Summer Corn and Black Bean Salad
Ingredients
½ cup olive oil
⅓ cup fresh lime juice
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
⅛ teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1-pound dried black beans or 1 can black beans rinsed
1 ½ cups fresh corn kernels, cooked, cooled, and cut off the cob.
1 avocado - peeled, pitted, and diced
5-6 mini sweet peppers, tops and seeds removed, chopped
1 Anaheim pepper, seeded and chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
6 green onions or 1/3 red onion, thinly sliced
½ cup chopped fresh cilantro
Directions
Step 1
Read our previous blog for instructions on how to cook your dried black beans!
Step 2
Once beans are cooked… Place olive oil, lime juice, garlic, salt, and cayenne pepper in a small jar. Close the lid tightly and shake the jar until the dressing is well combined.
Step 3
Combine in a salad bowl beans, corn, avocado, both kinds of peppers, tomatoes, onions, and cilantro.
Step 4
Shake dressing again, pour over salad, and toss to coat.
Recipe by Jen
How to cook your dried black beans
Ingredients
1 pound dried black beans, picked through
Water
1 large onion, diced
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 or 2 jalapeños, seeds and membranes removed and diced
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons cumin
1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
8 cups vegetable or chicken broth for stovetop, or 4 cups broth or water for Instant Pot
Instructions
For Stovetop:
Place black beans in a large stock pot and cover with at least two inches of water. Let soak overnight. Or, for a quick soak, bring stockpot to a boil, boil hard for one minute, then remove from heat, cover, and let soak for an hour.
Drain and rinse the soaked beans. Return them to the pot. Add in all the remaining ingredients.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until the beans are tender. This will depend a lot on the age of your beans. Fresher beans will be ready in 45-60 minutes, older beans might take 2-3 hours. Your best bet is to start tasting around the 45 minute mark.
Taste for seasoning, adding more salt if necessary, then remove beans using slotted spoon. Eat immediately, or store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
For Instant Pot
Combine 1 pound of dried beans with 4 cups broth in the Instant Pot, plus the onion, garlic, jalapenos, bay leaves, cumin, and salt.
Seal and set to manual, high pressure for 35 minutes.
When the cooking time is up, let the pressure release naturally for 20 minutes.
Release the pressure and stir the beans. Eat immediately, or store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Recipe by Cassie Johnston
It's Huckleberry Season!
Huckleberry Everything
September in Oregon means huckleberry pie, cobbler, jam, ice cream, milkshakes, tarts, muffins, syrup, pancakes, barbecue sauce, and more. What’s so great about this tiny, dark-blue berry found in sub-alpine forests in the Northwest? It cannot be commercially grown. It’s fairly small and requires a lot of picking to get a bunch. Smaller than a blueberry and sweeter than a cranberry, many believe that huckleberries are the best of both worlds.
Huckleberries, a cousin to blueberries, come from a shrub-like plant that grows in the underbrush of forests. More than twelve species of huckleberries are found throughout the Pacific Northwest. Find them along mountain slopes, and around lake basins between 2,000 and 11,000 feet above sea level. Huckleberries ripen in mid to late summer and typically reach their peak in late August and early September. The season is short, lasting only a few weeks between August and September.
Because huckleberries resist cultivation, they must be gathered by hand in the wild. It can take a day for a forager to gather just a few gallons. There are a few reasons why this species of berry has not adapted well to commercial farming. The plants take a number of years to grow to maturity and produce fruit, and they prefer acidic soils, frequently in areas burned by wildfire.
The huckleberry is the main food source for a wide range of animals including deer, birds, rodents, insects, and the most well-known, bears. During late summer and early fall, huckleberries can comprise nearly one-third of a bear's diet as it prepares for hibernation. Be careful if you are out foraging huckleberries on your own!
Huckleberries have been a staple of life for Northwest Native American tribes for thousands of years. The Salish, the Yakama, and most other tribes gathered huckleberries for food and medicine. As a food source, they were sun-dried or smoked, formed into cakes, and wrapped in leaves to sustain Native Americans through the winter.
