This has been sitting in my drafts since December. *Sigh*. I figured I’d better put this up before the next round of Outstanding the Field tickets go on sale!
The previous two OITF dinners were amazing. We went to the first one of the season at Fogline Farm. One mid-season at Everett Family Farm and ended with the last dinner of the year at Pie Ranch.
The event started with a reception, appetizers and wine, as usual and,as usual, everything was lovely. The wine was provided by John Locke of Birichino Wines.
After the introductions and explanations, we headed into the hills for some fungus foraging. My husband found two porcini and got to proudly show them off to the group and explain how he found them (in the insanely dry forest!).
After the hike straight up the hill and back down again, we were STARVING! We trekked back to the barn and found a place to park it for the night and enjoy the amazing spread. We sat next to a wonderful couple from Texas who are retired and they plan their vacations around OITF events. That will be us! At least I hope so!
All the dishes were amazing but the highlight had to be the chanterelle and cornbread. It was so good in fact that people asked Chef Ryan Harris of Station 1 Restaurant in Woodside (the evening’s chef) for the recipe. He obliged and posted it on his Facebook page!
Greens
Fort Mason, Building A
San Francisco, CA 94123
415-771-6222
Spring Rolls
A friend and I were meeting up to see Tim Minchin at the Palace of Fine Arts…Brilliant show by the way. We needed food first so she got us into Greens at the last minute. I thought I hadn’t been there but as soon as I parked and started heading past the harbor boats I had a de ja vu. Yeah, I’d been there but it had been years and years and I think we were there for lunch. I really don’t recall anything about the meal then so this was a brand new experience!
Sampler Plate
We ordered a number of things and split them all, starting with the Spring Rolls (with grilled tofu, carrots, jicama, Thai basil, mint and rice noodles. Served with hoisin, grilled shiitake, beech mushroom and radish salad). These were good but I’m going to rename them Mint Spring Rolls…not a subtle flavor.
The sampler was great because we could easily split the things between what I like and don’t like! My friend got the beet salad, olives and marinated Yarra Valley feta, we shared the taboulleh, grilled artichoke, mummous and pita. All very tasty.
Paparadelle wiht Peas
The Green Gulch Lettuce and Little Gems salad (with Hidden Star Orchard cherries, Point Reyes Original Blue, slow roasted almonds and golden balsamic vinaigrette) was lovely and the cherries were a nice addition.
The Pappardelle with snap, snow and English peas, pine nuts, spring onions, meyer lemon butter and chives tasted like spring. I know it’s July but we had winter here through June so we’re just getting our spring! It was wonderful to have pine nuts again. I haven’t had them in ages since there is apparently a shortage although that’s hard to believe when I drive around California surrounded by pine trees! I know, they’re from a certain type of pine…but still! I miss them.
The dishes at Greens aren’t complicated. They aren’t piled with a million conflicting flavors. They are vegetarian. They are flavorful, fresh, seasonal, beautiful. You can’t beat the view—the boats in the harbor with a peek at the Golden Gate behind them if the fog lifts enough.
Parking can be a challenge if there is event at Fort Mason but if there’s not, the large parking lot should have a space available somewhere. I love that Greens set the standard for locally source, vegetarian fare *years* ago and it still going strong. It’s a classic.
I host a soup night, ideally once a month, but really it happens when we have a free weekend night. I make a huge pot of soup, customized each time for the number of people coming and the allergies/preferences/aversions of the guests. It’s really, really fun and it gives us a way to actually get together with our friends regularly even when life is hectic. It’s a different group of people each time…and if there is every a time that everyone on the invite list can show up, I’m not sure what we’ll do, our house isn’t nearly big enough!
This time I live-tweeted the making of the soup, just for fun. A sort of step-by-step recipe without instructions! This is enough soup for 16-18 people.
3 onions:
Onions
4-5 quarts chicken stock simmering on the back burner:
Chicken Stock Simmering
3-4 carrots (mulitcolored, they looked cool!):
Added Carrots
1 fennel bulb and 4 stalks celery:
Fennel and Celery
Cooking all that stuff down, entertaining myself with the camera:
Waiting for veggies to cook down
4 yellow potatoes:
Potatoes will go in next
3/4 bottle white wine and 6 cloves garlic:
Added white wine and garlic
One bunch kale, somewhat “julienned”…I’d say finely shredded:
Shredded Kale
6 small zucchini:
Zucchini
Snap peas, halved:
Lastly, snap peas
In there with the zucchini went 3 cans of cannellini beans and then the soup was ladeled over spaghetti that I broke in half before boiling (so it would be possible to eat it with a spoon!)
To serve it was first pasta, then soup, pesto on top of that (basil-walnut-lots of lemon), and for everyone but me, shredded parmesean.
This week’s box from my CSA is full of so many of my favorite things. Romaine lettuce, Kale, Green Onions, Fennel, Strawberries, Potatoes, Cucumbers. They have an “exchange” box at the pick-up site and I swapped my carrots out for a 2nd head of romaine. I still have a zillion carrots from previous weeks, we just don’t go through them very fast. I am having a Soup Night on Saturday though and I can make a big Caesar salad.
And I can make the potato salad recipe sent to me for the 10th anniversary recipe contest.
I thought the last dinner was good. This one was better. Not that there was anything missing from the first one, I just felt that this one stepped it up.
Arriving and mingling
We went with 4 friends and they hired a driver to take us to and from the dinner so much more wine was consumed than at the last event. So much so, I forgot the menu there and I don’t have all the details of this meal! Therefore, this will be more of a photo tour of the evening.
A rundown from Jim and Leah
We gathered around to hear from Jim and Leah and then we headed around the farm to meet the goats and chickens, see the variety of crops and check out the original apple trees from 100 years ago.
On the farm tour
The source of the goat cheese
Surrounding the entire farm is a deer fence. The farm bumps right up to the Soquel hills so without the fence, the deer would destroy the farm. They still have to contend with coyotes, mountain lions and gophers, but at least the fence dissuades the deer!
Rows of crops meld into the tree line
300 chickens live here
We wrapped up the tour and were lead down to an amazing table setting. We sat along the creek, it was absolutely gorgeous.
The table is set up by Soquel creek
The first course featured farm grown spinach and beets and was topped with goat cheese made from the goats we’d just met.
Spinach with Goat cheese and beets
It’s amazing the kitchen setup they have out in the woods. Backwoods gourmet at its finest!
The smell of the outdoor kitchen wafts down to the diners
The shellfish dish was the highlight of the dinner (not that there were any lows!). We got loaf after loaf of bread to soak up the amazing broth the clams, mussels and squid were in. It was heavenly. I could have had nothing but this all night and been a happy foodie.
Shellfish and squid stew with crusty bread
There was a course in between here of perfectly cooked, lick every bit from your finger, gorgeous quail. So good, I forgot to pull out my camera….I would have gotten quail juice on it anyway.
And dessert by candlelight was scrumptious strawberry shortcake.
Strawberry shortcake for dessert
The whole dinner was paired with wines from Testa Rossa vineyards and Corralitos Brewing Company beer. I even enjoyed the pink wine…it was my least favorite of the evening but I still liked it!
Good food, good friends, good times. Life’s mantra.
The spring hasn’t been much of a spring. Cold, wet, wintery days with a few days of sun scattered in there. We’ve been less than thrilled with it but most of my plants have been obviously happy with the rain. Now that they are huge and leafy, I hope it warms up so everything can ripen!
Mandarin Tree - recently moved to a new location and much happier!
Apple Tree - It will need thinning again this year for sure
Sage and Marjoram - Everything is flowering! It's pretty but I need to cut it all back
Thyme and Peas
Tomatoes, Carrots and Lettuce - Carrots are finally getting big enough to pick, they take forever!
