For some time I’ve been telling myself that I should devise a way to indicate, at least for my own information, those meals that worked out particularly well, meals, or plates in some cases, that were absolutely scrumptious. I’m going to try something out for the first time with this post: I’ll use a red asterisk above the first line of text for those special cases. This meal deserved it, perhaps even more for my having begun it with no special expectations. There wasn’t anything really new in the ingredients or the processes, and yet each of the 3 elements in the main course was absolutely delicious, and each was a perfect compliment to the other 2. The cheese and the fruit were equally excellent, although I had nothing to do with making either, and the wine was absolutely extraordinary!

• * one small (12-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 9 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 (and, as usual it was still undercooked, so the 2 halves were briefly returned to the pan), 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 had been removed from the breast before it was marinated, but seasoned like the rest of it, then fried very briefly near the end of the time the larger section was cooking]

• * a handful of fresh mizuma from Alewife Farm scattered on the plate and dressed with olive oil , sea salt, and freshly-ground black pepper

• * one medium head of Treviso radicchio from Tamarack Hollow Farm, washed, the liquid drained and wiped off, cut lengthwise into four sections, arranged one cut side up on a medium Pampered Chef unglazed ceramic oven pan (after securing the leaves with toothpicks), covered with lots of thyme branches from S. & S.O. Farm, seasoned generously with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, drizzled with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, baked in a pre-heated 400º oven for 10 minutes or so, turned to the other cut side and returned to the oven for around 8 minutes, then turned uncut side up and baked for about 2 minutes more, arranged on the plates, drizzled with a very small amount of balsamic vinegar

There was a small cheese course..

• * ‘Bigelow’, a goat cheese from Ardith Mae, very thin toasts from a loaf of ‘8 Grain 3 Seed’ bread from Rock Hill Bakery, and a few chopped leaves of rosemary from S. & S.O. Farm

..and fruit.

• * Niagara grapes [vitis labrusca ‘Niagara’] from Troncillito Farms

 

• * the wine Throughout was a California (Napa Valley) red, Camille Benitah Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2015, from Naked Wines 
• the music was Carl Nielsen’s 1901-1902 Symphony No. 2, Myung-Whun Chung, conducting the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra

We had a guest, almost a last-minute guest, last night. I did however have enough notice to be able to purchase 3 servings of fish at the Union Square Greenmarket earlier in the day, and also one beautiful head of radicchio larger than one I would normally bring home.

It all went swell.

It was also one of the most relaxed and pleasant small dinner parties either of us can remember, especially considering the fact that we had only met Andrew a few days earlier. Maybe I’m finally getting the hang of this thing.

Or maybe it was just our affable Australian artist, Andrew Nicholls.

We sat down to a salad whose elements seem to have been waiting for just this occasion. Barry had brought home a soft Spanish goat cheese a few days before, to enjoy with the tomatoes which were only now fully ripened.

• one knob of a Spanish goat goat milk cheese, ‘Capricho de Cabra‘, from Whole Foods Market, brought to room temperature and arranged on the plates with sliced ripe heirloom tomatoes in 3 different colors from Berried Treasures Farm which were seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground back pepper, everything sprinkled with chopped lovage from Keith’s Farm, and drizzled with an excellent Puglian olive oil, Alce Nero DOP ‘Terra di Bari Bitonto, from the Flatiron Eataly Market
• slices of an Eric Kayser ‘baguette monge’ [missing in the picture above]
• the wine was an Italian (Sicily) white, Corvo Bianco 2015, from Philippe Liquors and Wine, once we had finished the aperitif wine, a New Mexican (Sierra County) sparkling white, Gruet Brut NV, from Astor Wines & Spirits

The main course was also very Mediterranean, although (like the first, with the exception of that Spanish cheese) the ingredients were almost entirely local.

