izakaya meiji flight and a bite

Feeling flighty?  Try the Flight and a Bite Tuesday tastings at Izakaya Meiji.  Bartender and Flight Captain Elliot Martinez hosted a Islay single malt scotch whisky flight earlier this week.  Nice pairing with a piece of singed house-smoked salmon hakozushi (that Osaka-style boxed sushi I like so much) and salmon roe, too.  This was a challenge, given the band-aid/cherry/tobacco chaw/burned newspapers/smouldering haystack/seawater/earth flavors we love in Islays. The event ran $20 for a flight of three whiskies and the salmon.

Inquire about the next Tuesday flight at either Izakaya Meiji or Booze Week International, Elliot’s zine, on Facebook.  I understand he will be continuing with the whisky theme.

 

truffles for the people: new story in register-guard

My latest article, originally titled “Truffles for the People” with a subheader “Truffles, featured at a local festival, are more affordable than expected,” is out in the Eugene Register-Guard today. You can check it out online here.

We’ll be continuing our conversation about Western Oregon truffles on this Sunday’s Food for Thought on KLCC, with special guest local truffle hunter, oil maker, writer, and photographer Tobiah Orin Moshier.

I wish the title of my article hadn’t been changed to “Truffle Trivia,” honestly.  I don’t think of truffles as trivia.  I think of them as a commodity whose prices are driven up by the reputation as a luxury good, a trend we are not bound to follow in the Willamette Valley because of our supply of wildcrafted truffles.  And I see them as an opportunity to demystify luxury in the name of the people.  It has been a difficult year for truffles in Europe and in our own forests, so expect prices to be higher than in years past.  But truffles are not a brand, and not anything magic, just a fungus.  A delicious fungus, but one that resides among us.

So don’t believe the hype.

Want more humble ways to enjoy truffles?  Well, there’s the truffle fries at Eugene’s latest burger joint, a Portland chain called Little Big Burger.  It’s located next to Market of Choice on Orchard at Franklin Blvd.  The fries blow away Five Guys and Dickie Joe’s, in my opinion, but there isn’t much truffle essence detectable in the oil they use.  But it’s a good concept, I suppose, and the price can’t be beat.

Because of the inevitable edits that take place in print journalism, we weren’t able to include all the recipes I collected for the article.  There was also the omission of all the “truffles by the people” ideas and the description of the amateur cooks who are finalists for a contest at the festival. I regret that these edits imbalance the article in favor of chefs and not regular home cooks, so here’s what was left out, with some slight emendations:

The One Big Truffle contest finalists, all veteran recipe-writers, each offered their own ideas.  Merry Graham of Newhall, California, contributed a simple, elegant potato-truffle soup, and Pam Norby, of Emery, Wisconsin, provided a one-dish truffle-brie pizza topped with vegetables and chicken.  Erika Kerekes, whose annual Trufflepaloozas are recorded on her blog, In Erika’s Kitchen, in Santa Monica, California, offered a homemade butter recipe, perfect for DIYers.

Kerekes educated me on how to get “the most truffle bang” for your buck, stating that you need to pair truffles with background foods:  “eggs, mild cheese, corn, pasta, rice, butter, cream — these are the classics.  I also like Oregon truffles paired with mushrooms, steak and fish.”

My own readers suggested shaving truffles over everything from scrambled eggs (presented in photo) and naked fettucini to a “perfectly velvety parsnip purée” to a truffled eggs Benedict.  Some folks prefered the headier whites for eggs and pasta.

Rocky Maselli was kind enough to provide another recipe, a truffled crab risotto, and I’ve posted Erika Kerekes’ truffle butter recipe and Pam Norby’s truffle vegetable pizza recipe below.  I would imagine that the brie-truffle sauce would work on a pizza with just the pancetta or morels, if you don’t have all the ingredients.  For more of Erika’s truffle recipes, head over to her recipe index on In Erika’s Kitchen.

