Tarte aux Poires

First Market Dinner 2009

2009-03-22T10:00:00.000-07:00

This is the second year we've had a first market dinner. The plan, as you can probably imagine, is to go to the first farmers market of the year (this year seemed very early, March 21), grab what looks good, and build a meal from those ingredients. Last year, there were four of us, myself, Cam, Bonnie, and David. This year, we had the pleasure of including Joe and Sarah. As you can see from the picture above, Bonnie really set a beautiful table.

The evening began with rangpur gimlets. We made these at last year's first market dinner, and luckily Raynblest Farm had plenty of limes for both drinks and dessert... For snacks, baby carrots and radishes.

Cam made ravioli with stinging nettles and ricotta, and lightly covered it in a butter/garlic/hazelnut sauce. While waiting for the water to boil, we drank a bottle of the 07 Reverdy Sancerre Blanc.

David brought the sides, wonderful wilted spinach and a mixture of sauteed carrots and leeks.

We then had a little salad made from a mixture of greens from Veridian.

Finally, the evening ended where it had begun, with rangpur limes. I made a panna cotta with rangpur lime zest. It didn't seem limey enough, so I made a little rangpur syrup to go on top. That with some 08 Elio Perrone Moscato d'Asti and Cam's homemade Vin d'Orange was just perfect.

Other wines included:
98 Lindemans Hunter Valley Semillon
98 Marsh Estate Hunter Valley Semillon
04 J Christopher Croft Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc
05 Le Rocher des Violettes Montlouis "Touche Mitaine" Sec
98 Guyon Corton Clos du Roy Grand Cru
00 Thomas Willamette Valley Pinot Noir

This is turning into a nice annual tradition.

2 New Ryes This Week

2009-01-23T18:35:00.000-08:00

Picked up two new Rye Whiskeys this week, (ri)1 and Russell's Reserve 6 year. Both are pretty tasty and worthy additions to my rye collection...

Repeal Day

2008-12-06T11:54:00.001-08:00

I had a little party at my place for repeal day. I put together a little cocktail menu and made the following cocktails; the aviation, the bijou, the blood and sand, the daiquiri, the fourth degree, the old fashioned, and the sidecar. Fire in the fireplace, snacks, and friends. Thanks to all those who made it by for a cocktail.

Pink Lemons

2008-11-16T10:23:00.000-08:00

Just got back from New Seasons, where I ran across pink lemons. I haven't cut into them yet, but I'm thinking up ways to use them tonight (read cocktails). I couldn't find much info on these little beauties online, but Four Winds Growers sells trees. Here's their page on this citrus.

Coffees of the present and recent past

2008-11-13T20:13:00.000-08:00

Roasted and ground by Stumptown (My grinder bit the dust. Any suggestions for a new one?).

Made with my trusty french press.

Consumed with Noris or Strauss half and half.

Panama Duncan Estate Organic x 3
El Salvador Kilimanjaro Organic
Honduras Cielito Lindo

Makes the morning that much better.

My bar...

2008-11-13T07:46:00.001-08:00

It's getting there...

Yum

2008-11-11T19:33:00.000-08:00

This is a generic photo of a sidecar taken from Esquire's drink page. Tonight, we made meyer lemon sidecars.

1 1/2 oz Germain-Robin Brandy
3/4 oz Cointreau
3/4 oz meyer lemon juice

Shake with ice and serve up. We decided against the sugared rim.

New drink, worthy of re-making...

2008-10-19T18:26:00.000-07:00

1 oz Hangar One Kaffir Lime Vodka
.5 oz G.E. Massenez Creme de Gingembre
1 oz lime juice
.5 oz simple syrup

Shake and serve up.

Tarte

2008-10-19T16:41:00.000-07:00

Today's baking project...

Lists

2008-09-28T12:23:00.000-07:00

OK, it's been a while. Seems like lists are a good way to catch everybody up...

