{"id":14654,"date":"2017-11-25T02:18:08","date_gmt":"2017-11-25T02:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/?p=14654"},"modified":"2017-11-25T02:18:08","modified_gmt":"2017-11-25T02:18:08","slug":"smoked-monkfish-hare-chipotle-sweet-potatoes-collards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/?p=14654","title":{"rendered":"smoked monkfish; hare; chipotle sweet potatoes, collards"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-14656\" src=\"http:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/smoked-monkfish.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" \/><\/p>\n<p>It was\u00a0a very long and leisurely Thanksgiving meal, shared with good friends. The star on the table was not a roast\u00a0turkey, but a braised three-and-a-half-pound Scottish hare, which was,\u00a0as the fish in the first course, quite wild (one of our guests found\u00a0a buckshot in his serving). There were no cranberries, although there was chutney, sweet potatoes,\u00a0and greens, the\u00a0ingredients in these all totally local. There were also many\u00a0hours of American music, although none of it could be described as remotely hummable.<\/p>\n<p>The vegetables, herbs, fruit, and creme, like everything other than the hare, came from local farmers and fishers in the area, and were purchased in the Union Square Greenmarket.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-14661\" src=\"http:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/frizzy_mustard.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-14667\" src=\"http:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/salanova_lettuce-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-14662\" src=\"http:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Jap_sweet_potatoes.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-14663\" src=\"http:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/collards.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-14717\" src=\"http:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/quince.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We toasted the day and our friendship with an American sparkling.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>we nibbled on some rustic Italian breadsticks,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.mariofongo.com\/eng\/grissini-stirati\/integrali-senza-strutto\">Mario Fongo\u00a0<em>grissini integrali<\/em><\/a>, from Buon Italia<\/li>\n<li>the wine was a California sparkling white,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/us.nakedwines.com\/products\/eponina-brut-nv-2015\">Eponina Brut California NV<\/a>, from <a href=\"https:\/\/us.nakedwines.com\/full_site\">Naked Wines<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The first course was basically assembled, with a little help from the Greenmarket.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>pieces of smoked\u00a0monkfish from Blue Moon Fish, served with some\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ronnybrook.com\/\">Ronnybrook Farm Dairy<\/a>\u00a0<em>cr\u00e8me fra\u00eeche\u00a0<\/em>mixed with Whole Foods Market lemon zest and juice, fresh lovage from Two Guys from Woodbridge, grated horseradish root from from\u00a0Gorzynski Ornery Farm, chopped small red scallion\u00a0from Hawthorne Valley Farm, ground white pepper, and sea salt, arranged with\u00a0some purple frizzy mustard greens from Lani&#8217;s Farm and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salanova.com\/\">salanova lettuce<\/a>\u00a0from Neversink Organic Farm, dressed with a very good Puglian olive oil,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/alce-nero-e-mielizia-s-p-a.allbiz.it\/olio-extravergine-di-oliva-italiano-dop-terre-di-g101481\">Alce Nero DOP &#8216;Terra di Bari Bitonto&#8217; from Eataly<\/a>,\u00a0Maldon\u00a0salt, and freshly-ground black pepper<\/li>\n<li>slices of a whole wheat sourdough <em>Miche<\/em>, or<em>\u00a0Pain de campagne<\/em>,<em>\u00a0<\/em>from Bread Alone<\/li>\n<li>the wine was a German (Rheingau) white,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.chamberswines.com\/wine.php?wineid=RWL260_16\">Robert Weil Riesling Estate Trocken 2016<\/a>, the gift of a friend when we were in Berlin recently<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The main course was Scottish wild mountain hare (the FDA does not allow us to\u00a0buy any form of game bagged inside the US, but apparently trusts the Scots) purchased from brother Frank at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ediblemanhattan.com\/departments\/indigenous-industry\/ottomanelli-empire-after-60-years-on-bleecker-these-butchering-brothers-still-cut-everything-but-corners\/\">Ottomanelli\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0on Bleecker Street in the West Village, and supplied by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.simpsongame.co.uk\/\">Simpson Game<\/a>, in the Scottish highlands.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-14657\" src=\"http:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/hare_collards_chipotle_potates.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" \/><\/p>\n<p>(the chutney didn&#8217;t make it to the plate in time for the picture)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>one three and a quarter pound Scottish mountain hare (&#8220;may contain shot&#8221;) from Ottomanelli&#8217;s Market, prepared, with some alterations, along the lines of an ancient recipe.