And last but not least, we couldn’t squeeze in Harold McGee and truffle funk:

Such an intriguing flavor profile doesn’t quite explain the mania people feel about truffles.  Could it be the steroids, then?  Noted food authority Harold McGee explained that truffles “contain small amounts of Androstenone, a steroid compound also found in men’s underarm sweat and secreted in the saliva of the male pig.”  This compound, to put it gently, makes the sow interested in love, and it is thought that a similar reaction happens in humans.

So why not try them out?  We need a little more cheap love in the world.

Was it my endless blathering, or just the randiness of the sentiment?  You decide.  And enjoy those truffles.

Rocky Maselli’s Dungeness Crab Risotto with Oregon White Truffle

For Crab Stock:

• 2 whole live crabs
• 2 stalks celery
• 1 sweet onion
• 1 carrot peeled
• 1 cup chopped canned tomato
• 2 quarts water
• Chili flakes to taste
• Salt to taste
• 4 ounces butter
• 1 medium-sized shallot
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 cup white wine

For Risotto:

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• ½ onion peeled & minced
• 1 cup Arborio rice
• ½ cup white wine
• 4-5 cups crab & prawn stock
• ½ cup grated parmesan
• Salt & pepper to taste

For Garnish:

• Dungeness crab meat
• Oregon white truffles, shaved

For the stock: cook the crab in salted water. Clean the crab. Set the meat aside for garnishing the risotto. Coarsely chop the crab shells. In a heavy bottomed stockpot, melt the butter and sauté the shells until they start to caramelize slightly. Add vegetables, wine and water. Skim and cook for 20 minutes, season with salt and chili flakes.

This is the flavor foundation of the risotto so it needs to have good flavor, taste to be sure it is nice and strong. Strain and return the stock back to the stockpot and simmer on very low heat.

For the risotto: melt butter in a non-reactive heavy bottom pot. Add onions and cook until translucent.  Add rice and stir coating the grains with the butter over medium low heat for 4-5 minutes. Add the wine and the hot stock half a cup at a time, stirring constantly. Wait for any liquid to be completely absorbed before adding more liquid. Continue to cook, adding liquid until rice is tender. Add butter and crab meat. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper as needed. Spoon risotto onto a plate and top with plenty of shaved Oregon white truffle.  Serves 4.

Erika Kerekes’ Homemade Truffle Butter

• 1 pint heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon white or black truffle oil
• 1/4 teaspoon truffle salt, or to taste
• 1 fresh black summer truffle (you won’t need the whole thing)

Line a colander with a few coffee filters; rip them open and lay them in so that the colander has one layer of filter throughout, more or less. Place the colander in the sink.

Pour the cream into the bowl of a food processor. Turn on the processor. When you hear the noise change and things sound a bit sloshy, go back and look. You’ll know when it’s done – the butter solids will have separated from the buttermilk and will be clumped together. Stop the processor. You’ll probably see one big clump of butter, and then some smaller clumps drifting in the liquid.

Lift out the butter solids with your hand and squeeze a little to get some of the liquid out. Put the butter in the colander. Fish out the little bits of butter and add those to the colander. Discard the liquid.

Knead the butter a little in the colander to get some more of the liquid out. Then let the butter drain for about 30 minutes. Put a paper towel on top and press down to get the remaining liquid out. The butter will still be quite soft, which is good. Turn it into a mixing bowl.

Add the truffle oil, truffle salt, and grated truffle to the fresh butter and mix with a spatula or wooden spoon until it’s combined thoroughly. Taste and add more salt if you like your butter salty. Refrigerate the butter in a container lined with paper towels or more coffee filters. It will keep in the refrigerator about a week, and in the freezer for six months or longer.

