If you have been following the evolution of America’s food scene over the past few decades, you probably know of Alice Waters. Her iconic restaurant, Chez Panisse, in Berkeley, California, has been steadfast at the forefront of trends like eating local, eating seasonal and slow food, just to name a few. It’s hard to believe that 2021 is the 50th anniversary of Chez Panisse.

Noting the anniversary, she was interviewed in the NY Times a week or so ago. I was very surprised to see this excerpt : “Let me ask: Is there a food that has been especially comforting during the pandemic? Well, Fanny and I, we’d both be working, and she’d say — at about 3 o’clock in the afternoon — “Is it time yet?” Then we’d toast this delicious loaf of Acme Bread’s. They’re making it with whole grains, and it’s got a great crust on it. It’s a little sour. Fanny immediately goes to the toaster oven, and I go and get the garlic — fresh garlic — and a great bottle of olive oil. We cook that toast till it’s dark and then rub it with garlic and pour some olive oil on it and just eat it there. We also make a big pot of beans — or I should say Fanny would — at the beginning of the week, and we use them all week. It’s red beans, red-and-white — all the colors of beans! Fanny really taught me how to cook them: You put in onion, carrots, celery and bouquet garni. When they’re finished, they are incredible. That’s one of my favorite things to do, make that pot of beans. I’m making one today with chard and kale and whatever greens — if you have salad that’s wilted too much, you can sauté it up with a lot of garlic, put those greens in. Those beans make a great breakfast in a taco. They make a pasta. They are right there when you need them.”

My thoughts exactly!

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During late winter and early spring, I have been featuring new and unfamiliar (to me) varieties of beans. Like those folks in central Italy, (the Tuscans are  somewhat disparagingly called “bean eaters”), I love beans. One of my most fond childhood memories is of an immense pile of freshly picked shell beans on the kitchen table and helping my grandma Duncan prepare them for dinner.

Beans are a Superfood, high in protein, fiber and vitamins. Beans were also elmental for the development of civilization being one of the first domesticated crops. Canned beans can be good but for the best result in texture and flavor, you’ll want to prepare your own. At any rate, I learned a few things about beans this year that I want to share with you.

First, freshly harvested heirloom beans are best. (Check out Steve Sando’s Rancho Gordo stellar website.) They require the least amount of soaking time so they produce the most nuanced flavors. If your beans require a day or more soaking time, the beans are likely very old and stale.  Second, don’t discard the soaking solution. Instead, flavor it. I use a bay leaf, garlic, fresh rosemary and a small dose of salt. Then simmer the beans in that liquid to doneness. Third, the problem with flatulence almost disappears with regular bean eating, starting with small amounts. If you eat beans regularly, your body will learn how to digest them. Lastly, you owe it to yourself to find a good crusty slice of bread, lightly rub it with a clove of garlic, smash some marinated Royal Corona beans on top, drizzle it with your very best extra virgin olive oil and maybe a dusting of freshly cracked pepper. It is my new standard for “fast food.”

 

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Ingredients:

• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 24 young garlic plants, white part only, halved lengthwise (about 8 ounces worth)
• 3/4 cup water
• 1 1/2 pounds (22 ounces) small red potatoes, peeled and quartered
• 6 cups (1 1/2 quarts) chicken or vegetable broth
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 to 2 1/2 teaspoons white wine vinegar, to taste
• ground pepper to taste
• thinly sliced garlic scapes, olive oil, and watercress, for garnish (optional)

Directions:

1. Melt butter in large, heavy bottomed stock pot. Add garlic and 1/4 cup of water. Bring to a simmer, then cover and cook for 15 minutes. Add the potatoes and remaining 1/2 cup water and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the broth, cover, and allow to bubble gently for 20 more minutes.
2. Allow to cool slightly. Puree the soup in batches in a blender for 2 minutes until smooth. If a smoother texture is desired, pass the puree through a medium-fine sieve and return to saucepan. Stir in the cream and salt. Add the vinegar, 1 teaspoon at a time, tasting the soup after each addition, until it tastes good to you.
3. Reheat the soup gently and serve in warm bowls. Grind black pepper generously over each portion and serve with slices of toasted or grilled sourdough bread.

Recipe from Chez Panisse Cooking. Image from Lindsay Landis, Love & Olive Oil

The above recipe comes from Paul Bertolli and Alice Waters’ 1988 cookbook Chez Panisse Cooking. I used this as a reference recipe but I found the step where the potatoes are added and simmered for twenty minutes with just 3/4 cup of water to be a great idea but, to me, unnecessary. My other reference recipe was from Martha Rose Shulman writing in the NY Times. This recipe is more or less, a potato-leek soup accented with green garlic. Either will make a very good soup but my version sought a middle road leaning toward Paul Bertolli’s more vividly flavored one. 

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Green garlic results when the garlic plant is pulled from the ground before bulbs form and when it resembles a leek. To me, green garlic is the first reliable harbinger of Spring. It used to be asparagus but now asparagus is readily available year round, rhubarb is a bit more reliable but has largely suffered the same fate. My dad used to make green garlic soup from our garden as a springtime tonic for all the winter’s ills.  

The taste is surely garlic but in a subtle way and the green version has a distinctly nutty flavor as well. Next week I’ll be making a green garlic soup because after what all of us have been through this last year, we surely could use a tonic. I’ll be writing the recipe as soon as I figure it out. In my mind, I see Potage Parmentier scented with green garlic and I also see a recipe from Paul Bertolli’s 1988 cookbook, Chez Panisse Cooking (with Alice Waters). As usual, I’ll eyeball the measurements as I proceed and when I get it figured out and tasting great, I’ll post the recipe.

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Recently, I’ve been thinking about what we can do to increase the social media visibility and traffic to the Jackalope and to our neighboring shops on Lava Road. Working with the Downtown Bend Business Association, we’ve produced a short video. I’ve always said that I have a perfect face for radio. I’m not so sure about video!

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T his was not an easy decision. I grew up in a fishing family and, even now, nieces and nephews still make yearly migration to Alaska to spend the summer on fishing boats. I’ve seen the bumper stickers declaring that “friends don’t let friends eat farmed salmon.” So I told myself that if I was going to serve farmed salmon at my restaurant, it would be only when the wild product was  not available and it would be the best aquaculture product available.  Creative Organic King salmon from British Columbia. I’m not delusional, this is not wild salmon. The muscle tone that’s developed by the salmon evading sea lions and other predators in addition to swimming across the Pacific ocean is not what we find in farmed salmon.  But the care taken in the whole operation  makes this the best possible choice.

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Since it is October and we are cooking my German Menu this month, I was looking for a new dessert. I have loved baked apples since I was a kid growing up on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. (We had an apple orchard just beyond the lawn.)  I was perusing Mimi Sheraton’s “The German Cookbook” (first published in 1965) and came across a recipe for “Überbackene Marzipanäpfel” – which translates roughly to “Baked Marzipan Apples.”

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This morning I finished reading the New York Times review of Eric Ripert’s biography, 32 Yolks. I met Eric many years ago when Jean-Louis Palladin brought the most notable French chef’s in America to his restaurant, Napa, in Las Vegas for a magnificent meal. (My restaurant had recently won some sort of notable award so we were able to snag reservations.) Red wine with lobster — I remember Ripert’s dish vividly.

In this review I found a salient quote (which has served me well throughout my 30 years in this trade): “The power of the flavors — that comes from soul food,” he said. Without such roots, he added, “your food stays pretty and superficial.”.

Seems obvious and perhaps to an outsider inconsequential, but I think that way too and it still keeps me on my toes!

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