Food+Drink

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Mâche Salad with Hazelnut Vinaigrette

Noble Rot Portland Chef Leather Storrs Mâche Salad with Hazelnut Vinaigrette Makes 8 servings Mâche is an underappreciated early spring green. Its dark green, glossy round leaves grow in clusters. Mâche has a tender, velvety texture and a clean, chlorophyll-like flavor that is vaguely nutty. The real take-away is the dressing. My formula for vinaigrette is infinitely mutable and should discourage you from buying commercial dressing. Make too much, shake it in a jar and keep it in the fridge. Total time: 20 minutes Indgredients 1 ping pong ball-sized shallot, minced 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard 1 tablespoon orange juice 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar 4 tablespoons olive oil 4 tablespoons hazelnut oil 8 cups mâche Directions Put all wet ingredients in a screw-top jar and shake it into submission. Season lightly with salt and pepper, and adjust acid and oil ratios to your palate. Toss the mâche gently with a little…

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Sauce Maltaise (Blood Orange Hollandaise) Recipe

Noble Rot Portland Chef Leather Storrs Sauce Maltaise (Blood Orange Hollandaise) Makes 8 servings This is a classic hollandaise sauce flavored with blood oranges and served on fat asparagus. Hollandaise is a bit of a bugaboo and intimidating for a good reason. It is a delicate emulsion (that is to say a suspension of oil in water) of butter, reduced vinegar and citrus, that is stabilized with egg yolks. Hollandaise likes to “break.” With very little coaxing, the emulsion separates and you’ve got yellow grease with gobs of egg yolk in it. Total time: 45 minutes Indgredients 3 egg yolks 4 blood oranges 1/2 cup rice vinegar 1 teaspoon sugar 1/2 pound butter 2 tablespoons of Dijon mustard 1/2 teaspoon Bob’s Red Mill xanthan gum Directions Zest 4 blood oranges. Boil two pots of water. Pour hot water from one pot into your blender to warm it up. In hot…

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Black Pepper Beef on Hazelnut and Blue Cheese Cracker

Heidi Tunnell Catering Cresswell | heiditunnellcatering.com Chef Heidi Tunnell Black Pepper Beef on Hazelnut and Blue Cheese Cracker Makes 100 crackers These little crackers are great just for snacking on or for use with a cheese platter. Crackers are a chef’s best friend and something I recommend to home cooks to make and keep on hand in their freezer. You never know when that unexpected guest is going to stop by and it makes for a unique appetizer. Total time: 90 minutes Ingredients 1 stick (4 ounces) butter, softened 1/2 pound Rogue blue cheese 1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1 1/4 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper 1/2 cup finely chopped hazelnuts Directions Cream butter and cheese together. Add flour, salt and pepper, scraping down the sides as needed to fully incorporate. Add your finely chopped nuts at the end. (Make sure these are finely chopped or…

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Best Happy Hour

Winner: Porters, Medford The happy hour at Porters Restaurant and Bar is a doozy. Located in the 1910-era, extensively renovated passenger train depot, this American classic is must-see on any stopover in Medford. Snag a stool at the old ticket counter (a.k.a. bar) or find a table on the patio in summer and order a drink and one of the daily specials. The popular “Get Giddy for 3 Fiddy” (4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. to close) features a full bar and twenty food items, from $2.50 for bistro garlic fries to $3.95 for a chicken Caesar wrap or Oregon mac and cheese. Get a dollar off any beer and wine on tap during “Tappy Hour,” from 9 p.m. to close. Runner-Up: 23 Hoyt, Portland Slip into this hip neighborhood eatery on Northwest 23rd Street for a welcome break from the day’s activities. The happy hour menu at…

