America's Bday

Often, I'm surprised at how well things turn out.

—One of our chickens, tossed with olive oil, lemon, sage, summer savory, and just-dug garlic, grilled slowly, flipped frequently, and basted.

—Grilled/charred just-dug leeks with lime oil

—Grilled Cauliflower with pounded cumin and coriander seed, lime oil, and lemon

Had with margaritas—mezcal, Cointreau, and fresh citrus. Then some Bell's Oberon and fresh-squeezed orange.

The blackberries are just starting to darken—same with the raspberries. We haven't had this yet:

Go Forth.

Copper River Salmon & Asparagus

This kind of thing is sort of our schtick; we do know a good thing.

—Copper river salmon coated with dill and fennel from the garden, sautéed in a pan, basted with homemade butter and fresh Spring garlic

—A melange of veg, including asparagus, young favas and lettuces from the garden, and tons of herbs, most notably hyper-floral marjoram and borage flowers.

Enjoyed a serious bottle of premier cru Volnay — 2006 Les Chevrets from Henri Boillot. It was thick with nostalgia. Woodsy, minerally, fragrant. It evolved and I wish I could have spent more time with it before it was gone. Also, a little snip of really good pastis — just 'cause.

Kraftwerk on the radio. Sometimes the routine demands a precise shakeup.

Black Beans & Rice

Perfect day out. Mowed the lawn, gave the cows a taste of grain, trellised the peas, and enjoyed the breeze.

—Cooked black beans from Shagbark with a bit of star anise, clove, and bay leaves

—Sweated off bacon, onions, fresh Spring garlic, carrots, celery, thyme, and dried arbol chili

—Tossed in brassica greens from the boxes

—Pickled some just pulled shallots

—Served over boiled rice and garnished with cilantro, lime, and last season's hot sauce

Popped a bottle of 2008 Chateau de Lascaux, Coteaux du Languedoc Rouge by J.B. Cavalier and it's drinking like a man in a Viagra commercial. 

New Sigur Ros on the radio.

Lamb Kebab

I'm not sure how I would improve upon this. It harkens to some platonic form of doner kebab. At the very least, it brought back some memories of Germany years ago, which always means you're onto something.

At any rate:
—Took pastured lamb and ground it, mixing in cumin, coriander, Spring garlic, smoked pimenton, and some crazy-pungent marjoram.
—Made pita with our sourdough starter, local flour, and a hot cast-iron griddle
—Showered with salad and myriad herbs from our garden, plus young shallots that we pulled
—Roasted local Spring carrots with whole pounded cumin and coriander, Spring garlic, and fruity green lime oil that my parents gifted us from Paso Robles.
—And thick yogurt as well—with dill, mint, and hyssop
—Finished with some special Spanish olive oil

Paired with a generous and fruity 2009 Rioja, "Rayos Uva", from Olivier Riviére. It's Rioja, but with a deep minerality and approachable wildness. Also, finished off what was left of a crazy bottle of natural white, La Lunotte — Chistophe Foucher. It has elements of a natural cider with a refreshing sourness.

What I mean to say is, tonight it was all around the best of things.

Soft-Shell Crabs & Spring Vegetable Melange

Butter just goes well with everything Spring—especially if it's homemade from cows that are seeing lush pasture. Then it's almost obscene when you use it to cook soft shellfish.

—Made an Old Bay type seasoning with toasted-then-ground celery seed, coriander, mace, dried chili, and black pepper. Then mixed with a combo of AP flour and rice flour for dredging.

—Dredged the soft-shell crabs with the mixture and pan fried in clarified butter

—Gently cooked local asparagus, snow peas, and baby lettuces with the last of this season's ramps in butter and a variety of herbs (hyssop, fennel, parsley, and thyme). 

—Finished it all with a good spritzing of lemon.

Had with an incredible biodynamic 2010 Roter Veltliner (apparently not related to the Gruner) from Wimmer Czerny. Deep stone fruit nose with tons of acidity. I'm getting to love Austria.

Lamb Chops & Asparagus Gratin

Vegetables and cheese kind of take me back to the mid 90's and the microwave and the Green Giant. But Nigel Slater has been helping to disabuse me of the idea that this combo somehow low-brow.

—Took lightly steamed local asparagus and tossed it with cream, salt, thyme, garlic, and dried red pepper—then topped with cheddar and parm to darken under the broiler.

