It was warm, so we decided to have a picnic.

• Alto Adige/Südtirol Speck from Eataly, and chopped parsley, both drizzled with very good olive oil, three kinds of olives and two cheeses (Danby Vermont goat milk from Consider Bardwell Farm and Arpeggio Massachusetts cow milk from Robinson Farm, and slices of whole wheat (‘Integrale’) bread from Eataly
• before the salume and cheese there there was a smaller plate of fresh, ricotta cheese from Millport Dairy Farm, sprinkled with Maldon salt, crushed Tellicherry pepper. fresh thyme leaves, a drizzle of the same olive oil used later, and served with halved Maine cherry ‘cocktail’ tomatoes from Eataly, and slices of the same Eataly ‘Integrale’
• the wine was a Spanish sparkling, Pinord Natura Brut Nature Reserva Marrugat NV
• the music was Ferdinand Ries‘ Symphony No. 3

It’s what we call a picnic;  it’s our at-home hot weather meal of last resort (although because they’re such a pleasure, it’s sometimes very much a first resort, independent of an evening’s temperature and humidity levels).  We sit at a wooden table next to an open window which looks out onto the roof garden, but there are no bugs.   It may take a while to set out the fixings, but there’s no heat involved (except in the unusual case of last night’s meal, which involved grilling tiny eggplants), and there’s very little washing up afterward.  There’s also no lugging of picnic hampers or insulated wine bags.

• slices of Alto Adige speck from Eataly (only 2 ounces on each plate); a few halved Fairy Eggplants brushed with garlic and fresh marjoram (from Central Valley Farm) then pan-grilled; 2 sliced heirloom tomatoes from Berried Treasures, covered with torn New York rooftop basil from Gotham Greens at Whole Foods, and some good olive oil; parsley from Paffenrath Farms; a handful of red radishes from Phillips Farm; three cheeses, including a soft sheep’s milk cheese, Kinderhook Creek Mini, by Old Chatham Sheepherding Company, from Whole Foods; ‘ Manchester’, a goat’s milk cheese from Consider Bardwell; and, seen on the plate here, Toma Point Reyes cow’s milk cheese from Eataly; finally, slices of a fresh Italian rye from Eataly
• a Swiss white wine, Domaine de Beudon, Fendant Valais 2005, from Appellation wine & Spirits

 

 

no bugs, no rain

 

Yes, by now it should be clear that we spent the Fourth of July in our summer place on 23rd Street, where we almost always holiday.

In the first two of the three days of the extended weekend we had a meal dominated by fish (a pretty American meal, even if, since it was in a particularly New England form, it was somewhat esoteric American).  Dinner on the second day included grilled red meat (a feast almost, but not quite of the classic American cookout sort, since lamb still doesn’t conjure up thoughts of the typical American barbecue, and because it was enjoyed indoors).  On the third day we had a simple picnic, but once again we probably missed the point of the genuine Fourth, since this picnic was indoors.  Also, there was no chicken.

I had decided to work with the warm weather, meaning I would avoid cooking altogether, so I assembled what we call a picnic, something we do on occasion to vary the kitchen routine and to enjoy an even more leisurely pace, whether before, during, or after dinner, than I can normally arrange.

All of the food was gathered from what we already had on hand, making the meal even more relaxed.  There was prosciutto (packaged, from Whole Foods, and honestly quite good); sliced yellow tomatoes from Stokes Farm, topped with Mountain Sweet Berry Farm lovage; a small simply-dressed salad (treviso from Queens County Farm, topped with chives from S & SO Produce Farms);  four cheeses (Paglierino and Salva Cremasco from Eataly, Willoughby of Cellars at Jasper Hill from the New Amsterdam Market, and Garrotxa from Citarella); and an Italian rye bread from Eataly.

 

The wine was an Australian, Yalumba Y Series Viognier 2013

Oh, and those red tomatoes? They were only table decor this time.

It looks like a holiday celebration. Of course I’m thinking of something that used to be called ‘Decoration Day‘, something beyond the morbid, more modern American celebration of soldiers fallen in the name of our national military fetish.