Coffees I've bought lately from Stumptown:

Bolivia San Ignacio (x2)
Costa Rica El Quemado
Guatemala Finca el Injerto Reserva
Kenya AA Nduma
Nicaragua Los Delirios El Eden Lot
Panama Carmen Estate
Panama Duncan Estate (x4)
Panama Esmeralda Especial

Liquors I've purchased recently:

Loft Lavender Cello (OR)
Loft Lemongrass Cello (OR)
Farigoule Thyme Liqueur (FR)
Rhum Clement VSOP (Martinique)
Hangar One Kaffir Lime Vodka (CA)

Liquors I've infused recently, and a rating (1 lowest to 5 highest) of quality

Mt Adams Hucklberry Vodka - 3
Lemon Verbena Vodka - 2
Thyme Vodka - 4
Rose Petal Vodka - 2

Liquors I'm on the hunt for

Apia Honey Vodka (OR)
Anchor Genevieve Gin (CA)

Music downloaded (yes legally) since August:

Brightblack Morning Light - Motion t0 Rejoin
Dept. of Eagles - In Ear Park
Calexico - Travelall
Calexico - Toolbox
Calexico - '98-'99 Roadmap
Damon and Naomi - More Sad Hits
Yo La Tengo - They Shoot, We Score
Various Artists - Nigeria Special: Modern Highlife, Afro-sounds & Nigerian Blues 1970-1976
Holly Golightly - Up the Empire
Holly Golightly - Painted on
Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out of This Country
Okkervil River - The Stand Ins
Calexico - Carried to Dust
Jens Lekmand - When I Said I Wanted to Be Your Dog
Jarvis Cocker - Jarvis
Walkmen - Daytrotter Session

Magazines whose subscriptions have or are about to lapse (that I want to resubscribe to)

Art of Eating
Meatpaper
Gastronomica
Imbibe

Great bottles of wine I've had recently

1978 Dm Romanee-Conti Romanee-Conti (getting a little tired)
1977 Dujac Clos St Denis (simply stunning)
2007 Rafeal Palacios As Sortes
2004 Domaine Cheze St Joseph Cuvee Caroline

I suppose that is enough for now. Consider yourself caught up.

TB1 and TB2

2008-07-13T10:22:00.000-07:00

BC is out of town, and I've been given the task of perfecting a Thai Basil cocktail while she is gone. A quick Google search brought up a few ideas, the most prominent being Thai Basil syrup, lemon juice, and a base liquor. I used the syrup recipe from found here, but I used 1 cup water, 1 cup sugar, and 1 cup loosely packed thai basil leaves.

Additionally, I liked the idea of thai basil with saffron, so I used the two saffron infused/flavored base spirits I had...

TB1
2 oz SubRosa saffron vodka
1 oz lemon juice
1 oz thai basil syrup
Shake with ice and strain, serve up

TB2
2 oz Cadenhead's Old Raj gin
1 oz lemon juice
1 oz thai basil syrup
Shake with ice and strain, serve up

The TB1 was the winner of the two, but both were a bit too sweet. I like my drinks with a little more acid. When making drinks at home, I prefer a ratio of 3 pts spirit, 2 pts sour, and 1 pt sweet. My concern in using that ratio here is that with only 1 pt in 6, the thai basil flavor will be lost.

I think that muddling the thai basil will be the focus of the next round of drinks.

To be continued...

Image from Wikipedia

Flor de Mayo

2008-04-29T18:17:00.000-07:00

I was in Cali two weekends ago, and picked up a few bottles of liquor to bring home with me. One of those was a bottle of Qi White Tea Liqueur from (I believe) St. George Spirits (I also grabbed a bottle of the Black Tea Liqueur, but that's for another post).

So, Tuesday evening rolls around. Another day of work is over. What better way to celebrate than a cocktail?

I'm between getting the mail at the post office and heading to Lovely Hula Hands with BC and DJ. Looking over the liquor shelf, it occurs to me that I haven't made a drink with the Qi liqueurs yet. A quick check of the Qi web site provides a number of ideas. Having recently tackled the old school Daiquiri, their Flor de Mayo looks like it might be up my alley. Here's the breakdown:

2 oz dark rum (they suggest Pampero Anniversario, which I happen to have on the shelf)
1 oz Qi White Liqueur
1 oz lime juice
.5 tbsp simple syrup (they suggest 1 tsp)
Combine, shake, strain, drink

The drink itself is pretty good. Unfortunately, the orange flavor in the Qi really outshines white tea.

Rangpur Gimlet

2008-04-09T07:27:00.000-07:00

[Ed. note - I wrote this weeks ago, just never posted...] This past Saturday was the first PSU farmer's market of the season. C, D, B, and I made plans weeks ago to attend the market together, and then make a "First Market" dinner. Weather was dim and rainy, but that wasn't going to hold us back.

My contribution was a plate of baby carrots and French breakfast radishes with coarse French grey salt and hand churned butter (unfortunately, Noris dairy wasn't at the market so I settled on Strauss cream). Pleasant and simply, ultimately fresh and tasty.

I also offered to handle the cocktails for dinner. I bought a number of ingredients at the markets, but the most interested were Rangpur limes (also called lemanderins). I bought 6 of them, which wasn't quite enough for 4 small cocktails.

