Newer Entries  Older Entries

12/02/10 - The Winter Farmers' Market

It's the winter Farmers' Market, and we've gotten way behind with our photos and updates. Just about all of the summer vegetables are past, but this is our favorite season, so there are finally lots of lacinato kale, all the great local potatoes, carrots, cabbages, and brussels sprouts. Everything was a bit late this year, and it has been a cold autumn, so we have been making the most of what is available.

If you do go, remember that Preston and Tuna Dan have been selling salmon, steelhead and black cod, and Preston has been selling chanterelles and white truffles. It's a great place for food shopping. We get our eggs, Clark Family beef, Bell Street Bakery bread and most of our seafood there. The Mystery Bay folks have been at the market too, selling oysters and clams, in the shell or steamed with butter and garlic. We've been sore tempted on some of these cold days.

Lazy J Farm

Johnston Farm

Nash Huber's Produce

Westwind Farm, a carrot close up because we didn't take an even number of photos.

West Wind Farm

Keywords: autumn, farmers' market, oysters, shopping, winter, clark family, westwind farm, johnston farm, nash huber, salmon, kale

11/30/10 - The Kaleberg Christmas Trees Have Arrived

For most people Black Friday is about getting great deals on electronic gadgets and housewares, but for us Kalebergs, the Friday after Thanksgiving is about choosing our Christmas trees. It isn't that we enjoy getting great deals so much as we like big Christmas trees, and our local tree suppliers only get so many big trees. If we wait a day or two, they are all sold, and we have to do experimental tree surgery and create Franken-trees and the like. So, every year, the day after Thanksgiving finds us at the tree yards and nurseries looking for the biggest trees we can get.

This year, we found a great nine footer for the living room and an elegant six footer for the cookie tree. They've already been delivered. We Kalebergs just aren't great tree wranglers. Now comes the real work, the lights, the ornaments, and the cookies. If you thought you had lots and lots of time before Christmas, it is time to think again. The season is upon us.


Keywords: christmas, kale

11/08/10 - Honolulu - Sushi Izakaya Gaku

Some years back we had a wonderful time dining at Izakaya Nonbei, but we had gathered that this restaurant was under new management and not quite as good as it used to be, so we decided to try a new place. We were well rewarded by Sushi Izakaya Gaku, a wonderful little restaurant. As so often happens when we find a new restaurant, we made a point of dining there twice, just in case we can't get back there for a while.

To start with, the sushi was wonderful, but our favorite dish was the house made tofu with sea urchin roe, a meat gelee and a bit of wasabi. Our waiter told us to mix up it. We did, and all the flavors blended beautifully. We mentioned that we liked sea urchin roe, so one of our dishes was sea urchin roe wrapped in thin slices of flounder, another great combination.

What more can we say? The broiled sardines with sesame seeds were wonderful. The horse mackerel salad with ginger, shiso and scallions was a great use of shiso which can overwhelm a dish if one is not careful. The thin slices of seared fatty beef were exquisite, well marbled and perfectly prepared. All told, this is a Kaleberg rave.

If you plan to go, get reservations. It's a little place.

1329 S King St
Honolulu, HI
(808) 589-1329

It doesn't look like much from the outside.

Uni wrapped in flounder

That's a quail egg

It's a jewel box inside.

Our sushi plate

Keywords: hawaii, restaurants, kale

10/04/10 - Klahane Ridge

The Switchback Trail to Klahane Ridge is always a challenge, but the views are always worth it. The colors have been changing a bit, and there are only a few alpine flowers left. Like Hurricane Hill, Klahane Ridge is chock full of marmots this year. We saw at least two of them out catching a few rays and enjoying the view, an inspiration for us Kalebergs.

There's just a bit of snow left.

Some scenery

More scenery

An alpine meadow, a magic carpet

There is nothing like a good rock in the foreground to set off the vista in the background.

Safety orange

Can you spot the marmot?

