Blueberry Lavender Limeade

When the sun comes out from behind the grey cloud cover that often blankets Western Washington and Oregon, one of my first thoughts (after the obvious Thank You God) is “Let’s have a picnic.” Is there anything more deeply nurturing than gathering a friend or two and heading into glorious nature with a treasure trove of great things to eat and drink? Not in my book.

So you can imagine my delight when I recently discovered that The Nature Conservancy is sponsoring a Picnic for the Planet. That’s right, a picnic for the ENTIRE planet. It’s this Sunday, April 22^nd, in honor of Earth Day.

The Nature Conservancy is the world’s largest conservation organization, working in more than 30 countries and all 50 states. They work closely with the people who provide our food–farmers, ranchers and fisherman–and with our support, they can continue to protect the most vital habitats on Earth.

In Portland, Oregon, the picnic will be at beautiful Mt. Tabor Park, with its gorgeous views, open space, and hiking trails. The covered picnic shelter is reserved for the event, so the picnic is on rain or shine. (To scout the location in your area, check out this picnic map.)

So now that I have a picnic to go to and not much time to create a bevy of new dishes, I decided to rely on a few of my favorites from past posts. In addition to Blueberry Lavender Limeade, I’m bringing:

LunaCafe’s Spicy Fried Chicken

Old-Fashioned Creamy Macaroni Salad

Chewy Gooey Congo Bars (Blondies on Steroids)

Hope to see you there!

Resources

• The Nature Conservancy: http://www.nature.org/
• Picnic for the Planet: http://www.nature.org/earthday/
• Picnic for the Planet 2012: http://www.crowdrise.com/tncpicnic/
• Attend a Picnic: http://www.nature.org/earthday/attend/index.htm

I was surprised and thrilled last Saturday at the Seattle University District Farmers Market at how much fresh produce is available this early in the season. Wow!

This particular farmers market is one of the few in the region that is open all winter. This past week there were sparkling bundles of tender chickweed, plump sunflower seed sprouts, tiny yellow flowering bok choy, sorrel, baby arugula, dandelion greens, and mint. I bought way too much and then had to quickly devise a few salads to use the bounty.

Although I didn’t see the Bluebird Grain Farms table, from which to replenish my dwindling supply of their most excellent Emmer farro, I had enough on hand to create a lovely textural and flavor pairing with tiny French green lentils. To these, I added some of the key components of a traditional Middle Eastern Tabbouleh salad: parsley, mint, tomato, green onion, lemon, and olive oil.

Then to heighten the flavor a bit, I sautéed diced, smoky chorizo sausage and tossed in red and green bell peppers . To that I added a bright Lemon Mustard Vinaigrette and my new stash of tender spring greens. Viola! A gorgeous and very tasty spring salad.

Early Spring Salad of Lentils & Farro with Chorizo, Bell Peppers & Baby Greens

This refreshing salad makes a memorable start to a special occasion dinner or a simple meal on its own accompanied by whole grain walnut bread. Although this is an easy salad to make, you will want to prepare the farro and lentils ahead, even a day or two in advance if you wish.

1 cup cooked Bluebird Grain Farms Emmer Farro, or other farro (instructions below)
1 cup cooked French green lentils (instructions below) (Whole Foods carries these in the bins)

1 large Italian plum tomato, cored, seeded and diced (1 cup diced)
½ large green bell pepper, cored, ribbed, and diced (½ cup diced)
½ large red bell pepper, cored, ribbed, and diced (½ diced)
2 green onions, trimmed, and minced   
small handful parsley, minced (½ cup minced)
4 mint leaves, minced

Chorizo
2 tablespoons cold pressed, extra virgin olive oil
1 Spanish dried chorizo sausage, diced (about 2 ounces or ½ cup diced) (City Market in Portland, Oregon sells an excellent Spanish chorizo called Palacios; 4 small sausages per package for $8.50)

