Cook Local

Oh Mangalitsas, how we love you (even though you look kind of ugly)

2008-08-20T00:51:41Z

Years ago, before John, before farmers markets, and before food writing, I thought a pig was a pig. Pork chops, ground pork, sausage, tenderloin... it's all pig. And one pig is much the same as any other pig, right?

Nope.

First of all, you've got pastured pigs. Skagit River Ranch is our go-to farm for just about every type of meat. Their cows, pigs, and chickens roam the farm, foraging. Only the chickens ever get grain, but that's just a small portion of their diet. They spend their days hunting and pecking for whatever pleases them.

Their cows are never fed grain. Ever. Not grain finished, not supplemented... absolutely none. Their pigs are "happy pigs". They eat a lot of veggies from their farm and in general are healthier than just about any pig you could ever find. I think I've commented before that many times a recipe will ask us to "drain the fat" and there's hardly ever any fat in the pan.

Mangalitsa pigs though, are a completely different breed. They are primarily from Hungary and the Balkans and are descended from wild boars. These pigs have a thick curly coat. They need a lot more room than most domestic pigs though, so they can be more expensive to keep. The meat is supposed to be some of the best pork in the world. Meat from Mangalitsa pigs has more than twice the amount of marbling that an average cut of pork has, and since the pigs are raised naturally, and humanely (meaning they are almost always outdoors, and are raised in a manner that does not require that they get hormones or antibiotics).

The place we bought our Mangalitsa pork from is a relatively new stand that showed up sometime last year at the University District Farmers Market. Wooly Pigs imported some of these Mangalitsa pigs and have been raising them the way they have been raised in Europe. Wooly Pigs even went to Austria to learn how to raise these pigs from the head of the Mangalitsa Pig Breeder's Association. They learned that there are actually two different ways to raise pigs: for roasting and for curing. Most farmers just raise pigs for roasting/cooking. Raising pigs for curing requires a much stricter level of control over the diet of the pigs.

Wooly Pigs has sold their meat to restaurants such as The Herbfarm and The French Laundry and recently they even sold some pigs to The Herbfarm so the restaurant can raise the pigs themselves for the ultimate level of control over the end product - their cured meat.

But this is a lot of text to just tell you that we bought some absolutely amazing ground pork for a recipe. Look for the recipe later tonight.

Tomatoes stuffed with... well... stuff

2008-08-17T04:19:54Z

I'm actually getting tired of relying on my cookbooks. When you're a food writer as a side gig, you do a lot of cooking and you (I) can tend to get into a rut of relying on just a few of your favorite cookbooks for all of your recipes.

So lately we've tried to come up with our own recipes at least once or twice a month. So far we've been pretty successful. In fact, I'd say that the majority of recipes you'll see here over the next couple of weeks will actually be our own creations.

Tomatoes have been ripe and ready at the farmers markets for the past few weeks. One of our favorite vendors sells tomatoes easily the size of a coffee mug. They're HUGE! The first picture is actually one of the smaller tomatoes I've seen there and it's almost the size of my hand!

After staring at them for a few weeks, we decided to try to stuff them. We've experimented with stuffed peppers a few times. The stuffed cherry bombs worked out great, but stuffing a pepper with much other than cheese (or maybe bacon) just doesn't do it for us. So we figured, why not tomatoes?

We set about looking for a few other ingredients.

First, we went to Skagit River Ranch and got some hot Italian sausage.

Next, we picked up some purple peppers.

After that, some garlic and onions.

Lastly, we went over to one of the Artisan cheese vendors, Estrella Creamery. We picked up some provolone style cheese from them and we were on our way.

Then there is some chopping, some cooking, some stuffing, and some eating.

But since you'll probably want a little more info than that, here's what you'll need.

Stuffed Tomatoes a la Eddy

4 large tomatoes
3-4 hot Italian sausage
1-2 purple peppers
5 cloves of garlic
1 medium sweet onion
1/4 pound Provolone cheese

Use your GarlicZoom to mince the garlic.
Dice the onions and peppers.
Take the sausage out of its casing.
Cook in a large skillet until it is no longer pink. If you're using pastured pork, or are lucky enough to have Skagit River Ranch sausage, don't drain the fat - that is if you can even find fat. Otherwise, you might want to drain a little bit off.
Add the peppers, onions, and garlic and cook for another few minutes.
Remove from heat and cool slightly in a bowl.
With a paring knife, cut the top off of each tomato and hollow out as much of the inside as you can. Be careful not to cut through the skin, particularly on the bottom.
Take 4 slices of the provolone and reserve them.
Cube the rest of the cheese and mix in with the sausage mixture.
Stuff the tomatoes.
Grill them in a grill pan (or bake) for approximately 10-15 minutes.
Place the slices of provolone on top of the tomatoes and grill until the cheese has melted.

This recipe was a big success. Unlike stuffed peppers, which don't impart a lot of flavor to their stuffing and are generally extremely dry, these tomatoes were moist and incredibly flavorful. I don't even like to eat tomatoes in their whole, non-sauced form, and I think I ate every bite of both the tomato and the stuffing. I'm not sure what else could have made this recipe better. Next time I might add some minced hot peppers as well as the bell peppers (or maybe even instead of).

