eG Foodblog: Abra - Walla Walla Wash and Orcas Island too!

[Abra]

I hope I'm not going to overwhelm you with pictures here! Once you start snapping, it's hard to stop, but still, this is a shop 'til you drop installment..

So first, we left home, turned the corner, and met up with these guys, who are new to the neighborhood.

When we could tear ourselves away, we crossed the bridge off the island over the Agate Passage.

We'd heard that there was a new Vietnamese place in Poulsbo. Hmm, doesn't look too promising, but we decided to give it a try

It wasn't bad at all, but Westernized from what we're used to.

A vegetable crepe

The ubiquitous noodle bowl

and a chicken in (just a very little) black bean sauce.

We asked the owner if he had a more pungent anchovy sauce, and he said that was the sort of request he loved to hear. He brought it back to us twice, each time adding more fish sauce, and finally told us that he's lived in the U.S. since he was 14, some 22 years ago, and that we were eating it stronger than he himself likes it, having Washingtonized his own tastebuds. We wouldn't make a special trip over there, but it was good enough to eat again if we needed food in Poulsbo.

Poulsbo isn't all Norwegian. On the edge of town, besides the Vietnamese place, is also

We didn't go in today, but they do have a small assortment of things that are hard to find unless you go to Seattle.

But right downtown in Poulsbo is all the Norwegiana.

Lots of kitsch

as the shop windows reflect

These new benches aren't even bolted down yet, and they look really nice and inviting.

Once again, Riley knows where to shop

I'm going to have to leave you in suspense for a while and go and get the dinner started, or we'll never eat tonight. Next up: The Lutefisk Store!

[jgarner53]

Oh, Abra, you make me want to leave San Francisco for Seattle just to enjoy your cooking! That duck confit salad (I'm a little behind and just catching up) looked and sounded divine! Even your capuccino shots make me want some, and I don't even like it!

[wesza]

Abra:

Your "Foodlog's" have been incredible, it's like a travelogue, with photo's and food that I'm sure will attract many visitors from eGullet to Washington State this year.

The composition in your photo's of Foods is mouth watering and your expertise is increasing. I hope that you'll be doing another Foodblog covering other areas of our state. Tacoma Korean ? Some of your favorite Restaurants that you have posted about, Leavenworth, Spokane ?

We have "Ah Leung" for Chinese, Teepee for Maylasian, Ling for Vancouver, BC and now Abra from Washington.

Again thank you for your contributions that taste and look good.

I decided to post this before your "Lutefisk" adventure as that something special, that I haven't experienced.

Irwin

Edited November 17, 2005 by wesza (log)

[Tepee]

Abra Ca Dabra! Indeed, you work magic in all your dishes!

Continuing suggestions on what to do with your pantry items...

With the belachan paste and the shrimp paste, you're good to make Penang Rojak. Drool.

Here's two more recipes on what to do with red bean paste, with some modifications for the addition of sugar.

Shanghai Pancake

Red Bean Agar-agar

(Oops. Just had another look at your can of red beans, and noticed it's just sweetened red beans instead of paste. Hmm..just turn it into paste by mashing it. Since it's not paste, you can make Red Bean Layer Kuih.)

Found a recipe where you can use both your Dried Lily Flowers/Golden Needles/Gum Jum and Wood Ears. Mu Shu Pork. Yours look too brown, though...should be yellowish-brown. Is this the one which had been kept for FIVE dark years??

p/s I'd like to give your pooch Riley a smooch! And, we use the same camera.

Edited November 17, 2005 by Tepee (log)

[Susan in FL]

Abra Ca Dabra! Indeed, you work magic in all your dishes!

Indeed you do, Abra.

And by the way... Is that how you pronounce your name? (Is that your first name?)

It could be your business slogan!

[Pan]

I hope I'm not going to overwhelm you with pictures here!  Once you start snapping, it's hard to stop, but still, this is a shop 'til you drop installment..

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Exactly. Please, keep overwhelming us. This is so much fun!!!

[Pan]

Abra, I just noticed that one of your mystery items is biji kemiri (candlenuts). You can use that in any number of rich, delicious Indonesian dishes, such as rendang.

[tejon]

Oh, my, you're bringing back so many childhood memories of lutefisk . Used to be part of the youth group at Sons of Norway, too. Is there any fresh lefse to be had there? Such delicious stuff, especially when it's warm.

[Megan Blocker]

Oh, Abra, I love the Norwegian kitsch!!! And Riley is adorable...what big brown eyes!!!