Lemon Mustard Vinaigrette
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 clove garlic, pressed or minced
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon wild flower honey
½ cup cold pressed, extra virgin olive oil
fine sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Spring Greens
2 cups of two or more of the following: chickweed, sunflower seed sprouts, flowering bok choy, baby arugula, baby spinach spring salad mix

grated zest of 1 lemon
freshly ground black pepper

1. To prepare the farro, in a large saucepan, bring 3 cups of chicken or vegetable stock or water to a boil and add ¾ cup of farro. Boil for 5 minutes, cover, and simmer for about 50 minutes, until the grain is tender and nicely chewy. Drain and rinse under cold water. Drain again thoroughly and store in a covered container in the refrigerator until needed. (You will have about 1½ cups of cooked farro.)
2. To prepare the lentils, in a large saucepan, add ½ cup lentils and water to cover. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 20-30 minutes, until the lentils are tender but still have some bite. Drain and rinse under cold water. Drain again thoroughly and store in a covered container in the refrigerator until needed.  (You will have about 1¼ cups cooked lentils.)
3. In a mixing bowl, combine 1 cup each of cooked farro and green lentils. (Save the remainder for another use.) Add tomato, green bell pepper, red bell pepper, green onion, parsley, and mint. Reserve.
4. To prepare the chorizo, in a sauté pan, heat the olive oil and add the chorizo. Sauté for a minute or less, until the chorizo is chewy-crisp and releases some of its fat (turning the olive oil red). Remove the chorizo with a slotted spoon and drain on a paper towel. Reserve the oil.
5. To prepare the Lemon Mustard Vinaigrette, in a small bowl whisk together the apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, garlic, Dijon, and honey. Whisk in the olive oil and season to taste with salt and pepper.
6. To serve the salad, toss the farro and lentil mixture with about ¼ cup of the vinaigrette. Season to taste. Place 1 cup of the salad in the center of a large serving plate. Repeat for a second serving.
7. In a mixing bowl, toss the spring greens with a few tablespoons of the remaining vinaigrette and arrange the greens around the farro and lentil salad.
8. Drizzle a little of the chorizo oil on each of the plates, divide the sautéed chorizo between the plates, and grate lemon rind and black pepper over each serving.

Makes 2 dinner salads or 4 appetizer salads.

Spring is here, finally, and Northwest farmers markets are gearing up. I’m in Portland this month and that means Saturday mornings at my favorite Northwest market, PFM at PSU.

The Portland Farmers Market (PFM) on the Portland State University (PSU) campus in downtown Portland is everything a local farmers market should be: fresh, seasonal, regional, sustainable, and mostly organic. I’m not the only one who thinks it rocks.

Eating Well Magazine conducted a search for the 10 best farmers markets in the country and ranks Portland Farmers Market at #3. Diddit.com ranks it at #6. This will come as no surprise to anyone who has experienced this vibrant regional market with its abundance of locally grown, produced, ranched, and hand crafted foods. In fact, the entire network of farmers markets in Portland is exceptional.

A Seattle native most of my life, I’m a fan of the grand dame of farmers markets, Pike Place Market (PPM), even though the local bounty has slowly and mysteriously disappeared over the years.

But while I still regularly spend Saturday mornings wandering Pike Place Market, I no longer buy much of my produce there. Flowers, yes. Produce, no. And if the empty armed “shoppers” at PPM indicate anything, I’m not alone.

That includes me. Here’s my trusty market cart. It’s even insulated. If I remember to throw in ice before heading to the market, even fish and shellfish stay well chilled until I get them home and into the frig. I never head to the market without it.

No one is idly gawking on Saturday. If there are tourists, they are buying like everyone else. Long stalks of rhubarb and bundles of asparagus are protruding from bags and carts.

As I’m oohing and ahhing over the tiny turnips, the vendor hands me a sample. The flavor of a spring turnip is decidedly less assertive than that of a fall turnip. I decide to use this delicate tasting, crisp vegetable raw in a salad of mixed Asian baby greens. Spring turnips are also wonderful in a gratin with gruyere, heavy cream, spring garlic, baby leeks, fresh thyme and toasted bread crumbs.

Raab, raab everywhere. The market is overflowing with it. But what, precisely, is raab?

