Foie Gras & Flannel

When Pictory launched a theme focused food extremes, I asked my friend Tracy if I could follow her around with a camera on a food adventure. The challenge:

“Share your captioned photos of still-wriggling octopus, radioactive energy drink, grandma’s traditional pickled vegetables, your aunt’s raw vegan concoctions, or whatever it is that makes you think again before digging in.”

First up: foraging for mulberries. Okay, it’s not quite the same as a live octopus, but it is illegal—when you trespass to find the honey hole, that is. These little morsels are easily overlooked, but Tracy promises that once you’ve found a few trees to pick, you’ll notice them all over. (And Tracy doesn’t let the fallen berries go to waste—she’ll eat those straight off the side of the road)

Fresh berry supply in hand, we ventured back to my office to meet up with…well, let’s just call him E. An experienced brewer of craft beer, E brought a sampling from his latest experiment: gin. And once he convinced us that we wouldn’t go blind, we imbibed. (Note: I’ve had homemade alcohol before, but not like this—it was impressive.) We tried it straight, then with fresh lime and tonic.

E also shared some of his beer creations, and brought a bottle of fernet to chase everything down. Thanks for sharing, E!

And that’s Round 1. For the next leg of the adventure, we’re talking about a raw beef Armenian sandwich, or colostrum from the nearby raw dairy. I’m still not sold on that last one…

Easy Sunday dinner:

• Fresh swordfish, seasoned with herb salt, grilled and topped with a little butter (from Central Fish)
• Organic asparagus, grilled (from Vineyard Farmers Market)
• Favas, seasoned with herb salt and pan-fried (from a road-side stand–recipe from The Year in Food)
• Whole wheat sourdough (from La Boulangerie)

What are you eating?

Last week I received a jar of herb sea salt from Woody’s Gourmet, as a preview of what’s coming in this month’s Tasting Box from Foodzie, and a challenge to use the ingredient in a recipe worth sharing.

After smelling and tasting the salt, my first inclination was to simply sprinkle it over fresh tomatoes, which I’m starting to see at the farmers market. The flavors from the herbs were incredible with the raw tomato! But that’s not much of a recipe, so started to experiment with fava beans (also found at the farmers market).

At last month’s Eat Retreat, I learned how to make a fava crostini from fellow-retreater Lauren Ladoceour. This is my take:

Ingredients

• 3 pounds fava beans, in the pod
• 3-4 Tbsps. virgin olive oil, plus 1 Tbsp. for the bread
• 1 Tbsp. water, plus more as needed for desired texture
• 3-4 leaves fresh mint
• 1 lemon
• 1/2 tsp. fresh ground black pepper, or to taste
• 1 tsp. Woody’s Gourmet Fresh Basil & Lemongrass Herb Sea Salt
• 2 oz. parmigiano reggiano
• 1 loaf seed bread or thin baguette, sliced thin and toasted

Instructions

Fire up the grill (I like mine about 400°F). Line up the fava pods—if you can’t fit all of them at once, grill them in stages. Close the lid on the grill and cook for 4-5 minutes; flip, then cook for another 4-5 minutes. A little char is good for flavor, but if you leave them on too long, the beans will start to dry out and will be difficult to shell.

Remove the cooked pods from the grill, and let cool (this only takes a few minutes). Zest the lemon; squeeze and reserve 1/2 of its juice. Using the zester or a microplane, grate the cheese and set aside.

Once cool, peel the pods and pile the beans in a bowl. Now comes the fun part: use a fingernail to open each bean shell and squeeze the bean out. If you’re scaling the recipe for a larger serving, get comfortable.

Once shelled, combine the beans, 2 Tbsps. of the olive oil, water, mint, lemon zest and juice, and lightly mash to combine—use a stick blender cream everything together. Taste and adjust flavors as desired. Fold in 1 Tbsp. of the olive oil to add texture and make the mixture easy to spread.

