Last night we had some old friends over for dinner. They were visiting their previous city from their current home in the Southwest. We hadn’t seen them in at least 15 years, and I was a little worried about what to put on the table, so I just went with meat and potatoes – and chard of course! Also of course, virtually everything was local.

It was a pretty straightforward meal, but it included a special treat: Local ramps, the first of the season, which, for the occasion, I made into a composed butter which topped the grilled New York New York strip steaks.

The potatoes were dark purple, inside and out, and they stayed purple, inside and out, after roasting.

The chard was the color of a modestly-showy rainbow, and those colors too were fast.

We anticipated the meal with some nibbles.

• small 2-toned French Breakfast radishes from Eckerton Hill Farm, served with a small bowl of Maldon salt, and some surprisingly tasty Firehook garlic thyme ‘Mediterranean Baked Crackers’, from Virginia, via the Chelsea Whole Foods Market
• the wine was an Italian (Veneto) sparkling white, Milleri Millesimato Prosecco, the gift of a friend

We then went right into the main course.

• four 8-ounce New York strip steaks from Lowland Farm, in Orange County, New York (by the ‘Black Dirt’ fields of Pine Island), brought to room temperature and dried, sprinkled with a generous amount of freshly roughly-ground black pepper, placed on a very hot cast iron pan grill for just about 10 minutes, turning twice, salting each side after it had been been turned, removed and arranged on the 4 plates, finished with ramp butter using small, first-of-the-season woodland ramps from Lucky Dog Organic, part of an organic lemon from Whole Foods Market, and some Organic Valley ‘Cultured Pasture Butter’
• ‘Magic Molly‘ fingerling potatoes (21 ounces) from Mountain Sweet Berry Farm, scrubbed, then, unpeeled, dried, sliced lengthwise, mixed inside a bowl with one medium red onion from S. & S.O. Produce Farms, a tablespoon or two of Portuguese olive oil, sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper, a piece of crushed dried orange/gold habanada pepper, a small handful of very fresh rosemary leaves from rosemary from Stokes Farm, stripped from their stems, everything arranged on the surface of a large well-seasoned Pampered Chef unglazed ceramic oven pan, roasted at 400º for about 30 minutes, or maybe a little longer, arranged on the plates, sprinkled with micro scallion from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• two bunches of rainbow chard from Norwich Meadows Farm, wilted in a couple tablespoons of Portuguese olive oil from Whole Foods Market, in which 3 Rocambole garlic cloves from Keith’s Farm had first been heated and slightly softened, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-groun black pepper, and finished with a little lemon juice and a drizzle of olive oil
• the wine was a Portuguese (Dão) red, Quinta da Pellada Dac Red Blend 2013, from Garnet Wines

There was a modest cheese course.

• two goat cheeses from Consider Bardwell Farm, in the Unions Square Greenmarket, their very white, ‘Danby’ and the more rustic, ‘Manchester’
• slices of a Bien Cuit bakery ‘Campagne’ traditional sourdough from Foragers Market
• dollops of ‘Oregano Garlic Jam’ from Massachusetts’ Berkshire Berries, purchased at their table in the Union Square Greenmarket
• the wine was a California (Sonoma) white, Scott Peterson Rumpus California Chardonnay 2016, from Naked Wines

And, as the evening, and the conversation, continued, a sweet dessert course as well.

• ‘Lemon Zest’ sorbet from Vermont’s Blue Moon Sorbet, from Foragers Market, served in 4 small bowls along with very thin slices of a Sundance Organics Meyer lemon from Foragers Market, and topped with zest from the other end of the lemon, and garnished with one of Anna’s Ginger Swedish Thins

It was just about the simplest recipe possible for cooking pork belly, but it was at least as delicious as my first turn at this wonderful cut almost a year ago, when I cooked a ‘pork belly porchetta’, using a procedure that was a bit more involved. Knowing that the little roast could be served either warm or at room temperature relieved some of the stress of having to guess the cooking time for a piece that weighed little over a pound, while preparing 2 vegetables with very different requirements.

The vegetables too arrived on the table with very few extras, and little fuss, although both the turnips and the chard had started out pretty well equipped.

The turnip color was spectacular, although much of the red disappeared when they were peeled.

I would normally describe the greens as rainbow chard, but the one bunch left on the table when I arrived at the farm stall didn’t include any true yellow stems, so I’ll call it ‘half-rainbow chard’.