Dirty beets

2008-08-10T07:04:52Z

Last year I finally realized that I could no longer say I didn't like vegetables. However, I certainly didn't take my new found like of vegetables to any sort of extreme. It was a while before I found a squash recipe that I liked, and it took another full year before I managed to find a recipe that I liked that used what I think of as the worst, most vile, why-on-earth-did-anyone-ever-think-these-were-edible root vegetable ever: Beets.

Yet for as long as it took me to find a beet recipe I liked, somehow, now I can't get enough of them. Yes, really! I've been making beets once a week for the past month now! I have a bunch in my fridge right now that I've been dying to make all week.

I am convinced that one of the reasons that I've started to like beets is because the beets I've been using are from my amazing CSA: the Growing Washington's Local Choice Food Box.

We've been shopping at the farmers markets often enough that many of the farmers know us by name now. We've watched our meat vendor's daughter grow up before our eyes and have a great relationship with the Growing Washington folks. They work hard (a lot harder than I do certainly) and they are always a joy to talk to at the markets.

The beets we'll use today are chioggia beets. I chose these because they are supposed to be slightly more mild in flavor. I figure if I'm going to eat something that tastes like dirt, I want it to be the mildest dirt possible.

So, onto the recipe!

Step 1: Get yourself some beets. Any sort of beets will do, but the chioggia beets are nice and mild, though any sort of baby beets will be pretty sweet as well.

Step 2: Get yourself some other sort of root vegetable. Purple potatoes make a dramatic dish, as do turnips.

Step 3: Dice all of the vegetables. The more you hate beets, the smaller the pieces of beet should be.

Step 4: Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a non-stick skillet over medium heat.

Step 5: Add the beets and whatever vegetables you've diced.

Step 6: Cook until the veggies have shrunk a bit and look a little crispy and caramelized.

Step 7: Eat.

You can season the mix while it's cooking. I've tried salt and pepper, which worked pretty well. Paprika was even better though. A little bit of bourbon would also be a nice addition while cooking. Whatever you add, you want it to be slightly sweet and possibly smoky to mesh with the sugar in the beets. Hey, don't look at me like that! Trust me, when cooked down enough, these beets are really SWEET!

Ok, so occasionally I'll get a piece of beet that is a little bigger than it should be and that piece still tastes a little like dirt. But overall, this is a fantastic recipe for a vegetable that so very often gets nothing but dirty looks.

Sometimes you just need some really good cookies

2008-08-01T22:43:07Z

I don't bake cookies very often. John can't eat a lot of them, and while I could always bring them to work, I just can't justify baking cookies repeatedly and only eating two or three of them (though I'm sure my coworkers would like it if I did). But for the past few weeks, I've been craving a really good cookie. You know... one of those melt in your mouth, ooey-gooey, soft and chewy, perfect cookies? The type that usually doesn't exist anywhere but in your mind? Well, I can now report that they exist and are almost ridiculously easy.

This recipe came from the New York Times. It has been getting rave reviews and has been posted on any cookie or dessert blog worth its salt. Since I want to be worth the new Murray River salt my dear husband just bought me, I need to post them too. This recipe isn't local, but it's amazingly tasty.

Chocolate Chip Cookies That Will Amaze Your Friends (from the New York Times)

2.5 sticks of butter
1.25 cups light brown sugar
1 cup PLUS 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups MINUS 2 Tbsp cake flour
1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1.25 tsp baking soda
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/5 tsp coarse salt
1/25 lbs semi-sweet chocolate chips
Sea salt

In a stand mixer, combine the room temperature butter, the light brown sugar and the granulated sugar. Use the paddle attachment and cream everything until it's light and fluffy. You might have to use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl a few times.
Beat in the eggs one at a time.
Add the vanilla.
In a separate bowl, mix the flours, baking soda and baking powder, and salt with a whisk. You actually do want to use coarse or kosher salt. I know it sounds odd, but the coarse salt is part of what just makes this recipe perfect.
Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in the flour mixture. Do this in at least two batches otherwise the flour will end up EVERYWHERE!
Mix in the chips and transfer the dough to a bowl.
Refrigerate for at least 24 hours, but preferably 36 hours.
Now wait.

Dah-dah-dee-dah-dah-dah-dah... dah-dah-dee-dah-dah-dee-dah-dee-dah-dah.

Zzzzzzzzz.

Beep! Beep! Beep! Snoooooozzzzze.

Zzzzzzzzz.

Beep! Beep! Beep! COOKIES!

Take the dough out of the fridge and let it warm slightly on the counter.
After about 20 minutes, preheat the oven to 350.
Use an ice cream scoop and scoop out large balls of dough. You only want to put about 6 cookies on a silpat lined cookie sheet.
Sprinkle each of the cookies with cracked sea salt.
Bake for 15 minutes. The cookies won't look completely done, but trust me, they are.
Let the baked cookies cool for about 2 minutes on the cookie sheet and then transfer them to wire racks.
Repeat.

