Until the night before cooking this meal I hadn’t thought about the fact that there had been no meat entrée on our table in almost 2 weeks. It was probably my thinking about the purple carrots I had bought a few days earlier that made me think I should prepare something, with a little substance than seafood, a frittata, or a light pasta, something, well,.. ‘meaty’.

Just before the meal I found myself extending the idea of ‘substantial’ to thoughts about a sauce, something I rarely do to the very simple recipe I regularly use.

Some of you may know of and even share my interest in ‘garum‘ (at least from afar). It seems I may have tripped over a vegetable near-equivalent, although one with a taste far less difficult to acquire. Just about a week before this meal I had served a flounder fillet with a ‘tomato butter’. I did not use all of the tomato sauce, so I put what remained in the refrigerator, sealed, later adding to it more seasoned heirloom tomato juices, produced in preparing a later meal (I’m no longer sure which one).

Last night I tasted this still-curing little treasure, and decided it would definitely work with the duck.

 

To introduce the meal, there was the most minimal of appetizers, as an excuse to enjoy the remainder of a bottle of wine we had started the night before.

• terrific rustic Italian breadsticks, Mario Fongo grissini integrali, from Buon Italia
• the wine was a New Mexico (Sierra County) sparkling rosé, Gruet Brut Rosé

 

• one 13-ounce boneless duck breast from Hudson Valley Duck Farm, the fatty side scored in cross hatching with a very sharp knife, the entire breast then sprinkled with a mixture of sea salt, freshly-ground pepper, and a little turbinado sugar (in our kitchen, the bowl of sugar has been infused over time with a vanilla bean), the duck left standing for 45 minutes or so before it was pan-fried, fatty side down first, in a tiny bit of oil over medium heat, usually draining the oil part of the way through (to be strained and used in cooking later, if desired), but I decided not to this time, removed when medium rare and cut into 2 portions to check for doneness (that is, not so done), left to sit for several minutes before finishing it with a drizzle of organic lemon, a coating of ‘tomato butter’ [described above], a sprinkling of oxalis from Alewife Farm, and drops of a very good Campania olive oil (the tenderloin, removed earlier from the breast and also marinated, is always fried very briefly near the end of the time the breast itself is cooking)
• wild watercress from Max Creek Hatchery, dressed with the Campania olive oil, salt, and pepper

 

In the photograph at the top of this post the carrots look charred, in reality, it’s an attribute of their color[s] (that is, purple outside, lighter, almost orange, inside, before they are cooked), a little intentional caramelizing on their edges, and the available light.

 

• purple carrots from Paffenroth Farms, scrubbed, lightly-scraped with a paring knife, cut into small diagonal pieces, and, to avoid a hot oven last night, sautéed until tender on top of the range in a large seasoned cast iron frying pan, some sea salt added while doing so, then sprinkled with freshly-ground pepper and served scattered with fennel flowers from Mountain Sweet Berry Farm
• the wine with the main course was a California (North Coast) red, the gift of a friend, Cartlidge & Browne Merlot 2013

• the music for most of the meal was the album, ‘Miklos Rozsa’s Double Life: Concert Music For Strings’

I love these colors, and they taste as good as they look.

On my second run-through in preparing spigarello, I remembered to slip the leaves off of their somewhat sturdier stems, but I forgot my other major admonition: be sure to blanch this green before sautéing it. Unblanched, it was more than a little bitter, at least until we squeezed more lemon and drizzled more oil on top. Three times will be perfect, nah?

• two small (5 or 6-ounce) tuna steaks from Blue Moon Fish Company, rubbed top and bottom with a mixture of dry Italian fennel seed and one and a half dried Itria-Sirissi chilis, peperoncino di Sardegna intero, from Buon Italia, first ground together in a mortar-and-pestle, the tuna additionally seasoned with salt and pepper, pan-grilled for only a little more than a minute or so on each side, finished with a good squeeze of lemon, a drizzle of olive oil, and a scattering of purple radish micro greens from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• spigarello (Cavolo Broccolo a Getti di Napoli, or Minestra Nera) from Norwich Meadow Farm, stems removed, washed, drained, sautéed in olive oil in which one chopped garlic and a small amount of a chopped cherry bomb/red bomb pepper from Norwich Meadows Farm had first been softened, sprinkled with a little Limoneira lemon juice and drizzled with olive oil [note: these greens really have to be blanched for a couple minutes to tone down their natural bitterness, and I failed to do that this time]
• one yellow heirloom tomato from Keith’s Farm, sliced horizontally into four disks and placed on the plates, where it was drizzled with a good Campania olive oil, D.O.P. Penisola Sorrentina ‘Syrenum’, seasoned with Maldon salt and Tellicherry pepper, sprinkled with fresh fennel flowers from Mountain Sweet Berry Farm
• slices from a loaf of ‘Commune’ from Sullivan Street Bakery

There was a cheese course.

• three great cheeses from Consider Bardwell Farm: ‘Dorset’, a rich, buttery washed-rind cow milk cheese, and their 2 new-ish blues, ‘Barden Blue’, a cow cheese, and an awesome goat blue which has not yet been named (although I’ve suggested ‘Wellen’)
• very thin slices of ‘Commune’ from Sullivan Street Bakery

 

• the wine was an Italian (Sicily) rosé, the sturdy Calabretta Terre Siciliane IGT Rosato 2014, from Astor Wines & Spirits
• the music was some of the symphonic music of Joseph Boulogne, chevalier de Saint-Georges, champion fencer, virtuoso violinist, and conductor of the leading symphony orchestra in Paris in the late 1790’s. Born in Guadeloupe, he was the son of a wealthy planter, and his African slave, Nanon

The colors don’t stop, and still they only begin to reflect the complexity of the flavors.