Only the pork was served with a garnish, but the turnips, shown here before they went into the oven, were joined by some very fresh rosemary early on.

• *one section of pork belly (1.09 pounds) from Flying Pigs Farm, rinsed in cold water, patted dry, the fat side scored at one-centimeter intervals, and the piece halved to keep it from curling while cooking, the flesh side seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, then placed skin side up inside an oval enameled cast iron pot on top of 10 or so fresh small-to-medium-size sage leaves, that surface seasoned with more sea salt, roasted inside a roughly 465º F oven for about 25 minutes, or until the skin was starting to blister and crackle, then enough whole milk added to the pot to come halfway up the side of the meat (this is why it’s best to use a pot little larger than the piece of meat), the heat reduced to 325º and roasted for another hour, possibly less, or until the meat is “meltingly tender”, as the recipe that I used reads, the pork removed from both the oven and the pot (the milk will curdle if the meat is left inside), and either kept warm or allowed to cool (I kept it warm while finishing the vegetables, and garnished it with bronze fennel from Norwich Meadows Farm)
• red turnips from Norwich Meadows Farm, scrubbed, peeled, and cut into half-inch-thick slices, tossed with Portuguese olive oil, sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper, and a generous amount of very fresh rosemary leaves from Stokes Farm, roasted inside a large Pampered Chef unglazed ceramic pan for about 30 minutes at 425º
• one modest-size bunch of ‘half-rainbow chard’ from Norwich Meadows Farm, wilted in a little Portuguese olive oil in which three small Keith’s Farm Rocambole garlic cloves had first been heated and slightly softened, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, and finished with a little more olive oil and a bit of juice from a Whole Foods Market organic lemon
• the wine was a German (Rheinhessen) white, Scheurebe Sonnentau Trocken, Gysler 2014, from Astor Wines
• the music was Phil Kline‘s program, ‘Unsilence’, on New Sounds, streaming

Last night we celebrated Barry’s newly-restored ability – after two successive carpal tunnel operations – to cut his food using both hands.

It was a great steak! The fact that everything else on the plates as well had at least some red in it was purely coincidence.

The fact that the beef was more rare-to-medium-rare than merely medium-rare was also not by design, but fortunately for us this delicious Black Angus cut took very well to that option.

• a Black Angus rib eye/Delmonico steak (.91 lbs) from Greg and Mike of Sun Fed Beef (Maple Avenue Farms) in the Union Square Greenmarket, brought to room temperature, dried very well, seasoned with a generous amount of freshly roughly-ground black pepper, placed on a very hot cast iron pan grill for just about 10 or 12 minutes, turning twice, salting each side after it had been seared, removed and arranged on the plates, a little juice from an organic Whole Food Market lemon squeezed on top, sprinkled with some chopped fresh thyme from Citarella and dried Sicilian organic wild fennel pollen from Buon Italia, drizzled with a little olive oil and garnished with purple micro radish from Two Guys from Woodbridge

• eight ounces of celeriac from Norwich Meadows Farm and about the same weight in medium size German butterball potatoes from Norwich Meadows Farm, scrubbed, peeled, and cut into crescent wedges, tossed inside a large bowl with a little olive oil, a half teaspoon of Spanish paprika picante, a small crushed section of medium-dark dried habanada pepper, sea salt, and freshly-ground black pepper, spread onto a medium-size Pampered Chef unglazed ceramic pan [the image above was taken at that moment], roasted at 400º until brown, crispy on the edges, and cooked through
• a small amount of red chard from Citarella (some of the leaves had unaccountably frozen in the crisper, so I had first removed those sections, which accounts for the small portion), wilted in a little olive oil in which one halved Rocambole garlic clove from Keith’s Farm had first been heated and slightly softened, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, and finished with a drizzle of Portuguese olive oil from Whole Foods Market and a bit of lemon juice
• the wine was a California (Los Carneros) red, Sin Fronteras Los Primos Red Wine California 2016, from Naked Wines
• the music was a modern reconstruction/pastiche of a 1739 opera by Handel, ‘Giove in Argo’, once thought to have been totally lost, Alan Curtis conducting Il Complesso Barocco

I slept late, and Monday is a slow Greenmarket day, so I decided that the better part of a creative foraging outing might take me to our neighborhood Whole Foods Market, which is only down the block. I almost never purchase an entrée their, but I make an exception for their salmon. It’s not local of course, but there was once a time when salmon flourished in our local waters. Effectively, unless it’s farmed (in areas much further north and east of New York and New England, or even still much further away, in the southeastern of southwestern Pacific), it has to have come from the Pacific northwest, but I foster the conceit that what we are enjoying is the bounty which has followed the reintroduction of this noble species into our local streams and coastal waters years from now.

