Mostly because we’ve been running around during New York art fair week, I haven’t been to the Greenmarket in 5 days. Also, I haven’t bought any fish in 8, but we’ve still had to eat, and we’ve done pretty well, with the help of a great pizza one night.

I had thought about going to Union Square on Friday, even if the time I’d spend would eat into our window for visiting NADA New York. Then, late the night before, I did some calculations and decided I still had enough good stuff on hand to put together decent meals on the 2 evenings I’d be able to cook at home before Monday, when I would definitely be able to make it to the market.

Last night we enjoyed one of the 2 packages of frozen crab cakes I had been keeping for such an eventuality, and, aside from some beautiful local (Maine) outsize cherry tomatoes with which I could assemble a salsa,  I also had a decent selection of root vegetables to choose from.

Fresh herbs are one of the things I miss most during the winter months, but there are a surprising number of opportunities to pick up some of them in the Union Square market. I found these beautiful thyme bunches, leaves with purple-red undersides, and definitely a sturdy feel to them, but no less pungent than their summer cousins.

I’m no botanist, so I can claim no authority on the designation, but I labeled my photograph of the thyme, ‘winter thyme’, because, well, who knew there was such a thing?

There’s a reason winter vegetables have always been so popular in the winter (well, aside from their virtues otherwise: Most roots (and brassica as well) are pretty sturdy, and they can be stored for longer periods than most people expect. I bought the radishes I roasted yesterday on the first of February, just over a month before.

• two crab cakes from PE & DD Seafood (the ingredients are crab, egg, flour, red & green peppers, garlic, salt, pepper, breadcrumbs, mayonnaise, milk, celery, and parsley), heated inside a oval heavy enameled cast iron pan, 3 to 4 minutes to each side, served inside a ring of salsa which was composed of 7 chopped Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods, combined with salt, freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper, a bit of a powdered seasoning blend with the proprietary name, L’eKama, a small amount of chopped celery heart from Foragers Market, chopped red thyme from Phillip’s Farm, chopped parsley from Eataly, one chopped scallion from Norwich Meadows Farm, the crab cakes then finished with a sprinkling of the green stems of the scallion, chopped, with more chopped parsley sprinkled on the salsa
• black radishes from Norwich Meadow Farm, scrubbed, peeled, cut into wedges, tossed with a little olive oil, salt, freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper, rosemary leaves from Whole Foods Market, separated from their stems, and one crushed piece of dark home-dried Habanada pepper, roasted inside a large Pampered Chef unglazed ceramic pan, at 400º for 20 or 25 minutes
• the wine was a California (grapes from the Sacramento River Delta with a small amount of Viognier from Lodi) white, Miriam Alexander Chenin Blanc 2014
• music was selections from The Once Festival 1961-66, which included work by Robert Ashley, Roger Reynolds, and others

Yeah, gorgeous.

And everything was minimal before I started.

• two crab cakes from PE & DD Seafood (the ingredients are crab, egg, flour, red & green peppers, garlic, salt, pepper, breadcrumbs, mayonnaise, milk, celery, and parsley), seared/heated in a cast iron pan, 2 to 3 minutes for each side, served on 2 plates on top of a salsa composed of roughly-chopped heirloom tomatoes from Stokes Farm, a little chopped red scallion from Norwich Meadows Farm, salt, freshly-ground black pepper, a bit of homemade French Basque piment d’Espellate purchased in a small town north of Baie-Comeau, Quebec last year from the producer’s daughter, one heatless orange Habanada pepper from Norwich Meadows Farm, a very small amount of dried Itria-Sirissi chili, peperoncino di Sardegna intero from Buon Italia, chopped julip mint from Stokes Farm, topped with a scattering of purple micro radish from Two Guys from Woodbridge; the salsa was itself placed on a ‘nest’ of wild arugula from Paffenroth Farms, which had been seasoned with a little oil, salt, pepper, and drizzled with lemon juice
• one not-very-large radicchio from Campo Rosso Farm, quartered, placed in a small unglazed ceramic oven pan (Pampered Chef, long ago well-seasoned), drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper, roasted at 400º for about 12 minutes, turning once, finished with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, and, scattered with shavings of Parmigiano Reggiano Vacche Rosse from Buon Italia
• unfortunately this time we’ve lost track of the information on the wine and the music (I’m embarrassed)

The beautiful colors weren’t the half of it.

Ultimately it was the taste that we remember.

• two crab cakes from PE & DD Seafood (the ingredients are crab, egg, flour, red & green peppers, garlic, salt, pepper, breadcrumbs, mayonnaise, milk, celery, and parsley), seared/heated in a cast iron pan, 2 to 3 minutes for each side, served on 2 plates surrounded by a salsa composed of quartered sun gold cherry tomatoes from Lani’s Farm, a little chopped red scallion from Norwich Meadows Farmsalt, freshly-ground black pepper, a bit of homemade French Basque piment d’Espellate purchased in a small town north of Baie-Comeau, Quebec last year from the producer’s daughter, much of one small red Calabrian chili pepper from Campo Rosso Farm, and some torn fresh basil, also from Campo Rosso Farm, after which the ‘cakes’ and salsa were scattered with micro scallions from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• one modest-size purple broccoli head/branch from Tamarack Hollow Farm, the florets separated and the stem[s] sliced fairly thinly, tossed in a little olive oil, salt, pepper, and dried pepperoncino, spread onto a ceramic oven pan, roasted at 400º for about 20 minutes, removed from the oven, and, when the pan had begun to cool down, drizzled with a little lemon juice and olive oil, stirred and served

• We nibbled on rat-tail radish from Alewife Farm, and sipped a little wine while the meal was being put together.

