Winter dish ideas: Skagit River Ranch pork

The folks at Skagit River Ranch bring into the Farmers' Markets some of the tastiest cuts of meat in town. I brought home a couple of thick-cut pork chops and a package of their breakfast sausage links.

Nothing fancy here. I just seasoned the chops with sea salt and cracked pepper trio (black, green and red), got a golden, crispy crust on them in extra virgin olive oil and them finished them in the oven. With the drippings, I made a reduction sauce with fresh squeezed lemon juice and a handful of fresh sage leaves. For the links, I just fried them up with onions and lots of garlic.

Tip: The Splendid Table has all you need to know about a basic reduction sauce.

Illustration: SkagitRiverRanch.com

Coffee klatsch, discuss: food for thought tops the list

I, along with 450 other foodistas, (shout out to Seattle Tall Poppy!) packed a Kane Hall auditorium last night to hear Mark Bittman rant about the end of the world coming near should we not turn the tide on an overwrought environment savaged by industrial agriculture and McProcessed fast foods. He lead us in a chant, clap and stomp of "We will, we will... eat responsibly!" (It was just like being in the Seahawk endzone stands back when they were good.)

Okay, that last part was not true (except in my head). But, Bittman, like Michael Pollan (who was also recently in town) is indeed sounding a clarion call to wake up to the realization that what we eat, how much we eat, and the way it makes it way from industrial feedlot to fork is not good for the health of your body and the planet as well. Bittman is renowned for his cookbooks and NY Times food column and blogs but he's now taken a turn toward the manifesto with his "Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating with More Than 75 Recipes."

Was he preaching to the choir? How are we doing? Check out this list from the Seattle Public Library as published in the Seattle Times article "Library use jumps in Seattle area; economy likely reason."

What's the Northwest reading?

HERE'S A LIST of the six most frequently loaned books at Seattle Public Library in 2008. Numbers for King County were not immediately available:
1. "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto" by Michael Pollan (Penguin Press). Adult nonfiction.

2. "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead). Adult fiction.

3. "Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations ... One School at a Time" by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (Viking). Adult nonfiction.

4. "Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia" by Elizabeth Gilbert (Viking). Adult nonfiction.

5. "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: a Year of Food Life" by Barbara Kingsolver (HarperCollins). Adult nonfiction.

6. "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle (Philomel Books). Children's board book.

Source: Seattle Public Library

Notice that four out of the top six books are all about food? There's hope here that food for thought translates into eating responsibly.

Posole in Pioneer Square

Braving the frigid weather in search of a good lunch, I came across the Elliot Bay Cafe, the new eatery opened by Tamara Murphy, chef and owner of Brasa in Belltown.

You may remember what previously was called the Elliot Bay Cafe was that forgotten piece of the Elliot Bay Book Co hidden away in the dark basement of that storied establishent where I dared to venture if only for an author appearance in the reading room a flight down creaky stairs or to see a man about a horse in the scary restrooms. I can't remember the last time I even thought about going there for any kind of repast.

That was before the stars aligned and the gods of what to eat with what you read brought the James Beard Award-winning chef to revamping this piece of the Seattle icon situated in Pioneer Square. The dank and dark basement has been transformed to warm and bright and the menu features dishes that would satisfy any bibliophile.

My first taste was quite a pleasant surprise. I did not even look at the menu. I stood there, distracted by the extreme makeover, and when I came up to the counter to order had just caught sight of the specials' chalkboard that said simply "Green Chili Pork with Warm Tortillas, $7.95." Okay, I thought, sounds good enough to try. My pleasant surprise was that it turned out to be a hearty bowl of posole (northern New Mexican style, perhaps?) that warmed me up all the way back to work even through frozen streets.

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Locavore nation PNW style

Melissa Peterman, food expert, and Marcus Pape, wine expert, pair up like Cinnamon Chocolate Truffles and Sineann 2006 Old Vine Zinfandel. That's just one of the sample of recipes on their Eat & Drink in the Northwest website which complements their quarterly print publication of the same name.

"Eat & Drink in the Northwest " - Book 3 - Fall/Winter 08 - is in your local friendly neighborhood bookstores now.

Odd, interesting and bizarre, aisle 5, need a mop

Grocery Pic of the Day is not about food but a quirky book about lives recorded a la shopping lists. Found this one by way of The Splendid Table which describes the tome as "A comic original in the tradition of Tracey Ullman and Lily Tomlin—with Cindy Sherman’s eye— Hillary Carlip creates America’s most unforgettable grocery shoppers."

Naked pasta or, should I say, barely dressed

My pick from this weekend's farmers' market forage is the fresh, handmade egg pasta from La Pasta. They have a storefront in Wedgewood but you've no doubt see them at farmers' markets around town. The Voracious blog on the Seattle Weekly website has the details.

