Dinner was leftover salumi and an emergency pasta ration, but it was much more than that.

The primi was featured the remainder of the package of coppa we had enjoyed the night before, since I had bought more than enough for that meal.

• about 3 ounces of local New York sweet coppa, from Georgio’s Salami, purchased at Eataly, served with upland cress from Two Guys from Woodbridge, both drizzled with a good olive oil from Campania: Syrenum D.O.P. Peninsula Sorrentina 
• pieces of bread broken from an Eric Kayser ‘baguette monge’

The mushroom-filled pasta had been in the freezer for a few weeks, and, because I had several interesting alliums – and some lovage! – I decided this was its chance to shine. It also meant we could enjoy a Pinot Noir we had been anticipating.

• Rana Portobello mushroom-and ricotta-filled ravioli from Eataly, quickly boiled, drained and shoveled around in a broad enameled cast iron pan in which sliced spring garlic from John D. Madura Farm, Japanese scallion from Norwich Meadows Farm, and freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper had been very briefly heated in olive oil, a bit of pasta water added, the liquids emulsified, chopped lovage from Two Guys from Woodbridge added, the contents of the pan placed in shallow bowls, a little roughly-grated Parmesan cheese dusted on top before the pasta was garnished with cut chives from Phillips Farm

 

• the wine through both courses was a California (Lodi) red, Sharon Weeks Cattoo Lodi Pinot Noir 2015, from Naked Wines
• the music was Mozart’s Symphony No. 41, ‘Jupiter’, Marc Minkowski directing Les Musiciens du Louvre

It must be early apparent by now that we love this recipe, regardless of what fish I’ve decided to include in it. It’s made many appearances on this blog, and last night it was the turn of monkfish, the species designated in the New York Times clipping which originally introduced me to it.

It’s a great formula, and, more wonderful still because of its versatility: Its author, Mark Bittman, who authored the recipe, says, “The recipe can be finished with almost any firm fish fillet.”. I’ve made it with several myself.

 

The night before I had run out of my usual (modest) stock of potatoes, for almost the first time ever, but earlier on Friday I had picked up some more, 3 varieties, one one of which was the excellent creamy, yellow-fleshed Carola used in this meal.

The recipe is on the site I linked to above. Last night I used the ingredients described below.

• two monkfish tails (about one pound) from Pura Vida Seafood, rinsed, halved, seasoned, roasted with three fourths of a cup of black oil-cured olives from Buon Italia, pits removed, on top of a bed of one pound of scrubbed, unpeeled, thinly-sliced and seasoned Carola potatoes from Mountain Sweet Berry Farm which had just been roasted (in a very generous amount of olive oil) with about a dozen dry Italian bay leaves, also from Buon Italia
• a spray of upland cress from Two Guys from Woodbridge, drizzled with a little olive oil
• the wine was a really excellent Spanish (Galician) white, Bodegas La Val Albariño Rias Baixas 2015, from Chelsea Wine Vault
• the music was a single magnificent piece, Sylvano Bussotti, ‘The Rara Requiem’, Gianpiero Taverna
  conducting the Saar Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Saarbrücken Conservatory Chorus

We had some elk in the freezer, remaining from some given to us last spring by a friend who has a cousin who hunts, in the wilds of Kansas. At that time it had been a sirloin steak; on Sunday it was a flank steak.

I’ve had very little experience with that cut, even with beef, so I did some reading, and although I thought I had approached the process in a reasonable manner, the result was more chewy that I had supposed it would be. One of the reasons I’ve avoided flank, skirt or similar cuts is my fear of slicing the meat in the wrong direction once it’s been cooked, which is probably what happened here (it’s best sliced “across the grain”, a description not always obvious to me when I’m in a hurry).

In any event, it was tasty, and there was enough left to include in another dinner.

This rich meal began with a light course of smoked fish, garnished.

• Duck Trap River smoked whitefish from Whole Foods served with some lightly-dressed upland cress from Two Guys from Woodbridge and sections of a sweet local lemon from Fantastic Gardens of Long Island
• pieces broken from an Eric Kayser ‘baguette monge’
• the wine was a California (Sonoma) white, Scott Peterson Rumpus California Sauvignon Blanc 2015, from Naked Wines

The main course was pretty simple to prepare, in spite of the richness of the ingredients.