Another marmot

A well camouflaged marmot

A bit of paintbrush remained

As did a few asters

Keywords: flowers, hurricane hill, klahane ridge, marmots, kale

09/19/10 - First Steelhead of the Fall

Tuna Dan had steelhead filets at the market, so we had our first smoked steelhead of the season. That's our Kaleberg mix of coriander seeds, black peppercorns, salt and brown sugar we used as a cure.

Keywords: fish, autumn, kale

09/16/10 - Oxtails

We have long been big fans of Tabla, Floyd Cardoz's restaurant in New York. We're also big fans of Clark Family Beef. For the past month or two, we've been badgering the Clarks for oxtails, slowly cornering the market. Our recipe called for three oxtails, and each cow has only one. (Oxtail lovers everywhere are crying out for a breakthrough in genetic engineering.) Well, we finally counted three oxtails in our freezer, so we began to cook.

Our oxtail stew
We rounded up our ingredients, and it was quite a list:
  • 6 cloves
  • 1 small cinnamon stick (from a jar)
  • 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
  • 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
  • 2 tablespoons of cumin seeds
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons mustard seeds
  • 1 small dried red chili (sold in glassy packets at the supermarket)
  • our oxtails - about four pounds
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 4 cups chopped onions
  • 10 whole garlic cloves
  • 2 cups or more chopped celery
  • 2 cups or more chopped carrots
  • 1/3 cup sliced peeled ginger
  • 1 cup dry red wine
  • 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 6 tablespoons red wine vinegar
  • 6 sprigs of thyme (or about 2 teaspoons)
  • 2 five inch sprigs of rosemary (or about 2 teaspoons)
  • 2 bay leaves
1) The first thing we did was cut up our oxtails. Clark Family Farm has great oxtails, but they are sold in one piece. We were worried that we would need a saw, but oxtails, apparently, are mainly cartilage and cut easily with a regular knife. We cut them into four inch chunks, except down towards the narrow end where they did get a bit boney.

2) Then we got our big 39 liter Le Creuset oven ready pot. We got this on sale in Seattle and carried it home in our backpack on Kenmore Air. We heated up the olive oil in it and browned the oxtails. This meant turning them every minute or two to get all the sides.

3) We put the oxtails aside and dumped in the carrots, onions, garlic, ginger and celery and cooked them for ten or fifteen minutes. We wanted them all soft and the onions browning a bit.
4) Then we turned down the heat and poured in the wine and mixed it in making a special point of dissolving all of the browned stuff on the bottom of the pan. This is called deglazing. It has nothing to do with removing windows. (Insert Microsoft joke here.)

5) We ground up all of the spices, the cloves, peppercorns, cinnamon stick, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, mustard seeds and red chili in our extra whirling blades of death coffee grinder and mixed them into the pot.

6) Next in were the tomato paste and brown sugar.

7) The oxtails. We haven't forgotten the oxtails. They've been sitting on our cutting board for a while now, oozing juices. At long last, it was their turn, into the pot with them and their ooze.

 8) Clark Family Beef is great braised, that is, cooked in a liquid, so we added six cups of water to keep them wet. We wanted them almost, but not quite, covered. We also added the red wine vinegar, the thyme and rosemary sprigs, and two bay leaves. Floyd Cardoz never stints on spices. If you just read the ingredient list, you'll have no idea of how everything is going to pull together. "Hmm", you'll say, "garlic, thyme, tomato paste and rosemary make Italian, but cinnamon, cumin and red chili make Mexican, and ginger makes Chinese. I have no idea of what I am making." If you see any other author's name on the cookbook, panic, but with Floyd Cardoz you are in good hands. He grew up in Goa. They cook like this all the time. It was a Portuguese colony and they invented chicken vindaloo. Vindaloo means wine and garlic in Portuguese.

9) With all the ingredients in the pot, fire up the oven to 375F, put the lid on the pot and bring everything to a boil. Pop it in the oven for three or four hours. Check every hour or so and add water if it has dried out too much, but otherwise you're all set. It's ready when the meat is falling of the bones.

As with many Kaleberg dishes, it doesn't look like much in the picture, but it's mighty good eating.