Now, at this point, you've probably tried one, yes? If not, I'm surprised. Very surprised. Hot cookies are one of life's greatest joys. However, these cookies aren't best when hot out of the oven. They're best at room temperature. Eat some yourself, bring some to work. Your coworkers will thank you. Again, and again, and again.

Sauteed Snow Peas, Sugar Snap Peas, and Pea Shoots

2008-07-30T18:37:57Z

Here is another side dish that uses the fabulous peas you can find this week at your local markets. I ordered extra this week from my CSA box so that I could both eat a bunch in salads and cook a bunch up for you (and for me).

This recipe was incredibly easy. In fact, the entire recipe from start to finish took 15 minutes, and that included the time to cut the ends off of the peas and remove the strings. We both loved it, and we threw the leftovers into some leftover fried rice for lunch the next day.

Sauteed Snow Peas, Sugar Snap Peas, and Pea Shoots, adapted from Epicurious

Serves 4

3 cups snow peas
4 cups sugar snap peas
6 cloves of garlic
Oli of your choice
1/3 cup oyster sauce
1/4 cup chicken stock
Pea shoots
Sesame seeds

Cut the ends off of the peas and remove the strings.
Tear the pea shoots into small chunks.
Mince the garlic.
Heat the oil in a wok or large skillet over medium to medium high heat.
Satuee the garlic for a minute or so, but stir constantly so it doesn't burn.
Add in the oyster sauce and chicken stock (you can use water here instead of the stock).
Add the peas and fry for 2 minutes, or until some of the sauce has burned off.
With a slotted spoon, remove the peas and garlic from the pan and place them in a serving dish.
Top with the pea shoots and a mix of white and black sesame seeds.

Patricia's Notes: This was a great dish. By only cooking the peas for 2 minutes, you retain so much of their fresh flavor and snap. Really, you're just warming them a bit and coating them with the sauce. I was hoping the sauce would be thicker, so I could just pour the entire skillet into the serving bowl, but since the sauce was still thin, I preferred to strain the vegetables out of the sauce. I think you could mix in a bit of cornstarch with the oyster sauce and get a nice thick sauce that would also work very well. Next time, I'll throw in just a tiny bit of hot sauce or red pepper flakes as well.

With apologies to Alton Brown

2008-07-29T04:43:26Z

Let me get this off my chest.

I can't really stand Alton Brown.

Well, that's not entirely true. He's not that bad. He's personable, he gives good information, he's generally on point. He (or his writers) has a sense of humor.

Actually, I'm not entirely sure why I don't like him. He's too smug maybe?

One of his drives is to 'banish the unitasker.' At one point, I jokingly said to someone who is more in tune with Altonism 'I wonder... does Alton Brown own a waffle maker?'

Turns out, yes, and he admitted on a show that it was his secret shame, that one unitasker that he owns because, frankly, it just isn't something you can multitask with. A pizzelle maker, sure. You can make ice cream cones, rolled cookies, flat cookies. But a waffle maker? It is pretty much just a waffle maker. He also admits that a fire extinguisher is a unitasker everyone should own.

At this point, there's probably two questions, maybe three, you're asking yourself.

1) What in the hell does Alton Brown have to do with this post?

Good question.

Recently, we came into possession of a kitchen gadget called the GarlicZoom from Chef'n.

And, frankly, it's amazing.

It took:

and, about 10 seconds later, gave me:

Now, my knife skills are slowly getting better.

But not *that* good.

I was astounded.

And amazed.

And, to be honest, it's not that uni-function. I used it to mince some red onion last night. Unfortunately, you have to chop up the onion pretty small to get it to fit in the capsule, so while you can do it, really this thing is designed for garlic.

And it works in spades.

2) And this is local... how?

Well... uhh... the company who makes it is actually based in Seattle. In fact, the owner is the brother of our landlady's home assistant. So, there. It's local. Ish.

We have a few other Chef'n products. A PepperBall and SaltBall, a PalmPeeler, a VeggiSteam.

And, in the interest of fairness, we received the GarlicZoom for free as a gift by way of our landlady. It wasn't expected that we'd be reviewing it, it was simply a nice little gift from our landlady and her assistant.

3) So where's the recipe?

You got me there. No recipe here.

...

Really?

...

You want a recipe and won't leave until you get one?

Fine.

Go buy a

Amazon.com: Chef'n Garlic Zoom: Kitchen & Dining

Wait until it arrives.
Wash the GarlicZoom.
Peel a garlic clove or two.
Put the clove in the GarlicZoom.
Run the GarlicZoom like it's a matchbox car. Making VroomVroom noises is optional. If you want a video lesson:

<\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/div>";" alt="">

Open the GarlicZoom and empty it into a hot frying pan with some olive oil (or whatever oil is local to you).
Cook until garlic odor wafts up and it smells cooked. Seriously. You'll know it when it hits.
Pour oil and garlic into a cruet. Add enough oil to get you 3/4 cup of oil.
Add a few pinches of oregano, rosemary or thyme.
Add in 1/4 cup of vinegar, red wine, white wine, balsamic, pear cider. Use your imagination.
Shake and pour over your salad.

