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Friday, April 8, 2005 -- Focusing on the Meal

As you know, Steve and I both enjoy cooking and eating excellent food together. But, over the years, we have gotten into the habit of often eating our evening meal together in front of the television. When we watched the television in our living room, this worked out pretty much okay. But, now we have a home theater in the basement and, well, this makes the dining experience a very different matter. It's dark, for one thing. It can be loud - as it is supposed to be. (I mean, really loud.) Sometimes tense, at least for me. And, because of this, food appreciation may be secondary to what's happening on the screen. You may find yourself eating more than you want, and enjoying it less. So, we decided to change this.

So, starting this past week, we now sit down together in our dining room to share our evening meal. We set the table with linens and china. We are trying to prepare small servings of various interesting foods to eat slowly with a glass of wine. And we try to each bring a topic of conversation - something we learned that day or something we read or a question that has pondered us - for conversation. We sit quietly, focusing on what has been created foodwise, sharing our thoughts, and find that we are enjoying our meal more than before.

So here are some things we ate this week that you might enjoy!

Pork Medallions with Balsamic Vinegar and Sage
(The following recipe comes from a 1992 Food & Wine magazine and is for 4 servings. We halved it for us.)

• 1 1/2 lbs pork tenderloin cut on an angle into eight 1 1/4 inch medallions
• 2 Tbs flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp. pepper
• 1 Tbs. butter
• 1 Tbs. olive or vegetable oil
• 2/3 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup chicken stock
• 1 Tbs. chopped fresh sage (the recipe says you can use dried. I've never tried this and am not sure it would be as good. But grow a little sage in your garden if you don't have it already. It's a gorgeous plant. You can touch it when you walk by and savor the smell of your hand. Then touch your rosemary bush and enjoy the two smells together.)
  

Pound the medallions lightly to flatten. (I put the medallions between plastic wrap and use a rolling pin.
Combine the flour salt and pepper on a plate and dredge the medallions lightly, shaking off the excess.
Melt the butter and oil in a skillet over moderately high heat.
Cook the medallions, turning once, in two batches about 2-3 minutes per side at moderately high heat.
Transfer to a plate. Cover with foil.
Drain the fat from the pan. (I left a little bit for flavor.)
Add the vinegar to the pan and cook it down, scraping the bottom of the pan, until reduced about a half.
Add the stock and any juices that have accumulated from the pork. Cook until reduced to a dark shiny sauce.
Add the chopped sage and salt and pepper.
Arrange the medallions on a platter or plates and spoon sauce over.

Sautéed Carrots with Toasted Coriander and Cumin
Peel and julienne carrots into 1 1/2 - 2 inch pieces, about 1/4 inch thick. We did enough to cover one sauté pan in one layer. If you need more than this, you should do two pans, preferably, or do it in batches. It's important that they are only one layer thick in the pan.

Toast coriander and cumin seeds in the sauté pan until their aroma comes out. (Just keep poking your nose down and smelling it.) Transfer to a spice grinder or, a mortar and pestle, and grind to a powder. Put back into the sauté pan and add a little bit of olive oil. Turn to medium.

OR, if using powdered coriander and cumin, toast in the pan (it will not take as long to smell the aroma) and add the olive oil directly.

Add the carrots to the pan and toss to cover with oil. Press them down in a single layer and LEAVE THEM ALONE. They will brown. Then toss them again and brown some more.

Now, we just kept browning these carrots until they were done. You can chose to, at some point, add a little chicken stock, cover and braise until done. This technique of browning and braising will work with asparagus and green beans as well - we've done them both. You can leave out the spices or choose others. Or top with some shaved parmesan. Maybe a little prosciutto. Or just plain. Just remember to not stir them so as to allow them to brown.

A Final Note - today, we drove back from Corvallis to Portland after spending the night in a lovely bed & breakfast down there. (I had to attend a training and Steve went with me.) We chose a rural route winding us through the hills of the mid-Willamette valley. It was raining and misting throughout our journey, providing a soft gentle patina to the scenery. We passed hazelnut trees and vineyards. Fields of baby lambs with their mothers. Small towns, each with it's own personality. Steve said, "I feel like we are in the Shire. We should be seeing Bilbo soon."

Eat well, and enjoy the small things.

Wednesday, April 13, 2005 -- The Dinner Marathon

Once I walked a marathon without really training for it. And I proved that I could, indeed, walk a whole marathon without training. I just couldn't walk the next day. Well, last weekend, Steve and I attempted the equivalent of a dinner marathon.