Keywords: farmers' market, clark family, recipe, kale

09/06/10 - Crespiou

This has been a terrible year for the local vegetables. Usually, we can start making crespiou some time in July, but this year we have seen a dearth of vegetables. We finally gave it a try, in September, and we managed to scrape together five layers:
  • lacinato kale with anchovies
  • baby potatoes and onions
  • green beans
  • tomatoes, garlic, basil and pine nuts
  • zucchini with garlic, oregano, thyme and dry cured black olives
We usually go for six, or even eight. (In case you are wondering, each layer is a little two egg omelet, and they all get stacked together before being sliced like a layer cake.) It was a very nice crespiou, but 2010 was not one of our great crespiou years.





Keywords: food, kale

09/03/10 - New, at Least for Us, in Seattle

We were briefly in Seattle. We visited a few old haunts like Le Pichet, Trabant, the coffee house, and REI, and we discovered a few new places:
  • Melrose Market - This is a mini-mall of little food shops on Melrose Avenue between Pike and Pine. Rain Shadow Meats alone was worth the visit. There are quite a few interesting places cropping up between Pike and Pine, like Cascina Spinasse, Eliot Bay Books and now Melrose Market.
  • Belle Epicurian - This is a pastry place on Fourth Avenue between University and Seneca, and we nearly walked right by except for the wonderful scent of buttery baked goods. To be honest, we didn't try anything. Despite rumors to the contrary, we Kalebergs can only eat so much. Still, everything had the right look and scent, so we'll be back.
  • Seatown Snack Bar - This is Tom Douglas's latest addition to his empire. It has taken over the retro-1970s furniture store next to Etta's. (See our review below.)

Meat at Rain Shadow Meats

Cheese at Calf and Kid

Belle Epicurian

Seatown Snack Bar

Seatown Snack Bar - A Brief Review

We had a porchetta sandwich, which was almost as good as Salumi's. We also had an amazingly good beef short rib sandwich. They have a great potato salad made with a simple coarse Dijon mustard dressing. We also had a wonderful dish of thinly sliced octopus with turmeric cucumbers and a plate of heirloom tomatoes and avocado skordalia. We were quite impressed. Not only is the food great, and you can get a light snack or a full meal, but they serve all afternoon and into the evening.

Keywords: seattle, food, restaurants, kale

08/20/10 - Luau 2010

We held the annual Kaleberg Luau a while back, but we didn't post any pictures. We've been holding the luau since 2002, so it really has become a tradition.

That's the spread. It's not a luau without a pineapple.

Our motto: served in a skull. Those are South Sea Bubbles served in the champagne flutes. That's pineapple champagne, pineapple gum syrup and bits of pineapple.

Godzilla - in the spirit

Hawaiian spice chicken, made with Indonesian spices

Watermelon salad with tomato, coriander, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar and mozzarella, adapted from Spago Wailea

Lau lau - in action

Those are mai tais made with blue curacao - don't ask - in the punch bowl in front of this year's cupcake heiau.

Keywords: hawaii, food, luau, kale

07/29/10 - Obstruction Point

Obstruction Point Road has been open for a bit over a week, and we Kalebergs were not far behind. The road itself is in good shape, though dusty and vertiginous. The scenery, was spectacular. The hiking trail is still partly covered with snow, but the portion we take was not hard going. The snow that there is was soft.

Other hikers had seen marmots, but we didn't see any. We did see lots of wildflowers: phlox, pink paintbrush, lupines, asters, and, of course, the melting snow. Some of the lakes below are stil covered, though some have melted through. Now that Obstruction Point is open, we can say with certainty, the high country is open.

A view from the parking lot

That little lake seen descending the stone staircase

Snow on the trail

The mountains

It's sort of like this.

One of the lakes

The snow ridge

Pink paintbrush

Lupines

We're not sure of what this is, and we're not ashamed to admit it.

