Each guest is asked to contact the host of their choice to reserve their spot at the table and decide which menu item they will bring to the dinner.
The menu focuses on heritage foods, many from the Ark of Taste list. They are foods that foods that are threatened by industrial standardization, the regulations of large-scale distribution and environmental damage. We can all help save these foods by increasing consumer demand and thus the number of producers who provide these foods.
Foods with an asterisk * are on the Ark of Taste. Follow the link for more information about these foods.
Starters:
- Olympia Oysters* on the half shell.
- 2 heritage garlic dips, served 2 ways (Inchelium Red* from the Colville Reservation and Spanish Roja from SW WA/Portland area). The dips will feature each garlic raw and roasted.
Main Courses:
- Hardy greens – we will offer recipe options for a raw kale salad (recipe not yet available) and cooked green (browned garlic, red pepper and plenty of olive oil).
- Winter squash – Delicata or Red Kuri – see the Roasted Squash Crescent recipe below.
- Ozette Potato* (used by the Makah Nation from several hundred years – only potato to come to North America directly rather than via Europe) – See the recipe with chanterelle mushrooms below.
- Rabbit* – an underappreciated healthy meat that grows well in the NW. See the Braised Rabbit with Prunes Recipe below.
- Marbled Chinook Salmon* – see huckleberry salmon recipe below.
Dessert:
- Aunt Molly’s Ground Cherry* We feature a rustic tort with ground cherry and pears. See recipe below.
Roasted Squash Crescents
1 medium sized squash
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 garlic clove peeled and sliced
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme, rosemary or sage (or combination) or 1 tsp of dried herbs,
salt and pepper to taste
Preheat the oven to 400ºF (200ºC).
Use squash with a tender skin such as Delicata or Kuri squash. Wash the outside well as you will be eating the tender squash skin, dry it, then cut it in half with a large knife. Once halved, use a large spoon to scoop out the seeds. Then slice the half into crescents about the width of your thumb and toss them in a few tablespoons of olive oil in a large bowl. Add the savory herbs and salt and pepper into the bowl and mix with the squash crescents.
Drizzle a few tablespoons of olive oil or melted butter one or more rimmed baking sheets. Use a non-stick sheet or line the sheet with parchment paper for easier clean up. Place the crescents on the baking sheets in a in a single layer. Roast the slices on the lower rack of the oven for 12 minutes, then using a fork flip each crescent and return to the oven for another 12 to 18 minutes. Cook until the skin and flesh are tender but still holding their crescent shape. The squash can be served hot from the oven, at room temperature or stored and reheated in the microwave or warm oven.
Ozette Potato and Chanterelle Mushroom Gratin adapted from Deborah Madison, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone
1 garlic clove and butter for the dish
2 tablespoons butter, plus extra for the top
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
salt and freshly milled pepper
1.5 lbs Ozette potatoes
3/4 lb chanterelle mushrooms, cleaned and thinly diced
1 1/2 cup mushroom stock (or vegetable stock)
1 cup half-and-half or Béchamel Sauce
Preheat the oven to 350F. Rub a 2-quart gratin dish with garlic and then with butter.
Heat the butter in a medium skillet and sauté the garlic and season with salt and pepper.
Layer half the potatoes in the dish, add the raw mushrooms, and cover with the sautéed garlic. Cover with the remaining potatoes and season again. Heat the stock and half-and-half, then pour over the top. Back uncovered, until the liquid is absorbed and the potatoes are tender and golden, about 1 1/2 hours.
Braised Rabbit with Prunes based on the French “lapin aux pruneaux.”
- One 3 to 3 1/2 pound rabbit, cut into six to eight serving parts
- Salt
- Olive oil
- 1 Tbsp butter
- 3-4 large shallots, sliced, about 1 cup
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 cup dry white wine
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 7 ounces (200 grams) pitted prunes (dried plums)
- Several sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 rabbit liver (optional)
- 1 Tbsp vinegar (optional)
You can also add olives. Some recipes call for soaking the olives in cognac and adding them in at the very end.
Heat 3 Tbsp olive oil in a large (4-6 quart) thick-bottomed Dutch oven on medium-high heat. Add a tablespoon of butter. Pat dry the rabbit pieces, sprinkle all over with salt, and working in batches, brown on all sides in the pan.
Remove the rabbit pieces from the pan. Add the sliced shallots, reduce the heat to medium, and cook for 2 minutes. Add the minced garlic clove and cook for 30 seconds more. Add the white wine and increase the heat to high. Use a wooden spoon to scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Let the wine boil, until reduced by at least a half.
Lower the heat to low. Arrange the rabbit pieces, prunes, thyme, and bay leaf in the pan. Sprinkle with black pepper to taste. Cover tightly and let cook for at least 45 minutes.
After the rabbit is cooked through, if you want, you can intensify the flavor of the sauce using the rabbit’s liver. The liver acts as a “liaison”, thickening the sauce and making it richer. Purée the rabbit liver with 1 Tbsp of wine vinegar. Remove the rabbit pieces, prunes, thyme sprigs, and bay leaf from the pot (discard thyme and bay leaves) to a serving dish. Whisk the puréed liver vinegar mixture into the sauce in the pot and cook for another 10 minutes. (If the sauce is still too thin, you can thicken further with corn starch or flour.) Then drizzle the sauce over and around the rabbit and prunes.