Here's the background. Steve and I were tickled pink to be invited to our friend Donna's home for a dinner that was described as a series of small plates with a small group of friends. We were, of course, looking forward to spending time with her and her husband as well as meeting some of her other friends. But we were really looking forward to an evening of exploring new fabulous food tastes by an expert chef, i.e. Donna. Donna, like a lot of other people we know, had a previous life. She was some hotshot at a small private college out in a rural area west of Portland. She and her family lived the country life in a large lovely home out in middle of podunk. (We didn't know them then so this is all secondhand info for us.) For a combination of reasons, they made a major life change by moving to a chic urban townhouse (I guess that's the right word) in upscale Pearl District in downtown Portland. Donna quit her job with the intention of finding another one in Portland, which she may still do. But, in the meantime, she started her own catering business and engages in a variety of volunteer activities including, (this is where we come in), reading the news with Steve every Thursday morning at Golden Hours Radio. So, in addition to having a great radio voice and being a tremendously competent professional, she knows her food and we were anticipating quite an evening.

And it was an extravaganza! A virtual marathon of "small plates". Let me just say upfront - Steve and I didn't make it through the whole evening. After 3 1/2 hours of eating and drinking, we had peaked and politely said our regretful farewells. But I wanted to share the menu with you all because it so far exceeds my imagination and is just so marvelous. So here it is.

• Vietnamese spicy chicken lettuce cups/dipping sauce
• Duck breast crostini
• Salmon terrine with spicy tomato sauce and Asparagus terrine
• Fennel soup
• Halibut/scallops with vanilla sauce/parsnip puree/baby carrots
• Shrimp with Thai seasoned coconut milk/Portuguese bread triangle/pea pods
• Crab causa
• Eel, shiso/cucumber, tanago, kim chee
• Negimaki/greens (this is as far as we got)
• Frog's legs with crisp potato squares
• Hangar steak/greens/grilled yams with lime cilantro sauce
• Pomegranate/tamarind pork tenderloin with pepper and jicama slaw

Desserts:

• Pear/mascarpone/caramel sauce
• Bread pudding with lemon-cream sauce and rose hip jelly
• Flourless milk chocolate cake/sauce/gelato
• Rhubarb tart
• Pear/cardamon sorbet
• Lychees with mint and blueberries
• Cheese

Donna - We Salute You.

So everybody - enjoy the small things and the occasional marathon, and eat well.

Friday, April 15, 2005 -- Salmon and the Sea Lions

The radio report made it sound like something you shouldn't miss! It was titled "4th of July Comes Early to Bonneville Dam" and went on to say that this year's spawning salmon were making their way up the Columbia River and to the fish ladders at the Bonneville Dam, 40 miles east of Portland. According to the radio guy, "a hundred California sea lions have followed the spring Chinook run" where, joined by "a few harbor seals and some Steller sea lions", they were gorging on what was already a sparse run of salmon. In fact, a few early comers had "figured out how to swim up the fish ladders" and "that was the final straw." So, to the rescue, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had come to save the day (or, at least the fish run) by starting to fire flare guns and firecrackers at the sea lions when they poked their heads above the water in order to scare them off. If that didn't work, they were prepared to start firing high pressure water hoses to scare them off.

I heard this coming home from work last night and visions of happy US Army Corps guys scampering around the banks of the Columbia shooting off fireworks, actually AUTHORIZED to shoot off fireworks for A GOOD CAUSE, filled my head. I knew we had to go. I entered our house and called out "FIELD TRIP TOMORROW!"

So off we went early this morning thinking early bird gets the ...well, whatever. We arrive at nine just as it opens and hurry down the stairs to the underwater viewing rooms for the fish ladder. We stare out into the water and see....nothing, nada, zippo. There's no one moving up those ladders, not even a minnow let alone an enterprising sea lion. We venture to the outside and begin to check out the various places along the bank where you can get good views of the river. At the final spot, we get out of the car and walk to the edge and Steve says, "well there's a log moving up the river." BUT WAIT...the log then went underwater and it was, indeed, a sea lion winding its way upstream. You know, when I think about it, we've both seen a lot of sea lions and a lot closer than this one was, but we were still excited to see it. And that was the extent of the Field Trip. It was not the excitement we had thought it would be. Not a single army guy running around and nary a salmon. (Did get a good view of about 6 hawks circling closely over our heads and, of course, stopped at the sturgeon viewing pond to see those prehistoric monsters.)

So we drove home, stopped at the fish market, bought some line caught wild chinook salmon (that, apparently, escaped the sea lions but not the fisherman), and will have it tonight pan grilled with a drizzle of soy sauce and dark sesame oil.

