Leftovers, but a very special kind of leftovers.

Tonight we enjoyed a re-run of our New Year’s Day feast, absent the radicchio but present some good red cabbage, simply presented.

• about 16 ounces of the 24 ounces of smoked pork loin which remained from Sunday, reheated in the oven after being drizzled with the small amount of sauce that had also not been consumed that day, along with the modest amount of the surviving horseradish potato gratin, both served with a small amount of pungent horseradish jelly from Berkshire Berries and a handful/scoop of 2 finely-sliced really tiny red cabbages from Norwich Meadows Farm that had been dressed with a little good olive oil, salt, pepper, and a drizzle of real apple cider vinegar from Race Farm and allowed to sit for 45 minutes
• the wine was a German (Baden) red, Hermann Dorflinger Spätburgunder Müllheimer Reggenhag Spätlese trocken 2013 which we had brought through customs when returning from our last German trip
• the music was Alfred Schnittke, Symphony No. 4, the Stockholm Sinfonietta conducted by Stefan Parkman, the Uppsala Akademiska Kammarkor directed by Okko Kamu

Yesterday I tweeted that our New Years Day dinner would be “Germany with some Italian, and, as always, New York too”. I followed through later in the day, and this post describes what it looked like, as prepared for four.

We began with bread sticks and a sparkling wine, to toast good friends and the new year

• grissini from Buon Italia
• the wine was a California (Sonoma and Mendocino) sparkling white, Eponina Brut North Coast NV from Naked Wines

I had hoped to serve smoked eel for the first course, but there was none in site in the Greenmarket or anywhere else I look. Instead, I connected with some great smoked halibut from North Atlantic waters.

• smoked haddock from the Lobster Place, with a little dressed upland cress from Two Guys from Woodbridge (a Campania olive oil, Lamparelli O.R.O. from Buon Italia; Maldon salt; freshly-ground black pepper; and a squeeze of juice from a sweet lemon from Fantastic Gardens of Long Island)a
• slices of an Eric Kayser ‘Pain aux Céréales’
• the wine was a German (Franken) white, Weingut Schmitt Kinder Gutswein Silvaner Trocken 2014

 

Since there would be 4 of us at dinner, my idea of a smoked pork roast for the main course seemed to make sense for the wow factor, for deliciousness, and for ease of preparation, and that’s what we got.

• one 6-rib 5-pound (more than enough for this meal) smoked pork rack (Kassler), from Pennsylvania, possibly an Amish farm, via O. Ottomanelli and Sons on Bleecker Street in the West Village, trimmed and the fat scored by Joe Ottomanelli (on the side not seen in the image below) rubbed with a mix of salt, pepper, a little of both picante and dulce Spanish paprika, placed in a large enameled cast iron dutch oven with 4 yellow onions and 3 garlic cloves, all diced and all from Lucky Dog Organic Farm, 5 Italian bay leaves from Buon Italia and 8 juniper berries, 6 cups of water and 2 cups of a decent red wine, covered with a lid and cooked in a preheated oven 375° for about 30 minutes, the cover removed and the pork continued cooking for another 25 minutes, basting occasionally, removed from the oven, the meat cut into chops, one rib each, kept warm while some of the cooking liquid was transferred to a smaller saucepan where it was stirred with about 4 tablespoons of water mixed with 2 tablespoons of arrowroot to bind them, served on pre-heated plates with some of the sauce on the top, the remainder poured into a pre-heated sauceboat which was added to the table

 

The Kassler was accompanied by Quince chutney remaining from several earlier meals, a potato-horseradish gratin, and roasted tardivo radicchio.

 