There's your damn recipe. Hope you enjoy it.

No, really, I do. Sincerely.

Geez, stop looking at me like that, I'm just giving you what you wanted. A recipe.

Freshly Baked Bread

2008-07-25T23:25:31Z

Have you ever walked by a bakery right when the bread comes out of the oven? I'm getting hungry just thinking about it right now. A slice of hot, fresh bread, slathered in butter, is one of my great pleasures in life. I don't have it very often, though, for several reasons.

Hot, buttered bread isn't all that healthy.
Baking my own bread takes at least 3 hours from mix, to rise, to bake.
Home baked bread is rarely as tasty the second or third day as it is the first.

Given how much I love fresh bread, I was thrilled when read about a new book, Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. Really? 5 minutes a day? Could it really be true? Could I have fresh bread every day? Or even a couple of times a week?

Well, the reality wasn't quite what I'd hoped, but it wasn't bad either.

I'll talk more about this cookbook over the next few weeks, both here and on the Cook Local Examiner site.

Today, I'll show you my first loaf of bread and tell you how I made it.

Isn't that pretty? It was probably about 8 inches across with a nice crusty exterior.

So, how did I do it? I used Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day's Master Recipe.

3 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 Tbsp granulated yeast
1 1/2 Tbsp kosher salt
6 1/2 cups all purpose flour
Cornmeal

The directions are exceedingly simple. Use water that's around 100 degrees. Put the warm water in a large bowl and add the yeast and salt. Give it a stir (but don't worry about getting it all to dissolve).

Mix in the flour with a spoon. You don't need to mix it too well, just until the mixture looks pretty moist and there aren't any large clumps of dry flour remaining.

Cover the bowl with a lid and let it sit on the counter for 2-5 hours. Then put the dough into the fridge and you're done for the day.

The next day (or any day over the next two weeks), take a pizza peel and cover it with cornmeal. Coat your hands with flour. Grab a decent lump of dough and "cloak" it. This was a new term to me, but it basically means that you take the dough lump and stretch the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all sides, forming a ball. Put the rest of the dough back in the fridge.

Let it rise for 40 minutes. About 20 minutes into the rising time, preheat the oven to 450 and put your pizza stone in there to preheat as well. On the bottom shelf of the oven, place your broiler pan (without the top).

Dust the top of the loaf with flour and make several cuts in the top of the loaf.

Slide the risen dough onto the pizza stone.

Take 1 cup of hot water and fill the broiler pan. CAREFUL! This will steam pretty heavily. Don't get too close.

Bake for 30 minutes, transfer to a cooling rack, and eat when the outer surface is (mostly) cool.

The principle of Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day is that you only have 5 minutes of ACTIVE work each day. This, however, doesn't count the time you must wait for things to happen. While I was hoping to be able to come home, throw bread in the oven, and eat it as soon as it baked, the reality was that you still need to let the dough rise. You just don't have to let it rise, punch it down, and let it rise again. You can have fresh bread within about an hour and ten minutes of coming home. Not bad for fresh bread.

Interview with Local Seattle Chef, Becky Selengut

2008-07-24T20:17:56Z

A few weeks ago, I attended a press event for a new cookbook - the Washington Local and Seasonal Cookbook. One of the authors, Becky Selengut, spoke on her passion for cooking locally and her successful website, Seasonal Cornucopia. I was lucky enough to grab a few minutes of her time over email a few days later for a more in-depth interview. I hope you find her responses as interesting as I did.

Patricia: You mentioned that most of the recipes in the cookbook were actually written by someone else, and you wrote the forwards for the recipes. As a chef, what was it like to work with someone else's recipes? Were you tempted to tweak them?

Becky: I love the opportunity to work with other chef's recipes. When I worked in restaurants I was constantly exposed to new ideas by both the head chef and my colleagues. Now that I work for myself, it is something that I actively seek out to bring fresh ideas into my cooking. Yes I was tempted to tweak some of the recipes but through testing them and following what another chef recommends I often learn both a new perspective on food and further clarify my own style.

Patricia: As a follow-up, when cooking professionally, either for the Herbfarm or for your own business, how often do you come up with your own recipe as opposed to using a recipe from elsewhere?

Becky: Certainly when I worked in restaurants I would follow what the chef wanted - or risk getting something thrown at me :) , however most of the chefs I had the pleasure of working for were open to my ideas when I offered them. Now that I work for myself I find that I rarely use recipes anymore. There are a billion directions to take food but a much more limited set of fundamental cooking techniques. I find that once you really learn the techniques you are then able to let your creativity determine the direction of the food. Of course, this took years of experience so I don't expect beginners to start at this point. That's why I feel that before you get all renegade with food, you simply must master the fundamentals first.

Patricia: I've loved the cookbook so far, but one thing that has struck me is that many of the recipes use a lot of non-local ingredients. Soy sauce, lemons, limes, oranges, sugar, pistachios, vanilla beans, a banana, etc. Can you elaborate on your view of what "cooking local" means?