Today, I experimented making tiny crustless quiches using a mini-muffin pan filled with parmesan cheese, chives, chopped tarragon, and one perfect fresh fava bean in each one. This is for the girls coming over to play bridge tomorrow night. Tomorrow, we'll hit the farmers market early -- going straight to the mushroom guy's booth -- and hope to score some morel mushrooms.

Eat well, and enjoy the small things.

Wednesday, April 20, 2005 -- Farmer's Market

The Portland Farmer's Market has opened and is showcasing the great food products available here in the northwest. This year, it's even bigger and the types of things available are even broader. I just love this time of year.

We've been using what we purchased at the market for days because we had people over on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. Tonight we are going to have a dinner of various vegetables using a bunch of stuff we got at the market.

Here's what we purchased last Saturday:

Morel Mushrooms - We were first in line at the Mushroom Guy's stand before the market bell rang. (The vendors are not supposed to sell anything until the bell rings.) He's putting out his wares. I call "Do you have any morels today?" He says "A little bit." I say "I'll take them all." He says incredulously "Six pounds?" I recover and say "No, maybe a pound." So he brings out his box of morels. I've never seen anything like these. Some of these mushrooms were as big or bigger than a globe artichoke. He says he had forgotten about them for a while - they grow on his farm somewhere. I'm incredulous that he could forget about morels. I pick out the smaller ones. I've used some of these sautéed with garlic, brandy, and cream and filled little tartlet shells for guests over last weekend. We'll have the last of them tonight in a simple sauté.

A bunch of baby peashoots - We'll sauté these tonight.

Baby Carrots - We'll do a brown and braise thing tonight. When they are small like this, you can leave about 1/3-inch of the chopped off greens still on the carrot and they look really nice like that.

A pound of fresh Dungeness crab from the Oregon Coast - We had crabcakes last weekend. Can't beat them. Apparently it's a great year for crab, unlike the chinook salmon.

Spring Walla Walla Onions - We have used them in a bunch of things including the crabcakes.

Broccoli Raab - These also came from the mushroom guy from his farm. I'm still thinking about what to do with these. We have some people with their kids coming over for pizza and movies on Friday night and I'm contemplating them as a one of the available toppings for pizza. But I'm just not sure whether that's just too weird for kids. (Ed. Note -- I think it's too weird for kids' pizza. I'll try to nix that idea.)

Bourbon Liver Pate - Wonderful. The Sunday afternoon movie crowd ate this up.

Local Grass-fed Veal Scaloppini - This is a new vendor. This veal is red, unlike the paler tones you see in the traditional milk-fed veal. It's in the freezer for now.

Dukkah - An Egyptian spice mix from a new vendor as well. It was new to me. It's a mixture of toasted chopped hazel nuts, sesame seeds, paprika, turmeric, and "spices." It's similar to Za'tar but without the fresh herbs. It's wonderful! I made a chicken salad for the bridge girls Saturday night. Took slices of good, dense white bread. Composed sandwiches. Cut off crusts and cut each sandwich into four triangles. Buttered one side of the triangle and dipped it into the Dukkah. Lined up the triangles on a platter. (This presentation is a Martha Stewart idea and my rendition, I admit, didn't look like the one in the book.) But it was great. I think one could re-create a reasonable facsimile of this Dukkah pretty easily. Everyone who tried it raved about it.

Eastern Oregon Wheat Flour - Also a new vendor. They were selling a few types of beans and lentils as well grown on their farm. We were their very first customers EVER. (Ed. Note -- We were their first customer at the market, not their first customer ever.) They took a picture of us posing with one of them holding up our flour. They were excited! I used the flour to make the tartlet shells. (Ed. Note -- I will also use it to make pizza dough for this Friday.)

It was a great day at the market and we had a bunch of fun feeding people over the weekend.

Eat well and enjoy the small things.

Saturday, April 23, 2005 -- A Couple of Good Recipes

Any weekend that results in "a couple of good recipes" is a success in my book. But this weekend, in addition to meeting that standard, has also offered an opportunity for both rewarding social time with old friends and their kids PLUS a totally fascinating adventure at Portland's first annual Wordstock festival -a festival for people who like books, writing and writers. I'll start with the latter.

