It's TEOTWAWKI and I Feel Fine

Last night was the End of the World as We Know It, and I woke up feeling a little tired, but otherwise okay.

To be more specific, it was the TEOTWAWKI themed Memento at Gerald and Robyn's place up in Lynnwood (my old stomping grounds!).  Given the types of proteins I anticipated I'd be eating, and the amazing longevity of our first appetizer, there was some reason for concern I might not feel fine this morning.  In fact, when I told my boss about the party, he thought it sounded like we must all be trying to kill one another.

Dan & I arrived 30 min early (bad form) because I was worried about traffic.  Living on the South side of Downtown Seattle means that any event, however small, completely locks up the freeway between roughly the West Seattle Bridge and Seneca, thanks to I-5 going from 5 lanes to 2.  Sporting events, community events, accidents... just about anything causes a major backup.  In fact, I'm pretty sure anyone braking at any point in that area leads to a 20 minute delay.  But I digress.

Our early arrival, though rude, turned out to be a blessing - as it gave Hilo (who was invited) time to make peace with Bella and Magnus.  He eagerly ran into the house before I could stop him, leading to him in the house while Bella and Magnus looked on through the glass back door.  This did not lead to happy feelings on the part of Bella, who surely felt her home was being invaded and she wasn't there to protect it.  So when she did come in, she and Hilo had a bit of a scrap, with Magnus trying his puppy-best to get in on the action.  After quick action by all the doggy parents, we got them under control, calmed down, and reintroduced slowly in the back yard - where growling and snapping turned into running and playing.  Crisis averted.

Dan & I loaded in the insane amount of canned goods and gear we brought to serve dessert.  I was ready for no power, no light, no running water, no utensils... you know, TEOTWAWKI.  Thankfully, our uber-prepared hosts had already foraged up knives, forks and spoons for everyone, and plenty of gas lights - so I was WAY over prepared.


After all the other guests had arrived, we got started.



As is Memento tradition, our hosts kicked us off with an appetizer course.   On our plate were two halved eggs - one bright purple, and one more natural in color - along with a couple spigs of lettuce and some shriveled brownish things.  The first, "normal" looking egg was a deviled egg made from a hard-boiled egg that Gerald & Robyn rubbed with bacon fat and buried in salt for the past month.  You'd never guess it, as it tasted as fresh as any hard-boiled egg I've had.  The yolk was spiced up with a little wasabi, and it was garnished with some sesame seeds.  It was paired with a pickled egg that included Thai bird chilies in the pickling liquid, and was the spiciest of the three offerings on the plate.  (If memory serves, beets lent the egg it's vibrant color.)  The shriveled brown things turned out to be smoked Hood Canal oysters, foraged here in the area.  Rounding out the spicy trio, they had Sriracha in their marinade.  I likened the texture to between beef jerky and pepperoni stick - drier than the latter, but still soft.



Next up, the guests of our hosts served a charcuterie plate with a rabbit terrine, cured meats, cheese, cracker, an olive and some homemade mustard.




The salad course was provided by Marcy & James, featuring greens from their own garden.



SPAM made an appearance on our first entree plate, thanks to Jason & Anna.  It accompanied whole smelt, cured lemon peel and greens, garnished by a chive flower, early strawberries, and cherries.



The second entree featured alligator meat, sea beans (a favorite of mine), mushrooms, and potato buds mashed potatoes.

Our dessert (which I failed to photograph), was presented in a pint sized mason jar - a trifle of layered spotted dick cake, devon custard, dulce de leche caramel, treacle sponge cake, blackberries, Hostess Twinkies, and home-canned rhubarb jam.  Everything in the trifle came out of cans, with the exception of the Twinkies.  The caramel was made by slow cooking a can of sweetened condensed milk in a pot of boiling water over the gas grill.



To wash down the rich dessert, I made two caffeine free-drinks, non-alcoholic drinks:  "Coffee" made of the roots of dandelions (dried and then roasted), and an herbal tea made from dried English Plantain leaves, dried apples, dried pineapple weed flowers, and apple mint.  All but the apples were foraged on my street.  The tea and coffee were steeped in large glass jugs all day, sitting in a solar oven, and served in little 8 oz jelly jars.  I found I really enjoyed the dandelion root coffee, which surprised me (since I don't like coffee).  It was smokey but not bitter, as I'd expected it would be.  I really should have found a way to filter out the leaves in the tea, as it was off-putting (whereas the dandelion root sank to the bottom of the jug).  Reportedly, English Plantain leaves have an anti-inflammatory effect, so perhaps it will help my headaches.

We got the surprise news that Gerald & Robyn are moving to Arizona later this month, as Gerald got a great job offer and Robyn's able to work remotely from the new city.  We're all going to miss them terribly.

Homemade Blackberry Glazed Cake Donuts

A few weeks back, a coworker gave me a copy of the new Top Pot cookbook - Top Pot Hand-Forged Doughnuts: Secrets and Recipes for the Home Baker. I've been wanting to try my hand at donut making for awhile now, and this was just the nudge I needed. Apparently, it was also the nudge I needed to get back to blogging a bit.

I procured the ingredients I needed, and last night made the surprisingly simple batter for cake donuts, which then rested in the fridge overnight.

This morning, I got up bright and early (for me) and got to work, first on the glaze - which I made from some failed freezer jam I tried to make using blackberries foraged from our neighbors overgrown yard. Then I started on a batch of four dozen chocolate chip cookies (for my students on the last day of class this afternoon), and finally on the donuts themselves.

It turns out cake donut dough is more like batter, and very difficult to keep in a specific shape. I executed one actual donut shaped donut, before resigning myself to making donut holes. Problem with those is they roll around in the oil, and it can be difficult to get them to cook evenly. Finally, I figured out that a hole poked in the middle of a donut hole would make it a little like a mini-donut.

What I realized I really need is one of these things. Next batch I make, I'll invest in one.

After getting glazed* and cooling a bit, I packed up the donuts and cookies and headed to work - where the donuts went fast and received a great response. It felt good to spend the morning working hard to create something for people to enjoy. Maybe there is a future in baking for me someday.

Simple Cake Donuts
315 g cake flour
1 tspn baking powder
1 tspn salt
130 g sugar
2 Tbspn shortening
1 large egg, plus 1 large egg yolk
2/3 cup whole milk
Canola oil for frying

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl, and set aside. In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix the sugar and shortening together for 1 minute on low speed, until sandy. Add the eggs and mix for 1 more minute on medium speed, scraping the sides of the bowl if needed, until the mixture is light colored and thick. Add the dry ingredients to the wet in three separate additions, alternating with milk, mixing until just combined on low speed. The dough will be very sticky. Transfer the dough to a clean bowl, cover directly on the surface of the dough with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 1 to 24 hours.

Heat your oil to 370 degrees F. Gently roll the chilled dough on a counter floured with 1/4 cup cake flour, rolling to 1/2 inch thickness. Be sure to flour the rolling pin, and flour the top of the dough before rolling to avoid sticking. Cut into doughnuts and holes - just a few at a time - transferring them to the oil with a metal spatula. Try to shake off excess flour before adding them to the hot oil - a few at a time. Once they float, fry for about 60 seconds per side. Flip them over when you see a deep golden brown color creeping up from the bottom. Remove from oil and place on a cooling rack over a cookie sheet (to capture oil and eventually the glaze).



Blackberry Glaze
350g confectioner's sugar
1 1/2 tspn light corn syrup
1/4 tspn iodized salt
1/2 tspn vanilla extract
1 Tbspn berry jam
1/3 cup hot water

Place all ingredients in a large mixing bowl or stand mixer. Whisk until the mixture is smooth and all the sugar is incorporated. If the glaze seems too thick, add more hot water, 1 tspn at a time.

To glaze donuts, dip one side of each hot donut into the warm glaze then invert and place on the cooling rack to dry.

*Per advice in the book, I stuck with a glaze because I didn't have time to let the donuts cool - which is required for icings. Glazes are applied while the donut is hot and the glaze is warm, so they create a thin coating of sugary goodness.

Finding Foragables in Peculiar Places

My interest in foragable foods has been increasing lately, and each time I learn of a new plant that is edible, I begin seeing it everywhere. It started two years back when I learned about Pineapple Weed from reading the blog Fat of the Land. Then a trip to the farmers market revealed that Japanese Knotweed is edible, and particularly good when it first sprouts - looking and tasting a bit like a hybrid of asparagus and rhubarb. Each time, I start seeing the plant at every turn, and often in the oddest places. Cracks in the sidewalk seem to be a particularly good environment for many Seattle edibles - including both the aforementioned plants, plus dandelion and plantain.