Pam Norby’s Truffled Pizza with Meat, Vegetables, and Brie Sauce

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 medium shallots, chopped
• 1 cup fresh or dried morel mushrooms, sliced
• 1 teaspoon garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup asparagus spears, blanched, cut into 1″ pieces
• 1/4 cup pancetta, diced
• 1 1/2 cups left-over chicken, cooked, diced
• 1/4 cup chives, chopped
• 1/3 cup walnuts, chopped
• salt and pepper to taste
• 7 ounces brie, rind removed, cubed
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon dried basil, or fresh, to taste
• 1/2 cup any truffle cheese, grated
• 1 cup mozzarella cheese, grated
• 1 package pizza dough

In a medium sauté pan over medium heat, melt the butter and add olive oil. When hot, add shallots and morels, sauté 5 minutes. Add garlic, asparagus, and pancetta, stir 1 minute. Take off heat and stir in cooked chicken, chives, walnuts, salt, and pepper to taste.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, add the brie, heavy cream, basil, salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a bare simmer and reduce 10 minutes. Remove from heat.

Place the pizza crust on a baking sheet and top crust with brie sauce evenly. Top with the chicken mixture, then the cheeses. Bake at 425 (or according to package direction) for 20-25 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly.  Serves 6.

 

happy year of the dragon!

Gung hay fat choy! May your soup bowl contain many treasures.

This is a Fujian classic, Buddha Jumps Over the Wall soup, served at the Silks Palace Restaurant next to the National Museum in Taipei.  It was set up for a photo shoot during our luncheon when I was in Taiwan.  They took a bunch of photos of me pretending to eat, too.  Never thought I’d be a fashion magazine model!

Buddha Jumps Over the Wall is a deceptively simple-looking soup.  It has dozens of ingredients, including shark fin, abalone, chicken, ham, quail eggs, and many vegetables and herbs.   It’s served at the New Year in Taiwan.  You can read about the preparation and ingredients used here.

And the name?  It’s one of those stories with conflicting legends.  But it seems that the smell of this soup cooking drove a Buddhist monk to distraction, and he either jumped over a wall to get to it or away from it, depending on the version. Read more about it on the Taiwan Food Culture website, which provides an excellent synopsis.

The version we had at the restaurant was in a ding, a ceramic version of a traditional cauldron.  The lunch was really cool — we were treated to the Imperial Treasures Feast, a set menu with food prepared to evoke artifacts in the National Museum. We ate a poached replica of a baby bok choy made of jade, a thankfully more tender interpretation of a braised pork belly carved from agate, and nibbled on miniature deserts nestled in a model of a famous curio box.  There’s a similar menu on the Silks Palace website, and more pictures.

 

 

life is like a carousel, a cured, meaty carousel

Life, it is said, is like a carousel.  I like mine historical and full of cats.  You may recall my post last summer mentioning the carousel in Spokane, a 1909 Louff carousel in Riverfront Park, in fact.

When I heard the city of Albany in Linn County was fundraising for their own carousel, my interest was piqued.  It turns out a local family donated the inner workings of a carousel from the same year as the Spokane carousel, long disbanded and separated from its menagerie.  Without the business end of the ride, something needed to be done, so a group of dedicated volunteers set out to design and carve 52 new animals and two chariots for a new carousel.  They’ve been working on it for about ten years, and have a range of animals to see in all stages of completion.  The project is pretty cool, and you can go visit the studio, museum, and gift shop.  Or maybe throw this dedicated team a few bucks? More information is on the website.

Neighbor Sybaris restaurant, who often takes on great charitable causes, held a fundraiser for the carousel last week.  Chef Matt Bennett, who has represented the Willamette Valley at the James Beard House in NY and is one of our most renowned local culinary professionals, invited fellow Michigander Chef Brian Polcyn to cook a Michigan-inspired PNW menu with him.  Chef Brian, who coauthored everyone’s favorite charcuterie cookbook with luminary Michael Ruhlman, heads up a restaurant where I went to middle school (go Birmingham!) AND teaches in a city I spent my early childhood and where much of my family still lives (Livonia in da house!), is working on a second book on salumi.  He brought his cured meats all the way from his restaurant for the benefit, and they managed to get their hands on a big, fat Mangalitsa pig for the dinner.

