portland farmers market Archives - Page 2 of 5

New Portland Farmers Market Vendor Saturday: Nightlight Farms

March 24, 2013 by Pechluck 1 Comment

New vendor at the PSU Portland Farmers Market for 2013: Nightlight Farms, an urban microgreens farm at 39th and E. Burnside in Portland. By the time I got there around 11 or so, he was already out of little baggies of the pea shoots so he cut them fresh for me! I also got a bag of the spicy sprouts… really they were all good. I could snack these just out of the bag.

I used those microgreens to make me feel a little bit healthier about the Chicken Liver Bourbon Mousse (with chicken liver, bacon, apples, mushroom, garlic, onion, butter, mascarpone, spices and salt) from Chop (also from the same visit to opening day of the Portland Farmers Market at PSU) that I was eating generously smeared on a sliced baguette… Yeah, healthy because I was also eating greens as I ate that whole mousse by myself over a couple days.

I also used their microgreens- pea shoots and broccoli sprouts- to top a gouda mac and cheese… coming in a future post!

Filed Under: Food and Drink, Portland Farmers Market Tagged With: Chicken Liver Bourbon Mousse, microgreens, Nightlight Farms, portland farmers market

Peppers at the Portland Farmers Market

September 6, 2012 by Pechluck Leave a Comment

Aren’t they gorgeous? I was tempted with visions of roasted peppers, and stuffed peppers with various rice or quinoa, and creamy pepper soups and gazpachos with peppers, all utilizing all the colors of these brightly colored bell peppers from the Portland Farmers Market. However, I already had lots of ears of corn to roast, and chicken salad, and tomatoes, and taco shells, and I am off to Seattle this weekend. There was no meal open to use with these beautiful peppers, sigh. But I still wanted to remember them.

Filed Under: Food and Drink, Portland Farmers Market Tagged With: bell peppers, portland farmers market

Broccolo romanesco: The Fractal Veggie

August 31, 2012 by Pechluck 1 Comment

This vegetable caught my eye at the Portland Farmers Market at PSU for its fractal looking florets of spikes in logarithmic spirals. It is basically a relative of the cauliflower (in fact it is sold as one of the "colored cauliflower" at the farmer market stand of DeNoble's Farm), though its greenness might make you think of broccoli. Why not both?

In fact, this is Broccolo romanesco, also known as Roman Cauliflower or broccoflower, a typically Italian vegetable that goes sublimely with fresh pasta with good olive oil and some Italian cheese. And so that's exactly how I decided to have it.

First, I separated the florets and chopped the stalks.

I did a quick blanch and shock of the broccolo romanesco after the chop- my kitchen is still in a state of remodel, so I have an oven but no sink, and I couldn't really wash these in the bathroom sink or tub, so this was my way to get around that (filling a pot with water from a sink is do-able. I saved the water from the blanching to also briefly cook the fresh pasta later (I got fresh pasta from the Farmers Market stand Pasta Del Sol, he always has an interesting quote on a whiteboard at the market too). Also, I admit I did sneak in several bites of strands of the raw pasta. Quality checking.

Next, I used a few tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and heated up some smashed fresh cloves of garlic in a pan, and then added some (but not all) of the florets and chopped stalk for a saute. Pepper and salt to taste. After the saute I also smashed all the chopped stalk portions in a food processer to get them to a creamy consistency so that they could coat the pasta.

I left some of the florets to keep a cool texture and look to the dish by taking those and after a spray of misty butter-flavored cooking spray, then roasted them in the oven at 400 for about 15 minutes for a bit of char.

Then, the al dente pasta and the smashed garlic/broccolo romanesco mixture were then mixed together in a big serving dish. It was all finished with the roasted florets of broccolo romanesco and a generous sprinkling of fresh grated parmesan romano and a few red pepper flakes for heat. The photo below is pre-mix- I had put all of the broccolo romanesco in, but in hindsight, wait for the roasted florets after the mix.

Filed Under: Cooking, Food and Drink, Portland Farmers Market Tagged With: broccoflower, broccolo romanesco, fractal cauliflower, portland farmers market, recipe

Chicken Adobo from Verde Cucina

August 26, 2012 by Pechluck Leave a Comment

Adobo Chicken at Verde Cucina– the smell of the chicken cooking in the open market air of the Saturday Portland Farmers Market at PSU was irresistable.

What, I said IRRESISTIBLE. I made a mess of my fingers and face eating every last bite of chicken from the bone. Although my mom never made chicken adobo, it also brought me back fond memories of bbqs in the back where we would grill the marinated drumsticks of Gai Yang to this similar look and crispy skin, and eat them still warm right away outside in our backyard with all 10 child fingers and it would get on my cheeks as I bit into the meat rather than cutting because I was so hungry after smelling it being prepared and waiting, teased by the scents, and just scooping rice with my fingers rather than getting a silverware involved. Similarly lhere, local meats and produce (anything from the market that's fresh that morning), homemade corn tortillas and fresh salsa make this traditional Mexican classic taste as good as it looks and worth any messy fingers.