It’s now winter, but we still have local color on our table.

It seems especially right in the winter, but we enjoy duck at home often, usually duck breast, and all year round: It’s simple to prepare; it comes from a local farmer; the price is modest; it freezes well, and so it’s almost always in the larder; we love game, and it’s taste is the closet thing we can get to it in this country, unless the cook hunts, or has a friend who does; but, above all, it’s really, really delicious.

• * one 13-ounce duck breast from Hudson Valley Duck Farm, the fatty side scored in tight cross hatching with a very sharp knife, the entire breast then sprinkled top and bottom with a mixture of sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper, and a little turbinado sugar, left standing for almost an hour, then seared/pan-fried inside a small oval enameled cast iron pan over medium heat, the fatty side down first, for a total of 10 minutes or so, turning once, draining the oil after the first few minutes [to be strained and used in cooking later, if desired], removed when medium rare, cutting it into 2 portions to confirm that the center was of the right doneness, then left to sit for a couple minutes before being finished with a drizzle of juice from an organic lemon from Whole Foods Market, a little chopped rosemary from S. & S.O. Farm, and a drizzle of olive oil [NOTE: the tenderloin, removed from the breast, but placed in the marinade with it, was fried very briefly near the end of the period during which the rest of the breast was cooking]
• * eight medium-size chioggia beets from Campo Rosso Farm, trimmed and scrubbed, placed on a small unglazed Pampered Chef oven pan, tossed with a tablespoon or so of olive oil, one halved clove of Rocambole garlic from Keith’s Farm, the leaves from several branches of thyme from Stokes Farm, chopped, sea salt and freshly-ground pepper to taste, covered loosely with foil and baked for 20 minutes or so, when the foil was removed and the beets turned, roasted for 25 or 30 minutes longer, or until tender, removed from the oven and halved vertically, arranged on 2 plates on and around some upland cress from Paffenroth Gardens (whose quality had held up totally undiminished for almost 2 weeks!), both drizzled with a little olive oil and drops of a good Spanish Rioja vinegar, and finished with some horseradish root from Gorzynski Ornery Farm freshly grated on top [the recipe mostly follows one inside the book, ‘Italian Easy’; Recipes from the London River Cafe‘]
• the wine was a California (Napa Valley) red, Camille Benitah Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2015, from Naked Wines 
• the music was the album, ‘The Works of William Mayer‘, played as a memorial to the composer who died less than one month ago.

It was still a simple meal, even though there were two courses. Also, each could be assembled surprisingly quickly.

• four ounces of Applegate ‘Naturels’ prosciutto from Whole Foods Market, drizzled with a very good Sicilian olive oil, from from Agricento, Azienda Agricola Mandranova (exclusively Nocellara olives)
• served with upland cress from Paffenroth Gardens, dressed with the same oil, Maldon Salt, freshly-ground black pepper, and juice from an organic Whole Foods Market lemon
• slices of a flax seed ‘Armadillo’ from Bobolink Dairy

The primi was as far as we got in courses, although a secondo had never even been contemplated. This pasta had a lot of presence however, and was a bit of an innovation, since it was a beet fusilli, which doesn’t normally appear on Italian menus.

• eight ounces of cooked Sfoglini beet fusilli heated and stirred in a butter sage sauce composed of 3 tablespoons of Organic Valley ‘Cultured Pasture Butter’ melted in a heavy, high-sided tin-lined copper sauté pan and heated with  a number of fresh sage leaves from from Phillips Farm and my penultimate habanada pepper of the year, from Norwich Meadows Farm, chopped, roughly half of a cup of the reserved pasta liquid added and stirred until the sauce had emulsified, 2 or 3 tablespoons of grated Parmigiano Reggiano Hombre from Whole Foods Market scattered on top once the pasta and sauce had been arranged in shallow bowls
• the wine was an Italian (Lazio) white, ‘Elephas’ Bianco, Castello di Torre 2016, from Astor Wines
• the music, in our continuing informal exploration of twentieth-century symphonies, was Bohuslav Martinu’s 1942 Symphony No. 1, Cornelius Meister conducting the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra

The tautog, or blackfish, is one of my favorites, and it has a close association with one of my favorite places in all the world, the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.