Pig trotter croquette with sauce gribiche was the first course!

Surely you’re beginning to see how happy I was.

1) As a Michigan girl, I had to go bump fists with the chefs and talk tough about my childhood drinking Vernors and eating jello salads.  Check.

This is how we do it in Michigan.  Gotta be tough.

2) As a charcuterie aficionado, I had to go taste the creations of the man WHO WROTE THE BOOK. Check.

Frilly, gorgeous prosciutto

3) As a carousel fan, I had to see the carving in action, and all the love and dedication these artisans have poured into their project. Check.

Bulldog, interrupted.

And I was not disappointed.  Want to see more pictures?  I put the entire set of the studio reception and the dinner on a public page on my Facebook page.  Everyone can see it, even if you’re not a member of Facebook.  My fellow co-host on KLCC’s Food for Thought radio show, Laura McCandlish, did a spot on Chef Polcyn as he was preparing the meal.  You can listen here (near the end, if I recall).  She and I enjoyed the dinner together with local farmers, educators, and food lovers.  It was a great evening.

Thanks so much Chefs Matt and Brian, Janel and her & Matt’s staff at Sybaris, and everyone at the Albany Historical Carousel!

 

grazie mille, chef mario!

I’m sad to say I ate the last plate of gnocchi last night at Chef Mario Tucci’s beloved neighborhood joint, the Friendly Street Café.  So many fans thronged the little café on what was to be the last weekly Gnocchi Night on Wednesday that Mario couldn’t seat everyone.  That meant the first and last Gnocchi Night, Part Deux took place the following evening.

And we were so happy to be able to share in the love. The chef is planning to visit family in Firenze and then return to Eugene to new opportunities.  The café will pass into the capable hands of his team, who are planning a shift to a breakfast-lunch menu with earlier hours and an expanded range of baked goods.

Grazie mille, Mario; we look forward to hearing about your next project!

 

truffles for the masses

I’m in the middle of writing a story for the Register-Guard on Oregonian truffles for Oregonians, which aims to demystify truffles for the home cook of modest means.

One of the many wonders of our world is a decent supply of winter truffles, both white and black.  And they’re cheaper than you might think in markets like Sundance and Market of Choice, if you don’t have your own conifer grove.  A little goes a long way.

There’s a lively discussion on my Facebook page about the question: if you had a walnut-sized black or white Oregon truffle, what would you do with it?  I’d love to hear your opinion.  If you’d like me to withhold it, I am happy to withhold your name.

I’ve got eggs just about covered — any other creative ideas?

Thank you!

 

 

fermentation basics recipes and resource links

Thanks for coming to today’s “Fermentation Basics” demo at the Fun with Fermentation festival, and a big thank you to Christina Sasser and the entire WVSFA team who worked so hard to make the festival a success!  I loved the mix of old and young people, farmers, hippies, yuppies, foodies, students, and parents. I was happy to share some of my techniques and tips for vegetable fermentation, and enjoyed talking to so many of you after the demo at the Master Food Preserver booth.

Ferments discussed in today’s demo:

• Radish-cube kimchi
• Fermented full-sour and half-sour pickles
• Regular batch sauerkraut and how to can it.
• Small batch sauerkraut from Serious Eats (also check out the author’s great preservation blog, Food in Jars)
• Fermented peppers (recipe in narrative form)

Recipes with sauerkraut:

• Ruby sauerkraut, apple, and carrot raw slaw
• Transylvanian sauerkraut casserole with rice and kielbasa
• Tempeh reuben

Some books and resources I trust and use often:

• Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving (classic resource for basics of preservation, updated every few years)
• Joy of Pickling by Linda Ziedrich (includes fermentation recipes and many ethnic recipes not available in other collections)
• Wild Fermentation by the King of Sauerkraut Sandor Katz
• OSU Extension-Lane County’s full list of preservation publications (free .pdf downloads) – See esp. “Making Sauerkraut and Sauerkraut Recipes” and “Problems & Solutions: Sauerkraut” under the heading “Pickling”
• My Harsch crock
• The OSU Extension Master Food Preserver message line for class registration, preservation and food safety questions: 541-344-4885.  We no longer have a local hotline, thanks to budget cuts in Lane County, but in the summer and before the holidays there’s a 1-800 number you can call.  More information here.

