Feeling Good In The Neighborhood

When you move to Seattle it's hard not to become a salmon snob. Before you know it, you find yourself in restaurants asking, "where is the salmon from?" and getting excited about copper river season. Our family eats salmon regularly at home and when we eat out. I love the taste of salmon so much that I don’t need a special preparation. Last year I did find a new favorite preparation: grilled with pistachio and arugula pesto. The peppery lettuce and rich pistachio is a perfect combo with salmon. Love it!

And then there’s the crab. Dungeness Crab is my absolute favorite with its nutty taste. Awsumb loves simple sweet snow crab. And Kenneth’s favorite is the monster of all crab’s, Alaskan King Crab. After you have real crab you can never have imitation crab again? What is imitation crab anyway? It’s just a white fish died with a bit of red to make it look like crab. What’s the point when it tastes NOTHING like the real thing?!

The other thing I never thought I would become snobby about is apples. We are so lucky to have access to so many varieties of apples grown right here in the state of Washington. When I go to the supermarket and see apples from New Zealand I turn my nose up at them and choose something else instead. And of course we all await the honeycrisp season to get a taste of those juicy, sweet - practically caramel apples! But the year-round favorite around this house are the Fuji’s.

Here are a couple of our favorite recipes

Chicken Curry
4 breasts of chicken, cubed
2 cups apples peeled and diced (Green apples are best in this recipe)
1/2 cup chopped onion, or one small onion
3 tbsp. flour
2 cups milk
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. curry powder ( to taste, I end up doubling it!)
black pepper to taste (at least 1/8 teaspoon)
1 tsp. sugar
1 -2 tbsp. lemon juice
1 -2 cups Frozen Green Beans, thawed

Brown chicken, set aside
In the same pan sauté apples and onions in 2 tbsp. butter, until soft. Add four, cook for a minute or two to develop the flavor of the flour, this is called a "roux". Add milk to thicken (bring to a boil, then turn heat back to low, stirring often). Add spices, chicken, and thawed green beans. (you may also use shrimp instead of chicken)
Serve over rice and Pita Bread. Serves 4 -6

Pork and Apple Stew

2 green apples, peeled and sliced
1 small onion diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
About 2 lbs. cubed pork
1/2 cup wine or chicken stock
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 pepper
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. dried sage

Cook about 7 hours on low

As always when cooking with a crockpot you will get better flavor from your meat if you brown it first. Coat the pork with a tsp. or so of flour before you put it in the crock pot.

Before serving use corn starch to thicken, and stir in about 1/3 cup whipping cream. SALT to taste.

I prefer to use this stuff called Thick N' Thin Non Starch Thickener- About 2 tbs. (instead of flower or corn starch). Although the cream does make is rich and delicious I have left it out and it is just fine. And used about 1 tsp. of kosher salt to season.

Serve with fresh steamed green beans and corn bread.

(When I make packaged cornbread I do a Rachael Ray trick and add 1 cup frozen corn and sometimes some pepper jack cheese, shredded and green onions to the mix.)

And after all that I think I need a carmel apple cider from Starbucks!
What are your favorite foods that are native to your area?