At Via Carota, the elegantly rustic restaurant that Rita Sodi and Jody Williams have been running in Manhattan since 2014, the deceptively simple seasonal food requires attention to countless details, unseen but tasted. The restaurant’s cookbook, organized by seasons, starts with spring and pages of what’s required to do justice to fava beans and a fistful of other recipes that might explain why one takes a seat in the restaurant instead of shelling peas or attempting fried rabbit with bread at home. But you should add a tangy salmoriglio to your repertoire of dressings and marinades; grill leeks until blackened without and melting within; make a salad of olives, red onion and citrus; cook cannellini beans “until creamy”; serve a soup of onions, bread and egg; and, when summer reappears, assemble a carpaccio of squash, mint, Parmigiano-Reggiano and olive oil. The book is also personal, unpacking the backgrounds of the partners, married and with five restaurants.
“Via Carota: A Celebration of Seasonal Cooking from the Beloved Greenwich Village Restaurant” by Jody Williams and Rita Sodi with Anna Kovel (Alfred A. Knopf, $40).
Grass-Fed, U.S.D.A. Graded Choice Beef
Niman Ranch, a collection of hundreds of mainly Midwestern family farms raising livestock according to a long list of standards, has introduced a new line of grass-fed and grass-finished Angus beef. It’s among the few grass-fed meats that are U.S.D.A. graded choice and prime. Strip steaks graded choice were less heavily marbled than prime steaks, and perhaps a trifle less tender, but both meats were flavorful and richly beefy with a whisper of sweetness. DeBragga & Spitler, the butcher based in Jersey City, N.J., is selling the choice strip and rib-eye steaks, filet mignon, tenderloin roasts, whole briskets and also ground beef online, delivered fresh. The company has offered grass-fed beef for a long time, but Marc Sarrazin, the owner of DeBragga, said that this beef is better. He expects to have the prime-graded beef by the holidays.
Four choice strip steaks or rib steaks are $145.95, four filet steaks are $155.95, debragga.com, nimanranch.com.
Peruvian Chocolate With Varying Intensity
Until about 10 years ago, Peru was not considered to be a top source for cacao compared with Venezuela, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Madagascar and Brazil, but it is now gaining respect. Mater, the research division of Central Restaurante in Lima, has been working with Chuncho cacao native to southern Peru, near Cusco, and coordinating with Simpli, a company based in Baltimore. Simpli deals directly with farmers to brings products like quinoa, olive oil and now chocolate to the U.S. market. The result is a set of four different three and one-half inch square chocolate bars ranging from 100 percent cacao (unsweetened, earthy), to 51 percent (milk, mellow), with 72 percent (crunchy with nibs) and 77 percent (winey) in between. A set of all four is $49.99.
It’s Never Too Early for Egg Nog
I’d just as soon skip the pumpkin spice and wait a bit longer for egg nog, for me the quintessential holiday flavor. This week, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams in Columbus, Ohio, is introducing Uncle Nearest Boozy Eggnog, made with Uncle Nearest 1884 Small Batch Tennessee whiskey. (The whiskey honors Nearest Green, the formerly enslaved distiller who taught Jack Daniel how to make whiskey.) Jeni Britton, who founded Jeni’s 20 years ago, was inspired by her grandfather’s egg nog recipe. The new ice cream will be available starting this week for members of Jeni’s Rewards, on Oct. 27 for all others.
Jeni’s Boozy Eggnog Ice Cream, $12 a pint, minimum six pints for shipping, jenis.com.
A Talk on Long Island Farming
Since the 1660s, the North Fork of Long Island, N.Y., has been farm country. Today it faces its share of challenges, like climate change. Laurie McBride, who manages the farm stand for the venerable Wickham’s Fruit Farm in Cutchogue, and Abra Morawiec, who raises heritage breed birds, including quail, silkie chickens and chukar partridge at their Feisty Acres farm in Peconic, will discuss North Fork farming in a program for the Culinary Historians of New York.
“A Sustainable Harvest: North Fork Farmers Talk Climate Change, The Challenges of Small-scale Farming, and Local Growers Supporting One Another,” Wednesday, Oct. 26, 6:30 to 8 p.m. via Zoom, free for members, $10 for nonmembers and guests, culinaryhistoriansny.org.
Infused Salts to Keep in Your Pocket
Considering how few restaurants bother to put salt on the table, it pays to carry your own. Jacobsen Salt Co., which has been harvesting sea salt from the waters of Netarts Bay on the coast of Oregon since 2011, sells handy little containers of salt with sliding tops to tuck into a purse or pocket. Now they have added flake salt and some of their infused salts to the newly redesigned containers: Use black pepper salt, habanero salt, lemon zest salt or black garlic salt, all to the dismay of the chef. The pocket containers are $9 for two or $22 for a set of five.
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