• three 8-ounce Yellowfin tuna steaks from Pura Vida Seafood, rubbed, tops and bottoms, with a mixture of a dry Sicilian fennel seed from Buon Italia that had been crushed in a mortar and pestle along with a little dried peperoncino Calabresi secchi from Buon Italia, then seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, pan-grilled above a medium-high flame (for only a little more than a minute or so on each side), finished on the plates with a good squeeze of the juice of an organic lemon from Trader Joe’s Market and some olive oil, served with bronze micro fennel from Windfall Farm
• one large (exactly one pound) head of Treviso radicchio from Campo Rosso Farm, washed, the liquid drained and wiped off, cut lengthwise into four sections, one of them wrapped and returned to the crisper for another day, arranged one cut side up on a medium Pampered Chef unglazed ceramic oven pan (after securing the leaves by wrapping each with string), covered with lots of thyme branches from Phillips Farm, seasoned generously with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, drizzled with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, baked in a pre-heated 400º oven for 12 minutes or so, turned to the other cut side and returned to the oven for 8 or 9 minutes, then turned uncut side up and drizzled with one more tablespoon of oil, baked for about 2 minutes more, arranged on the plates, garnished with a few fresh thyme branches
• half a dozen ripe Sun Gold tomatoes from Franca Tantillo’s Berried Treasures Farm, rolled around for a minute or so, with a bit of olive oil inside a 200-year-old enameled cast iron porringer (I love using that thing), seasoned with sea salt and ground black pepper, sprinkled with a bit of lovage that remained from that which had been chopped for the first course [the tomatoes were introduced largely for the color they could add to the plate]
• the wine was a Spanish (Rias Baixas) white, Martin Codax Albarino 2016, from Philippe Liquors and Wines

There was a dessert, imagined and executed pretty much on the spot, since I found no berries at the Greenmarket that day, and I had not prepared for anything else.

• a small scoop of some terrific, very rich Riverine Ranch Water Buffalo Sweet Cream Ice Cream from the farmer’s stall in the Union Square Greenmarket, topped by a small scoop of Talenti Vanilla Bean Gelato from Whole Foods Market, drizzled with some Toschi Orzata Orgeat syrup, finished with some chopped candied ginger sprinkled on top

 

• the music through much of the meal was from the recordings included in the book, ‘Lead Kindly Light‘, described as a “176-page hardcover, clothbound book with 2 CDs featuring recordings of Rural Southern Music: Old Time, String Band Music from Appalachia, extremely rare Country Blues and African American gospel singing from 1924-1939”; we had pulled out the book and the compact discs during dinner after we learned of our guest’s interest in the culture and music of that era, and area

I used 3 different grill pans in putting this meal together. That may be a first. It may also have been the first time I included some form of garlic in each element of an entrée, although probably not.

But I forgot to include the color.

The image is embarrassingly monochromatic; I hadn’t thought about the aesthetic effect until I was arranging everything on the plates. It’s still no excuse, but the treviso and the eggplant happened to be the only real vegetables in the crisper last night (both in smaller amounts remaining from larger, the majority of which had been used in earlier meals, and each of them almost begs for garlic under most circumstances).

A little red, or orange, or yellow on the plates themselves would definitely have been nice. but to be fair, the vegetables had at least started out with real color.

Still, it was a terrific dinner. The treviso and the eggplant were stars, and while at first I had some doubts about the steaks (mostly related to the decisions of the butcher), we very quickly came to appreciate both the flavor and the texture of this excellent grass-fed beef.

• two 8-ounce rib steaks (roughly 8 ounces each) from the Union Square Greenmarket stand of Lowland Farm, brought to room temperature, dried, well-seasoned with Maldon salt and freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper, placed on a very hot cast iron pan grill for just under 5 minutes on each side, removed and arranged on the plates, a little organic lemon juice from Whole Foods Market squeezed on top, sprinkled with some chopped summer savory from Stokes Farm, drizzled with a little olive oil and finished with some chopped garlic flowers from Windfall Farms
• one small head of treviso from Campo Rosso Farm in the union Square Greenmarket (the farm, located in Berks County, Pennsylvania, specializes in chicories, other greens and other vegetables) halved, tied to maintain their shape, marinated for half an hour in a mix of garlic from Norwich Meadows Farm, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, sea salt and freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper, then pan-grilled, untied, and finished with some of the reserved marinade
• 3  baby eggplant (3 different kinds and colors), each cut into 3 slices, mixed with a little olive oil , 5 pitted and sliced Kalamata olives olives from Whole Foods Market, a little finely-chopped garlic from Norwich Meadows Farm, sea salt, and freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper, pan-grilled over a brisk flame, turning once, sprinkled with torn basil leaves from Stokes Farm, arranged on the plates and drizzled with a bit of olive oil
• the wine, a perfect pairing with the food, was a California (Napa) red, Jac Cole Mosaico Napa Valley 2015, from Naked Wines
• the music was the album, ‘Il Filosofo’, which is “..the second release in the Basel-based Joseph Haydn Stiftung Foundation’s collaboration..in recording all of Haydn’s 107 symphonies…“

I love this fish, and have sung the praises of sea perch on this blog more than once before. The only hesitation I ever have in dealing with it comes while I pause to decide which recipe to use.

