In October we were lucky enough to have Tim Daly from the Cheese Bar show us his tricks for preparing a market-inspired fall soup. Here’s his recipe!
- 2 QT stock (Vegetable, Chicken or “Pipe”, whatever)
- 1 C uncooked pearl barley
- salt – to taste
- 1 lg yellow onion – small dice
- 2 carrots – peel, small dice
- 2 or 3 stalks celery – small dice
- 2 leeks with as much white and light green as possible – wash well, thin slice
- extra virgin olive oil – for the pan (or the oil from making roasted garlic confit)
- salt (kosher, or med course sea)
- fresh ground black pepper
- rinse barley under cool water and place in 2 qt sauce pot, cover with stock plus an inch, cook over medium heat (when water comes to a boil, season with salt to “salty like the sea”) until tender, but still chewy, you may need to add more stock during cooking, check and stir occasionally to avoid scorching.
- drain barley, reserving any excess stock to add to the soup, set aside until later
- sweat the mire poix (plus leeks) in oil over med low heat season liberally with salt and black pepper
- an assortment of market gathered seasonal veggies
This is where inspiration should strike, and as I said at market, feel free to improvise with whatever looks good, you are craving, or you simply have an abundance of for whatever reason. This is the reason I love to cook soups so much, there are endless varieties and it is quite a forgiving medium which lends itself to experimentation.
I believe I used:
- garlic – both fresh (1 head) -sliced razor thin, and roasted (confit) (~ a cup) – rough chop
- 1 largish delecata squash – halve, scoop seed, med. dice
- 1 bunch kale or other hearty braising green – rough chop
- ½ bunch Italian parsley – pick leaves, med. rough chop
- add the firmer veggies (like the squash) into the cooked mir piox and sweat them a bit, add raw garlic last and cook for a minute or two, until fragrant.
- add stock to cover plus 2 or 3 inches, bring heat up to high, bring to slow boil, reduce heat to low, add kale and simmer until the squash ( or other veg.) are tender ( ~20 min)
- add barley
- time to start tasting and adjusting seasoning and balance of sweet, salty, acidic, and savory (ummami)
At this point is when I added the crushed plum tomatoes, salt, pepper, any fresh herbs, and lemon juice.
Remember, if your taste buds are tired from tasting the soup over and over while adjusting, seek the help of your loved ones, cooking should be a collaborative process which brings us all closer together.
Enjoy!
Tim Daly is a tough guy to pin down. It was a feat of miraculous proportions when at last I caught him on the phone for our interview, and it was at once thrilling, and frightening – I kept half expecting to get dead air on the other end when I asked a question. The longer we talked the more clear it became that while food is truly one of Tim’s passions – he has been in the business for more that thirty years not – he is a person who is constantly seeking the new, unknown, a challenge. “It drives people who know me crazy – my wife especially – I need to have a lot going on all at once. I was that kid in school who was always getting yelled at for wandering around the classroom. I just get bored really easily.”At first, in light of this, I puzzled over how the restaurant world managed to hold Daly’s attention for this long – food, just food, for 30 years? But the more I thought, the more I realized that in many ways the food world is a perfect place for him, and more specifically, the rich worlds of cheese and beer and wine that are celebrated over at Southeast Portlands’ temple of milk-aliciousness, Cheese Bar. Daly is the chef – although he preferred not to be called that exactly, since it is important to him that the menu is a collaborative process – of the small plates area of the multi-tasking, cheese lovers paradise. One can stop by Cheese Bar on the way home, pick a cheese or five out of the roughly 200 that they carry, to have with (or for) dinner, or you can pull up a seat in the more restaurant-y side of things and order something from Daly’s menu of cheese-and-charcuterie-centric treats.
A Portland food scene veteran, Daly has a worked in great places all over town. Fresh out of culinary school, Daly was on the opening crew at Wildwood, a job that held his attention for 3 years and which he calls “one of the best jobs I’ve ever had”. It was a particularly exciting moment in the life of Oregon’s food culture, and as he explains it; “It was a such a cool time in that everyone who opened the restaurant had all moved to Portland from other places specifically to work at Wildwood, so we sort of bonded over that.” After that, he went to Red Star Tavern in downtown Portland, helping to get that restaurant up and running, eventually taking over on the sweet side of things, working as the pastry chef for 3 years. That was followed by a little time behind the scenes at Provvista as then as a butcher at the dear departed Nature’s. Eventually he made a move south to Silverton, where he lives now with his wife and daughter. After some work in Salem at the terrific J.James and it’s sister restaurant, Wild Pear, Daly decided it was time to take some time off to raise his daughter.
