Menu Mimicry

Rock fish with braised fennel and potatoes

Last Saturday we had an amazing dinner at Nostrana in SE Portland with our friends Sara and Courtland. It was the first time we’d eaten there and everything was delicious. The food was simple, but what made it memorable were the choice ingredients and inventive combinations. For example we started with pizza topped with shiitake mushrooms, arugula, house mozzarella, lemon oil and pecorino cheese. The Insalata Nostrana was an interesting twist on a Caesar salad — it featured just slightly bitter radicchio instead of romaine lettuce.

Between all the food and the wine, we had quite a hefty bill, which was somewhat alleviated by a $50 coupon and some well-spent roulette winnings. Still, it was a splurge and the kind of dining experience we could not replicate every night. Until Trevor had an idea. We’d scour the menus of the best restaurants in Portland and try to create dishes based on the brief descriptions in the menus.

This has been our first week of cooking off the menus without any sort of recipe. And so far, we’re four for four. We look at the ingredients and descriptions (braised, crisp, roasted) and try to imagine how the chefs would prepare them.

We started with halibut with braised fennel, green garlic and gold potatoes from the clarklewis menu. We substituted rock fish for halibut, since halibut was $20.99 a pound at the farmers’ market. Trevor’s not working for Persephone Farm this season, but we always stop there first to load up on organic vegetables when we hit the PSU farmers’ market. We got our fennel there. Trevor followed Martha Stewart’s Cooking School directions for braising fennel and potatoes. It came out silky and creamy. We dredged the fish in flour and pan fried it. The slightly crisp exterior played off the creaminess of the rest of the dish. I also made a little kale on the side.

Next we made a roast chicken salad with peppered bacon and avocado from the menu of Bunk, our favorite sandwich joint. We cheated and bought a rotisserie chicken for the salad, which we shredded and mixed with mayo and some fresh rosemary. Then we fried up thick-cut pepper bacon and sliced the avocado our neighbors had given us. We threw a little Persephone speckled lettuce on there for good measure. It was a big, delicious sandwich.

As I was shelling the fava beans I thought
of that line from Silence of the
Lambs, "I ate his liver with
fava beans and a nice chianti."

The next dish was a real stretch because neither one of us has ever eaten or prepared fava beans. I’ve seen several cooking shows that showed how to prepare them, so I knew it was an involved process. We were going off the Nostrana menu, which listed a fava bean salad with prosciutto, lemon and pecorino. Fava beans are in season and cheap at the farmers’ market. To prepare them, you shell the beans from the pod, then boil them for about 10 minutes. Then you remove the tough outer shells from the beans. We may have overcooked the beans slightly, because we had to remove the skins very carefully or the beans turned to mush. Then we tossed the beans with lemon juice, olive oil and grated Parmesan cheese (We were buying lots of pricey specialty cheese for this experiment, so we decide to swap good imported Parm for pecorino.) Then we topped the beans with crumbled pan-fried prosciutto. Yum.

Orecchiette with polpetinne and arugula

Last night we made orecchiette, a small ear-shaped pasta, from scratch just like they do at clarklewis. (We tried a new recipe for the pasta, and weren’t completely happy with it. The pasta was a little too chewy.) We also made pork polpetinne (tiny meatballs) to throw in the pasta. For the meatballs, I put one boneless, country-style pork rib in the food processor to grind it up. To that I added the little bit of ground beef we had in the fridge, dried breadcrumbs, grated Parmesan, minced fresh sage and parsley, one egg, salt and pepper, and some water. We made tiny little meatballs and cooked them in a pan with a little olive oil. I also sautéed some shallots. We mixed the hot pasta, shallots and meatballs with arugula, grated taleggio cheese, parm and some pasta cooking liquid. The taleggio is a really good melting cheese, so it blended with everything and made a thick cheesy sauce.

Despite a few smushed fava beans and not-to-tender orecchiette, we’ve considered our menu mimicry a success. By trying to think like the top chefs in Portland we’ve tried new foods, learned new techniques (braising fennel), and picked up great ideas for simple quick dinners (store-bought pasta mixed with taleggio will make a fast, satisfying weeknight dinner).

Links:

Clarklewispdx.com

Nostrana.com

Bunksandwiches.com

Magical

The most amazing thing happened on Saturday. A huge bag of vegetables showed up unexpectedly on our doorstep. Our very own veggie fairy left us onions, cabbage, leeks, winter squash, potatoes, parsnips, farm-fresh eggs and what we think is a turnip. We are planning on putting this bounty to good use making Roasted Onion Soup, Stuffed Acorn Squash, Roasted Parsnip Bread Pudding and Butternut Truffle Soup. We made Moosewood’s Roasted Winter Vegetables last night in which the veggies are coated with a healthy dose of sage, thyme and olive oil and roasted in the oven. It was delicious.

And we had another magical food experience on Saturday night that also involved Persephone Farm. To celebrate our six-year anniversary Trevor and I went to Clarklewis, one of the restaurants that helped establish Portland as a foodie Mecca.

We went with the intention of really splurging. Every course was amazing. Even the bread and butter. Fleur de sel or some sort of specialty salt was sprinkled on the butter and it made every bite sing in my mouth. We ordered the cheese plate to start. Usually Trevor and I don’t like the same cheese, but we agreed each cheese was outstanding. I think my favorite was the Tasmanian blue cheese. But the Taleggio and cow-sheep blend cheeses were excellent. And the fried almonds.  And it was made even better with a glass of a slightly minerally, non-oaky Chardonnay.

Unfortunately they were out of the crab-stuffed endive salad, so I got a basic mixed greens with walnut salad. And Trevor tried the beet terrine salad that utilized Persephone beets. The thin layers of beet and cheese brought out the best of both ingredients.

Clarklewis sous chef Kai (hopefully I am spelling his name right) who is a regular customer at Persephone’s stand in the Farmers’ Market recognized Trevor and came out to greet us. Then he sent us a plate of gigantic gulf shrimp swimming in Meyer lemon sauce with pine nuts and a perfect dab of winter squash puree. I don’t even like shrimp and I scarfed it down. Trevor said, “This doesn’t even taste like shrimp, it tastes like lobster!”

Next up we had orecchiette with sausage-like meatballs and hedgehog mushrooms. The tender little ear-shaped pasta perfectly held the sauce. And the entreés did not disappoint. I had the double pork chop, which came with this wonderful corn cake that was a cross between cornbread and a soufflé. The savory center was like a custard. Trevor had the steak (topped with an outrageously good seasoned butter) and fingerling potatoes.

I protested when it came to dessert, but Trevor was determined. The kitchen was out of his first two choices, but the chocolate rum gelato was still a winner. I think we were in the restaurant for close to three hours! But it was perfect, the food, the ambience, the wine. Like I said. Magical.

Links:

Clarklewis restaurant

http://www.clarklewispdx.com/

Moosewood Restaurant and Cookbooks

http://www.moosewoodrestaurant.com/