Raab is available only in the spring, when over-wintered plants in the brassica (mustard) family (cabbage, brussel sprouts, turnip, collard, kale, and broccoli) begin to flower and send out seed shoots. It is most tender before the florets actually flower, and is wonderful sauteed, braised, stir fried, grilled, or raw in hearty salads.

I spot these fresh herb bowls and think how great they will look in the LunaCafe kitchen. But then I remember the herb garden (which needs weeding). These would make great gifts though. Another vendor sells salad bowls filled with several baby lettuces, parsley, chives, and herbs.

I have cooked too little with parsnips over the years, but know that they can be used in much the same way as carrots. A recipe in Kurt Beecher Dammeier’s Pure Flavor cookbook comes to mind (Parsnip Spice Cake with Dried Montmorency Cherries and Cream Cheese Frosting), and I buy a large bunch.

Whenever I see spinach so young, so tender, I have an immediate craving for my signature Wilted Spinach Salad with Applewood-Smoked Bacon, Baby Porcini Mushrooms, and Creamy Hot Bacon & Balsamic Dressing. MauiJim used to drive from Yakima to Seattle every Friday night to eat this salad, which I produced at his request week after week. To this day, I ocassionally wonder whether he married me for me or the salad. (I can’t find a recipe for any thing similar on the web so will work it up for you in the weeks ahead.)

I grab my must-have loaf of Dave’s Killer Good Seed Bread. If you haven’t tried this bread, it’s a must have for breakfast toast. The wrapper says Heavenly Texture and Saintly Flavor and that about covers it.

All this shopping makes us ravenous. Well that and we didn’t have time for our usual Saturday breakfast at Fuller’s. There are several choices of prepared food at the market (tamales, crepes, pizza, soups, and biscuits with gravy come to mind), but these delicious Spicy Northern Italian Sausage Sandwiches have our names on them.

My last stop is at The Tart Lady. There is still a long line, but I have my eye on a pear frangipane tart and decide it’s worth the wait.

I end up with Double Chocolate Brownies and Wild Mushroom and Gorgonzola Tarts as well.

Next week I will buy a few bunches of the pencil-thin asparagus, Brussels sprout raab, rainbow chard, fiddlehead ferns, spring salad mix, more rhubarb, and of course more tulips.

April Farmers Market Highlights

• arugula
  
• asparagus
  
• baby bok choy
  
• baby lettuces
  
• baby turnips
  
• broccoli raab (rapini, broccolini)
  
• Brussels sprouts raab
  
• carrots
  
• cauliflower
  
• chard (rainbow)
  
• cheese (cow, goat, fresh, aged)
  
• cherry blossoms
  
• chives
  
• cider
  
• cilantro
  
• clams
  
• collard greens
  
• daffodils
  
• dandelion greens
  
• dairy (cream, cream cheese, farm cheese)
  
• dried beans
  
• dried cherries
  
• Dungeness crab
  
• eggs
  
• fennel
  
• fiddlehead ferns
  
• green garlic
  
• hazelnuts
  
• herb starts
  
• honey
  
• kale (Italian, red Russian, Toscano)
  
• mint
  
• mizuna
  
• parsley (moss)
  
• parsnips
  
• peonies
  
• potatoes, several types
  
• pussy willows
  
• limes (Rangpur hothouse)
  
• mushrooms, wild (maitake, shitake, yellowfoot, hedgehog, morel)
  
• mustard greens
  
• radishes, tiny
  
• ranunculus
  
• rapini (broccoli raab)
  
• rhubarb
  
• salad mix (hearty salad mix for braising or stir fry)
  
• salad mix (Asian spring salad mix)
  
• spinach
  
• spring onion
  
• spring raab
  
• smoked salmon
  
• sugar snap pea
  
• tulips
  
• turnips, baby
  
• turnip raab
  
• vegetable starts
  
• wild rice, Oregon grown
  

Every year, I rush to Seattle’s Pike Place Market (PPM) in March, expecting to be greeted by a jubilant array of local vegetables, tulips, and daffodils. The tulips and daffodils are always there, and this year is no exception. They are over-the-top magnificent. The local vegetables though are never anywhere to be seen. I know this will be the case, but I can never quite believe it.