Lucky for us, and for Steve Jones – as in what used to be Steve’s Cheese but is now morphed in to Cheese Bar – about seven years ago, Daly felt ready to jump back into the world of food. He met Jones at an industry event back when he was just getting ready to open Steve’s Cheese. Jones was looking for a little help with the shop and it just so happened Daly was ready and willing. “I’ve always loved cheese, but I didn’t really know how much I loved cheese until I started working for Steve. With subjects like cheese or wine or beer, they’re so vast, you can come at them from so many angles – the historical angle, the agricultural angle, craftsmanship angle – so I don’t think I’ll ever grow bored with it. I find them so exciting because they’re so tradition-oriented, but then there are people who are out there making cheese or wine today and totally changing the game.”
And the most pressing question of all – does he have a favorite cheese? “Ooooh, man. Ok that’s tough. Well there are two answers. For nostalgia reasons, I’ll say Cabot Clothbound Cheddar, aged for at least a year, served with a warm slice of homemade apple pie, preferably. Secondly, something I fell in love with more recently; a category of cheese from Piedmont called Robiola. In Piedmont almost every farm makes one. Farmers use all kinds of milk, cow, sheep, etc. They’re soft and mild, aged no more than a month, and so they really really express the milk itself, the animal, seasonality. I have a vivid imagination and so I tell people that they’re like a very inexpensive trip to Utaly because you can taste the fresh grass in the Spring time, the mountain air, the sunshine. They’re simple and perfect.” We’re sold – by which I mean drooling – how about you?
Come see Tim and his mad kitchen skill this Sunday at the Montavilla Market!
Well friends, another week, another chef demo, another trend emerges! Like many of our other chefs, Kimberly James of the spanking new Southern food cart Blues City Greens began her life in the kitchen as a young (11 year old) vegetarian. “Going vegetarian in the Delta in 1990 was really hard, to say the least”, she says, “My mother wasn’t about to cook something just for me, and most meals centered around meat, so I had to learn how to cook.”
Although her vegetarian days are behind her now, James still makes plenty of room on her plate for greens, her forever-favorite food. Growing up, she describes her mother as a good cook, and her grandmother on her father’s side as a great cook. “She never put pork in her greens, which is pretty unheard of in the South. She taught me that people only needed to add pork to greens if they were crappy greens, and hers were fresh from her garden and perfect just the way they were.” Today, at Blues City Greens, Kimberly honors her Grandmother by cooking down her organic greens with little more than smoke and chilis.
The oh-so belle-like Kimberly comes to us lucky, hungry wild wild Westerners by way of Memphis (where her family has been since the 1700’s!) Australia, and finally Los Angeles, where she worked for six whirlwind years in the film industry. Wiped out and wrung dry by the smog and general LA-ness of LA, Kimberly and her husband decided it was time for a change. 20 minutes in to her first visit to Portland, she knew she had found her new home. Within months of the move, health issues that had developed in LA had cleared up, and she found herself ready to tackle her lifelong dream, born out of 10 years spent waitressing through college and graduate school, of owning her own little food business. I don’t need to explain all the reasons that a food cart made sense – you’re Portland people, you know what it’s all about! Finally she found the cart, and began to develop and perfect homespun, wholesome, organicandlocalandseasonal riffs on her childhood favorites.
“I never really consciously decided ‘I’m going to serve Southern food’. It’s more like, what else would I have done? It wasn’t until I left the South that I realized how really Southern I actually am. I really love in Southern food, and I believe in Southern food. It’s not just unhealthy, meaty food. Southerners like a lot of food on the table; a lot of colors and flavors that go together, lots of vegetables. When I was little, turnip greens were my favorite food. The way that some kids beg for cakes and cookies, I would beg for turnip greens. I think the best food carts in town are the carts where people are serving the foods they grew up on. ”
We’ll get a taste of those begged-for greens at the market this Sunday when Kimberly cooks up beet and turnip greens to accompany an oh-so autumnal cider-glazed squash! Hope to see you there! In the meantime, check out her food (and say hi!) at Blues City Greens at Cartlandia (8145 SE 82nd), on her website, bluescitygreens.com and follow them on Twitter @bluescitygreens! See you at the Market!