With three extra mouths to feed, learning which of the plants growing in and around our yard can be consumed means free food for the chickens (and us), so I decided this year I'd make a more concerted effort. I bought a copy of the paperback Fat of the Land: Adventures of a 21st Century Forager (by the same author, Langdon Cook, as the blog), and a 1970's classic, Northwest Foraging, by Doug Benoliel.

Neither includes photos, but by cross referencing the species mentioned with good ol' Google, I'm beginning to build on my knowledge of foragables in the area and their culinary uses, and am again seeing them at every turn.

Case in point: the Morel Mushrooms I discovered growing in the garden beds at my brand new office building. I walked by them a couple times wondering if they could possibly be what I thought they were, but disbelieving that such a coveted edible, which pulls in $50 per pound at Whole Foods down the street, could possible be growing in a garden bed. After consulting with my friends Jason and Martha, dozens of web sites and even more photos, I confirmed they were in fact morels - lots of them - free for the picking. So I grabbed a few on the way home today.

Even though I was confident in my identification (there really aren't any mushrooms that are similar to a morel, and the closest are obviously different in key ways, such as not being hollow like a morel), I took advice I heard and read many places to cook it well (in butter), and eat only a small piece (a tablespoon or less) at first. Some people have bad reactions to even edible mushrooms, so a test is best.

The bite was meaty, buttery (no surprise there) and very satisfying. We'll eat some of the others, and save a couple to try to propagate a batch in our own yard. I hear they like apple trees, so maybe the overgrown behemoth that offers only an apple or two each year can finally help produce something tasty.

Memento Meal - Royal Courts of the Middle Ages

Our sixth round of Memento took place tonight, hosted by Kristin - who selected the theme "The Food of the Royal Courts of the Middle Ages". The dinner took place at Gerald's new apartment up in Northgate.



David and Carolyn started us off with their tasty twist on a classic 'meat' pie - using Coho salmon with a variety of fruits, richly spiced, in a whole wheat crust, created in miniatures as a perfect 3 bite appetizer to get our taste buds warmed up. As you'll see, it was practically an amuse bouche - given a distinctive theme tonight.





In celebration of the royal courts of the Philippines, Gerald created their national dish - chicken adobo - the way it might've been enjoyed by medieval royalty: featuring chicken hearts, gizzards and livers in a vinegary sauce, with rice. This was Memento's first foray into offal - and nearly everyone cleaned their plates. I really enjoyed the chicken livers, and now want to explore other dishes that feature them. The hearts were a little dense (not tough, however) and it was definitely challenging to look down and see a whole heart on your plate - aortas and all.





Dan & I did a take on a medieval 'sallat', focusing on the preservation methods so integral to eating in the colder months in the days before refrigeration. We combined cured meats (salami & pancetta) with preserved fruits and veggies (kalamata and green olives, hearts of palm and capers), plus some fresh red onion and grapefruit - the latter representing the access to traded commodities that only the royalty of the era might've enjoyed. We topped it with some goat cheese and almonds that were toasted in pork fat and topped with sel gris (grey salt), and dressed it with a mixture of local honey, grapefruit juice, and white balsamic vinegar.





Anna & Jason presented a beautiful dish of perfectly roasted poussin (young chicken) on top of a medley of foraged mushrooms (including morel and king bolete) with house cured pig jowl (known as guanciale), a shallot infused potato crisp (cooked in pork fat, I believe), and a simple yet flavorful saute of carrots and foraged sea beans. True to the royal theme, they didn't do the foraging - they left that to the folks from Foraged & Found Edibles.





Our second entree (and second meat pie) was courtesy of our host, Kristin, who created a decadent layered pie of chicken, turkey and duck organ meats, dried fruits soaked in brandy, duck confit, nuts and cheeses, all thickened with trotter gear (aka pig feet gelatin). In the center of each pie was a large bone with breadsticks tucked inside for enjoying the amazing melted marrow.