Becky: I'm so glad you asked me this question. I often tell people that I'm no "food nazi" when it comes to eating local. It's just so perfectly American of us to get so LITERAL and TRENDY with this concept. "Eating local" before it was a fad was and is an integral way of life in the great food cultures of the world. My feeling is that if you stick with seeking out high-quality ingredients you will soon find that local food tastes better. Does this mean that I don't use lemons, mangos, vanilla beans? If we grew them here, you can bet I'd be using local but since we don't I am perfectly happy getting them from elsewhere. Most of my food comes from local sources but at least 25% comes from elsewhere. Life is so much more wonderful with spices, tropical fruits and citrus... why would I want to limit my food to food miles that strictly? For me, it's all about balance... and flavor. Weighing all the good reasons for eating local without going so overboard that you feel deprived of the treats that we get from other places. Fair-trade coffee and chocolate? You can bet I'm not giving it up. Guilt and food are a terrible combination. I just tell people to educate themselves and follow their nose... it will- most of the time - lead right to a local farmer's market.

Patricia: Can you tell me about a favorite ingredient? What is catching your eye at the farmers markets right now? What are you anxiously waiting for?

Becky: I'm a big fan of briny, green sea beans. Jeremy Faber forages for them along the coast. He had a big huge pile of perfect ones last weekend at the University Farmer's Market. Many people are unfamiliar with them. It's important to blanch them once or twice in UNSALTED water to leech some of the salt out of them. They can be pickled or just tossed with oil. They add this gorgeous pop of ocean brine to dishes. I like to scatter them over a roasted black cod dish with a wine sauce and morels.

Patricia: What is your comfort food (or one of them)?

Becky: Hmmm. That's a hard one because I have so many and I'm an indecisive Libra who balks at just picking one. So here's my list: braised short ribs, french fries, macaroni and cheese with crusty bits of buttered breadcrumbs on the top, braised greens with olives and bacon with awesome toasted artisan bread, Dana Cree's salted caramel ice cream at Molly Moon's, and finally..... one perfect hamachi hand roll.

Patricia: Is it difficult to eat out? Do you deconstruct meals that you are served?

Becky: I like to eat out with other chefs or food-obsessed individuals because yes, I'm an insufferable downer to innocent diners not interested in tearing apart their meal with anything more than their teeth. Luckily my partner is a sommelier so while I sometimes critique the food, she occasionally scoffs at the wine :) But seriously, often I'm very happy with eating out, especially when I go to inexpensive asian restaurants where I am often pleased and my pocketbook thanks me. Where it gets dicier is when I'm paying a lot of money for something I feel I could make better at home.
Patricia: Do you have one food that you hope people will try, even though it might not be "mainstream"? (I'm thinking of something like a mangosteen or tat soi.)

Becky: Funny you should say a mangosteen because I had one in Thailand. I believe there they refer to it as the "queen of fruit". It was one of the most amazing things ever.. but I recommend eating it in season in Thailand. I've had one imported here that just was a wisp of it's former self. Locally I would recommend people try spring nettles. I've recently become the nettle poster child because they are so abundant here, so healthy and so, so tasty. I make tea from them, pasta fillings, puree it like you would spinach, make soup from it... YUM.

Patricia: Anything else you'd like readers to know?

Becky: I would love readers to check out www.seasonalcornucopia.com for info on local and seasonal ingredients.

A tasty local potato salad evokes memories of holidays gone by

2008-07-24T03:03:05Z

Growing up, the 4th of July always required some sort of grilled meat, fresh, homemade ice cream, and a big bowl of mom's potato salad. I still make mom's potato salad on occasion, but I saw this recipe in the Washington Local and Seasonal Cookbook and had to give it a try.

The first step in making this potato salad was making my own mayonnaise. I admit, I don't really like mayonnaise. I use it very rarely, even on sandwiches. In fact, the only use I have for it is in a potato salad.

Mayonnaise

5 egg yolks (from Skagit River Ranch)
1/4 cup vinegar
2/3 cup olive oil
Salt

In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks, salt, and the vinegar until the egg yolks lighten in color. The mixture might get a tiny bit frothy at this point and that's ok.
While whisking constantly (this is key), add the oil a drop or two at a time. The whisking will emulsify the oil, thickening the mixture.
When about half of the oil has been incorporated, start adding the oil in a thin stream, continuing to whisk.
Refrigerate for up to a week.

Patricia's Notes: My mayonnaise was a bit on the thin side. I think it would have been better if I'd used the Kitchen-Aid mixer instead of hand-whisking. You can add any sorts of spices you want to the mayonnaise, including garlic. I might splurge at some point and try making some mayonnaise with some garlic flavored olive oil. If you're worried about the cholesterol content of mayonnaise, make sure and use truly pastured eggs for the lowest cholesterol content and the highest level of Omega-3 fatty acids.

