Portland cooks: this town has turned into a culinary hot spot, thanks to inspired chefs, an adventurous clientele, and some of the country’s best produce
Paley identified Oregon, birthplace of the morels he’d admired, as a new culinary frontier. He headed there with his wife, Kimberly, and opened Paley’s Place Bistro and Bar, in Portland.
“Today Portland still has the same wondrous ingredient base to work with that first drew me here,” Paley says, “but now we’re also on the forefront of the sustainable movement, and we have a great range of restaurants.”
He’s not alone in his assessment. “We’re really lucky to live in Portland,” says Naomi Pomeroy, founder of Clarklewis, a restaurant known for its innovative, Italian-influenced cooking. “The physical proximity of the farms is amazing, and the growers we work with are still very small-scale. Most of our farmers do their own deliveries to our kitchen door.” All of her suppliers farm within two hours of the restaurant, and one–Ojala Farm, in northwest Portland–is just 20 minutes away.
But it takes more than superlative and sustainable ingredients to create a restaurant culture like Portland’s. Rather than having a predictable top-shelf restaurant selection downtown with a few outlying destination restaurants, it features drive-worthy eateries in practically every neighborhood. Along with showstoppers that get national attention, like Clarklewis and Paley’s Place, a tremendous number of small spots serve remarkably good food.
What else makes Portland such an across-the-board great eating town? It’s primarily the residents of Portland themselves. Portlanders are proud of their burg and support local efforts accordingly. Their love of their city–its physical beauty, its art, its wines, its quirky sophistication-translates into a restaurant-going public any chef would envy. “Our customers are willing to try anything,” says Pomeroy–even an all-organ-meat dinner she and founding Clarklewis chef Morgan Brownlow, who has since moved on, offered one year for Valentine’s Day at their previous restaurant. (It sold out.)
This culinary curiosity also explains the wide range of restaurants that thrive here, from Peruvian nuevo-Andean superstar Andina to the recent explosion of Southeast Asian places on 82nd Avenue. As Adam Berger, owner of Tabla Mediterranean Bistro, puts it, “Good food has become part of the culture of Portland, along with bridges and views of Mt. Hood.” It all began, he claims, with Paley’s Place over a decade ago, along with other pioneering restaurants like Wildwood and Higgins. “They educated their customers, who came to expect more–and now we all keep moving that bar along.”
So where are Paley’s sights aimed now? “I’ve become too attached to this way of cooking to leave,” he says. “Our farmers structure our menu every day. I’m never sure what’s coming in the back door. I just know it’s going to be excellent.”
Radicchio and apples in pine-nut vinaigrette
This irresistible combination of apples with bitter radicchio, buttery pine nuts, and a rich, sweet-tart dressing is from Clarklewis.
PREP AND COOK TIME 30 minutes
MAKES 6 servings
1/2 cup hard apple cider
1 1/2 tsp. honey
1 shallot, minced
2 tbsp. cider vinegar
About 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 head radicchio, halved, cored, and cut into 1/4-in. strips
2 Pinova, Gala, Honeycrisp, or other crisp apples, quartered, cored, and
thinly sliced
6 slices prosciutto
1/4 cup parmesan shavings
Freshly ground black pepper
1. Put cider and honey in a small pan over medium-high heat. Cook until reduced to a syrup (about 1 tbsp.), 10 to 15 minutes.
2. Put shallot, vinegar, and 1/2 tsp. salt in a medium bowl and let sit 5 to 10 minutes. Meanwhile, put 1/4 cup pine nuts into a mortar and use pestle to work into a rough paste. Set aside. Stir cider syrup into the shallot-vinegar mixture, then whisk in olive oil. Stir in pine-nut paste to create a creamy dressing and add salt to taste.
3. Put radicchio in a large bowl. Drizzle with half of the dressing and toss thoroughly. Toss in apples, adding more dressing if necessary to coat the salad. Divide salad among 6 plates. Top each salad with prosciutto, parmesan, remaining 1/4 cup pine nuts, and pepper, dividing evenly.
PER SERVING 239 CAL., 28% (68 CAL.) FROM FAT; 6.9 G PROTEIN; 18 G FAT (3.5 G SAT.); 17 G CARBO (2.2 G FIBER); 386 MG SODIUM; 9.9 MG CHOL.
Tabla Mediterranean Bistro magical egg ravioli
Swiss chard, a bit of cheese, and an egg yolk become much more than the sum of their parts in this dish. Use the freshest eggs you can find. People with compromised immune systems and others concerned about salmonella should avoid undercooked eggs.
PREP AND COOK TIME 2 hours
MAKES 6 servings
NOTES You can make the pasta rounds up to a day ahead: Dust with flour, stack them in the shortest possible layers with pieces of plastic wrap between layers, cover well with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until ready to use.
