Edible Portland Blog

My friend Joy brought over a chanterelle dish last night that was AMAZING. It had white coco beans (from Ayers Creek Farm), sun gold tomatoes, shallots, basil and chanterelles. She says she got the recipe from the cookbook Chez Panisse Vegetables. She left out the green beans…. Did I mention it was AMAZING? My husband and I literally stole the leftovers from the container she intended to take home with her. I wonder if Joy is hungry right now…. We really did steal her lunch.

Anyway, the Chez Panisse cookbook apparently has some good chanterelle recipes but so does the most recent issue of Edible Portland. Now all we’ve got to do is get Ellen Jackson to tell us where her secret chanterelle gathering spot is!

–Deborah Kane

CHANTERELLES: IN SEARCH OF THE ELUSIVE MUSHROOM
Written by Ellen Jackson
For Fall 2007

The headline on June 22, 1999 read “Fungi Move Faster than Fiscal Issues in Capitol.” The breaking news? A bill passed by the State Legislature naming the Pacific Golden chanterelle, unique to Oregon’s wild mushroom harvest, the state fungus. Things weren’t slow in the Rose City that day; Oregonians just take their mushrooms seriously.

Chanterelles grow exuberantly in the Northwest, and the golden (or yellow) variety is easy to find and identify—if you can persuade someone in the know to tell you where exactly to look. Wild mushroom hunting is a secretive sport, and its enthusiasts would sooner disclose their Social Security numbers or computer passwords than share the precise location of hard-won troves.

Impervious to cultivation, chanterelles do not survive or reproduce outside of the forest. They are a delicacy brought on by autumn’s cooling rains and ushered out by the first deep frost, fruiting between September and November in the Northwest.

For chefs and foragers, they define the fall season, much like asparagus heralds spring.

It's cheese lover's heaven at the Portland Farmers Market on Saturday, October 6th. Imagine tables piled high with goat, sheep and cow's milk cheese from the Northwest's best artisan cheesemakers.

Some cheesemakers we love who will be there:
Juniper Grove Farm (Redmond, OR)
Mt. Townsend Creamery (Port Townsend, WA)
Willamette Valley Cheese Co. (Salem, OR)
Jumpin' Good Goat Dairy (Ocean Park, WA)
Fraga Farm (Sweet Home, OR)
Rivers Edge Chevre (Logsden, OR)
Redwood Hill Farm (Sebastopol, CA)
Silver Falls Creamery (Monmouth, OR)

Also, Vindalho Chef de cuisine David Anderson and his identical twin brother Raymond Anderson (Nuestra Cocina’s sous chef) will work wonders with their favorite cheeses at the Chef's Stage at 10am and 11am, followed by Scott Dolich of Park Kitchen.

Photo by Christine Hyatt

One of the reasons I like the edible expert column is that, well, you get to hear from the experts. You get to learn new things.

Take for example soup.

I just assumed that when making a vegetable-based soup (like the carrot ginger one in this season’s issue and pictured above) you’d need a chicken stock or veggie stock as the base. Nope! Here’s one more reason to use local, seasonal ingredients in your soups: when the featured veggies are as delicious and flavorful as what you can find in our region, all you need to do is add water!

Read fall's edible expert column, When Less is More: Simple Soups, written by Monique Siu and Kevin Gibson of Castagna.

This weekend, I highly recommend stirring up a big pot of Castagna's Carrot-Ginger Soup. (Have you checked the forecast?)

-Deborah Kane

CRANBERRY CHUTNEY

From The Thanksgiving Table (Chronicle Books, 2006) by Diane Morgan

After making my first batch of cranberry chutney years ago, and the many variations since, I have been hard-pressed to go back to the more traditional cranberry sauce or relish. Though I love cranberries in any form, this chutney with diced pears and apples is jewel-like when served in a glass or cut-crystal bowl. It’s a perfect do-ahead recipe, easily transported if Thanksgiving is at someone else’s home, and it makes a great gift packed in pint-size glass jars.

