I zeroed in on the part of the sign at American Seafood Company in the Union Square Greenmarket today that said they had black sea bass. Now I love that fish, but at the moment I was most likely to have been thinking about the fact that I could put those fillets on our table more quickly, and with less of a fuss, than almost anything else I saw on that board.

• three sea bass fillets (a total of 11 ounces) from American Seafood Company, seasoned on both sides with salt and pepper, sautéed for 2 minutes over a fairly brisk flame with butter and a little olive oil inside a large, thick oval copper pan, skin side down, then turned and the other side cooked for about the same length of time, removed to the plates when done (covered at least a little to keep warm until the sauce was completed, or kept in a warm oven), a tablespoon or more butter added to the pan, and 4 ounces of oyster mushrooms [pleurotus ostreatus], from Bulich Mushroom Company, cut into medium-size pieces and sautéed, stirring, until lightly cooked, seasoned with salt, pepper, a couple tablespoons of chopped parsley, both from Gristede, and a tablespoon or more of the juice of a sweet local lemon from Fantastic Gardens of Long Island, the mushrooms stirred some more before they were arranged on the warm plates and the bass finished with micro dandelion from Windfall Farms

The accompanying vegetable was one of the two kinds of very special chicories I had taken home from Campo Rosso Farm last Friday, but I had forgotten to photograph either at the time, so the image of the Castelfranco which appears below, while their own produce, was obtained elsewhere.

• one very-thinly-sliced medium shallot from Norwich Meadows Farm heated in two tablespoons of olive oil inside a heavy, high-sided tin-lined copper pan until softened, then one roughly-chopped Radicchio Variegato di Castelfranco from Campo Rosso Farm introduced into the pan with some salt and pepper, stirring all along until the radicchio had mostly wilted, finished with barely a splash of balsamic vinegar and arranged on the plates
• the wine was a French (Loire) white, Domaine de Bellevue Touraine Sauvignon 2015
• the music was Alfred Schnittke’s ‘Concerto Grosso No. 4/Symphony No. 5’, the  Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Neeme Järvi conducting

[image of Castelfranco radicchio from printrestaurant.com]

Leftovers, but a very special kind of leftovers.

Tonight we enjoyed a re-run of our New Year’s Day feast, absent the radicchio but present some good red cabbage, simply presented.

• about 16 ounces of the 24 ounces of smoked pork loin which remained from Sunday, reheated in the oven after being drizzled with the small amount of sauce that had also not been consumed that day, along with the modest amount of the surviving horseradish potato gratin, both served with a small amount of pungent horseradish jelly from Berkshire Berries and a handful/scoop of 2 finely-sliced really tiny red cabbages from Norwich Meadows Farm that had been dressed with a little good olive oil, salt, pepper, and a drizzle of real apple cider vinegar from Race Farm and allowed to sit for 45 minutes
• the wine was a German (Baden) red, Hermann Dorflinger Spätburgunder Müllheimer Reggenhag Spätlese trocken 2013 which we had brought through customs when returning from our last German trip
• the music was Alfred Schnittke, Symphony No. 4, the Stockholm Sinfonietta conducted by Stefan Parkman, the Uppsala Akademiska Kammarkor directed by Okko Kamu

I wasn’t going to post this about meal, mostly because it was entirely improvised and I didn’t expect I’d remember what went into it, but then I realized that those might actually be good reasons for including it.

• two crab cakes from PE & DD Seafood (crab, egg, flour, red & green peppers, garlic, salt, pepper, breadcrumbs, mayonnaise, milk, celery, and parsley), seared/heated inside a cast iron pan in a little olive oil, 2 to 3 minutes on each side, served on 2 plates on top of a salsa composed of roughly-chopped Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Eataly, a very small shallot from Norwich Meadows Farm, salt, freshly-ground black pepper, a bit of homemade French Basque piment d’Espellate purchased in a small town north of Baie-Comeau, Quebec last year from the producer’s daughter, a very small amount of dried Itria-Sirissi chili, peperoncino di Sardegna intero from Buon Italia, chopped oregano from Stokes Farm, the cakes drizzled with the juices left in the bottom of the bowl where the salsa had been mixed, and each topped with a couple dozen pine nuts from Whole Foods which had been been toasted first
• three very small leeks from Norwich Meadows Farm, washed, drained, dried, cut into quite small segments and sautéed until softened inside a large enameled cast iron pot in a little olive oil in which a teaspoon of Italian fennel seed had already been heated, some green radicchio (pan di zucchero?) from Tamarack Hollow Farm, shredded as a chiffonade, added to the pot and stirred until it had wilted some, the vegetables seasoned with salt and pepper, finished with chopped parsley from Gristedes, tarragon from Whole Foods, and a squeeze of local lemon from Fantastic Gardens of Long Island
• the wine was a French (Loire) white, Château la Berrière Muscadet Côtes de Grandlieu Sur Lie 2015, from Chelsea Wine Vault
• the music was Alfred Schnittke, ‘Symphony No. 3, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin conducted by Vladimir Jurowski

Yesterday I tweeted that our New Years Day dinner would be “Germany with some Italian, and, as always, New York too”. I followed through later in the day, and this post describes what it looked like, as prepared for four.