[Eden]

Oh, my, you're bringing back so many childhood memories of lutefisk  . Used to be part of the youth group at Sons of Norway, too. Is there any fresh lefse to be had there? Such delicious stuff, especially when it's warm.

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I don't know about Poulsbo, but across the water here in Ballard (originally a swedish/norwegian neighborhood of Seattle) we still have a shop that does all sorts of Nordic food imports and also has a bakery counter with all sorts of sweet treats including lefse. It's about a block from the Leif Erikson Hall

Can't wait to see how your dinner turned out Abra!

[Abra]

Here it is...ta da...The Lutefisk Store. it has some other name, really, but that's all we call it. Outside they have

Lutefisk TV Dinners!!!

And inside they have

Lutefisk TV Dinners!!! Can you believe it?

They also have lots of other pan-Nordic stuff like lingonberries

and stroopwaffels

and soup mixes.

and then, what's this? Dutch food! Klary, look!

Oliebollen, and

Boterkoek.

In fact, I got lots of Dutch stuff that I can use in your recipes, especially the bitterkoekjes for that gorgeous pudding.

In Poulsbo you can evidently buy fish right from the boat, although I never have

and have a drink right on the water.

Or, you can go to Central Market, coming soon to a screen near you. Have a look at these while I upload Central Market, and dinner.

[rjwong]

Lutefisk? I heard stories about lutefisk.

Riley looks so good. It's nice to see a dog for a change.

[Abra]

Here we are at Central Market, where everything is large. They have more of everything, especially produce, than any other market this side of Seattle. It's the food mecca of the Kitsap Peninsula. Does this logo look familiar? Is this like those other Central Markets?

Here's just a tiny glimpse of their cool wares. Of course, they have mountains of Eggo frozen waffles and breakfast cereals in unnatural colors, just like any store, but they really have a lot of the good stuff.

and even

and, my favorite,

Nice market, eh?

So. Dinner. That was crazy. I mean really nutso, to do that with so little time, for just the two of us. Well, I guess I knew you all were coming over and wanted to show off a little. I can say here and now, this took me 2 hours and 10 minutes of balls out cooking to accomplish. Don't make these three things together unless you have a whole leisurely afternoon, or want to give yourself a stress test.

I didn't get to take a lot of pictures, since I was so late getting started. We normally eat early, and get up early, since Shel telecommutes to Ohio and has to be at his desk at 7:00 a.m.

Here's the mise for the chard filling

I used ruby chard, and I diced the stems into the saute, even though the recipe calls for leaves only. I like the stems and their beautiful red color.

Here's the mise for the root vegetable mash

The dough for the tart, being made with leaf lard, was incredibly supple and easy to work with. I had no trouble rolling out a 14" circle with no rips or holes, and my pastry skills aren't that great.

Then, things got too busy to even pick up the camera. Here's the chicken plated with the mash

I would have liked the chicken a little less sweet. Next time I'd reduce the honey that goes into the vin cotta that gives the dish its name. The mash was subtle, not wham! pow! like the celery root puree last night, but it was interesting to eat. The chicken was rich and a bit startling, but it grew on both or us with each bite. The Sicilian olives, against the honey and raisins, and the sweet-tart wine, meant that each bite was different. It really wanted to be served with a bitter green, and believe me, I tried. But the tart took about 15 minutes longer than the recipe suggested, so we ate it in courses.

The tart was kind of homely and unphotogenic

and I think it'll be better cold, or at room temperature, but it was simple and satisfying even warm. The crust is shatteringly crisp and light, and the filling is pleasant. This is a fair amount of work for a decent result, so I probably won't make this one again. The crust is a keeper, though.

Here's Riley, helping unload the dishwasher.

We really need to teach him to wash the floor.

And so, here we are, at the end of the day. I am so ready for bed, flannel sheets, down comforter, warm cat cuddle, let it be!

[Placebo]

Yum! I love the Central Market up on the north edge of Seattle proper -I used to shop there a lot (when I had a car and didn't work at Pike Place). There are a couple Scandinavian bakeries in Ballard and Crown Hill (Larsen's and The Scandinavian Bakery respectively) that should both have fresh lefse. I know the latter does and I'd be surprised if Larsen's didn't.

[hzrt8w]

Those little wood ears, you soak them first?  Do they keep that ribbony shape?

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The Chinese ingredients jumped out at me in your last picture, Abra. The wood ears, dry lily buds, yellow bean sauce, shrimp sauce, red beans... What a collection!

