The Briar Patch

The Briar Patch, by the baseball diamond on Fishers Island, NY, is the only place to buy decent vegetables. The Fishers Island Grocery Store, while it is fascinating for its collection of excellently named candy - Whoppers and Raisinets - and other curiosities, is simply not the place to go for spanking fresh rainbow chard, or tomatoes so ripe that the juice runs down your chin eating them.

As I bicycled past the Briar Patch this morning on my way to the library, all I could see of green-fingered Narapa was the brim of a peacock blue Sombrero as she bent over sprawling butternuts and acorn squash; the stall table on the roadside was already set with fresh cut flowers, eggplants, punnets of tomatoes and fine green beans, and pots of her home-made blackberry jam. 

This weekend Narapa's vegetables made of my cooking something really rather spectacular. I put it in that order deliberately, as only the coarsest cook could do something ruinous to such ingredients. The eggplant was particularly good, cut into chunks and fried in plenty of oil, then drained, and splodges of bright green coriander and garlic oil heaped over the pieces while still warm. A second batch I roasted with fresh thyme and black pepper; a little red wine vinegar at the end of cooking sharpens the smoky mellow flavour.

Perhaps best of all was the rainbow chard. At my table it has become a staple, a dish that people never seem to tire of. But I am tiring of cooking it, carefully washing the bunches before scything leaf from stalk, blanching them separately (leaves 2 - 3 minutes; stalks 5 - 6 minutes), and dressing them. Yesterday I skinned three heirloom tomatoes, one quite violently red, and cut them roughly, pouring flesh, juices, seeds and all, over the drained chard. The only addition was a small pinch of crumbled red chilli, salt and olive oil and a mouthful of the stuff could inspire reverence.

I plated the tomatoes and chard with red potatoes cooked in foil in a hot oven, then buttered and seasoned; garden peas stewed with sweet onion, dill and cream; roast eggplant and a spoon of drained ricotta. There was a lamb chop, quite rare, for those who wanted. A tarte tatin with pouring cream came after.