Well, think about it. Up until a few weeks ago, the ground was still frozen. The long anticipated sunshine went on hiatus to some other part of the country for the entire month of March, which was bitterly cold. Then, as a kicker, there were many days of heavy rain onto the already soaked ground and that precipitated widespread flooding. Early spring crops don’t fare well under these conditions and many growers sadly lost their first plantings.

In addition, Pike Place Market (although still a favorite haunt of mine) is sadly no longer a true local farmers market (except from June through September on Summer Farm Days and the selection then is not what you will see in other top-rated Northwest farmers markets).

Produce comes into the market from all over the world and it is sometimes difficult to tell whether a particular item is local or imported from elsewhere. In March and April, you get no real sense of local crop availability, except for the glorious flowers. The only vegetative sign at PPM that spring has sprung in Northwest fields and gardens are the crimson displays of hothouse rhubarb, which are welcome harbingers of the bounty to come. (For an early taste of rhubarb, the Zeppole with Housemade Rhubarb Jam & Vanilla Creme Anglaise served at Branzino in Seattle is a lovely dessert.)

But, perhaps PPM’s seafood bounty makes up for the shortcomings in the spring produce department.

These razor clams are gorgeous. In my cookbook, Pacific Northwest Palate: Four Seasons of Great Cooking, there is a recipe for Baby Clam and Spinach Soup with Pepper Bacon that could easily be adapted for razor clams. Or use these in your favorite clam chowder.

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The manila clams look incredible right now; so small and perfect. The same goes for the Washington blue mussels from Penn Cove. I have rough sketched a recipe for Clams and Mussels in Spicy Black Bean Sauce, and there is no better time than now to try it out. Perhaps I can throw in a handful of the wonderful greens that are also available right now. Plus the lovely spring garlic. Wow, I can actually smell this!

I am not a fan of precooked Dungeness crab, but they are also available live. I will share with you sometime the “best” way to dispatch and cook a crab, which I learned from Frank Bradley (MauiJim’s Dad) while he was living on beautiful Birch Bay. Now that I have tasted the difference, I always buy them live, rush them home in a cooler, and then quickly and humanely dispatch them with a knife. No boiling water (cruel!), which causes the pungent gastric juices to permeate the flesh, thus muddying the otherwise pristinely clean flavor.

So an entire month has passed and now it’s April. I bundled up this morning and rushed off to the University District Farmers Market to check out the local produce scene. Surely something must be growing by now.

Well, dandelions never stop growing, right? They are delicious served as a wilted salad with a hot, garlic-infused vinaigrette and toasted hazelnuts.

I was amazed at the variety of produce that is available this early in the season. One of the growers told me that after the flood, he took a look at his beaten down crops and decided to plow them all under and begin again. True grit! With the help of a thick insulating material to jump start germination and then an improvised plastic tunnel to keep the young plants from freezing, this grower had several heaping tables of produce to sell, including …

… the most beautiful baby radishes I have ever seen. I wanted to grab a bunch and beg some salt off someone so I could eat them immediately.

I can’t remember when I last saw such an interesting mix of young seasonal greens: arugula, dandelion greens, green kale, red kale, Italian kale, mibuna, mustard greens, sorrel, and spinach.

Mibuna? I admit, I had never heard of it. But thanks to Green Living and the Royal Horticultural Society, I now know that Mibuna is a rather recent entry to the western garden. It can be eaten raw, lightly steamed, stir-fried, or in soup. Young flowering stems can be cooked like broccoli. It can also be pickled. It has a nutty, mustard-like flavor and is similar to mizuna. It is excellent as a garnish or as part of a salad. Next week, I’ll buy a couple of bunches and give them a go in the OtherWorldly Kitchen.