Yes wood ears need to be soaked first. About a hour would do. Lily buds too if you use them. These two, along with some dried black mushrooms (shittake mushrooms) can be mixed with chopped chicken (or diced chicken breast), plus seasoning, and made into a delicious steamed chicken dish, Chinese style. You can add a little yellow bean sauce and soy sauce as marinade. (Plus a few other things.)

Wood ears become very soft once soaked. Yes they maintain the ribbony shape.

Edited November 17, 2005 by hzrt8w (log)

[Adam Balic]

Ok, dinner tonight, in case you want to join in:

The strangest thing about black treacle is that we never see it at all here, but I keep seeing it in recipes. Same with the candlenuts.  So when I saw them I grabbed them, and then have never been face to face with the right recipe.  Jack, you could do us a big favor by starting a treacle thread.  It's not exactly molasses, right? 

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A really great foodblog, very interesting and everything looks terrific.

Regarding molasses and treacle, these links have much infomation and then some.

golden syrup

English Puddings

But to give a quick summary. Sugar refining is basically a crystalization process. Cane (or beet) juice contains numerous sugars, sucrose is the stuff that forms cyrstals. These are removed by filtration or other methods.

The crystalization process is done several times to remove the sucrose, the more times this is done the lower the concentration of sucrose and the higher the concentration of non-sucrose sugars and other stuff.

Light treacle (mostly = golden syrup) is still contain a fair amount of sucrose and is a light colour as it is from the early point in the process. Dark treacle (called "Treacle" or "black treacle" mostly) has had more sucrose removed and is a darker etc. This is the equivalent of Molasses. If you take the process further you get the black strap molasses.

Different produceers will most likley produce slightly different products, based on the exact process used, but basical UK treacle = USA molasses.

This only applies to cane sugar obviously. I'm not sure if food grade molasses is made as a by-product of beet sugar production, but the non-sucrose sugars and other stuff will be quite different to cane sugars, so I imagine the final product will have a different character.

[eJulia]

Abra: I had one summer as a kid that my only friend was a sheepdog named Hank.... I WANT YOUR DOG!!!

Really, though, your blog is awesome. I can only imagine how much time it takes, and want to thank you for your contribution and dedication. You Rock!!

[johnnyd]

That's pretty cheap for chanterelles, but if I recall, they grow all over the place up there. Do you ever see any of the Matsutake they pick in Oregon or BC for sale there?

[mrbigjas]

The tart was kind of homely and unphotogenic

and I think it'll be better cold, or at room temperature, but it was simple and satisfying even warm.  The crust is shatteringly crisp and light, and the filling is pleasant.  This is a fair amount of work for a decent result, so I probably won't make this one again.  The crust is a keeper, though.

i made this dish just last week, but with kale, and my first thought was that i'd definitely make it again. (see kevin72's italian cooking thread for details)

then i was thinking it would be interesting, probably, if i used that old recipe of chard with raisins and pine nuts and made the tart out of that.

but i have an unusually strong predilection for leafy greens in all shapes and sizes, i have to admit.

[Abra]

Good morning! Nah, just kidding. That's Mt. Rainier, and because our own morning was relatively dreary, I just took a picture of the newspaper page. It really does look like that, but we can't see it from our house.

Here's the real deal

Pretty uninspiring, huh? And here's breakfast

Just as I'd thought, this is a LOT better at room temp than it was warm. I'm with you, mrbigjas, on the unnatural predilection for leafy greens. I could eat them every day, and often do, even for breakfast. But it's the crust that makes this tart special, I still do think.

I want to catch up on all your great comments:

Genny, when you ask about "the usual suspects" for non-blog meals, I'm stymied. I really do make a different food almost every night, and probably don't repeat anything in a month of dinners. However, this summer we've had a passion for what we call "Which Came First?" salad, for lunch. A green salad with some leftover chicken shreds, topped with poached eggs and fig balsamic. That is just about a perfect summer lunch around here.

Thanks for all of the great recipe suggestion, Fred2fred, Pan, hzrt8w, and Tepee. I'll be trying some of them for sure. That Penang rojak looks fantastic!

Littlemsfoodie, I can't believe you've never eaten a persimmon! You've eaten at some of the most famous restaurants in the country and you've never eaten a persimmon? Persimmon lovers, help me out here. She asks how a persimmon tastes. To me, an ultra-ripe Hachiya persimmon tastes like sex. Or, it tastes like sex ought to taste. Shall I just leave it to your imagination from there, or shall I get more graphic? And no, Riley doesn't eat persimmons. He's neutered.