4 cups fresh or frozen cranberries, picked over, and stemmed
2 1/2 cups sugar
6 whole cloves
2 cinnamon sticks, each about 3 inches long
1 tsp salt
2 Granny Smith apples (about 6 oz each), peeled, cored, and cut into 1/2-inch dice
2 firm Bosc or Anjou pears (about 6 oz each), peeled, cored, and cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 small yellow onion (about 5 oz), diced
1 cup golden raisins
1/3 cup diced crystallized ginger (see Cook’s Notes)
1/2 cup whole hazelnuts, roasted, skins removed, and halved (see Cook’s Notes)

In a deep 6-quart saucepan, combine the cranberries, sugar, 1 1/4 cups water, cloves, cinnamon, and salt. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring frequently to dissolve the sugar. Cook until the cranberries begin to pop open, about 10 to 12 minutes. Adjust the heat so the mixture simmers. Stir in the apples, pears, onion, raisins, and ginger. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until thick, 10 to 15 minutes longer. Remove from the heat, stir in the hazelnuts, and allow the mixture to cool to room temperature. Discard the cinnamon sticks and cloves if you can find them. Refrigerate in tightly sealed jars for up to 3 months.

Makes about 2 quarts

Cook’s Notes
Crystallized ginger slices are typically packaged in 4-ounce boxes and are available in the Asian foods section of well-stocked supermarkets.

Try to buy shelled hazelnuts (also known as “filberts”) with the skins removed. To roast, place the nuts on a rimmed baking sheet in a preheated 375-degree oven. Roast for about 15 minutes, until lightly browned. If they have skins, when they cool enough to handle, lay them on a clean kitchen towel, or between several sheets of paper towels. Rub the nuts to remove most of the skins (they never completely come off). You can substitute unsalted cashews, if necessary. Roast like hazelnuts, until lightly browned, about 12 to 15 minutes.

I’ve talked to some friends who think the story on “finding” food in Portland (below) raises some serious ethical issues. What’s your take? Have you never grabbed a ripe fig from a stranger’s yard as you walked down the sidewalk? Would you mind if someone ‘borrowed’ some of your figs?
-Deborah Kane

On the other hand, there is plenty of food to be found that grows on empty lots. For example, everyone in the neighborhood (as well as half the birds in Portland) has harvested delicious figs from the trees at NE Alberta & 20th. Although an empty lot, it's still private property - I think.

My husband was at the Multnomah County building, marriage license in hand, when the person in front of him asked the clerk about the ownership of that exact lot. In return, the man received a printout and walked away. My fiance was supposedly "too focused on our approaching marriage" to ask the man what the heck he found out. In any case, what are the ethical implications of taking food from this empty lot? I can't ask the owner for permission, which is the practice encouraged by urbanedibles.org. All I know is that I'm headed there with a ladder this weekend.
-Laura Ford

FINDERS KEEPERS: REAPING THE HARVEST OF PORTLAND'S "FOUND FOOD" MOVEMENT
Written by Lisa Weiner
For Fall 2007

You just finished a lovely meal and a piece of fruit would make for the perfect ending. Alas, your fruit bowl is empty. More and more Portlanders are solving this problem by reaching over the neighbor’s fence.

Indeed, a new trend growing here in Portland makes picking food right from the tree (or bush, or vine) much more commonplace and closer to home than a once-yearly u-pick outing. The trend is called “found food,” and it encourages us to open our eyes—and minds—to the simple, obvious fact that food is growing all around us, ripe for the picking.

Michael Bunsen’s web site, urbanedibles.org, a self-described “community database of wild food sources in Portland,” is at the center of Portland’s found food movement. The central feature of Bunsen’s site is an interactive map of Portland with flags showing where one can find figs, rosemary, apples, pears, plums and eucalyptus, to name just a few of the 100 food sources listed. Bunsen, a recent PSU graduate with degrees in German and Linguistics, began finding food in earnest five years ago when he was part of the Anarchist Gardening and Gleaning Collective.

