm, garlic cloves from S. & S.O. Produce Farms, parsley parsley from Norwich Meadows Farm, and pine nuts from Whole Foods (which I had first toasted gently in a dry cast iron pan)
• the wine was a Washington (Columbia) red, Katy Michaud Cabernet Sauvignon Columbia Valley 2014 from our good friends, Naked Wines
• the music was Q2 Music, streaming, specifically Gregory Spears’s ‘Requiem’ 

halfway between the bay and our table: Taconic Bay scallops in Union Square

 

this plate looks far more interesting than it should

 

Everything tasted good, but the dish wasn’t as worthy as the ingredients themselves.

Whether it was my lack of familiarity with the star, Taconic Bay scallops (their season awaited all year long, and the virtually worshipped by their devotees), or the fact that I was too concerned about including too many of the fresh vegetables I already had on hand, this meal didn’t match our expectations. I had also worried at first that there might not be enough on the plates, so I expanded on the presence of both the scallops and the tomatoes.

Still, I think I learned a lot. One lesson would include trying, in the future, to keep these beautiful little mollusks as close to their raw unadorned state as possible, either by preparing them for ceviche (I didn’t have the time last night) or with virtually no processing and using little more than oil or butter, salt and pepper. I had tasted one at the market earlier in the day, raw, and it was extraordinary (the last time I had a raw scallop was 30 some years ago, when a friend and I, becalmed while sailing off Watch Hill, were offered some by a scallop fisherman raking the bottom of the sound near us).

• Ten ounces of chopped Taconic Bay scallops from P.E. & D.D. Seafood washed, dried, and sautéed over medium-high heat inside a heavy tin-lined copper pan in a tablespoon of so of butter, along with one thickly-slice garlic clove from S. & S.O. Produce Farms, sea salt, pepper, and a pinch of dulce Spanish paprika, stirring until the scallops had barely begun to color, and careful to avoid overcooking them, removed from the pan and set aside, kept warm in an oven at its lowest setting, the pan wiped with a paper towel, after which, 4 baby leeks from Tamarack Hollow Farm (sliced lengthwise, washed, and dried), were placed inside the pan with a little more butter and sautéed until they had softened, seasoned with sea salt and pepper, the leeks arranged on the plates in a circle with some chopped cucumber (see the next bullet) before the scallops, now removed from the oven, were arranged inside the wreath of vegetables, and once on the table, drizzled with juice from tiny local lemons (‘limonetta) from Fantastic Gardens of Long Island, and sprinkled with chopped parsley from Norwich Meadows Farm
• one Korean cucumber from Lani’s Farm, halved lengthwise and cut into bite-size pieces, sautéed in olive oil until beginning to brown, sesoned with salt and pepper, then set aside until the scallops had been cooked
• red and green late-season heirloom tomatoes sliced, dried, sprinkled with a little turbinado sugar, sautéed in a pan with a little olive oil until they had begun to soften and become fragrant, seasoned with salt and pepper, divided onto the plates, sprinkled with torn leaves form a Full Bloom Market Garden basil plant from Whole Foods, and finished with a little gremolata which had remained from an earlier meal and then frozen
• The wine was a California (grapes from the Sacramento River Delta with a small amount of Viognier from Lodi) white, Miriam Alexandra Chenin Blanc California 2015
• the music was the third act of Wagner’s ‘Die Walkure’, Herbert von Karajan conducting the Berlin Philharmonic in a 1966 DGG studio recording, with Jon Vickers, Gundula Janowitz, Thomas Stewart, Régine Crespin, Martti Talvela, Josephine Veasey, Liselotte Rebmann, Carlotta Ordassy, Ingrid Steger, Lilo Brockhaus, Danica Mastilovic, Barbro Ericson, Cvetka Ahlin, Helga Jenckel, et al.

Blewits. They’re foraged, so they are ‘game’, as far as I’m concerned. Not an everyday find. When I spotted them in the Union Square Greenmarket on Saturday I knew they were special, and that I had to have some, but I didn’t know what I was going to do with them. I only took about half of those seen in the picture above, so I wasn’t going to be able to stretch their goodness too far; I decided they would define a small pasta primi, and I knew just the one.

 

There were just enough to sauce a small portion of a good pasta, here a Sfoglini reginetti.

 

And then there was something closer to what most people understand as ‘game’ (or at least as close as Americans are allowed to come to eating ‘wild’).

I love quail. we both love quail.

For our secondo I defrosted 4 semi-boneless Georgia birds I had waiting in the freezer compartment, and roasted the last of a mostly-chicory bounty from Campo Rosso Farm that had been included in a ‘take home’ from a recent farm dinner at Untitled.

• two and a half ounces of foraged Blewits from Windfall Farms, chopped, sweated a bit, dry, inside a heavy tin-lined copper pan, before olive oil was added, a very small bit at a time, stirring, until the pan and mushrooms were moist with it, after which the Blewits were cooked until lightly golden brown, a very small amount of chopped shallot from S. & S.O. Produce Farms, a little sea salt, and chopped fresh sage from Phillips Farm after that, the mix cooked for a minute or so, deglazed/seasoned with drops of a good Spanish Rioja vinegar, and after the heat was turned off, softened butter added and stirred in until melted, 4 ounces of Sfoglini ‘Whole Grain Blend Reginetti’, cooked al dente, added to the pan, and tossed with the sauce, garnished with some more chopped sage
• slices of a delicious loaf of whole wheat sourdough miche from Bread Alone
• the wine was an Oregon (Rogue Valley) red, Foris Vineyards Rogue Valley Gewürztraminer Oregon 2014, from Chelsea Wine Vault

 

• four partially-boned (which is a treat for both cook and diners) Plantation Quail, from Greensboro, Georgia, purchased at O. Ottomanelli & Sons Prime Meat Market on Bleecker Street, dried on paper towels and rubbed with sea salt and most of one crumbled dried peperoncino from Buon Italia, placed breast side down over medium-high heat on a two-burner cast iron ribbed pan, a number of sprigs of fresh thyme from Keith’s Farm scattered over each, grilled for about 5 minutes, turned and, ensuring that they were now resting on top of the thyme, grilled for another 5 minutes, served with a drizzle of olive oil and a pat of the same composed butter served with the venison a few days before placed on top while they were still warm
• one medium head of radicchio from Campo Rosso Farm, quartered, 2 toothpicks stuck into each quarter to hold its shape, placed in a medium unglazed ceramic oven pan (Pampered Chef, already well-seasoned long ago), drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper, roasted at 400º for about 15 minutes, turning once, finished with a small amount of balsamic vinegar, and, once on the 2 plates, scattered with shavings of Parmigiano Reggiano Vacche Rosse from Buon Italia
• the wine was an Italian (Puglia) red, Schola Sarmenti Roccamora 2013, our last bottle from our wonderful former neighbors of Appellation Wines, which was forced to close when their rent skyrocketed, and was unable to relocate a few blocks north because the State Liquor Authority ruled that another wine store in the area was not in the public interest

 

• the music throughout was Jordi Savall’s album, ‘Granada 1013-1502‘, recorded in 2013 and produced earlier this year