{"id":23557,"date":"2019-08-10T22:08:14","date_gmt":"2019-08-10T22:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/?p=23557"},"modified":"2019-08-10T22:08:14","modified_gmt":"2019-08-10T22:08:14","slug":"soft-shell-crab-green-beans-tomato-berry-gelato-cobbler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/?p=23557","title":{"rendered":"soft shell crab; green beans; tomato; berry\/gelato cobbler"},"content":{"rendered":"

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One of the great boons for a cook who’s at it regularly is the ability to use leftover ingredients saved from earlier meals. Last night it was a small amount of some juices that had started out inside very ripe heirloom tomatoes whose flesh had been a part of this meal<\/a>, 4 days earlier than the one in which they ended up last night. The addition had a great effect, far more wonderful than I could have imagined possible.<\/p>\n

Another bonus is the proximity of a food source like the Union Square Greenmarket, where suppliers delight in coming in with – and over and over coming up with<\/em> – local items to please professional chefs, serious amateurs, and the many casual New York cooks who are also devoted to its bounties; as in, voila, yesterday’s soft shelled crabs!<\/p>\n

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four soft-shell blue crabs (12 ounces) from Pura Vida Seafood Company in the Union Square Greenmarket, cleaned as described in\u00a0Marylander Stacey Williamson\u2019s short video<\/a>, rinsed in running water and dried very thoroughly (so they don\u2019t \u2018steam\u2019 and so to encourage crispness, since I had decided not to use a batter of any kind), brought to room temperature, saut\u00e9ed on both sides (bottom first, but later served with the bottom down) over a medium-high flame in a quarter inch of olive oil inside a 13-inch nicely-seasoned cast iron pan (for maybe about 3 minutes altogether?) until their texture goes from soft to taut, when they are ready to be removed and arranged on the 2 plates, sprinkled with local sea salt and some freshly ground black pepper, drizzled with juice of a Mexican organic lemon from Chelsea Whole Foods Market, followed by a couple tablespoons of sweet tomato juices that had been in the refrigerator since they had escaped the\u00a0heirlooms they had arrived with earlier in the week<\/a>,\u00a0finished with a garnish on the side of organic baby mustard from Two Guys from Woodbridge<\/p>\n

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10 ounces of very ripe (while waiting for this evening they had become shriveled, but none had burst) Edox cherry tomatoes<\/a> from TransGenerational Farm<\/a>, washed, dried, heated for a minute in a little olive oil inside a small tin-lined copper skillet, seasoned with salt and pepper, sprinkled with fresh chopped epazote, also from TransGenerational Farm<\/p>\n

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seven ounces of hand-picked\u00a0haricots verts<\/em> from Samascott Orchards in Kinderhook, NY, left whole, blanched until barely tender, drained, and dried in the same stainless steel pot in which they had cooked, over low-medium heat, shaking, then set aside in a bowl until after the crabs had begun saut\u00e9ing, at which time they were reheated in a little oil inside a heavy well-seasoned cast iron pan, finished with salt and black pepper, and mixed with dill flowers from Willow Wisp Farm<\/p>\n

the wine was an Oregon (Willamette Valley) ros\u00e9,\u00a0Chris Baker Willamette Valley Rose of Pinot Noir 2018<\/a>, from Naked Wines<\/a><\/p>\n

the music was the album, ‘Martin Boykan: Rites of Passage’<\/a>, from Bridge Records<\/a><\/p>\n

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There was a dessert [I’ve just learned<\/a> that the word, ‘dessert’ is from the Old French desservir<\/em>, (‘to clear a table’, or, literally ‘to un-serve’), and originated during the Middle Ages]. This one might be described as an upside-down blackberry cobbler which included\u00a0a bit of very un-medieval gelato. But, yes, we did clear the table first..<\/p>\n