Dark Days - Week #2

For the Dark Days Dinner #2 we decided to incorporate it into a party we were having with a bunch of friends. Again, we were not able to utilize local ingredients for the oil, vinegar, sugar and salt. One thing that struck me as counterproductive as we were shopping for our dinner is that we needed to go to 3 different stores in order to get all of the ingredients local. At what point is the carbon footprint worse by driving around than allowing a couple of items to be shipped from somewhere else? I mean, until more stores carry local goods isn’t the shipping of other goods somewhat of a sunk cost?
By the way…That parsnip was huge.
Enjoy the meal!!!

Wines paired with the dinner:
Non Vintage Capitelo Sparkling Wine (Willamette Valley, OR)
2009 Maison Bleue Petit Joie Marsanne (Yakima Valley, WA)
2004 Boudreaux Cellars Syrah (Desert Hills Vineyard, WA)
2003 Rulo Syrah (Walla Walla Valley, WA)
Limoncello liquor (brought back from Rome)

Salad
Escarole (6 leaves) (OR)
Fuji Apples (Eastern WA)
4 oz blue cheese (Big Boy Blue- OR)
Onion (Farmer’s Own Organics, Seattle, WA)
Olive oil (not local)
1 tablespoon butter (Tillamook, OR)
1 teaspoon brown sugar (not local)
Place onion along with oil and butter in a heavy pan over low heat and add a pinch of salt. Stir occasionally for about an half an hour then add brown sugar and continue cooking for another half an hour.
Place escarole leaf down on plate. Top with 1/8 inch slices of apple, blue cheese and onion.
Chicken, Sausage & Mushroom Pot Pie
CRUST
2 cups all purpose flour (Red Mill, OR)
¾ teaspoon salt (Bonair)
10 tablespoons (1 ¼ sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into ½ inch cubes (Tillamook, OR)
4 tablespoons (or more) ice water (can only assume it’s local ;-) )
FILLING
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, room temperature, divided (Tillamook, OR)
2 tablespoons all purpose flour (Red Mill, OR)
2 tablespoons olive oil (not local)
12 oz mushrooms (1 portabella and several chanterelles – NW Washington)
1 cup finely chopped shallots (about 5) (Farmer’s Own Organics, Seattle)
1 tablespoon fresh thyme (our yard)
1 ¼ lb Italian sausages (about 6) casings removed (Carlton Farms, OR)
2 lbs skinless boneless chicken thighs, trimmed, cut into 1-inch pieces (Mad Hatcher Farms, WA)
½ cup Madeira (use a WA red wine in its place – Eastern WA)
2 cups low-salt chicken broth (personally canned using local ingredients)
3 hard-boiled eggs, peeled, thickly sliced (Sky River Farms, WA)
1 large egg yolk beaten to blend with one tablespoon water (for glaze) (Sky River Farms, WA)
PREPARATION
CRUST
Blend flour and salt in a processor. Add butter and cut in, using on/off turns, until coarse meal forms. Add 4 tablespoons water. Using on/off turns, blend until moist clumps form, adding more water by ½ tablespoonfuls if dough is dry. Gather dough into ball; flatten into disk. Wrap in plastic and chill at least 1 hour and up to 1 day.
FILLING
Mix 2 tablespoons butter and flour in bowl to smooth paste; set aside. Melt 2 tablespoons butter with oil in large deep skillet. Add mushrooms, shallots and thyme. Sauté until mushrooms brown, about 8 minutes. Add sausage; sauté until no longer pink, breaking up with spoon, about 7 minutes. Add chicken. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Sauté until chicken is no longer pink on outside, about 5 minutes. Add Madeira (wine); boil 2 minutes. Add broth; bring to boil. Mix in butter-flour paste; simmer until sauce thickens, stirring often, about 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to 10-cup round banking dish; top with egg slices (We modified it and put it in “French Onion Soup” bowls to make individual servings)
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Roll out dough on floured surface to 13 to 14-inch round. Place atop filling. Trim overhang to 1 inch. Fold overhand under, crimp edge. Brush crust with glaze; cut several slits in crust.
Bake pie until crust is golden, about 45 minutes. Let rest 15 minutes and serve
Taken from bon appétit (December 2008) 6 servings
Roasted Root Vegetables with Honey, Balsamic Vinegar
½ lb medium carrots, peeled and left whole (front yard)
½ lb medium beets, peeled and quartered (OR)
½ lb medium turnips, peeled and halved (OR)
1.2 lb medium parsnips, peeled and left whole (Full Circle Farm, Carnation, WA)
3 shallots, unpeeled, but in half through the stem end (Farmer’s Own Organics, Seattle, WA)
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil (not local)
Salt and ground black pepper (salt Bonair, pepper not local)
½ cup honey (WA)
¼ cup balsamic vinegar (not local)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Toss the vegetables with the olive oil and salt and pepper in a big bowl. Dump them out onto a baking sheet in a single layer and roast for 25 minutes. Whisk together the honey and vinegar in a small bowl. Take the vegetables out of the oven, pour the vinegar-honey mixture over, and toss. Return the vegetables to the oven and cook until fork-tender and caramelized, about 20 minutes. The recipe also called for topping the vegetables with 4 oz chilled fresh goat cheese, but we omitted this ingredient.
Taken from Tyler Florence’s Tyler’s Ultimate: 2006 – Serves 4
Pear Cobbler with Cranberry Streusel
Unsalted butter, at room temperature (Tillamook, OR)
Granulated sugar (not local)
4 Bartlett pears (Washington Growers, WA)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (Bonair)
¼ cup brown sugar (not local)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (Red Mill, OR)
1 teaspoon cinnamon (not local)
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg (brought back from vacation on Grenada)
STREUSEL TOPPING
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened (Tillamook, OR)
½ cup brown sugar (not local)
½ cup all-purpose flour (Red Mill, OR)
½ teaspoon salt (Bonair)
1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries (Coquille Cranberries, North Bend, OR)

½ cup heavy cream, beaten to soft peaks (Fresh Breeze Organic, Lynden, WA)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter an 8x8-inch baking dish. Dust the dish with granulated sugar; tapping out any excess.
Peel the pears and cut then in half through the stem end. Use a melon baller to scoop out the cores. Put the pear halves in a large bowl, sprinkle with the vanilla, and toss. Then sprinkle over the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg and toss so that the pears are really well coated with the flavorings. Set the pears in a single layer; cored side down, in the prepared baking dish.
Now make the topping. In the same bowl, combine the butter, brown sugar, flour and salt and mash it all together with your fingers. Toss in the cranberries. Crumble the topping mixture over the pears in the baking dish and bake until the topping is nice and crunchy and browned and the pears are very tender, 35 to 40 minutes. Serve with whipped cream.
Taken from Tyler Florence’s Tyler’s Ultimate: 2006 – Serves 4