We began with bread sticks and a sparkling wine, to toast good friends and the new year

• grissini from Buon Italia
• the wine was a California (Sonoma and Mendocino) sparkling white, Eponina Brut North Coast NV from Naked Wines

I had hoped to serve smoked eel for the first course, but there was none in site in the Greenmarket or anywhere else I look. Instead, I connected with some great smoked halibut from North Atlantic waters.

• smoked haddock from the Lobster Place, with a little dressed upland cress from Two Guys from Woodbridge (a Campania olive oil, Lamparelli O.R.O. from Buon Italia; Maldon salt; freshly-ground black pepper; and a squeeze of juice from a sweet lemon from Fantastic Gardens of Long Island)a
• slices of an Eric Kayser ‘Pain aux Céréales’
• the wine was a German (Franken) white, Weingut Schmitt Kinder Gutswein Silvaner Trocken 2014

Since there would be 4 of us at dinner, my idea of a smoked pork roast for the main course seemed to make sense for the wow factor, for deliciousness, and for ease of preparation, and that’s what we got.

• one 6-rib 5-pound (more than enough for this meal) smoked pork rack (Kassler), from Pennsylvania, possibly an Amish farm, via O. Ottomanelli and Sons on Bleecker Street in the West Village, trimmed and the fat scored by Joe Ottomanelli (on the side not seen in the image below) rubbed with a mix of salt, pepper, a little of both picante and dulce Spanish paprika, placed in a large enameled cast iron dutch oven with 4 yellow onions and 3 garlic cloves, all diced and all from Lucky Dog Organic Farm, 5 Italian bay leaves from Buon Italia and 8 juniper berries, 6 cups of water and 2 cups of a decent red wine, covered with a lid and cooked in a preheated oven 375° for about 30 minutes, the cover removed and the pork continued cooking for another 25 minutes, basting occasionally, removed from the oven, the meat cut into chops, one rib each, kept warm while some of the cooking liquid was transferred to a smaller saucepan where it was stirred with about 4 tablespoons of water mixed with 2 tablespoons of arrowroot to bind them, served on pre-heated plates with some of the sauce on the top, the remainder poured into a pre-heated sauceboat which was added to the table

The Kassler was accompanied by Quince chutney remaining from several earlier meals, a potato-horseradish gratin, and roasted tardivo radicchio.

• quince chutney, made following this theKitchn.com recipe, using a shallot from Keith’s Farm, a garlic clove from Stokes Farm, quince from Red Jacket Orchards, dried sweet cherries from Whole Foods, fresh ginger from Lani’s Farm, apple cider from Locust Grove Fruit Farm (the recipe asked for apple cider vinegar, and I do have a bottle of the local stuff, from Race Farm, but I misread the instruction and the dish still turned out more than fine)
• three pounds of russet potatoes from Norwich Meadows Farm, washed, peeled, and thinly-sliced, tossed in a large bowl with 1½ teaspoons salt, ¾ teaspoon pepper, ¼ teaspoon of ground nutmeg, 3 Italian bay leaves from Buon Italia, half of a cup of shaved fresh horseradish from Eataly, and almost 3 cups of Ronnybrook heavy cream, arranged inside a buttered shallow 3-quart enameled cast iron baking dish, pressed to submerge the potatoes completely, covered in aluminum foil and baked in a 400º oven for 25 minutes, the foil removed and the dish continued to bake until the potatoes were tender and the top is golden, about another 50 minutes, removed to rest on the top of the stove until ready to be served [the dish can be prepared ahead of time, allowed to cool, and reheated for 12 minutes]
• two heads of tardivo radicchio, one from Campo Rosso Farm, the other from Italy, via Eataly (Chris and Jessi had only one left when I stopped by their stall in the Greenmarket on Friday, and I really wanted to serve this wonderful vegetable to our guests), prepared pretty much according to this simple recipe, which is to say, washed under cold running water, the moisture shaken off, each head cut in half lengthwise, and a V-cut made inside the root end to allow it to cook more rapidly, the halves arranged inside a ceramic oven pan cut side up, covered with thyme sprigs from Stokes Farm, seasoned generously with salt and pepper, drizzled with2 tablespoons of olive oil, baked for about 12 minutes, turned over, baked for about 8 minutes more, turned so the cut side is up and once again returned to the oven, this time for only a couple minutes or so, or until the stems were tender [the tardivo can be served hot or warm]
• the wines were, first, an Austrian (Burgenland) red, Sankt Laurent ‘Konkret,’ Meinklang – 2009; and then a German (Baden) red, Pinot Noir, Dr. Heger – 2012, both from Astor Wines

There was a cheese course.

