American Traditions Picnic II

The second annual American Traditions Picnic was held on Sunday at Daybreak Start Cultural Center in Discovery Park. Even though the rains held off, we decided to host the event indoors this year, which we were happy to do since the structure is so beautiful with its design of whole reclaimed logs and plenty of natural light. This annual event is cosponsored by Chefs Collaborative and Slow Food Seattle. It is a derivative of the RAFT (Renewing America’s Food Traditions) picnic that was the brainchild of Professor Gary Paul Nabhan. The RAFT event was the culmination of three years of discovering America’s lost food traditions, distributing the seed to farmers, growing the new “old” produce” and finally getting chefs involved to cook these ingredients for the public to taste and savor.

The food and chef combinations this year were fantastic. Author and chef instructor Kären Jurgensen brought several students from Seattle Central Community College to assist in the preparation of freshly shucked Olympia oysters with a sage and huckleberry granite. Top notch restaurants Tilth and La Medusa made creative uses of Makah Ozette potatoes and eggplant, respectively while Oliver’s Twist and Taste at SAM made wonderful seasonal combinations with heirloom tomatoes and apples. I translated last year’s salad into a new presentation of Speckled Trout Lettuce and Foraged Lobster Mushroom Vinaigrette with Estrella Family Creamery’s Alderwood –smoked scamorze. My personal favorite (and I can speak for most of the crowd, was Dustin Ronspies’(Art of the Table) Pulled Churro Lamb. He told me he braised it for 18 hours and added lots of season goodies. The flatbread, chickpea puree and relish were perfect compliments to a well thought out dish. Dustin’s kitchen help (Phil) grilled Riley Stark’s reefnet sockeye salmon to perfection with the fire prowess of Lance McCune by his side. Homemade birch beer was concocted by private chef Lesa Sullivan using her grandmother’s recipe.

Riley Starks spoke to the crowd about the privilege and pleasure he derives from his reefnet salmon fishing operation. The chance to pay homage to ancient fishing techniques, and the ability to share the fishery with chefs, fishermen and the public makes the reefnet program very special for Riley. I have been one of lucky folks who spent time on the reefnet gear fishing for sockeye, catching and then cooking those awesome Fraser River-run salmon. Any and every chef should have this opportunity.


Mary Hunter is a storyteller visiting Seattle from the Makah tribe via Neah Bay. She shared some of the family traditions that are important to her, her family’s history and the significance of maintaining these stories. The meaning in eating traditional foods is transferred through family recipes, annual rituals, and the telling of stories. Mary came in contact with the Seattle Chefs Collaborative a few years ago when member Ashlyn Forschner visited her at her home on the Olympic peninsula. The stories and recipes the Mary shared with Ashlyn and with the crowd at the Daybreak Center on Sunday put our event into perspective. As a culture we eat what is familiar and comfortable to us; if we distance ourselves from our traditions were are sadly alone, but by remembering and honoring those traditions were are happily together as a culture.

An important feature of the picnic, which certainly should not be dismissed as a footnote to the day, was to delivery of our picnic foods to the homeless tent city in a nearby field. The residents of “Nickelsville” were grateful to accept the meal and the participating chefs brought the dishes into a large teepee that served as a makeshift buffet station. I addressed the folks who were living in the temporary city and some of the Slow Food members who joined us in our procession. I was very fortunate to be giving the food to a group of fellow human beings who would appreciate the meal for its warmth and strength. I know my fellow Slow Fooders appreciated the meal as well, but I don’t think they were without alternatives. To know that you will be taken care of by someone at all times is something we take for granted. When you do not know where you will live in the coming days or where you will get the next healthy meal, there is a greater level of appreciation for human good will. Mary Hunter then thanked the residents of the tent city for being brave enough to endure the resistance they often must face. The hope of some can be the fuel for others.


On occasion, one event can really sum up a lot of what I am trying to accomplish as a chef in Seattle. Sunday’s American Traditions Picnic delivered for me on many levels. I was able to source produce and feed a concerned and involved public group a dish that represents what is best and delicious right now in the Puget Sound. I was able to bring a group of chefs together who think similarly about ingredients and the dishes they create. Finally, and most importantly, I was able to feed a group who think of food on a most basic level – that of nutrition and subsistence. I am thankful for this event to be able to make a contribution to the food community on all of these points.

Recipes: Full Circle Farm Cooking Demo

Savoy Cabbage and Baby Carrots with Herb Salad
Serves 8 as salad course

Ingredients
1 bu salad burnett
1 bu bronze fennel
1 bu chives
1 bu mint
1 bu lovage
1 bu tarragon
1 bu sweet cicely
1 lb mixed sweet peppers
1 bu white pearl onions
2 ea Savoy cabbage
1 bu thumbalina carrots
1 bu rainbow carrots
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp red wine vinegar
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper

Method
1) Mix the Herb Salad: Wash and dry all of the herbs and pick the individual leaves off of each of the herb bunches. The chives can be cut into ½” batons and the tarragon may be lightly chopped if the leaves are large. Mix all of the herbs together and set asides, covered lightly with a damp towel.
2) Make the Vinaigrette: In a small bowl whisk together 1 Tbsp and 1 tsp vinegar. Season liberally with salt and pepper. Set aside.
3) Prepare the Vegetables: Roast, peel, and roughly chop the sweet peppers. Peel and cut the onions in half. Slice all of the carrots on a Japanese mandoline or slice very thinly with chef’s knife. Shred the cabbage with chef’s knife.
4) Cook the Vegetables: Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in large sauté pan over high heat. Before the oil is smoking, add the onions and carrots. Season with salt and pepper. Sauté for three minutes until the edges of the carrots begin to brown. Add the cabbage, salt and pepper to taste and cook covered for an additional six minutes. Remove cover and allow liquid in the pan to evaporate for one minute. The vegetables can be served hot or at room temperature.
5) Assemble the dish: Place the vegetables on eight salad plates, In a medium bowl, mix herb salad with vinaigrette, salt and pepper. Place a small pile of the herbs on top of the vegetables and enjoy. Bon appétit!


Lobster Mushrooms with Fennel and Tomato
serves 8 as a side dish

Ingredients
1 lb lobster mushrooms
2 ea fennel bulbs
2 pints mixed cherry tomatoes
2 tsp fresh thyme, chopped
1 tsp fresh bergartten sage, chiffonade
1 ½ Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
dry white wine
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper

Method
1) Prepare the Mushrooms: Brush off any dirt with a coarse brush. Cut the lobster mushroom (if large) into quarters. Slice each mushroom piece into ¼” thick slices and set aside in a bowl. Heat a large non-stick pan over high heat. Add 1 Tbsp olive oil and mushrooms in a single layer. Sauté for three minutes and season with salt and pepper. Deglaze the mushrooms with a splash of white wine. Set mushrooms aside.
2) Prepare the Fennel and Tomatoes: Remove most of the fronds from the fennel bulb. Using a Japanese mandoline or large chef’s knife, thinly slice the fennel into long strips. Remove stems from tomatoes. Heat a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the tomatoes and cook until they begin to blister. Remove the tomatoes and add ½ Tbsp olive oil to the pan. Cook the fennel for four minutes until it begins to soften. Add thyme, sage, salt, pepper and the blistered tomatoes.
3) Finish the Dish: Rewarm mushrooms and toss with the fennel and tomato mixture. Transfer to serving platter and garnish with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Enjoy!

King County Harvest Celebration Tour at Full Circle Farm

Last Saturday was the annual King County Harvest Celebration Tour. This year I was paired with Full Circle Farm in Carnation and I was asked to prepare samples of the farm’s seasonal produce. I treated this cooking demo much like I would treat my farmers market cooking demos – I arrived with knives and cutting boards in tote, but would allow the availability of produce determine what I’d be preparing for the Tour’s participants. (Full disclosure – I was emailed the produce availability list earlier in the week and I came prepared with a couple of recipes I could use as a guide.)

The very first local farm to get in touch with me when I returned to Seattle in 2005 was Full Circle Farm. A certified organic farm with restaurant and farmers market sales as well as one of the countries largest CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) programs, the farm stood out amongst the small farms of Carnation. When I finally met the farm’s owner, Andrew Stout, I understood why we were draw together – Andrew’s belief and passion about producing high quality foods for the local market and my desire and obligation to transform this produce to delicious menu items was a natural fit. I was immediately impressed right away not only about the diversity, variety and quality of their produce, but also the level of service provided by sales manager Lance McCune.

Three years later, some faces at Full Circle have changed, but the attitude has not. Maggie Hoback and Emily Thompson, guided by the inspiration of Andrew, are continuing to emphasize the role of the small farm in community and they are looking to the coming years as making the farm a model of sustainable farming and center of community and educational activities. I look forward to the opportunities that will be presented to me and other Seattle chefs in helping to forge their visions.

So, more details about the dishes I demoed for the visitors to the farm. I absolutely LOVE Full Circle’s selection of herbs, and so I wanted to make a dish featuring an herb salad as a garnish. I hand-picked several bunches of tarragon, sweet cicely, bronze fennel, spearmint, chives, and salad burnett. I had hoped for lovage as well, but the harvest was unavailable for me. The fragrant collection of herbs were tossed with a little raspberry wine vinaigrette and served over a sauté of just-pulled yellow and orange baby carrots, and Savoy cabbage, which Maggie indicated had been harvested by her only an hour earlier.

On my table display I had several large lobster mushrooms. Throughout the day, people asked what they were which is no surprise – the Pacific Northwest is one of the only places this beautiful mushroom grows in the wild. I’ve loved cooking with them because the earthy flavor and toothful texture yields to an aroma that complements many styles of cooking. For this demonstration, I wanted to provide more fragrance from freshly sliced fennel bulbs and the sweet juiciness of cherry tomatoes. I added a little sage and thyme to some tomatoes that I had blistered in a pan. The fennel was wilted slightly and the mushrooms were seared in a skillet. Everything was brought together to simmer in the tomato juice for a few minutes and the result was a versatile side dish that could accompany salmon, halibut, lamb or even pasta noodles.

Thanks go out to Full Circle Farm for providing me with the delicious ingredients for the cooking demo, to Maggie and Emily for helping to organize the day’s activities at the farm, to King County for continuing to promote the region’s seasonal bounties, and, of course, to everyone who came by the demo to grab a recipe, watch the cooking, and tour Full Circle Farm. Hope to see everyone at the farm next year!