I spent part of the afternoon making syrups. For this drink, I made a simple syrup with Temple de l'Aube tea (a green tea with bergamot and lemon) and unrefined organic cane sugar.

1 c water
1 c unrefined organic cane sugar
2 teaspoons Temple de l'Aube green tea
Bring water to a near boil, steep tea for a few minutes, strain, add sugar, dissolve sugar, pass through cheesecloth, cool.

I also made rhubarb syrup and ginger/black pepper syrup, but those are for another story.

Anyway, I dragged all kinds of bar tools to CC's place, and prepped this cocktail, which I'm calling the Rangpur gimlet (and yes, I know there is no Rose's in this recipe, but I don't care, I prefer fresh juice and a little sugar).

1.5 oz Junipero gin
1 oz rangpur lime juice (although I was a little short)
.5 oz Temple de l'Aube simple syrup
Shake with ice and serve up on a cocktail glass
I didn't add a garnish

And that's it. The flavors were actually more subtle than I had expected. The citrus really shined in the finish, and the tea syrup added a lovely note to the nose.

I'd certainly make these again (and if fact, I probably will next weekend). Oh, and if you want to buy these limes at the market, see the honey and egg folks at the far South end of the market. They'll cost 2 for $1 for the medium size (3 for $1 for the small ones).

Photo courtesy of CC.

The Lady Panther

2008-03-30T16:53:00.000-07:00

Hello peeps.

It's been a while. No good reason. Most likely, no one even checks for updates here anymore. That's OK. It's understandable.

I've gotten into cocktails since my last post. In a big (read unhealthy [?]) way.

One ingredient I've really been digging is St. Germain. Not heard of it? Again, understandable. It's fairly new to our Portland, OR market. It's a liqueur made from the elderflower, a blossom of the Elder tree. If you buy into their story (and I'm not sure I entirely do), the blossoms are hand harvested (during a several day window in spring) in the French Alps and delivered, by bicycle no less, to the distillery.

My belle like St. Germain too. I've mixed it into a drink that she likes. Originally it was an impromptu vodka collins...

sort of via Ben Reed's The Art of the Cocktail
1.75 oz vodka [I've been using Lovejoy from Integrity Spirits]
.75 oz lemon juice [because I can't conform to the rules, I use meyer lemons]
.5 oz simple syrup
club soda
a splash of grapefruit juice (texas red)
more than a splash of St. Germain.

I've been trying to refine that into an actual recipe, but I can't seem to recreate the magic (although I've enjoyed the experimentation).

Unfortunately, meyer lemon season is nearly over, and the quest for the perfect "Lady Panther" (the name I am giving the as-of-yet unperfected drink) will have to wait until next year.

Congratulations, Lady Panther, you have won this round. But I will be back.

Best Beers of 08 - 2004 Cantillon Iris

2008-01-12T12:16:00.000-08:00

I meant to make some notes on this beer when drinking it with my friend DS. Didn't happen. Just let it be know that this beer was pretty damn amazing. Sour, tart, complex. This bottling was finished with a cork, then a cap, in a 375 ml bottle. Totally worth tracking down. I got my bottle at John's Market. Clearly the image above (from the Brewery's site) has a different vintage than the bottle I consumed.

Feliz Navidad - Mole pt. 3

2007-12-31T19:12:00.000-08:00

The day of reckoning. I've got a lot to do, and not a lot of time to do it. Honestly, it wouldn't have gotten done without a lot of help from LP and DS. Many thanks...

First, blend up the chocolate, nut, seed, and bread mixture with a little turkey stock into one sauce. Then, blend the dried and fried chiles and a bit of stock into a second sauce.

Second, brown the turkey in lard.

Third, in reserved lard, warm, darken, and thicken chile sauce before adding chocolate mixture. Finally, add 5 cups stock, and simmer for about an hour.

Fourth, bake the turkey, covered in the finished sauce, in a roasting pan. Then, after baked, pull meat out of sauce, cool, remove skin and debone.

Finally, place the deboned turkey in serving dish, pour sauce over, sprinkle with sesame seeds, garnish with a little cilantro, and serve with rice and tortillas.

CC (from The Devouring Woman) and her father made a tortilla soup, and BC made a tres leches cake. We had Negro Modello and Tequilla Rickeys to drink.

All in all, a fantastic Christmas meal with good friends...

Feliz Navidad - Mole pt. 2

2007-12-25T08:44:00.000-08:00

My plan is to combine days 2 and 3 together, leaving day 4 on it's own so that Christmas day isn't too crazy. To make a long story short, it doesn't happen...

