Thursday, May 1, 2008

Yes, Still Working at the Locavore Thing

I just haven't written much about it for a while. I guess I was taking a break after the end of the Dark Days Eat Local Challenge. I am still working on using as much local food as I can without worrying about any particular rules of the game.

So, here are a few examples from this past week. I had some cooked chicken to use up so I looked through my recipe collection and pulled out the directions for "Chez Jose Lime Chicken Enchiladas". A few years ago the newspaper published this recipe courtesy of the chef at Chez Jose, a restaurant we used to go to pretty regularly. Grated peel and juice from limes are combined with sour cream, half and half and cayenne. This combo is spread on the tortillas that have been filled with cubes of chicken and then topped with shredded cheese and baked. Local items I used included the chicken, chicken broth, corn tortillas, sour cream and the topping was Wilamette Valley Cheese Co. farmstead jalapeno jack. I also made a few modifications to reduce the fat content - 2% milk for the half and half, nonfat sour cream, and a low fat cheese for half of the cheese topping.

Tonight I returned to The Art of Simple Food for "Fusilli with Greens and Sausage". Local foods in this were a puttanesca chicken sausage (made by New Seasons from local pork) and greens and scallions from the PSU farmer's market. I also added some Oregon shitake mushrooms which were not part of the original recipe. I had a couple of photos from the dinner preparations, but now I can't find the cord that connects my camera to the computer.

I am also excited to say that we ate a few things from our pots in the back yard this week. We had some red chard and some lettuce with a local steak a couple days ago.

Ah, just found the camera cord.

The lime chicken enchiladas


Preparing the Fusilli with Greens and Sausage


This is the puttanesca sausage.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Joan. We're hosting a mushroom recipe contest (your pasta dish sounds delicious!) and the winner will be mailed 2 lbs. of fresh, morel mushrooms. Post your recipe at http://marxfoods.com (under the Kobe burger picture) if you're interested! Have a great weekend! -Emily

Joan said...

Well, Emily, since all I did was add shitakes to an Alice Waters published recipe, I don't think I could enter with that. But, I will think about whether there is something else I can submit. The prize of 2 lb. of morels is certainly worth some thought!

@JeanAnnVK said...

I love that you are trying the locavore way of life! Is there a website or other internet site for portland locavores?