This is the treatment I use most often for this noble fish.

Tonight it was also one of the most successful.

• * two 8-ounce filets of Blackfish/Tautog from Blue Moon Fish, prepared mostly as described in this recipe by Melissa Clark, laying the fish skin side down according to the instructions, and kept it there (although, perversely, the recipe’s image seems to suggest it should be cooked with the skin up); also, necessarily in these sad times; I had to substitute a mix of Nigerian cayenne pepper and Spanish paprika (picante) for the ‘Aleppo Syrian red pepper’ the recipe specified; and then to be specific about the other ingredients I used, the fresh sage was from Phillips Farm; the olives were a mix of black oil-cured ‘Moroccan’ and Gaeta, both from Buon Italia, and the lemon juice was squeezed from a Whole Foods Market organic fruit
• * a bit of sweet upland cress from Paffenroth Gardens, dressed with a drizzle of a good Puglian olive oil,  Alce Nero DOP ‘Terra di Bari Bitonto’ from Eataly, Maldon salt, and freshly-ground black pepper
• * twelve or so ounces of sun chokes from Max Creek Hatchery, trimmed, scrubbed, sliced very thinly (1/8-1/4 inch), tossed with barely a tablespoon of olive oil (I think the small amount is somewhat critical to ensuring maximum crispiness), sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper, one fresh chopped habanada pepper, two halved bay leaves from Westside Market, then spread in one layer onto 2 large Pampered Chef unglazed ceramic pans (a single one wasn’t enough, since they had been cut so thinly and they really should show a lot of surrounding surface to become crisp), roasted at 425º for about 30 minutes, or until they were brown, tender, and crispy on the edges
• the wine was a California (Napa) white, Scott Peterson S.P. Drummer Napa Chardonnay 2016, from Naked Wines
• * the music was Luigi Rossi’s ‘Orfeo’, with the Choir and Orchestra of Les Arts Florissants, in a performance which, more than any I had ever before experienced, told me what a brilliant artist can do to raise a great work of art from the sleep to which it might otherwise might have remained condemned forever (the opera’s 1647 premier in Paris was a triumph, but the composer’s history in France was abbreviated by the full-scale rebellion of the Fronde; Rossi returned to Italy and never wrote another theater piece)

It’s a great fish, a simple recipe, and nothing should go wrong. But it did, a little: I somehow ended  up salting this beautiful cod fillet a bit too generously before I coated one side with herbed breadcrumbs and lowered it into the pan. It happens, but I’m more often guilty of undersalting, so I have no idea why it went the other way this time.

There’s actually something that can be done to recover from such accidents, and fortunately I had the antidote right on the counter this time: Lemon. A squeeze of lemon or a drizzle of a mild vinegar usually helps reduce the impact of an injudicious application of too much salt.

I had been storing the sunchokes for some time, but they were in great condition; I had brought home the upland cress only 2 days before and it was super shape. Both tasted terrific, and their seasoning was fine.

• one 14-ounce fresh cod fillet from P.E. & D.D. Seafood, brought to room temperature, seasoned with salt on both sides, then only the top side (former skin side) brushed with a little French dijon mustard which had been mixed with a very small amount of water to make it easier to spread, the two pieces dipped into a mixture of homemade breadcrumbs mixed with some finely-chopped parsley from Norwich Meadows farm, browned briefly on the side coated with the mustard and breadcrumb mix in a little olive oil inside a tin-lined copper au gratin pan, transferred to a 325º oven and cooked until the fish began to flake (only about 9 minutes this time, because the pieces were not really thick) [the recipe is based on Thomas Keller’s ‘Wild Cod en Persillade‘]

