We’re leaving for Los Angeles in a few days, so I’ve been putting more simple meals than usual on the table, and working with whatever fresh ingredients we have on hand before we go. Consequently this pairing was at least partly an accident, although it seemed more like a brilliant inspiration once we sat down to try it.

• one swordfish steak (13.5 ounces) from American Seafood Company picked up the same afternoon at Chelsea’s Down to Earth Farmers Market on 23rd Street, halved vertically, marinated on an ironstone platter for a little more than half an hour, turning once, in a mixture of olive oil, a tablespoon of fresh torn peppermint from Keith’s Farm, a small amount, chopped, of an aji rico pepper (medium spicy/hot) from Alewife Farm, and the white sections, chopped section of 2 very small scallion from Berried Treasures Farm, after which the swordfish was drained well, both sides covered with a coating of homemade dried breadcrumbs, pan-grilled over medium-high heat for 3 or 4 minutes on each side, or until just barely fully cooked all of the way through (think of the texture of a fresh good cheesecake), removed from the pan and arranged on 2 plates, sprinkled with a little Maldon sea salt, some of the chopped green parts of the scallions, and drizzled with a bit of juice from a Whole Foods Market organic lemon squeezed, garnished with purple micro radish from Windfall Farms

• a very cool, sort of sweet-sour fresh green salsa assembled from half a pound of tiny, mostly tart, green tomatoes from Berried Treasures Farm, halved; a bit of peperoncino Calabresi secchia from Buon Italia; a portion of one finely chopped aji dulce (sweet) pepper from Eckerton Hill Farm; one small sliced and chopped red onion from Quarton Farm; a little turbinado sugar; a pinch of sea salt; some scissored garlic chives from Echo Creek Farm in the Saturday Chelsea Farmers Market (through December on the north sidewalk of 23rd Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues); and some chopped lovage from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• the wine was an Italian (Marche) white, Le Salse, Verdicchio di Matelica, 2016, from Flatiron Wines
• the music was a new recording of Monteverdi’s ‘Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria’, John Eliot Gardiner conducting the English Baroque Soloists and the Monteverdi Choir in a live recording from The National Forum of Music in Wrocław

There were no smaller pieces, like those I would usually buy, inside the fisherman’s bucket when I stopped by yesterday, but since the swordfish looked so good (and Warren indicated it was a cut close to the belly), and the price was also very good, I didn’t feel guilty about coming home with a pound and a quarter of such goodness.

Fortunately, that evening I was able to prepare the steaks suitably and grill them à point, but then, unless you fall asleep in the middle of the process, it’s really hard to mess up a swordfish steak.

• two thick 10-ounce swordfish steaks off of Scott Rucky’s fishing vessel, ‘Dakota’, from American Seafood Company in the Union Square Greenmarket, marinated for more than half an hour in a mixture of olive oil, maybe half a teaspoon of super-pungent dried Sicilian oregano from Buon Italia, a small amount of crushed dried peperoncino Calabresi secchi from Buon Italia, and a chopped section of a Japanese scallion from Norwich Meadows Farm, drained well, covered on both sides with a coating of homemade dried breadcrumbs, pan-grilled over medium-high heat for 5 minutes on each side, removed, seasoned with a little sea salt, a little juice from a Whole Foods Market organic lemon squeezed on top, garnished with purple micro radish from Two Guys from Woodbridge [although they were not drizzled with a little olive oil this time, out of consideration for thos beautiful crusty breadcrumbs, I think I really should have]
• one 5 or 6-inch ‘sugar dumpling’ squash from Tamarack Hollow Farm, scrubbed, halved horizontally, the seeds removed, divided into one-inch wedges, tossed lightly in a bowl with olive oil, sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper, and one section of a golden dried habanada pepper, then arranged on a large, unglazed, well-seasoned ceramic Pampered Chef pan and roasted on one side at 450ª for 15 minutes, turned onto the/an other side and allowed to roast for 15 more minutes, removed from both the oven and the pan, once they had softened inside and the edges of the skin somewhat carbonized and crunchy, stirred inside a large heavy tin0lined copper sauté pan in which 2 whole bruised cloves of Keith’s Farm Rocambole garlic had been gently heated in a bit of olive oil before joined by some roughly-chopped sage, also from Phillips Farms
• hothouse-grown local baby arugula from Eckerton Hill Farm, sprinkled with a tiny bit of Maldon salt and freshly-ground black pepper, drizzled with a bit of a very good Sicilian olive oil, from Agrigento, Azienda Agricola Mandranova
• the wine was an Italian (Marche) white, Fontezoppa Verdicchio di Matelica 2016, from Garnet Wines
• the music was Mozart’s 1772 opera, ‘Lucio Silla’, Leopold Hager conducting the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, Salzburg Radio Chorus, and the Salzburg Mozarteum Chorus., with an amazing cast, Edith Mathis, Helen Donath, Arleen Augér, Werner Krenn, Julia Varády, and Peter Schreier

I really did take pictures of this meal, including some great shots of the vegetables inside the pan both before and after they had been sautéed, but when I went to look for the images today, they had all disappeared. Either I had inadvertently deleted them, or they had been stolen by the kitchen goblins.

While each of these 3 older posts shows a swordfish steak prepared pretty much as the one I had prepared, the vegetables then were very different from what we enjoyed last night it, so I couldn’t borrow from any to find a lead image, or images, on this post.

Because it was a really terrific meal, one of the best, and because I can’t stand publishing a food post without some kind of image, I looked for something related to the 2 main attractions, and came up with the vintage representations at the top.

• one 16-ounce swordfish steak from Pure Vida Seafood, divided into 2 pieces at home, marinated for half an hour in a mixture of olive oil, 2 finely-chopped red spring shallots from Alewife Farm, some chopped fresh oregano blossoms from Norwich Meadows Farm, and a very small amount of crushed dried peperoncino Calabresi secchi from Buon Italia, drained well, coated on both sides with some homemade dried breadcrumbs, and pan-grilled over medium-high heat for 4 to 5 minutes on each side, removed to 2 plates, seasoned with Maldon salt, some of the juice of an organic lemon from Whole Foods Market squeezed on top, drizzled with a little olive oil [optionally, also a little more chopped spring shallot], and sprinkled with some purple micro radish from Two Guys from Ridgefield

• one Sikkim cucumber from Norwich Meadows Farm (one pound), unpeeled, sliced 2 cm thick [lately I’m finding it easier to describe something in centimeters rather than inches, if a metric measure better fits the dimension I’m describing], arranged inside a large seasoned heavy cast iron pan along with one sliced 4 cm-round spring red onion from N.J. Jersey Farm Produce, Inc. (in Chelsea’s Down to Earth Farmers Market on 23rd Street), and almost half of a dried golden orange habanada pepper, the vegetables sautéed over a medium-high flame, turning once, sprinkling the cucumbers with sea salt each time, until the cucumbers had begun to carbonize on each side successively [NOTE: the next time I will add the allium some time after beginning to cook the cucumbers, say, after they were turned, because they take far less time to reach the same cooking state], arranged on the plates, sprinkled with chopped dill flowers from Eckerton Hill Farm, and drizzled with olive oil
• the wine was a California (Lodi) white, David Akiyoshi Reserve Chardonnay 2015, from Naked Wines
• the music was the album, ‘Kathleen Supove: The Debussy Effect‘, one of our many purchases yesterday from Bandcamp

[the first image is a 19th-century Belgian lithograph which appears on this site; the second a print, dated incorrectly, on this one]