Beaverton Farmer's Market: Hey PDX, it's worth the drive!!

Usually the mere thought of leaving the city and driving to the suburbs of Portland induces a slight panic. Why would I possibly leave this place where everything is at my disposal (except access to TGIF's and Cheesecake Factory without which I still seem to be living a remarkably full life)? What compelling reason could there be? I thought none, until last Saturday when my PR friend Bette S. encouraged me to give a visit to the Beaverton Farmer's Market which is held every Saturday in the remarkably charming "old town" area of Beaverton. So last Saturday, on a dazzlingly sunny morning, w and I packed up C-boy and headed west into the great unknown.

On the surprisingly short 20 minute drive over (that from our house in the Mt. Tabor neighborhood), we talked about how could this be remotely as good as PDX's famous downtown PSU market, which has received national press as one of the best in the nation. It is an amazing market, albeit getting almost too crowded as throngs attend every Saturday, many of whom I suspect go just to go. You know, those people who consider themselves, in a term that has come to represent a sad type of neediness, "foodies", just because they show up at the market. Not too mention the parking chaos, doublewide strollers (ours, BTW, is a slender single, small uppababy that should you be in the market for an umbrella style stroller is worth every penny. Funny thing, too: if you had asked me two years ago, before we found ourselves in this parenting predicament, what an umbrella stroller was, I would have had zero idea), and a distressing number of small dogs being carried in bags by their owners, which in any setting is a very disturbing, seemingly anti-evolutionary development. So we arrive in B-ton, park about 1/2 a block away, and wander into what I have now decided is probably the best, most shoppable farmer's market in the metro area.

I was first struck by the size of the market. Much bigger than I would have suspected, with row upon row of vendors, spacious aisles between them, and in this high season for farmer's markets everywhere, an eye-popping array of beautifully presented produce. We wandered around to get our bearings, noticing appreciatively how many more small farms were representing, then dove into the bounty. A little over an hour later, with C-boy relegated to mom's Ergo carrier since his stroller was overflowing with edible goodness, we went back to the car with days of dining fun ahead. I'll give a few of the many highlights followed by a must-try tomatillo recipe....

Blindingly bright carrots from the too-cutely named Gathering Together Farms, to be made into baby food for C-boy

one of w's favorite things, plucots from Alex Farm Produce

Always great cured meats from O.P. We took home the awesome Chorizo Rioja!

Tomatillos from Sosa Farms which were the key ingredient for the fabulous appetizer recipe below

This is not to leave out all the other splendor to be had: a 9am beer tasting of superb ale from Captured By Porches Brewing; the freshest cilantro and french radishes from Galin-Flory Farms; deliciously surprising coconut milk yogurt from Gata Foods (which I'm eating right now); peaches from Baird Orchards (some of whose perfectly ripe peaches went into a disastrous recipe for peach cobbler from Paula Deen. If you see it on the Food Network site, avoid it! We used the rest to make more food for C-boy); and so much more. This, my Portland-centric friends, is a place totally worth the drive. And if you need one more reason, the temple of all things fresh, fishy, and Asian, the Beaverton Uwajimaya market, is a mere five minutes away!
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Tomatillo Guacamole
By Martha Rose Shulman/NY Times
"This is a guacamole with a punch. The roasted tomatillos blended with hot chilies add acidity and spice to the creamy avocados. It has the luxuriousness of guacamole at just over half the calories."- Martha Rose Shulman

ingredients:
1/2 pound fresh tomatillos, husked
2 or 3 jalapeño chilies, seeded if desired and roughly chopped
10 cilantro sprigs, plus additional leaves for garnish
Salt to taste
2 large ripe avocados
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice

method:
1. Preheat the broiler. Cover a baking sheet with foil and place the tomatillos on top, stem side down. Place under the broiler at the highest rack setting and broil two to five minutes, until charred on one side. Turn over and broil on the other side for two to five minutes, until charred on the other side. Remove from the heat and transfer to a blender, tipping in any juice that has accumulated on the baking sheet. Add the chilies, cilantro sprigs and salt to the blender and blend to a coarse purée.

2. Cut the avocados in half and twist the two halves apart. Scoop out the flesh into a bowl or the bowl of a mortar and pestle. Mash with a fork or pestle. Do not use a food processor or a blender, as you want to retain some texture. Stir in the lime juice, the tomatillo mixture and salt to taste and combine well. Transfer to a bowl and serve with baked or microwaved tortilla chips or crudités, or use for tacos or avocado sandwiches.

Yield: 1 1/2 cups, serving six.

Advance preparation: This will hold for a couple of hours in the refrigerator but is best eaten soon after preparing.

