SUNDAY NIGHT DINNER
June 29, 2008
Cheese Plate
Fraga Farm Cheddar – a raw cheddar
Fraga Farm Farm House Goat
Pepperoni
Local Cherry Tomatoes
Hideaway Bakery Whole Grain Bread
Dinner
Oregon Lingcod
French Green Lentils, Local Vegetables, Yogurt-Green Onion Sauce
This dinner was inspired by Hideaway Bakery‘s awesome bread! I wanted everyone to enjoy the bread before the meal so I bought some local cheeses from Fraga Farm in Sweet Home, Oregon, grilled the bread and allowed some time for cheese, wine and bread. The cheeses from Fraga Farm are wonderful if you haven’t tried them yet, do!
For the dinner I started at Capella’s, a small market that sells locally grown and sourced foods. Wandering through the store I started with lentils. Don’t know why but I just decided I hadn’t eaten lentils in awhile. From there what goes with lentils? Yogurt. I picked out a local, plain yogurt from Nancy’s. Hhmmm…What should I put in the yogurt, how about the local green onions that looks so young and fresh. I have my sauce and lentils, now what?
Yogurt sauce and lentils are a very Mediterranean influenced choice and those two could go with a number of protein items such as lamb, chicken or fish. Since it was about 92 degrees outside and we were drinking Tabula de Rasa (a light, fruity white wine) from Carlton Winemakers Studio I decided to go with the lighter option of fish. That I wouldn’t get at Capella’s though, the fish market is just a few blocks down the road so that will come after the rest of the shopping.
Wandering through the store they had a wonderful selection of local produce from Oregon so I let that lead the way. Thinking along Mediterranean lines I wanted to just do a simple saute of fresh vegetalbe, garlic and olive oil. A preparation that would allow the great flavors of these local, fresh foods to shine through. I found some patty pan squash, rond de nice squash (appropriate for my Mediterranean inspired meal), young onions and shallots. I checked out and ran to the fish market.
At Newman’s Fish Market I was able to find an Oregon caught Lingcod to serve along with all the other foods I already purchased. Back home to cook now. With all these locally sourced, wonderful foods there wasn’t much work for me to do except wash, cut and cook.
I seared the onions and squashes in a pan together, added some garlic, shallots, olive oil, salt, pepper and butter. Done.
The lentils were boiled in water, drained and sauteed with shallots, garlic, oil, salt and pepper.
For the yogurt sauce I just added sliced green onions, salt pepper and citrus juice. Easy, done.
The fish was seasoned with salt, pepper and seared in a very hot pan, serving side down first. I allowed the skin to sear and get nice and crispy on the first side before flipping to the other side. Added a little butter, spooned it over the fish and viola!