• the wine was a French (Loire) white,  Jean Pascal Aubron Folle Blanche Gros Plant Du Pays Nantais 2014 (more here on the wine and the vigneron)
• the music included a work for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and percussion, with orchestra, ‘Mina’, by the composer Dai Fujikura, available on Spotify

I’ve prepared these crab cakes, according to a quick search on this site, 15 times before, so we obviously see something in them. One of those things is the fact that they can be, and always have been, pretty much reinvented each time.

This time it got a little elaborate, although thanks to flavor elements and garnishes which were either already prepared or leftover from earlier meals, it was as easy as ever.

• duck rillettes from Hudson Valley Duck Farm, spread onto toasts of ‘whole wheat farm’ bread from Rock Hill Bakery and sprinkled with watercress from Berried Treasures Farm

 

• two terrific crab cakes from PE & DD Seafood, as always (the ingredients are crab, egg, flour, red & green peppers, garlic, salt, pepper, breadcrumbs, mayonnaise, milk, celery, and parsley), seared/heated in a cast iron pan, 3 to 4 minutes for each side, served on 2 plates on top of a salsa composed of quartered sun gold cherry tomatoes from Berried Treasures, chopped and combined with salt, freshly-ground black pepper, a bit of homemade French Basque piment d’Espellate purchased in a small town north of Baie-Comeau, Quebec last year from the producer’s daughter, much of one small red Calabrian chili pepper from Campo Rosso Farm, and some torn fresh basil, also from Campo Rosso Farm, after which the ‘cakes’ were drizzled with a small amount of an almost garum-like sauce made from a couple tablespoons of savory tomato juices (collected over 2 previous meals) mixed into a very small amount of a black olive tapenade (already shared with 2 earlier meals), with micro scallions from Two Guys from Woodbridge scattered over both the seafood and the salsa [to anyone following this blog, it’s pretty clear that I’m mad about micro greens]
• two small red pearl onions from Paffenroth Farms, thinly-sliced, sautéed in olive oil inside a large copper pan until softened, then lightly seasoned, followed by less than 2 handfuls of flat green pole beans from Norwich Meadows Farm (earlier halved, blanched, drained and dried), reheated with the red onions and finished with a little more salt, pepper, and some chopped lovage from Keith’s Farm

 

• a cheese course featuring only one cheese, ‘Pawlet’, from Consider Bardwell Farms, a small amount of chopped mixed fresh herbs, and very thin slices from the heal of a loaf of  ‘whole wheat farm’ bread from Rock Hill Bakery, which I had toasted on my trusty ‘Camp-A-Toaster‘ in order to ensure a precise doneness

 

• the wine was a California (Central Coast) rosé, 99 Barrels Derek Rohlffs Santa Lucia Highlands Rose 2015
• the music was Handel’s 1726 opera, ‘Scipione’, Christophe Rousset  conducting Les Talens Lyriques

 

The Greenmarket-sourced crab cakes were as wonderful as always, and they hit it off with the radish micro greens; the salsa was a little different from so many earlier versions, and the ingredients somewhat more eccentric; and I think the addition of thyme sprigs worked pretty well with the excellent roasted local asparagus, shown below before it went into the oven.

• two crab cakes from PE & DD Seafood (the ingredients are crab, egg, flour, red & green peppers, garlic, salt, pepper, breadcrumbs, mayonnaise, milk, celery, and parsley), heated in a heavy copper pan, 3 to 4 minutes to each side, served on a salsa composed of 6 Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods, which had been chopped and combined with salt, freshly-ground black pepper, a bit of homemade French Basque piment d’Espellate we had purchased in a small town north of Baie-Comeau, Quebec last year from the producer’s daughter, some dried Itria-Sirissi chili, peperoncino di Sardegna intero from Buon Italia, chopped peppermint from Lani’s Farm, some chopped stems of ramps from Berried Treasures, the crab cakes finished with a sprinkling of radish micro greens from Two Guys From Woodbridge
• eighteen asparagus spears from Phillips Farm, trimmed, the stems of the larger stalks peeled, then rolled, along with a handful of thyme sprigs, in a little more than a tablespoon of olive oil and a little sea salt, roasted at 425-450º for about 15 to 20 minutes, removed to two plates, the juice of an organic lemon squeezed over the top
• the wine was an Oregon (Willamette) white, Scott Kelley Pinot Gris Willamette 2015
• the music was Mozart’s Divertimenti Nos. 10 and 11, Sandor Vegh directing the Camerata Salzburg