taco crawl: Burlington

Happy Cinco de Mayo! Are you having tacos tonight? If not, don’t worry – we ate some for you.

Last weekend, Jon and I went taco-hopping with the help of three intrepid friends. Piled into our minivan, we confused the hell out of the workers at three different taco trucks along Burlington Boulevard. A clown car full of gringos, weird. Eventually we ran out of known taco truck locations as well as appetite, but I think we did pretty well.

Heading over the Skagit River to Burlington, we kept our eyes peeled. There used to be a carniceria in this area, which sometimes set up a big grill out in its parking lot, but sadly it closed last year. We found no sign of tacos until we had passed the mall, but just after Office Max we saw our first target, Taco Express.

backyard chickens

Some of you may be familiar with another local blog, The (Not So) Urban Hennery, written by my friend Laura McCrae. I am happy to announce that, two weeks from now, Laura will be giving a talk at my workplace, the Mount Vernon City Library, on raising chickens. And given that I’ve been buying rather transcendently wonderful eggs from Laura every week, I can tell you she knows how to take good care of chickens.

Yes, it’s a Monday night, but it doesn’t run that late. Come on out and show your support, visit the library and maybe learn something about chickens! And perhaps we’ll go out for a beer afterwards.

Backyard Chickens
with Laura McCrae

(part of the Renew Washington project)

6:30 pm, Monday, May 17

Mount Vernon City Library
315 Snoqualmie Street
Mount Vernon, WA, 98273
(360) 336-6209

April at Gretchen's

In addition to all the other stuff we’ve been doing this month, we’ve helped out at three different classes at Gretchen’s Cooking School: Peter Belknap’s class on the food of Marseille, an all-Malbec tasting with Renee Stark of Noble Wines, and tapas with Knut Christianson. Lots of chopping, lots of dishes, and some fabulous food and wine. Here are some pictures showing highlights from the various classes (click on the images to see more info at my Flickr account).

balsamic rhubarb

So when we were at the Stumbling Goat the other night, one of the entrees I was eyeballing consisted of duck breast served with Bluebird Farms farro and rhubarb. I thought that sounded swell, but also rather like something I could make at home. So, the following night, I made it at home. More or less.

We didn’t have any duck, but I did have a package of chicken thighs left over from a Gretchen’s class last week. I roasted them with a sprinkling of herbed salt. I did, in fact, have Bluebird Farms farro (fantastic stuff, so nutty and chewy), which I simmered in salted water, then drained and tossed with chopped sage and orange zest. For the rhubarb, I improvised, cutting it into medium pieces, tossing them with olive oil and a bit of salt, and roasting them in the 400° oven with the chicken for about twenty minutes. The rhubarb softened but began to caramelize a bit near the end – I was very careful not to touch the pieces for fear they’d fall apart. When I took the pan out of the oven I sprinkled a bit of brown sugar on top, then balsamic vinegar over it all. I used a large spoon to carefully lift the pieces out of the pan onto our plates, along with the mixed juices.

The dinner worked really nicely – the chicken had some of the crispest skin I’ve ever achieved (not sure why), the farro was delicious, and the rhubarb was soft and both tart and sweet, going great with the chicken and the farro. Next time for the rhubarb I think we’ll use white sugar instead of brown (my husband said he felt like he was eating a rhubarb crisp with dinner) and lots more vinegar, but we’ll definitely do this again.

return to Stumbling Goat

The Stumbling Goat has been one of our favorite restaurants in Seattle for a while, yet oddly enough one that we don’t go to very often. We did try to visit last year, right when the place happened to be changing hands and getting renovated by the new owner, and were stymied. We finally made it there last week, stopping in before going to see Compañia Nacional de Danza at the Meany.

I was a bit worried, since I liked the restaurant so well before, but I think the changes are very positive. The heavy red curtains are gone, and the main dining room and bar area are now much lighter and airier. The food is still focused on local seasonal specialties, the service is admirable, and the drinks list is well thought out. Even though we showed up with no reservation, we were given a very nice table by the window instead of stuffed into a corner (unlike some places…).