And finishing us off with the closest thing to a meat pie one could reasonably pass off as dessert was Marcy & James 'Lombardi Custard' - a rich and lovely pie of dried fruits (figs, apricot and dates) with parsley and a secret ingredient that I saw James putting in the pie but still didn't recognize. While I was washing dishes, he was crumbling a bright pink pasty stuff on the pies, his hands covered in it. Never in a million years would I have realized it was bone marrow. Contrary to what you might think, it didn't lend a strong meaty flavor to the dessert - but certainly added some of the richness.

Dan's Molasses Berry Muffins

With the holidays and moving, Q4 of 2009 was not a banner quarter for buying local or keeping up on our breakfast muffins. Although we still need to adjust to our new house in terms of hitting the farmer's market, Dan got us back on track this week by taking the reigns of the muffin making.

Finding we were short on honey, he used both honey and molasses to sweeten the muffins, which turned out great. They're rich and flavorful, almost like gingerbread, but with bursts of mixed berries (foraged and bought during the summer and frozen in batches).

It feels good to be back on track as we start 2010.

Wingnut-Braised Lamb Shanks

For a special, seasonal, comforting meal this week, I took inspiration from a new cookbook I picked up at work called Simply Organic: A Cookbook for Sustainable, Seasonal, and Local Ingredients. As the name suggests, it features recipes grouped by season, and focuses on primary ingredients that are readily available from organic producers while in season. I'm not clear how a cookbook that's not specific to any region could be 'local' - and many ingredients are things that don't grow everywhere - but I can at least appreciate the suggestions of sourcing locally.

This recipe also marked our return to the U-District Farmers Market after a month or so of being too busy with packing/moving/unpacking. Despite the pouring down rain, it felt good to be back, and the smiles of our favorite farmers when we walked up reminded us of the many reasons we go.

Dinner tonight was a wine-braised lamb shank over mashed potatoes. We used a wine called 'wingnut' that I picked out based on the name alone, because that word makes me smile. I'd never heard it before I moved to Bellingham for college, but it became part of my vernacular to describe someone who's a little odd - or downright nuts.

The potatoes and lamb both came from Olsen Farms (of Colville, WA), who always treat us great and make us feel so welcome. The onion, garlic and carrots we purchased from other farmers at the market, and the rosemary we 'foraged' from a bush planted in the sidewalk across from Luau.

It wasn't clear whether to cover the pan while braising, so I made that assumption while cooking. It may have been done a little earlier than the full 2 hours, as I could see the meat separating from the bone after about 1 hr 20 minutes, but being the first time with this recipe, I went with the full 2 hours. The meat was mostly very tender, and incredibly flavorful. Perfect for a rainy day in November here in the Northwest.

Zinfandel-Braised Lamb Shanks

4 lamb shanks (about 3 lbs), cut across the bone by your butcher into 3 inch slices
1/2 tspn salt
1/2 tspn ground pepper
1 bottle (750 ml) hearty red Zinfandel
4 carrots, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 large onion, sliced
1 whole head of garlic, cut into thick slices
1 tspn mustard seeds
5 whole juniper berries (optional)
3 Tbspn unsalted butter
1/4 cup chopped fresh rosemary

Preheat overn to 500 degrees F. Put the lamb in a heavy roasting pan and sprinkle with 1/4 tspn salt & 1/4 tspn pepper. Roast for 30 minutes, turning once, or until browned. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 Add the Zinfandel, carrots, onion, garlic, mustard seeds and juniper berries to the pan. Roast for 2 hours, or until the lamb is very tender and nearly falling off the bone, turning the shanks and basing with the sauce every 20 minutes. Remove the lamb, carrots, onions, and garlic to a large platter. Keep warm. Strain the sauce through a sieve and into a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat. Cook for 5 minutes, or until reduced by half. If the sauce seems too thin, lower the heat to medium and reduce to the desired thickness. Whisk in the butter. Add the remaining 1/4 tspn salt & pepper, or season to taste. Pour the sauce over the meat and carrots and sprinkle with rosemary.

Breakfast with the Neighbors

This morning we got up bright & early, whipped up some locally foraged huckleberry mini muffins, and headed to our new favorite breakfast spot - our neighbors house across the street.

