This weekend I had the epitome of a “staycation.” No plans except to sleep in, cook good food and watch the second season of Mad Men with Mark. On Sunday night we decided to open up a great bottle of syrah and slow cook a pork belly with a homemade huckleberry sauce. We had gone to the Sunday farmers market earlier in the morning and purchased a pint of foraged huckleberries from Christina Choi at Foraged and Found Edibles. The berries were plump and glistening, looking like violet caviar, simply perfect for a thick piece of pork belly.

We roasted some golden beets and Ozette potatoes we had purchased from another vendor to add to our pork belly. After searing the pork belly on all sides, I removed it from the heat and set it aside. Next I added 1/4 cup of finely chopped shallots and sauteed them over medium-high heat with a good pinch of salt and pepper. I deglazed with some balsamic vinegar and syrah wine. Next I added 1 cup of wild huckleberries, 1/2 sprig of fresh rosemary, two fresh sage leaves, a fresh oregano sprig, two garlic cloves that were smashed only slightly and a sprinkling of brown sugar.

I brought the pan to a simmer and let the sauce work it’s magic for a couple minutes. Next I added the seared pork belly back to the sauce, covered it and let it cook at 300 F for almost two hours, turning the meat half way through cooking. Once the meat was more than fork-tender, I removed the pan from the oven and onto a plate. I covered the pork in the sauce and sprinkled on another handful of the uncooked huckleberries for color and a nice tang to balance flavors.

The result was rich, juicy and over the top indulgent; absolutely perfect for a weekend all to ourselves.

For the whole recipe for Pork Belly with Wild Huckleberry Sauce go here:

Can’t get enough of pork belly, check out these other recipes:

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I love a good sauce on my steak. A vinegary chimichurri, a freshly made pesto, even just a simple drizzle of truffle oil or citrus juice to finish it off. Last night we had a Sunday steak dinner that could not have been more lovely. We sailed up to Port Madison, a charming little spot on the northern edge of Bainbridge Island, and dropped anchor. We fired up the grill, threw our skirt steak on, opened a nice bottle of wine, and sat back to watch the sunset…

Though our delicious Thundering Hooves grass fed beef needed minimal seasoning, we mixed up a nice Lemon Scallion Butter Sauce to even further brighten up the flavors of the meat. We sautéed garlic, scallions, and the zest of a lemon in a bit of olive oil. Once the flavors had sufficiently infused the oil we blended in some butter, then spooned the tasty sauce on top of the steak (it would also be wonderful on grilled chicken or fish).

Darn it anyway that Monday came around! At 6:30 a.m. this morning we pulled anchor and set sail back to Seattle and the Foodista offices. (Note to self: get wireless Internet so we can work from boat).

Here’s our sauce recipe:

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Not too long ago Mark cooked live lobsters for the first time and because it was such a special occasion, it called for special butter. Of course there is nothing more delicious than lobster dipped into sweet hot butter, but what if you kicked it up a notch? After boiling the lobsters he split them in half, placed them on the barbecue for just a couple minutes and brushed them with chipotle butter. They were quite the treat. I can imagine this butter on grilled corn on the cob, added to steamed clams or even spread on a baked potato.

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Just this last weekend, I catered a party with one of my close chef friends, Kristen Schumacher.  For me, there is nothing more fun than geeking out over cook books while planning a dinner party menu, especially when your co-chef is also a fan of local and seasonal cooking and  not afraid of experimentation. In the summer months, ingredient options seem endless and with a little bit of inspiration, ordinary ingredients can be transformed into delicious dishes.  Given the small size of the group, (nine) and a good budget, we were able to focus on ingredients and take extra care for plating. For the salad course we tossed arugula and finely chiffonade sorrel with a honey citrus vinaigrette and topped each salad with shaved pecorino, chive blossoms and a soft-boiled duck egg sprinkled with black Hawaiian sea salt. Since a soft-boiled duck egg is one of my favorite foods, I couldn’t wait to share this dish with you all.