Day 2 calls for cutting up the turkey and making the stock. Seems simple enough... While the stock is simmering, I can complete day 3's tasks (finish the sauce, brown the turkey in lard and bake it, etc). Except that the I need the stock to make the sauce. What was I thinking? Why didn't I read the recipe in full?

So, this morning, Christmas morning, I am starting early. The dried, lard fried peppers are reconstituting, the stock is ready, and I'm prepared to cook the meat.

Wish me luck.

Here's a few pics of the bird and stock (thanks, CG, for the new cleaver!!)

Feliz Navidad - Mole pt. 1

2007-12-23T15:17:00.000-08:00

I'm making mole for Christmas dinner this year. I'm using Rick Bayless' Authentic Mexican for the recipe, which is WAY too long and involved to copy here. I'll try to paraphrase for you, offering figures and illustrations where necessary...

Rick says you can complete the whole task in 7 hours from start to finish in one day, but that if you spread it over 4 days, the flavors are allowed to develop more fully, and it is less stress on the home cook. I'm tweaking his days a little, but it will be spread from Saturday, December 22 to Tuesday, December 25.

Bayless says "Day 1 - Assemble the ingredients and compete the toasting/frying" portiong of the recipe. I spend day 1 assmebling the ingredients and day 2 on the toasting and frying...

Saturday, the 22nd: I hit New Seasons first, and find most of what I need. I know I want to buy the lard from Viande. In addition, NS dosen't have the chiles mulatos I need. On my way downtown, I check Jesusito Market on N Interstate, Whole Foods in the Pearl, and Fred Meyer NW for the missing peppers. No dice. I arrive at City Market in the NW for the lard, and I hope they might have the peppers, but they don't.

I meet CC for lunch at Russell St BBQ, and she suggests checking for the peppers at Don Pancho carniceria on Alberta. Sure enough, they have what I am looking for.

Task 1 - Assemble the Ingredients - Check!

Sunday the 23rd: I start by measuring out all the ingredients, cuting, slicing, and chopping where necessary...

Next come the peppers. I have to stem, seed, and devein the dried chiles. That's 28 peppers. Takes a while, but I finally get them done.

Next, I toast the seeds (sesame, chile, and coriander).

Then the frying starts. I plop a generous portion of lard into my great grandmother's cast iron skillet and get to work. Peppers, almonds, raisins, onions, garlic, one by one, all adding amazing aromas to my house...

Then, I fry up a corn tortilla and some stale bread, and add all of the above (expect for the peppers) to a can of drained whole tomates and broken up Mexican chocolate.

Tomorrow? Deconstruct a turkey, turkey stock, soaking peppers, finishing sauce, and cooking turkey. Stay tuned...

My new cheese cave...

2007-12-08T17:47:00.000-08:00

As some of you know, I worked the harvest at Ch. Coupe-Roses in France this past September. I spent two amazing weeks in the town a La Caunette, and I've put some pictures way down below, as (unfortunately) my trip isn't really the point of this post...

Everyone knows the French motto "Liberté, égalité, fraternité," right? While there, I learned the motto of the French table, "Pain, Vin, Fromage." We consumed this trilogy at nearly every meal (we substituted cafe for vin at petite dejunnier).

And for the cheese, my hosts had a fantastic little cheese cave in their fridge. I shit you not, it was a Tupperware brand "Cave a Fromage." I love cheese, and I wanted one of these, but instead of carrying it back with me, I decided to track it down once back in the states. You know, we have Tupperware here too...

Or so I thought. After an exhaustive search of the web and stores as well as e-mails and phone calls to Tupperware, I realized I was in trouble. Not only weren't these sold in America, they couldn't even ship to me. I found a few on French e-bay, but with the shipping and exchange rate, the price was out of control.

And then it dawned on me, CG's folks were heading to France the following week. Could they be persuaded to bring one home to me? After a few e-mails, they agreed. Then in late November, the cheese caves (yes plural) arrived. One small and one large. These are Tefal brand, not Tupperware, but I'm not complaining. These are even better than the ones I used in France. Merci beaucoup, Steve!!

I've been using them for a few weeks now, and I love them. The keep the cheese at a better humidity than what the fridge normally offers, and they filter the smells of more pungent cheeses as well. What a delight. In the cheese cave pictured above? Montgomery's Mature Cheddar from the UK (the guys at Setve's Cheese tell me this is the best wheel they've ever had, it is simply fantastic), Abbaye de Belloc (a sheep's milk cheese from the Pyranees), and Mary's Peak goat cheese pyramid from River's Edge Chevre (who is quickly becoming my favorite Oregon creamery).