—Pan fried local lamb chops over high heat and basted with butter, thyme, and garlic

Had with a stunning, round, elegant, and floral (let's say violet notes that I usually associate with Northern Rhone wines) Cotes du Rhone from Marcel Richaud ("Terre de Galets"). It's far better wine than I deserve, but when life gives you a gift, the least you can do is appreciate the damn thing.

More new Beach House on the radio, btw.

Wild Salmon, Risotto Cakes

There's something really gratifying about repurposing food. Last night it was soft, tonight it was crispy.

—Made a little cake out of the leftover risotto and fried in butter
—Steamed asparagus and tossed with olive oil and lemon
—Seared salmon in grape seed oil for crispy skin, garnished with chervil

Given the crisp Spring-like weather, a very nice 2007 WesMar RRV Pinot hit the spot. Pinot is for transitions.

Spring Risotto

So this is full on Spring no?

—Sweated onions and ramp bulbs in olive oil, toasted risotto, and added a splash of white Vermouth
—Ladled in homemade chicken stock and a green purée made of the tough ends of the asparagus
—Added in peas and asparagus tips to cook when the risotto was still a bit crunchy, but nearly there
—Added new growth overwintered lettuce and a good wodge of butter and grated parm/reg
—Garnished with a healthy dose of chervil from the garden, a splash of lemon, and a bit of black pepper

Our wine was beautiful apples, fennel, and minerality. Like I'd mentioned before, I'm really getting into Gruner Veltliners and this one was gorgeous—2010 biodynamic GV from Nikolaihof.

Hey—bonus—here's a photo of the steers:

Kedgeree

Kedgeree is perfect Sunday brunch fare. It would have been a great hangover cure if I'd have had one this morning.

—Boiled white rice and two eggs

—Sauteed an onion in butter and added turnip greens and peas

—Flaked smoked trout and tossed into the pan

—Combined all ingredients to heat through and added local Jersey cream and some gratings of nutmeg

—Ate with homemade hot sauce and lots of black pepper

Pork Ribs, Turnips

Pork ribs is satisfying fare.

—Rubbed the meat with a spice rub of coriander, fennel seed, star anise, chile de arbol, pimenton, salt, and fresh thyme. 

—Roasted very slow (225º) for a few hours covered in tinfoil with a little white wine until tender and then cranked up the oven to brown them.

—Cooked some chunky turnips and onions slowly in homemade butter until brown and tossed in the turnip greens at the end and finished with a spritz of lemon and a sprinkling of fennel from the garden.

—As it has been spoken, slow and steady wins the race. There will plenty of time to watch television when you're in the nursing home.

On the wine front, I've been getting into Gruner Veltliners. To me, they're a culmination of everything there is to love about white wine. They're approachable, but complex and subtle with both acidity and roundness—minerality and richness. They are the perfect vegetable wine. Anyway, I'm talking about a 2009 Ott Fass 4. Good stuff.

Daniel Rossen on the radio. 

Shrimp & Sausage Gumbo

Gumbo can be so layered and so clean. Restaurants shouldn't get to deconstruct anything until they can make a great gumbo. Also, more gorgeous Ohio weather that precedes Spring storms.

—Roux in a Le Creuset in the oven, 350º for an hour and a half until a rich brown

—Shrimp stock from ILBS gulf prawns

—Added onion, celery, the last of last season's garlic, red and jalapeno peppers and okra from the garden from the freezer, thyme, bay leaves, a little smoked pimenton, and local smoked sausage

—Cooked for about a half hour, turned off the heat, added shrimp, stirred in filé, and served over rice with Spring cilantro and ramps to garnish

Also, there's nothing like a crisp Muscadet to bring out irony notes in seafood. So we had a 2010 Muscadet Sevre et Maine by Marc Olivier & Remi Branger. It's crisp and minerally, but with more fruit than you might expect from a Muscadet (or at least more than I might expect). Crazy value.

Billy Taylor on the radio.

A Carbonara

Wow—what a night out. It's all balmy with barn swallows darting around for some swallowy unknown purpose. Anyway, what I mean to talk about is how I will never allow an old Italian person tell me how to make a carbonara. But you certainly can if you'd like.