Full Circle Farms Potato Salad

Serves 6

2 pounds of potatoes (I used red potatoes from Full Circle Farms)
4 carrots (from Full Circle Farms)
3 stalks of celery
8 oz jar of artichoke hearts
1 Walla Walla sweet onion (from Growing Washington)
1 purple bell pepper (from Billy's Organic Produce)
3-4 dill pickles (Parker's Spicy Pickles from Woodring Northwest)
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 Tbsp capers
Sea salt and Pepper
Mayonnaise

Boil the potatoes until they are just tender. They will continue to cook a bit as they cool, so don't overcook them.
Cut them into chunks and set aside.
Slice the carrots and cook for just a couple of minutes, draining and then plunging them immediately into cold water.
Slice the celery, quarter the artichoke hearts, and slice the onion, pepper, and pickles.
Mash the capers with the flat of a knife.
Mix all ingredients together, adding salt and pepper to taste and as much mayonnaise as you like.

Patricia's Notes: One of the things I love about potato salad is that it is very hard to screw it up. You can add just about any vegetables you want, or stick with only potatoes. I've always loved spicy dill pickles and sometimes I'll even add some of the pickle juice in as well. The capers were a nice touch in this dish. The original recipe suggested cooking the carrots for a full 5 minutes, but I found that left them too soft. I love my potato salad to have some crunch. Next time I might not cook the carrots at all. The original recipe also suggested peeling the potatoes, but I prefer to leave the skins on. You can add or remove just about any ingredient from the potato salad (except the potatoes and mayonnaise) and still have a tasty salad.

Branching out... but still a little piggy

2008-07-18T06:05:16Z

One of our favorite vendors at the market is Sea Breeze Farms. Patricia has talked about them before, but I haven't.

We've gotten a little bit of everything from them. Some lamb, porchetta, milk and cream, ricotta, kielbasa, pepperoni, wine.... Haven't tried their beef yet. Or their wool. Yes, they sell wool. Really damn soft wool.

Once upon a time, we got some chorizo. We had just found a taco truck... well, ok. I found a taco truck while Patricia was out of town and she's hated me ever since for having gone there once without her, even tho she's been there once without me since. Not to mention her trip to Lunchbox Laboratory without me. Annnnyways.

The week after those first, delicious, greasy, fantastic chorizo tacos, at the Farmer's Market, we happened to see chorizo at .. I'm sure you figured out where by now.

It was, like everything else from them, fantastic.

But then it never showed up again.

Fast forward to two weeks ago, we were picking up some pepperoni for pizza, and ask offhandedly 'Are y'all ever gonna make the chorizo again?' I had had a hankering, so we had to find out.

"Huh. Yeah, that chorizo was pretty good, wasn't it. We should do that again."

The week after, not really surprisingly, there's chorizo on the chalkboard. Hot damn. Links or bulk?

Uhh. Bulk. How about a pound. We can put some into the fritatatatatatas. We can... well, we can figure out what else to make with the rest.

So, now we're staring at a little over half a pound of chorizo. What do we do.

What. do. we. do.

Well, we cook it. Thanks, wise ass.

We had some squash from our CSA basket still. Patricia remembered an old recipe we made last winter.

Except, we have no tomatoes, and it's too late to head back out to get some. Time for some creative work.

Ingredients

Chorizo
Patty Pan Squash
Onion
Garlic
Pasta
White Wine
Olive Oil
Butter

Chop the patty pan, discarding the stems.
Chop the garlic and onion, saute in olive oil over medium heat.
Before they caramelize, once the garlic smells toasty, add the chorizo.
Once the chorizo has browned, add the patty pan and cook covered for a good 35 minutes.
Start some pasta cooking. I think a good linguine or angel hair would be best suited for this dish.
Once pasta has finished, strain pasta and dump back in the pan you cooked it in.
Dump the chorizo, onion, garlic and squash mix into the pasta.
Deglaze the pan with some butter and white wine.
Pour over pasta and mix it all up and serve.

Over all, this was good. I wish I could say it was quick (it wasn't). I wish I could say it was simple (it isn't.. I mean, who has bulk chorizo on hand). I wish I could say it was awesome (it wasn't).

But, for a spur of the moment recipe, it wasn't bad.

I've said, I think, that I want to start making our own recipes more. Branch out into actual recipe creation.

And this is a good start. Look for us to flex our creative muscles more in the future. But don't worry, we'll still be sharing recipes we find on all the blogs we read too.

We're back!

2008-07-14T05:49:42Z

Well, I think I've gotten most of the bugs out of the new software. The site will be undergoing some tweaks over the next few days as I configure the search box and possibly tweak the Google ads and add some other links on the side columns. If you have any feedback about the new look and feel, or find any bugs, please let me know by leaving a comment.

Our plan is to post here at least twice a week with new recipes and even potentially some cookbook reviews and author interviews. So please stay tuned.

A wonderful, magical animal....

2008-07-12T06:56:49Z

Homer: Are you saying you're never going to eat any animal again? What about bacon?
Lisa: No.
Homer: Ham?
Lisa: No.
Homer: Pork chops?
Lisa: Dad, those all come from the same animal.
Homer: Heh heh heh. Ooh, yeah, right, Lisa. A wonderful, magical animal.