• one twenty-ounce, one-inch-thick flank steak from an elk shot in the wild, dried rubbed with olive oil and a very generous coasting of freshly-cracked black peppercorns, set aside for more than an hour, then placed over moderately high heat in 1-2 tablespoons of a combination of butter and olive oil inside a round 12-inch enameled cast iron pan, cooked rare-to-medium rare, which meant about 2 or 3 minutes on one side, then turned and cooked for another 2 or 3 minutes, transferred to warm plates, the bottom of the pan scraped with a wooden spatula to collect the juices, and a quarter cup of brandy added to the pan and cooked over high heat until reduced to about 2 tablespoons, the sauce poured over the meat, which was then garnished with chopped parsley
• some Brussels sprouts, together with one small ‘Honey Nut’ winter squash, and one Russet potato, all from Norwich Meadows Farm, the squash and the potato peeled and cubed, all tossed together with oil, salt, pepper, and two unpeeled garlic cloves, spread onto a ceramic oven pan and roasted for about half an hour at 400º, or until tender and caramelized, removed from the oven, drizzled with a bit of white balsamic vinegar, sprinkled with salt, pepper, and sage, and stirred
• the wine was an Italian (Val d’Aosta) red, Feudo di San Maurizio Saro Djablo 2015, produced by Michel Vallet, “..the owner, winemaker and dreamer of Feudo di San Maurizio in the village of Sarre in Italy’s alpine Valle d’Aosta region hard by the Swiss border…”

• the music throughout was Carl Maria von Weber’s 1823 opera, ‘Euryanthe’, with Renate Krahmer, Tom Krause, Harald Neukirch, Jessye Norman, Siegfried Vogel, Rita Hunter, and Nicolai Gedda, the Dresden Staatskapelle conducted by Marek Janowski

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]

filet after being rubbed with the sugar and spices, before it was refrigerated

 

Thinking of the arguable thesis that an artist’s best work may often arise from working with constraints, I will make the modest proposal that the same thing can work for the creative output of an ordinary cook.

I was unable to get to the Greenmarket on Monday to pick up some fish, so we enjoyed a pasta that night. The next day, not wanting to cook meat or another pasta, I decided to check out the wild salmon selection at Whole Foods. I would have to cook it on the top of the stove, since our oven is ailing, but I knew that was unlikely to present much of a problem, especially since I had just come across a very interesting Melissa Clark recipe which described pan-grilling the fish after it had rested in a spicy brown-sugar marinade. The salmon was not on sale, as it often is, but the wild Coho filets were being offered at what I would call a pretty reasonable price.

I still had a small amount of the red cabbage we had been enjoying for a week or so, and there was a generous amount of upland cress in the crisper waiting to be summoned to embellish a worthy plate.

Finally, still worried that what I had in mind wouldn’t quite add up to a complete meal, I decided to boil a very few potatoes as a foil for the other flavors I had gathered. Because of my introducing the potatoes, the excellent small Balthazar rye boule, which I had bought that day to fill out what I had earlier anticipated would be a pretty sparse course, stayed in the breadbox instead.

The meal turned out to be far more satisfying than I had hoped it might be.

If it had a geographic character, I would say that it lay somewhere between the German-speaking lands of Central Europe and the Pacific Northwest of the North American continent. Maybe New York City.

• one section of a Coho salmon filet (13.2 oz) from Whole Foods, marinated for about 6 hours in a mix of turbinado sugar, sea salt, freshly ground tellicherry pepper, freshly ground allspice, freshly ground nutmeg in lieu of the mace Clark had specified (the only mace in the kitchen had already been ground, probably over 30 yearsa ago, and had sat inside an antique tin container ever since, through 2 removes from since its purchase in Rhode Island), and the zest of half of an organic lemon from Whole Foods
• red cabbage remaining from being prepared earlier 5 days before for an earlier meal and one one which had succeeded it
• upland cress from Alewife Farm, dressed with some good Umbrian olive oil, a little white balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper
• four sweet Norland red potatoes from Lucky Dog Organic Farm, scrubbed and boiled unpeeled, then halved, tossed with sweet butter, salt, pepper, and chopped lovage from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• the wine was an Oregon (Willamette) red, Argyle Pinot Noir 2013
• the music was Kalevi Aho’s Symphony No. 8, and his ‘Pergamon’, the Lahti Symphony Orchestra conducted by Osmo Vänskä, Hans-Ola Ericsson, organ