\u00a0&#8216;<em>Lepre alla Cacciatora<\/em>&#8216;, that I had\u00a0found in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2012\/06\/10\/dining\/anna-teresa-callen-italian-cooking-teacher-dies-at-86.html\">Anna Teresa Callen<\/a>&#8216;s &#8216;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/past\/docs\/unbound\/corby\/ct981007.htm\">Food and Memories of Abruzzo, Italy&#8217;s Pastoral Land<\/a>&#8216;: the hare, once separated into pieces whose size would depend on the cook&#8217;s preference, placed inside a large bowl under running water for half an hour, drained and the hare returned to\u00a0the bowl along with\u00a01\/4 cup of\u00a0a good Italian white wine vinegar (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.maioligourmand-shop.com\/acetaia-c-giaccone-aceto-cesare-bianco.html\">Aceto Cesare Bianco<\/a>) and enough cold cover to cover, left standing 20 minutes or so, the hare removed and\u00a0half of the pieces placed inside a heavy\u00a0enameled cast iron pan, half a cup more of the\u00a0vinegar poured in, plus 4 sliced cloves of Rocambole garlic from Keith&#8217;s Farm, 2 sprigs of rosemary (each broken into 2 sections), several myrtle berries and leaves, one good-size piece of a crushed <a href=\"http:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/2017\/02\/28\/the-habanada-pepper-fresh-and-dried-two-ways\/\">dark dry habanada pepper<\/a>, 2 whole\u00a0dried <em>peperoncino Calabresi secchi<\/em> from Buon Italia,\u00a0sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, followed by the remaining pieces of hare, fresh water added more than half way up the level of the meat,\u00a0followed by a fourth of a cup of olive oil,\u00a0the pot brought\u00a0to a boil, the heat reduced to low and the hare allowed to cook at a simmer, without stirring, but shaken a few times,\u00a0for about an hour, maybe more, but in any event\u00a0only until it was tender, at which time\u00a0a sauce ahould have been produced at the bottom of the pan [NOTE: I found that it had not been reduced enough, so I removed the hare pieces, boiled the liquid down until it was the proper consistency, and then, when it had slightly cooled, I added a few tablespoons of cold butter, stirring it in], finishing the now-sauced hare\u00a0on the plates with some chopped parsley.<\/li>\n<li>quince chutney, made 2 days earlier, in order to fully develop its flavors, using\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thekitchn.com\/recipe-quince-c-160946\">this theKitchn.com recipe<\/a>, using a red shallot from\u00a0Norwich Meadows Farm, a Rocambole garlic clove from Keith&#8217;s Farm,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.harvesttotable.com\/2007\/12\/quince_cooked_quince_has_a\/\">quince<\/a> from Troncillito Farms, dried sweet cherries (don\u2019t know whether they were local) from Whole Foods, and fresh ginger from Lani\u2019s Farm, apple cider vinegar from\u00a0Race Farm<\/li>\n<li>two pounds of Japanese sweet potatoes from Lani\u2019s Farm, sliced thinly, seasoned with salt and pepper, arranged in 4 layers, each separated in succession by a portion of 2 cups of heavy cream that had been mixed in a blender with one chipotle pepper\u00a0and a small amount of adobo sauce, inside a 8\u2033x12\u2033 glazed ceramic casserole dish, baked inside a 350\u00ba oven for about one hour, or until the cream had been absorbed and the\u00a0potatoes\u00a0browned (this gratin recipe, one I\u2019ve used many times, is from \u2018<a href=\"http:\/\/www.strandbooks.com\/celebrity-chefs\/bobby-flay-s-bold-american-food-more-than-200-revolutionary-recipes\">Bobby Flay\u2019s Bold American Food<\/a>\u2018, it appears as \u2018Sweet Potato Gratin with Smoked Chiles\u2019)<\/li>\n<li>collard greens from\u00a0Keith&#8217;s Farm, the stems torn off and the leaves sliced thickly, 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, wilted inside a heavy oval enameled cast iron pot in which\u00a03 halved Rocambole garlic from Keith&#8217;s Farm had first been allowed to sweat in a bit of\u00a0olive oil, the greens\u00a0finished with a little sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil<\/li>\n<li>the wine was a California (Napa) red, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.duckhorn.com\/product\/2010-Duckhorn-Vineyards-Napa-Valley-Cabernet-Sauvignon\">Duckhorn Vineyards Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2010<\/a>, the very generous gift, earlier in the year, of 2 New York friends<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There was a cheese course, which included local cheeses, also from the Union Square Greenmarket, a choice of local apples, and more of\u00a0the local bread, this time in the form of very thinly sliced toasts.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>the cheeses were all from Consider Bardwell Farm: &#8216;Manchester\u2019 goat milk cheese, and 2 cow cheeses, &#8216;Pawlet Reconsided&#8217;, and &#8216;Bardem Blue&#8217;<\/li>\n<li>the apples were all from Samscott Orchards: &#8216;Newtown Pippin&#8217;,\u00a0&#8216;Ashmead&#8217;s Kernel&#8217;,and &#8216;Stayman Winesap&#8217;<\/li>\n<li>the toasts were from the loaf of whole wheat sourdough we had enjoyed with the first course<\/li>\n<li>the wine was an Italian (Campania) white,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.astorwines.com\/SearchResultsSingle.aspx?search=27443&amp;searchtype=Contains&amp;term=sannio&amp;p=1\">Falanghina &#8220;Sannio&#8221; Terra di Briganti 2015<\/a>, from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.astorwines.com\/Default.aspx\">Astor Wines<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Our guests had brought with them from Brooklyn a really fantastic pear cheesecake, from <a href=\"http:\/\/market.choicebrooklyn.com\/\">Choice Market<\/a>, on Lafayette Avenue, which we enjoyed later in the evening.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>the music throughout the meal was <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/user\/bhoggard\/playlist\/1NMr5KdBX2Qfcwytf4uECW\">a playlist of modern works by American composers<\/a> that Barry had assembled early in the day, from Spotify<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was\u00a0a very long and leisurely Thanksgiving meal, shared with good friends. The star on the table was not a roast\u00a0turkey, but a braised three-and-a-half-pound Scottish hare, which was,\u00a0as the fish in the first course, quite wild (one of our guests found\u00a0a buckshot in his serving). There were no cranberries, although there was chutney, sweet &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-meals-at-home"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14654\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}