Here was the rest of the menu:

Appetizers
Dragon Roll  (sushi of unagi, cucumber, seaweed, avocado and toasted sesame seeds)
Herbed Goat Cheese Stuffed Peppadew Peppers
Amuse Bouche
Balsamic Pork Belly Skewers with Caramelized Figs
Salad
Arugula  and Sorrel Salad with Soft Boiled Duck Egg Sprinkled with Black Hawaiian Sea Salt
Shaved Pecorino Cheese,  Chive Blossoms, Honey Citrus Vinaigrette
Intermezzo
Mango sorbet with Kaffir Lime and Mint Simple Syrup topped with Borage Flowers
Main
Marinated Grilled Flank Steak with Basil Chimchurri
Heirloom Tomatoes, herb mash
Dessert
Grilled Pound Cake with Mike and Gene’s Berry Farm Sauce
Grilled stone fruit, local cream freshly whipped

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I was perusing through some of Julia Child’s great cookbooks last night and came upon her recipe for Basic Vinaigrette Dressing. I’ll let you in on a little secret: I’m horrible at making salad dressing. If it extends beyond a good oil, a splash of lemon juice, and some salt, I’m afraid I tend to fail miserably. Inevitably it comes out too vinegary or just simply lacking in flavor. Salad dressing should be easy, right!? I can create a beautiful cassoulet, a lovely osso bucco, delicate homemade pasta, even fresh sushi. But a simple salad dressing? Not my forté. I usually pass the task on to Barnaby.

So, I’m turning a new leaf (pardon the salad pun), grabbing the oil and vinegar bottles by the <er> horns, and approaching this salad dressing business with a new attitude.

I..will..master..the..vinaigrette!

Who better than to show me the way than our friend Julia Child. I followed her Basic Vinaigrette recipe and minced scallions, mixed in some Dijon mustard, a pinch of salt, some vinegar and lemon juice, a really good olive oil, and a few healthy cracks of fresh black pepper. I gave it all a little vroom! vroom! with the immersion blender and voilà, the perfect vinaigrette. Like Julia says, you can always add more vinegar or lemon but you can’t take it out. I spooned some into the salad bowl, added my just-snipped-from-the-garden baby lettuces, and gave it all a toss. A bit of lemon zest gave it a fresh snap of flavor.

I think Julia would have been proud.

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My Aunt Dolores always makes this wonderful pasta salad for her barbecues and I’m adding it to my repertoire this summer as well. It doesn’t really have a name, so I’ll call it Mediterranean Pasta Salad, as it contains a lot of the yummy goodness from that region: Kalamata olives, Roma tomatoes, fresh basil, Balsamic vinegar… It’s slightly different each time, depending on what ingredients you happen to have around. The shape of the pasta can change too, though it’s best to use a variety that can “hold” the dressing otherwise it will dry out too quickly.

In this case, I happened to have some nice broccoli flourets on hand, some lovely ripe tomatoes, fresh tarragon, and a beautiful red onion. For the dressing, mix in a bit of aioli (mayonnaise can be used) to coat but not drench the noodles. This will give it a nice creaminess. Then add Balsamic vinegar, some sea salt and fresh ground black pepper, and mix well. Adjust to your personal tastes: if you want it creamier, add more aioli; richer, add more Balsamic. Toss in a bit of extra virgin olive oil before serving for added flavor.

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It’s as if a switch is flipped, the sun starts to set and coals start to light. Happy laughter and the toast of cold beers with friends and families as they gather on decks, patios and porches is about as good as it gets. Call it what it is, but I guarantee just about anyone will tell you they love the smell of lighter fluid wafting over from a neighbor’s yard. It must mean it’s barbecue season and that means great outdoor food!

It doesn’t matter if you are slow-cooking brisket for eight hours or simply grilling a couple burgers, who ever is at the grill is instantly moved up to top chef status. Sure anyone can light a fire and sear some meat, but there is a whole other group of people who make barbecue a science, an art and a way of life.  Entire cults are built around barbecue. Sauce followers from around the world drive hundreds of miles to compete rib to rib in barbecue competitions to see whose barbecue will prevail.

BBQ CONTEST!! We’d like to recognize those of you who take your barbecuing to a whole other level.  Simply sign up on Foodista and add your best barbecue recipe(s) and photo(s) by June 26.

