Nevia, arguably one of the best of farmer’s market stands (we like Rick Bishop too) in NY is currently offering pementos de padron. I rejoiced and I purchased. About twenty peppers into a plate of freshly sautéed goodness I got a hot one. Bingo!

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A few months back, my shellfish allergy meant copious amounts of padron peppers in lieu of crustaceans during a trip to Rias Baixas. I couldn’t get enough of the piquant, vitamin c-charged capsicums at the time. And now I can get them from my local farmer’s market. This makes me exceedingly happy. I experienced a rush when I made my transaction.

It’s summer time in New York. Summer is when my personal chef (and husband) shines. Today’s menu is a locavore’s feast. We procured a slab of flank steak from a new butcher’s shop in the Chelsea Market. Not yet fully opened, Dickson’s Farmstand Meats was offering a peek preview of beef from two different farms. One raises strictly grass-fed cows, while the other feeds his cattle with a mix of grass and grain. We opted for the former. Jim marinated and grilled the meat with garlic scapes, made his summer specialty succotash (corn with some bloody expensive fava beans) and a light cucumber and tomato salad. The steak was as lean as grass fed beef usually is but filled with immense flavor.

The wine to top it all off was a Thierry Puzelat KO rosé. Get a load of the mouth-watering condensation on the bottle.

In the natural wine world, Puzelat is what Kurt Cobain was to grunge. He defines low-interventionist wine and I’m a groupie, along with about half of Tokyo from what I hear. The KO rosé is juicy and fruit-forward with a peppery finish and has that just-fermented, from-the-tank kind of quality. It’s $13.99 and you should get a case of it. C’est l’été enfin.