PNW Cuisine (Salem, Astoria, Hood River: home, organic, living in)

[Larry Caldwell]

After seeing the sniping in another thread about organic foods, I had to put my 2 cents in. I was born in Oregon and have lived here for 63 years. Many people don't realize there is a PNW regional cuisine, just like there is southern cooking, Cajun cooking, etc. The key to PNW cuisine can be summed up in one phrase: "Don't Screw It Up."

Oregon has some of the most amazing food in the world, which can be eaten in astonishing settings. I was still a teenager when I caught a couple large Coho salmon, put them on ice, called friends for a party and cooked them over open coals along a mountain stream in one weekend. You do not over-cook Coho. You do not over-season Coho. Just don't screw it up, and you will have some of the most delicious food you have ever tasted.

The same is true of Dungeness Crab, razor clams, fruits, vegetables, berries and nuts. Even Oregon crawdads are not the mud bugs you find in the rest of the country. In mountain streams, they are bright red fresh water lobsters, and you can legally catch 200 a day with no fishing license.

It's no accident that so many people in Oregon preserve their own food. I just had gruel for breakfast. Last summer I picked wild blackberries and ran them through a juicer attachement on the Kitchen Aid, then froze the juice and pulp in small containers. The recipe for gruel? A bowl of Grape Nuts, a cup of yogurt, and a half a cup of blackberry juice. Let it sit while you shower. Stir.

"Whatcha eatin?"
"Gruel."
"Ew."

More for me.

[Metlakatla]

Good job, Larry. I've seen some terrible things happen to salmon by "cooks" who don't understand that you do as little to it as possible. I still cringe at the thought of something someone once did involving tomatoes.

[Silverfall]

I like to think of Oregon cuisine as natural cuisine. Not dunked in think goopy sauces, but light tasting. If something tastes good and light, then I immediately think local Oregon food.

[Metlakatla]

Greg Atkinson is pretty amazing; anyone interested in Northwest Cuisine should take a look at his books:

http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9781570616693-2

Northwest Essentials was ahead of its time, emphasizing cooking with the local and regional ingredients available to home cooks — in this case to those who were blessed to live in the bountiful Pacific Northwest

[Larry Caldwell]

Originally Posted by Metlakatla

Good job, Larry. I've seen some terrible things happen to salmon by "cooks" who don't understand that you do as little to it as possible. I still cringe at the thought of something someone once did involving tomatoes.

I like poached coho stuffed with tomato and lemon slices, but you throw away the stuffing.

Pacific salmon also makes fantastic lox. I once helped a friend outside Astoria build a cold smoker to make lox. Come to think of it, I haven't tasted that delicacy in 30 years. I need to build a cold smoker...

I have a friend who is generous at sharing alder smoked steelhead. He has a great recipe that treats the meat with respect.

[Metlakatla]

That sounds all right...the monstrosity I saw was some sort of cream sauce poured over King filets and tops with tomatoes and cucumbers, and then baked until it was all dried out. Vile.

We make lox all the time...with sockeye mostly but sometimes we make halibut lox. Want to try it with black cod this year.

[Dogmama50]

I miss many things about Oregon, but blackberries are very high on my list. I developed a major "problem" while living in Hood River and had gallons of them in the freezer to get me through the winter. One of my dogs would even pick the ripe ones off the low branches, the other dog simply expected you to pick them for her.

[Larry Caldwell]

Originally Posted by Metlakatla

That sounds all right...the monstrosity I saw was some sort of cream sauce poured over King filets and tops with tomatoes and cucumbers, and then baked until it was all dried out. Vile.

I made the mistake of ordering grilled salmon at McGrath's once. They served an inedible charred lump that was so dry you could use it as a pencil eraser. I think we all have traumatic experiences like that in our past.

I just remembered Vogets Meats in Hubbard. I had them make elk scraps into a smoked hard sausage once that was beyond delicious. The ribeye steaks, of course, went into the freezer. One memorable cookout was elk steak, crawdads and corn on the cob, with home made peach ice cream for dessert.

There, pleasant memories erase the taste of culinary disasters.

Not strictly native, but someone imported the French giant snails into Western Oregon in the 1800s and they naturalized well. It's not hard to find enough in the summer to make a plate of escargot. Watch out for exploding snail shells when you pull them out of the oven. It's a good idea to let them cool a little before you uncover them.

[j_k_k]

Northwest cuisine: huckleberry slump. A little huckleberry pie, basically, topped with Tillamook ice cream.

[Metlakatla]

Originally Posted by Larry Caldwell

I made the mistake of ordering grilled salmon at McGrath's once. They served an inedible charred lump that was so dry you could use it as a pencil eraser. I think we all have traumatic experiences like that in our past.

This vileness is exactly why the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute developed a program to work directly with restaurants and their chefs; hopefully it's had an impact.

Vogets Meat...used to drive out there to get bacon when I lived in Salem (and when I still ate bacon).