Huckleberry Salmon, For Salmon: From the Native American Trails, Fire and Seasonal Round Exhibit: North Clark Historical Museum, Amboy WA
Whole Salmon, cleaned or center cut salmon roast
11/2 c fresh mountain-picked huckleberries and/or blueberries
1/2 onion chopped
1 lemon sliced
2T butter
To grill: Spread 1 T butter around center of tin foil, arrange half of the lemon slices over butter and place salmon on top. Mix together berries and onion and stuff fish. Spread butter on top of salmon, arrange remaining lemon slices, fold and seal foil packet. Grill 10 minutes per inch of salmon at thickest point, turning once. Unwrap foil, peel off skin and remove bones. Place fillets on plate, spoon stuffing and lemon slices on top.
To bake: Heat oven to 350. Place fish in a covered dish and bake for 10 min per inch.
Ground Cherry Pear Rustic Tart
Below are 2 options for the pastry. One is a yeasted dough which contains a lot less butter than more traditional galette dough. Galette dough is and needs to be more pliable than pie crust dough. The original version of the recipes included whole wheat flour to provide a nutty flavor.
Yeasted Galette Pastry (enough for 3 tarts each serving 6 people – so save one tart in the freezer for yourself) based on recipe by Martha Rose Shulman, New York Times, summer 2012
The easiest way to work with this pastry dough is to freeze the thin disks right after rolling out. They’ll thaw in no time.
5 grams (1 1/2 teaspoons) active dry yeast
115 grams (1/2 cup) lukewarm water
2 tablespoons plus 1/4 teaspoon sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature, beaten
135 grams (1 cup) whole-wheat flour or emmer flour
155 grams (1 1/4 cups) unbleached white flour
25 grams (1/4 cup) very finely ground hazelnuts (first roasted, then outer paper removed) (optional)
1/2 teaspoon salt
60 grams (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter at room temperature
1. Dissolve the yeast in the water. Add 1/4 teaspoon of the sugar, and allow the mixture to sit until it is creamy, about 5 minutes. Beat in the egg.
2. Combine the flours including ground hazelnuts, 2 tablespoons sugar, and salt into a large bowl or into the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle or a large bowl. Add the butter and work with your fingers or beat at low speed until the mixture is crumbly. Add the yeast mixture and stir or beat at low speed until the ingredients come together. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently just until the dough is smooth, about a minute. Shape into a ball. Place in a lightly buttered bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and allow the dough to rise in a draft-free spot until it has doubled in size, about 1 hour.
3. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into3 equal pieces. Gently shape each piece into a ball without kneading it, cover the dough loosely with plastic wrap and let it rest for 5 minutes.
4. Roll out into very thin rounds, about 10 to 12 inches in diameter. If you have a Silpat silicone mat, roll the dough out on the mat; otherwise, use a lightly floured surface and dust regularly with flour to prevent the dough from sticking.
5. Cover a pizza pan or a baking sheet with plastic wrap and place the rolled-out dough on top. Wrap the edges of the plastic wrap over the dough and place plastic wrap on top. Roll out the other round, wrap in plastic and place on top of the first round. Freeze until ready to use.
Advance preparation: The dough will keep for a month in the freezer, well wrapped.
Buttery Gallette or Crostata Pastry (makes 2 tarts to serve 6 people each) based on a recipe featured in November 2011 issue of Sunset Magazine, Page 72
3/4 cup each emmer (farro) flour or fine whole wheat flour
3/4 cup all-purpose white flour
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 cup plus 2 T. cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
Make pastry: In a food processor, pulse flours and salt to mix. Add butter and whirl 3 seconds. Drizzle in 1/3 cup ice water, pulsing until mixture comes together in a shaggy ball but still has bits of butter showing. Form into 2 disk, wrap airtight, and chill at least 2 hours.
Roll pastry on a floured work surface into a 10 in. circle, turning pastry over and dusting with flour to prevent sticking. Transfer to a piece of parchment paper to be filled then frozen for 30 minutes (or several days) before baking.
Filling for 2 small tarts
1/4 cup jam to spread on pastry bottom (blackberry is ideal, raspberry and cherry work well also)
2 cups husked and washed ground cherries – some cut in half, some whole
2 cups peeled and sliced firm pears (slightly under ripe is best)
2 tablespoons mild honey, like clover, or 2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
milk for brushing on the tarts
2 tablespoons of turbinado sugar
1. Remove 2 pastry pieces from the freezer and place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Leave it to thaw while you prepare the fruit, but don’t keep it out of the freezer for too long. It will thaw quickly and is easiest to handle if it’s cold. You want it just soft enough so that you can manipulate it.
2. Combine the ground cherries, pear slices, honey, cinnamon and the vanilla in a large bowl and gently toss together.
3. Spread the jam on each pastry, leaving a 2- to 3-inch border all around. Place the fruit on top. Fold the edges of the dough in over the fruit, pleating the edges as you work your way around the fruit to form a free-form tart that is roughly 8 inches in diameter. Place in the freezer on the baking sheet for 45 minutes to an hour. This helps the galette maintain its shape.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush exposed edge of the crust with milk. Sprinkle a tablespoon of turbinado sugar over the fruit and the crust of each tart. Place in the oven and bake 1 hour, until the fruit is bubbly and the juice is running out and caramelizing on the parchment. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for at least 15 minutes. Serve hot or warm or at room temperature.
Advance preparation: You can assemble this through Step 3 and freeze it for up to a month. Once it is frozen, double-wrap in plastic.