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Best Beer

Winner: Ninkasi Total Domination IPA Ninkasi has gone from zero to 100,000 barrels in six years, with that number expected to triple in the next eighteen months. The first batch of Ninkasi’s Total Domination IPA hit the market in 2006, and since then, beer lovers have been lapping up the hoppy brew. The Brewers Association, a trade group that tracks industry trends, named Eugene-based Ninkasi the fastest growing regional brewery in the country in 2011. Total Domination along with Believer Double Red Ale, Tricerahops Double IPA and Oatis Oatmeal Stout are on tap or in bottles throughout the West. Ninkasi does not have a brewpub but visitors are welcome in its tasting room for a pint and bites from visiting food carts. Runner-Up: Boneyard RPM IPA In beer-soaked Bend, Boneyard got started by recycling other brewers’ cast-off equipment. Two-plus years later, the brewery can’t keep up with demand and “our…

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Best Wine

Winner: Rex Hill Reserve Pinot Noir A landmark winery in the northern Willamette Valley, Rex Hill passed in 2007 from its founders to A to Z Wineworks, which now makes all its wines—sourced from vineyards throughout Oregon—at the Rex Hill facility. With Rex Hill labeled-wines, the new owners slashed case production, introduced sustainable farming and winemaking practices, and brought a renewed commitment to strengthening the brand. Despite difficult weather patterns during the 2010 growing season and bird damage, the Reserve Pinot noir, a blend of five vineyards, sold out quickly at the winery; some bottles may still be available in wine shops. The winery (rexhill.com) welcomes visitors in its historic tasting room in Newberg; tastings are $10 and refundable with a $40 purchase. Runner-Up: Arborbrook 2010 Vintner’s Select Pinot Noir If you want a bottle of ArborBrook’s 2010 Vintner’s Select Pinot noir, you’ll have to hurry. Since 2005, the Newberg…

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Best Destination Restaurant

Winner: Pelican Pub & Brewery, Pacific City Oregon’s only oceanfront brewery, the Pelican Pub & Brewery has taken craft beer and pub fare to new heights. Brewmaster Darron Welch’s talent for crafting fine ales has earned the Pelican many awards—Brewpub of the Year at the Great American Beer Festival, Champion Large Brewpub at the World Beer Cup, and two gold and two silver medals recently from the European Beer Star in Munich, Germany. Located on the beach at Cape Kiwanda in Pacific City, the Pelican Brewery serves food for every palette, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Order the pale-malt crusted salmon and pair it with a MacPelican Scottish Ale or try the veggie burger made with spent grains from the brewing process. A portion of revenues from Pelican’s newest brew, Silverspot IPA, will help to save the endangered Oregon Silverspot butterfly. On warm days, dine on the patio and savor the…

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Best Winery

Winner: Archery Summit Photo by Andrea Johnson  On a gravel road off Highway 18 outside Dayton is a steep driveway leading to the gates of Pinot noir heaven. Every detail of Archery Summit’s operation speaks to the luxury wines crafted in Oregon’s first 100 percent gravity-flow winery. No mechanical pumps here—just a gentle pull of gravity from hand sorting and de-stemming on the top floor to the fermentation hall, aging caves and bottling areas below. Built in 1993, the winery has earned a reputation for big, complex and layered Pinot noirs. It produces six single-vineyard wines, a cuvée and, in the summer, a rosé. All but one of 120 acres are planted in Pinot noir grapes. One acre is devoted to Pinot gris. Interestingly, its production team is predominantly female, including winemaker Anna Matzinger and winegrower Leigh Bartholomew. Visit the on-site tasting room and try the Renegade Ridge or Red…

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Best Brewery

Winner: Deschutes Brewery, Portland Photo by Michael Mathers With a highly successful brewpub in Bend and its Black Butte Porter the best-selling porter in the country, Deschutes Brewery knew it was time to enter “Beervana,” Portland’s nickname for having the most brewpubs per capita in the nation. In 2008, Deschutes opened in an old converted body shop in the Pearl District, where locals and tourists can experience on-site dining and drinking that is part laid-back Bend, part upscale urban. “The best way to experience a craft beer is by going to the pub,” says Jason Randall of Deschutes Brewery. Both locations recycle spent hops and grains from the brewing process to feed locally farmed cattle that eventually end up on the table. Order an old favorite like the fish and chips or the newer, Obsidian Stout braised beef, with one of the nineteen beers on tap. Runner-Up: 10 Barrel, Bend…