Farm To Table

(mid september. number 22.)

We visited our friend Will Boal, who worked the 2011 farming season at Let Us Farm, located in Oakville, WA (about 30some miles from Olympia. He's the guy in the yellow mackintosh). 

Will was living in a delightful old farm house, with a well stocked kitchen and a large table cover that turns his modest 3 or 4 person dinner table into a proper feasting platform. All of these vegetables (and also the eggs) came from the very land we cooked the food on, and were gathered mere hours before the meal was served. 

Secret Restaurant Portland has been casually existing within the "farm to table" movement for a year and a half now. So this first weekend of fall, we went to the farm and we filled the table. We made a midafternoon lunch/dinner- a sort of old fashioned "Sunday Supper."

Last Chance

(early september. number 21.)

At the end of the entry for Dinner #20, I metioned Nigel Slater's Tender as a major source of inspiration. This year, due our awfully rainy spring, most August veggies and fruits were late. We missed out on doing SR in August, largely due to my being gone for 2 weeks in the middle of it (see previous entry). This was serendipitus, as this early September Secret Restaurant was scheduled for a hot-as-Hades weekend, with peaches and figs and tomatoes in full force. To plan the menu we basically spent time reading what Mr. Slater had to say about the ingredients we hoped to work with, and chose some exciting recipes as the jump off point. Once again, major inspiration credit is due to Nigel. As a disclaimer, however, we did make a point to do something unique with each dish. We ate outside on the porch, knowing it was probably our last chance.

August, in 22 Pictures

 We did not do Secret Restaurant in August. 

I (Andrew) was away for half of the month of August, visiting college friends in New England. Those college friends are beginning The Runnymede Project, a farm/homestead/arts organization in North Hampton, New Hampshire. I will be joining them next year, and this Secret Restaurant project will morph into something new when located out east. Here is what the barns look like:

I wanted to do a post about my time at Runnymede because the gorgeous vegetable bounty, communal atmosphere, frequent visitors, and constantly reunited friends was sort of like a perpetual Secret Restaurant. Less fancy, more spontaneous, more collaborative– but similar all the same. 


I did a lot of cooking in New Hampshire, primarily with one large electric pan. Here I am in the late afternoon one day:

These communal meals we ate were all over the place– mashed turnips with fresh goat's milk and butter, rainbow chard and spiced red beans, covered in sunflower seed/thyme gravy; grilled cheese sandwiches with grilled corn on the cob; candied carrots; a mediterranean feast; rosehip jam from wild rosehips gathered nearby; broccoli with cheese sauce made using lobster butter... Some of these photos show food I didn't even have a hand in making– the point is that everyone was sharing the freshest, best foods at the best time of year to be eating right out of a garden. 


19 of these 22 photographs were taken on with a 1970s Canon 35mm camera by Aria Mikkola-Sears. The other 3 were taken by me and don't have borders. Enjoy. 

Midsummer

...In Portland, via England and Italy. 

                                                          (late july. number 20.)

With Lucas away in France sampling soft cheeses, charchuterie, and exotic seafood platters- I was left to plan this menu, as the dinner date was a mere day after Lucas's return to Portland. The inspiration was memories of, and cookbooks from, the only two places across the Atlantic where I've spent any significant amount of time. 

cuenca

(mid june. number 19.)

For this Secret Restaurant, we wanted to try something pretty far outside of our usual realm of experience. Inspired by a visit to famed ridiculous Peruvian restaurant in the Peal District, and tales from friends of eating experiences in South America, we ended up with what could only be described as a new genre! Ecuadorian Nouvelle Cuisine. The faux fusion restaurant this time would be named after Aria's former place of residence, Cuenca. O brother, where will we go next?

On the Table

Tortilla chips (store-bought, we can't make eeeverything!) and homemade spice slam habanero salsa. 

Skewers & Salad

Rock fish and prickly-pear cactus on skewers. The fish was rubbed with blackening spices, and the fruit touched up with a little sugar for extra caramelizing, then cooked on an outdoor grill. Drizzled with a deep, dark mole sauce.

The salad was a mexican-style coleslaw, with cabbage, red onion, spring turnip, pickled cactus, and underripe kiwi,  treated with lime juice and white wine vinegar. Served on top of fresh lettuces from our backyard garden.

Served with a slice of yellow hothouse heirloom tomato, touched up with pink himalayan salt and lemon pepper.

asiopé

(late may. number 18.)

In this phase of fusion dinners, we've been joking a lot about what silly, one-word, all-lowercase names we could have. 

This time, it was asiopé. 

The idea? Dishes inspired by Asian cuisines, but with a European flavor profile. 

A little silly, potentially? Yes. 

Did it work? We think so.

To Drink:

Earl Grey Booze On Earl Grey Rocks

We infused, sun-tea style, like last time, our "house basic booze" (Monopolawa Austrian potato vodka) with an extra citrus-style earl grey tea, as well as lemon twists, some lavender flowers, lavender oil, and a few douglas fir tips (for some local flavor). 

We made large batches of sweetened earl grey iced tea, and turned some of it (before the diluting stage) into ice cubes. Guests placed a cube or two in their cups, then poured their vodka through a teapot-shaped strainer, and mixed it with the straight ice tea. 

Scando

(late april. number 17.)

This Secret Restaurant was a continuation of the "o wow, spring might actually be happening" theme of our earlier April dinner, as well as a chance to try to some ideas for dishes and drinks that we'd had floating around for a while.  Then we packaged it all in vaguely Scandanavian manner.