• the cheeses were, from left to right in the picture above, Consider Bardwell Farms ‘Manchester’ goat cheese; their ‘Pawlet’ cow cheese; ‘Barden’, a cow blue cheese, also from Consider Bardwell; and ‘Arethusa Blue’, a Connecticut cow blue from Eataly
• thin toasts from the same Eric Kayser ‘Pain aux Céréales’ with which the meal began
• and I brought out a dozen dried Calabrian (Amantea) figs from Buon Italia
• the wine was a California (Napa) white, Matt Iaconis Chardonnay Napa Valley 2015, from Naked Wines

There was a sweet, a very festive sweet!

• struffoli from the Magliulo family’s shop, Buon Italia, made by Tonia, who, with her husband Mimmo, owns this wonderful place

• the music throughout was the conversation of four friends and one very smart baby

[the image of the struffoli is from the archive, although the sweet was made by the same woman; the one I took last night turned out a little blurry after several courses with wine]

Red.

Red pork, red lobster, red/pink ‘peppercorns’:  It wasn’t a plan, but after the fact the red tones in this simple meal seemed right [Left] for the turn of a year in anxious times, even if the pleasures of the celebratory meal itself were nothing of the sort.

• red pepper taralli

• four ounces of thinly-sliced prosciutto Friulano Levoni from Eataly, served on a plate with a little Campania olive oil (Lamparelli O.R.O. from Buon Italia
• pieces torn off an Eric Kayser ‘baguette monge’, from the bakery/store near the Flatiron Building (still very warm when purchased at 5 that afternoon)

• lobster-filled mezzaluna (about 13 ounces) from the Rana store inside Chelsea Market, with a sauce of only a few tablespoons of rich Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter, melted, a few sprigs of chopped tarragon from Whole foods and some crushed pink peppercorns, the last a delicacy I had discovered in the original Dean & Deluca store on Prince Street in the early 80s
• more bread, to finish the sauce

• a toast, at midnight, with a split of Perrier-Jouët Grand Brut Champagne

• the wine throughout (until the midnight toast) was an Italian (Campania) white, Feudi di San Gregorio Falanghina 2014
•  the music throughout was WKCR streaming, the very last hours of its 9-day ‘Bach Festival 2016, then topped off after midnight with Bach’s delightful secular cantata-almost-opera,  ‘Geschwinde, ihr wirbelnden Winde’ (Swift, You Swirling Winds), the dramatization of a dispute between Phoebus and Pan about the relative merits of popular and ‘learned’ music

It’s a familiar site on our table, sometimes with slight variations, but we never tire of this skate recipe, or of kale in any form (we eat both because we really like them, and not to be virtuous).

Barry said it was the best skate yet.

The kale was, well,..kale, which is damn good indeed.

• one 12-ounce skate wing from Pura Vida Seafood, divided into 2 pieces, coated all over with a coarse polenta seasoned with salt and pepper, sautéed in olive oil for 4 minutes or so on each side inside a heavy oval tin-lined copper pan (the only difficult part of this recipe is turning them over without breaking them up), removed, about 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter, one small leek Norwich Meadows Farm, a part of one tiny ‘red wing’ onion from Keith’s Farm, and 2 small cloves of garlic from from Lucky Dog Organic Farm, all sliced or chopped, introduced into it and stirred over a now-lowered flame, followed by the addition of a little more butter, the juice from half of a very sweet organic lemon from Whole Food Market, some chopped tarragon from Whole Foods Market, a tiny amount of almost-dry finely-chopped winter savory from Stokes Farm, and a bit of chopped parsley from Alex’s Tomato Farm, Carlisle, NY, at Chelsea’s Down to Earth Farmers Market, stirring for a bit to blend everything, the sauce divided over the fish which had been placed onto the plates
• a couple handfuls of Winterbor kale from Lucky Dog Organic Farm [winter kales, sturdier than their older cousins, tend to not wilt down as much when sautéed, an attractive quality for the frugal cook, during a season when the farmers have justly to ask higher prices for this wonderful green; also, light frosts only make the leaves of this hybrid taste even sweeter, a treat for the diner], sautéed, until partially wilted, in olive oil in which one bruised and halved garlic clove, also from Lucky Dog, had first been allowed to sweat and only begin to brown, then seasoned with salt, pepper, and a little more olive oil
• the wine was a California (Napa Valley) white, Matt Iaconis Chardonnay Napa Valley 2015, from Naked Wines
• the music was Helmut Lachenmann, ‘Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern’ (The Little Match Girl), the performance by the Staatsoper Stuttgart