About 1 1/4 cups flour
2 whole eggs, plus 6 egg yolks and 1 egg white
1 1/2 tsp. heavy whipping cream
1 tbsp. plus 1/4 tsp. salt
2 cups tightly packed stemmed chard leaves
1/4 cup whole-milk ricotta
1/2 cup grated parmesan
1/8 to 1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp. butter, at room temperature
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. poppy seeds
1. Mix 1 1/4 cups flour, whole eggs, and cream to form dough. Turn out onto a clean surface and knead until smooth, about 5 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside 30 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Prepare a large bowl of ice water and set it next to the stove. Add 1 tbsp. salt and chard leaves to pot. Cook chard until water returns to a boil and leaves are tender, about 3 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer chard leaves to ice water. (Keep pot of hot water on stove, but turn off heat.) Drain chard, squeeze out as much water as possible, and chop (you should have about 1/2 cup). Mix chard with ricotta, 1/4 cup parmesan, remaining 1/4 tsp. salt, and pepper to taste. Set aside.
3. Cut a 5-in.-diameter round from a piece of paper and set aside. Unwrap pasta dough, divide into 6 pieces, and pat each piece into a 1/2-in.-thick rectangle. Working with 1 piece at a time, set a pasta roller on the widest setting and roll piece through, dusting dough with flour as necessary to prevent sticking. Fold piece into thirds (like a letter) and roll it through again. Repeat folding and rolling once more for a total of three rolls on the widest setting. Repeat with remaining 5 pieces of dough.
4. Set roller to next narrowest setting and roll each piece through once. Repeat with next narrowest setting. Cut each piece in half and roll through on each remaining setting twice, turning 90[degrees] between rolls and trimming as necessary to fit and to keep a basically square shape, until dough squares are thin enough to see through and measure at least 5 in. on all sides.
5. Using paper round as a template, cut 5-in. rounds from each dough square.
6. Assemble the ravioli: Lay 6 pasta rounds on a clean surface dusted with flour. On each round, use a small spoon to arrange 1/6 of the chard-ricotta mixture in a circle about 3/4 in. from the edges, creating a well in the center large enough to hold an egg yolk. Repeat with remaining 5 pasta rounds and chard mixture. Put an egg yolk in the center of each well. Brush edges of pasta with egg white and place a second pasta round on top of each ravioli. Working from the center of each ravioli, gently press the top pasta round onto the filling to make sure there are no air pockets in the ravioli. Press edges firmly together to seal.
7. Bring pot of water to a slow boil. With a 4- to 5-in. strainer or slotted spoon, lower ravioli one at a time into the water (cook in batches of 2 or 3). Cook ravioli 3 minutes. Using the strainer, transfer them to a serving plate, blotting excess water with a paper towel. Top each ravioli with 1 tsp. butter.
8. Sprinkle ravioli with poppy seeds and remaining parmesan. Serve immediately.
PER RAVIOLI 293 CAL., 80% (234 CAL.) FROM FAT; 13 G PROTEIN; 15 G FAT (6.9 G SAT.); 26 G CARBO (1.2 G FIBER); 617 MG SODIUM; 306 MG CHOL.
Paley’s Place double-chile brisket
Vitaly Paley is known for his eclectic style and interesting twists on comforting favorites. The two-chile combination with this brisket heats up a winter night. The recipe is based on one in Paley’s forthcoming cookbook, which will be published by Ten Speed Press in 2008.
PREP AND COOK TIME 3 to 3 1/2 hours
MAKES 8 to 10 servings
7 to 8 dried mild New Mexico chiles, stemmed and seeded
5 dried pasilla negro chiles, stemmed, seeded, and broken into pieces
1 star anise
1 tsp. fennel seed
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black peppercorns
1 beef brisket (5 to 6 lbs.), trimmed of fat and membrane
1/2 cup sherry vinegar
3 tbsp. olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 can (14 oz.) whole peeled tomatoes
1 cup beef or chicken broth
1. Preheat oven to 350[degrees]. In a medium bowl, pour 3 cups boiling water over New Mexico chiles and let soak until softened, about 30 minutes. Drain, reserving 1 cup liquid.
2. Meanwhile, grind pasilla negro chiles, star anise, fennel seed, salt, and peppercorns in a spice mill or clean coffee grinder.
3. Rub brisket with spice blend; set aside.
4. Whirl soaked chiles, vinegar, and chile liquid in a blender until pureed. Set aside.
5. Heat a large roasting pan (not nonstick) over medium-high heat (set it over 2 burners if necessary). Add olive oil, swirl oil in pan, and add brisket. Cook brisket until well browned on one side, about 3 minutes. Turn and brown on remaining sides, adjusting heat to keep brisket sizzling but not burning. Remove and set aside.
6. Add onion and cook, stirring, until soft, about 3 minutes. Chop tomatoes and add with juice. Add chile puree and broth. Bring to a boil. Add brisket, cover, and bake in oven until fork-tender, 2 to 3 hours.
7. Place brisket on a serving platter, cover with foil, and set in a warm place. Whirl pan juices in a blender until smooth. Slice brisket thinly and serve hot, with blended pan juices on the side.