Last night I went with the one which involves anchovy, because the rest of the plate pretty much said ‘Mediterranean’.

• six red sea perch fillets (totaling 15 ounces) from American Pride Seafood Company, their stall in Chelsea’s Down to Earth Farmers Market on 23rd Street, brushed with 2 tablespoons of olive oil mixed with about a teaspoon of chopped ramp bulbs from Berried Treasures, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper, placed inside an enameled cast iron pan and broiled skin side up, 4 or 5 inches from the flames, for about 4 minutes when the skin had become crisp and the fish cooked through, sauced with a bit of olive oil in which 3 salted anchovies from Buon Italia, rinsed and filleted, had been heated over a very low flame for about 5 minutes until the anchovies had fallen apart (the sauce had just been prepared, but I could have been done a little earlier and kept warm while waiting for the fish to cook), the fillets finished on the plates with chopped lovage from Keith’s Farm, lemon wedges served on the side
• four large cherry tomatoes from Alex’s Tomato Farm, via Chelsea’s Down to Earth Farmers Market, halved, gently warmed and slightly softened in a little olive in which a very small amount of chopped ramp bulbs from Berried Treasures Farm had been warmed until the allium had begun to be fragrant, sprinkled with torn leaves of basil from Stokes Farm
• one small head of treviso from Campo Rosso Farm, washed, the moisture drained or shaken off, halved lengthwise, most of the V of the root ends cut away (and immediately eaten by the cook, as I love chicory in any form), arranged cut side up on a medium Pampered Chef unglazed ceramic oven pan (after securing the leaves with toothpicks and/or string), covered with an abundance of thyme branches from Keith’s Farm, seasoned generously with sea salt and freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper, drizzled with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, baked in a pre-heated 400º oven for 12 minutes or so, turned over, returned to the oven for 8 or 9 minutes, then set cut side up again and drizzled with one more tablespoon of oil, then finished baking until the root was tender when pierced with a knife, or about 2 minutes more, arranged on the plates and sprinkled with a very little bit of balsamic vinegar
• the wine was an Italian (Langhe) white, Azienda Agricola Rivetti Massimo Aurelia Arneis Langhe 2015, from Chelsea Wine Vault
• the music was the album, ‘Musica Baltica’, Reinhard Goebel conducting Musica Antiqua Köln (basically, performances of music composed in the Baltic Sea Hanseatic courts during the seventeenth century)

I had only a small window through which I might put together a dinner on Tuesday, so I assembled a simple sauce for a filled pasta I had been keeping in our small freezer compartment. Variations of this filled pasta dish are one of my most common recourses in such circumstances.

• a 12-ounce package of Rana mushroom ravioli (portobello and porcini) from Eataly, boiled, drained and mixed with a sauce of olive oil, salt, pepper, chopped thyme from Foragers Market, chopped parsley from Eataly, plus one small treviso from Eataly which had been quartered and roasted along with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and finishing with a little balsamic vinegar, while the pasta water was coming to a boil, the ravioli and sauce divided into shallow bowls, finished with a small handful of pine nuts which had been heated in a cast iron pan until they had begun to brown, some olive oil and grated ‘Parmigiano Reggiano Bonat 3’ from Buon Italia, and topped with slivers of the same cheese
• the wine was an Italian (Marche) red, Fattoria Laila Rosso Piceno Nero Scuro 2014 [Note: that link is to the 2013]
• the music was that of David Matthews, his ‘Sonata for Piano’ opus 47, and other works by him, from this album;  before dinner we had watched a DVD of the George Benjamin opera, ‘Written on the Skin’, which I described tonight in a tweet as “the most intense opera I’ve ever seen”