For whatever reason, I was in a hurry and this dish was almost thrown together. It only worked out well because, since I cook almost every night, there are always some useful makings around, fresh or otherwise.

• one very small leek from Norwich Meadows Farm, softened in a tablespoon or so of olive oil inside a large enameled cast iron pan over medium heat, after which the flame was turned off and one finely-chopped heatless orange Habanada pepper from Norwich Meadows Farm (my last fresh example) added and stirred in, the pan set aside until 8 ounces of Sfoglini Riverine Ranch Water Buffalo Milk Pasta (Spaccatelli), picked up recently at the buffalo farmer’s stall in the Union Square Greenmarket, cooked al dente (which took only 5-6 minutes!), had been added, mixed in, and emulsified with a little of the reserved pasta cooking water, then a large handful of green radicchio from Tamarack Hollow Farm, shredded, a little peppermint from Alex’s Tomato Farm, Carlisle, NY, at Chelsea’s Down to Earth Farmers Market, and one or two  tablespoons of freshly-squeezed lemon, the pasta served in shallow bowls, topped with a little crumbled Castelmagno D’alpeggio DOP Guffanti from Eataly
• the wine was an Italian (Piedmont) white, Stefano Massone Masera Gavi 2015
• the music was Alfred Schnittke’s profound homage to Anton Bruckner, Symphony No. 2 for Choir and Symphony Orchestra, which he subtitled ‘St. Florian’ and ‘Invisible Mass), the Leningrad Symphony Orchestra, Gennady Rozhdestvensky conducting

Fish and potatoes, also dried habanada, and micro scallions. There was also the 3 mini cabbage, with some Italian stuff, but I think this entrée was still nothing like anyone’s mother used to make.

• two 8-ounce cod fillets from American Seafood at the Union Square Greenmarket (mostly using a recipe from Mark Bittman I first came across almost 12 years ago), laid on a bed of coarse sea salt, then completely covered with more salt, and set aside while about a pound of Carola potatoes from Max Hatchery (yellow flesh, creamy), were sliced to a thickness of about 1/4 inch, tossed in a large bowl with a tablespoon of olive oil, some dried heatless, orange Habanada pepper from Norwich Meadows Farm, salt, and pepper, arranged overlapping in a glazed ceramic baking pan, cooked for 30 minutes or so in a 400º oven (or until they were tender), and near the end of that time the cod was rinsed in several changes of water and dried before being placed in the pan on top of the potatoes, topped with a little olive oil and sprinkled with some freshly-ground pepper, returned to the oven for 12 or 14 minutes (the time would depend on the thickness of the cod), arranged on 2 plates, and finished with a scattering of micro scallion from Two Guys from Woodbridge

• three tiny white cabbages (3 or 4 inches in diameter) from Keith’s Farm, cut as a chiffonade, quickly heated in a tin-lined copper pot where a bit of olive oil had already been heated to soften some sliced garlic from Stokes Farm and warm a pinch or two of crushed Italian fennel seed, the cabbage finished on the plates with a sprinkling of lightly-toasted pine nuts from Whole Foods,
• the wine was a California (Carneros) white, La Tapatia Chardonnay Carneros 2015, from Naked Wines
• the music was, once again, WKCR streaming, its 9-day ‘Bach Festival 2016,

On the third day of Christmas, our true loves sent to us a, er, ..a single duck breast.