There seems to be no end to the ways that huckleberries can be used. They deliver a powerful punch of flavor, a taste of the wild that reminds us of the forest. That intensity multiplies in jams, jellies, and syrups. There’s not much to compare to the explosion of berries in huckleberry pancakes or muffins. And they can be a unique addition to savory dishes. As a bonus, huckleberries are full of antioxidants, high in iron, and a good source of vitamin C and potassium. Try some of these amazing berries before the season ends!
Huckleberry Jam
Ingredients
1-quart huckleberries (4 cups)
4 cups sugar
4 tablespoons water
3 tablespoons powdered fruit pectin
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Instructions
Rinse huckleberries and add to a heavy saucepan. Add sugar and water and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly.
When the mixture starts to boil, reduce heat and simmer for 3-4 minutes, stirring constantly. The mixture may foam and that's totally normal. When sugar is completely dissolved, add pectin and lemon juice and simmer for another 1-2 minutes.
Remove from heat and mash if needed for consistency. Fill jars, leaving about 1/2" of room at the top. Cover and allow to set. Makes 3 pints.
Huckleberry Barbecue Sauce
Ingredients
1 small onion, chopped
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 teaspoon red chili flakes
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
2 cups chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 teaspoons molasses
1 cup fresh or frozen huckleberries
Instructions
In a medium saucepan, cook onion in oil over medium heat until soft, 5 minutes.
Stir in salt, chili powder, dry mustard, pepper, chile flakes, and cumin. Cook until seasonings are fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes.
Add tomatoes, vinegar, sugar, and molasses. Simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, for 1 hour.
Add berries and simmer gently, uncovered, until softened, 25 minutes.
Purée most of the sauce in a blender, then stir into the remaining sauce.
Grilled Salmon with Pickled Huckleberry Relish
Ingredients
1 ½– 2 lb Fillet of wild King or Coho Salmon
olive oil for brushing and salt and pepper
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
lemon zest and juice
Pickled Huckleberry Relish
1 ½ cups fresh huckleberries (or fresh blueberries)
½ cup sugar
½ cup red wine vinegar
¼ teaspoon salt
1 large shallot- very finely minced
Preheat grill to high.
Place huckleberries in a medium bowl. Heat sugar, vinegar, salt and in a small saucepan and stir until sugar has dissolved. Add minced shallots and simmer for two minutes. Pour the hot liquid over huckleberries, stir and set aside.
Brush both sides of salmon with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Zest a small lemon right over the top of the salmon and sprinkle with one tablespoon thyme leaves.
Turn the grill down to low, grill salmon, skin side down, directly on the grill, on lowest heat, close lid. Check after 5 minutes. Shift salmon to create crosshatch marks on the skin, and close lid again for just a few minutes. Salmon at this point will cook quickly, so check often- especially if it’s a thinner piece. Once salmon is cooked to medium-rare or medium (120-125 F) turn the heat off.
Carefully place salmon on a platter. Squeeze with the juice of half a lemon.
Right before serving, generously spoon the pickled huckleberry relish and just a little of pickling liquid over the salmon, and scatter with thyme sprigs. Serve immediately.
Oven Baked Barbecue Spare Ribs
Ingredients
Olive oil
1 lb pork spare ribs
salt to taste
pepper to taste
garlic powder (optional to taste)
Barbecue sauce:
1/3 cup tomato paste
!/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 Tbs maple syrup
Instructions
Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil. Preheat the oven 275 degrees F.
Place the ribs in the pan, bone side down. Brush them with oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Bake the ribs for one hour, uncovered.
Meanwhile, mix the barbecue sauce ingredients in a medium bowl, then divide it into three small bowls.
After one hour, take the ribs out of the oven and carefully drain the pan juice. Brush the top of the ribs with 1/3 of the BBQ sauce and return them to the oven.
Repeat after one more hour. Brush the top of the ribs with another 1/3 of the BBQ sauce and return them to the oven.