—Started with local bacon, ramps from the woods out yonder, new growth thyme, and dried hot chilies to render and get lovely with a splash of wine (more on that in the payoff)

—In went turnip greens and Spring growth kale and brussels sprout leaves

—Boiled fusilli in salted water

—Mixed beautiful local Jersey cream—getting yellower by the week by the way—a pastured egg yolk, and parm-reg in a separate bowl

—Mixed it all together off the heat and finished with parsley and green ramp bits

—Ate on the porch

Drank a bottle of 2009 Mosse Chenin from Anjou. It's consistently one of my favorite bottles—all apples and pears (it is Anjou), but a bit of Christmas spice—which is to say there's a richness there with a hint of time-gone-by. So it's really the best sort of wine.

Newest Beach House on the radio.

Leg of Lamb, Turnips, & Asparagus

I love roasting a large joint of meat. It's a novelty and a luxury. 

—Last Fall's pasture raised bone-in leg of lamb from friends of ours, rubbed with a paste of garlic, thyme, rosemary, anchovies, parsley, and olive oil—roasted in a very slow oven for hours until uniformly medium rare.

—Sweet local Spring veg, glazed in reduced lamb jus (from our resting roast) and a spot of homemade butter.

Had with a bottle of Cotes Du Rhone—2009 Le P'tit Martin by Domaine de l’Oratoire St-Martin. It's a pretty wine with lots of young fruit, but good minerality.

Chicken Salad & Ramps

When life gives you leftover chicken, make chicken salad. Do not add bells and whistles because it doesn't need them.

—Homemade bread and here's the secret: total neglect. We mix up local flour with our starter, throw it in the fridge for a day, get it out the morning we want to bake it and let it at room temperature until after work, form it and pop it into the oven. I'm not kidding. Check out Tartine Bread.

—Made a mayo with pastured eggs, dijon mustard, half grapeseed oil/olive oil, lemon, and ramp bits. Added salted capers, dried currants, celery, parsley, and leftover roasted chicken breast from the previous post.

—Finished with some slices of local cheddar and survivor speckled romaine. How it managed the winter is anybody's guess.

And nothing like a great Loire Valley Chenin to pair with it. We got into a 2009 Savenniéres from Domaine du Closel. It's yeasty and round with perfect mouthfeel, but plenty of acidity. Went well with the chicken salad as you may well imagine.

Bowerbirds on the radio.

Roast Chicken & Season's 1st Asparagus

It's the simple things in life. I know it's cliché, but prove me wrong.

—Ladrach's asparagus steamed and dressed with garlic oil and lemon
—A heritage bird we raised, dry-rubbed with Spanish pimenton, cumin, thyme, garlic powder, and sumac a la Moro East. We roast our birds hot to render the fat and because they can take it.

Since this went somewhat Spanish we polished off a bottle of D Ventura, Vina do Burato 2009. 100% Mencia (like I know what that means). It was slightly jammy and rich, but not overly tannic and with brightness. Did I get a hint of pimenton or was that my greasy chicken fingers on the glass? Whatever, it was all kinds of goodness.

Andrew Bird on the radio.

Chicken Tacos, Ramps

So it's chicken tacos on the windiest Monday in Ohio's history. You know, with this protracted Spring, it's certainly a good time for Mexican food and a cold beer. Who's with me?

—Gently simmered the legs, wings, and back from one of our chickens in water with onions

—Shredded the cooled chicken and tossed with a paste made of pounded, toasted coriander and cumin seeds along with Mexican oregano, ramp bulbs and reddish stem*, lime juice, salt, and grapeseed oil

—Made a sauce out of pureed roasted purple tomatillos and chilies we'd frozen whole from the garden (that works great btw), and some of last summer's garlic that has made the long voyage with us through winter.
—Quick pickled some carrots and more ramp bulbs
—Griddled up some tortillas from masa
—Finished with crumbled Cotija, sweet local Jersey cream, a spritz of lime, cilantro, and ramp greens

Tossed back a cold Burning River IPA from Great Lakes Brewing Company.

*I found a whole field of ramps — blue skies, smiling at me

Chicken & Morels

There are some extraordinarily small morels peaking up in nearby woods. We thought this would be a good way to stretch the few we found:

—Slowly reduced thick local jersey cream with the morels, thyme, and garlic
—Reduced chicken stock and a rusty white port from Quinta do Infantado to approximate the classic Vin Jaune, which we didn't have in the cellar.
—Gently pan roasted the breasts of one of our chickens in homemade butter and threw it into a low oven to finish
—Combined the stock / wine mixture and the reduced cream and balanced with a spritz of lemon
—Served on garlicky green beans from the garden

Lotus Plaza on the radio.

Lamb & Puff Pastry

There's still time for savory meat pies—perhaps a last gasp for winter. Anyway, it's been a cold week and there was puff pastry from December kicking around the freezer.

—Made a quick stew out of local carrots, onions, our preserved tomatoes and kale, and ground lamb raised by friends
—Also added some dried porcinis and generous sloshings of red wine because we don't half-ass meat pie in this house
—Capped it with homemade puff pastry from local butter and flours, including a fair amount of rye and whole wheat pastry flour

Popped a somewhat coarse and jammy Grenache/Syrah blend from Luberon in the Southeastern Rhone that had potential—like a sensitive jock at a liberal arts college.

Tanlines on the radio. Hey—I'm not judging you.

Rhubarb, Pork, Noodles

Credit here goes to Jamie Oliver's ghostwriters for this great idea. We make it once a year at about this time. Here's the gist:

—Whizzed up Spring rhubarb with ginger, garlic, chili, palm sugar, soy sauce, and fish sauce in the food pro.

—Cooked cubes of pasture raised pork shoulder in the marinade at a very low temperature for hours until pulling apart

—Steamed local Spring broccoli

—Boiled some ramenesque noodles

—Fried the chunks of pork in their own fat until crispy and covered it all with rhubarb marinade

Served with a 2007 Sonoma Coast pinot from Arista that was all class up front, but perhaps a little shallow in the payoff. Kind of like most people really.

Poliça on the radio.

Pad Thai

We took this Amish Thai food seriously.

—Soaked rice noodles in tepid water for 30 minutes
—Sauteed beautiful ILBS gulf shrimp (they smell like saffron—incredible)
—Fried the soaked noodles in peanut oil and added local baby Asian brassicas
—Added a mixture of strained tamarind pulp and water, palm sugar, fish sauce, and a little soy
—Finished with toasted peanuts and cilantro

Washed down with a bright, citrusy, 2010 CAI Kabinett by Immich-Batterberg. It's also all apples and petrol, but the brightness (almost sourness) is what's really incredible about the bottle. I will be ordering more.

Hamburger

You can be a purist if you want; I'm adding toppings.

—Grass fed/finished beef formed and cooked to medium in clarified homemade butter in cast iron with a few sprigs of rosemary. 

—Caramelized onion. I added a touch of palm sugar because I had it around—ditto for thyme.
—Homemade lacto-fermented pickles, local goat cheese (not chalky—more like cheddar), and mayonnaise
—Organic asparagus from the new world somewhere. Ours are still just peaking above the soil. (Feel free to judge but only if you have an asparagus patch.)

Had with a few gin and tonics and a crazy good bottle of Loire Valley Bourgueil Cab Franc. I mean, it's pretty (still drinking it btw)—not all bell-peppery and vegetal and liquor-store tasting. It's floral, wet-dog-earthy, light, with integrated tannins. Catherine and Pierre Breton.

Sole, Smoked & Pickled Hock, Puy Lentils

This might seem like an odd mash-up, but it's got roots. The inspiration is my favorite dish in a meal at Mugaritz in San Sebastian Spain. It was served in a mortal and pestle with whole toasted seasame seeds and pepper that we ground at the table. A rich fish stock was then poured over the top and everything I ever felt about the beach and the ocean happened all at once.

The meal, like every other meal we had in Spain, had a lot of pork.

—Smoked hock slow-cooked in water all day
—Subsequent broth used to cook the lentils with mirepoix
—Made a pickle with toasted ground sesame seeds and peppercorns, a touch of garlic, and sherry vinegar into which went the shredded pork hock and some local Spring radishes
—Quickly pan fried some ILBS sole fillets in olive oil with some rosemary sprigs
—Tossed young brassicas in the lentils at the last minute

Served with the rest of that bottle from Angiolino Maule.

Pizza, Lion's Manes

It's my pizza and I'll do what I want with it. Brooklyn can have its 100% white flour pizza, leavened with commercial yeast, flash-baked for 45 seconds and brought to the table with a soggy middle, a few squished San Marzano tomatoes, and a sprig of basil.