• one duck breast (12 ounces) from Hudson Valley Duck, the fatty side scored in tight cross hatching with a very sharp knife, the entire breast then sprinkled with a mixture of sea salt, freshly-ground pepper, and a little turbinado sugar (the sugar in our bowl infused over a very long time with a whole vanilla bean), the duck left standing for about 25 minutes this time before it was pan-fried over medium heat, the fatty side down first, in a tiny bit of olive oil, draining the oil part of the way through [to be strained and used in cooking later, if desired], the breast removed when medium rare (cut into 2 portions to check that the center is of the right doneness, that is, no more than medium rare), left to sit for several minutes before finishing it with a drizzle of local lemon from Fantastic Gardens of Long Island and drops of a very good Campania olive oil, then scattered with chopped thyme from Stokes Farm [NOTE: the tenderloin would normally have been removed from the breast before it was marinated and fried very briefly near the end of the time the bulk of the meat was cooking, but this time I could locate only a very small section to remove; dividing it into two parts, I tucked them under the finished pieces on the plates]

• four different root vegetables I already had on hand, about one pound altogether, cut into bite-size pieces, some peeled first, tossed in a bowl with two tablespoons of olive oil; salt; freshly-ground pepper; one crushed piece of a mahogany-colored home-dried dark, dried heatless Habanada pepper acquired this summer fresh from Norwich Meadows Farm; and several sprigs of rosemary from Keith’s Farm, their leaves removed from the stems, everything then arranged on a large, well-seasoned Pampered Chef unglazed ceramic pan and roasted in a 425º oven for about 45 minutes, removed and divided onto two plates, sprinkled with purple radish micro greens from Windfall Farms [the vegetables were sweet potato from Lani’s Farm, purple-topped turnip from Alewife Farm, carrot and ‘Dark Red Norland’ potato from Norwich Meadows Farm]
• the wine was a California ( Monterey) red, Rick Boyer Monterey Syrah 2015 from Naked Wines
• the music was WKCR streaming, its 9-day ‘Bach Festival 2016,

Quite local.

December 26 is second Christmas, and a legal holiday, in most European countries, but not in the U.S. (Americans don’t believe in official days off). At our house it’s at least an excuse for another good meal, even if we don’t need excuses.

Also, I, at least, have every day off.

It makes sense to Barry and I that we go for something lighter than what we enjoyed for the feast of the day before. This year, having learned Monday afternoon after I had walked over to Union Square that there was no Greenmarket that day, and therefore no local fish, I decided to pick up up one of Luca Donofrio‘s fresh pastas at Eataly on my way back from the empty park. There I found something very special, a handmade white truffle-filled pasta (the filling had been placed on one side of a ravioli square, the pasta then folded over and pinched shut, making some beautiful rectangular purses).

The noble ingredient tuber magnatum meant that it wouldn’t be cheap, but this was der Zweiter Weihnachtsfeiertag, and we were both feeling special that yesterday.

Then I realized that what was in front of me represented a little less than half of a pound, and that was it for the day; not really very much. Luca suggested that it would be the perfect amount for a primi, for two. The problem was that I hadn’t intended to prepare a secondo, especially if it meant cooking meat a second day in a row.

I turned instead to the charcuterie and cheese counter across the large room, where, after an amusing discussion with other customers and the store people, and also a bit of sampling, I bought a wonderful local [Westchester County – Larchmount!] smoked bresaola and also found the very special cheese, Castelmagno D’alpeggio DOP Guffanti, which Luca had suggested I might sprinkle on the pasta if I really wasn’t going to be satisfied with melted butter alone.

That night, while I was ready to assemble a third course, of local cheese and fruit, after we had really enjoyed these two, we decided we were more than satisfied without one.

Good stuff.

The antipasto featured a salumi.

• three ounces of smoked bresaola from Larchmont Charcuterie, via Eatlay, arranged on two plates with a small amount of mizuna from Lani’s Farm, both drizzled with a good olive oil (Campania D.O.P. Penisola Sorrentina ‘Syrenum’) and the juice from 2 tiny green-flesh local lemons from Fantastic Gardens of Long Island,, the greens seasoned with Maldon salt and freshly-ground pepper
• Bien Cuit sourdough with Halkidiki (green) olive

The primi was extraordinarily simple.

• seven ounces of white truffle-filled pasta, ‘Plin con Tartufo Bianco’ (white truffle, egg, Parmagiano, olive oil, salt, and white pepper) from Luca Donofrio’s pastificio inside the Flatiron Eataly, cooked for 2 minutes in a large pot of salted water, drained and tossed gently in a high-sided 10″ copper pot in which 2 tablespoons of rich Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter had been melted, divided into two shallow bowls and sprinkled with a little crumbled Castelmagno D’alpeggio DOP Guffanti from Eataly
• Bien Cuit sourdough with Halkidiki (green) olive, to help with the truffle-butter-cheese sauce that remained

• the wine through both courses was an Italian (Piedmont) red, Cavallotto Vigna Scot Dolcetto d’Alba 2015 from Chelsea Wine Vault
• the music, also through both courses, was

Also, and I’m coming out with it this one time: While we don’t usually have desserts, after the formal part of this meal and often that of others, there was access to chocolate-covered raisins and candied ginger pieces (washing dishes is not always its own reward).