For 2 years now, Jonathan & Suzanne and Dan & I have been meaning to get together for drinks, dinner, or something... but life tends to get in the way, especially when you've got two little ones - Eleanore (almost 4) and Katie (solidly 2). Jonathan & I work just a couple blocks from one another, and now that the Light Rail is running our schedules have begun to collide - riding home together and even walking the 3 miles in together. It was on one of those shared trips that I revealed we're leaving the neighborhood soon, having bought a house in Seward Park, and that became an additional motivation for us to finally set a date and get together. Jonathan & Suzanne graciously hosted us for a Sunday breakfast at their place.

Along with some bacon flown in from his home state, Jonathan served up eggs, orange juice, coffee & tea, and some amazing cinnamon rolls. It was such a wonderful time to get to know them a little better, eat together, and enjoy such great food, and I hope our move won't hinder us from continuing to hang out.

Four Berry Breakfast Muffins

Thanks to my parents and their big backyard full of red huckleberries and blueberries, to my neighbor's towering blackberry bush that grows into our yard, and to our cute little raspberry bush trying to make it through the summer heat - this week's breakfast muffins feature four kinds of berries.



And thanks to the new Light Rail, I got into work early, and was able to leave early, and my commute was cut in half... making it easy for me to come home and bake up our breakfast muffins before Dan even made it home from work.

Rasberry Blackberry Muffins

Using raspberries from our garden, and blackberries from the freezer (foraged last year), I made up some tasty muffins for our breakfasts this week. Although I've tried all sorts of fruits (and other oddities) in our breakfast muffins, berries really do seem to produce the best results, and these were no exception.

Hawai'i Day Eleven: Mid-Week Luau Favorites

After hiking to, and snorkeling at, Champagne Pond, we used more of the huli huli chicken and sweet bread buns to make some sandwiches, which we enjoyed in the outdoor dining room at the house we're staying at.



Today was a turning point of our vacation - the halfway point of this trip, as well as the day we would've left had we stayed the same length as our last trip (10 nights). It feels great to know we've done so much and still have so much time to do more. We're planning a trip back into Hilo tomorrow, a trip all the way around the North side of the island, over to Kona, and back along Saddle Road, and a trip up to the Volcano to hopefully see some flowing lava.



And I'll be snorkeling my brains out, of course. I've seen 3 moray eels so far, along with lots of other cool fish, and can't get enough of it.

When we were at Basically Books talking with Deb last week, I joked that we brought a whole library with us. In addition to books on Buddhism, chicken coops, physics, meat, and economics for our light reading pleasure, we brought numerous guidebooks, a book on Hawaiian reef fish, a book on weaving coconut palm fronds, and a stack of Hawaiian cookbooks. We both read a lot, and I'm cooking most meals, so it only seemed natural that we should bring along a bunch of books, particularly our Hawaiian cookbooks.



Using our Best of the Best from Hawaii cookbook, I made up a 5 lb kalua pork in the oven for dinner tonight (and several meals later this week, undoubtedly). Normally, kalua pork is made by burying a pig in a hole in the ground lined with heated lava rocks, called an imu. But thankfully, you can sorta recreate the flavor and texture and deliciousness of kalua pork in the oven.



Tonight we had it with some rice, poi, and a little ahi poke I made from leftovers... but we plan to make pizza and nachos and breakfast with it, and generally sneak it into every meal we can until it's gone. 5 lbs is a lot of pig!





Oven Kalua Pig
2 Tbspn Hawaiian salt
1/4 cup shoyu or soy sauce
1 tspn Worcestershire sauce
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 inch of ginger root, crushed
1 Tbspn liquid smoke
1 4-5 lb pork butt
Ti or banana leaves

Mix together the salt, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, ginger and liquid smoke. Place pork on several ti or banana leaves. Rub with seasoning mix and let stand for 1 hour. Fold leaves over to wrap the pork. Wrap the leaf-enclosed pork in foil. Place in a baking pan and bake in a 325 degree F oven for 4-5 hours. Unwrap pork, cool, and shred meat.



To go with my dinner tonight, I drank the water from inside a coconut Dan foraged on one of his runs through the neighborhood. I hacked off the end with a kitchen knife, and poured the juice into a glass, added a little lime (just like the song says to do), and enjoyed the refreshing, cool drink.



(Dan's writing all about our trip over at our other blog, The Dans In Hawai`i, so I'll just stick to writing what I know: food.)