Chives and Mint - a small hanging basket just to add more growing room
Parsley and Habaneros - A new experiment, I think they'll take the heat
Strawberries - they got too much water in the rain, hopefully they'll be ok
Basil - just getting started
Asian and Bartlett Pear trees - they are very happy this year
Hops - already passing the roofline and getting confused!
I was very excited for my first Outstanding in the Field dinner. I tried to get tickets last year and it sold out too quickly, I missed out. This year I booked 3 events to make up for it! I wish I could do more but our calendar is not cooperating with that idea.
So, we arrive at the event, get dropped off by a shuttle and walk through the farm and up a hill to a beautiful view of the bay and the farm. They’re wandering around with appetizers that they are preparing in front of us as well and pouring Soquel Vineyards Sauvingon Blanc…a beautiful wine after a warm walk.
The crab appetizer was my favorite: Dungeness crab with Companion Bakers sourdough crackers (it had asparagus..and other yumminess!). My husband raved about the Marinated beets with Almond ash. We chatted with some of the other diners. Planted ourselves near the prep table so as to nab appetizers when they came out…sneaky we are ;-)
After a few announcements and introductions, we split into groups and headed out on a tour of the farm. Apples, grapes, veggies, pigs, chickens, they’ve got it all. The chickens control pests and provide fertilizer for the soil as well as eggs and meat for the CSA. They have a house full of cute little chicks and rotate the areas the full-sized chickens graze in. The pigs get moved around as well and right now the priority is shade. Poor HUGE Daisy is pregnant and looking for all the shade she can find!We continued around the farm getting the lowdown on the crop rotation, the benefits of the animals, the variety of vegetables and fruit being grown and a preview of things we were about to get on our plates.
Then we headed to the apple orchard that had been converted into a fine dining experience. The tables looked amazing. The view was breathtaking.
The other tour groups straggled in, we picked our seats and began to visit, eat, drink, question, chat, advise. We happened to end up sitting at the table with the farmers which was, of course, lovely. We learned a lot and just had fun with them in general.
The first dishes to come out was grilled green garlic with artichokes and wilted fava leaves, charred shallots, and smoky fava beans. All really wonderful. I especially enjoyed the wilted fava leaves since this is something you normally don’t get unless you grow favas.
Next out was squid with black butter (not squid ink, brown butter pushed past brown…but not bitter or burnt flavored. I don’t know how they did that), peas, asparagus, marinated green strawberries and wood sorrel. I always push the peas aside in dishes. I like peas by themselves and raw but usually don’t like them in dishes. I ate every last one of these.
The winner of the night thought was the smoked chicken. I get chicken from my CSA every two weeks and cook one the night I pick it up. I know how much better fresh chicken is. Then add to that the chef skills of these wonderful OTF folks and it is so…chickeny! I think people have forgotten what chicken is supposed to taste like…it’s this.
Then it got dark…no more pictures. And it got late. And we had our son at the neighbors on a school night. And we still had dessert. Luckily the dessert were scrump-diddly-umptious ice creams cones from Penny Ice Creamery and we could grab one and bolt to the shuttle to get our car and head home. We got one of each flavor: rose petal and strawberry pink peppercorn. I thought the rose petal was great…until I tried the strawberry! It was even better! They really make *the* best ice cream. We were stuffed and had no problem finishing both of these!
I can’t wait for our next Outstanding in the Field event in June!
I love the CSA season. I can eat ridiculously healthy with very little effort or thought. When all that is in the fridge is vegetables, lunch or a quick snack is so seasonably delicious whether you try or not! The salad was a mix of lettuces, 2 multicolored carrots thinly sliced and one HUGE radish, also thinly sliced. I tossed it with the following dressing:
Recipe: Green Garlic Dressing
Ingredients
One green garlic, minced
1t fresh thyme
1t minced chives
3T champagne vinegar
Enough good olive oil to make it dressing-y
Salt and pepper
Instructions
Let green garlic, thyme and chives “steep” in the vinegar with some salt for at least 10 minutes. It softens the garlic and lets the flavors permeated the vinegar. Whisk in the oil and you’re done!