I was pretty excited to get my copy of Portland Public Schools’ new 2007-2008 lunch menu. I knew that PPS was going to be featuring their Harvest of the Month program in the menu, and I wanted to see how the parents reacted at my school to news of the fact that PPS was working hard to bring more local, seasonal fruits and vegetables into the cafeteria. But the only thing one mom I talked to noticed were the chocolate goldfish on the menu. Sigh. We – parents and the folks at PPS Nutrition Services – are straddling two worlds right now: the one we want and think we can get, and the one we currently have.

I wrote this article – "Back to School" – as a plea for patience. Change really is happening, even though the chocolate goldfish make it easy to suspect otherwise.
-Deborah Kane

BACK TO SCHOOL: VOTING WITH YOUR LUNCH MONEY
Written by Deborah Kane
Photos by Bryan Wolf
For Fall 2007

Buying my daughter’s new lunchbox reminded me of a conversation we’d had at the end of last school year. She was annoyed with me because I had never taught her how to go through the school lunch line. In my defense, I had no idea I was supposed to!

But in retrospect, and away from the accusatory stares of a six-year-old, it makes perfect sense. First of all, Zoe can’t see over the lunch counter. Even if she could, she’d surely be met with the occasional unfamiliar item. Trying new foods without tremendous coaxing and encouragement has never been her strong suit. Then let’s just suppose that one day she even made it to the end of the line. Her reward? She’d have to actually interact with an adult to complete the transaction. Horror.

As for my complicity in all of this, I assumed sending her off to school with a homemade sack lunch was the right, loving thing to do. I’m still sure it was. But this school year, I’m going to teach Zoe how to go through the lunch line. Because right after Zoe asked me to, Kristy Obbink did, too.

In our summer issue, Curt Ellis wrote about his experience growing one acre of (genetically-modified, pesticide-laden, subsidized) corn in Iowa (All Ears: An Oregonian harvests wisdom in Iowa). Curt reminisced that by the Fourth of July, "the field of yellow dent was up to our chins. Tassels were forming on the tops of the plants, and one perfect ear was sprouting on each stalk, set as if by ruler at the consistent height only a combine could appreciate."

He and his friends made a documentary about that experience, and King Corn is officially out in theaters. It will be opening in Portland at the Hollywood Theatre on November 9th. (Don't worry, we'll remind you.)

Curt will also be blogging about what he learned on EdibleNation.com, the official blog of Edible Communities. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, read what the New York Times recently wrote in their Dining & Wine section: A Movie That Scrutinizes Your Popcorn and Soda.

Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis in Greene, Iowa. Photo by Sam Cullman.

GRATIN OF FENNEL AND TOMATO

From The Thanksgiving Table by Diane Morgan
Copyright 2007

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard guests say, “Fennel? I’ve never tasted fennel. This is delicious.” Whether sautéed, braised, or sliced raw for salads, fennel is always a surprise and a delight to serve. Sometimes labeled sweet anise, fennel has a texture similar to celery and a lovely, mild licorice flavor, which is a perfect foil for a rich meal. This gratin dish has been a part of my Thanksgiving buffet for at least 15 years—it’s now a tradition for us, and my family would be disappointed to do without it.

3/4 cup dried bread crumbs
5 Tbsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 large yellow onion (about 12 oz), halved, and cut into 1/4-inch slices
6 fennel bulbs, trimmed of stalks, halved, cored, and cut into 1/4-inch slices
1 can (28 oz) diced tomatoes, drained
1 tsp kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper
3/4 cup (3 oz) grated Parmesan cheese, preferably Parmigiano-Reggiano
Minced zest of 1 lemon

In an 8-inch skillet over medium-high heat, toast the bread crumbs, stirring constantly, until golden brown, about 2 minutes. Set aside to cool.

In a 12-inch sauté pan, heat the oil over medium heat, and swirl to coat the pan. Sauté the garlic and onion until soft, but not brown, about 3 minutes. Add the fennel and continue sautéing, stirring frequently, until the fennel has softened and is beginning to brown, about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, salt, and pepper to taste. Lower the heat to medium-low and cook, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes longer. Transfer to a shallow oven-to-table casserole or gratin dish.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. In a medium bowl, combine the bread crumbs, Parmesan, and lemon zest. Sprinkle evenly over the fennel mixture. (The gratin can be made up to this point 6 to 8 hours ahead. Cover, and set aside at room temperature.)