On July 1st the winner will be featured on The Foodista Barbecue Wall of Flame and receive a Foodista apron and a $50 gift card to Sur la Table!

Good Luck!

Image by NachX from Flickr

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Well, technically it’s Day 3, but unfortunately I’ve been pulling near all-nighters at work, so writing has been challenging to say the least! But we did eat last night, I just fell asleep before I could write! Apologies.

We went to our favorite Latino market in White Center called Carniceria El Paisano for provisions. We purchased a half pound of puerco en adobo (pork in a spicy marinade) for $1.98, a can of black refried beans for $.99, a big bag of corn tortillas for $1.69, and a bottle of hot sauce for $.89.

Then we headed over to a Vietnamese market for veggies. They had a 6-foot table with loaded with baggies of fruits and vegetables in their last days – all for $1.00! A big bag of limes, one filled with tomatoes (perfect for a huge batch of sauce), nectarines, etc. You’d never see that at a Safeway! Granted, the food would need to be cooked, frozen or eaten within probably a day, but still quite the savings.

We purchased four Key limes for $.18, an onion for $.39, a half pound of nopalitos (cactus) for roughly $.75, a beautiful head of lettuce for $.79, and a big bunch of gorgeous cilantro for $.39. Grand total for dinner: $8.05. Since we had the Turkey Dal leftovers for lunch, and yogurt and bananas for breakfast, we actually saved a bit of our food dollars today.

Here’s how we prepared our Mexican meal: Barnaby grilled the nopalitos and puerco en adobo, and since they are both so thin they cooked up in a flash. I had the easy job of heating up the refried beans and chopping up the onions. We made street-style tacos filled with the pork, onions, cilantro, fresh lime juice and a squeeze of hot sauce. Tasty!

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I know it’s Saint Patrick’s Day and I should be writing about corned beef and cabbage, but I’m behind schedule and just put my brisket in the slow cooker this morning. So you’ll have to make do with grilled flank steak, which I think is a perfectly fine substitute (even though a bit blasphemous on St. Paddy’s day). Hopefully the green of the chimichurri sauce will help make it more festive!

Chimichurri is a classic Argentine sauce, predominantly made with aji molido, a mild red chili. It’s wonderful on grilled meats, but also makes a lovely dipping sauce for bread. With garlic, olive oil, vinegar and freshly chopped parsley, this sauce is sure to make you rethink the traditional Saint Patrick’s Day dinner.

Ouch, I think a leprechaun just bit me!

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What kind of food lover am I?! I completely missed Chinese New Year this year!  Next year I swear I’ll do better (and it’s on Valentine’s Day, so I know I won’t miss it). I had these wonderfully grandiose plans to create an exotic multi-course meal, each dish symbolic and auspicious and all that good stuff. But alas, we’d just returned from the Sundance Film Festival with nasty colds and, unable to taste nary a thing, we wanted nothing but chicken soup for days.

So in order to pay homage to any deities that I may have scorned during the celebrations I thought I would whip up some semblance of a respectful noodle dish. Let me preface by saying I know nothing-nada-niente about Chinese cooking. I am, as the expression goes, whiter than white on rice. I will unabashedly admit that for a layman I am somewhat brilliant when it comes to Japanese fare, but Chinese – nope, not at all. So if you’re Chinese please keep that in mind and forgive my feeble attempts at your lovely cuisine. Let’s call it Fusion Chinese or something to save face.

Jaden from Steamy Kitchen (one of my most fave blogs) inspired me to make noodles, a symbol of long life, with her Garlic Scallion Noodles dish. I grabbed what I had on hand in my fridge and threw together this tasty dish.  I sauteed a bunch of crushed garlic and ginger, then tossed in the vegetable noodles. I added a bit of oyster and hoisin sauce and a splash of toasted sesame oil. In a separate skillet I sauteed the snow peas, then the prawns. I made a little nest of the noodles, lined it with the snow peas and laid the prawns on top. I garnished the dish with a bit of black sesame seeds and we were ready to eat!

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