• sunchokes (about 14 ounces), small ‘rootlings’ removed, trimmed, scrubbed, sliced by hand very thinly (1/8-1/4 inch), tossed with barely a tablespoon of olive oil (I think the small amount is somewhat critical to ensuring maximum crispiness), sea salt, freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper, a bit of crushed orange-gold habanada pepper, a few fresh sage leaves from from S. & S.O. Produce Farm, and two halved bay leaves from Westside Market, then spread in one layer onto 2 large Pampered Chef unglazed ceramic pans (a single pan wasn’t enough, since they had been cut so thinly and they really should show a lot of surrounding surface to become crisp), roasted at 425º for about 30 minutes, or until they were brown, tender, and crispy on the edges, arranged on 2 plates and sprinkled with purple radish micro greens from Windfall Farms

• part of a bunch of wild garlic from Lani’s Farm, bulbs and stems, roughly chopped, heated inside a medium tin-lined heavy copper pan with a little olive oil, joined slowly, stirring, by 2 handfuls of upland cress from Paffenroth Gardens until the greens were only partially wilted, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper
• the wine was a California (Napa) white, David Marchesi Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2016, from Naked Wines
• the music was the album, ‘Ernst Krenek: Complete Piano Concertos’, with Kenneth Woods conducting the English Symphony Orchestra, and, variously, the soloists Mikhail Korzhev, Eric Huebner, Nurit Pacht, and Adrian Partington

The antipasto came after the pasta; well, the selection came after, but we kept the classic order. The smoky-paprika-rubbed lomo seemed a pretty appropriate introduction for what I expected would be a somewhat earthy primi, and it was (earthy, and appropriate).

• two ounces of thin slices of La Quercia Lomo, lonza di maiale stagionata) from Whole Foods, served with a bit of upland cress from Two Guys from Woodbridge, both pork and cress drizzled with a very small amount of a very good Campania olive oil (Lamparelli O.R.O.)
• slices of a small loaf of ciabatta from Hot Bread Kitchen

 

We love our local Sfoglini pasta, and when I’m at the Union Square Greenmarket I regularly check out their current line at the Greenmarket Regional Grains Project stall (I also watch for a small display at the stalls of farmers whose produce may have gone into one of them). When I spotted the package of their Bronx brewery BxB radiators in their market home ‘store’ I had to pick up a package.  The description on the label read, “spent grain from Bronx Rye Pale Ale, which is comprised of five different barley malts, resulting in a roasted barley finish”.  That sounded awesome to me.

It fulfilled both of our expectations.

I wanted to keep the pasta relatively unembellished, at least in order to check out the new flavor, so I kept the additions to a minimum. One of the most important, aside from the obligatory dried habanada, was a portion of a small stash of wild garlic.

• 8 ounces of Sfoglini Pasta Shop‘s Bronx brewery BxB radiators (“spent grain from Bronx Rye Pale Ale, which is comprised of five different barley malts, resulting in a roasted barley finish”, according to the maker), carefully boiled to ‘safe territory’, that is, something between ‘too hard’ and ‘too mushy’ (Barry, master pasta cook, tells me that it may not be possible to get the Sfoglini varieties which include exceptional ingredients precisely to an al dente moment), drained and tossed inside a large enameled cast iron pot in which a simple sauce had been created by warming some of tiny wild garlic bulbs, with their even tinier stems, all chopped, from Lani’s Farm, and a bit of crushed orange-golden dried Habanada pepper, the mix stirred over a low to medium flame, along with some reserved pasta water to emulsify it, seasoned with a little salt and freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper, divided into 2 shallow bowls, a little olive oil drizzled around the edges of the pasta, then only a small amount of Parmigiano-Reggiano Vache Rosse from Eataly grated over the top, garnished with a little micro red amaranth from Windfall Farms

 

• the wine was an Italian (Umbria) white, Arnaldo Caprai Grecante Grechetto dei Colli Martani 2015, from Chelsea Wine Vault
• the music was the album ‘Guerre & Paix’ [War & Peace/Guerra & Paz], Jordi Savall directing Le Concert des Nations and La Capella Reial de Catalunya