Cider-Glazed Squash with Hazelnuts and Kielbasa, Served on a Bed of Southern Greens
- 1/4 cup butter
- Fresh sage, finely chopped (about 2 or 3 Tbsp)
- Fresh rosemary, finely chopped (about 2 or 3 Tbsp)
- Fresh garlic, finely chopped (about 2 or 3 Tbsp)
- 3 delicata squash, peeled, insides removed, quartered & sliced
- 2 cups apple cider
- 3/4 cup water
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 small onion, halved and sliced thin
- 2 Tbsp garlic, finely chopped
- 4 bunches sturdy greens (chard, beet greens, turnip greens, collards, kale, etc.)
- 1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil
- 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp crushed red pepper
- 1 Tbsp smoked salt
- 1 cup water
For the top:
- 2 links Olympic Provisions kielbasa, cooked
- 3/4 cup hazelnuts
- Cube the kielbasa into small chunks. Chop the hazelnuts finely.
Sophie Rahman, from Masala, will be back at the Market this Sunday to share her tips for preparing delicious Indian dishes using fresh market ingredients. Here’s her eggplant recipe for her demo!
Ingredients:
- Freshly ground root ginger 1 tsp
- Freshly ground Garlic 1 tsp
- 1tsp whole fennel seeds
- 1/2 tsp kalonji or whole cumin seeds
- 1 tsp salt (or to taste)
- ¼ – ½ tsp cayenne pepper (depending on how hot you like it)
- Oil for cooking eggplant (1/4 cup) plus 3 tablespoons
- 1/4 tsp ground tumeric
- 1 large/2 medium sized egg plants
- 1 14oz can tomatoes – chopped (or 3/4lb tomatoes, peeled and finely chopped)
- 1 tablespoon ground coriandar
Method:
Cut the eggplant into slices or wedges that are ¾” thick and about 11/2” long.
Heat oil in pan (usually begin with 2 tablespoons) – when oil is hot (make sure it is really hot) add enough egg plant to cover base of pan fry in oil for a minute or two till egg plant is a reddish color. (As you put the eggplant in to the oil, it will absorb it completely). Fry in batches using 2 tablespoons of oil at a time. (You should have about two batches in all).
Drain eggplant on a paper towel.
Put 3 tablespoons of oil in a frying pan and heat over a medium flame. When hot, put in the fennel seeds and kalonji, or whole cumin. As soon as the fennel seeds turn a few shades darker (this takes just a few seconds), put in the chopped tomato, the ginger and garlic paste, coriander, tumeric, cayenne and salt. Stir and cook for 5 – 6 minutes, breaking the tomato pieces with the back of a spoon. Turn up heat slightly and continue to stir and cook until the spice mixture gets thick and paste like.
Put in the fried egg plant slices and mix altogether gently. Cook on a medium-low heat for about 5 minutes, stirring gently as you do so. Cover the pan, turn heat to very low and cook another 5 – 10 minutes if you think it is necessary.
This week we’ve got Chef Chris Carriker of the Gilt Club up in the Chef Demo tent! I have to admit a little bias here. Gilt Club is a place special to my heart for all kinds of reasons, and no, not just because I enjoy a lovely cocktail in a nice cozy room, though that’s a pretty huge factor in my adoration equation. Anyway, I found a way to ensure that my bias won’t come into play too much in this week’s gripping edition of Market Chef. As it turns out Chef Carriker has a particularly engaging voice, and I thought that you fine people really ought to enjoy the raw, uncut, nearly un-Miranda-ized interview that we had earlier this summer! So here it is, straight up, hold the twist.
Where did you get the cooking bug - from your parents? What sort of stuff did you grow up eating?
My mother and father were not… gourmands, so a lot of it was what I grew up eating was fast to make. And as there were 7 of us - I’m the eldest - quantity cooking was in order, which meant a lot of soups and stews, so I actually kind of really hate soup now.
So how on earth did you end up a chef?
My chef “journey” started as a dishwasher when I was quite young- around 17 - like most. I did not have an epiphany like so many other chefs describe. I worked my way through the ranks and I just found that I was a misfit in other professions. I tried so many other things - working at the humane society (NOT good with animals), carpenter’s assistant (horrible carpenter, horrible assistant), etc - and I just always came back to the kitchen.
The big decision came when I was going to college to get a “real” degree… I was trying to become either a history teacher or computer engineer. At the time a was working full time in a kitchen and a chef I worked for at the time called me into his office and told me to “Stop f***ing around with college, because I had too much of a temper for teaching and not enough patience for computers.” Maybe he was right, maybe he was wrong but I took his advice and went to culinary school.
How did you get where you are today, heading up the kitchen at The Gilt Club? Any chefs that you’ve worked with that have sort of been mentors in your life?