Why I LOVE the Farmer's Market, pt. 1

An eye-popping display of rainbow chard from Deep Roots Farm that w and I happened upon this morning at the chilly Portland Farmer's Market, the perfect veggie side for our dinner party tomorrow!
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Sautéed Rainbow Chard
serves 2-4

ingredients:
1 large bunch organic rainbow (or regular) swiss chard
3 garlic cloves , sliced thin
olive oil
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

method:
1-Wash and pat dry chard. Run a knife along each side of stalk to separate leaves from stalks. Chop stalks into 2"-3" pieces. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in large nonstick sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add chard stalks and sliced garlic. While stalks begin to cook, slice or chop remaining leaves. After 3 or 4 minutes add leaves to sauté pan (the more fibrous stalks take longer than the leaves to cook). Cook until leaves are soft with just a bit of bite to them. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste, remove from heat and serve immediately

A dinner party...yawn...with meatloaf??

Maybe that's what might cross your mind, especially when you're having five of your food loving friends over for dinner. Meatloaf. Isn't that something your mom cooked the hell out of when you were a kid? Not exactly haut cuisine, n'est pas? That why if I'm talkin' meatloaf, then you can bet your ass I'm upping the ante. Luckily I have in the food files a really awesome, fancy-schmancy stuffed meatloaf, a Mario Batali recipe that was in Food and Wine Magazine some time ago. This absolutely rocks, not only tasting great, but presents beautifully, the slices of meat showing off the spinach-prosciutto-provolone-carrot stuffing. Who wouldn't crave ground beef and pork with a little prosciutto? I mean really?! Add some sides of garlic mashed potatoes (where w's only instruction was "with lots of garlic!") and some bright Swiss chard from the Farmer's Market and you'll be set. Oh yeah, and maybe a bottle or five of good vino! This is a really easy recipe, that like I said, looks (and tastes) fantastic!
Assembling the meaty goodness before the rollup!
A done deal, ready for the table.

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Meat Loaf Stuffed with Prosciutto and Spinach
SERVES: 8
from F and W: This luxurious yet easy take on classic meat loaf gets stuffed with spinach, carrots, prosciutto and cheese. The vegetables can be leftovers, says Batali: "Just make sure they're cooked long enough to be very soft—if they're al dente, the meat loaf will tear when you slice it and wreck your day" Mild and tangy caciocavallo cheese, made in Italy from cow's milk, is excellent in the filling, but provolone is a fine substitute.

ingredients
* 2 large carrots, each cut lengthwise into 6 slices
* 4 cups spinach (3 ounces), thick stems discarded
* 2 pounds lean ground beef
* 2 pounds ground pork
* 2 1/2 cups fresh bread crumbs
* 2 cups freshly grated pecorino cheese (6 ounces)
* 6 large eggs, lightly beaten
* Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
* 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
* 10-12 thin slices of prosciutto (4 ounces)
* 10 1/8-inch-thick slices caciocavallo or provolone cheese
* 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
* 4 sprigs of rosemary
* 2 cups dry red wine
* 1-1/2 cup water

directions
1. Preheat the oven to 400°. In a saucepan of boiling salted water, cook the carrots until tender, 7 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to a plate. Add the spinach to the boiling water and cook just until wilted; drain well and add to the carrots.
2. In a large bowl, combine the beef with the pork, 2 cups of the bread crumbs, the pecorino, eggs, 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper; mix well with your hands.
3. Line a work surface with a 15-inch-long sheet of plastic wrap. In a bowl, mix the flour with the remaining 1/2 cup of bread crumbs. Sprinkle half of the crumb mixture all over the plastic wrap. Transfer half of the meat loaf mixture to the plastic and press it into a 12-by-10-inch rectangle, about 1/2 inch thick. Lay half of the spinach leaves over the meat, leaving a 1-inch border on the short sides. Arrange half of the carrots over the spinach, and top with half the prosciutto and sliced cheese. Starting from the long end of the plastic wrap closest to you, tightly roll up the meat loaf, tucking in the filling and using the plastic wrap to guide you; discard the plastic. Repeat with another 15-inch sheet of plastic and the remaining bread crumbs, meat mixture, spinach, carrots, prosciutto and cheese. Drizzle each meat loaf with 2 tablespoons of oil.
4. Put the rosemary sprigs in the bottom of a broiler pan and pour in the red wine. Cover with the broiler pan grate. Set the meat loaves about 2 inches apart on the grate. Bake in the center of the oven for 40 minutes. Turn the broiler pan around and pour the water through the grate. Continue baking for about 35 minutes longer, or until an instant-read thermometer inserted in the center of each meat loaf registers 155°.
5. Transfer the meat loaves to a carving board and cover loosely with foil. Discard any cheese from the bottom of the pan and strain the pan juices into a small saucepan. Boil the pan juices over high heat until reduced to 1 cup, about 5 minutes. Pour into a serving bowl and season with salt and pepper.
6. Using a serrated knife, slice the meat loaves 1 inch thick and serve, passing the pan juices at the table.
MAKE AHEAD: The unbaked meat loaves can be refrigerated overnight. Let return to room temperature before baking.