If you are over in France and you like cheese, I'd recommend bringing one (or two) back with you...

Now for the pics of La Caunette. There are from my visit in early 2006, but I assure you absolutely nothing has change...

Coffee

2007-12-05T07:08:00.000-08:00

Long time readers of my little blog will know that I like a good cup of coffee. One of my favorites, Panama Esmeralda Especial, is back at Stumptown after a bit of an absence.

Here's what the Stumptown page has to say about this coffee...

The 100% geisha varietal from Hacienda La Esmeralda, known as Esmeralda Especial has won first prize in every single cupping competition it has ever been submitted in. The Peterson family first came across these trees on their farm in the early 1990's looking for a way to survive one of the most historically oppressive coffee market crises in history. The long, dangling arms, large cherries and minimal yield were unlike any varietal known in Panama to date. The Peterson's separated the coffee and entered it into the Best of Panama auction in 2004. It has commanded record prices at auction every year since. Stumptown Coffee Roasters has been committed customers of the Peterson's since 2004 when we bought the auction lot and will continue to bring our customers this unique coffee for years to come. With every sip, you will taste pineapple, clementine, key lime, papaya, mango, bergamot, all spice, and high percentage cacao, with a champagne grape finish.

I paid $21 for 3/4 of a pound, which seems quite fair to me for a top tier coffee. However, almost every other roaster on the web is charging more like double or triple that price for this Panama. Am I drinking the real deal? Maybe Duane Sorensen got a pre-auction lot before the price skyrocketed? Anyone know the story?

Milestone

2007-11-27T20:41:00.000-08:00

My new (old) little car just hit 30,000 miles (or is it 230,000?).

Drink

2007-11-18T09:37:00.000-08:00

Impromptu mini-party at my place last night. We were thinking of trying to recreate a drink from Siam Society, the Midnight in the Garden (fresh blueberries pureed with vodka & a splash of fresh squeezed lime juice served on the rocks, according to their web site). But, realizing that blueberries aren't in season, we opted for cranberries instead. Since these little red beauties are a bit more tart than their blue siblings, we needed to tweak the rest of the ingredients a little...

Here's the recipe we came up with...

1.5 oz vodka (we used Ciroc)
.5 oz Cointreau
.5 oz fresh lime juice
.5 oz simple syrup
1 heaping tablespoon pureed cranberries (fresh cranberries and a little water)
.5 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
Put all ingredients in shaker with a generous amount of ice, shake well, and pour into a cocktail shell

Yep, that's it. Super easy and super tasty.

New Magnetic Fields

2007-11-17T14:04:00.000-08:00

Howdy y'all.

It's be a while, no?

An MP3 of the first song from the new Magnetic Fields' record Distortion is up over at Stereogum. It's called "Three-way." The new track has that low-fi pop sound from the early Fields' albums Holiday and The Wayward Bus. I absolutely love it...

Stephin Merritt is taking the Fields on a seven city tour next Spring (their first tour since '04). The nearest stop to Portland is Seattle, where they are taking up a two night residency at Town Hall. I've got tickets for the March 7 show. Anyone want to tag along?

USDA gets one right...

2007-10-16T18:45:00.000-07:00

This from the Ethicurian blog... Good news for conscious carnivores...

Breaking news: USDA limits “grass fed” label to meat that actually is

In Rainbows

2007-10-10T20:40:00.000-07:00

Anyone still checking this ol' blog? God, has it really been 2 months to the day since the last post (god capitalized only because it's the first word in the sentence)? Maybe you have it on rss feed on some reader or some such device...

So, the new Radiohead is out today. I paid 5 pounds at inrainbows.com. Something like 12 bucks? Seems fair. Only, I am a little disappointed. I got home from the Scout Niblett show at about 1:15 am (I was the last one standing, CG, LP, C&S left before the end) to find the access code in my inbox. I HAD to downoad right away and listen.

One of the things I always liked about Radiohead (esp. the recent stuff) is that they always seemed to be breaking new ground, trying new approaches and angles. With 'In Rainbows,' that doesn't seem to be the case. More of those electronic beats. A few tunes even hearken back to the 90's rock Radiohead (you know, an actual live drum kit?). Just nothing new.

Now, this is only a cursory listen. It just came out today, after all. And, it's still better than a lot of the shit that masquerades as music these days. I had just hoped for a little more.

Have any thoughts? Comment here, I'm curious if I'm way off base here...