Most of the time I'm happy with a good quality 16 oz. box of pasta from the grocer because I'm thinking more about the the sauce. But every once in a while I indulge in the fresh, handmade stuff such as La Pasta, which I like to serve nearly naked. The pasta, I mean. I don't want to cover up the silky texture and subtle tastes with a lot of sauce. To feature these qualities, I went with aglio e olio in the simplest way.

While the water was heating up to boiling, I sauteed a few cloves of chopped garlic in extra virgin olive oil until golden brown and seasoned with coarse sea salt and fresh cracked pepper. At the very end, I also threw in a pat of butter. (I love these pungent bits that turn sweet and crunchy; no vampires here!)

Into the boiling water, I threw in a big pinch of coarse sea salt and 1-2 servings of the pasta. It takes only 3-4 minutes to cook so don't get too distracted. Toss the pasta with the aglio e olio and serve immediately. The crunchy bits provide a delicious contrast to the smooth, firm noodles. Of course, you could add almost anything else to this to bump it up a notch but this most basic method is good too.

Aster Coffee Lounge in Ballard

One of my new favorite places for good coffee is Aster Coffee Lounge, just a couple blocks north of the downtown Ballard corner of 24th NW and NW Market. Serving Intelligentsia Coffee using the Clover machine, delish baked goods from Magnolia's Upper Crust Bakery, beer and wine, and live music on the weekends, this place rocks!

Aster is one of the few places in Seattle (besides Trabant) outside of Starbucks that still has their own Clover. I tried two of their current Intelligentsia choices, a Flor Azul Nicaragua and a Kurimi, Ethiopia Yergacheffe. Nothing beats a Clover for bringing out the distinctive notes, florals and tones from those varieties, each with its' own distinctive terroir, each bringing a blissful coffee exhilaration. I also tried the Black Cat Espresso and was blown away or, as one of my coffee comrades put it, "this is like crack" for espresso lovers, but in a good way!

Michael Pollan on food

This Quote of the Day comes from the Michael Pollan article "Farmer in Chief" that he wrote recently for the NY Times Magazine Food Issue.

We emptied America ’s rural counties in order to supply workers to urban factories. To put it bluntly, we now need to reverse course... For nations that lose the ability to substantially feed themselves will find themselves as gravely compromised in their international dealings as nations that depend on foreign sources of oil presently do. But while there are alternatives to oil, there are no alternatives to food.

What's up with figs?

Figs are in store at my neighborhood grocery which gave me a good excuse ( as if I need one) to play with my food. Just fresh figs, figs with honey, figs with cheese, figs with nuts; what about cooking with figs? What about that piece of Macrina baguette that's aged into its' crouton stage?

I threw pieces of bread, walnuts, garlic, coarse sea salt, cracked black and green pepper and figs into a food processor and stuffed a pork chop with the mess. It was a work in progress to be continued. As fall turns to winter, I will be staying indoors more, playing with my food.

Late Summer Farmers Market Picks

In late summer at the U-District Farmers Market, the peaches just picked, ripe and ready, were as large as softballs.

A basket of cherry tomatoes, a thick slice of pancetta (about 4-6 ounces), olive oil, and fresh garlic makes a quick and savory summer supper.

Extravagant to the last drop

If you think four dollars for a cuppa coffee at Starbucks is expensive, try this London shop where the cuppa you see above is 50 UK pounds (which is about $98 at current exchange rates).

The extravagance is borne out of the blend, "an uncanny blend of Jamaican mountain and Indonesian jungle." That is, it's part Jamaican Blue Mountain and part Kupi Luwak. What is the Kupi Luwak? The Guardian explains:

Kupi Luwak beans come from Indonesia and are harvested by civets, the indigenous wild cat. These clever felines sniff out the choicest berries, digest the flesh, and pass out the bean in the way that nature intended. To call this the cat's whiskers of coffee would be a profound understatement.

I Must Admit, It's a Good Cuppa Coffee

I'm no fan of Starbucks but, I must admit, the new Pike Place Roast is a good cup of brewed coffee; a straight, no-chaser, strong yet smooth, black coffee good.

People either love or hate that Starbuck's taste most often described as "burnt" or order a polymorphic concoction of milk and syrup to hide it. But look at the original logo hanging above the first Starbucks in the Pike Place Market; it says coffee, so shouldn't they be selling a good cup of coffee?

A really bad haiku on a good cup of coffee:

Coffee, a good cup,
coursing caffeine through my veins;
awake morning, noon, night!

And the appropos clip from Toothpaste for Dinner: