Shuksan strawberries

My first taste of a Shuksan strawberry was last year, when our friend Lorna shared with us some of her harvest from her day of strawberry picking with Jon.  These large glossy berries are a beautiful red color all the way through the center, unlike your typical white grocery store strawberry.  And they are the sweetest berries I have ever tasted.

They have a brief shelf life, deteriorating in only 24 hours, so they are difficult to stock in stores.  However, for a very limited time, lucky Seattleites can find Skagit Sun’s Shuksans at Whole Foods (Roosevelt Square, Interbay, and Westlake) and Metropolitan Markets (Queen Anne, Sandpoint, and Kirkland).  Shuksan season only lasts for about three weeks.

Jon Rowley helps Mike cut strawberries for shortcake; fifth-generation farmer Chris McKnight; kids and adults listening to Chris talk about the farm

First pick of this strawberry field at Thulen Farm

Sixty of us met at Thulen Farm in La Conner to pick the first of the season berries.  Fifth-generation farmer Chris McKnight first talked to us about how they grow strawberries at his farm, a very small operation.  He said that the Shuksan plants are in very high demand, and they have to purchase new plants to keep the berries growing strong.  He pointed out a sparse field behind us where the plants were four years old and barely producing fruit.

He then had us grab empty flats and showed us to the field, where the Shuksan berries were hanging heavy under a canopy of green.  In no time, everyone had filled their flats to the brim with the brilliant red berries and stained their lips bright red, babies included.

Empty flats waiting for picking; Dawn in the field; unpicked Shuksans

Devouring a strawberry; strawberries awaiting jam and shortcake; Eric and Ian picking together

Strawberry face

As if we hadn’t eaten enough berries in the field (pick one, eat one), next up was a side-by-side strawberry tasting of five varieties.  The Shuksans and the Hood strawberries were our favorites, although we also enjoyed the Puget Reliance, which reminded Eric of the berries from his childhood.

Kids lined up immediately when Jon started handing out heaping plates of shortcake.  They waited patiently as the architectural masterpieces were assembled: half a biscuit, a spoonful of whipped cream, a heap of berries, the other half of the biscuit, more berries, another spoonful of whipped cream, and finally a few artfully placed berries with a drizzle of juice on top.  And before Jon handed the plate over, he asked each kid if they would be able to eat the whole plate of shortcake.  They nodded solemnly with hands outstretched, and carried it away with a smile.  There wasn’t a speck of shortcake left on those plates.

Jon Rowley hands out huge plates of shortcake to the kids, who devoured every bit

Anticipating shortcake

Licking the fork clean; I want more berries!

We spent that afternoon hulling and processing all those berries (remember that 24 hour shelf life?).  I churned a batch of my favorite strawberry frozen yogurt, and finished the first step in my three-day strawberry balsamic Ferber jam.  In the morning, we made blintz soufflés with strawberries, which were so yummy that we plan to make them again this weekend.  We also assembled our own architectural masterpiece of shortcake, using David Lebovitz’s three-seed shortcake biscuits.  Those seeds add just the perfect crunch and texture.

For the remaining few pints, I tried a recipe for pickled strawberries that my friends Michael and Robin had recommended to me.  I recommend you do the same.  Sweet and tangy, with a touch of spice, they are a unique way to preserve the sweetness of summer in a jar.

Spiced Pickled Strawberries
Adapted from The Complete Book of Pickling, by Jennifer MacKenzie

6 pints strawberries, hulled (preferably small and just a touch under-ripe)
3 cups sugar
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
2 cups cider vinegar

Puncture strawberries with fork tines and cut any large ones in half.

Combine remaining ingredients together in a saucepan.  Bring to a boil, stirring until sugar and salt are dissolved.  Remove from heat and let cool slightly.  Pour over prepared berries.

Cover berries and let stand at a cool room temperature for at least six hours or overnight.

Prepare canner or water bath, jars and lids.

Re-heat berries, gently stirring occasionally until strawberries are heated through but still hold their shape.

Gently spoon strawberries and hot pickling liquid into hot jars, leaving ½ inch head space.  Remove air bubbles and adjust head space as necessary by adding hot pickling liquid.  Wipe rim and place hot lid on jar, screwing band down until fingertip-tight.

Place jars in canner and return to a boil.  Process for ten minutes.

Turn off heat, remove canner lid and let jars stand in hot water for an additional five minutes.

Transfer jars to a towel-lined surface or a cooling rack and let stand undisturbed until completely cool, about 24 hours.  Check lids and refrigerate any jars that are not sealed.

. . . . .

The pickled strawberries are lovely on their own, but here are some other tasty ideas from folks on twitter:

• @mbruchas: Blue cheese and pickled strawberries tossed with summer greens, or pickled strawberries on ice cream
• @tanukipdx: Chopped chicken liver with whipped ricotta and pickled strawberries on grilled bread
• @jessamyntuttle: Salmon with pickled strawberries
• @hhlodesign: Foie gras with pickled strawberries
• @voraciousgirl: A salad with pine nuts, feta, and pickled strawberries

As it turns out, I didn’t miss it at all.  Don’t get me wrong – I love Delancey’s pizza.  In fact, it’s my favorite in Seattle.  But that dinner was pretty darn amazing.  I don’t know which I liked more: the wood-fired mussels with crusty bread or the braised rabbit.  Mussels aren’t my favorite thing around, but wood-fired mussels from Delancey’s oven are a whole different story.  And that rabbit was the best I’ve ever eaten.  I wasn’t the only person that night who said so.

So I jumped at the opportunity to attend Delancey’s Seattle Beer Week event last week: a Chuckanut Brewery dinner.  And this time, there was even pizza!  It wasn’t hard to convince our friends Michael and Robin, ardent beer-lovers, to join in, despite their already-full week of planned beer events.  I will admit to being more of a wine than a beer person, so you’re better off jumping over to their recount of the dinner for info on the beers from the evening.

Chuckanut Brewery co-owner Mari Kemper (yes, the name behind Thomas Kemper sodas) and brewer Kevin Davey greeted us at the door handing out glasses of Kölsch, which we drank while slurping Kumomotos at the counter.  We sat down to family-style platters of burrata and prosciutto, along with braised fennel paired with a Pilsner, which was the favorite beer of the evening.  An entire platter of burrata?  Really?  It took all my willpower to take only one and pass the platter along.  I absolutely love the stuff.

A pile of glistening duck fat roasted potatoes arrived next, and I have to say, this was my favorite dish of the night.  And that’s saying something, coming from an avowed potato-phobe like me.  Finished with beer-vinegar, the potatoes were rich and a teeny bit tangy.

Asparagus soup followed.  This dish epitomizes the food served alongside the pizza each day at Delancey.  Local, seasonal, simple, and delicious.

We had the pleasure of sitting next to Ashley of Not Without Salt and her husband Gabe, along with Allecia and Seth, newly relocated to Seattle from Chicago (with a pause in San Francisco for a year).  Ashley told me what she was planning for her upcoming cooking classes, and left me wondering why I haven’t signed up for one yet.  Soon.

Allecia’s is a blog to watch.  As a former food writer for the Chicago Sun-Times, she already has the pulse on the Seattle food scene.  I’m definitely bookmarking her blog for my next Chicago and San Francisco trips.

After a long pause, the pizza (yes, pizza!) was up next.  The oven at Delancey can only handle a few pizzas at a time, so they trickle out slowly for dinners like these.  First, the cremini with house-made sausage, then the Brooklyn, a simple yet perfect three-cheese pizza, and finally the Pissaladiere, covered with beer-braised shallots plus salty anchovies and olives.  I devoured every slice and loved the Brooklyn the most.

I haven’t been to Delancey since Brandi Henderson, formerly of Tartine Bakery, started working as Delancey’s pastry chef.  This is regrettable because the chocolate stout cake for dessert this evening was memorable.  A year ago, you would not have found me espousing the merits of chocolate.  I’ve always been a fruit dessert kind of person, always passing over the token chocolate dessert on every menu.  I don’t understand why – after-baby hormones? too many samples of the quality stuff from Chocolopolis? – but something has converted me into a chocolate-lover.  And then there’s the whole thing about salt in desserts.  Lately, I’ve been buying chocolate bars with salt (LOVE the Fran’s Gray Salt Thins) and doubling the salt in my cookie recipes.  So Brandi’s cake, warm and gooey in the center, with a surprise sprinkling of salt hidden inside, all underneath a layer of stout anglaise, was just about perfect paired with a malty Alt beer.

Delancey
1415 NW 70th Street, Seattle
(206) 838-1960

Trotter fritters with truffle salt

Anyway, yes, we managed to go out for our first long multi-course dinner with Ian earlier this month. We’ve found it helps to go out with baby-loving friends who are more than happy to hold him while we eat. Portable babies are a good thing. It also helps that Kelly, Michelle, Johnathan, and everyone else at Lark are more than understanding of having kids around. In fact, John’s young son Owen provided comic relief during John’s introduction of the meal, reminding his dad in a loud entire-restaurant-audible whisper of everything John forgot to mention to the dining crowd. So if you ever thought that Lark is not a kid-friendly place, consider again, any of you folks out there with babes in arms or youngsters who are willing to sit through a meal.

Lark has been hosting their Whole Beast dinner for four years now, and it has become an annual tradition that we look forward to ever since we attended their second dinner. Each year, they have a number of whole animals that they cook in as many different ways as they can, using all the different parts of the animals. The meal is composed of “waves” of courses served family style, with about four dishes in each of the four waves.

Boudin noir with barley and fried eggs

This year, they had a new twist on the event and decided to go with a “wild beast” theme. We loved this new take on the meal, where they served pheasant, squab, elk, bison, wild boar, venison, and more. The pheasant was one of my favorite dishes of the night. Before the meal started, John walked around to the tables, showing off the beautiful pheasant pie with bacon and foie gras. Served with cranberries, it was a great start to the meal.

Glazed duck feet with dried scallops, ginger and scallion

I loved the pork snout Milanese, a throwback to the first Whole Beast dinner we attended, where Morgan Brownlow contributed a similar recipe. Other highlights included wild boar prepared Polish-style with cabbage, tender charred bison heart with salsa verde, and boudin noir made with barley. Glazed duck feet were fun to eat (John encouraged everyone to eat as much as they dared, but particularly the webbing) and served with in-house dried scallops.

I think this was my favorite beast dinner yet. It was well paced (unlike previous years where diners were groaning for mercy about halfway through the meal, with waves of food still coming), and the wild game was something that I hope they continue doing in future years. Sign up for Lark’s newsletter if you’d like to get updates about next year’s dinner.

Venison civet with glazed baby vegetables

Traca has a great write-up about the evening, so I’ll skip the details and instead just share some photos.

Left: Japanese eggplant with ponzu and tempura bits.
Right: Dawn chats with Naomi (formerly of Villa Victoria).

Left: ohitashi (blanched spinach towers).  Right: seared tuna rolls.

Singeing the rosemary tucked into the pork tenderloin medallions.

Left: Kris describes the asparagus dish.  Right: assembling the dessert platters of apples slices, cheese, marscapone stuffed figs dipped in chocolate.

As the evening was winding down and we rolled out of our chairs, I had the extra treat of being the first customer of Queso y Vino’s wine delivery service!  Catherine is set up to deliver wines around Seattle, and she brought the case that I had ordered on the day she got her liquor permit.  We often asked Catherine for Spanish and Portuguese wine recommendations when she was the wine manager at The Spanish Table, so it’s like old times again – we can all ask her for new and interesting wine recommendations, or to track down old favorites we’ve been missing.  For my first order, I went the omakase route and let Catherine put together a mixed case.  And what a tasty result!  I sampled a Valdespino Delicioso Manzanilla dry sherry after dinner a few nights ago, and have my eye on the Viña Ardanza Reserva wine from the Rioja Alta region next.  Give her a call or drop her a mail if you’d like to put together your own case.

Queso y Vino
Catherine Reynolds, Owner
(206) 518-1166
quesoyvino@gmail.com

Art of the Table
1054 N 39th St, Seattle
(206) 282-0942

Muse : We all know Gypsy is no more.  While we were there, Culinary Communion’s owner Gabriel Claycamp told us about his plans for the new dinners he’ll be starting next year, in addition to Vagabond.  Muse will be the code name for his new dinners.  They will be done Iron Chef style, where a chef will be invited to each dinner, and given a few weeks notice of the chosen ingredient.  They’ll need to compose a menu that incorporates that ingredient into each course.  It sounds like Skillet is interested, so maybe they can make more of that great pizza!

Tom Black’s restaurant classes : Tom Black made a name for himself as executive chef at Woodenville’s Barking Frog, then he did a stint at 35th Street Bistro in Fremont, before becoming an instructor at Culinary Communion in August.  I’ve been wondering what kind of classes he’s teaching there.  Apparently, he’s working on a new series where you can learn hard-core restaurant kitchen skills.  Those who have taken enough other CC classes can sign up for one of the Sunday classes, where Tom teaches you how to run a one-night bistro for paying customers, right at Culinary Communion.  There will be a menu with a handful of appetizers, entrees, and desserts, and you’re responsible for getting tasty, hot food in front of customers, stat.

The Swinery : This is Gabriel’s new venture selling cured meats: bacon, pancetta, salami and more.  He’s securing permitting right now, and already has the T-shirts printed up.  Eric wants the one that says, “Bacon is my co-pilot.”

Bacon! Just today, I received an email saying that before they can secure the permitting, they’ll need to move 1,000 pounds of bacon.  Fast.  So they’re selling all of it for $10/lb.  You can even pick it up until noon on Thanksgiving, or call them and they’ll try to get it to you if you can’t pick it up.  Made from organically-raised Berkshire heirloom pork, it sounds very tempting.

It’s true.  Catherine told us the sad news on Monday that Naomi is selling the building and closing down the kitchen completely.  After some encouragement, Naomi decided to sell her last stash of frozen tamales to the lucky customers who show up in Columbia City this Saturday, the 18th.  Stop by between 11:30 and 4 to pick up your tamales, at $32 per dozen (cash only).  The kitchen is located on Rainier Avenue one half block north of Genesee Street, in the blue and red building.  Choose from chicken with Oaxacan mole, cheese & jalapeño, or pork with chileajo.  And wish Naomi well in her next venture.  We hope to see her smiling face back in the kitchen again.

It was fun meeting both Marcella and Victor.  Victor read us an amusing passage from her new memoir, Amarcord, about the time that Marcella boiled a human skull that she had procured from a graveyard in Italy.  Victor was engaging to listen to, and I’m looking forward to reading Amarcord to learn more about Marcella’s life.  Marcella herself was just as cynical and critical as she is in her books.  She offered a Q&A session, and the first person asked her about a recipe; she replied, “Why is it that everyone always asks me about a favorite recipe?  Hm?”  Intimidated, only a few people asked further questions.  Victor and Marcella are a fascinating couple.

They are still in Seattle for a little while longer.  There are going to be a few private events and one public one.  For you folks who work at Amazon, they’ll be at a book signing event for employees.  And there is one more public dinner you can attend, tonight!  As of yesterday, there were still seats available for the dinner party at ChefShop’s warehouse in Interbay.  If you’ve shopped before at ChefShop, they are extending discounted reservations of $49 for dinner only, or $69 to get a signed copy of Amarcord, too.  Call (206) 286-9988 to reserve a seat.

Queso y Vino’s first official event was hosted last week at Washington Wine Company, which featured a Mexican-fusion dinner by Chef Naomi Andrade Smith, with Catherine’s wine pairings from Spain, Portugal, and South America.  Naomi is the force behind Villa Victoria, and while we were sad that she had to close her take-out business last month, keep hope alive – she’s still selling food to the public from her main catering location.  She will be sending out menus weekly to her mailing list, so you can order ahead and pick up a dozen tamales or whatever she’s offering that week.  Hopefully, she’ll continue selling all the things we loved so much from her take-out business: empanadas, homemade chips and guacamole, her amazing green tomatillo sauce, and her own roasted coffee beans.

We went to the dinner with some friends, and the oft-repeated phrase of the evening was, “Oh man, this is so good.”  Not only that, but dinner was hands-down the best value in town – seven family-style courses with seven paired wines for a mere $50.  Dishes included minced sautéed rockfish with chile and avocado with hand-cut chips, a salad with jicama, orange, and honey-tamarind dressing, chipotle-rubbed pork ribs with jalapeño and pineapple glaze, chanterelle mushroom tamales steamed in banana leaves, and chicken picadillo-stuffed poblano chiles with walnut cream sauce and pomegranate seeds.  The wine pairings were excellent, and included cabernet sauvignon from Argentina, pinot noir from Chile (one of my favorites of the night), a blend from Portugal, and a full-bodied Spanish Priorat.  Dessert was classic and, well, so good: flan covered with raspberries, paired with Madeira.  This was served with Naomi’s roasted coffee, Café Mocambo.  She purchases her beans from the same grower as Illy coffee.

We had a chance to chat with Naomi, and when we told her how much we were going to miss all of the great food at her take-out location, she had a wistful look on her face as she mused, “I wonder if I should open up a restaurant?”  We certainly hope she does – La Carta de Oaxaca and taco trucks aside, it’s tough to find good Mexican in Seattle.

If you’d like to be in the know about Queso y Vino events, send an email to quesoyvino@gmail.com and ask to be added to the email newsletter.  I hear that Catherine’s holding wine tastings at 12th & Olive and dinner at Gaudi later this month.

Villa Victoria
4116 Rainier Avenue, Seattle
(206) 722-3303