I would prefer to think of this late spring weekend as an occasion when people gather, put flowers on graves, enjoy the company of relatives and of others, both familiar and not. It’s an anachronism anyway, so I’ll add a picnic-like ‘dinner on the grounds’, one which would probably be enjoyed at about the same afternoon hour Barry and I enjoyed this breakfast today. If asked, we would probably both respond with mixed feelings about being far from our own family cemeteries.

• the ingredients of the meal, which as usual served as lunch and breakfast, were almost entirely local: some very fresh eggs from pastured chickens and bacon from pastured pigs, both from Millport Dairy Farm, the fried eggs seasoned with sea salt, a freshly ground mix of black pepper and other seeds or spices that had been accidentally combined when I was preparing a dry marinade for a pork belly, then decided to hold onto for future use (black pepper, fennel seeds cumin seeds, coriander seeds, star anise, white peppercorns, and whole clove), sprinkled with a thinly sliced bulb from a bunch of ramps form Mountain Sweet Berry Farm, and finished with thinly sliced strips of the 2 ramp leaves that had been attached to the bulb, some chopped fronds of small spring fennel bulbs from Central Valley Farm that had been a part of an earlier meal, a few small cherry tomatoes from Eckerton Hill Farm that had been heated gently in a small enamel-lined cast iron porringer, then sprinkled with a dry seasoning called L’ekama from Ron & Leetal Arazi’s New York Shuk, a small mound of micro purple radish from Two Guys from Woodbridge, and thin slices, not toasted, of 2 different rich, hearty breads, ‘Seedy Grains’ from Lost Bread Company (wheat, spelt, rye, barley, organ bread buckwheat, oats, seeds {flax, sesame, sunflower, pumpkin], water, salt) and Runner & Stone’s whole wheat seeded crescent (with toasted sesame, flax, poppy, and caraway seeds)
• the music was a morning concert album by the sitarist Nikhil Banerjee, ‘Morning Ragas Bombay 1965’

Barry and I used to call meals like this ‘picnics’. More recently, in the case of particularly German versions, I’ve labelled them ‘Picknicks‘ on this blog. In fact, the appropriate German term would be ‘Brotzeit‘, and that’s how I’ve described this one.

The gorgeous lettuce included on the plate is a purple variety whose name was not indicated on the stand where I purchased it. The only lettuce image I snapped that afternoon was actually of a green version of the same breed, and at the time it just happened to be boasting a single purple leaf from its neighbor.

• with the exception of the oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, butter, and confiture, the items included on the plate were essentially from local sources: Blutwurst or Zungenwurst, a variation of head cheese, from Schaller & Weber; a dollop of Italian (Asiago) Lingonberry Jam (a berry much like the German ‘Preiselbeeren‘) [not pictured]; purple lettuce from Norwich Meadows Farm, dressed with an Italian olive oil, Alce Nero DOP ‘Terra di Bari Bitonto’, from Eataly, an Italian white wine vinegar, Aceto Cesare Bianco, from Buon Italia, Maldon salt, and freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper; orange cherry tomatoes grown in Ontario, from Whole Foods Market; large red cherry tomatoes from Alex’s Tomato Farm; Isny Allgäu ‘Adel Egger’ raw milk cheese, from Schaller & Weber, and ‘Danby” goat cheese and ‘Rupert’ cow cheese, both from Consider Bardwell Farm; 2 Rot-gebeizt pickled eggs from Millport Dairy Farm; slices of a Balthazar rye boule from Schaller & Weber, and ‘Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter‘ [not pictured]
• the wine was a German (Mosel) white, Weingut Axel Pauly Trinkfluss 2014
• the music was the album, ‘The Palais-Royal‘, compositions from the Paris palace and court of Phillip II, Duke of Orléans, Regent during the long minority of Louis XV, and a composer himself

Phillippe II, Duke of Orléans, detail of a 1706 portrait attributed to Jean-Baptiste Santerre [image from Online Galleries]