Who would have guessed that, for folks living in temperate Seattle, the biggest impediment to eating a Christmas dinner made from local foods might be the weather? OK, that’s hyperbole; even if we’d been completely housebound by last week’s snows, I could’ve prepared a Christmas dinner of local foods from our freezer, pantry and refrigerator. It just wouldn’t have been the meal that I’d planned.
The dinner that I’d planned was pork loin roast (adapting a previous Christmas dinner’s pork loin stuffed with apricots and pecans to use local dried nectarines and hazelnuts), potato-leek gratin and green beans. I’d frozen the beans at the height of the summer season, but before last weekend I didn’t have the other main ingredients for our dinner.
Last Saturday, we’d already had several inches of snow, and we knew more was coming. We ventured off Queen Anne Hill around the middle of the day, in advance of the forecast snowfall, just long enough for a quick trip to the University District Farmers Market. The weather was frigid, so cold that the folks from Sea Breeze Farm hadn’t bothered to bring their cooler, but had simply arranged their meat and cheese on their table. Despite — or perhaps because of — the weather, the mood was cheery and warm; everyone was happy to chat about the snow and the holidays. We picked up a pork loin roast from Eiko of Skagit River Ranch, and stocked up on purple Viking and Bintje potatoes from Ang of Olsen Farms. I looked for leeks, but didn’t find any among the wilting, freezing vegetables.
A few days later, when we could no longer get off our hill or even drive safely on the top of the hill, we could walk to the stores on Queen Anne Avenue, including Eat Local, a shop blocks from our house that sells prepared locally-sourced meals, and also carries products from some of my favorite local growers. On Christmas Eve, we tramped over to Eat Local to buy (locally roasted) Stumptown coffee; we also picked up Rockridge Orchards apple cider, a pint of Golden Glen cream, and bags of Foraged & Found’s dried wild mushrooms, Holmquist’s hazelnuts and Tiny Organics’ dried nectarines. On the way home, we stopped by our local grocery store, which had organic Washington leeks.
When Christmas morning arrived, I opted to prepare the pork loin simply. I rubbed it with a paste of garlic, rosemary, pepper and olive oil, let it rest for several hours, then roasted it. The drippings and juices from the roast, simmered with homemade local cranberry sauce (cranberries, honey, herbs and spices), made a tart/sweet/herby/garlicy sauce.
We had a stalk of Brussels sprouts in the refrigerator from the previous week’s market, so the green beans stayed in the freezer. I cooked the Brussels sprouts only a little differently from the way that we first came to love them, when a stalk showed up in our winter CSA box. I finely shredded the sprouts (like for a slaw), sauteed them in lard and olive oil until bright green, added a little stock and finely chopped thyme and cooked until the sprouts are tender. A few grinds of black pepper, and a little splash of cider vinegar: yummy.
The dried wild mushrooms we’d picked up at Eat Local inspired a revision to my gratin plans. I found a recipe for potato and wild mushroom gratin, made a few changes, and halved the recipe, as I was cooking just for the two of us. (Recipe below.) The mushrooms and stock in which they were rehydrated, added rich, almost meaty notes to the potatoes. So, so good. I’ll be making this again.
I didn’t stop to photograph our dinner on Christmas, but got this shot of leftovers yesterday.
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Potato and Wild Mushroom Gratin
adapted from Epicurious
Serves 4-6
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 ounce dried mixed wild mushrooms
1 tablespoon lard (plus enough for greasing baking dish)
2 leeks (white and pale green parts only), well washed, thinly sliced
1/2 cup cream
2 teaspoons fresh rosemary, finely chopped
Freshly ground black pepper
2 pounds potatoes, peeled, sliced 1/8″ thick (I used purple Vikings)
Bring stock to simmer in small saucepan. Add mushrooms; remove from heat. Let mushrooms soak 30 minutes to soften. Squeeze mushrooms, reserving stock. Strain stock. Chop mushrooms.
Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease 8″ x 8″ baking dish with lard. In heavy skillet, melt lard over medium low heat. Add leeks and sweat until tender but not brown, about 10 minutes. Add mushroom soaking liquid, mushrooms, cream and rosemary and bring to boil. Season with pepper.
Arrange half of potatoes slices in dish. Using slotted spoon, spread leeks and mushrooms over potatoes. Top with remaining potatoes, overlapping slices. Pour liquid over potatoes. Cover tightly with foil. Bake until potatoes are almost tender, about 1 hour. Uncover and continue baking until potatoes are tender, most of liquid is absorbed and top is browned, about 30 minutes.
Do you want to know where we got the ingredients for dinner?
- Outside our back door (10 steps): rosemary
Local farmers markets:
- Willie Green’s Organic Farm, Monroe, WA (22 miles): garlic
- Rockridge Orchards, Enumclaw, WA (34 miles): spiced apple cider, honey, cider vinegar
- Nash’s Organic Produce, Sequim, WA (49 miles): Brussels sprouts
- Rainier Mountain Cranberries, Eatonville, WA (53 miles): cranberries
- Skagit River Ranch, Sedro-Wooley, WA (75 miles): pork loin roast, lard
- Olsen Farms, Colville, WA (215 miles): purple Viking potatoes
- Foraged and Found Edibles, Seattle-based: dried mixed wild mushrooms
From locally-owned stores within 1/2 mile of our house:
- Snoqualmie River Ranch, Duvall, WA (19 miles): thyme
- Golden Glen Creamery, Bow, WA (64 miles): cream
- Washington: leeks
- California: olive oil
- Far away: chicken stock, black pepper
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The gratin sounds delicious. I put some F&F dried porcini in Matthew’s stocking; maybe we’ll try it.
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