After one more hour, brush the ribs with the remainder of the sauce. Reduce the oven to 250 degrees F and return the ribs to the oven for one final hour.
After four hours the meat will be very tender and the top will be dark and caramelized. Remove the ribs from the oven, cut them into individual ribs, and serve.
Adapted from Vered DeLeeuw
Grilled Portabella Mushrooms with Walnut Arugula Pesto
Serves 2-3
Ingredients
Marinated Portabella Mushrooms
1/2 tbsp dijon mustard
2 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 cloves garlic crushed
1/4 tbsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp chili flakes
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup olive oil
2-3 large portabella mushrooms
Walnut Arugula Pesto
2 cups arugula
1/3 cup toasted walnuts
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
2 cloves garlic, chopped
Instructions
Clean the portabella mushrooms by gently rubbing the cap and gills with a damp paper towel. Place the mushrooms cap side down in a large dish.
In a bowl whisk all of the ingredients for the marinade and once well combined, pour over the mushrooms. Leave them to marinate for approximately 1 hour or up to 6 hours.
To make the pesto, in a blender or food processor combine all of the pesto ingredients and pulse until it's blended into a smooth consistency. Taste and adjust seasoning accordingly and then place in the fridge until ready to serve.
Heat a grill pan or barbecue on medium heat and grill the portobello mushrooms for approximately 5 minutes per side until grill marks form and they become tender.
Once grilled cut them into 1/2 inch thick slices, drizzle any leftover marinade over each mushroom and then serve with the pesto on top.
Adapted from Every Last Bite
Linguini with Bay Scallops, Fennel and Tomatoes
Ingredients
8 oz linguine
3 Tbs extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 medium fennel bulb, halved, very thinly sliced, plus 1 tablespoon chopped fennel fronds
1 medium onion, halved, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 pound bay scallops
1 6-ounce container cherry tomatoes, halved if large
1/3 cup dry white wine
4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley, divided
1 lemon, cut into 4 wedges
Crushed red pepper flakes
Instructions
Cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender but still firm to bite, stirring occasionally. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup pasta cooking liquid.
Heat 2 tablespoons oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add sliced fennel and onion; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Sauté until wilted but crisp-tender, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and sauté until fragrant. Using slotted spoon, transfer to medium bowl.
Add remaining 1 tablespoon oil to skillet. Add scallops and sauté until just opaque in center, stirring occasionally, about 2 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer to bowl with fennel-onion mixture.
Deglaze the pan using the white wine. Add tomatoes to skillet and sauté until heated through, about 2 minutes. Return fennel-onion mixture and scallops to skillet.
Add drained pasta to skillet; toss to coat, adding reserved cooking liquid by 1/4 cupfuls if dry. Stir in 3 tablespoons chopped parsley, crushed red pepper flakes and 1 tablespoon fennel fronds. Transfer to large shallow bowl, sprinkle with remaining 1 tablespoon chopped parsley, and serve with lemon wedges.
Rosemary Butter Pork Chops
INGREDIENTS
- 2 pork loin chops
- Kosher salt to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 1/2 tbsp. freshly minced rosemary
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1/4 c. butter, melted
- 1/2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
DIRECTIONS
Thaw your pork chops under refrigeration overnight. Once pork is thawed, rinse well and pat dry. Preheat oven to 375°. Season pork chops generously with salt and pepper and optional garlic granules and paprika.
In a small bowl mix butter, rosemary, and garlic. Set aside.
In an oven safe skillet over medium-high heat, heat olive oil then add pork chops. Sear until golden, 2-3 minutes, flip and brush pork chops generously with garlic butter.
Place skillet in oven and cook until cooked through (145° for medium), 8-10 minutes. Serve with more garlic butter.
Recipe and Photo By: Makinze Gore Delish
Blistered Shishito Peppers
INGREDIENTS
-1 bag shishito peppers
-2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil or avocado oil
-Lemon wedge, optional
-Salt, preferably flaky sea salt or kosher salt, to taste
-Grated parmesan (optional)
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Rinse and pat the peppers dry on a clean tea towel. Transfer the peppers to a medium bowl, drizzle in the oil, and toss until the peppers are evenly coated. Set aside.
2. Preheat a medium skillet over medium heat until it’s hot enough that a drop of water sizzles and evaporates quickly on contact. Add the peppers and let them cook, stirring every minute or so (not too often), until they are tender with charred spots, about 8 to 12 minutes.
3. Transfer the peppers to a serving plate. Spritz with a lemon wedge, if desired. Sprinkle with salt and optional parmesan, to taste (don’t skimp on the salt). Serve with a little bowl on the side for the pepper stems.
Recipe By: Cookie and Cate
How to Can Your Fresh Albacore Tuna
Ingredients
For the Fish:
1 pound Oregon albacore tuna
Kosher salt, to taste
For the Infused Oil:
1.5 cups olive oil
1 sprig thyme
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 clove garlic, crushed
.5 sprig rosemary
1 lemon peel, sliced into strips
Directions
1. Gather the ingredients.
2. With the help of a sharp knife, cut fish into large chunks about 1-inch thick. Generously sprinkle pieces of fish with salt on both sides.
3. In a deep saucepan, mix infused oil ingredients. Slowly heat oil mixture over medium heat until you begin to see a gentle simmer.
4. With the help of a food thermometer, check that the oil is close to 160 F. Hold this temperature for about 15 minutes and then turn off heat. Cover the pot and leave oil to cool off for approximately 45 minutes.
5. Once oil has cooled, turn heat back on to medium and heat it up again to 150 F. Once you've reached this temperature, slip in the fish and arrange pieces in one layer, so fish is completely covered in oil.
6. Turn off heat and cover pot again. Let fish steep in oil for another 30 to 45 minutes.
7. After fish has steeped in hot oil, use a slotted spoon to remove it and transfer it to clean plastic or glass container.
8. Let oil cool to room temperature, then strain through a piece of cheesecloth or fine mesh and pour it over fish. Make sure you do not include any liquid that the fish gave off during cooking. You want oil only to cover the fish. If your infused oil seems too contaminated with fish bits, use clean olive oil if needed. With just oil covering it, the fish will last in the refrigerator for two weeks.
Recipe by: Hank Shaw
Yellowfin Ahi Tuna Steak and Cucumber Salad
Ingredients
1 pound ahi tuna steaks
1 tablespoon sugar
4garlic cloves, grated
1 teaspoon grated ginger
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
1/3 cup low sodium soy sauce or tamari
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon sesame seeds (optional)
Cucumber Salad
1/3 cup seasoned rice vinegar
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoons sea salt
1½ tablespoons toasted sesame oil
4 green onions, thinly sliced
4 ounces snap peas, chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 cucumber, halved and sliced
1 bunch radishes, diced
Wasabi Mayo
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 to 2 teaspoons wasabi paste
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon sugar or honey
Thaw your tuna steaks under refrigeration over night. Rinse and pat the tuna steaks dry with a paper towel. In a large bowl combine the sugar, grated garlic, ginger, sesame oil, and soy sauce. Add the tuna to the marinade and toss to coat well. Let marinate for at least 30 minutes or up to 24 hours in the refrigerator.
Make the cucumber salad. In a separate large bowl, whisk together the rice vinegar, sugar, sea salt, sesame oil, and green onions until combined. Add the snap peas, cucumber, and radishes and toss to coat. Place the salad in the refrigerator until ready to use.
Make the wasabi mayo. In a small bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, wasabi paste, lemon juice, and sugar until combined.
Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the tuna and sear until browned, 1½ to 2½ minutes on each side (See note). Transfer the tuna to a cutting board. Let rest for at least 3 minutes before slicing into 1/2-inch slices.
Serve the tuna slice over the cucumber salad. Drizzle with the wasabi mayo and sprinkle with the sesame seeds.
Note: Try to flip the steak in the same spot because the sugar in the pan will burn a little.
Recipe and photo by: the modern proper