 

fun with fermentation

What’s that smell?  It’s not you, it’s me.  I’m working on kim chi, sauerkraut, and fermented pepper samples for my live demo at the Fun with Fermentation festival tomorrow, Saturday, January 14.  The festival, a fundraiser for Food for Lane County and the Willamette Valley Sustainable Foods Alliance, runs from 11-4 p.m., and it’s a good one, with hour-long demos all day and many opportunities to taste fermented foods and beverages made with pride in Eugene, Oregon, and the surrounding area.  Fancy some tempeh, sourdough, kombucha, yogurt, or beer?

I’m particularly excited to share the stage with my fellow Master Food Preservers Elyse and Katya, and meet Aaron of Eugene’s latest, greatest microbrewery, Falling Sky. Check out the full schedule below, from the WVSFA website:

The Willamette Valley Sustainable Foods Alliance is pleased to announce the third annual “Fun with Fermentation” Festival. Join us January 14th, 2012 from 11 AM to 4 PM at the WOW hall.

Over 25 local natural foods businesses will be showcasing, demoing, and sampling locally produced cheeses, chocolates, coffees, wines, beers, kombuchas, breads, tempeh, pickles, and many other local fermented delicacies. Devour will be on hand serving a menu which will highlight fermented ingredients. The event has an educational focus centered on discovering the many ways that fermentation is practiced with many foods. There will also be a kids zone, raffle prizes, and beer/wine bottle sales downstairs.

Join us on the stage for educational lectures and demonstrations!
11-12: Yaakov Levine: “Fermented Foods: A Key to Healthy Digestion”
12-1:   Jennifer Burns Levin from Culinaria Eugenius & OSU Master Food Preserver:”The Fermentation Basics”
1-2:     Eight Nine Tempeh: “Live Quinoa Tempeh Demo”
2-3:    Elyse Grau & Katya Davis of OSU Master Food Preservers: “Fermenting with Dairy”
3-4:    Aaron Brussat of Falling Sky Brewery: “The Gifts of Honey: Mead & T’ej”

The event is a fundraiser for Food for Lane County and WVSFA. Admission is on a sliding scale of $10-20 per person, or $5 with 2 cans of food. Children 12 and under are free.

 

culinaria eugenius in seattle: frillies for raoul

Frillies for Raoul.  It’s a Joyce joke.  For everyone else, these are my fond memories of two dozen oysters, sampling the best of the moment in Washington and British Columbia at Elliott’s Oyster House.

 

culinaria eugenius in seattle: meet and beet

Nothing quite like sharing an afternoon meal with someone whose company you’ve always enjoyed.  And yes, I meant my dining companion, not the beets.

Sitka and Spruce small plates for lunch.  Share ‘em.  We opted for the delicious (compulsory, even) wafer-thin beet slices with an itsy bitsy bit too much feta, emmer, mint, and dukkha; a mezze tower made of a base of chopped carrot spread and nondescript hummus with delicious curly kale, red cabbage, and pine nuts atop; delicious Oregon anchovies, which were delicious because, of course, they are Oregonian; a study in beige — not-so-smoked golden trout, lightly pickled cabbage, potato, and crème fraîche with artful dill; and “raw” olives that were cured poseurs.  Detached service.  A slightly flabby white.  But we forgive you for the latter peccadilloes, just because we’re so happy.