Various Fish-Snacks and Fresh Artichokes

Friday 10 August

Holt had found some nice big globe artichokes at Findlay Market last Saturday, but trimming them, getting the pressure-cooker up to full speed, and then letting them cook for 25 minutes adds up to about an hour, and we tend to get hungry sooner than that. The solution is to have snacks in the interim. We ended up having three courses.

First, while in the throes of artichoke and sauce preparation, we had pickled herring snacks (from Blue Hill Bay, which is what Acme in Brooklyn calls itself when it wants to sound New Englandy) on toast made from Holt's whole wheat bread.

Next, we had salmon cakes, made out of the leftover materials referred to yesterday, simply held together with a bit of mayonnaise, dipped in the last of the breadcrumbs, and fried.

Our last course, of course, was the artichokes. We served them with two dips: mayonnaise flavored with curry powder and a drop of soy sauce; and a green sauce of garden sorrel and garlic chives, lemon juice, and capers, whizzed up with some olive oil. Worth waiting for.