I went to Western Culinary for more formal training I guess. But I had more hands on training in the school of hard knocks - and that was MUCH more valuable. I had a lot of chefs influence me along the way for all sorts of reasons. Chef Ronnie Vance for a different take on food- he was willing to take chances a lot of chef are afraid to take. Chef Kenny Giambalvo for his even, steady way of handling the pressure cookers that are restaurant kitchens. Chef Chris Israel for his meticulous approach towards the restaurant as a whole (front and back of the house).
Talk about your process as a chef. How do you create your menu, what inspires you?
When I get started working on a new menu I try to take some classic food, and put a twist on it. Whether it’s caramel corn bread pudding, or a play on strawberry shortcake but with foie gras. When I do cook at home I try and find an ingredient at the farmers market and build on it. For example, I might to char the hell out of eggplant and puree it and go from there. That simple starting point eventually became braised short ribs with charred eggplant, black vinegar sauce, fried peanuts and summer squash.
I used to get inspiration from cookbooks or other chefs (Michel bras, Fergus Henderson, and Paul Bertolli), but now I just get it from Oregon itself. Not to be cheesy but from the farmers markets; wild, foraged products, and all the meat being locally raised here! How can you not be inspired by what goes on in this place? What I love about this job is the constant learning, and the look on guests faces when the food really clicks with them. The thing that drives me as a chef is the quest for the perfect dish of food. I had it once and then it was gone.
What was it?! I have to know.
Thomas Keller’s famous dish of "oyster and pearls" at The French Laundry. It’s just perfect little oysters, with tapioca pearls, and caviar. A sensational texture and flavor.
What do you cook at home? What are your favorite dishes?
When I cook at home usually I am experimenting for a new menu… so my friends and wife are basically my guinea pigs. Mexican food is what I usually eat on my day off from my local food cart El Nutria Taco or I go to Lion’s Eye on 82nd for tasty beer.
Mmmmm beer! Thanks Chris! Here's a taste of what Chris will be cooking up for us this coming Sunday! It's ....ambitious to say the least!
Ricotta Gnocchi
With parsley pistou, fava beans, peas, calabrian chilies, and roasted cherry tomatoes
Serves 6
Ricotta:
- 1 Gallon of Whole Milk
- ½ Cup of Heavy Cream
- 3 Tablespoons of salt
- ¼ Cup of Lemon Juice
- 3 Tablespoons of White vinegar
Gnocchi:
- 1 pound of ricotta
- 1 cup of grated Parmesan
- 2 whole eggs
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 cup + 3 tablespoons of “00” flour
- Pinch of grated nutmeg
- salt and white pepper to taste
Parsley Pistou
- 1 cup of picked Italian parsley
- ¼ cup of shelled pistachios
- 2/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon of minced garlic
- 2 Tablespoons of Parmesan
- Salt to taste
Vegetables
- ½ cup of shelled fava beans
- 2 pints of cherry tomatoes
- 3 sprigs of basil
- ½ cup of sugar snap peas
- Pinch of garlic
- 6 calabrian chilies, chopped
- Sea salt to taste
- Torn basil and grated Parmesan for garnish
Ricotta:
Place milk, cream, and salt in a pot over medium high heat and stir occasionally. You want to reach 180 degrees… try not to scald the milk. Once it has reached the proper temperature pull the pot from the heat. Stir in lemon juice and vinegar for one minute. Add a little more salt. You should see curds starting to form. Let the curds rest off head for one hour. When the ricotta has rested ladle out the curds on top into cheesecloth lined colander. Let the cheese drain for two hours to create a firm ricotta. Pull the cheesecloth up and squeeze out the excess moisture.
Can be refrigerated for up to one week.
Parsley Pistou:
Pick parsley leaves wash and dry parsley before you make the pesto. Add all the ingredients to your blender pulse until a chunky sauce not a smooth paste. Adjust with salt and lemon if needed.
Cherry tomatoes:
Toss the cherry tomatoes in olive oil to coat, Salt and pepper liberally. Place them on a half sheet pan lined with parchment and cook at 400 for ten minutes. They should look raisin like.
Fava Beans:
Shell favas then blanch the beans for forty seconds shock the vegetables in ice water and peel the outer skin off.
Gnocchi:
Take one pound of dry ricotta (no excess moisture) and whisk in Parmesan, eggs, and yolk. Nutmeg, salt and pepper until incorporated. Fold in 1 cup of sifted flour to the mix. Place on a flour dusted cutting board and let rest for twenty minutes. Take gnocchi dough and cut into one-inch dumplings with a flour-dusted knife.