Bake the gratin until heated through and the topping is crisp, about 20 minutes. Serve immediately.

Serves 10

Ask children where food comes from, and they’ll probably answer: “the supermarket.” Ask most adults, and their replies may not be much different. Where our foods are raised and what happens to them between farm and supermarket shelf have become mysteries. How did we become so disconnected from the sources of our breads, beef, cheeses, cereal, apples, and countless other foods that nourish us every day?

Ann Vileisis will present an inspiring slide show at Ecotrust on November 5th, telling the story of just how the urban/suburban consumer got into the habit of not paying attention to our food. All this and much more is explored in depth in her new book, Kitchen Literacy: How We Lost Knowledge of Where Food Comes from and Why We Need to Get It Back. Ann will also be signing copies of her book.

Why should we be interested in knowing our foods once again? And how do we find ways to gain that knowledge? Find out on November 5th.

Kitchen Literacy by Ann Vileisis
Monday, November 5th, 2007
5:30-6:30 pm

Ecotrust Conference Center
721 NW Ninth Ave, 2nd Floor
Portland, OR 97209

No reservations needed. This is a free event.
Contact: Laura Ford, lford@ecotrust.org, 503-467-0806

The taco truck on SE Division, the one across from Lauro Kitchen, was recently profiled in Gourmet magazine. I crave their burritos on a near daily basis. But as good as Taqueria Lindo Michoacan’s food is, I think the editors of Gourmet missed out on some serious good food in Woodburn. Check out this issue’s feature on Carne Culture…. -Deborah Kane

CARNE CULTURE: CULINARY ADVENTURES IN WOODBURN
Written by Kelly Myers
Photos by Rachael Torchia
For Fall 2007

Smoke rises from a taqueria’s wide grill and scents the air with charred meat. The taqueria is new, and it’s one of at least six places selling tacos within a five block radius. Not far away there is a line at La Morenita for tortillas, one dollar for three dozen. Families leave La Morenita with an improbable number of warm corn tortillas, sometimes needing boxes to carry them all.

In some ways, downtown Woodburn, Oregon looks like it belongs in the 1940s. Red brick buildings, polished glass storefronts, and awnings with scalloped edges evoke nostalgia for a time when Saturdays meant you went downtown to shop. Despite the Mayberry feel of its historic center, Woodburn’s demographics make it very much of the times. According to the 2000 census, Hispanics in Woodburn now outnumber Anglos, mirroring a cultural and economic shift that is changing communities across the United States.

In the center of town, a new plaza features cast iron benches, a gazebo, and wind-ruffled palm trees, much like the parks in Mexico. Indeed, an influx of immigrants from Mexico and Central America to the mid-Willamette Valley has completely revived downtown Woodburn, which was left a dead zone in the 1970s and 1980s when commercial development rose up in the city’s outlying areas. Today, it is once again a center of commerce, thanks to a unique concentration of Hispanic-owned bakeries, restaurants, tiendas (stores), carnicerías (meat markets), and taquerias, drawing shoppers from all over the region.

Photo by Rachael Torchia

Read Kelly Myers' article about Woodburn, Oregon's cultural and economic shift here. Below are a few of her favorite downtown businesses...

CARNICERIA FIN DE SEMANA
Contrary to its name, which literally means “end of the week meat market,” Fin de Semana is open all week long. There are many cuts for carne asada, or grilling. It’s hard to miss the razor-thin cross-section of beef chuck that’s the size of a throw pillow. Pig’s feet are cut crosswise in three places, but not all the way through, so cooks can snap off a piece at a time. The butchers are solicitous.
Details: 533 N. Front Street, Woodburn, OR 97071 | www.karniceria.com