Last night I also invited a new vegetable to the table. A spiny cucumber with a tail, and a very tasty cucumber it is. Before I sautéed it I tasted it raw, and it was delicious, but I wanted to treat it as a warm aside to the fish I had bought on Monday. The Jamaican burr cucumber is native to West Africa, but it seems to have arrived in our young republic, by way of Jamaica, in the late eighteenth century, where, according to early-twentieth-century naturalist Julia Ellen Rogers, they now “..wind their branching tendrils over the shrubby growth of neglected fence rows, along the river banks, and hang their spiny fruits where all can see, ..the wild representatives we have of a great botanical family, that has furnished us many useful garden vegetables and fruits“.

 

• two hake fillets from P.E. & D.D. Seafood, dredged in seasoned flour and dipped in a beaten egg from Millport Dairy, sautéed in butter and a little olive oil with some oregano buds from Stokes Farm for a few minutes, or until cooked through, drizzled with organic lemon juice, tranferred to 2 plates, any juices remaining in the pan distributed over them, along with some tomato-red scallion-tarragon ‘butter’ left from the dinner the night before, followed by a sprinkling of micro bronze fennel from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• Jamaica burr cucumbers [Cucumis anguria] from Norwich Meadows Farm, quartered, sautéed in olive oil until lightly browned, seasoned with sea salt
• a salad of chopped heirloom tomatoes (2 colors) from Keith’s Farm, mixed with sliced red scallions from Hawthorne Valley Farm, seasoned with maldon salt and freshly ground tellicherry pepper, dressed with a Campania olive oil, D.O.P. Penisola Sorrentina ‘Syrenum’, and a white balsamic vinegar, placed in low bowls on top of leaves of radicchio from Tamarack Hollow Farm and sprinkled with torn basil from Sycamore Farms
• the wine was a California (Clarksburg) white, David Akiyoshi Chardonnay Clarksburg 2015, from Naked Wines
• the music was the Bridge Records album, ‘Music of Stefan Wolpe, Vol. 7‘

While the fish was delicious, once again the sauce did not thicken as it should: I’m assuming it was because I had forgotten about, or was chary of, quickly boiling the mix of pan juices and Crème fraîche (but only until slightly thickened).

• two flounder fillets from American Seafood, placed in a tinned copper au gratin pan skin side down, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground pepper, dotted with 2 tablespoons of butter, a modest amount (less than 1/4 cup) of white wine poured over the top, placed in a 375º oven for 10 minutes, removed onto 2 plates, some of the juices introduced into a separate small pan containing about a fourth of a cup of a good room-temperature Crème fraîche, then boiled quickly until slightly reduced [or should have been boiled, and not just heated, as I did this time], a handful of baby sorrel from Windfall Farms and some chopped parsley from Eataly stirred into the pan (the parsley to ensure that the sauce would not be only the olive drab color of sorrel once it’s been cooked), the sauce spooned over the fish
• tiny La Ratte potatoes from Berried Treasures, scrubbed, boiled in salt water, drained, dried in the pan, rolled in a little butter, seasoned with salt and pepper, sprinkled with parsley from Eataly
• four Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods, halved and heated in a small tinned copper pan, seasoned with salt and pepper, sprinkled with chopped fresh oregano from Stokes Farm
• the wine was a California white, David Akiyoshi Reserve Chardonnay Clarksburg 2014, from Naked Wines
• the music was Pfitzner’s sublime opera masterpiece, ‘Palestrina’ (incidentally, never performed in the US), Kirill Petrenko conducting the Frankfurt Opera And Museum Orchestra*, with Richard Cox, Frank van Aken, Johannes Martin Kränzle, and Claudia Mahnke

 

*a historical note, from the orchestra’s site: “Oper Frankfurt’s orchestra came into being towards     the end of the 18th century. It received its unusual name because it was also the orchestra that gave concerts for the “Frankfurter Museum”, an institution founded by culturally minded people in Frankfurt in 1808, when Louis Spohr was chief conductor of the, still young, orchestra.”

 

 

• one flounder fillet (.84 lbs) from P.E. & D.D. Seafood, washed, dried, divided into two equal pieces, brushed with a bit of good white wine vinegar and salt, lightly floured, sautéed briefly in olive oil and a touch of butter, removed to warm plates, the pan in which they were sautéed wiped with paper towels, then butter, lemon juice and parsley from Tamarack Hollow Farm added, and briefly heated while scraping the crusty bits on the bottom of the pan, the sauce which resulted poured over the fillets
• some very sweet collard greens from a garden in Garrison, New York, a gift of a friend (and gentlefolk farmer), cut as a rough chiffonade, then braised in a heavy pot in which slightly-crushed garlic from Phillips Farm had heated in some olive oil, the dish finished with salt, pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil
• thin scallions from Tamarack Hollow Farm, sliced, heated in olive oil until pungent before some small red and orange cherry tomatoes, also from our friend’s field in Garrison, New York, were stirred in and cooked until they began to wrinkle and soften, a generous amount of chopped thyme from Phillips Farm then added, along with salt and a pinch of sugar, and heated for another 30 seconds or so
• flat-leaf kale from a garden in Garrison, New York, the gift of a friend (and gentlefolk farmer),
• the wine was a terrific California white, in a Burgundy style, Matthew Iaconis Napa Valley Chardonnay 2014 (it’s Matt’s, and it comes from Naked Wines)
• the music was Mozart’s ‘Mitridate, re di Ponto‘ (he was barely 14 at the time he composed it) performed by Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques