Portland Foodie

Portland Food and Drink and PDX Foodie Web Resources

There are a few foodie websites that are local to Portland. One of those sites is Portland Food and Drink. this site is a great resource for honest, no holds barred, restaurant reviews. The author of the site is anonymous and plans to stay that way. Why?

"As far as the anonymity thing, let me relate a few stories. When I worked in California, we drew critics from all over the nation. Pictures of most of them were prominently posted in the kitchen, and any employee who spotted one was given a $100 bonus. When a critic came in, everything else stopped while all the attention was switched to making sure he had the most perfect meal the kitchen was capable of preparing. You’d better believe we got darn good reviews."

Apparently, the same holds for Portland...and the author is right...letting the restaurant know who you are and why you are there will lead to a magnificent performance, which will only benefit the reviewer, not the reader. And, I don't know about you, but I don't have money laying around the house to waste on a bad meal. Even if I did, there's just no reason in a foodie-centric town like Portland, that you should.

There are other websites with local flavor you might want to check out:

Portland Food Carts  A celebration of local entrepreneurial food businesses...Check out the maps and reviews of our local food carts...if you haven't eaten at a food cart, you don't know what you are missing!

Jeffrey Morgenthaler Everything you ever wanted to know about bartending and mixology

Culinate A site started here in Portland that is all things food. Beautiful photos and a mix of reader generated and professional info.

Diggin Food originates in Seattle (I know, not Portland, but look, it's a great site! What I love about it is that the writers take the best local ingredients and explore how to use them...gorgeous pictures, too...really great writing...

Portland Pickle A food journal, a personal blog with recipes and great foodie conversation

I love to keep on top of local foodie happenings, do you have a favorite food blog? Let me know, I would love to add it to my list of resources!

"Crustless" Apple Pie

Seems like it was just yesterday when my apples were nothing more than a blossom in their parent's eye..or something like that...the point is, they were just beautiful blooms on the trees in my yard...

And now, they are buckets and buckets of apples...apples everywhere...so many apples, that I am now working on creative apple recipes. Here's the easiest to make, terrifically delicious "crustless" apple pie...I would have called it apple pie filling, but that reminds me of the canned apple pie fillings from the store...and I just don't find those appealing. At all. Seriously.

Soooo, I decided to call it Crustless Apple Pie. Who needs the hassle of making a crust, anyway? So, here we go, you need:

• 4 medium apples, cored, (you can peel if you like, I usually just leave it on)
• 1 Tbs Unsulphured Molasses
• 1 Tbs Brown Sugar
• 1/2 t of Cinnamon
• 1/2 inch of fresh ginger, sliced (no need to peel this, either)
• a quick zest of nutmeg
• 1 Tbs butter
• 1/3 C of Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum

Throw this all together in a pot. Bring to a light boil over medium low heat, reduce and let it simmer until the apples are soft, but definitely not mushy. Pick out the ginger slices and serve.

Jam: A Quick Restaurant Review

I love to find great places to eat breakfast here in Portland...well, really anywhere...but, who wants to drive that early in the morning? So I was thrilled when my Twitter friend @lilgirlbigvoice called me up and announced that she would be arriving from Eugene and wouldn't it be great to meet?

Of course it would! And, just so happens that breakfast worked best for us...she was staying out on SE Hawthorne so I started my search there...

Now, there are a lot of choices for eating in the Hawthorne area...but we settled on Jam. I would include a link to their site, except they don't seem to have a site...so I will include a link to a review on a local vegan foodie site, Stumptown Vegans.

Which brings up point number one, if you are a vegan, this is a great place to have breakfast...my friend ordered a vegan scramble wrap type thing...which she promptly pronounced terrific...

I am not a vegan, so I ordered the corned beef hash. They marinate the beef for days in a beer concoction. Yeah. For real. What's not to love about that?

It is served with two eggs on top...and you can see I dove right in before remembering to take a pic...it was really tasty. I would recommend going a bit lighter on the meat though...seemed like too much to me.

We had great service, great coffee (local purveyor Stumptown is served there) and an overall great breakfast experience.

If you are looking for an affordable, neighborhood place to have a great breakfast, this is the place for you!

Jam on Hawthorne

2239 SE Hawthorne Blvd
            Portland, OR             97214
                         Phone: (503) 234-4790

Roasted Summer Squash Dip

I always have a hard time figuring out what to do with all of my squash... Earlier, I wrote about a wonderful saute with sage, fennel and butter. And while that was incredibly yummy, I can't have it every night...

So, I decided to try something completely out of the box...and the Roasted Summer Squash Dip was born...It is very simply to make and tres magnifique... So here's how you do it:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Start by cleaning squash and cutting into chunks
• Place on 8x10 baking sheet
• Drizzle with olive oil, add salt and pepper, toss to coat
• Add 2 or 3 cloves of garlic, still in skins, coat with olive oil
• Roast for 25 minutes or until squash and garlic has started to caramelize
• Remove and let cool

Now, this by itself is a great way to prepare squash. You could certainly stop right there, slip the garlic out of its skins, chop and add and eat. But, if you want to make the dip, please proceed...

• Remove garlic from skins
• Add garlic and squash to bowl of food processor
• Pulse squash until it develops a smooth consistency
• Stream in extra virgin olive oil to loosen mixture a bit and add flavor
• Serve with noshing materials (veggies, crackers) or use as spread in pitas and sandwiches

Isn't it gorgeous?

I mean, I would probably make it for the color alone...I hope you enjoy it...let me know!

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Sun Dried Tomatoes, err, Oven Dried Tomatoes

Though the common name is sun dried tomatoes, I should say oven dried tomatoes...If our summer had been drier and hotter earlier in the season, these babies could have been dried outside...

Now, after 3 weeks of warm weather, I have 1000 tomatoes (ok, that might be an exaggeration, but there is a lot of them). You may remember I was complaining loudly on Gardener to Farmer that I didn't even have ripe tomatoes in August...I called them temperamental and was considering giving up tomato growing altogether.

Yeah.

I now have buckets full of the fabulous fruits and am quickly trying to find innovative ways to store them. I don't need 500 gallons of tomato sauce. So, I thought I would give drying a try, here's what you do:

• Use tomatoes that are generally used for paste, or that are meatier, less water = easier to dry. I grew purple plum tomatoes for paste this year, so I am trying those.
• Choose ripe, but still firm tomatoes for drying
• Clean them and slice in half
• Take a baking rack and place it on a sheet pan (might need two, dependent upon the size of your pan)
• Place the tomatoes cut side down, sprinkle with salt to help with the drying process
• Place in a low temperature oven. My oven actually goes down to 150 degrees, yours might only go down to 200. Use the lowest setting available and see how it goes.
• Keep an eye on them, could take up to 12 hours...could be as few as 8...really depends on quite a few variables, size, heat, humidity...
• They are done when they are dry and leathery...not brittle and not wet.
• I will store mine in vacuum sealed bags, but you can store yours in whatever clean canister you have available

How can you resist these beauties! If you have tomatoes that you would like to use in a sauce, check out this recipe from an earlier post.

Sage, Fennel and Butter Squash Saute

Ok, it is rare that you see patty pan squash this large...but this is what happens when you go out of town for a week and the squash takes over. YIKES! These are as large as they look...huge! What in the world am I going to do with all this squash?

So, I decided to experiment with a saute that is reminiscent of ravioli dishes I have had....here's the scoop:
You will need summer squash. I used white in this recipe and actually find that I like it better than yellow. It has a milder flavor and is more easily adaptable in recipes.
Start by browning diced honey or maple ham in a skillet with a bit of olive oil. Remove and drain. In the same skillet, saute the sliced squash in a mixture of extra virgin olive oil and butter. Make sure the butter browns a bit in the course of cooking, but don't let it burn. Add fennel seeds, fresh sage cut into strips, salt and pepper. Cook until squash is tender. Add crisped ham on top of cooked squash for finishing touch.

For more information on growing squash, visit Gardener to Farmer.

Homemade Tomato Sauce

So, I finally harvested a few tomatoes...and while some were awesome, others were so so...some not so ripe, some split from all of the rain, others munched on a bit...So, I decided to make a basic tomato sauce and freeze it for use later.

I started by washing and cleaning up the tomatoes, chunking up the larger ones. I popped them in a non stick sauce pot over medium heat. I added olive oil, bay leaves, dried basil, fennel seeds, dried italian herb mix, salt, pepper, about 2 tbs sugar. **The amount of sugar is related to the acidity and ripeness of the tomatoes.

Let the tomatoes cook all the way down and reduce in order to concentrate the flavors...this is particularly helpful if you have had a lot of rain and your tomatoes are a bit watery. When it is reduced to this point, it is ready to take off the heat.

Now, since I don't take the time to seed or peel my tomatoes, I run the whole mix through the food mill. What you are left with is a smooth, well flavored sauce that can serve as the base of more complex sauces and soups.

For more information on growing and harvesting tomatoes, check out Gardener to Farmer, my gardening blog.

Watermelon Sorbet, Worth the Hassle

Alright, let me start with a couple of disclaimers...1) I am an impatient cook, so I like recipes that are easy and terrifically yummy. 2) My least fave part of cooking is the veggie and fruit prep.

So, it will come as no surprise to you that making watermelon sorbet was somewhat frustrating. First of all, the fruit is huge! Secondly, it is messy...but the final result was unbelievably yummy!

But, there are some things you can do that will make it an easier process. Start by prepping the watermelon in a planned way, not in a "we are at a picnic, let's just get a spoon and dive in" way. Check out my prep tips here.

Once you have cleaned and cut the watermelon into manageable chunks, you need to remove the seeds. Now, you can do that by hand, if you are patient and have a lot of time on your hands, or you can do what I did...throw the whole mess into a blender and whir away.

The key to this method is then using a food mill to strain out the undesirables. Here's a fancy one I found at the Chef's website. However, mine is just a one setting, $14 dollar version I found at Bi-Mart.

By running the processed watermelon through the food mill, you end up with a smooth juice that is ready for a sorbet!

The good news is once the prep is over, all you have to do is put it in the ice cream machine and let it run for 30 minutes...voila! Watermelon sorbet is born...If you don't have an ice cream machine, pour the liquid into a pan and set it in your freezer. When it is frozen, scrape with a fork to loosen, then serve or store.

A couple of tips: One, I think most watermelon is plenty sweet, so I don't add simple syrup to this recipe. If you want to, though, you can add equal parts water and sugar to a sauce pan and reduce by half. Then add to taste.

Two, sorbets created at home are often much harder than the varieties you buy at the store. Just let it sit on the counter a few minutes before working with it, and it will be just fine.

When I tasted my watermelon sorbet, it was like an explosion of summer...truly divine...and I can imagine it would make some wickedly good drinks...

Watermelon Quick Prep Tips

Sometimes the idea of prepping a watermelon, or any other melon for that matter, can seem daunting. Here's a quick, step by step guide to dispatching the inedible parts of the melon, so you can get to the good stuff faster!

Start by cutting the melon in half, then flip the melon on its cut end for greater stability.

Working from the top down, remove the rind from the melon.

 

Finish by cutting off the top of the melon to remove the stem end.

Slice the melon in half again, creating a flat side. Flip the melon over with the flat side on the bottom, again, creating stability.

Slice the melon in half lengthwise, then, cut across the melon, parallel to the lengthwise cut.

Voila! Cut melon...took almost no time at all. Now, pop into a container and store in the refrigerator for easy use and snacking!

Dried and Smoked Peppers

I recently harvested my first, and only, crop of hot peppers (for more on my crop, check out the post at Gardener to Farmer). As you can see, quite a few of them ripened at the same time. I thought about a couple of storage options, like freezing, or canning, but I settled on drying...and while I could have dried them in the oven, I decided to smoke them over indirect heat on my Kettle Grill.

I put it on a low, indirect heat...wasn't over 250 at its hottest. Then, I had to replenish it once. All in all, the peppers were on there for maybe three hours. It is important to keep the vent relatively closed in order to control temperature and capture the smoke.

And when I was finished, I had some gorgeous peppers...smokey, yummy and preserved for future use. I think I will grind some of them and use it in recipes...others I might save an reconstitute this winter, or add a couple of whole peppers to a chili recipe.

Have you smoked any of your garden harvests this year? Let me know how it worked...