The chard had come home with me from Union Square farmer’s stall on Saturday. It was obviously very fresh, because 2 days later it seemed to be in the same superb condition in which I had found it, and it was one as delicious as any I had ever prepared.

The potatoes, as they were potatoes, were less of a concern for absolute freshness, but I was happy that we would be able to enjoy the last of a bag I had purchased 12 days before.

• one fourteen-ounce fillet of Pacific coho salmon from Chelsea Whole Foods Market, the skin left on, halved, seasoned on both sides with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, the flesh side [CORRECTION: this should have read “the former skin side”, and in fact this time I incorrectly pressed the mixture on the flesh side] pressed with a mixture of ground coriander seeds, ground cloves, ground cumin, and grated nutmeg, sautéed in a little olive oil over a medium-high flame inside an enameled, oval cast iron pan over medium-high heat, the flesh side down, for 2 or 3 minutes or so, then turned over and cooked for another 2 or 3 minutes, finished on the plate with a little squeeze of organic lemon from Whole Foods Market and a drizzle of a good olive oil, garnished with micro buckwheat greens from Windfall Farms
• a few ‘Kennebec’ potatoes from Keith’s Farm boiled with a generous amount of salt until barely cooked through, drained, halved, dried while still inside the large still-warm vintage Corning Pyrex Flameware blue-glass pot in which they had cooked, tossed with some good Portuguese olive oil, sprinkled with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, arranged on the plates, where they were sprinkled with toasted homemade bread crumbs and garnished with micro buckwheat greens from Windfall Farms
• *a modest amount of rainbow chard (the apposite cost of this miracle vegetable when it is grown in early March suggests I use restraint), from Norwich Meadows Farm, purchased from their stall in the Union Square Greenmarket, wilted in a little olive oil in which 2 halved Rocambole garlic cloves from Keith’s Farm had first been heated and slightly softened, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, and finished with a drizzle of the Portuguese olive oil and a bit of lemon juice
• the wine was a California (Sonoma) red, Jacqueline Bahue Cabernet Franc Sonoma Valley 2015, from Naked Wines
• the music was Handel’s 1729 opera, ‘Lotario‘ (Lothair), Alan Curtis conducting the ensemble, Il Complesso Barocco; the opera’s Wikipedia entry suggests that it was one of his least successful (one of the composer’s librettists, who did not have any part in this one, wrote “everyone thinks (Lotario) a very bad opera”), but the music is wonderful

We could have ordered a pizza, but I thought it would be good for both of us if I cooked a meal that night, however simple, since I’d been away from the kitchen for 4 days.

We disembarked from Philadelphia at Penn Station, which is only 6 or 7 blocks north of us, at around 9:45 on Sunday night. A little more than hour later we were sitting down to this pretty dinner.

• ‘Rye Trumpets’ from our excellent local pasta company, Sfoglini pasta, served with a sauce that began with a little olive oil heated inside a large, heavy, vintage tin-lined copper pan where one or 2 chopped cloves of Keith’s Farm Rocambole garlic were allowed to color (in fact, this time they went a bit beyond “allowed to color”, but I decided the error might produce a more interesting effect), one small-ish chopped red shallot from Norwich Meadows Farm added, along with one section of a dried golden habanada, some sea salt, and a generous amount of freshly-ground black pepper; when the pasta was added to the pan with the sauce, it was stirred over medium heat with some of the reserve pasta water, in order to emulsify the liquid, and the dish was served inside shallow bowls, where it was drizzled around the edges with olive oil, sprinkled with grated Parmigiano Reggiano Hombre from Whole Foods Market and garnished with red micro chard from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• the wine was an Italian (Veneto) white, Pra, Soave Classico ‘OTTO’, 2016, from Flatiron Wines
• the music was the album, ‘Stadtpfeiffer: Music of Renaissance Germany‘, performed by the ensemble, Piffaro