Phlox

Keywords: flowers, high country, obstruction point, marmots, kale

07/27/10 - Moroccan Lamb With Okra

We recently made a new dish from Paula Wolfert's Moroccan cookbook, her Moroccan Lamb and Okra Tagine. As with so many things, it started at the Port Angeles Farmer's Market. The woman at the Family Farm had a tub of okra for sale. Okra looks like what you imagined pod people would look like, except smaller and green. It is also a hot weather plant grown in the American south and sub-Saharan Africa. This has been a cool summer, even by local standards, and Port Angeles is not known for its tropical heat. We have no idea of how she managed to grow okra around here. We eagerly bought a pound or two and broke out a shoulder of Romney lamb from Heritage Foods. The tagine, basically a Moroccan stew, is on the right. It is seasoned with cinnamon and turmeric. The red stuff on top is tomato. We wish we could let you smell it over the web, or even better, offer you a taste, but that will probably have to wait for HTML 6.

That's the dish, en cocotte.

Keywords: food, kale

07/18/10 - New Software From Kaleberg Laboratories - The Kaleberg Concordance Generator

There doesn't seem to be a simple program for the Macintosh which counts how many times each word is used in a text file, so we wrote one. It's the Kaleberg Concordance generator, and one of a number of fine Kaleberg Laboratories software hacks.

Keywords: software, kale

06/28/10 - Lake Angeles Trail Update

We're doing a lot of updates lately, largely because a lot is happening. Summer means another season of local produce and another sesason of access to the high country of Olympic National Park. The Lake Angeles Trail is one of the first trails we explore, if only because it is open for most of the year, especially if we take our snowshoes. Now, of course, the trail is shoe ready, and from what we have heard, there is only a bit of snow left around the lake. (Yes, we really have to get up there, but we have to get back in shape first.)

For other news, the Pacific dogwood is out, the trilliums are passing, and the park service has removed that big tree that was blocking the start of the boardwalk about 700' above the parking lot. Stay tuned as we Kalebergs start checking things out, or check out the park service's trail reports.

Pacific dogwood

The trail repair team from a few weeks back - note the chain saw at the ready

The cleared trail

The rude bridge

Another flower we really should look up somewhere

A fading trillium, its petals turning pink

Descending into the mists below

Keywords: high country, lake angeles, summer, trails, trillium, kale

06/24/10 - Lake Crescent Cottage - Bathroom Update

We don't post a lot of Lake Crescent Cottage news here, but we remodeled the downstairs bathroom back in March and have spent the time since then figuring out how to take a proper picture. We tried a few different approaches, with clever camera angles and a wide angle lens, but were never really satisfied. Finally, we decided to try taking a panorama, a series of photographs and using Photoshop to combine them into a single image. We've taken panoramas before, but always in the wide open spaces like the top of Klahane Ridge or out at Obstruction Point so we could capture miles of mountains and glorious scenery in a single image. We don't want to deprecate our cottage bathroom, but we accept that it is of a much smaller scale. So, to make a long story short, or perhaps just to end a long story, here is our Lake Crescent Cottage bathroom panorama. As with our larger scale panoramas, this one looks even better in person.

Our final image

Keywords: lake crescent cottage, panoramas, kale

05/14/10 - French Fry Folly

These may look like mild mannered french fries with ketchup, but appearances can be deceiving. They are actually strips of pound cake with some raspberry jam for dipping. The genius behind this conceit is a retired chef. Her big thing is pizza, and she's even produced a book on the subject. Sorry, we don't have her recipe for pound cake, but if you want to try this, consider using this recipe from Edna Lewis.

These are not french fries. No, they aren't liberty fries either.

Keywords: food, recipe, kale

04/21/10 - Kol Simcha Lamb Shanks

Kol Simcha Farms has been selling their lamb for a few weeks at the Port Angeles Farmers' Market. We've finally gotten around to doing a taste test with a bunch of lamb shanks. We steamed them up Moroccan style in our couscousiere. We put the shanks in the bowl with an onion, some parsley, some butter and a pinch or two of saffron. Then, we steamed for two hours or so, and when they were ready, the meat was falling from the bone. We served them with a mixture of ground cumin and salt, and Kaleberg Laboratories says they were delicious. The meat was tender and full of flavor. We don't know what kind of sheep they're raising, but they are mighty good eating. That's our first report. Now we have to try their lamb chops. They are next on our list.