We began, as we so often do, with cocktails. Jon tried a rum drink (he’s been spending a lot of time over at RumDood lately, doing important research) called a Kraken, and loved it. It was sweet and spicy and comforting, served simply in a tall cocktail glass with no garnish.

lima beans

I’ve been eager to get to work with some of the beans I picked up at the Rancho Gordo booth in San Francisco, and I finally got my chance this week. I decided to start with the ones I was most curious about: the Christmas limas, which the packaging claims taste of chestnuts. Plus they’re all kinds of pretty.

I picked a recipe out of my newly acquired copy of Heirloom Beans, for Christmas limas with cabbage and pork chops. I did my new favorite brine soak, but otherwise followed the recipe fairly closely. The beans cook in an aromatic broth of bacon, garlic, bay and ancho chile, and Savoy cabbage is wilted in with them at the last moment. The pork chops are very straightforwardly seared, then finished in the oven (we thought about hauling out the grill but ran out of time that day).

beef-lebni stroganoff

This stroganoff was one of those dinners that naturally arises by examining a number of random leftovers: in our case, a container of lebni, a bag of mushrooms, some partial leeks and a bunch of fresh dill left from our post-Easter brunch. Combine all that with some sliced seared steak and some egg noodles and you have a really good quick beef stroganoff.

I don’t think it would have occurred to me to use lebni in a stroganoff, but I liked the effect. It’s similar to sour cream but has a denser texture and is slightly less tart. It worked great with the mushrooms and dill. Come to think of it, that would be a really nice dip or spread right there – maybe I’ll try that next time I have these particular leftovers in the house.

Zuni

I’ve been wanting to visit the Zuni Cafe for years, ever since I first got my hands on Judy Rodgers’ cookbook of the same name. Her food is homey, yet elegant, and the book is a wonderful instruction manual for the slightly ambitious home cook. So imagine how pleased I was when, as we were driving through San Francisco, my brother-in-law mentioned that we would be driving right by Zuni. We decided to stop in, just on the off chance there might be a table, and there was!

Our table was right by the wood fired oven with a view into the kitchen, something I rather enjoy. I loved the big stack of firewood, the odd shapes of the tables allowing them to squeeze into strange spaces dictated by the old building’s shape, and the cool artwork. The rooms were airy and the bar looked fabulous.

market day in the city

One day is hardly enough time to spend in San Francisco, but it’s better than nothing.

I particularly wanted to visit the famed Ferry Plaza farmer’s market on this trip, after reading other people’s accounts. My main destination was Rancho Gordo, Steve Sando’s heirloom bean company I’ve heard so much about. I have eaten their beans once, actually – Steve donated beans to Duckfest for our cassoulet, and they were, indeed, wonderful. I’ve been considering ordering some, but I hate paying for shipping, so this was a golden opportunity.

Santa Cruz wet wine walk

The last time we visited my brother-in-law, we had to drive to get to the local wineries. Up into the hills, usually, on windy roads designed to get the casual tourist completely lost. And many of the Central Coast wineries weren’t open to the public, anyway. This has all changed with the advent of the Swift Street Courtyard complex, now home to at least six different wine tasting rooms and a brewery. Part of the same complex that houses Kelly’s French Bakery (and a number of other shops), this is a wildly accessible arrangement for a person wanting to taste as much Santa Cruz wine as possible. Which we did.

And thanks to everything being so close together, it can all be done on foot even in a pouring rain. Which it was.

Our first stop was Bonny Doon. Their new space is very spiffy, with a long curving bar and tables set into gigantic barrels, with melted wine bottles for lamps. They had two tasting flights on offer, a regular and a reserve, so we bought one each and figured we’d share. The woman pouring for us took it upon herself to switch around the order of the wines so our two flights would overlap in the most enjoyable manner. We ended up with an exciting spread of bottles in front of us.