• quince chutney, made following this theKitchn.com recipe, using a shallot from Keith’s Farm, a garlic clove from Stokes Farm, quince from Red Jacket Orchards, dried sweet cherries from Whole Foods, fresh ginger from Lani’s Farm, apple cider from Locust Grove Fruit Farm (the recipe asked for apple cider vinegar, and I do have a bottle of the local stuff, from Race Farm, but I misread the instruction and the dish still turned out more than fine)
• three pounds of russet potatoes from Norwich Meadows Farm, washed, peeled, and thinly-sliced, tossed in a large bowl with 1½ teaspoons salt, ¾ teaspoon pepper, ¼ teaspoon of ground nutmeg, 3 Italian bay leaves from Buon Italia, half of a cup of shaved fresh horseradish from Eataly, and almost 3 cups of Ronnybrook heavy cream, arranged inside a buttered shallow 3-quart enameled cast iron baking dish, pressed to submerge the potatoes completely, covered in aluminum foil and baked in a 400º oven for 25 minutes, the foil removed and the dish continued to bake until the potatoes were tender and the top is golden, about another 50 minutes, removed to rest on the top of the stove until ready to be served [the dish can be prepared ahead of time, allowed to cool, and reheated for 12 minutes]
• two heads of tardivo radicchio, one from Campo Rosso Farm, the other from Italy, via Eataly (Chris and Jessi had only one left when I stopped by their stall in the Greenmarket on Friday, and I really wanted to serve this wonderful vegetable to our guests), prepared pretty much according to this simple recipe, which is to say, washed under cold running water, the moisture shaken off, each head cut in half lengthwise, and a V-cut made inside the root end to allow it to cook more rapidly, the halves arranged inside a ceramic oven pan cut side up, covered with thyme sprigs from Stokes Farm, seasoned generously with salt and pepper, drizzled with2 tablespoons of olive oil, baked for about 12 minutes, turned over, baked for about 8 minutes more, turned so the cut side is up and once again returned to the oven, this time for only a couple minutes or so, or until the stems were tender [the tardivo can be served hot or warm]
• the wines were, first, an Austrian (Burgenland) red, Sankt Laurent ‘Konkret,’ Meinklang – 2009; and then a German (Baden) red, Pinot Noir, Dr. Heger – 2012, both from Astor Wines

 

There was a cheese course.

• the cheeses were, from left to right in the picture above, Consider Bardwell Farms ‘Manchester’ goat cheese; their ‘Pawlet’ cow cheese; ‘Barden’, a cow blue cheese, also from Consider Bardwell; and ‘Arethusa Blue’, a Connecticut cow blue from Eataly
• thin toasts from the same Eric Kayser ‘Pain aux Céréales’ with which the meal began
• and I brought out a dozen dried Calabrian (Amantea) figs from Buon Italia
• the wine was a California (Napa) white, Matt Iaconis Chardonnay Napa Valley 2015, from Naked Wines

 

There was a sweet, a very festive sweet!

 

• struffoli from the Magliulo family’s shop, Buon Italia, made by Tonia, who, with her husband Mimmo, owns this wonderful place

 

• the music throughout was the conversation of four friends and one very smart baby

[the image of the struffoli is from the archive, although the sweet was made by the same woman; the one I took last night turned out a little blurry after several courses with wine]

A pretty glorious meal.

I’m probably most comfortable with Italian-oriented cookery, and its modern emanations, but when I return to one of my earliest enthusiasms, German cooking (which began in the early-60s in Germany and was later encouraged by Mimi Sheraton and her 1965, ‘German Cookery’), both the ingredients and the process seem totally familiar, and the results are usually very good.

Last night we enjoyed one of the very, very good results.

While I took many liberties with some classics, the meal remained basically pretty German, including that its culture was the specific source for both the pork and the beets (Pennsylvania German), and the wine and the music (Frankish German).

 

• three small leeks from Tamarack Hollow Farm, mostly only the white portions (the better green, upper sections reserved), sliced once lengthwise, rinsed (these needed very little) and swirled around for a minute in a small amount of butter (in the past I have also used bacon fat or duck fat, alone or in various proportions) which had been heated inside a round tin-lined copper pan before adding 2 smoked loin pork chops [‘Kassler‘], from an Amish family farm in Pennsylvania which sells its produce at the Union Square Greenmarket as ‘Millport Dairy‘, a Pyrex glass cover added immediately and the chops kept above a very low flame (just enough to warm them, since as smoked meat, they were already fully-cooked), turning the chops once, and, near the end of the cooking time, the green parts of the leeks set aside earlier added and stirred about, the pork removed, plated, brushed with a horseradish jelly from Berkshire Berries, the pork then drizzled with the juices, including the the leek segments
• fourteen ounces of some quite small purple-top turnips tiny white purple-top turnips from Gorzynski Ornery Farm, scrubbed, but not peeled, cooked briefly (4 minutes, or until lightly browned in spots) over moderately high heat inside a large enameled cast iron pan in a little butter before a fourth of a cup of good chicken stock was added, along with several sprigs of thyme and a small pinch of sugar, the pan covered, and the turnips cooked until they were tender (only about 15-20 minutes in this case, and the stock had already reduced by then to a slightly-thickened sauce), the thyme removed seasoned with salt and pepper and sprinkled with chopped parsley from Norwich Meadows Farm
• a rich, spicy quince chutney, remaining from this dinner
• small side dishes of pickled red beets from Millport Dairy Farm
• the wine was a German (Franken) white, Weingut Schmitt Kinder Gutswein Silvaner Trocken 2014, from Chelsea Wine Vault\
• the music was [most of] Glück’s Alceste’, John Eliot Gardner conducting the English Baroque Soloists and the Monteverdi Choir, with Yann Beuron, Dietrich Henschel, Anne Sofie von Otter, Joanne Lunn, et al., to be continued another evening