Since I only have 550º and a thick seasoned black steel baking sheet, this is the local pie:

—Naturally leavened dough from our starter, local whole wheat, rye, and bread flour
—Sauce made with anchovies, our canned heirloom tomatoes and tomato paste, thyme, and olive oil
—Local lion's mane mushrooms and onions

Served with a crazy (and really awesome) accidental red sparkler from Angiolino Maule

An Alfredo?

You betcha. Sans endless salad and breadsticks. 

—Previously poached chicken (from such posts as "Chicken & Rice")

—Whole wheat fusili

—Onions, garlic, thyme, and kale from the garden, sauteed in butter

—Finished with lemon peel, parsley, grass-fed Jersey cream from our local dairy hookup, and parm/reg

Had with a snip of lemony Macon Village and Frankie Rose on the radio.

Chicken & Rice

Seriously, why don't people boil food anymore? Here's how this US/Singaporean thing went down:

—One of our chickens, gently bubbled away in water just to cover with aromatics (cilantro stems, star anise, ginger, shallots)

—That rich broth cooked the rice

—And both were served with some fiery sauces and some quickly sauteed Spring spinach. 

—Washed down with a little sparkling Vouvray. I like bubbles with my heat. 

Cradle of Flavor is a great book for these types of occasions. The Sambal we loved here was made with coconut oil, toasted shrimp paste, chilies, palm sugar, shallots, garlic, and lime. 

Given the type of week we've been having, a little pain with the pleasure makes perfect sense.

Spanish Style

This came together quickly. I was reading from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's The River Cottage Year and he mentioned something about chorizo and scallops. Since we had a spare chorizo sausage as a gift from the butcher, we put it to work.

—Last year's dragon tongue beans slow cooked with garlic, Spanish pimenton, chili, saffron, and a snip of wine

—The aforementioned chorizo
—Scallops cooked in the rendered red chorizo fat
—Parsley, lemon, and a drizzle of really top-notch Spanish olive oil

Served with a surprisingly fruity Touraine Sauvignon (and a nice pairing for that reason) from Theirry Puzelat. Louis Dressner never done steered me wrong.

Sablefish & Sorrel + Broccoli

I'll be happy to take more summer in March thanks.

We'll roll thusly:
—ILBS Black cod simply cooked in a cast steel pan
—Overwintered sorrel with butter
—Ladrach's Spring broccoli tossed with pounded garlic, salted capers, and lemon peel—with aromatic green olive oil

Also—a nip of old old fashioned and the rest of that 08 SC Zep.

Lamb & Beans

I'll take a summer night in March with...

—Last year's dried Amish beans

—This year's new growth of kale, parsley, and thyme

—Tender young lamb raised by friends, basted with homemade butter, garlic, and thyme

—Enjoyed with Zepaltas '08 Sonoma Coast pinot

Boiled Dinner

These grass fed beef short ribs were at a tremulous simmer for about 6 hours with the usual suspects. The broth was strained. Sprinkled with parsley and celery leaves and served alongside freshly dug horseradish and Jersey cream, yellow mustard, cellared potatoes just covered with water boiled with garlic, yellow beets, our sourdough, and pickled mexican sour gherkins from the garden.

2005 Biodynamic Bordeaux from Chateau Falfas. Could certainly be worse for a Monday.

Open Faced Banh Mi

Exceedingly few (if any) restaurant will ever serve all of these time-consuming and simple things at once:

—A chicken liver terrine with five spice and fish sauce from chickens they raised

—Crusty bread made in-house with a sourdough starter

—Garlic / siracha mayonnaise from scratch

—Homemade kimchi

But if they did—they'd have one incredible sandwich.

Roasted Pears

This could be my favorite dessert. It's only about time and attention. Basically, you take pears, peel them, put them in a medium-sided, casserole-type dish, and roast at 400º until they're done (about 2 hours), basting every 15-30 minutes. It's just butter, sugar and/or honey, a little lemon juice and water. From there you can add anything you want—maybe a splash of bourbon or a vanilla bean. It all works out in the end, but make sure your caramel isn't reducing too fast. If so, add water. You may need to do this a few times.

We served with some salty caramel ice cream and a glass of cognac.