This morning we started out early taking the Woodstock bus (#19) downtown to go to the festival. As Steve gleefully pointed out "I bet we're the only people taking the Woodstock to the Wordstock. (His sense of humor is not always the most sophisticated.) There were the usual exhibition hall booths, but the hourly presentations were the main draw. I first attended the talk of a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Richard Ben Cramer, who has just published a book titled How Israel Lost. I left feeling my understanding of the relevant issues of Israel and Palestine was much enhanced. Steve, meantime, was listening to Karen Karbo give practical advice about The Writer's Life. But our best experience was with the Screenwriting Panel with screenwriter John Norville (Tin Cup), screenwriter Mike Rich (Finding Forrester, The Rookie), local author Whitney Otto (whose book How to Make and American Quilt has been made into a movie), and big-time Hollywood writer-director Ron Shelton (Bull Durham, White Men Can't Jump.) Wow, that was just fascinating to hear about a side of movie-making and a genre of writing I knew little about. The crowd was sitting on the edge of their seats.

And, of course, we attended a couple of cooking demonstrations by local cookbook authors/chefs. Cory Schreiber, owner-chef of Portland's Wildwood Restaurant, has been a longterm advocate of buying local, seasonal food. His one cookbook, Wildwood: Cooking from the Source in the Pacific Northwest, is great and am proud to own a personally autographed copy of it. So, of course, we went and saw him. He had gone to the Farmer's Market this very morning and, as he counsels, he bought what looked good; what was seasonal; and used these ingredients to make a variation of one of his recipes contained in his book. His book's recipe is "Roasted Chicken Thighs with Morel Mushrooms, Asparagus, and Garlic." Today, he substituted fresh Dungeness crab from the market for the chicken; substituted spring Walla Walla onions for the red onion; substitued champagne vinegar for red wine vinegar to better suit the crab; and used some elephant garlic he found at the market instead of regular garlic. It's a main dish salad that can be varied in a variety of ways to adjust for local markets and seasons. I'll include it below and hope you try it based on your own local options. Remember, you don't have to follow these recipes religiously. Vary things based on what is local, good, and what you have in your kitchen.

Friday night, we had a few friends with their kids over and made pizzas on the grill. Whenever we do this, I always remember what a great time we had with Pat and Diana (when Diana was visiting out here) making these pizzas together. This works well with kids and gets them into the action of cooking. Plus, you can accomodate varying food tastes (or lack of taste) with varying kids. This time, Steve was very proud of his pizza dough. He used a recipe out of Crust and Crumb by Peter Reinhart. He does start the process a few days ahead of time, but not much work is required each day. The freshness of the dough is well worth it in the end. We just put out a bunch of different options for toppings and let people go at it. This time, we included sausage, pepperoni, pastrami, fontina cheese, mozzarella cheese, blue cheese, roasted red pepper, carmelized onions, grilled sliced fingerling potatoes, mushrooms, spinach, arugula, and basil.

Here is Schreiber's recipe which I believe is easy and adaptable for us all; and I will be happy to send the recipe for pizza dough to anyone who wants it for those who might want a new culinary adventure.

Roasted Chicken Thighs with Morel Mushrooms, Asparagus, and Garlic
from Wildwood by Cory Schreiber

2 Tbs olive oil
2 Tbs balsalmic vinegar
1 Tbs minced fresh rosemary
1/2 tsp ground pepper
8 chicken thighs or 4 boneless chicken breast halves

VINAIGRETTE
1/3 cp. olive oil
3 Tbs. red wine vinegar
2 Tbs. chopped fresh basil
2 tsp. Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

6 yukon gold or new potatoes, peeled and quartered
1 tsp salt
2 Tbs olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 red onion, thinly sliced
8 ox. asparagus, trimmed and cut on the diagonal into 2 inch lengths
1 lb. morel mushrooms, wiped clean and halved, or 1 lb. portobello mushrooms sliced
5 cps (5 ounces) mixed baby greens or baby spinach
4 oz. fresh white goat cheese, crumbled (about 1 cp.)

Marinate chicken in large self-sealing plastic bag with first four ingredients for 2-24 hours.
Preheat oven to 375.
Roast chicken 25-30 minutes until juices run clear.
Make vinaigrette by whisking ingredients together.
Heat salted water to boiling and add potatoes, then simmer for 10-15 minutes until tender. Drain and gently toss with 1/3 cup vinaigrette
In large skillet, heat 1 Tbs. olive oil and saute the minced garlic, red onion and asparagus for 4 minutes or until tender. Add to potatoes.
Using same skillet, add remaining 1 Tbs. olive oil and saute the mushrooms over medium heat for 6-8 minutes or until soft. Add to the potatoes.
Add greens to bowl and gently toss with vinaigrette.
To serve, portion the warm salad onto plates. Tope with 1-2 pieces chicken. Distribute crumbled goat cheese over the greens.

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© 2005, 2006 Deborah Young