Purple & Green

(late june. number 31.)

photo on the menu by Aria Mikkola-Sears

        This was the best spring we've had in Portland, weather-wise, in many years. 

        In contrast to the splendor of April and May's crisp but mild days decorated with vivid greenery and beautiful perennial flowers, however- June was a little dreary. The old "June-uary" talk was going around. 

        On the day of this Secret Restaurant, the weather was in line with this mode- more than half of our scheduled guests cancelled in the hours leading up to the event due to everything from getting lost to rain-influenced mild sickness, to family emergencies. We forged on, having an intimate yet mildly extravagant dinner with a few friends by candlelight. 

         Lucas and I felt like it was a nice way to check in with how the project is going, feeling with this dinner like we were able to attend Secret Restaurant Portland as guests. 

AN ANOUNCEMENT: Starting here with June 2012, I'm going to start indicating produce grown by us on our large kitchen garden/small urban farm plot by "S.G." for SECRET GARDEN. 

To Drink:

Our home-brewed 'Charles Brown Ale'

A nutty, well-balanced brown in pop-top old school bottles. Letterpress labels designed and printed by me. See the last picture! 

1:

Spinach Cup

An heirloom spinach called Galilee (S.G.), used in abundance with just a touch of cream and cracked black pepper. Topped with an italian style mashed potatoes/egg mixture to create a sort of raised, browned top, like a souffle. We bought some of the potatoes, found one or two insufficient, and so pulled up one of our potato plants and used the tiny new potatoes to fill out the dish. 

Served with a flower-cut enormous radish (S.G.), kissed with sea salt.

Plain, simple, and warm. Perfect for a rainy early summer evening. 

2:

Dark red & bright green salad

Dark, dark red leafed lettuces (S.G.), dressed simply in olive oil/dash of white wine vinegar/cracked pepper/lemon salt. Topped with delicately opened english shelling peas (S.G), the casing of which were filled in with deep, rich (fancy, expensive) balsamic vinegar, matching the lettuce and complimenting the crisp sweetness of the peas. Shavings of a spanish semi-hard goat's cheese recommended by the cheesemonger at City Market. I'd tell you what it's called, but saving cheese wrappers is never something I actually remember to do. 

3:

Smoked trout cappelletti in broth, with greens

A recipe by Alice Waters, interpreted more closely than we usually do, from Chez Panisse Pizza, Pasta, & Calzones (I recommend this book highly. So much inspiration for simple but memorable weekday suppers). Fresh pasta triangles stuffed with caramelized shallots, smoked trout, and lemon thyme. Cooked gently in prepared fish broth (trout and broth from Newman's, our usual). Served in bowls with the broth and garlicky/buttery white russian kale (S.G.) and wilted edible chrysanthemum (S.G., a celery-ish slap to its taste). 

4:

White currant cheesecake with early summer fruits

The first thing that must be noted about this cheesecake is that we actually made the graham crackers which made up the graham cracker crust. And in order to get the right taste, we made two kinds- dark and a light, then pounded them together. 

Rolling with the idea of the creamiest, fluffiest cheesecake being the most ideal to pair with lip-smacking, tart fruit, we made an unbaked style filling, with whole milk, caster sugar, sour cream, and cream cheese. 

It was topped with a batch of white currant jam that I made last year from the white currant bush in South East Portland that we gleaned from for the ice cream featured in dinner #21, which we certainly intend to use again this year. 

The cheesecake was served with an intensely pureed sauce of gooseberries and honey, as well as some dark Ranier cherries and some early-Sylvan berries, straight up.

Paired with a Riesling.

Magnolias & Morels

(late may. number 30.)

This dinner was a result of a late night session in Hannah's kitchen– where we ate a bunch of rhubarb betty, drank tea, and attempted to scrawl down ideas as they came to us. We were both a little bit sleepy and out of it. Perhaps this is why we ended up with  three ludicrously ambitious and rich entree items on the same plate. And then followed it with mousse. All I can say is that it was intense to both prepare and eat, but worth it. 

To Drink

Rhubarb Vanilla Spritzer

Rhubarb slow roasted with vanilla beans and honey, turned into a syrup and mixed with rum, white wine, and tonic water. Served in champagne flutes.

On The Table

Caramelized Onion Country Bread

Tartine method, as usual– but actually my own recipe for the variation. The taste/texture of Fressen's Caramelized Onion Rye inspired me to figure out how to properly incorporate onions into the bread. The response was very positive. 

Served with black pepper/lemon salt whipped butter. 

Salad

Shaved radish & ribboned asparagus salad.

Dressed with grapefruit vinaigrette made by amending a ruby grapefruit gastrique with oil and additional white wine vinegar. Garnished with turnip greens turned into chips, sort of like the kale chips we made this fall. Sprinkled with dried lemon zest and lemon pepper. 

Dinner

Lobster bisque, morel macaroni & cheese, spring turnip knisch. 

Bisque– Miripoix, blitzed, reduced lobster cooking broth, Newman's prepared fish broth (Halbut bones), freshest lobster meat, cream, tarragon, thyme. 

Mac & cheese– Super intense molecular gastronomy slam venture entirely credited to Hannah. Some crazy ass powder from The Modernist Kitchen, which makes the flavor of cheeses completely explosive. Featuring mild young gouda, wisconsin medium cheddar, oregon aged white cheddar, and aged gouda. Black truffle shaved in. and topped with a broiled morel mushroom.

Spring turnip knisch– those delicate, white, delicious turnips that not nearly enough people know to love, baked slowly in butter and herbs. Folded together with pan-caramelized spring onions and fennel, topped with chévre, then wrapped up in pastry roses. 

Cold press coffee interlude. 

Dessert

Honey lavender mousse

Guest-chefed by Rachel McDevitt, our 3rd cook Hannah's sister, who is a pastry chef at Grand Central. Delicate and delicious. Served in tiny ramekens with lavender flowers and honey drizzle. 

Stinging Spring

(early april. number 29)

LATE

Late, 

I plant the photograph 

of our sun-smeared faces, 

to live in the ferns 

and germinate.

 - JaNeill Weseloh

Photography by Nolan Calisch.

(Wealth Underground Farm, Farm School, and the Portland State University MFA in Social Practice program) 

1:

Nettle Soup

Onion, blanched stinging nettles (wildcrafted by us near the Sandy River the previous morning), galangal root, stock, zest & juice of limes, cayenne, black pepper. Bright, deep, earthy, nourishing. 

2:

Curious Spring Salad

Wild gathered minor's lettuce (sold by one of the mushroom vendors at farmer's market), chickweed (same situation, vegetable vendor), and more-like-embryo-than-baby bok choy (totally farmed by someone. Also of note: wilted, then cooled). Tossed with black sesame seeds and a sesame/tahini/etc sort of dressing. We roasted white elf mushroom with butter and garlic, then tossed the torn bits like pieces of chicken around with the greens. 

3:

Nettle Fettucine with Dungeness Crab Sauce, Broiled Raab + Blood Orange Gastrique

The same batch of wildcrafted nettles (only for this Lucas painstakingly removed the stems), made into a simple green pasta dough similar to spinach fettucine. The noodles were topped with pieces of freshly cooked crab meat from Newman's Fish Co. We made a classic béchamel sauce to pour over, which we incorporated "crab mustard" (often unused parts dug out of crab claws, etc) into. We made a medley of different spring raab/rapini from Persephone Farm, blanched them, dressed them with salt & pepper and a little oil, then broiled them to get a little crispy. Served with a blood orange gastrique (sauce made by reducing a pint glass of freshly juiced fruit to a near-caramel, then deglazing with white wine vinegar). The brightness of this sauce was absolute magic contrasting the heavy main dish. 

Special grandiose statement: The cooks found this main dish to be one of the best plates we've ever created.

4:

Shortcake, Rhubarb Ice Cream, Strawberry Sandwich

All credit here due to Hannah McDevitt. Shortcake made with a hint of lemon, split open to create a sort of biscuit sandwich. The fluffiest. most luscious textured ice cream you can imagine– tangy but sweet and utterly astounding. Topped with some shockingly good organic strawberries from California that we found and took a chance on. 

Served with a bottle of deep rosé. 

Home Comfort

(early/mid march. number 28)

 The conclusion to a run of warming winter dinners. For this one we planned it pretty last minute and executed it as a duo for the first time in a while. This meant that the kitchen got a great deal wilder than usual, but the meal was pulled off smoothly. There was a glitch with the camera, then the other camera's batteries died– but before then, we got these few pictures. I'm going to try my hand at illustrating the other dishes. That's forthcoming. 

To Drink:

Homebrewed Blackberry Stout

This was brewed way back in August (using the blackberries from the back yard) and finally got a chance to shine. It was featured in dinner #25 as an ice cream and fudge sauce. This beer has a journey from being not-so-good when we first opened a bottle to completely delicious on this night. That's what a great deal of bottle fermentation can do with the right beer, we learned. 

Assorted Red Wines

Leftovers from the assortment chosen for cioppino night, and others brought by guests. 

French Press Coffee

Gifted by my friend Katy at Stumptown, served with dessert.

1:

French Onion Soup

A sweeter, smooth take on this classic. Served in tiny ramekins with a floated baguette and bubbling comté cheese. 

2:

Endive/Watercress Salad with a grilled Scallop

Half a head of Belgian endive, slice in half and grilled, then chilled. Served with watercress in a zingy, fresh dressing made of lemon, arugula, and horseradish. A juicy, simple scallop with argyle grill marks. 

3:

Steakhouse Special

"Meat"loaflettes, made in a texas sized muffin tin. I've been working on this recipe for years. It includes an entire slow roasted large eggplant, two marinated/sauteed portobello mushrooms, a batch of green lentils, oats, and secret spices to supplement the smartground fake ground beef. Topped with a maple ketchup glaze. 

Served on top of a square of golden buttermilk ranch mashed potatoes, drizzled with veggie gravy (shallot/miso based). Garnished with shredded asparagus. 

Accompanied by a small square plate featuring half a broccoli head, blanched, marinated, then grilled. Covered in Wisconsin style cheese sauce, featuring sharp Wisconsin cheddar and Danish style Havarti (also from Wisconsin). 

This course was served with a steak knife. 

4:

Cookies with dipping sauce

Snickerdoodles made in the style of my grandmother, served with our house-made authentic-style goat caramel sauce. 

Chocolate chip cookies using a recipe from my housemate Kellen's mom, who's in-the-mail chocolate chip cookies I have feasted on many times, served with house-made hot chilli-spiced fudge sauce. 

San Francisco, 1886

(early february. number 27.)

We dreamed up this S.R. on a rainy January afternoon, downtown, when we were all feeling the deep grey cold of the winter winds. One dish as the serious center of the dinner was a first for us. The constraint of "soup, salad, bread" was also really rewarding. The idea was sort of the "dinner special" at an Italian Restaurant in old world San Francisco. I hand-set and letterpress printed this poster/menu to round out this idea.

To drink:

Flowing red wine.

Bread:

Rosemary Round

My own rustic country bread a la Tartine Bread, but with lots of fresh rosemary and extra sea salt in the score of the bread. 

Ciabatta

From Ken's Artisan Bakery (We served Ken's bread at the first Secret Restaurant, and it is now the only non-house bread we serve.)

Served with Kerry's Irish butter. 

Salad:

Winter Ceasar 

Romaine hearts, ribboned dino kale, spinach, and broiled belgian endive. House anchovy-lemon heavy ceasar dressing, red-skinned jerusalem artichoke chips instead of croutons.

Soup:

Cioppino

All seafood from Newman's Fish Co. Lucas and I both have a long standing personal connection to this fishmarket. Started in 1890 (how many businesses have been around that long these days?) in Eugene, we've both been going there since we were boys. Their location at City Market in NW Portland is far and away the the best fish counter Portland has to offer. We used their freshly prepared fish broth. Two whole live crabs, and we used the crab broth as well. There were two pounds each of clams and mussels. Monkfish, which our fishmonger recommended as cooking up like lobster. He was right. It was exceptional. Old school Italian canned tomatoes. Loads of shallots, onions, fennel, garlic. We nearly filled a 5 galloon pot normally used for brewing beer. 

Dessert:

Semifreddo

An italian frozen custard dessert. Ours was simple, velvety, chocolate/espresso custard, folded with whipped cream, and processed in the gelato maker. We served it with shavings of belgian chocolate and entirely de-membraned tangerines. 

Tea for Twelve

(mid january. number 26.)

Our Anniversary

(new year's eve. number 25.)

  The first, unofficial Secret Restaurant Portland event took place on New Year's Eve of 2009/2010. We served a simple Northwest-style Italian dinner to a small group of friends. We had cheap champagne, winter greens, garbanzo beans, bread, cheese, roasted garlic, gnocchi, salmon, ice cream, biscotti, and espresso. 

  The following year, as an anniversary of sorts, for our 12th official dinner, we served a "remix" of that original menu. We took the menu's contents from the year before and expanded them in a way intended to showcase our growth. 

When the New Year started approaching this year, it seemed only appropriate to start planning a 3rd remix. A R-R-remix, of sorts.