Now that Jack bumped up that treacle thread, I see that I'm going to have to settle the question of whether treacle and molasses are the same thing with a taste test. I have black treacle, I have molasses, I have a tongue and a camera. Sometime this morning the truth will be revealed!

Johnnyd, I've only seen matsutake here once, at Uwajimaya, which is our enormous Asian supermarket in Seattle. They were about $25 a pound, so I didn't dare get any, for lack of knowing how to prepare them perfectly. We do get a pretty steady supply of maitaakes, and in this season, chanterelles. The $7.98 is about an average price for chanterelles. They were down to $3.98 for a couple of days, but those were broken and dirty. Chanterelles can't be cultivated, so they come to the store with a lot of pine needle debris on them. I don't love them enough to buy them when they need a ton of cleanup work.

Ok, I'm getting into my day. I have to get everything ready to go to Orcas tomorrow. In this case that means spending a chilly hour in the garage, rescuing my kit from the aftermath of Hurricane Walla Walla. I promise I'll post Before and After pictures, if you promise not to turn me in to the Neat Police. And I have to get my menu for the wine pairing dinner up there finalized. It suffered a major blow this morning when I looked at the oxtail recipe that I was planning for the Syrah course and discovered that I should have started marinating it on Monday. Oops! Ms. Organization Freak bites the dust. Now what?

Here's what I'm working from, and please, your suggestions would be so helpful!

Chardonnay course - some sort of creamy risotto, needs an acid element to go with Kistler Chard, might include saffron, might include seafood

Pinot Noir course - that's nailed, the duck confit salad I made the other night will be awesome for this course

Cabernet Sauvignon (Leonetti) course - was going to be a roasted root vegetable thing (before the oxtail debacle), maybe some sort of roasted root veggie tart

Syrah course - this was going to be the oxtail, and now I don't know. Should I make the Cab course be the "main", do beef or lamb, and let this course be something lighter?

Vin de Noix course - I'm totally open to dessert suggestions

Lillet appetizer course - I might make the Rabbit Rillettes from Paula's book for an appetizer, if I can manage it today, or again, I'm totally open to suggestions.

This isn't a pro forma request, I really do need help!

And then, I'll cook today anything that might need a long, slow cooking and would benefit from resting for a couple of days. In this case, the meal is a gift to people we know, they're not paying me, and we're having the dinner with them, so I can do some prep at home, unlike a regular paying gig where the Health Dept. Just Says No to home cooking and prep. I'll also need to shop for any ingredients that I think I won't find up on Orcas. The grocery store up there used to be really nice, but the last time I was in, during the summer, it looked like a lot of the more upscale ingredients had faded from their shelves. I'll take you shopping with me when I get there, so you can see how an island that's an hour from shore by ferry, and where the "shore" is not anywhere with major shopping, keeps itself stocked.

Ok?

[jackal10]

For the Syrah course you could do worse than Steak and Kidney Pudding (or a variation - maybe Steak and Oyster)...maybe I just have that on my mind (and in my stomach), but long slow cooked beef is the way to go.

With the Vin de Noix follow the nut theme - Pecan Pie? or an aged Cheese - cheddar maybe and fruit.

[bleudauvergne]

For the vin de noix course, I'm thinking something light but nutty, like a flavored flan of some kind, maybe maple - something not too rich or heavy.

[kiliki]

Yes, keep the pictures coming!! They are fabulous. And I love the ones of Riley-he looks like such a good boy.

[Abra]

Ok, it's starting to take shape:

Lillet course: I don't think I can pull off the rabbit dish today, so what would excel with Lillet? An herby gougere would be good, but too much last minute prep. This dinner needs to have lots of make-ahead elements. Some of my quince paste and Manchego, for sure, but I need something else, more of a presentation appetizer.

Chardonnay course: some sort of pasta with Dungeness crab sauce and corn in there somehow

Pinot Noir course - Duck Salad with Red Cabbage, Chestnuts, and Watercress

Cabernet course - I think I want to do a roasted root vegetable and rosemary tart with a cornmeal crust, but I'm not sure about what to use as a base or a binder, and whether it might need a little sauce. Maybe a verjus glaze? Or olivada on the side? This wine is the biggest deal of the dinner, so I want to do it justice.

Syrah course - something lamb, and that awesome celery root and apple puree

Vin de noix course - something spicy, maple or gingerbread flavors would be great, or maybe Klary's ginger butter cake? Some kind of maple ginger mousse?

All small courses, of course. Please, more ideas! Just toss 'em at me.

Edited November 17, 2005 by Abra (log)

[bleudauvergne]

What color lillet are you serving?