So... I love a good pork tenderloin. I love a good pork kebab. I love a good thinly sliced pork. I love pork chops. I love bacon. I love sausage.

But I hate ham.

I do like a honey baked ham, or, at least, the sweet, crunchy exterior of it. The interior, not as much.

But, I had something... a feeling... a wanting... Chicken Cordon Bleu. Chicken? Great. Cheese? Awesome! Crispy outsides? Love it.

Ham? ...

So, why not find a way to make it better? And by better, I mean less ham, but still chicken-y, cheesey goodnees. The wife-unit doesn't like swiss, the traditional filling of a Chicken Cordon Bleu, so we need to swap that out.

I don't like ham, so we need to swap that out.

And it's hot out, so we are going to cook on the grill, where breading doesn't necessarily work quite well, so we need to swap that out too.

Let's start with cheese.

Gouda. Gouda is good. We like gouda. Oh, look, there in the petite fromage bin. That's a lovely bit of gouda.

Hmm. No lomo. No Iberian or Serrano jamon. There's some nice prosciutto. How about six slices of that.

And, over to the butcher section, a nice package of a couple boneless, skinless breasts.

Quick, to the SMART CAR! To Home! To the GRILL!

You might be wondering, by this point, where in the blue blazes the recipe is.

Well, honestly, there isn't one. I made it up as I went along. So, here's the 'recipe':

Slice the cheese nice and thin.
Then, plop the chicken down on the cutting board, put a hand down on top of the breast and using a big ol' chef's knife, slice the breast in half almost all the way through, basically, imagine that you want to fold it open like a book.
And then, no surprise really, fold it open like a book.
Lay the thinly sliced cheese down on each side, then, atop the cheese, lay the prosciutto.
Fold shut, stick some toothpicks in so it stays shut and grill until cooked.
Then... eat.

You can swap out the cheese for some other cheese product.

You can swap out the prosciutto for some other pork product (Bacon? Soprasetta? Pancetta?)

And that's it. Seriously.

Now, what's really funny is that, after grilling, it looked like an awesome low carb version of a Monte Cristo sandwich. No, really. Even tho the pictures don't show it, the chicken just looked like toasted bread.

Personally, I wanted more porky taste. Patricia thought it was perfect. Next time, I'd try cheddar. And bacon. Or... well, really, the pig is our oyster.

When I Don't "Cook Local"

2008-07-02T04:18:45Z

I will talk to just about anyone about the benefits of cooking and eating local. However, there are a handful of non-local ingredients in my kitchen and there probably will be for quite some time. So what foods or ingredients are important enough for me to go far and wide for them? Well, it wouldn't be a blog if I didn't tell you, now would it?

So here are my primary non-local ingredients in no particular order.

Sugar: If you bake at all (outside of breads), sugar is nearly an essential ingredient. Our climate in the Pacific Northwest just won't support sugar cane. I'm not sure where the nearest sugar is, but it certainly isn't in this state. Check back for more information on where the closest sugar really is. I buy organic sugar from Costco as it's about 1/3 of the price of the organic sugar you find in the average supermarket.
White Flour: We use Emmer flour for the vast majority of our flour needs. However, the Emmer flour does have a very different consistency and taste. It works in some things, but doesn't work in others. We don't use it for biscotti, for example, because we make the biscotti to help raise John's blood sugar after a workout. Using a high protein flour wouldn't help that very much. So we still buy white flour on a regular basis.
Soy Milk: I have a very minor dairy allergy and so we use soy milk in our coffee.
Cornmeal: Our favorite biscotti recipe uses cornmeal. Even though there are a lot of local farmers who grow corn, we haven't found any that produce cornmeal. tonight we experimented with using cracked Emmer in place of some of the cornmeal in the biscotti recipe, and we'll report on that in the next few days.
Lemons and Oranges: Citrus does not grow here, though logically, I'm not sure why. After all, my dad grows fantastic lemons in California and our winters are only slightly colder than where he lives. We use lemons and oranges for recipes that call for zest, as well as some of our marinades and salad dressings.
Olive Oil: There is a fantastic vendor at our local markets that sells Hazelnut oil. While this works for a number of recipes, it has a very distinctive flavor and is quite expensive. I'll use it in small quantities (like for our Garlicky Kale recipe), but for salad dressings and marinades that require a significant amount of oil, we still use olive oil. Our olive oil comes from California.
Balsamic Vinegar: We can find some local vinegars in the Pacific Northwest, but they are mostly cider vinegars. If we want balsamic, we have to go as far as California or even Italy. I have yet to find something to replace balsamic vinegar, so for now, we'll buy it when we need it.
Ginger: Ginger is another one of those items that really should be able to be grown in eastern Washington. But until I find a farm that has it, we'll buy it for marinades, desserts, and the occasional main dish.
Coffee: Non-negotiable. Enough said.