Late Week Ethiopian

This ended up taking a lot less time than I thought it might. Injera is a cinch if you've got a sourdough starter, teff flour, 2 days, and a seasoned cast steel pan. Our batch got super bubbly and sour—just what we were after. For the red lentils, collards, and lamb shoulder bits (or tibs I guess—when in Ethiopia in Ohio), the beginning was all the same—onions, garlic, and ginger sweating in grape seed oil and butter. We used a bit of turmeric with the lentils, a touch of tomato paste with the lamb and berbere in general.

The payoff was that strange alchemy of traditional dishes that become far more than the sum of their parts.

Sardines & Green Beans

Pretty standard Dunham fare.

Our green beans with garlic, dried red chili, sliced red onion, celery, capers, homemade tomato paste, white wine, and herbs (basil, mint, parsley) and finished with really good olive oil. ILBS sardines browned in olive oil, stuffed with thyme.

Half a bottle of leftover but still singing La Lune.

Happy Tuesdays.

Fresh Rolls & Southeast Asian Pumpkin Curry

The quest for authenticity in food is understandable, but often misguided. When we're in the mood for Southeast Asian flavors, that's what we cook — strictly "authentic" or no. My guess is that people in all cultures cook what they have around in a particular style and the attempt to codify them to publish cookbooks is what accounts for iconic dishes comprised of the same standard ingredients.

Well, what we had a around was beautiful sustainable gulf shrimp (which was mostly for the curry, but we saved out a few and grilled them), mixed greens, carrots, radishes, thin rice noodles, and rice paper. As it is winter here in the midwest, there are always clamshell herbs — basil and mint — plus fresh cilantro. Dipping sauce should be a simple and bright affair. Fish sauce, lime juice, cider vinegar, a splash of water, and sugar does nicely (maybe also chili and spring onions). Why sweet gloppy peanut butter sauce often gets to play here is beyond me.

We have tried supermarket red curry paste and it just doesn't seem to cut it. For one thing, I can rarely taste it and end up adding the whole jar. For another, it's flat and real curry is floral and aromatic. Since we don't eat these flavors every day and since it was Saturday night, we took the time to make it ourselves. Really, once you've got the paste made, you're home. We toasted coriander seed, cumin seed, star anise, garlic, ginger, and lemongrass in a dry pan. To that we added cilantro stems, lime zest and juice, and shrimp paste to buzz up in the food pro. Oh yeah, and tons of dried red chilis slightly reconstituted in warm water. 

It was a little fibrous coming out of the food processor so there was some furious chef knife rocking on the cutting board to get it to the right pastiness. We started with finely diced red onion sauteing in coconut oil, followed by the curry paste to mingle in the fat. Then in went (still frozen) chunks of pumpkin from our garden along with a can of coconut milk. We'd made a stock from the shells of our gulf shrimp, which also got poured in. Stick blenders do a great job taking care of the chunks and then it's simply a matter of throwing in your shrimp, adjusting seasoning, and lavishly garnishing.

Seems like people keep repeating that spice is for summer to make you sweat and cool down. I've question how much sense that makes because I especially love this level of intense heat when you're lane is covered in snow. You can't help but feel a sort of smugness with all of this heat, aroma, and exoticness in February.

Arctic Char, Sweet Potato Hash

It's hard to find a great piece of fish in the Midwest. I'm certainly not saying it can't be done, but your average supermarket variety in these parts is likely to be a recently thawed bog standard fillet with structural damage that cooks up mushy and slightly off. Sometimes that's how you have to roll and it's not always bad. Which is to say, sometimes you marvel that you're eating ocean fish at all.

But you could also try I love blue sea instead (ilovebluesea.com). Sustainable, usually wild-caught from the pacific, and incredibly fresh. We buy and freeze enough pounds at a time to make it worth the cost of shipping (if the supermarkets can do it, so can we), and this char was really perfect. It's got enough intramuscular fat to have a sort of custardy inside when cooked to "medium rare". The skin gets really crispy cooked over a moderate flame for most of the cooking time. Sometimes I don't even bother flipping it and then you get this gradient of doneness from well and crispy to nearly raw on top. When you have proteins you can eat raw, you've got a lot of leeway.

Underneath, we casty-ed some sweet potatoes and red onion in bacon grease and wilted in baby brassica greens at the last minute with a splash of sherry vinegar. It was perfect with a little light Rhys pinot and some piano jazz.