The temperature hit 95 yesterday, no air conditioning in the kitchen here at “The Bridge” made for an uncomfortable shift. My high point was a harvest visit to the clubs’ kitchen garden. There’s a valley below the entrance to the clubhouse here, about 250 yards from the kitchen door. The garden sits in an old sandy road bed, contained by a 12 foot fence, supported by a high tech watering system in all about 3000 square feet. Bob Rubin thought it would be a good addition to the grounds, he did it right.

The soil is 50/50 blend of compost and topsoil from Long Island compost, it measures about 18 inches in depth and has proven a perfect host for everything that I’ve planted to date.

On Saturday evening we produced our first cocktail party of the season. It was a birthday party for one of the members wives, 75 people, 6-8pm. The kitchen staff had prepared a variety of passed hors d’oeuvres and a raw bar. The crowd hardly touched the food. As a result we had a good deal of freezing to do, the club staff has also been eating well since then. Apparently the guests all had reservations and chose not to ruin their appetite.

Tuna was a big hit at the opening luncheon the following day and even more sushi grade tuna remained.

On Sunday at lunch the family meal included a grilled fresh tuna wrap, it was finished with and arugula vinaigrette finished with ginger and garlic. I used the same puree whisked with red wine vinegar and EVO to toss with a salad of garden greens, radishes and spring onions. This puree would also serve well on a sliced hanger steak or on rare slice tuna steak off the grill.

Ingredients:

2 bunches of cleaned fresh arugula
1 knob of fresh ginger, peeled & chopped
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
¼ cup EVO
6 tablespoons fresh lime juice
salt & red pepper flakes

Blend all in a processor until smooth.