The shanks are sold frozen, in packages

That's our couscousiere on the stove top.

Those are tender lamb shanks.

Keywords: farmers' market, port angeles, kale

04/13/10 - Russian Easter

Yes, Russian Easter was Sunday, April 4th, but we just got around to holding our own celebration on the 11th. We gather there are some disputes about the exact date between the Old and New Calendrists. Well, we're the Kaleberg Calendrists, so we get to set our own date.

At least we hold true to tradition with our food. We have our blini, buckwheat pancakes, drowned in butter, our enemies of the Czar, grilled reuben sandwiches with Russian dressing, Trotsky's Bane, cucumber shots of salmon roe and tequila, and our usual set piece, the Defense of Moscow, in which we defend Moscow, represented by an oversized Baked Alaska decorated with brownie onion domes, from the Monster Napoleon by the traditional scorched earth method thanks to a good helping of flaming cognac.

Gorbachev and Breshnev preside by the samovar. That's Trotsky's Bane to the right.

Moscow, as envisoned by Kaleberg Arts, prior to its defense

Our Enemies of the Czar await their ritual consumption

Keywords: russian easter, salmon, kale, alaska

04/03/10 - The Farmers' Marking is Springing Back

The Port Angeles Farmers' Market is springing back. Red Dog Farm, The Family Farm and Johnston Farm are all back, a sure sign of spring. Wild West had some magnificent halibut and kushi oysters. We went for the oysters at Mystery Bay, because we were too lazy to shuck our own. We were quite loaded down with beef, eggs, fish, kale raab, garlic radish leaves, german butterball potatoes, and other goodies, so we didn't explore everything. We did notice the jam and preserves people had their stand up, and even more people were selling eggs. We will get around to everyone eventually. Word is that more farmers are harvesting, so we're looking forward to the season.

P. S. There is a real demand for local foods around here. The Clark Family Farm expected to sell two animals in their first month. They sold out in a week.

Johnston Farm is back

The Family Farm is back - It looks like spring!

Red Dog is back too!

Keywords: farmers' market, johnston farm, oysters, port angeles, spring, clark family, kale

03/08/10 - Sefrina

Sefrina isn't the next town after Hilda. Sefrina is a Moroccan cholent, a great, easy to make Moroccan stew with a ridiculously long cooking time. We found out about it in Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco. Aside from the six hour cooking time, it is an easy dish to make. That's right, it cooks for six hours total, but your oven does all the heavy lifting. Everything gets wonderfully tender, and the eggs develop an amazing creamy texture as they hardboil.

We made this version with a 3lb 10oz pot roast from the Clark Family Farm. It had a nice big marrow bone which you can see floating there in the photo. The potatoes were from the Johnston Farm and the eggs from Westwind Farm, so this qualifies as a Port Angeles Farmers' Market dish. We also used dried chick peas, but they weren't from the Farmers' Market. You can make this dish with canned chick peas, but this is obviously not a dish you can throw together in a hurry, so why bother with time saving conveniences?

Our Moroccan stew

The eggs get tan and creamy.
 The recipe:
  1. The night before, soak a cup of dried chick peas in water overnight.
  2. Start boiling six cups of water in a tea kettle.
  3. Preheat the oven to 375°F.
  4. Take a big casserole with a lid and dump in the chick peas.
  5. Add 3 or 4 pounds of beef cut into big chunks. Pot roast is great, but it is better if there is a bone or two.
  6. Add six potatoes.
  7. Gently tuck six raw eggs into the ingredients so far.
  8. Chop up four cloves of garlic and sprinkle them on top.
  9. Sprinkle with a few pinches of salt, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/4 teaspoon of saffron or turmeric.
  10. When the water comes to a boil, pour it on.
  11. Cover and put it in the oven for an hour.
  12. Lower the heat to 250°F and let it cook for another five hours.

Keywords: farmers' market, johnston farm, port angeles, food, westwind farm, clark family, recipe, kale

Newer Entries  Older Entries