Heat an oven to 400°F; slice the bread and toast until crispy. In a small bowl, mix the herb sea salt in 1 Tbsp. olive oil. Brush the mixture over the toasted bread.

To serve, spoon the fava mixture on the oiled bread, and top top with the parmigiano reggiano.

Makes 8-10 servings

Friends, meet Foodzie (as if you hadn’t met already), which describes itself as an “online marketplace where you can discover and buy food directly from small passionate food producers and growers.” If you’re near me in the Central Valley, you may recognize local names like Bravo Farms on the Producer Map.

I recently joined 19 food other bloggers on Foodzie’s Tasting Panel, and have been challenged with creating a recipe each month featuring a product highlighted in the Tasting Box, a subscription sampler of Foodzie favorites. I accepted the challenge because 1) I like to try new things and 2) I want to push myself a bit in the kitchen (as previous posts show, I dine out a lot)!

Our first challenge features Horseradish-Dill Mustard from SchoolHouse Kitchen (check out their story—it’s pretty cool). I felt ambitious, so the salad is the first of two recipes that I created. Everything fresh was picked up today at Vineyard Farmers Market.

The meat:

• 1 lb. pork tenderloin
• 2 tbsps. SchoolHouse Kitchen Horseradish-Dill Mustard
• 2 tbsps. fresh ground black pepper
• 1 tbsp. vegetable oil

The greens:

• Loose green and red leaf lettuce
• Fresh arugula, to taste
• 6-8 golden beets, peeled and quartered
• 1 orange, peeled and sliced
• 1 purple carrot ¹, grated
• 1 oz. dried currants
• 2 oz. fresh goat cheese

Horseradish-Dill Mustard Vinaigrette:

• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 tbsps. balsamic vinegar
• 2 tsps. SchoolHouse Kitchen Horseradish-Dill Mustard
• 1 tsp. fresh parsley, chopped fine
• 1 tsp. fresh thyme, chopped fine
• Pinch of salt and fresh ground pepper (or to taste)
• 5-6 tablespoons olive oil

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°. On a cutting board or smooth surface, spoon the horseradish-dill mustard over the pork, and rub in to coat fully. Spread out fresh cracked pepper and roll the meat in it.

Heat the oil over high in a cast iron skillet; when hot, sear the pork, about two minutes each side. Remove from stove and place immediately in oven, cooking until the meat reaches your desired temperature – I like pork medium-to-medium-well, so there’s still just a little pink throughout. Once cooked, let rest until ready to slice.

While the meat cooks, peel, quarter and steam the beets until fork tender ². Chill in fridge until ready to use.

When ready to serve, layer the greens on a large plate, mixing in the currants, beets and orange slices. Slice meat and fan out over the salad, and garnish with the grated carrots. Crumble the goat cheese over everything, then drizzle two tablespoons of the salad dressing.

Making the vinaigrette: Combine garlic, vinegar, mustard, herbs and spices in a large mixing bowl and lightly whisk. Continue whisking while lightly pouring in the olive oil to emulsify the mixture. Consistent, repetitive circles with the whisk around the bowl will help.

¹ I’m obsessed with these lately, and get them from a farmer at my local market, but regular carrots will taste just as good.
² I’m also obsessed with golden beets lately, and was informed as I cooked this last night that the juice left after steaming is quite tasty in a martini.

This is here is a fruit review. Some people review restaurants, some review wine, but I’m reviewing fruit. It’ll be a thing one day.

Anyway, today I tried my first pomelo. It looks like a swollen grapefruit, but is much less dense (it’s like holding a softball, actually). It was meh.

I know that thing was good for me—all citrus is, right? But it looks like a larger cousin to the oro blanco, which has become an obsession for me over the last two months. (Seriously, because of that fruit I eat a grapefruit a day now.) The pomelo isn’t as sweet; it’s also not as tart. It’s a lot of water, really, wrapped in 3/4 inch of pith and peel.

What do you think? Did I get a bad one? Am I missing something?