Sautéed Greens Trim and clean two bunches of mixed greens (chard, turnip greens, mustard greens, kale, mibuna, or spinach). Sauté in olive oil; add minced garlic, salt, black pepper, and a splash of balsamic vinegar. When tender, remove to a serving plate with a slotted spoon. Reduce the juices in the pan until syrupy. Add a squeeze of lemon juice and drizzle over the greens.

I do, however, know what to do with sweet, earthy, nutty-flavored sunchokes (Jerusalem artichokes): sauté, roast, deep fry, raw in salad, puree into soup, bake in gratin, grate into pancakes, whip with potatoes. Try them in Potato and Five Onion Soup, using half potatoes and half sunchokes.

In addition to the more typical creamy-colored sunchokes, there is also a red-hued variety. They both looked young, tender, and fresh.

Apple Sunchoke Slaw Julienne equal quantities of apple and scrubbed sunchokes. Combine quickly with minced jalapeno chiles and green onions. Toss with a cumin-flavored vinaigrette.

This fragrant young garlic (also called green garlic) is milder and sweeter than later season garlic. It can be used almost in its entirety, as with green onions or leeks. You will find a recipe for Garlic Soup with Sage Leaves and Herb Profiteroles in my cookbook, Pacific Northwest Palate: Four Seasons of Great Cooking. Miners Lettuce Salad, with Baby Beets, Beet Greens, Rapini, & Spring Garlic also sounds wonderful.

You know it’s spring when you begin to see fiddlehead ferns on local Northwest menus and in the farmers markets. Buy soon though because the season is short. I LOVE the fresh pickled fiddlehead ferns that are served in season at Higgins in Portland, Oregon as an accompaniment to Herb-Marinated Chèvre Cheese with Olives & Parmesan Toasts. Sensational!

Parsnips rarely look this young, tender, and delectable. You might like to try these in Spicy Roasted Parsnip Soup or Parsnip and Potato Rosti.

I’m showing you only the sign here because the nettles were packaged in plastic bags, as a safety precaution for unwary shoppers. We live part of the year on five acres in the Cascade foothills and the woods are filled with nettles. I have yet to actually harvest them, however. I may have to step gingerly into the woods now though, because Dana Zia of The Go Lightly Gourmet just posted a recipe for Spring Nettle and Leek Frittata, which looks delish.

Northwest Farmers Markets: Early April Highlights

Pike Place Market

• artisan cheeses
• artisan dried cherries
• artisan cheesecake
• artisan honey
• artisan sausage
• cherry blossom branches
• daffodils
• Dungeness crab
• halibut (first of season)
• hothouse rhubarb
• hyacinths
• lamb
• manila clams
• oysters
• pussy willows
• razor clams
• tulips
• Washington blue mussels

University Farmers Market

• artisan breads
• artisan cheeses
• artisan chocolates
• artisan cookies (lavender shortbread!)
• artisan hummus
• artisan jams
• artisan fresh pastas
• artisan pastries
• artisan pies and tarts
• artisan soups
• arugula
• baby leeks
• bacon
• beef (pasture raised)
• bok choy
• Brussels sprouts
• cabbage
• carrots
• celeriac (celery root)
• chard
• cherry blossom branches
• chiogga beets
• cilantro
• crocus
• daffodils
• dandelion greens
• dried cannellini beans
• edible pansies
• eggs
• fresh yogurt
• forsythia branches
• garlic
• golden turnips
• green kale
• hazelnuts
• hyacinths
• Italian kale
• ladyfern fiddleheads
• mibuna
• mustard greens
• organic eggs
• parsnips
• pork (pasture raised)
• purple sage
• pussy willows
• radishes
• red kale
• red potatoes
• rosemary
• rutabaga (gill feather)
• rye
• sage
• salmon jerky
• sorrel
• spiced apple cider
• spinach
• spot prawns
• stinging nettles (fresh and dried)
• strawberry plants
• sunchokes
• triticale
• tulips
• turnips
• verpas (false morel)
• wheat berries
• Yukon gold potatoes

Resources
Seattle Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance

University District Farmers Market

University District Farmers Market Vendor List

Pike Place Market

Portland Farmers Market

Hillsdale Farmers Market