MEXICO LINDO
As the first Hispanic business in Woodburn, Mexico Lindo has been open for more than 30 years. Even so, its tacos retain the kind of casual perfection found more typically at taco carts—the tortillas are tender, the meat is savory, and a line of chopped onion, lime and cilantro runs down the middle. Menudo is served on weekends.
Details: 430 N. First Street, Woodburn, OR 97071 | 503-982-1832

SALVADOR'S BAKERY
Shop here for everything from Mexican cheeses and house-made jerky to minutes-old chicharrónes and churros. Soft drinks in glass bottles are imported from Mexico, where they are made with cane sugar, not corn syrup. The selection of salsas may lure you to return as much as its carnitas and huaraches.
Details: 405 N. First Street, Woodburn, OR 97071 | 503-982-4513

Have you seen the clip for the film-in-progress "Ingredients"? It's just over half-way through production - eventually it will be aired on OPB. The documentary, filmed in Portland and featuring local food leaders, explores the local, seasonal food movement and why it continues to rise (with Portland at its head).

Illustrating the crucial relationship between chef and grower, featured local food leaders include: chefs Greg Higgins and Pascal Sauton, winemaker Josh Bergstrom, and farmer Laura Masterson.

Photo by spinnerin

How does one even attempt to keep track of all the food carts that make up the Portland lunchtime, late-night, economy-food scene? Thankfully, there is a new blog devoted to keeping up with those highly mobile restaurants-on-wheels:

www.foodcartsportland.com

There are many carts yet to be reviewed, but it's a start.

Visiting local food carts is a great way to support a local business trying to get its foot in the door of the restaurant biz. Some carts have grown into full-blown favorite restaurants.

Donald Kotler showing off the "All Day Burger", served on toast.

Edible Portland recently visited Toast, a new restaurant in the Woodstock neighborhood. Owner Donald Kotler opened Toast with the goal of serving great food sourced locally at reasonable rates to his neighbors. See below a partial list of Oregon and Washington farms and business that make regular deliveries to the small restaurant.

The staff at Toast is quite busy. They not only bake everything from scratch, they preserve jams and sauces, braise, pickle, cure, make pasta, and cut the whole darn pig.

There's no need for vegetarians and vegans to feel out of place at Toast. The menu will eventually expand to include more veggie items, and in the meantime, the cooks are itching to create a special meal just for you if the current choices don't strike your fancy.

Details:
Toast, 5222 SE 52nd Ave, Portland
Open for breakfast and lunch 8am - 2pm, Wednesday through Sunday
Open for dinner 5:30 - 9:30pm, Wednesday through Saturday

Local farms and businesses make daily deliveries to Toast. Here are just a few:
Greens and vegetables: Sauvie Island Organics and Your Backyard Farmer (Portland)
Pork: Sweet Briar Farms (Eugene)
Beef: Oregon Country Natural Beef
Eggs: Stiebrs Farms (Yelm, WA)
Flour, grains and honey: GloryBee Foods (Eugene)
Coffee: Courier Coffee Roasters (Portland, delivered by bike)

Items from the menu:
Bad Ass Sandwich: fried eggs, cured pork, and shaved Gouda on toast, with potato rosti ($7.50)
Good Monk: organic tofu, toasted farro, and veggies in a roasted onion broth ($7.50)
Population 17: seared chicken breast, two eggs over easy and a potato rosti drizzled with herb oil ($8.50)
All Day Burger: 6 oz beef patty, sautéed onion, soft Italian cheese, and a sunny side up egg served on toast ($9.50)
Roasted Pork Shoulder: pork shoulder, creamy polenta, braised greens ($13.50)
Fresh Pasta: braised chicken and tomato ragu with shaved gouda ($12.00)

Reminder! Ann Vileisis, author of Kitchen Literacy, will be speaking at the Ecotrust Conference Center at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 5. This event is free.

I'm very excited to see what Ann has in store for us. Her presentation includes a slide show of historic images showing the profound changes in how Americans have cooked and thought about food over time. She promises to make people think differently about what we know about what we eat.

Ecotrust, 721 NW 9th Ave, 2nd Floor, Portland

Questions? Call: 503-467-0806. Or email.