Assembly:
Take the formed gnocchi and put into slowly simmering salted water. Once they raise let them cook for another 30 to 45 seconds. Start sauté pan on medium heat, once heated add olive oil. Add peas first slowly cook until half way done. Add a pinch of garlic, fava beans, and roasted cherry tomatoes until flavor incorporate together (about a minute). Add gnocchi to vegetables toss in parsley pistou stir in until thoroughly. Adjust with salt and pepper. After you placed the gnocchi in bowls add Parmesan, olive oil, calabrian chilies, and hand torn basil as garnish.
I was going to start writing this post about 45 minutes ago, and take my time carefully crafting each sentence and idea as I always do – as you, dear readers, have come to expect of me! I say was because after talking to Julie Hasson on the phone, I just had to pop over to everydaydish.tv, a collection of videos she made with her husband where she teaches you how to make ALL kinds of scrumptious looking vegan treats. It was entrancing and drool-inducing. The fact that I hadn’t had dinner yet and it was already 9 pm wasn’t helping me tear my eyes from the screen, as I’m one of those weirdos for whom food on TV seems to satiate me in some odd way. Everything Julie cooks looks amazing, but may I recommend the chocolate chip cookie video? If you can make it to the Market this weekend, rumor has it she’ll be baking up those very same cookies and you’d be crazy to miss it.
Growing up with a health-conscious, garden-growing mom who knew her way around the kitchen in LA in the 70’s, Hasson was surrounded by good food from early days. This foundation sprouted her realization that food was important and something to love and appreciate, and this realization lead to the decision to attend culinary school after high school at UCLA, which had a culinary program at the time. Julie found herself cooking her way around LA restaurants during and after culinary school and found she had a bit of a penchant for baking. Around the time of the rise of Starbucks and the “coffeehouse boom” as Hasson describes it, she and her husband Jay opened Baby Cakes, a wholesale bakery in LA that catered to coffeeshops around town. Six fun, floury, buttery years later, she and Jay were a little burned out and ready for a change of scene. Longing to try a new city on for size, the two settled on Boise, where they wasted no time opening a baking and catering company. Julie says “I just knew I had to do food, I guess I just can’t not do food”. It was then that she began to write articles here and there for national food magazines such as Cooking Light and Bon Appetit. She began working on cookbooks a bit as well and after 6 years in Idaho, they were ready for another scene change – this time to our fair city! She has since put out 5 non-vegan cookbooks and a recent 6th called Vegan Diner, which features those incredible-looking aforementioned chocolate chip cookies, among countless, delicious sounding others.
After going vegan 5 years ago, prompted by a combination of reading Fast Food Nation and their teenage sons’ decision to become a vegetarian, recipe development wasn’t just for cookbooks anymore – it was about simply finding delicious ways to eat on their new plant-based diet!Then, two years ago, she and Jay took that popular Portland plunge – they decided to start a food cart! Only 5 weeks passed between when they acquired the cart and their opening day, so it was a whirlwind birth of a dream, but Native Bowl seems to be treating everyone- the Hasson’s and everyone in Portland with $6 and an appetite – very well! “I love what I do. it’s really nice to connect with both the food and with people. When I was just writing books, it was really solitary, I was in the kitchen all the time – having to develop recipes all day. But I really didn’t get to see people and it’s so great to see immediate feedback and to really see reactions” she says of the busy, happy life of a food cart owner.Come visit Julie at the Montavilla Market this weekend, and check out her books HERE
Julie’s Soft And Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
These cookies have quickly become our family’s favorite, which says a lot. We’re a very tough crowd to please when it comes to chocolate chip cookies. These babies are soft and chewy, and take only minutes to whip together. They also happen to be much lower in fat that traditional chocolate chip cookies.
Makes about 18 2-inch cookies
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour or whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Dash of fine sea salt
3/4 cup lightly packed light brown sugar
3 tablespoons canola oil
2 tablespoons soymilk or other non-dairy milk
1 tablespoon flaxseed meal, preferably golden
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup nondairy semisweet chocolate chips
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat silicone baking mats.
In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a large bowl, beat together the brown sugar, oil, soymilk, flax meal and vanilla until smooth. Add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture, stirring just until mixed. Fold in the chocolate chips.
Scoop the batter onto the prepared baking sheets, 2-inchs apart. Bake in the preheated oven for 12 minutes, or until puffed and golden brown. Remove the trays from the oven and place on a rack to cool completely.
Recipe adapted from Vegan Diner, by Julie Hasson, 2011, Running Press