Those are the primary ingredients we buy from far and wide. There are others, of course. I'll buy a mango once or twice a year, either to eat raw or to cook with. Occasionally I'll have a real hankering for carrots out of season and I'll give up and buy them even though they are from California or even Mexico. I'll also buy wine from a variety of locations, even though I do tend to prefer Washington wines these days.

So if you've been thinking of cooking local, but it feels overwhelming, just realize that you don't have to go 100% local to make a positive impact.

See, we aren't always perfect

2008-06-28T06:48:48Z

I have the worst luck. Sort of.

I've made a souffle once. It came out awesome. I mean, it was unbelievable. Especially for someone who hates working with eggs and who never made a souffle before.

I was thrilled beyond belief.

I mean, go look at those souffles. Really, go look. I'll wait here.

Back?

So, the second time, they were still good. Maybe not quite as good as the first, but still good.

It was time to try something different. And this is where my worst luck comes into play. The first time I do something I've never done before? Comes out great. But I'm never able to quite reproduce that first time masterpiece. Happened with Amazing Chicken too.

I think you can see where I'm going with this.

I thought it was time to make a sweet souffle, as opposed to a savory. Especially when I saw the yogurt cheesecake souffles on Baking Bites.

Greek yogurt? Vanilla flavor? Awesome.

Let's go to the recipe, then we'll talk.

Ingredients

1 cup greek style yogurt
3 large egg yolks
3 large egg white (room temp)
3 T all-purpose flour
1/8 t salt
1 t vanilla extract
1/8 t cream of tartar
1/4 c sugar
butter
6 ramekins and a baking sheet

Well, local wise, not so great. Salt, vanilla extract and sugar aren't exactly local here in the Pacific NW. And until I read this, I had no idea where cream of tartar came from and I still don't know where I could buy local versions of it. You'd think up here in wine country, wineries would just package it. I mean, wineries have devoted followings generally, wouldn't people be more willing to shell out extra money for Stag's Leap Cream of Tartar? Annnnnyways.

Preheat the oven to 375F
Butter the ramekins relatively liberally. Put a couple dashes of sugar into each ramekin and give them a shake to spread the sugar around the interior. Throw the ramekins on a cookie sheet.
Whisk the yogurt, egg yolks, flour, salt and vanilla extract together in a bowl.
In a different bowl, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar until it's foamy and then slowly pour in the sugar and beat to the soft peak stage.
Gently fold in a third of the mixture from step 2. Once the egg whites are fully incorporated, fold in another third (which would also be considered half of the remaining). And then, fold in the rest of the egg white mixture.
Divide the mixture amongst the ramekins, about a half cup into each.
Bake until risen and lightly browned on the edges, about 15 minutes.

That picture up there?

That's the end product, coming out of the oven.

Were they tasty? Hell yes.

Did they rise? Hell no.

My theory is that I screwed up by trying to third the recipe. I mean, it's just two of us, and souffles aren't exactly a leftover ready dish. I had planned on making this for our parents this past weekend, unfortunately, things just didn't work out (ok, apparently our parents have stopped feasting on actual food and now subsist merely on the suggestion of food). Someday, we'll have a dinner party with two other couples (or, at the very least, four other people) and I'll try this again.

After all, I can't fail every time, right?

Asparagus and Gruyere Tart

2008-06-13T02:18:57Z

I've already introduced you to one of my favorite asparagus recipes. In fact, I have a really hard time cooking asparagus any other way. I just don't think these tender stalks need much accompaniment. Though when I saw this recipe, I knew I had to try it. After all, what better accompaniment to just about anything than cheese!

Gruyere cheese is a smooth, rather strongly flavored cheese, reminiscent of Swiss. Though strangely, I don't much care for Swiss cheese (gasp!), yet I'm very fond of Gruyere. This tart was very easy to make, yet not the easiest thing in the world to eat. Still, I'll make it again.

Asparagus and Gruyere Tart from Everyday Food: Great Food Fast
Serves 4

1 sheet puff pastry
6 ounces Gruyere cheese, shredded
1-1 1/2 pounds fresh asparagus (From Homestead Organic Produce)
Olive oil
Salt and Pepper

Preheat the oven to 400.
Lightly flour the counter or work surface and roll out the pastry until it measures 16x10 inches.
Score the pastry dough about an inch from all edges.
Use a knife or fork to pierce the the dough inside the score marks at regular intervals. This will prevent the pastry dough from bubbling in the oven.
Bake the dough for 15 minutes.
Remove the baked dough and sprinkle with the cheese (don't be shy, use as much as you want!)
Trim (or break) the asparagus and lay the spears over the cheesey dough in a single layer.
Brush with olive oil and season with some salt and pepper.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the asparagus is tender.

Patricia's Notes: I wasn't happy with how the puff pastry behaved. When I cut the tart to serve it, it was difficult to cut through all of the layers and the pastry was a bit dry. I'll look for a light dough recipe and make my own next time. The creamy cheese blended with the asparagus quite well. I sprinkled some leftover Gruyere on top of the tart before I baked it and that was a nice addition. While I will likely continue to simply roast my asparagus with a little Parmesan cheese, this was a beautiful presentation and would work great for a party.