We were back from Germany but a day or two, and I was already homesick for a German meal. Not quite echt German, what I put together was more like ‘creative German’.

 

• one young, or spring, red onion from Bodhitree Farm, white portion only (some of the better green leaves reserved), chopped and swirled around for a minute in a small amount of equal parts of bacon fat, duck fat, and butter which had been heated inside an oval copper au gratin before adding 2 smoked loin pork chops [‘Kassler‘], from the Amish family farm in Pennsylvania which offers excellent produce at the Union Square Greenmarket under the name Millport Dairy, a Pyrex glass cover added immediately, the chops kept above a very low flame (just enough to warm them, as they were already fully-cooked), turning the meat once, and, near the end of the cooking time, the green parts of the onion set aside earlier added and stirred about, the pork removed, plated, brushed with a horseradish jelly from Berkshire Berries, the pork then sprinkled with both the white and green onion segments
• two handfuls of washed red amaranth from Bodhitree Farm, wilted in a little olive oil in which 6 tiny organic garlic cloves from Trader Joe’s had slowly cooked until they were beginning to brown
• small purple-top turnips from Norwich Meadows Farm, cooked along the lines of this simple and delicious recipe, using local honey (the extraordinarily rich Apple State Hilltop Family Farm pure buckwheat honey) and dill from Bodhitree Farm rather than the chives specified in the recipe
• the wine was a German (Mosel) white, Urban Riesling 2011 from das Weingut St. Urbans-Hof
• the music was Phillip Glass, ‘In the Summer House’ and ‘Mad Rush’, and Nico Muhly, ‘4 Studies’ and ‘Honest Music’ 

We’re almost in German lands here.

• six or eight ramps from Mountain Sweet Berry Farm, their white portions only (the green leaves reserved), chopped and swirled around for a minute in a small amount of equal parts of bacon fat, duck fat, and butter which had been heated inside an oval copper au gratin, two smoked loin pork chops [‘Kassler‘] from the Amish farm in Pennsylvania which offers their excellent produce at the Union Square Greenmarket under the name Millport Dairy, added to the pan, which was then covered with tin foil and kept above a very low flame (just enough to warm the chops, as of course they were already fully-cooked), turning the meat once, and, near the end of the cooking time, the green parts of the ramps which had been set aside earlier, added and stirred about, the pork removed, plated, brushed with a garlic oregano jelly from Berkshire Berries, then covered with both the white and green ramp segments
• the same fats as described above in the preparation of the pork, heated above a medium-high heat in a large enameled cast iron pan, then about 28 ounces of red cabbage from Eataly, finely-sliced, and one medium roughly-chopped ’Picasso’ shallot (very strong) from Mountain Sweet Berry Farm added, cooked, stirred occasionally, until the cabbage had softened slightly (about 10 minutes), water added throughout, after which some salt was introduced and a little lemon juice, local apple cider vinegar from Race Farm, and a sprinkling of freshly-ground black pepper, before the heat was reduced and the mixture cooked 5 or 10 minutes more (or until the cabbage was wilted and the shallots softened), and a few tablespoons of raisins and some red current jelly added and stirred into the pan
• very tender collard greens from Migliorelli Farm, washed, drained, and braised very lightly in a heavy pot, finished with salt, pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil
• the wine was an Austrian (Lower Austria/Niederösterreich) white, Landhaus Mayer Grüner Veltliner 2014
• the music was Franz Josef Haydn, Symphonies Nos. 97, 98, and 99, performed by the Orchestra of the 18th Century, conducted by Franz Brüggen